Duke, Please Fail! - Chapter 71

Episode 71

Hadiger cut the pie with a fork and nodded in agreement with Frer’s words.

“Yeah, exactly. The way of speaking is just like Frer.”

Frer took the pie that was on Hadiger’s plate with an awkward expression. Hadiger’s fork poked the empty plate, and seeing this, Frer burst into laughter.

Making fun of someone who can’t see! Hadiger playfully nudged Frer’s foot in surprise, about to say something, but Hadiger smoothly stepped on Frer’s foot.

“Oh, sorry. I can’t see well.”

He said with a grin. Frer grumbled and handed the pie back. They seemed close enough to laugh off each other’s rude jokes.

I watched them and tilted my head.

“When did you two become so close, except me?”

“We’re not close.” 

Frer replied with a round face.

Hadiger, still smiling, asked teasingly.

“Are you upset that it’s just us being friendly?”

I stared at Hadiger’s face. His expression was sometimes hard to read, maybe because of the eyepatch covering his eyes.

But I knew it was a joke. He must be trying to lift my sulky mood. I wanted to fit into the atmosphere, but oddly enough, laughter got stuck in my throat.

As we sat cozily around the narrow dining table, suddenly the image of a grand, expansive dining table, fitting for aristocrats, crossed my mind.

‘Leonel must be eating alone.’

It would be a little lonely to eat alone, right? 

No! What am I thinking?

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. I need to cheer up! I shouldn’t ruin their meal because of me. I put on a disappointed expression while sipping the stew.

“Yeah, right. I heard you talk comfortably with Frer.”

As soon as I spoke in a light voice, Hadiger eagerly continued as if he had been waiting to say something.

“I’m more comfortable speaking casually with friends. I want to speak comfortably with Nelly too.”

“Friends…”

The words coming out of my mouth felt unfamiliar. Is it because someone referred to me as a friend for the first time? The sinking feeling was replaced with a bit of excitement. 

I looked up. Hadiger’s face was directed towards me.

“No way?”

“Yeah. Friend.”

My mouth curled into a smile on its own. Hadiger gave a peculiar smile and stroked his chin.

For some reason, it felt like his eyes were staring at me. Of course, that shouldn’t be the case since he said he lost his eyes.

‘Am I showing too much of a friendless vibe?’

Turning my head in embarrassment, I looked at Frer.

“Shall we talk comfortably with each other too? After all, Frer is my first friend….”

Frer scratched the back of his head and nodded.

“I’m more comfortable with formal speech. But I’ll just call you by your name. Nelly, is it okay to speak informally?”

“Yeah, sure.”

I kept giggling as I ate the stew. I laughed for no reason and cleared my throat, but Hadiger finished his meal first and set down his fork.

“So, what’s bothering our friend Nelly?”

“What’s with the way you’re talking?”

I burst into laughter at his caretaker-like way of speaking. Then, thinking about Leonel, I bit my lip.

I couldn’t say the words about my shaken vengeful feelings, even to a friend.

There were too many worries to explain. I was unsure if he would believe that I died once and came back to the past for revenge. So, I brought up a different concern.

“I just have to choose a wine for the Harvest Feast, but I don’t know much about wines.”

“The queen is coming?”

“How did you know?”

I looked at him, wondering if Frer had mentioned it. But before Frer could gesture, Hadiger opened his mouth.

“It’s well-known that Altwood estate has a competent and knowledgeable manager with excellent character.”

… For a moment, I wondered if there was another estate manager besides me at Altwood Manor.

It just didn’t seem like my story, no matter how I thought about it. As I tilted my head, Hadiger continued speaking.

“The queen takes a keen interest in competent individuals.”

“And you deduced from that that the queen is coming to the Harvest Feast?”

With that level of deduction, I might as well work as an aide rather than a poet. As I stared at Hadiger, Frer added hesitantly.

“Deduction, you say. Maybe just picked up.”

“Right. There are quite a few nobles in the streets who invite me to their mansions after hearing my music. That’s when I heard.”

Nobles tend to regard musicians or servants as mere furniture. If it’s not a secretive conversation, they usually don’t pay much attention to what’s said or heard. I nodded at the quite plausible statement.

After finishing the meal, Frer cleared the table and then stood up from his seat, gathering Hadiger’s dishes. He quickly finished the dishes and picked up the staff he had leaned against the wall.

“I’ll go first. It’s time to feed the ducks.”

After shaking hands with Frer, I finished the remaining food. Then, a thought struck me, and I looked at Hadiger.

“So, Hadiger, you must know a lot about the nobles?”

“That’s right.”

“Have you heard anything about the Duke?”

“You mean Leonel Altwood, the Duke?”

“Yeah. Just curious about what kind of person he is.”

Until now, I thought I knew enough about him. But gradually, I see aspects I didn’t know, vulnerable sides.

So, I was curious about how others saw Leonel.

I wanted to know who he was in the past and if there were any misunderstandings on my part.

