Chapter 83 – Affairs of the Grand Duchy

Perhaps the news of the fire had spread to the capital, because when they safely returned to their mansion it was chaotic. It was just an accident in a small nearby town, and at another time it would have gotten a short, forgettable mention in the local newspaper. But now, it had a detailed coverage after it had become known that Lucius had been at the scene of the accident.

They had all the details which made them wonder where and how the news of the accident had been leaked. Everything from Tiana saving the child whom she’d bought a flower from to Lucius helping in extinguishing the fire and saving the surviving kids was written in the articles.

Tiana was disturbed since she had not expected the news to spread like this. It would be hard for her to start her social activities in this state, so she decided to delay them to get treatment for her wounds and to tend to her duties as a duchess. Lucius told her to rest for a few days, but when she said she wanted to work because she’d be more depressed if she didn’t do anything, he managed to allow it.

As Tiana didn’t want to delay her duties, since she was actually looking forward to them, she immediately went to look for butler Warren. He came into her office with the things she had asked him for earlier.

“Here’s the list of the internal budget and certificates of the personnel rights you mentioned. I’ve been managing as the assistant in your absence, but now I shall give you all the authority, Lady Tiana.”

“That’s good. Thank you. If you have any other information on the internal budget, the list of servants, or anything else, please bring it to me.”

“Yes ma’am. And um…”

“Yes? What’s wrong?”

“Please take your time with everything. It’d be better to rest after everything that happened.”

Tiana smiled lightly and tilted her head after seeing his worried face.

“I’ve rested quite enough. I’m getting the best treatment for my injuries, I can move, and I have work to do. I can’t sit still knowing all of that.”

“Lord Lucius is also worried, milady. He also instructed me to not let you overwork yourself.”

“I know. I will not overwork myself. I’ll also talk to him myself.”

“Understood.”

It wasn’t something Warren normally did, so she was a bit shocked for a brief moment. The fire accident had been a devastating event for her, but she decided to keep praying for the children in her heart while doing her job, because she was unable to delay any state affairs. It was for those kids that she was doing what she could do now.

A while later, Warren returned with the rest of the documents. Tiana took a sip of tea that a maid had brought for her, and looked through the papers. She had experience working in an office in the past, so that was also proving to be helpful in doing this kind of work. And fortunately, there were many similarities between these documents and the ledger she had written with her mother, so it wasn’t too difficult to understand. Although the amount of work for the grand duchy was much larger, it seemed easy to use the duke’s ledger because the large frame and general details were similar.

“It is very neatly organized. It must have been so hard to keep up with all of this.”

“It’s just one of my duties as a butler.”

“But still, it’s hard to do it like this. Especially the meticulous handwriting, it is so easy to read. From now on, I think you will be a lot of help to me. Thank you, Warren.”

As she stared at him, he held his lips clamped with a weird look on his face.

“Is there something wrong?” she asked.

He flinched in surprise. “No ma’am. I was just surprised at how… how much you know about this. And I don’t mean any disrespect, Lady Tiana.”

“I know. I appreciate your honesty. I’m just used to this kind of work, I guess. It was the same in my family; there wasn’t a duchess.”

“Oh…”

Warren seemed to recall then that the Celeste family had no duchess. When she saw his blanched, embarrassed face, she smiled.

“I did most of the work because my mother couldn’t take care of it due to a chronic disease. Even after she passed away, I was in charge of the housework, so naturally, this is all very familiar.”

“I apologize.”

“It’s alright, you didn’t know about it. I’m not going to scold you over something you had no knowledge of.”

Since it was the original Tiana who had actually done it, even though she had some experience working in an office, she wouldn’t have been able to work efficiently as a duchess if it wasn’t for the old ledger and the memories that came with it. You can do something you don’t know while learning it, but it’s a far cry from doing something you know only to a certain degree. And she definitely didn’t want to look stupid.

“But for the time being, I need you to help me, Warren. Since the internal affairs of the grand duchy are larger than that of the duke’s castle, I think there will be some things that I wouldn’t be able to look over. I need you to cross-check if I left anything out. Oh, and if there’s something you don’t know about, just ask me and I will let you know.”

“Will do. Don’t worry, Lady Tiana.”

“There is lots to do. I hope I can get through everything smoothly…”

“I’m sure you’ll be able to do well, ma’am”

“Thank you. I hope so.”

Tiana nodded, and the two smiled at each other.