The Duchess and the Devil

She held the bouquet and headed to the office on the second floor immediately. As always, she didn’t knock. Judith slammed the door open and walked in.

‘Was it you?’

Derrick, who was concentrating on the state affairs, was displeased and frowned at her abrupt disturbance.

“What’s this suddenly all about?’

‘This bouquet. It’s what you ordered.’

Derrick spotted the bouquet she held, and his face instantly made a look that suggested that something had gone wrong. But it soon reverted back to its usual appearance, and he sluggishly got up. Judith crossed her arms as she stared at him approaching her.

‘‘I guess you want to have an affair, and also take care of your image, too, no?’

Derrick, who stood in front of her before she knew it, frowned even more as he heard her mocking words.

‘What?’

Judith had thought that the reason he ordered a bouquet to be delivered to the mansion was because he wanted to appear as a faithful husband to others. He wanted to appear as if he were a passionate husband who would, with difficulty, make a reservation at Merson Flower Shop, whose prices increase these days due to its increasing popularity, and give a bouquet to his wife personally.

However, as soon as she saw his face and eyebrows crumple, those thoughts began to waver. Ho — Derrick easily saw through her thoughts and burst into a small uncontrollable laughter. Finally, he took away the bouquet that Judith held in her hand, as if he was stealing it from her.

‘I’m not planning to give this to you.’

Derrick held the bouquet to his chest and walked away towards the side of the table. Soon, he opened the drawer and pulled out something from it. It was none other than a necklace, which lit up from a streak of light entering the study. A diamond necklace that looked as though it would emit brilliant light even if it was in a dark place.

‘It’s a gift that I’ll give to the person I love.’

Derrick said, placing the necklace inside the bouquet. Judith soon realized who ‘the person I love’ was as soon as he brought it up. It was, at best, two days ago when he and Silvia Wirell argued over a problem between them. So, the person he was referring to right now would certainly be her, Silvia Wirell.

‘There’s no way I’ll give something like a gift to you.’

Derrick’s mouth was only filled with biting words, as if he were a person determined to provoke her insides. Although she was well aware about his intentions, Judith couldn’t act composed as usual this time. Right now, she was in a situation where she was going out of her mind, ashamed from her delusions in thinking that the bouquet was for her.

The incident of that day was a memory that only made her nervous and bitter whenever she would recall it. Judith shook her head in order to brush aside the unpleasant memory. She even took her eyes off from the garden of flowers she was staring at.

And it was at that moment when she turned at the corner of the hallway. Absorbed in erasing the memory, she didn’t even notice who was approaching from the other side.

“Kyaa!”

The moment they bumped into each other, Judith fortunately managed to hold onto the edge of the wall and avoided falling, while the other person― thud― tumbled downwards. Judith, whose blurry vision immediately cleared, saw the person who toppled and reached out her hand to them as she was startled out of her own wits.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes, yes…”

The person who was walking from the opposite side of the corner was a young woman. The woman wore a dumbfounded expression, as if she didn’t know what had just happened to her, and held onto Judith’s hand, dazed and confused. Judith, who helped her stand, focused her gaze somewhere in that moment. Specifically, it was the nape of the woman’s neck.

There, a beautiful necklace, which dazzled her eyes just by looking at it, was hung on her neck that was white and beautiful like a doe. Gold chains that were finely intertwined with one another and a brilliant diamond situated in the middle.

Judith felt a sense of déjà vu when she saw the necklace. It was the same one, the one that had appeared in her reminiscence just a little while ago. It was the necklace that Derrick had placed inside the bouquet.

Judith’s eyes slowly moved. A slight tension permeating in her movements.

Finally, she looked straight at the face of the woman she had bumped into. Light brown hair with sunlight beaming down on it flowed down with luster in it, and vivid green eyes that were clear and refreshing made one feel like they were entering a forest. Her delicate facial features were in harmony with those ingenuous eyes.

Until now, Judith had never met Silvia Wirell. However, she didn’t necessarily feel very unfamiliar, perhaps because she was a subject she had heard about dozens of times through reports? Above all else, looking at those ingenuous eyes, her dead husband, who stayed bound to her and presented her many things until before he succumbed from a lingering illness, naturally came to her mind.

“Thank you.”

Silvia Wirell showed her gratitude, her hands neatly held together.

Silvia, who raised her head and finally looked at Judith, made a slightly blank look. It appeared as though she was surprised at her fairy-like gorgeous appearance, rather than noticing that she was Derrick’s wife.

Seeing that this place was the Imperial Palace, there were probably many eyes looking at them from their vicinity. That was why she wanted to pass by her while Silvia Wirell didn’t notice, but strangely enough, Judith couldn’t take her eyes off of her.

At last, she met her husband’s partner in his adultery. That thought didn’t leave her mind.

Derrick’s womanizing was tremendous, and on that topic, he also had one particularly odd taste. He was a man who often replaced the women, who stood by his side, every two months easily and quickly. It was a phenomenon that lasted even after he had married Judith.

