Chapter 174

One Thing is Clear (8)

‘Did you wait for me and Edmond to come out? Still here?’

She heard the footsteps of a person passing through the hallway, but she thought everyone would be busy evacuating with the ladies and fixing the water chaos. So she thought she was cuddling up to Edmond and yelling frantically in the middle of all that.

She was worried that she might have been found guilty of promiscuous activities at the Empress’s Palace, not anywhere else, and that she was doing sexual things with her husband without knowing that people were waiting at the door.

Either way, Ezet became white in the face of a horrifyingly awful family.

“Eh, Ed…”

“Well, the ladies have made a rare step.”

Unlike Ezet, who was embarrassed, Edmond embraced his wife’s shoulder with the same relaxed air as he did when he first escorted her. His red eyes seemed to be thinning, and his hands wrapped around her shoulders were slightly tightened.

‘It’s all right, don’t worry.’

‘What do you mean it’s okay? People are…!’

‘Because we closed the door. There is no sound outside.’

Is that so?

Edmond’s words slightly quenched the frantic feeling of shame.

Come to think of it, even though there was a fire in the tea room, the proxies and maids upstairs didn’t notice anything. When the door is closed, the soundproof equipment may work.

Nevertheless, the first thing to do was to get out of a closed warehouse. What if a woman who walked out of her husband’s arms as soon as she opened the door was asked what she was doing in an empty room and now she has changed her clothes? She cringed at the thought of what to do if the criticism was poured out.

Until she entered the room in Edmond’s arms, she felt like she could do anything, but she suddenly got scared as soon as the situation ended.

Edmond hugged his wife as if he were hiding her in his arms, knowing that Ezet was speechless with anxious eyes.

“My wife must have been shocked by the accident. Thank you for your precious steps, but can you go back first today?”

“First of all, I’m here to say thank you.”

The unexpected answer opened Ezet’s eyes wide.

She thought there would be only one thing for the ladies to come to her for.

She thought they would protest when evacuating from the fire, citing things like shouting in front of the wives, putting an iron bowl on their heads, and tearing up their dress skirts.

What do they mean, thank you?

“If Duchess Jaxen hadn’t informed us, a few more would have fainted already. Someone could have been burned.”

“Countess Ritten…”

“You looked ashamed of yourself in front of the youngest Duchess of Jaxen.”

Unbecoming an adult,” added Countess Ritten with a wry smile.

Among the thirty or so ladies in the tea room, not one was younger than Ezet. There wasn’t even a similar age group. Such women came to Ezet, who was much younger than them, to thank her.

Realizing the fact, Ezet turned red and shouted.

“Oh, no, no! I’m just, of course, doing what I have to do…”

“Was it obvious? We didn’t know anyone.”

“What? Oh, well.”

“Just as what is natural to us is not natural to the Duchess of Jaxen, what is not natural to us is natural to you.”

What’s obvious to her isn’t evident to anyone.

It’s obvious to someone that she doesn’t take it for granted.

They belatedly realized that it was difficult to accept with their hearts even though it was easy to understand.

“We talked to each other while we were washing our bodies and changing our clothes. How did the Duchess of Jaxen know this?”

“That’s right. She’s definitely a noblewoman.”

“Is this the family tradition of Countess Harriet? Or the culture of the west?”

“It was great to throw a knife and break a fan. I can’t believe darts are not on walls but can be thrown towards the ceiling.”

The ladies chatted and chatted as if they had seen strange sightseeing, but it was not to check her or be sarcastic, but a favor that was embedded in every word they said as a joke.

Pure curiosity, to be exact. None of the elderly to middle-aged ladies knew how to evacuate the fire.

But on the contrary, it also means that they have lived a life that doesn’t even have to deal with disaster situations themselves.

“It’s amazing; the fire gets bigger when you fan it.”

“That’s right. It just swallowed the tablecloth.”

“Even when I closed the door, there was smoke. Is the smoke thinner than paper?”

Middle-aged and elderly ladies ask questions that may be asked by young children who have not even entered the academy.

Ezet felt amazed.

But it didn’t occur to her to ignore them.

That’s why they treated her like she was such a weirdo.

She just realized that…

For the aristocrats of such prominent families to be invited to the Imperial Banquet, Ezet and Edmond were neither nobles or commoners but somewhat incomprehensible unknowns. Ezet was belatedly enlightened.

Why did they think ill of Edmond, who ignores the common sense of the high nobility, or the Duchess of Jaxen, who does not follow the rules of the noble?

It’s not just that Edmond became a formidable aristocrat overnight as a commoner.

It is not just because they are angry at their situation where they have to be wary of the young Duchess of Jaxen, who comes from a small family on the western outskirts.

The existence of Edmond and Ezet was too strange for them to accept.

It was an expression of fear to look down on.

It was not just to relieve stress but to escape the fear of being incomprehensible.

Perhaps they were not aware of it themselves.

But the incomprehensible, unpredictable, unfamiliar Duchess of Jaxen acted with them for the first time.