Chapter 47

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Chapter 47

As soon as the wagon started, Serena bit her nails in a very nervous manner.

“It’s dangerous. As expected, he had fallen…”

“It’s a little off-putting, but it’s a kid… so it’ll be fine.”

The original work was twisted a little due to my intrusion, but if I left him in the mansion alone, he would change to his original cool and indifferent personality again.

In the original, Evan didn’t shed a single tear when I died. Even though we have been together for a long time in the name of our marriage. The very next day, he went out to society casually.

So, to be honest, he would care more if the plants I grew died than my presence.

In the end, my theory is that love changes, but people don’t. Still, since you never know, if he had fallen at such a young age, I was preparing for it at an appropriate level.

“Sven’s coming to the banquet. Though since he is not a nobleman, he can’t officially attend, so he will dress up as a gardener instead.”

“Really? Why is he coming, anyway?”

“He told me that he has something to tell you in person.”

Hearing so, I just nodded silently.

There was no way they were helping me escape out of good will.

‘There must be something he wants from me that he decided to come to see me like this.’

I sighed inwardly.

‘I should have been possessed the villainess instead…’

Usually, villainess has everything except personality and reputation, although those factors would have been easily covered with my acting skills, and I would have been able to do anything.

However, my reality right now was that I am a meek supporting role that had to negotiate with the dark intelligence guild leader.

“And, I got a portrait of Laria from Redian! He really did a great job.”

“Please keep it in the Vestian Guild for the time being. The rest of the paintings purchased from Redian are to be sold at a price for about a hundred gold per piece.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“And, Serena, I have something I must do as soon as I get to Borotna.”

As far as I could remember, Seymour was doing something around this area.

“What? What is it?”

“For now, please send a letter for me to the temple.”

The letter contained a question, asking whether people would sometimes feel pain when they are blessed. Of course, it would be sent to Marcel. Since he still had some use, I had to somehow keep my relationship with him.

“Also, with this money…”

I gave up my pride to Duke Icard for a painting once. I took out a bag of gold coins I gained that time.

“I need you to take care of something for me.”

All I had to do was pick up the pride I had thrown away again, along with the money I had gained.

Duchy of Icard, after Laria had left.

Kallaudin was locked back in his office, as usual, receiving reports from several underlings.

He was a bit late in the political game because he lived a simple life with Matilda without any greed in his youth.

It was Duke Orlando, who had taken complete control of the nobility up until now. With his personality, if he found a nobleman who was more likely to be influential than him, he would brutally nip that person in the bud.

Right now, the most restrained force of Duke Orlando was Duke Icard although Kallaudin didn’t know what kind of controversy he would be embroiled in if he got his attention for no reason.

‘I am still too weak to deal with Duke Orlando…’

He thought that Icard’s power was surprisingly large, so he suddenly spread rumors about his marriage to the Princess, making everyone wary of him. Even though he managed to soothe the gossip by bringing Laria in, he had to be careful in everything anyway.

So, Kallaudin secretly gathered information from all the nobles and used it to make them be on his side.

Without anyone knowing until his ambition was decisive. Of course, it took a lot of money to do that. No matter how wealthy the Duchy was, he had to always check the profitability of mines or sponsor guilds.

Hence, with all the hard work, his office lights never turned off until late every night. If he could keep up this momentum, after a few years, Duke Icard could form a larger force than Duke Orlando.

It was in the middle of the night when he was alone being briefed and instructing on all sorts of matters. He was going through all the papers before suddenly turning towards the door.

“Father, it’s Laria! May I come in?”

It felt strange to think that he would not be able to see Laria, who knocked on the door of his office and talked to him brightly for a long time.

Obviously, it wasn’t a very long time, yet the Duke felt empty.

“I am not lonely at all. Because my father and Evan are really nice to me. I’m much happier than when I was at Count Rostry.”

She was a gentle, cute kid who liked to be around family. She might cry of loneliness being far away… She must have been gloomy all the way in the wagon.

Even at the last minute, a relative whom they believed to be her blood relative tried to steal the jewels and run away… In fact, it was a little strange since Karen first appeared, but Kallaudin didn’t expect her to reveal her innermost thoughts so quickly.

‘It must have put too much pain onto naive Laria. I shouldn’t have said anything about the social world… What if she’s scared and depressed when she leaves?’

Kallaudin rolled up a cigarette and put it in his mouth, glancing at Laria’s painting on his desk.

“I want to repay Father.”

Laria gave him the holy relic that he desires the most.

Even though the relic was what he wanted, Laria’s heart, who even stole the eyes of the priests, remained even more visible in his mind.

Now when she was gone, he thought he could never make a joke again in the Duchy. All the staff trembled at his words and didn’t understand whether he was joking or not, and he didn’t even converse with Evan that lightly.

‘Evan seems to hate jokes because he is so blunt…’

Only one little girl was missing, but the Duke’s mansion seemed dark. Still, Kallaudin wasn’t the only one awake late at night.

Evan was also tossing and turning in his bed. With Laria gone, the bed was too wide.

No… the room was too big for him alone.

‘Before Laria came, even when I sometimes took a vacation from the academy, I never thought it was too big to use alone…’

Now, the closet was half empty, so was the drawer.

“I didn’t need successor lessons and sword training… but Laria told me to live diligently.”

Besides, Cobb also said, if he wants to get along with a woman, he should take good care of himself first. Though Evan wanted to wait until the time for him to arrive at the banquet, time seemed to go incredibly slow, and it felt as if it would take forever until that day…

Eventually, after all the tossing and turning, he got up.

Heading to the table, Evan took out his favorite fairy tale book that Laria gave him, and read it over and over again for a long time.

8 — Borotna peacefulness.

The distance between the Capital City where Icard Duchy was placed to Borotna Villa was quite far.

“Wow, it’s decorated really nicely.”

It was said that the large-scale construction was done before I arrived, and Borotna’s villa was so large that it seemed embarrassing to just call it ‘a villa.’

“Umm…”

I glanced around and gave the best compliment.

“He spent money really well.”

Lisa nodded pleasantly at my humongous compliment. Later, I found out that she had a lot of opinions about the new construction of the villa.

“In fact, the most expensive thing is the greenhouse!”

“Huh?”

“As you mentioned to the Young Master since Miss Laria likes to be in the greenhouse, so we moved it along with us.”

Indeed, the greenhouse looks like the carbon copy of the greenhouse that was in the Duchy Icard…

“We were able to get everything else, but it was difficult to get a hand on the Oklasia tree.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes, it’s a rare species that is hard to obtain. The young master emphasized it several times and told me to search for it.”

Listening to Lisa’s words, I quickly thanked Evan in my head even though I knew those words wouldn’t reach him.

‘Thank you, Evan…’

Lisa’s words continued.

“Honestly, I don’t really know how to grow it. Managing it may be rather tricky, so I’m glad that the Southwest is a region where almost all plants grow well.”

“Is-is that so? But how did it end up in the Duchy in the first place, Lisa?”

“A few years ago, the duke suddenly ordered it. After acquiring it somehow, the tree was planted in the greenhouse.”

“I see. It’s amazing.”

“Well, since the duke reads all sorts of books… there must have been a reason for it. Maybe, like a symbol of good fortune in every corner of the continent?”

I just nodded and shrugged at her words.

Indeed, it was said in the novel that there was a time when Duke Icard was madly obsessed with books after losing his wife. After that, he sent Evan to the Academy and began to form a plan to take control of the nobility in earnest.

And, that was how my villa life started.

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