The Ugly Wife of the Shady Duke

Benjamin was the most well-known figure in the Mage Association, and at the same time, he had connections to the Gate.

In the Baimon Empire, and even in this world, the boundary between nobles and commoners was relatively ambiguous. There was little concern about the spread of gossip among the commoners, which allowed rumors about Grace to circulate in all directions, this was the reason why the negative talk about Grace was all over the place in the original work.

‘In fact, it’s better than having excessively high boundaries, but there are such side effects.’

Grace sorted out her thoughts and came to a conclusion.

‘Wouldn’t it be better to quickly find out the cause now?’

If she transferred that task to Benjamin, the likelihood of him receiving criticism would decrease. Besides, the probability of the Gate incident occurring again was significantly lower because Grace had already been there once.

‘The problem is how to quickly identify the cause…’

The reason it took a long time to find out about the Western contamination was simple. To thoroughly confirm it, they had to check all the rivers that connected to the Rondel Canal, and not all the villages along the rivers had Gates.

Even if they used the Gate, there were cases where they had to travel a long way by carriage after arriving in the area. Just as they were actively investigating, the Gate incident occurred.

As Grace contemplated up to this point, she unknowingly furrowed her brow.

“…My Lady? Are you feeling unwell, by any chance?”

“Ah, no.”

Benjamin noticed that Grace’s expression was turning for the worse and asked. Grace had experienced abdominal pain recently and her physical condition was not good due to her long days of being chipped.

“It would be better to finish the work quickly and leave.”

Even though Grace said she was fine, Benjamin’s worried expression did not lighten at all.

For now, he looked around to sign the documents, but many people were still gathered around the Aria side.

“Oh no…”

Benjamin’s regretful voice could be heard. It seemed that Aria was still surrounded by people and talking, despite her concerns about the Rondel Canal.

“Your Highness, I’m really fine. I was just lost in thought.”

Grace lightly pulled on Benjamin’s arm.

“Lost in thought, you say.”

“Yes, well…”

Even though she said she was lost in thought, Benjamin’s suspicions did not diminish. Grace’s expression was too dark to simply brush it off.

Though Benjamin didn’t directly ask Grace, his gaze was filled with an unresolved curiosity.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed by his gaze, Grace came up with a rough solution.

“W-Well, is there any way to track it using divine power?”

“…?”

“I mean… you just mentioned that the Saintess can use her abilities extensively, right? So, I thought maybe she could also read the direction of the contamination.”

Grace pondered whether she was forcing the idea.

In truth, there wasn’t much information available about divine power in the original work.

There were only a few mentions of how the Saintess could cleanse contamination and how her divine power grew stronger. 

‘Maybe there could be other details that I couldn’t remember, but…’

For now, this was all Grace recalled. Furthermore, if the method Grace suggested had been known, people wouldn’t have needed to venture far to investigate the source of contamination.

“In the end, the contamination flows through the rivers, so maybe we could utilize the healing nature of divine power to ride it upstream, like rewinding a loose thread.”

“Hmm, I’m not a priest, so I’m not sure if that’s possible. But if it is, we could obtain results more quickly.”

When divine power is used extensively, it spreads like droplets of water on a tissue. However, if divine power could be emitted in a very thin form for an extended period, the essence of the power to clean contamination could flow further along the river.

In the Empire, the Saintess’s powers were typically used for healing and purification purposes, and they hadn’t considered using them in any other way.

‘Perhaps because of the sacred image.’

The exact reason is unknown, but if this method is possible, useless waste of manpower could be reduced.

“Your Highness Duke Felton, you’re here. Excuse me, but could you sign these documents?”

One of the priests in charge of the Rondel Canal proposal handed Benjamin the documents, a confirmation letter regarding the canal.

“Do you have time now to talk? I think we should have a discussion about the recent events regarding Rondel Canal, but she still seems to be surrounded by people.”

Benjamin said this without looking away from Grace. When their eyes met, Grace raised the corner of her mouth lightly.

“My wise wife asked an interesting question.”

‘Otherwise, what else I was supposed to do?’

Grace was taken aback, but Benjamin seemed pleased. If Grace’s perception was correct, then Benjamin was genuinely enjoying himself.