The Stepmother Has Left - Chapter 8

After she left, several maids whispered to each other in the corner of the mansion.

 

“The Duchess ran away.”

 

“Oh, I didn’t see her all day. Did she really leave the mansion?”

 

“I can’t believe it. She recently prepared a birthday party for the second young master.”

 

The Duke’s mansion was in great chaos.

 

There was a gloomy atmosphere all over.

 

The Duchess has left.

 

She, who showed no signs, disappeared one day without saying a word. As if she didn’t exist from the beginning.

 

Like a bubble that scattered and disappeared.

 

The users seemed to save their words while whining at each other.

 

Only a few self-assertive users expressed their opinions on the Duchess’ runaway.

 

“She must have left, not run away.”

 

“It was a bad marriage anyway. It’s better to quit like this now.”

 

“But it doesn’t make any sense for her to leave like this, saying that she has been leading us for seven years.”

 

In fact, views about Cassia differed from user to user. Anyway, opinions that she was an immoral duchess who eventually occupied the vacancy her friend had left behind. In any case, despite the rumours, there were opinions that she silently functioned well as the mansion’s hostess.

 

It escalated into disagreements over whether or not to find the Duchess in the Duchy.

 

One day, when there was a heated debate among the users, a wagon from the capital stopped in front of the Duke’s mansion. The carriage door opened, and a man of strong physique entered the mansion.

 

Ken Whidrian.

 

He was the first son of the Duke’s family, and has grown into a mature adult.

 

He was wearing plain clothes, but the imperial splendour as the Imperial knight couldn’t be hidden.

 

Due to continuous training, his muscular body drew attention in harmony with its robust physique. When he entered the Duke’s house, with a face that looked as if he had seen Diana before, everyone ran out barefoot.

 

“Young Master!”

 

The users greeted him, calling out Ken’s name eagerly.

 

Between them, the butler slowly walked out.

 

“You are here-”

 

“…Where is Father?”

 

“He is in the office.”

 

A few days after the Duchess’s departure, the butler, who had a miserable expression on his face, took the lead and led Ken into the office. Upon arriving, Ken opened the door and saw the Duke and Nick sitting quietly on the sofa.

 

“I will prepare tea soon.”

 

As the door closed, silence fell.

 

Ken bowed his head once toward his father.

 

“…It was an urgent message. Stepmother has left.”

 

“Sit down.”

 

The Duke handed the letter and the divorce papers to Ken in a low voice.

 

Receiving it, Ken’s forehead was filled with fine wrinkles.

 

He read the letter aloud in his mind.

 

‘Contract?’

 

Ken’s eyebrows twitched at the strange word on the letter.

 

“What is the contract about?”

 

“Yes. What is the contract about, Father? What kind of contract did you have 7 years ago?”

 

Nick, who had been wrapping his head around him as if in pain, said suddenly.

 

The Duke let out a heavy sigh.

 

He pulled out an old piece of paper from the corner.

 

It was a contract with Cassia.

 

“Seven years ago, your stepmother and I agreed to a contract marriage.”

 

He pushed the contract out in front of his two sons.

 

“From a long time ago, His Majesty the Emperor has desired to forge a deeper bond with the Dukes. The moment your birth mother died, your stepmother was concerned that you would become an outcast because of it.”

 

“…So you mean that she married father to protect us?”

 

Nick’s mouth fell open.

 

The Duke nodded his head.

 

“Of course, I didn’t know that she would run away from this place as soon as seven years were over.”

 

“So, what are you going to do now?”

 

The moment Nick made a shocked expression, Ken’s cold voice was heard.

 

Their eyes turned to Ken.

 

He was looking at the two with an expressionless face.

 

A face as cold as ice.

 

The letters and divorce papers he had read all fell on the table.

 

“It doesn’t matter whether you make a contract or not, and whether that woman leaves or not.”

 

“…What?” Nick looked at Ken with a puzzled look.

 

“How can you say that? She is the one who took care of our family for 7 years.”

 

“She did it because she wanted to. Did we ask her to do so?”

 

“That’s-”

 

The Duke tried to keep talking about it, but Ken and Nick fought a battle.

 

“I don’t know why I should be so surprised. It’s just that everything has gone back to its original place.”

 

“Ken!”

 

Angered, Nick stood up and grabbed his brother by the collar.

