The Murderous Duke's Domestic Affairs - Chapter 15

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 15
The moment Lauren entered the room, her legs gave way and she collapsed into a chair. Lise and Anna rushed toward her in alarm, but Aster Veil Lilywood raised a hand to stop them. Seeing her trembling fingers, he clicked his tongue softly and guided her to a long settee. Then he instructed Lise to bring alcohol.
“Lauren, are you all right?”
“…Yes, I’m fine. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be wasting time like this. Did you say Jasmine Aloria came?”
“No, I lied. I thought it was more important to send that woman away first.”
Aster Veil Lilywood’s eyes narrowed as one corner of his mouth pulled upward. Lauren, who had been staring blankly at him, felt a faint smile cross her lips. Yet it seemed forced, and somehow that troubled me.
Aster Veil Lilywood instructed Anna to help Lauren change her clothes. Lauren protested that her work wasn’t finished, but he paid her no mind. She sighed softly, and he merely chuckled, shrugging his shoulders.
When she emerged in fresh clothes, Lise returned at precisely the right moment, carrying a tray with a bottle and glasses. Aster Veil Lilywood dismissed the servants and set the drinks on the low table himself. Lauren, seated on the long settee, gazed intently at him across from her.
“Have a drink.”
“I haven’t finished yet.”
“You need rest, Lauren. Do you know what you look like right now?”
Though she had already changed her clothes, Lauren remained stubbornly insistent. With an attitude suggesting she would return to work at any moment, Aster Veil Lilywood furrowed his brow and spoke to her in a low voice.
Lauren pressed her lips together and looked away. Even with her head bowed, I could feel his worried gaze upon me. I must look terrible. Lauren glanced furtively at the mirror on the vanity across the room. Pale as a ghost. A small sigh escaped unbidden.
Aster Veil Lilywood poured alcohol into the glass before him. Like last time, it was less than half full.
“Drink and rest.”
Bending at the waist, Aster Veil Lilywood pressed the glass into her hand. Lauren merely stared at it. It was some time before she spoke.
“…Why don’t you ask me anything?”
“Would you prefer I did?”
Lauren couldn’t answer. Even when she wanted to confide in someone, she wondered whether telling the story would actually resolve anything. She didn’t want to burden him unnecessarily. As she hesitated, Aster Veil Lilywood smiled softly. What met Lauren’s gaze as she looked up at him was neither his characteristic sharp, bitter smile nor mockery.
“You don’t have to force yourself to speak. Later, when you feel like talking, you can.”
Though his brow was furrowed, Aster Veil Lilywood’s smile was gentle. He had said it helps to forget. Lauren wanted to erase today’s events from her mind entirely. She remained silent for a moment, watching him, then gripped the glass tightly and drained it in one gulp before he could stop her. At the sight, Aster Veil Lilywood exhaled sharply.
“That’s quite strong.”
“Yes, it is.”
Startled by the burning sensation in her throat, she breathed slowly. The alcohol Aster Veil Lilywood drank was ordinarily potent, and Lauren was unaccustomed to drinking. Having consumed it all at once, her body suddenly grew hot. Even her breath carried warmth. Without thinking, Lauren fanned at her collar. It was unbearably hot.
“You’ll suffer tomorrow.”
“I suppose so.”
Her pale violet eyes blinked slowly, growing hazy. Unaccustomed as she was, the intoxication rose quickly. Lauren laughed, her face flushed. She always laughed so readily when drinking, though there was nothing to laugh about. Perhaps I shouldn’t give her alcohol again. Aster Veil Lilywood sighed softly and rose from his seat. Lauren’s unfocused gaze followed him.
“Go to sleep.”
He turned to leave the room. But a small force caught his sleeve. Aster Veil Lilywood glanced down at his cuff. Lauren’s small, pale hand was gripping it firmly.
“…Oh.”
Startled by her own action, Lauren let out a small gasp. She quickly released her hand and looked up at him with widened eyes. As their eyes met, Aster Veil Lilywood’s brow furrowed. Her pale violet eyes were glistening, swollen with moisture.
“Oh my, why am I doing this? I’m sorry.”
The moisture in her eyes transformed into large, crystalline tears that rolled down her cheeks. Flustered, Lauren wiped them away with her sleeve. But no matter how much she wiped, the tears wouldn’t stop. Eventually, she buried her face in her hands, as if fleeing from his gaze. With her head bowed, the tears only continued.
It was understandable. Lauren had lost both her parents not long ago, and she had abandoned everything she had built over years of living to come to the Lilywood Dukedom. Now someone had arrived who reminded her of all of it, so her emotions were bound to overwhelm her. And on top of that, she had drunk alcohol.
Lauren’s shoulders trembled faintly. Aster Veil Lilywood clicked his tongue inwardly. No matter how much the rumors painted him as a heartless killer, he couldn’t leave someone crying like this alone.
“It’s all right, Lauren.”
Aster Veil Lilywood approached her carefully. He hesitated for a moment, then reached out his hand. His palm gently patted her shoulder.
