The Ugly Wife of the Shady Duke - Chapter 59.1
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“I think I can ask that person to do a separate Job.”
Currently, this expedition was divided into three factions: the people led by the royal family, the nobles led by Duke Felton, and lastly the people led by the temple.
In fact, it was unclear whether the other people from Duchy can be included in nobels, so calling them four factions might be more appropriate.
When Grace called for Duchy’s knight to send him elsewhere, Benjamin appeared in front of her.
“Where are you sending that knight, My Lady?”
“Oh, I should have mentioned it earlier. I sent him to the neighboring territory.”
“If it’s the neighboring territory… it must be the territory of Baron Jekyll.”
“Yes. Although it’s a bit far away, I think people from Ardel’s territory might have requested help there.”
In fact, at a later time, one of Jekyll’s men came to Ardel to assist the expedition.
That point was much later than now. By then, the contamination here was surely even more terrible.
‘Even now, it’s so gruesome, but they didn’t know about it until the expedition arrived? Even though they’re in a neighboring territory?’
No matter how popular the gate became, lands located on the outskirts could only interact more actively with the gate-owning estates.
Moreover, neither Jekyll nor Ardel had a gate installed yet.
‘Jekyll territory is a place run by a deputy lord. And the real lord is not just any noble, but a member of the royal family.’
Sylvester.
The male lead of this work.
Baron Jekyll was one of Sylvester’s titles.
Sylvester, being the sole son of the current emperor, held several territories and roamed around like a vagabond, as if he had a wanderer’s spirit.
‘Maybe it’s because of the curse in the original work.’
Come to think of it, even in the original work, it didn’t exactly say what curse it was. It only described how that curse continued to gnaw at the life of the male protagonist Sylvester.
‘Did the imperial family cover it up because it was related to the crown prince?’
“…However, looking at the situation here, it seems like they haven’t received any help, so I want to check if there are any repercussions of contamination in that area.”
“Well, if the situation is this serious, we can’t ignore the possibility that it could have had a negative impact on the surrounding lands. Still, if it’s Baron Jekyll’s territory, Ferdinand is currently in charge, so we should believe that there won’t be any major issues for Jekyll’s residents.”
“….?”
Benjamin’s strange words contained information.
“Your Highness, do you know the current deputy lord of Baron Jekyll’s territory?”
“Yes.”
Benjamin looked at Grace with an expression as if something was wrong.
“He’s a talent recommended by me to Crown Prince Sylvester when they were choosing the deputy lord. He doesn’t have a title, but he has a remarkable intellect, so I judged that he would have no difficulty managing the territory.”
‘So…’
Grace’s thoughts stopped.
That means the deputy lord of Baron Jekyll’s territory is not a person dispatched by the royal family, but a person recommended by Benjamin, making it difficult for others to associate him with the royal family, right?”
“I hope Ferdinand hasn’t done anything wrong.”
Benjamin, who didn’t know what complicated thoughts Grace was having, only looked worried.
‘Something seems off?’
⋆★⋆
The exact answer to what was wrong didn’t come to mind.
However, she felt like the puzzle she had been putting together until now was not the picture she had in mind.
‘If we don’t know what the picture is because there are no important pieces, then it’s a problem.’
Before evening arrived, the group of geologists who had left for the forest returned and reported to Grace.
“Fortunately, the forest was abundant with life, and there were trees that were not completely dead, but there were areas where the land was completely dead.”
“We tied red ribbons on the trees around there, so it will be easy to confirm later.”
“I see. Thank you for your hard work.”
It was a predictable report.
The geologists handed over a simple map they had made on the way to Grace.
‘The people picked are more meticulous people than I thought.’
After all, even if it was just for Benjamin’s sake, the management head would have wanted to look good to Grace and wouldn’t try to assign mediocre personnel.
‘Then…’
Grace briefly pondered what to do about this.
It would be better to confirm the existence of the mine and go through proper procedures to purchase it in advance.
‘If I keep postponing it, it will only get more complicated when the support team arrives.’
After finishing distributing today’s supplies, Grace looked at the group of people catching their breath.
Even among all those people, he stood out.
Because of the rough journey, he wore ordinary clothes and had unremarkable features, but he still looked better than anyone else.
It was as if the sunlight setting beyond the sky shone only on him.
Grace approached him with a paper map in hand.
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