The Ugly Wife of the Shady Duke

In Linden Viscount’s estate, there is a beautiful lake with a small but splendid legend.

There is a beautiful daughter and a sturdy son…

And one ordinary daughter.

Grace Linden.

Whenever friends of Viscount Linden visited the Viscount’s estate to see his children, Grace would always catch their attention more.

This was because she was overly ordinary compared to her siblings.

Grace inherited her hair color and freckles from her maternal grandmother. That means, under the current Viscount’s roof, there was no one with carrot-colored hair.

Her older sister had honey-like blonde hair, resembling their mother, and her older brother had dark, deep blue hair, resembling their father.

Grace had always felt like she was the odd one out since she was very young. However, her sister loved Grace’s hair color very much because it was a color that reminded her of their affectionate grandmother.

No matter what, carrot-colored hair was a different color for Grace when it came to her family. This was because the territory operated by the viscount was very small, and they all grew up together.

And this meant that all the children had seen Grace’s hair color and knew that she was ordinary compared to the other Linden children.

When Grace wandered around looking for a place to read her book alone, the children who always formed a group to bully her appeared.

“It’s that Sissy! Sissy!”

The neighborhood children called young Grace “Sissy” and looked down on her.

“…Don’t…don’t call me Sissy.”

Grace hugged her book tightly and tried to express her intentions as much as possible to the children approaching her. However, even at a glance, the expression of the frightened child was only comical.

“Why do you have something smeared on your nose? It’s even on your cheek! Disgusting!”

“All your other siblings have clean faces, but only you are dirty.”

Grace had always been gentle and meek in character since she was young.

Tears welled up in Grace’s eyes.

In the distance, her older brother Gilbert appeared, but he didn’t seem to have any intention of helping Grace.

He didn’t want to help his younger sister who was treated poorly by others, as he didn’t want to be ridiculed himself.

“Br..brother…”

While crying she called out to Gilbert, but he turned his head and went away in another direction.

Everyone laughed at Grace as they watched Gilbert go far away.

Without her older sister, Grace felt like she was nothing.

⋆★⋆

Blinking, Grace was finally awakened from her nightmare after being trapped in a fever for a long time.

‘It’s hot…’

She wasn’t sure if it was because of the fever or the nightmare.

Grace’s whole body was drenched in sweat.

‘A childhood dream….’

No, it’s not my dream, it’s Grace’s dream. Grace corrected her thoughts.

When Grace was young, she suffered a lot of bullying. The adults left her alone, saying it was something that happened between children, and eventually Grace gave up asking for help.

She stopped asking for help because she could see the annoyance in their eyes every time she asked.

Remembering the helplessness of those days, Grace felt her throat dry up and lifted her heavy body.

“…Ah.”

She was dizzy. She didn’t expect to collapse so severely just from walking through the crowd at the gate management office.

After almost collapsing at the office, Grace made an effort to stay awake until she met Benjamin.

Of course, she couldn’t be sure if she could meet Benjamin right away by returning to the mansion, but fortunately, she was able to meet him as soon as she returned.

 Looking at Benjamin with a bewildered expression, Grace said,

“…I felt strange and dizzy near Gate 3. Until then, I was fine…”

She felt like her stomach was turning upside down and she was about to die as she spoke.

And that seemed to be the limit, as Grace lost consciousness with her vision suddenly going black.

‘Thanks to the fever, it seems like I was diagnosed with magic motion sickness…’

But was Grace’s body really this vulnerable to people? She thought back to the night of the festival. That day was a bit uncomfortable, but she could endure it.

‘If I collapse this severely, I may not be able to go outside in the future.’

So far, because there had been no major accidents, they had allowed her to go out as long as the secret guards were hidden around her. The reason she didn’t have other servants to accompany her might have been due to the guards.

But now she may have to be accompanied by other servants or even be prohibited from going out altogether.

As she thought about it, Grace began to regret her hasty and impulsive decision-making.