164 Where does the duke mean?
***[My aunt, Countess Becker]***
Things went differently than I thought.
Originally, it was planned to bring the work of the man who led human trafficking to the surface and make it bigger.
Because her husband’s silence was hanging over the edge of the matter.
I was not directly involved in human trafficking, but I heard that they used it very roughly after rescuing people through it.
It seems that he got pleasure from making people suffer, not just being a slave.
My husband didn’t tell me in detail because it was a gruesome thing.
However, judging from the flow of the story, it seems that the husband’s political opponent bought a person, gave them pain, bought them back when they died, and then bought them back after they died after tormenting them.
The Becker family is a family with a long history.
Over the years, there have been quite a few families that have clashed politically, and there have been cases in which personal grudges have arisen.
Still, on the outside, everyone smiles as if nothing happened.
No matter what is in the heart, smiling hahahaha hoho on the outside is noble.
Her husband was particularly good at that, and Natalie rarely saw him hate anyone in particular.
But I think I particularly hated this silence.
It seemed that he enjoyed driving the silence to the point where he deliberately told her about the progress of the work.
‘Come to think of it, that person had courted me before.’
At the time, I didn’t know and wasn’t interested in my husband’s static, but I still remember him because of the way he approached me.
He didn’t stop at courting her, but had planned to attack her by force a few times.
Natalie found out in advance and used it to interest her husband, but any other woman who had just made her social debut would have been beaten.
Once they come into contact with a man, even a part of their body, they often marry for fear of scandal.
‘I guess that’s what I was aiming for.’
That static may have also approached Natalie because she hated her husband.
Natalie took a small breath.
The promise to the woman in the monastery was to make her mother die.
In that respect, the promise was properly fulfilled.
But in my heart, I wanted to meet him once.
Children always forgive their parents, no matter how verbally.
I don’t know why.
Even in situations she would never forgive, most people Natalie had ever seen did.
One day you will forgive your parents.
‘I really don’t know why.’
She thought that the monastery girl might want to meet her mother someday.
So, at least once, I tried to arrange a seat by chance.
Natalie let out another small sigh.
What has already happened cannot be undone.
Natalie moved the pen again after it had paused.
You have to tell her what has become of her mother.
What happened at the viscount’s house was found out through a separate person.
The appearance of the Viscount and the Viscountess seemed very miserable.
Is it better to tell the truth or is it better to say it in a lump?
I was writing a letter while thinking about it, but the butler came to visit.
“Madam, it’s time for the master to arrive in a little while.”
“Oh, has it already happened?”
Natalie put the unwritten letter in a box and stood up.
I meet my husband who stayed in the manor for a while after a few months.
My heart started beating like a girl.
Before turning away, he looked in the mirror once more to check his face.
Although she has already put on perfect makeup, she turns around after carefully looking at it again to see if it has not been disturbed in the meantime, and whether the dress and props are properly bringing out her charm.
The butler was waiting with a little averted gaze.
He has a soft smile.
Maybe I’m laughing, saying it’s still the same inside.
A little embarrassed, Natalie cleared her throat slightly.
Before she knew it, her cheeks were as red as a fifteen-year-old girl.
‘But I can’t help it. It’s been a while.’
I’ve been married for such a long time, but still every time I meet my husband, my heart beats more, I want to see you more, and I like it more.
My love for you grows day by day.
The human mind is a very strange thing.
As Natalie walked down the aisle, she thought about the contents of the letter to the woman at the monastery.
After all, it would be better to hide scenes that are too miserable.
A living person can repeat the end many times, but a dead person only has one end.
If you dare to leave only one last memory as a miserable thing, it may be difficult when you change your mind in the distant future.
Natalie’s pace quickened slightly as she approached the mansion’s front door.
After waiting for a while outside the front door with the servants, I saw my husband in the distance.
riding a horse
The close husband dismounted and opened his arms toward her.
“Natalie!”
As her husband called, she stepped forward and took him into his arms.
It is not the passionate embrace of young people.
It was the affectionate overlap of a married couple.
“Don’t laugh, Natalie. I almost died because I missed you.”
“Neither do I.”
I like this side of my husband.
There were few noblemen among the nobles who would hug their wives and talk kindly to them in front of servants.
Normally, she was a perfect aristocrat, but her husband broke his mask in front of her and did not hide his kindness.
Oh, this guy is so good too.
“We are just like each other.”
Her husband muttered and laughed as he hugged her tightly.
It’s the husband’s voice that I haven’t heard in a long time, the husband’s smell.
Happiness is like this
“…”
Again I thought of the woman in the monastery.
It might be worth adding a word to her saying that her mother was sorry.
Even if Natalie had heard that, no one would say it was a lie.
Because dead people don’t talk.
‘It will be at least a ray of comfort for the rest of my long life.’
yes, that would be nice
While I was thinking about that, surrounded by the warmth of my husband, the fifth son, who was learning work by going around as his father’s attendant, sighed lightly.
“Um… Father, Mother. It’s a bit embarrassing for me to do this here. Please confirm the affection between the two of you in your room.”
The youngest, who has just become an adult, seems to be ashamed of his parents these days.
When I was young, I used to cry a lot because my father monopolized my mother, but that child grew up before I knew it…
Natalie got away from her husband and opened her arms to her son.
The son lightly hugged her and lightly brushed her cheek.
‘Whoops, he’s doing this too.’
My youngest son, who is a bit emotionally dull, has only just opened his eyes to the love between a man and a woman.