However, since he rarely toured the estate, the estate residents didn’t know much about him. I’m not collecting rumors these days, so I don’t know what’s going on, but before I died, I generally believed exaggerated rumors and feared him.

Yet, I felt uneasy asking Levance, Arette, or the supervisors and knights about Leonel’s past or personality. It might seem like prying into his affairs.

“As far as I know…”

Hadiger hesitated. He was still stroking his chin, but his face was turned towards somewhere other than me.

“The Duke and the Prince, the exiled royal family from Desatell Kingdom, were close friends, they say.”

He remained silent for a moment. It seemed like he was trying to recall if he wanted to answer my question to the best of his ability.

“And they say he was quite mischievous.”

Unbelievable. Even as a kid, I would have given him a look that would have made my skin crawl!

“Before the home tutor arrived, it was common for him to come over to play or hide in the palace like running away. After playing pranks, he would apologize with a big laugh, making it hard for the adults to scold him.”

“The Duke?”

Hadiger chuckled softly and nodded.

“He liked going outside so much that there were hardly any days he stayed home. He spent more time with friends than with family. They say they were always together, no matter what they did. Hard to believe, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“But it’s true. It’s a story I heard from someone who was by the Duke’s side as he grew up.”

“What happened to that person…?”

How did he get to the point where he couldn’t even laugh? How did he get to the point where he didn’t trust people?

Except for walks, he hardly went outside. Why was he so obsessed with developing the estate at the cost of pushing himself so hard?

I wanted to know about Leonel, but my curiosity seemed to have grown in the wrong direction.

Hadiger fell silent for a moment. Then, he asked abruptly.

“Are you more curious?”

I was curious. Just as there were three turning points in my life, there must have been turning points in Leonel’s life.

A significant but never pleasant turning point.

But it wasn’t something I should find out through another person.

“I am curious, but I don’t want to hear.”

The atmosphere subtly became tense.

* * *

Nelly had left, but Adelhardt was still seated at the dining table. He stroked his chin and got lost in memories before lowering his eyepatch.

‘I was considering what I should do staying at Altwood Manor…’

It bothered him to see the once vivacious woman sagging, and he tried to cheer her up.

Still, opening up was a significant step. Nelly had visibly brightened at the mention of being friends, so it wouldn’t be difficult to figure out what she was feeling if he used that.

There was no need to rush. There was still plenty of time.

He looked at the tea he had prepared and served before Nelly left. As he skimmed his cup with his fingertips, he recalled Nelly’s slumped shoulders.

‘I hope she doesn’t stay gloomy for too long.’

Ironically, Nelly regained her usual vitality the next day. She didn’t come by as often as before due to the busy festival preparations, but she would drop by occasionally to eat and then leave.

However, he couldn’t naturally bring up the reason for her lingering at Altwood while trying to engage in conversation.

So, he spent a few more days like that.

Adelhardt, in line with his fabricated identity as a minstrel, regularly went to the square to play his instrument.

On that day, he leisurely prepared and went out as soon as he woke up. He was sitting in the square, with a box in front of him, when he heard murmurs nearby.

“Mr. Faust, how did it go?”

“It went well. How about on the manager’s end?”

“It was a success.”

“So, will it be passing through this way soon?”

“Yes. I’ve confirmed the route. The carriage is prepared over there.”

“Will Lizzy do well?”

“Don’t worry. She has a knack for tripping and breaking things. No one will suspect anything.”

Adelhardt strained to keep his head from turning at the mention of Nelly, focusing on the words being exchanged.

It was a conspiratorial tone. Adelhardt glanced around, rolling his eyes. The atmosphere seemed a bit more tense than usual. He noticed people huddled together in sporadic clusters, whispering.

He knew Nelly had a good reputation, but there were always those who envied others wherever you went.

It was surprising to find Faust and Sophie, who had been Leonel’s subordinates, among them.

‘I should warn Nelly.’

He was about to turn away when a few people were waiting around, surrounding Adelhardt. If the person who came to play suddenly left after seeing the audience, the two people behind might find it suspicious.

Adelhardt pretended to tidy up the surroundings while slipping the small blade he always carried between his fingers. As he pretended to tune, he deliberately cut a few strings.

“Ah.”

He sensed the two people behind him turning around. Adelhardt pretended not to know anything, sighed, and started organizing his instrument.

As he closed the box he had set up to collect money, he discreetly hid the fallen blade within it.

It was a smooth concealment, imperceptible to anyone.

“Can’t we hear any music today?”

One of the waiting individuals asked in an almost muttering manner.

“I’ll go home and change the strings.”

As he was about to get up from his seat, Faust and Sophie suddenly stood up. They rushed somewhere and concealed themselves.

When the people who were sitting behind suddenly disappeared, Adelhardt moved slowly to grasp the situation.

The people waiting for the performance stood up. Then, looking beyond Adelhardt, they began to talk.

“Oh? It’s the estate manager?”