Chapter 168. Lowly Things Have No Thoughts
The moment their eyes met, the man’s expression turned chillingly cold, causing her heart to rapidly freeze.
How, and why?
None of the questions floating in her mind could find an answer, and she stood entirely frozen, as if pierced through by his sharp gaze.
How could this be, how could they reunite again through such a coincidence?
It was absurd even to herself.
“Deborah, what… are you doing? Hurry up and get up…”
The atmosphere in the drawing room had turned icy cold, and the Bailey couple was suffering just as much.
Even though the Duke’s family had approached right in front of them, she had committed the rudeness of just sitting there blankly, so it was only natural that the Duke’s face had turned so murderous.
No matter how ignorant she was, she should at least know that much, yet Deborah remained completely motionless despite the cues to stand up, prompting Maria to grab and pull her arm.
Only then did Deborah, who had been sitting as if she had lost her mind, slowly stand up from her seat.
“I-I am sorry. She hasn’t been here for very long, so she just…”
Fortunately, Deborah had stood up, but since she was still stiffly frozen, Maria bowed her head deeply in front of her as if apologizing on her behalf.
Thinking about it, Deborah could not be blamed entirely.
It was definitely her own mistake for not properly explaining where they were going.
She had intentionally omitted that detail because she knew Deborah would definitely get nervous if she heard they were going to the Duke’s estate, but she never imagined that her considerate action would bring about such a situation.
For them, the Duke’s family was someone they saw once every two or three years, but where would a person of the same class as Deborah usually have the chance to see a high-ranking nobleman, let alone a Duke, right in front of their eyes like this?
Therefore, Maria regretted that she should have told her even just a moment ago.
“No… how could you…”
Breaking the chilling silence, where not even the sound of breathing could be heard, was the Dowager Duchess standing behind the Duke.
Her face was completely distorted, and her eyes were trembling violently as if she had seen a ghost.
It was exactly at that moment that a strange thought occurred.
Before, meaning until Deborah stood up from her seat.
She had thought that the atmosphere of the Duke’s family suddenly changing like a freezing northern wind was solely because of Deborah’s behavior.
The Cheister family, whose power was said to be able to bring down even a flying bird.
Since a woman of a lowly status, who was no different from a mere insect to them, had behaved so rudely, their sky-high pride must have definitely been crumpled.
However, somehow, she felt that might not be the case.
A feeling that was subtly and strangely different from a simple feeling of offense and displeasure.
But what on earth could there be for that to happen?
The opponent had to be someone of a certain caliber to even try to piece something together…
“You, how dare you in this pl-”
At that moment.
Out of the two noble young ladies who had their mouths wide open with shocked faces, the lips of the Cheister young lady, who looked exactly like the Duke, parted.
Her red lips trembled slightly, and her eyes glared fiercely.
The one who blocked her path just as she looked ready to devour Deborah was, unexpectedly, the person standing in front of her.
Duke Cheister, who had not said a single word since entering the drawing room.
At the action of him quietly raising one hand, the movements of the three women stopped completely as if it were a lie.
It was an atmosphere where that single gesture seemed to silence everything that had been confusingly churning.
At that bizarre sight, the Bailey couple also held their breath and paid close attention to the Duke’s actions.
“It is fine.”
Along with that softly dropped voice, his lips curled up into a smile.
“When a person gets nervous—”
Behind the haltingly spoken words, the Duke’s eyes eerily emitted a blue light.
“Well, that can happen.”
Was it because of that?
Despite his highly considerate words telling them not to worry about it, the Bailey couple somehow felt a chilling frost seep down their spines.
It was also around that time that the gaze, which had been sharply scratching across Deborah’s face—which had now gone past pale to completely blue—dropped away.
“Now then, shall we all move?”
The face of the Duke, who spoke while slightly turning his head, showed nothing particularly different on the outside.
Except for the fact that his face, which usually exuded a cynical atmosphere, looked somewhat more sinister, he was unmistakably the elegant and beautiful man they always saw.
But why did their spines keep feeling so chilly…
Thinking it was truly an incomprehensible mystery, the Bailey couple only tilted their heads.
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The people who entered the dining room moved on their own toward the designated seats fitting their respective positions.
With Duke Cheister sitting at the head of the table as the baseline, his mother, the Dowager Duchess, and his younger sister sat on the left side, and to his right sat his fiancée, the young lady of Marquis Constant.
In the seats below them, the three guests of today sat facing each other.
