Chapter 178: CHAPTER 89 (2) – Would there be Smoke, if there was no Fire?

“Well… would there be anything unusual? It is the law of the Marvinus Empire to execute anyone who dares try to assassinate a member of the Imperial Family, especially if that target is the Empress, no matter what the reason may have been. I heard that it is not much different in foreign countries, as well. Although Marchioness Ethyller is the daughter of the Efreni household… It will not be so easy to wash away the guilt of her crimes.”

“If that happens, well… In my opinion, I wonder if the Efreni family would even embrace her as an adopted daughter.”

“I think the same thing as my Lady.” Petronilla smiled slightly, and discreetly changed the topic.

“Rather, are there any interesting stories these days? I have not been socializing these days, so I feel like I am falling behind…”

“Ah, now that you mention it, you were quite busy these days,” Trisha nodded and said, “I do not know… well, any interesting story happening here would be quite obvious. Who had an affair with someone… They would be regarding scandals such as that?”

“But at least from one of them… There should be a diverting rumor.”

“Rumor? Hmm, well… Let us see.”

At Petronilla’s words, Trisha seemed to ponder for a moment, and Petronilla stared at her in turn. After a while, Trisha lit up, as she seemed to remember something. “Hm, well… there may not be a complete lack of rumors.”

“Oh my, what rumor would that be?”

“As you know, the Efreni family is often gossiped about these days. Of course not in a good way…” After Trisha said that, she sounded rather guilty of a breach of etiquette. “Right, you are actually quite close to the Duchess of Efreni.”

Petronilla replied with a small smile at her words, “Well, I do not know. Somehow, I found myself involved in the household’s affairs for a while, but… The actual management was done by their butler.”

“But, still. It is not so easy to make such a request to others? That would mean that the Duchess has faith in my Lady.” After Trisha said that, she muttered to herself, “Well, about that. It might have been better to leave it to someone else, than to leave it to the mistress.”

“Their relationship did not look good.”

“Of course. Considering how much the Duchess of Efreni gave to the Duke of Efreni? When I heard the story, I thought for sure that the Duke would never bring in a mistress. However, he even gave birth to a son with his mistress! Now that the Young Lord of Efreni has passed away, the Duchess of Efreni’s wounds must be deep.”

“I am also worried about that. She needs to overcome it all well…” After Petronilla said this, she reverted the topic back to the previous topic, “So, what is the rumor you mentioned?”

“It is so hard to speak about it. Well… Ah, this is a secret, my Lady?”

“That is a given,” Petronilla laughed. There was no secret in this society. Everyone had a secret that others did not know about, but the secrets shared to acquaintances through the meaningless phrase, ‘This is a secret only you know’ would be spread everywhere. Why did they not know that ‘you’ would tell another ‘you’ so that ‘only you know’ would continue on?

“You heard how there has been a lot of talk about how the Duchess of Efreni, who was then the Lady Efreni, getting married to the Duke of Efreni, who was the son of a Baron, right?”

“I did.”

The current Duke of Efreni was not the successor to the Efreni family by blood. He had been a mere lad from a poor Baron’s family. It was only because he married Lady Efreni, who was the only child of the Efreni household, that he inherited the status of Duke, as her husband. Anyway, this union was quite unprecedented at the time, and therefore shocking, so there had been a lot of gossip. Of course, Petronilla did not know the reason at the time.

“Well, apparently the Duke raped the Duchess, and she then became pregnant, so they inevitably had to get married.”

“Oh my goodness.”

Petronilla already knew all this information, but she pretended to be startled. The rumors were true. At that time, the Duke of Efreni had only been the son of a Baron Siksik, raped Lady Efreni to impregnate her, and hurried to marry her, using that as an excuse.

Of course, the poor Duchess had forgotten the rape from a night that she did not remember, and firmly believed that she really fell for him, and willingly gave herself that night. That snake of a man had seduced her with such words the following morning. It would be a tragedy if she found out about this.

“That cannot be. It should just be a rumor.”

“I hope that it is just a rumor. If not, how pitiful is the Duchess? The Duke would be divorced, and might also receive a punishment for having deceived her.”

“Does everyone already know of this rumor?”

At Petronilla’s question, Trisha lowered her voice to answer, even though no one was around to listen, “It is the latest rumor that has been going around the mouths of many ladies, ever since a few days ago. Maybe a little more and everyone in the Capital will know about this? I do not know who started this rumor, though.”

“I mean. Well… would there be smoke, if there was no fire?”

“Honestly, only the respective parties would know the correct answer.”

“Maybe only one ‘party’ would know the exact truth, snce the Duchess of Efreni may not remember the incident.”

“Oh my word, if that is true, I feel so bad for the Duchess Efreni!” Trisha shook her head, and Petronilla smiled slightly as she thought about something else.

The Duchess of Witherford had done a good job. If the rumors had spread this much, they would soon enter the Duke of Efreni’s ears. What would be his reaction to this rumor?

Petronilla laughed quietly to herself, as she imagined the expression on the shameless Duke’s face when he heard it…