I Became The Male Lead’s Female Friend - Chapter 76

When the Duke was unconscious for a while, his mistress, whom he loved so much and gave everything to, had an affair with another knight and ran away.

There wasn’t any other form of foolishness than this kind of rubbish.

Since then, various scandals have begun to arise about his lover.

Eventually, the people of the Duke found out that the Duchess had been falsely accused, but things had already become irreversible.

After learning all the facts about the Duke of Bouser.

My parents discussed it for a long time. If the Duke of Bouser hadn’t done that, my father could have taken out the Duchess and Rudrick under the guise of assisting Bouser.

However, the Duke became completely disabled, and it would have reached a point where Rudrick had to lead the Duke family instead.

Bringing the Duchess alone, however, raised concerns about the safety of the remaining Rudrick in the north.

My parents, who were not sure what to do, sent a letter to the Duke of Bouser just in case.

「 Can we have the Duchess for a few years until the family is stable?」

And the response to the letter was positive.

“So we brought her here in a hurry…”

Of course, our family does not regret bringing the Duchess back then.

When we went to pick up the Duchess, she was already broken to the point where it seemed hard for her to come back to her senses.

As soon as she was brought to the Capital, and we had the chance to face her in person, my mother eventually hugged her friend and burst into tears.

She was as skinny as a skeleton, and the Duchess, with her empty pupils, didn’t look like a living person.

Even when my mother was hugging her, she doesn’t smile or say anything, and she appears to be nothing more than a shell.

My mother tried constantly to get the Duchess back to normal, and even my father also lavished support on her.

And our hard work was slowly but surely seeing the light.

‘Cause, she’s getting better.’

Even now, the Duchess often had seizures or suffers from insomnia.

But as if time was her medicine, she slowly regained herself. She later shared a word or two with me, enough to make her laugh.

However, in the meantime, the war broke out, and the time that I thought was only for a while continued until now.

“So she’s still in our mansion.”

The problem was Rudrick.

In my opinion, it was Rudrick who allowed the job.

Because the handwriting of the answer that came back then was Rudrick’s. He, who was the head of the family at the time, was unaware of the important issue of taking the Duchess in the first place.

So I thought he’d ask about the Duchess as soon as he came back from the war.

Even if he was too busy supporting the Duke alone when he was young, He would take care of his mother since the war was over.

But Rudrick hasn’t asked anything so far. He didn’t even ask questions, let alone say hello to his mother.

He acted as if he had forgotten his mother’s existence as if he had cut it off, and even wondered if he was unaware of the Duchess’ whereabouts

“That’s not it.”

For a moment, Rudrick was shaken. It was disguised as a perfect expression without any sign of that now, but I could only notice it when I saw the reaction.

Rudrick knows we have her mother, but he doesn’t ask how his mother was.

‘He pretended not to know on purpose.’

Because he doesn’t want to know, maybe he doesn’t want to expose the misfortunes of the past that are nothing more than scars to him.

So… I hesitated for a moment.

At first, I was only thinking that I should inform Rudrick about the Duchess, but I think I understand a little bit of how Rudrick felt about having to stop thinking about his mother on purpose.

“The Duchess, she’s gotten a lot better.”

“…”

“Now, she lives in the annex, and sometimes she goes for walks and takes care of flowers. Oh, these days, she has taken up flower arrangement as a hobby.”

“…”

“… I won’t ask you to come to see her on purpose.”

“But if you have any questions…”

… I ended up with the last straw.

“Do you want to come to our house?”

✿

To be honest, I wasn’t sure about this.

At that time, Rudrick did not give any answer, and even after going our separate ways, we didn’t contact each other.

I was a little disappointed, but I thought it was inevitable. I wouldn’t also want to face it right away if I had such an unhappy memory.

No matter how much time has passed, he came from the battlefield after suffering all kinds of hardships, and now he may just want to take a good rest.

So I wasn’t expecting anything…

“You have arrived.”

A few days later, I received a visit request from Rudrick.

At first, I thought I was dreaming. However, the sign on the visit request was undoubtedly the seal of the Bouser family, and when the promised date came, he showed up.

‘He’s here.’

I immediately jumped up and kicked the door open.

Usually, I would have delivered words such as ‘bring him to the reception room’ or ‘tell him to wait for a while’ and left calmly.

I couldn’t afford to do that now. As I ran down the stairs in a hurry like a child, I soon saw him standing at the door.

“Rudrick!”

When I shouted brightly without realizing it, Rudrick, who was looking around, immediately turned his head.

As his eyes met mine, I could see that he seemed rather relieved.

“Dahlia.”

I approached him without pretense. It was burdensome that he was still too handsome, seeing him in daylight.

Fortunately, there were no negative emotions such as depression or anxiety on his face, so I was a little relieved.

I stroked his chest and slapped him, I smiled at him. Then I grabbed his arm and led him straight outside.

“It’s been a while, so would you like to take a tour?”

Where I took him was a garden we used to play with often when we were young.

Averine’s garden has mostly stayed the same from when Rudrick left.

In the first place, this garden has been passed down as it was since the time of our ancestors, far away.

If anything has changed, it’s just that the types of flowers planted have changed a bit.

And perhaps Rudrick was feeling it, too, he couldn’t take his eyes off the garden for a while. Seeing that, I smiled a little.

“Isn’t it the way you remember it?”

“…”

“It’s the same as the gardener, it seems like he’s getting older and thinking about retiring.”

Rudrick didn’t answer, but I noticed that he was listening to my stories. That’s when I started telling Rudrick this and that…

Starting from where we used to play, what happened to the stumps there, how the scenery we saw together changed, and many more…

Most of the stories were trivial and insignificant, but suddenly the atmosphere between us softened.

‘Yes, it was. We used to play like that when we were kids.’

Reminiscing our memories and Rudrick, who was following me, suddenly stopped.

I looked back at Rudrick, who was standing there. He was staring into one spot, regardless of my gaze.

And as I watched his expression fade instantly as he looked at me, I smiled.

“Rudrick.”

The Duchess of Bouser was calling him. Even after calling his name, the Duchess was at a loss for words.

She was looking at Rudrick, and Rudrick also kept his eyes fixed on her. It was the Duchess who took the first moved.

After a while, the Duchess, who had barely stepped forward, slowly approached Rudrick.

She stopped with only one step left, and couldn’t even look Rudrick in the eye.

Instead, she called out in a trembling voice, as he had grown so big that she could barely hold his arm.

“I’m sorry…”

Suddenly she was crying, the Duchess repeated her words as she wept.

“I’m sorry…”

Rudrick didn’t answer, he was just staring at his mother crying in front of him.

And that figure, I was watching quietly behind.

The Duchess, who had been sobbing uncontrollably, shook her head and wiped her tears away.

Then she asked, as she used to in the old days, she smiled sweetly, and she looked at Rudrick.

“Will you spend some time with me?”

After that, I don’t know what happened.

Because I got out of the garden silently. The only surprise was that the Duchess and Rudrick spent longer time together than expected.

They came out of the garden when the sun was descending in the center of the sky.

I, who had been standing in front of the patronage until then, looked back at them.

There were many things I wanted to ask. Were they not uncomfortable with the sudden arrangement of this meeting, or did they talk about each other’s well-being, and what happened in the past?

Whether it was because he was hurt, whether the story ended safely, etc.

But one thing I could be sure of was that the results of my speculations were not that bad.

Because the face of the Duchess who came out of the patronage was brighter than before.

Rudrick’s expression still didn’t change, but he seemed a bit more relaxed than when he first froze when he saw the Duchess for the first time.