So, it must be embarrassing for parents to be like this.
Since he was the youngest, he was always in my arms because of his cute heart, but now I don’t know if I should start looking for a fiancé.
no, it’s too late
Natalie pulled away from her son and met her husband’s gaze.
Husband is smiling.
After a few miscarriages of daughters and all of my sons growing up, there was a time when I was a bit depressed.
Her husband, who was worried about that, did not find a fiancé for her youngest son, and did not send her away, but kept her in her hands.
‘A friendly person.’
It was also really nice to be tied up with this person.
Natalie headed into the mansion, side by side with her husband.
“By the way, what are you doing to the royal capital in such a hurry?
“Ah, since the baron is dead, I needed to hurry things up a bit.”
A baron is a man who led human trafficking.
It seems that the work of bringing down the silence was still in progress.
“I think the Duke of Weiss will actively participate in this steppe tribe.”
“A duke?”
“Yes. I heard that the duke led soldiers to the border. It seems that all the nobles pursuing the steppe tribes have been stopped. There is someone from the viscount’s family who accused the duke of his actions.”
“…”
Suddenly, Natalie’s steps stopped.
The duke sided with the steppes?
Has anyone even complained about it?
I hadn’t heard of it until then.
It is probably news that has just arrived from the border.
“It looks like things are going to be more complicated than I thought. Prince Robert has come forward like never before to denounce the Duke.”
Robert.
Natalie’s eyebrows rose of their own accord.
That man deserves it.
If the peacock has even the slightest blemish, it will bite it.
Because I hate peacocks.
Circumstances are a little different, but in real life Natalie saw him in a dream where he successfully pushed Oscar to death.
I thought the situation had completely disappeared by now, but the embers might still be there.
My husband continued talking.
“Therefore, Prince Emile started defending the duke. Besides, Prince Robert seems to insist that the steppe people should be subdued right now. Prince Emil is said to oppose subjugation.”
“…that makes things tricky.”
Prince Emile was a person who lived without being present or not.
But if he raised his voice, and if he opposed Robert head-on, everyone would find it strange.
It is noticed that the duke is Prince Emile’s patron.
If the marquess and counts join them…
“Do you think the Duke made you do that?”
“Perhaps. The Duke seems to see that Emil’s raising his voice now helps him lift his position.”
“It’s a strange thing.”
Natalie said so, but she knew the duke’s judgment was correct.
In fact, in the near future, steppe tribes will invade.
If Prince Emile raises his voice now to warn of the dangers of the steppes, in the future he will be reputed to have foresight.
Just like how Prince Robert in his dream received such reviews and eventually stood tall as a hero.
“What are you going to do?”
At Natalie’s question, her husband smiled.
“I’m not sure yet that the Steppe Tribe will invade. They’ve never acted like that in the past. But the Duke, Marquis Hoven, and Patry who know the Steppe Tribe best seem to think so. I got warning letters from them all.”
The husband gently tapped her on the back of her hand with the other hand.
“If they all think so, it’s highly likely they do. And the person I’m targeting is Prince Robert’s faction. I’ll move to help the duke.”
My husband blinked in one eye.
“Among the nobles who bought slaves from the dead barons, there are several high-ranking families. There is only one reason why high-ranking nobles need such slaves. I have a dog. How illegal slaves got into their family, how they treated steppe slaves and how cruel it was…”
“…”
“If it’s a public opinion war, there are as many materials here as there. The duke will not be helpless.”
Natalie squeezed her husband’s hand.
My husband is a gentle person.
However, the work was very precise and meticulous.
If your husband is this confident, then you have proof that the other side will be held back.
Since then, for the time being, my husband and youngest son have been hectic.
Sometimes the second son in the palace came and discussed something and went back.
I told her about the general situation, but there seemed to be some things about slaves that I couldn’t bear to talk about.
I saw my youngest son occasionally vomiting with a drawn face.
Neither her husband nor her son talked about it in detail, probably thinking it was too much for Natalie.
She’s not a woman to be intimidated by, but the Natalie her husband knows is a gentle, elegant, and delicate woman.
I was a little frustrated because I couldn’t be sure if I could really put my mind at ease, but I couldn’t help it.
In the meantime, I heard that the king had sent someone to question the duke.
On the surface, it was said that it was to find out the circumstances, but in reality, everyone knew that it was an inquiry.
‘What is the Duke planning to do?’
The duke hadn’t shown any particular reaction to this yet.
However, large amounts of grain are being transported to castles across the duchy.
I heard that grain has been sent urgently to several close families.
According to her husband, they are also buying things necessary for the sit-in.
It was the same in other families.
It would be a preparation for the grassland tribes.
A letter also came to my family, but I heard that the duke is recommending strong preparations elsewhere.
Some seem to suspect that it is not to prepare for the steppes, but to fight the royal family.
Even so, the duke did not particularly react to it.
I do not come forward and deny that it is not.
Rather, there was even a hint of deliberately revealing that he was preparing for a sit-in.
The reason why the royal family hurriedly sent an interrogating messenger must have been because they felt uneasy about such an attitude.
‘What are you thinking? Are you really trying to fight the royal family? Or a threat?’
However, the duke is a person who has a reputation for being gentle.
That’s what I’ve seen so far.
Only this time is different.
It seemed as if he was avowing war on everyone.
‘Strange. I don’t know what he’s thinking.’
Natalie took a small breath.