Secret Wardrobe of the Duchess

Chapter 23

Edgar wasn’t going to tell the truth to anyone. To tell the truth, he would have to reveal the dirty truth of his parents’ death. And that he had been cursed by a nymph.

Nymphs were immortal beings who lived on their own island on the other side of the wide ocean. They would come to the continent from time to time and teach people the teaching of the gods.

The nymph of fire taught how to use iron, the nymph of love taught wedding rituals, and the nymph of water taught how to purify water for drinking. They also delivered the holy books of the gods and that allowed humans to be different from monsters. All the kingdoms in the continent,
including Seritos, thought of them as sacred.

However, what if the world got to find out that Edgar had been cursed by a nymph?

Everything his family had achieved would be turned to ashes. It wasn’t just about him falling down. His domain, businesses, and all the lives of the researchers and workers who worked for him would be destroyed.
Edgar didn’t want to risk that. He also knew well enough that he had many enemies. He had been trying so hard to find a clue to break the curse of the nymph for the last three years.
Unfortunately, his progress had been too slow.

Then, the lead ‘Rubica Berner’
emerged from a gift his late nurse had left him. At first, he thought about asking Rubica Berner to become one of the maids in the mansion. However, he was a single nobleman, and currently, there wasn’t anyone else to be served by a maid in the family.

Mr. and Mrs. Berner were, of course, capable of sending Rubica to become his maid for money, but then she would have gotten into a scandal. So, he decided to choose a way to bring her to his side officially and justly.

‘Marriage.’

It was the easiest way to bring a woman, who lived far away and didn’t know him, closer without making any scandal. Of course, he could have temporarily moved near the Berner Mansion, but because of his curse, he couldn’t pretend to run into her under the bright sunlight and get to know her.

Edgar thought it would be easier to actively make use of the misunderstanding created by his relatives than to reveal the truth and handle the risks. Moreover, there was someone who misunderstood Edgar’s love the most, the love that even Zilehan, who spoke the word ‘love’ first but didn’t believe it.

It was Ann.

‘My Eddie is in love?’

Ann was so touched that she almost cried. Eddie, who had been crawling on the floor, had already grown up and was old enough to take a wife.

How much would his late mother and nurse be delighted to know that?
Eddie’s child would certainly be smart and cute like him.

‘Would Eddie be able to smile again like before?’

Edgar had lost his smile after the sudden deaths of his father, mother, and nurse. It was only natural. He had lost the three people who had been the most important to him in a single accident…

Ann looked at Edgar who kept working as if he didn’t want to waste time thinking about his worries. She hoped he would relax again. Then he decided to get married to a woman from such a lowly family.

Love was the only thing that could explain that, and love was capable of making even the coldest man smile.
“If any of you behaves disrespectfully in front of Lady Berner, who will become the duchess, I will kick you out of this mansion.”

After the relatives’ meeting, she summoned the maids and made the announcement.

Ann was a sweet lady, but she was always hard on the maids who committed something wrong, and she never took back what she said.