Silvia Wirell, whom a man like him couldn’t move on from as he had fallen deeply for her, was now before her.

Although Judith didn’t love Derrick, she knew well about his womanizing even more than anyone else. That was why she was extremely curious. Her husband, who loved Silvia, died, but she couldn’t easily take her sight off of her because she wondered what was the charm that attracted the handsome, yet worthless playboy.

Was there something special about her?

“Judith.”

What wavered Judith’s gaze, which was fixated on Silvia’s face, was the call she heard from behind. Judith hastily turned her head at the familiar voice. And from that voice, there was Derrick, whom she didn’t even know when he had come out of the audience chamber, standing absentmindedly.

Judith, who was looking at him, became dumbfounded at that moment. She thought he called her by her own name just now, but was that her own illusion?

No. He clearly called her ‘Judith.’ It was the first time he, the devil, had called her name, and the sensation was all too different, making the hairs of her body stand on their ends. It seemed as if she was being tenderly called by a person she surely didn’t even expect to do so.

As she stood absentmindedly, Judith came to her senses immediately after she saw him approaching her. She wanted to run to him in that instant and ask him what he and the emperor had talked about and exactly what the emperor had said to him. But before she could do so, the fact that Silvia Wirell was there came to her mind.

With the feeling that something could go wrong, Judith observed Silvia Wirell at the corner of her eyes. She had turned deathly pale after seeing Derrick appear at the other end.

“Du, Duke…?”

Like a person who saw something incomprehensible, Silvia’s hand that covered her lips trembled. The voice coming out of her lips was close to consternation and astonishment.

In no time, Derrick, who strode down to the place where they both stood, headed towards Judith, not giving an ounce of concern to Silvia, and then opened his mouth.

“I thought you’ll be waiting at the front, but where did you go without even a word?”

“That, I thought your audience with the Emperor was going to take much longer…”

Judith’s heart hammered anxiously as she noticed the distance between them lessened remarkably.

The current Derrick wouldn’t recognize Silvia Wirell, as he was not her dead husband, but the devil. That was probably why he didn’t give her even a glance, as if he was like a servant passing by Silvia, who was standing in their vicinity.

PR/N: aww yie suck it

Rather, her presence bothered Judith more, and her head hurt a lot. Surely not, she didn’t know that she was going to run into her shameless husband’s mistress here.

“Let’s go now.”

Judith immediately said, worried that a rumor that had nothing to do with her would spread for no reason because of the gazes from others.

As Judith walked alongside Derrick, she glanced at Silvia. Only then did Silvia Wirell’s face turn a ghastly pale upon realizing who the person she encountered was.

Judith read various kinds of emotions from her eyes that were looking at her. As soon as she saw Silvia, who couldn’t even hide her own emotions properly, she thought she seemed to be a really naive woman. It was expected that she wouldn’t even be able to anticipate something like this would happen when Derrick looked after her from behind.

As soon as she looked at her, who was so innocent, Judith felt stifled, as if a rock was laid on her chest.

How much hardship did Judith go through in hiding the two’s affair, as well as pretending not to know about it until her husband died? Not only that, she even publicly suffered through humiliation in tea parties for that matter.

The affair was the fault of the two, not Judith’s at all. However, many people in high society were preoccupied with whispering whenever they saw her, as if it had been Judith’s fault or the like.

If one looked at it very closely, there might be some fault on the wife’s side, as she was unable to supervise her husband. But was Derrick Vaisil really a man who would listen to one supervising him? Absolutely not. So, it was fine to think that it was something that was beyond Judith’s control.

Still, it didn’t make sense as to why on earth she had to live like this, even if it was a mistake she didn’t commit, and so in that moment, anger rose to her head. It was her husband who had already died; therefore, even though she couldn’t be angry at him, no mercy would be granted even to this woman before her.

“By the way.”

Judith, who was about to pass Silvia right then, stopped on her tracks.

“The necklace is truly pretty.”

At the words she said, her head turned slightly, Silvia was stifled. Together with that, she felt like her heart was hardening vividly as well. As a matter of fact, her fair face was ashened like a sheet of paper.

After Judith looked at her with cool, indifferent eyes, as if glancing at her, she led Derrick out of the main building. As soon as she left the space where she was with Silvia, she could finally breathe easily again. With plenty of emotions subsided, she felt dizzy in that instant as her whole body suddenly lost its strength. Derrick supported her, who staggered.

“What’s wrong?”

“I suddenly lost my strength, so…”

Derrick frowned, then suddenly lowered his hands and lifted her up in his arms. As soon as her field of vision rose all of a sudden, Judith threw her arms around his neck in surprise.

“What are you doing?”

“You know, I think you’re going to collapse on the way to the carriage.”

Indeed, her body had lost some strength, but it wasn’t to the point where she would fall down. Her nature wasn’t that frail in the first place. Her mind only became dizzy for a bit at the awkward meeting, and she didn’t even get a big shock from it. That was because, unbeknownst to anyone, she was expecting to run into Silvia at least once.