The Ugly Wife of the Shady Duke

“Let’s check the ledger first.”

Grace called the Butler of the annex and asked for the ledger. The Butler didn’t ask any further questions and brought the ledger to her. Grace started to flip through the first page of the ledger.

“…It’s well organized.”

Although she couldn’t understand much just by looking at the numbers, she could tell that it was well organized. Grace nodded her head.

As she was looking at the numbers, she couldn’t remember the details of the incident at that time… Grace mumbled to herself, but then another incident from the past came to her mind and she pressed her lips tightly.

“She bought gold quite often?”

While checking the details, Grace noticed something strange.

“Huh?”

Grace thought she had been married for almost a year, but according to the dates recorded in the ledger, it had been almost two years.

“…Huh?”

Grace remembered what she said to Benjamin on the day of the mask festival.

“Is it? Has it been almost a year since we got married?”

‘Why didn’t he correct me?’

After possessing Grace, she thought most of her memories had merged, and she remembered everything correctly! Grace realized that she had made a significant mistake, and her face turned pale.

She even thought that it would have been better if she had asked for a divorce, supporting Benjamin’s love as a transmigrated person. 

But if she had done that, Benjamin might have thought she was crazy and sent her to a hospital or a convent.

“Did he just think I said it wrong?”

Or maybe “1” and “2” sound similar, so he might have misheard it. Grace tried to rationalize it to herself. [1]

Of course, it was natural. With her already complicated mind, if this problem was added, Grace would fall into an inescapable swamp of depression.

Grace compared the budget sheet and ledger provided by the butler. They matched almost perfectly. Cash was abundant.

“Original Grace, she secretly liked gold.”

In fact, she might have had ambitions. Does inflation apply in this world too? She thought calmly but then pressed her forehead again.

The incident on the street came to mind again.

‘…Maybe the original Grace was also preparing to leave.’

This was also a fairly reasonable thought. Perhaps she didn’t even think about the alimony itself and used the fact that jewelry is recognized as personal property when divorcing to buy the most valuable gold with money, Grace speculated.

Thinking up to this point made her depressed again.

Grace murmured incoherently as she reluctantly stepped out of the study, thinking that taking a walk might make her feel better.

“…I want to die.”

Somewhere, she heard something shattering.

Grace, tired and depressed, dismissed it as just an auditory hallucination, considering it insignificant.

‘This emotion is not mine, but it’s a familiar one.’

In her past life, she wasn’t overweight, but she was treated as a failed and inferior member of her family. She had no remarkable qualities compared to her siblings and was foolish. Eventually, her illness worsened, leading her to be hospitalized and end her life.

Grace thought of her past life that she tried not to remember as much as possible and shook her head.

She didn’t want to think about it anymore.

‘Well, the map. The map.’

Before leaving, Grace picked up the latest version of the empire’s map from the library.

“And, also…”

Where could it be? There were various catalogs that the staff in the annex had prepared for Grace.

It was meant to provide her with a change of mood during times when she appeared depressed.

“Maybe it’s in the tea room.”

Grace gathered the map and ledger in one hand and headed to the tea room.

Even though she hadn’t enjoyed tea in the tea room for a while, the tea case was neatly organized.

‘There are so many types.’

She wouldn’t be able to drink them all even if she drank them all year round. It was clear that some of them would have to be discarded after their preservation period had passed.

Grace cleared her blurry vision and checked the nearby catalog. It had a description of tea leaf specialty stores in the empire.

What Grace was looking for was the cultivation area of the tea.

“Hmm, Garret’s land…”

Checking the location on the map, areas with well-established transportation routes, such as proximity to gates and harbors, had high land values.

‘Can’t go to a place that’s too expensive.’

Grace had accumulated a considerable amount of wealth over the past two years, but she didn’t plan on spending such a large sum of money on the orphanage.

The business was meant to be handed over to someone else after turning a profit, so the smaller the scale, the better, as it would be difficult to manage on a larger scale.

‘Managing it becomes difficult if it’s on a large scale.’