 

“Why did stepmother distance herself from us in the first place? It’s all because of you!”

 

“If it wasn’t for brother, our relationship wouldn’t have come at this point. Stepmother would never have left the mansion.”

 

Nick bit his lip.

 

At first, their stepmother Cassia tried to get along with the two children.

 

Nick knew it.

 

He knew that she made cakes for them and tried to be as friendly as their ‘Aunt Cassia’, even amid her busy schedule.

 

She even made Nick several of his favourite cakes and gave them as a gift.

 

She even gave Ken, who was learning swordsmanship, a sword designed by the best craftsman. Besides that, at the end of the day, she would greet the children first, asking them how the day was going.

 

She even tried to help with their academy homework directly daily. She did all she could to be with them, just to build a harmonious family in this place where she had no friends.

 

Yes, she gave everything to them perfectly and willingly.

 

However, what returned to her until the end was nothing more than being treated as a perfect invisible person and apathy. His older brother hated her, and, like an arrogant aristocrat, did not hide his feelings for their stepmother.

 

His older brother looked at her openly with contemptuous eyes whenever he met his stepmother.

 

He treated her with perfect hostility whenever she tried to be friendly with them.

 

Nick, who had a timid personality, had no choice but to turn away from his stepmother while looking at his older brother. It wasn’t that Nick didn’t understand Ken.

 

It must have been Ken’s effort not to forget their mother until the very end.

 

But even thinking about it now, running away was too much.

 

“Do you know why? Do you know what brother did to stepmother?”

 

Between the two of them, the memories of childhood flashed.

 

It was a day when the Duke had to go on a business trip to the capital due to the emperor’s call.

 

At that time, the social circle was shaken by the disappearance of the third prince. The Duke, who was trusted by the emperor, was sent on a mission to find the third prince as his order.

 

He left the mansion, requesting Cassia to send him a message whenever anything happened.

 

Cassia, along with the butler, temporarily took over the Duchy’s duties on behalf of the Duke for some time. On the first day of work, Cassia found that the room was a mess.

 

Torn papers were scattered all over the floor, and the books on the bookshelf were all scattered on the floor. Glass shards from broken picture frames were trampled on every path she passed. Looking at the messy room, she turned her head toward the maids standing next to her.

 

“What is this?”

 

“We didn’t do it!”

 

The maids waved their hands to Cassia, eyes terrified of being kicked out like the maid chief. It was a sad and frightening look. A maid spoke her words in a trembling voice while she felt dazed as if she was looking at the place where the typhoon had passed.

 

“First and foremost, Young Master did it.”

 

“Ken?”

 

“Yes. He appeared all of a sudden… and we couldn’t stop him because it was Young Master’s work.”

 

That was just the beginning.

 

Ken’s actions got worse day by day.

 

Papers that had to be dealt with in a hurry disappeared, strong adhesives were applied to chairs, and dead mice were placed in desk drawers instead of documents. After eating, her abdominal pain became more frequent, wounds gradually increased on her body, and difficult situations were constantly occurring in her life.

 

Ken stood in front of her at every turn, trying to interfere with her work as much as possible.

 

All of that action contained Ken’s threats to leave the mansion on her own feet. There was also a desperate feeling of trying to change the situation somehow, taking advantage of his father’s absence, who did not listen to his son’s words. Maybe that’s why Cassia endured all of it alone without telling the Duke about it.

 

Ken’s anger and loneliness felt more pitiful than the wounds she had received.

 

If only she could put up with these things to relieve the child’s anger, she could bear it.

 

Each time she endured his bullying, she even felt close to the child.

 

She had been through it once.

 

She had been through it twice.

 

Looking at it, it seemed that the child’s anger would be relieved someday. But it seemed that Cassia’s patience ran out without even knowing it. One day, after dinner with the vassals, it was time to return home. At that time, the vassals were a group that was constantly opposed to Cassia’s marriage until marriage and stability came.

 

The Duke proposed to cancel the dinner party due to a sudden business trip.

 

However, as a strict Duchess, she thought it would be impossible to cancel a dinner party just because she wouldn’t have her husband by her side. Eating with them was as difficult as expected, and Cassia stood firm in front of them.

 

As soon as the people left and she was alone, she held her stomach and entered the room with a painful expression.

 

There was a commotion in the room again.

 

Like the day Ken first started tormenting Cassia.