Once every single person was seated, dishes began to appear one by one on the long table immediately.
After the maid who set down the last plate left the dining room, all preparations for the meal were finally finished.
“Let us all begin.”
The Duke’s words signaling the start of the meal fell, but for some reason, no one moved.
Faces were completely frozen, like people with poisoned food set before them.
The Bailey couple, who had no way of knowing the reason, were suffering immensely just trying to read the room in that suffocating atmosphere.
“What are you doing, when you have been told to eat?”
Above the silence so quiet that not even a breath could be heard, the Duke’s cold warning fell once again.
Only then did people reluctantly begin to pick up knives or forks in their hands one by one.
“How are the crops this year?”
Whenever the Duke invited the Bailey couple, it was always the very first greeting-like remark to start the conversation.
How the crops were this year, whether there was any damage since it rained a lot this year, whether there was any typhoon damage, and other simple family matters.
Even though the exact same topics could be quite tedious, such things were all that two classes with no common ground could talk about.
The person leading the conversation was also mostly fixed.
When Raymond, the Duke, asked something, Mr. Bailey would answer, and very occasionally, when the Dowager Duchess asked his wife, Maria, something, she would answer.
In a way, it was a fairly simple and uniform pattern.
Thus, today was no different.
It was a scene where Mr. Bailey alone rambled on for a long time at that single short remark from the Duke asking about the harvest.
For a while, the conversation over the table continued in that format.
Deborah, who sat at the very end of the table, had been maintaining the exact same posture ever since the moment she entered the dining room.
With her gaze cast down, she kept her eyes fixed solely on the plate right in front of her.
Knowing that staying completely still without doing anything was also an action that drew attention, she did not forget to move the hand holding her fork every now and then.
However, that was merely an unconscious action.
An action repeated mechanically, without knowing what food she was picking up or swallowing.
Even if what was in front of her had been poison, Deborah would have thoughtlessly picked it up and swallowed it into her mouth.
She only wished for this terrible time to pass quickly.
She only wished to escape this place as soon as possible.
She regretted and regretted the moment a few hours ago when she did not refuse Maria’s proposal.
“Managing people must be quite a hassle.”
The Duke, who had always repeated the same questions, suddenly brought up an unfamiliar topic.
Although he flinched slightly, since that was also about the farm, Mr. Bailey answered the question diligently.
“Well, it is indeed… but since the majority of the people on our farm have mostly worked there for several years or more, it is a bit easier than other places.”
It was exactly up to that point, a content with nothing special.
To be honest, it was a story so boring and predictable that it could make one yawn.
Whether it was because of that, the stiffly rigid atmosphere from when the meal first started felt as though it had loosened up to some extent.
Of course, despite that, the overall atmosphere was still in a frozen state.
The important thing was that it was so in comparison to the beginning.
However, the reason that atmosphere changed drastically once more was because of the Duke’s words that followed immediately after Mr. Bailey finished speaking.
“That is a relief.”
At those words from the smiling Duke, Mr. Bailey also laughed loudly, haha, haha.
“Perhaps because lowly things have no thoughts, they do not even know shame, and their shamelessness is so dreadful that it makes one shudder.”
At that biting criticism, the table instantly fell silent.
Mr. Bailey, who was flustered because he absolutely did not know how to respond, laughed even louder to smooth over the awkward atmosphere.
“T-That is true. Well, since they have no education, they d-do not have thoughts, but then again, not all of them are like that…”
Even while speaking, his eyes shook anxiously as he wondered if this was right, but he could not possibly dispute what the Duke was saying either.
Instead of Mr. Bailey, who was sweating profusely over how to conclude his words, the Duke took over the conversation this time as well.
“Of course, would every single one of them be like that?”
“Ah, y-yes. That’s right. Not all of them—”
Raymond’s eyes slowly closed and opened again as he looked at Mr. Bailey, who was quickly nodding in agreement.
The direction of the gaze he opened again flew toward the left end of the table—
To the opponent who had not raised her head even once since leaving the drawing room.
“Indeed, with a husband, spreading one’s legs for another man like that,”
Flinch. Seeing the woman’s minutely trembling movement, Raymond’s lips instantly twisted into a distorted shape.
“Filthy whore’s work is not something just anyone can do.”
That pale face slowly moved toward the right.
Looking at those violently shaking mysterious eyes, a terrifying thrill instantly spread fully over Raymond’s gaze.
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