Duchess in the Attic: Volume 1 by Mori

Author:Mori [MORI]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: J-Novel Club
Published: 2024-09-25T00:00:00+00:00

20. The Documents

Opal’s shocking words caused the room to fall silent. Hubert, however, quickly scoffed through his nose.

“Cease with your rubbish,” he said. “The documents I signed yesterday were from Omar.”

“Omar didn’t create those documents,” Opal replied. “You’re free to trust him as you wish, Your Grace, but why didn’t you at least glance at the papers before signing them? What do you do, cooped up in your study as you are? Your actions, quite frankly, have consistently perplexed and confused me.”

“I-I’m studying... This may escape you but I’ve learned quite a bit from university, and one of the topics is quite intriguing to me, you see.”

His words lacked confidence and gusto; now that Opal had pointed out his incompetence, the documents he’d signed must have made him anxious. The man was using his studies as an excuse to delay the inevitable, harsh reality.

“Indeed, academia and the pursuit of education is a truly wonderful activity,” Opal said. “But we are soon leaving the era where established nobles can live gracefully without doing even a smidgen of work. You have people you must support, Your Grace, and land that you must manage. Are your studies worth casting all of this aside? Will your pursuits support you financially?”

“How gauche! All you believe in is money!”

“Oh no. Money isn’t everything in this world. However, it is essential if you would like to survive, and everyone, nobles included, needs money. In fact, you married me to pay off your debts, and the money from my father has allowed you to survive for a while. But what about the future? What will you do when all that money runs out? Do you truly believe that your vast land—which you haven’t laid a finger upon, I might add—will magically produce money for you?”

“E-Everyone said that the land would produce a good harvest this year, for sure.”

“Everyone?”

“My friends. They’re a priceless treasure and people that I’ve spent my university days with.”

“Then I’m sure that these people are properly managing their land or have excellent managers. And I’m sure that they’ve been meticulously reading their managers’ reports.”

Quite frankly, Opal didn’t care about Hubert’s scholarly interests. The future was important. And despite her attempts to show him the kind of world they lived in—the cold, hard, materialistic world—Hubert remained determined to stay cornered, to run and flee. Opal suppressed her disappointment and placed more undeniable evidence in front of him.

“This is the paper that you signed yesterday afternoon,” Opal said. “The real copy is kept in a secure safe, so as long as no one here leaks the information, no one will know. As long as you don’t divorce me, that is.”

Hubert moved to talk back, but his gaze fell on the document and instead he gingerly picked it up, terrified at what harsh truth he would have to face. As he read through the paper, the blood started to drain from his face.

“Th-This can’t be true!” he cried.

“But it is,” Opal replied.

“E-Even so, you cheated me! How could this.

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