The Ugly Wife of the Shady Duke

“Is that so?”

It was a part that had never appeared in the original. Grace was quite fascinated by the fact she was hearing for the first time and focused on his words. Benjamin explained as if making excuses.

At the same time, Grace nodded her head in understanding as to why Sylvester and Benjamin often appeared in the same place in the original.

“Yes. He may not be easy to get close to, but he’s not a bad person. Of course, there’s no need for My Lady to try to force a friendship. He’s not someone who can be a good person to everyone, to begin with…”

“I see.”

Grace repeated only “I see, is that so?” while nodding her head, feeling that Benjamin was making not excuses, but explanations.

For Benjamin, Sylvester seemed to be in a position like a concerned younger brother.

“I heard that His Excellency Crown Prince has heard a lot about me from you.”

“…I haven’t said anything special.”

‘What kind of great story could there be about me?’

“I really haven’t said anything special.”

“Okay.”

“….”

Grace muttered to herself, wondering why he was emphasizing it again, and turned her gaze to the side.

As she was about to leave through the back door, Grace realized something strange.

‘Looks like I’m in a better mood than before.’

Why?

“My Lady?”

“Oh, no, it’s nothing.”

“Would it be okay if I see you off just to that point?”

Benjamin asked Grace, pointing to the street outside the back door.

Grace followed Benjamin, pressing the hood of her cloak tightly, with a sense of doubt.

⋆★⋆

“Mrs. Linden!”

Cleta greeted Grace, leaving behind a pile of stacked tea bags. Grace felt relieved as she saw women greeting her in the same way.

‘Phew.’

No matter what, it was much more comfortable outside. Grace took a deep breath.

‘Maybe it was just my imagination earlier.’

Grace nodded her head and returned Cleta’s greeting.

“It felt empty without Mrs. Linden.”

“I’m sure you did well even without me, right?”

Grace looked at what everyone had been doing so far. It seemed like they had been steadily preparing for the restaurant and long-term contracts that Grace had arranged in advance, earning contract fees and gradually proceeding with commercialization for targeting individuals.

Lily had put up a chart for the situation report, making it easy to see on the wall. Grace could easily check the progress and profits of the current work by looking at the chart.

‘If we keep going like this, we won’t fail.’

The change in the taste of water was the biggest turning point. Grace recommended tea leaves with a light aroma that could be easily drunk even on ordinary days to Cleta, and Cleta accepted it and made tea bags right away.

Although it was clearly progressing well, Cleta sighed and lamented her own shortcomings.

“We’re doing well. But I haven’t even been able to visit the tea plantation yet. I’m thinking of taking the train, but it takes quite a while. Even though there is a gate, we can’t use the profits from tea bags to cover the expenses there.”

Even if it was a profit, it was still not a perfect surplus.

Cleta was roughly guessing how much money Grace had spent for them.

So she deducted living expenses from the contract fee and saved the remaining amount little by little to give to Grace when she came.

Everyone thought that Grace would agree to use the gate. It was very dangerous for a woman to travel alone on a train.

“Well, it’s better not to use the gate.”

However, the other’s expressions slightly frowned at Grace’s unexpected answer which was different from their expectations.

“Is that so?”

“…Uh, well. It’s not because I don’t want to use the money for you.”

Grace looked at Cleta with a puzzled expression.

“The black tea leaves I harvested were not purchased through the gate, but just by carriage. There are rumors that the power supply of the gate is unstable right now.”

“Really?”

“Well… not in all areas.”

Grace nodded her head.

“You know well, Mrs. Linden.”

“My husband was involved in that area.”

Half of it was a lie, and half of it was true. Anyway, Benjamin was involved with the gate.

“….”

Grace finally realized another serious problem.

“Mrs. Linden?”

“…Ah”

‘The gate disaster.’

Sometime later, one of the gates that led to the western region located on the island broke down. It was just an inconvenience that would take some time to repair and cause a slight economic shake-up.

However, the problem was that the gate malfunctioned while people were using it.

‘The gate is not like teleportation, it’s a concept of opening a passage by connecting to another dimension.’