Chapter 463 The duke’s visit (4)
The next morning, we could see the exhausted look that was on Veronica's face.
It was clear that she had been scolded late into the night by her mother.
When she saw us, she looked at us with a resentful look. But that wasn't strange since we had basically abandoned her last night to her fate.
However, I didn't feel guilty at all when she looked at me like this.
After all, she had set up a trap for me in the first place and had wanted to throw me under the bus.
Since that was the case, it was only right that I turned this back on her.
In the end, she just got what she deserved.
The ducal couple looked much more rested than Veronica.
It was most likely because she had received some kind of punishment last night after they had gone to sleep.
This morning, we were heading on a tour of my territory with the ducal couple.
But when they came, we received a large surprise.
It wasn't a surprise from them, but rather a surprise from Veronica.
She was dressed normally during breakfast, but when she came out to the carriage…she looked completely different.
Gone were the simple clothes and hair, she was now in a magnificent dress that matched her mother's. At the same time, her face was completely different since she now had fine makeup on.
She had gone from a normal village girl to a fine noble lady.
When she saw us staring at her, she immediately glared and said, "Not a single word."
Unfortunately for her, her mother was nearby and heard this. She turned to look at Veronica and said, "Sweetie, that's not proper language for a young lady."
Though it sounded sweet, there was a clear dark tone underneath that almost seemed threatening.
Veronica immediately trembled when she heard this before becoming much more suppressed.
It was clear that her punishment wasn't over yet.
Still, there was no need for us to make fun of her, so we just set out from the manor to show them the town.
The first place that we went to was Haley's store since it was the main attraction of our town now. It was where all the commerce was based, so our economy relied heavily on it.
Sometimes I even wondered if it relied on it a bit too much…But since it was Haley's store, I stopped those thoughts.
It was fine to just be happy that her store was doing well.
The duke and duchess walked around like they were shopping and enjoying themselves. From time to time, Veronica was also dragged over to try out a few things that the duchess wanted her to try.
They really seemed like a happy family enjoying a day off, instead of being a ducal family visiting another noble's territory.
For some reason, I was also called along when Veronica tried these various outfits.
Was it because I was the only other man here so they were asking for my opinion?
But I could have sworn that there was a different kind of look in the eyes of the duke and duchess when they asked me to help judge it.
Even Veronica seemed to be acting weird when she showed me these dresses.
Of course, I acted as professional as I could and just gave my honest opinion.
When I went back to the others, they looked at me with strange looks that I didn't understand.
It was almost as if they were amazed by me, but I didn't feel like I had done anything special.
I had just acted like a proper gentleman.
But to them, it seemed like it was the wrong thing to do.
After shopping for a bit, Haley had all of the things that the ducal couple bought sent to our manor where they were staying. As for the payment, they insisted on paying even though we had said that we would consider it a gift to them.
However, to our surprise, the duke seemed to refuse to accept this gift.
His words were, "A cooperation is done between two sides who are on equal standings. If we accept gifts like this, it will corrupt that balance and taint our future cooperation."
The way that he said it almost seemed like he would give up on cooperating with us if we insisted on giving this gift, so we had no choice but to take it back.
After that, the next place that we headed to was the forge since the ducal couple wanted to meet the dwarves.
The forge was a place that had already existed in our town, but after the dwarves arrived, Haley and Rose had been working on expanding it. At the same time, they had recruited many different blacksmiths to work there to learn from the dwarves.
The only problem was that the dwarves had to go to the capital with me during this time, so it was just the blacksmiths running it up to now.
But now that the dwarves were back, they had taken over and it was in full swing.
When we arrived, there was the loud sound of hammers striking metal and many different furnaces running, along with many blacksmiths running about. It seemed like a very busy time for them, but they all had happy looks on their faces.
I was about to suggest going to another place, but the ducal couple immediately went forward to observe the blacksmiths and dwarves.
It seemed that they were fascinated even though they didn't understand what was happening.
It was just like Veronica when she had gone to the Dwarven Kingdom with me.
It seemed that this curiosity ran through the family.
They just kept watching the dwarves forge for a few hours before they finally moved away.
They had basically stayed during the entire forging process, watching the dwarves forge a sword from beginning to end.
By the time that it was finished, it was already getting dark.
But there wasn't a single moment that they had been bored.
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