* * *
“Your guest has departed, but…”
It was some time later when Aster Veil Lilywood emerged from Lauren’s room. With eyes swollen red from prolonged crying, Lauren had asked him to stay by her side until she fell asleep. And he could not refuse her request.
Lauren fell asleep clutching his sleeve, her relieved face breaking into a faint smile. Why couldn’t I refuse her words? Aster gazed down at sleeping Lauren, wrestling with the question for a long while. Yet no answer came to him.
“So?”
Calvin reported to him as he sat before his desk in the Office. The way Calvin’s words trailed off, uncharacteristic of his usual manner, was somehow irritating. There was an edge even to his voice as he pressed for an answer.
“I’m uncertain whether I should speak so frankly to a lady of noble birth, but….”
According to Calvin’s account, she had shrieked that she wouldn’t leave unless he made an appointment with her immediately—as if she might throw herself onto the dirt ground at any moment. So he had been forced to reluctantly schedule a dinner engagement two days hence. Aster pressed his forehead into his palm.
“My apologies, Your Grace.”
“What’s done is done. There’s no helping it now.”
“Shall I report this to Her Grace?”
“Yes, that would be best. Lauren ought to know of it.”
Lauren didn’t seem to care for that woman, but now that it had come to this, they would have to face her at least once. It was better to resolve matters properly and avoid future complications.
What could that woman possibly want? Aster leaned back in his chair, pondering quietly. It would be ideal if a few jewels and dresses could satisfy her, but she didn’t seem the type to be so easily appeased. Rather, she might cling to him now that she’d found her patron. The fact that she’d sought out the mansion of a murderer just to see Lauren suggested she possessed considerable audacity.
“The kitchen staff will need to put in some effort.”
“They will be delighted. They haven’t had an opportunity to display their skills in years, have they?”
At Calvin’s words, spoken with a gentle smile, Aster’s expression darkened and his lips tightened. Calvin’s remark was one that could not make him smile. Calvin surely knew that as well. It seemed Calvin had taken a liking to Lauren. And with good reason—Lauren was capable as the Duchess.
Aster had granted Lauren access to all records except those classified as top secret, and the right to oversee the mansion’s affairs. Everything she did was reported back to Aster through Calvin, who worked alongside her. The capable administrator that Lauren was proved equally skilled at managing the Lilywood Dukedom’s household.
In truth, the budget was abundantly flush. The wealth passed down through generations of Lilywood Dukes was considerable, and the compensation for his service on the battlefield—where he had risked his life—was no small sum. Though it hadn’t been enough to distribute among all the common soldiers who had fought beside him. Moreover, the taxes from his Territory continued to flow in regularly, despite his inability to oversee it personally.
Yet Aster’s neglect of the mansion stemmed neither from indolence nor incompetence. He was weak in administrative matters, but that did not make him incapable.
Aster rose from his seat and gazed out the window. The sight of the Garden, once choked with nothing but weeds, was now a thing of the past. The mansion he had deliberately turned a blind eye to had begun to change gradually since Lauren’s arrival.
The first change had been the color of the curtains. The mansion, which had always been dark and cool even in broad daylight with the curtains drawn, now flooded with sunlight.
Unlike him, who ate irregularly, Lauren enjoyed whatever the Kitchen staff prepared, delighting them with her appreciation. The shift in the mansion’s atmosphere was a natural consequence.
Time, which had seemed frozen in a mansion devoid of change and silent as a tomb, was beginning to flow once more. At this rate, it seemed the mansion might reclaim the vitality of long ago.
Whether that was a good thing or not, even Aster could not say.
“If Her Grace were to say she does not wish to receive the visitor….”
At Calvin’s words, Aster pulled his mind back from reverie to reality. He turned from gazing at the flower beds swaying in the breeze and directed his gaze toward the Butler. Calvin had longed for this mansion to change more than anyone. Thus his loyalty to Lauren was understandable.
Even if he was unaware that the object of that loyalty was someone he had married out of mutual necessity.
“Then throw her out. Frighten her if you must.”
“Very well.”
Calvin bowed briefly and left the Office. The room fell silent once more. Letti Torres was on leave since yesterday, so Aster would have to handle today’s miscellaneous tasks himself. He sat in the place where Lauren had been working moments before and gazed down at the scattered documents on his desk.
It would be better not to touch these. He pulled his lips into a slight smile and set the documents aside. Though he was curious about their contents, looking at them wouldn’t enable him to process them properly anyway. If there was anything he needed to know, Lauren would tell him. She always had.
Aster’s gaze fell upon a silver tray placed in one corner of the desk. Calvin polished it daily and arranged fine lace handkerchiefs upon it for decoration. This had continued ever since the day Aster inherited the Dukedom.
Even when Aster told him to stop such needless tasks, Calvin merely laughed and said it was naturally part of his duties as Butler. Aster could say nothing more to him. Calvin had always been that way. He devoted himself earnestly to things that held no apparent meaning in Aster’s eyes. That was why he genuinely delighted in Lauren’s methods.
After all, the only correspondence that came to him was reports from his Territory and military unit.
As he casually flipped through the envelopes, checking the names written on them, his hand suddenly froze. His sunken green eyes fixed intently upon the seal and name imprinted on one envelope.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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