The Ugly Wife of the Shady Duke

After untying the string that bound the press, Grace unfolded it and saw that the flowers had been beautifully pressed and dried. She hummed a tune while carefully storing the pressed flowers in the storage paper.

“Oops.”

As the wind blew, Grace accidentally dropped the pressed flowers she was holding, and they flew away in the distance.

“…Oh no.”

Grace stared at the flowers flying away and moved to pick them up. As she moved, the wall called Grace disappeared, and the wind blew all the flowers away through the window.

“…”

The pressed flowers stuck to Grace’s body due to the wind. Grace had tried to leave before the cleaning maid arrived, but it seemed like she only made things worse.

“Who is it? What should I do to apologize?”

She couldn’t even show her face. If the maid came in now, it would be embarrassing for Grace.

Grace couldn’t remove the flowers stuck to her body, so she started picking up the ones scattered on the floor and collected them in her hands.

‘I worked so hard on these flowers.’

It wasn’t a big deal, but she felt upset and tears welled up in her eyes. She didn’t understand why she was feeling this way.

Her mood kept fluctuating between good and bad. It was a rollercoaster ride of emotions.

Finally, she squeezed the beautifully pressed flowers in her hands, and in the process, she noticed that she had crushed them. Realizing that she had ruined them, she felt upset again.

‘Why does this keep happening?’

Grace thought she had learned to separate her emotions from her actions, but apparently, she hadn’t.

Suddenly, self-hatred crept up on Grace again. Although she had improved a lot from before, she still couldn’t bear to look at herself in the mirror.

Grace knew that she could be satisfied as long as her body functioned properly and she was healthy. 

She couldn’t understand why she felt this way.

As the wind blew again, the flowers that she hadn’t picked up yet swayed.

“…Let’s close the window for now.”

She closed the window and finished picking up the flowers before opening it again.

Grace stood up, barely holding back her tears. She placed the crushed flowers back between the pages of a book and raised her hand to close the window.

“….”

At that moment, something strange caught Grace’s eye.

“Huh?”

Something strange and small was lying near the low flower bed in front of the annex…

“What is that?”

It was something that couldn’t be described in words. To be precise, Grace didn’t see anything clearly. There was just something there.

It wasn’t visible, but it was there. Something unpleasant.

Grace decided not to close the window and went outside immediately. The cleaning maid was surprised to see Grace face to face, but Grace apologized for making a mess inside and headed outside.

Grace felt that she needed to check it out right away to feel relieved.

As she went out to the garden, a cool breeze blew.

“It must be around here somewhere…”

Decorative stones were placed around the flower bed for sculptural purposes. Grace looked around the area.

“It was here…”

After examining the area for a while, Grace was finally able to find it. It was so small and delicate.

Grace picked up the black cobblestone that emitted an ominous feeling.

‘What is this?’

Grace looked puzzled as she flipped the cobblestone over with her thumb and forefinger, wondering why such a thing was there.

“….?”

At that moment, a carriage appeared beyond her hand. It looked different from the one Benjamin usually rode.

“It’s a very fancy carriage. Is it a guest?”

She saw the butler in charge of the main house welcoming someone. A very young man got out of the carriage, and even though she had never seen him before, Grace immediately recognized who he was and was surprised.

‘The male lead!’

The male protagonist in the original work was Prince Sylvester Baimon.

‘Why did he come?’

Did Sylvester and Benjamin have a good relationship? Grace recalled the relationship between the two in the original work.

“Madam? What are you doing there? Amanda saw you in the study earlier…”

“Sally.”

Sally approached Grace. Grace decided to ask about the cobblestone first rather than Sylvester.

“Where did you get this stone? Isn’t it strange?”