Chapter 16

I finally woke up after lying in bed for four days.

“Miss …… are you better now?”

The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was a teary-eyed Emily.

“Yes, I’m better.”

“What a blessing! Do you know how worried I was about you? The Lord Duke and the Young Duke were also very worried about you, my lady.”

“Were they?”

I replied perfunctorily, as things might not be as exaggerated as Emily claimed.

Then Emily nodded with exaggerated movements and said.

“Yes! At that time when the young duke whose hand was holding the young lady ran back to the ducal palace, his face was white.”

“Did …… elder brother really do that?”

“Yes! The Duke ordered all the highly skilled doctors within the capital to be summoned, while the second youngest tried to rush into the palace, and the butler almost couldn’t stop him.”

I was surprised from Emily’s unfolding words.

She may have exaggerated the truth a bit, but other than that, the care and attention they gave Penelope was truly unexpected.

“I think something may have happened to you, miss ……”

“It’s been hard on you, Emily.”

“No hard work, please don’t say that, after all, I am Miss’s personal maid.”

It seems like a lot of things happened during my coma.

Looking at Emily, my mind is a bit dazed because the girl who is now standing in front of me, with tears in her eyes while saying ‘personal maid’, also stabbed me with a needle not too long ago.

“Ah, right! Now is not the time to talk about this. I’ll go and tell the Duke-sama right now.

Miss has woken up!”

While I was nodding and talking, Emily had already walked some distance away.

“Bring some melon sherbet when you come back.”

After getting up from the bed, I went straight to the mirror.

After four whole days of being in a coma, my face looked haggard.

“Why are they wrapping it so thick?”

If anyone were to see this wrapping, they would definitely think that I broke my neck instead of being cut by a sword.

These laying bands were wrapping around me a little uncomfortably, and I wanted to take them off. But thinking of the removal

result, I decided to keep it that way for now.

Because, for the time being, acting like a patient is not bad.

After eating the clam tad soup and melon sherbet that Emily brought me, I sat down on the bed to rest just then.

Knock Knock-……

A knock sounded at the door of the room.

“Miss, it’s Fennel!”

The person who knocked on the door was surprisingly the butler Fennel.

After that incident a few days ago, he never entered without knocking again.

But that didn’t stop me from frowning.

”I remember I’ve told him to send someone else if there’s something he wants to see me about.”

Since I hadn’t completely forgiven him, I left Emily to respond.

“Go ask to find out why he’s here.”

Without saying a word, Emily went and did what she was told.

After returning, what Emily called back took me a bit by surprise.

“Miss, the butler said that the Duke-sama asked you to come over.”

“Father?”

That’s right, after all, it’s the Duke-sama’s command, so he can’t ask other subordinates to convey it.

After understanding why the butler had to come personally this time, I got up from the bed.

“Emily, bring me my jacket.”

“Aren’t you going to change, miss?”

Emily asked, as if it was very rare for me to go out without changing.

After all, what I’m wearing right now is the dress I was already wearing when I woke up. And wearing this sundress to meet my elders would look like I wasn’t very polite to anyone else.

“Have you ever seen a patient in full dress?”

I responded while wearing the dress Emily brought over.

‘I just woke up today, did he really need to call me over right away?’

I didn’t mean to, but really causing a ruckus at the palace’s birthday party was a grounding penalty the last time, and how many reprimanding words will there be today.

I’ll have to act like I’m in pain if I want to avoid any reprimands about this riot.

Thanks to this period of unconsciousness, I don’t even need to disguise it, my face already looks like a patient’s.

“Ugh, my life.”

I left the room and sighed deeply.

The butler stood outside the door for a while, and once I was out of the room, he reorganized his posture.

“Can we go now, miss?”

Then, the butler placed one hand on his waist and pointed one finger in the direction we were about to go.

‘What!?’

Although I recognized the way, he had never done this before until today.

While I stared at the butler skeptically, he bowed and opened his mouth.

“I’m merely a servant working here, I can’t walk in front of the master I serve.”

I looked his face up and down, wondering if he was fooling me. But there really wasn’t the slightest trace of dishonesty to be seen in his face.

On the contrary, he seemed like a knight who had come prepared for this moment.

“Please walk ahead, miss.”

His courteous words sounded a little different to me.

‘I’ve been waiting for you, I’ll serve the lady well today.’

Like a shopkeeper, he entertained regulars who hadn’t visited for a long time.

