The Wicked Wife’s Dark History Keeps Coming Back To Haunt Her - Chapter 180

“Countess Crest, since I’ve come uninvited to your tea party, I’d like to offer these tea leaves as gifts to the other guests as an apology. Would that be alright?”

There is no noblewoman who dislikes tea leaves.

None, but… because the one offering them was Duchess Nord, everyone responded with discomforted silence.

It was odd to hold a gift-giving display at someone else’s tea party, but it was just rosemary, after all.

That alone wasn’t enough of a reason to stop her, so Countess Crest had no choice but to permit it.

“…Go ahead, then.”

Rebecca began placing small paper packets in front of each of the ladies.

And finally, in front of Nina.

“……”

Nina’s fingers twitched from the scent wafting out of the paper packet before her.

“This one is a special gift I prepared just for you.”

Rebecca stretched her lips into a smile as wide as it could go, and sat down in front of her.

The malice was unmistakable.

‘I suspected as much…’

She was now certain that the person who had bribed someone to slip an aphrodisiac into her teacup at the Imperial Palace… was Rebecca.

The scent of rosemary prickled at her nose.

There wasn’t that acrid burnt smell she had detected at the Braumhill estate, but the pain and fear she’d felt that day came rushing back all the same.

It was deeply unpleasant.

Rebecca clearly knew this scent would unsettle her.

Suppressing the nauseating stench of rosemary as best she could, Nina spoke.

“I’ve always wondered, but you seem to be very interested in me. I doubt you came all the way here just to gift me tea leaves… So what is it you really want?”

What on earth drove her to go this far?

Two years of rumors, slander, and backbiting should have been enough.

And yet, after doing more damage to Nina than anyone else… now she was resorting to aphrodisiacs?

Even her past self hadn’t stooped to this level.

Sure, she’d slapped someone or yanked their hair before, but she’d never tried to destroy a person’s life with something like that.

Was that kind of malice really just about noble factional struggles?

Rebecca’s hatred felt more raw, more fundamental.

“It’s hard to see you in a private setting, so this was the only way.”

“You’re really making me wonder why you’re running after me like some dog chasing its master.”

“Like a dog chasing its master…”

Rebecca curled her lips into a crooked smirk and sprinkled rosemary leaves into the teapot.

She wasn’t even the host. How dare she put in tea leaves without asking?

Not just Nina, but everyone around them looked at Rebecca with shocked expressions.

But she didn’t seem to care in the slightest perhaps because she considered this enemy territory anyway.

“If I had to say… it’s to give you a warning.”

“A warning…?”

“What do you think would happen if your lie were to be exposed?”

“……?”

Nina raised a brow.

Lie?

What kind of nonsense was this one going on about now?

“Duchess Nord, as I’ve said before, you’d do well to stop meddling in my affairs and focus on your own household.”

The smile on Rebecca’s face slowly faded.

“You’ve been accusing my husband again and again…”

As she waited for the tea to steep, Rebecca lifted the teapot and poured the tea directly into her cup.

Without even straining the leaves.

Nina frowned as she watched the ridiculous scene unfold.

“…But what about you? If Duke Bayern were to find out that you’ve never actually been pregnant, would you really be able to hold onto that position of yours?”

She had never claimed to be pregnant to begin with. So what was this woman even talking about?

And the one who’d made it seem that way in the first place… was the Duke himself.

Nina was about to speak up, ready to correct the massive misunderstanding this woman was floundering in, but then she realized… there was no need.

Lowering her eyes slightly, Nina slowly poured the tea into her own cup.

Unlike Rebecca, she strained the leaves using a tea strainer.

Clear tea filled the cup.

The rosemary scent rising softly from it nearly made her gag, but she held it back and spoke with deliberate slowness.

“Madam, whether I’m pregnant or not has no bearing on my marriage. Because…”

Nina raised the cup, took a pointed sip of the rosemary tea, and gazed over Rebecca’s shoulder.