The atmosphere of the Duke’s mansion is clearly different from usual today.

”Why is everyone acting so abnormal today?”

All of the karmic servants would have secretly stared at me on weekdays. Now, whenever they meet my eyes to, they all bow to me respectfully.

At that time, I didn’t know that all of this was thanks to the butler walking behind me, who kept making eyes to warn them.

“Miss, please wait.”

Just as I reached the door of the Duke’s office, the butler, who had been walking quietly behind me, walked past me to the door.

Knock knock knock ……

“Lord Duke, Miss Penelope has arrived.”

“Let her come in.”

After the Duke gave the word from his office, the butler once again courteously opened the door for me.

“Please go inside, miss.”

As I entered, I felt a little embarrassed.

It felt like the butler had been improving his manners during the time I was unconscious.

“There you are.”

The Duke happened to be sitting on the couch placed in front of the desk today

“You called me.”

I greeted the Duke with my head bowed. The Duke nods back at my salutation and gestures permission to sit down.

“Sit down.”

I took a seat on the couch directly across from the Duke. Then my mind reviewed the excuses I had come up with for this conversation.

After a moment of silence, the Duke spoke slowly.

“I called you here today to speak because.”

“Father, may I be allowed to say something first?”

I immediately interrupted him.

Then I stood up from the sofa and knelt down.

“I’m sorry, everything is my fault.”

That was my plan, to apologize before everything happened.

“It seems that I didn’t reflect on my behavior enough during my confinement, so I disgraced the family by causing a commotion at the royal banquet once again.”

My prepared speech came out in a torrent like water out of a full tank.

I wondered, when Penelope was so frank as this, would he still drive his daughter, who had just turned from her illness, out of the house?

“No, wait.”

My plan seemed to work, for the Duke’s shocked look showed on his face.

“I dare not beg you to forgive me, I know very well that I am in the wrong.”

“What are you doing ……”

“I will accept any punishment you give without objection, so ……”

“Enough!’

I was going to ask him to forgive me in a small way. But before I could utter this request, he exclaimed, while holding up his hand as a sign for me to stop.

“Penelope Eckhardt.”

The Duke called my name in a low voice.

‘Hiss, after using this method once earlier, doesn’t it work anymore?’

I started to feel a little worried and took a deep breath before answering.

“…… Yes, father.”

“Get up.”

“…… What?”

The words were unexpected, causing me to feel puzzled once again. When I voiced my query, one side of the Duke’s eyebrow departed.

“No matter what the reason is, no one from the Eckart family can bend their knees. So don’t demean yourself so casually like this, Penelope.”

“…. …”

“As long as you are a member of the Eckhardt family, no one can make you kneel, not even royalty.”

The Duke raised his voice when he mentioned the word ‘royalty’.

“…… Yes, yes!”

I immediately got up from the floor before sitting on the couch once more.

The Duke’s impressive leadership calling was something I had never seen in a game before.

‘Did I say the wrong thing?’

I was still thinking when the Duke spoke again.”

“Penelope, I didn’t call you here to reprimand you.”

“Hmm? Then ……”

“Rather, I wanted to get a more group detailed look at what happened at the palace.”

“Tell me, what happened between you and the Crown Prince?”

I recalled in my mind, what the Crown Prince had said before I fainted a few days ago.

In my quest for death, I had tailed the Crown Prince and almost got my head and body separated under his sword.

Then later, I told that madman how much I liked him, which saved myself from death.

Thinking about it again, I felt a chill run down the back of my spine.

“That’s …….”

I came up with an excuse, but didn’t notice Gong Shizuku was staring intently at my face at that moment, which was pretending to get paler with time.

“I was planning to go to the Labyrinth Garden to get some air at that time, but I ended up bumping into His Royal Highness the Crown Prince there. But at that time, the Crown Prince wasn’t in a good mood, so ……”

This is very different from what originally happened.

It feels like I’m slowly becoming a sophisticated liar since I came here that day.

But other than that what can I say? I couldn’t reveal the truth, and it wasn’t all lies.

“So?”

“. ……”

“Just because the crown prince was in a bad mood, that’s why he slashed your neck?”

“Huh? No, didn’t cut my ……”

“Didn’t cut your neck! Then what is that on your neck! It’s not like he’s a vicious coyote or anything, swinging his blade at a noble lady just because he’s in a bad mood!”