CH 40

“She knows about the business I’ve been interested in lately. A carriage that doesn’t have to be pulled by a horse.”

“Yes……? Is the Grand Duchess interested in such an invention?”

“She could recognize what it was just by seeing it once.”

“The Grand Duchess is no ordinary lady. No wonder you fell in love with her at first sight……”

Leonid was constantly admiring Fabian’s words.

Excuse me, the person concerned is listening here.

“You are overreacting.”

It was a situation that could not be denied, and it was just embarrassing to answer anything other than that.

I smiled gracefully like an educated lady.

And naturally, I turned my head toward Larissa.

“Is the food to your taste? You have to eat well to grow tall.”

I was worried that Larissa would feel uncomfortable having someone else at the dinner table, but she seems to be fine.

Larissa is chewing the meat well.

Her cheeks look like hamster cheeks.

‘So cute. As expected of our Larissa.’

I’m sorry that your older sister only talked about boring things with these middle-aged men.

But I’m happy that she’s eating so well.

‘I will focus on Larissa after this.’

I carefully wiped the sauce around Larissa’s lips with a napkin.

***

‘I ate too much. I didn’t mean to do this.’

Instead of writing a letter, Fabian rubbed his bloated stomach with one hand. His stomach was tingling from overeating.

It was all Leonid’s fault.

If he hadn’t told Marcia about the academy, Fabian wouldn’t have eaten twice to stay with her.

The sudden death of the Grand Duke made Fabian so busy. Thankfully, Leonid helped him so he could get some sleep at night.

It was only after finishing a pile of paperwork with Leonid’s help that he realized that he had neglected his close friend too much under the pretext of being busy.

‘No matter how close we are, he’s still a guest and I can’t let him have dinner alone.’

He thought that he should go down for a while to refresh himself and treat the guest with a light dessert or tea.

But when he went downstairs, he could hear faint laughter coming from inside the dining room.

Rather than dine alone, Leonid is laughing and chatting happily with Marcia and Larissa.

There was even Richard.

Fabian paused there for a moment.

It was the first time he saw Marcia laughing aloud.

Of all the expressions she had made before him so far, the one closest to laughter was the smile she made to show courtesy.

But now she was laughing merrily. She seemed to be enjoying the conversation very much.

It was a pretty unfamiliar scene.

‘I thought she was a woman who took care of her own interests.’

I can’t believe there’s such a pure smile on such a woman.

When he was about to enter the dining room with that thought, Leonid brought up the Academy story. Marcia immediately showed her interest.

She asked, “Is that so? How old was Fabian at the time? What kind of kid was he?”

With her cheeks slightly pink, Marcia asked with her green eyes shining.

What he could see from those eyes was pure curiosity.

On top of that, he couldn’t just let Leonid recite his childhood.

Because he doesn’t have any cute childhood stories.

When she heard the story of his childhood, her smile would probably disappear.

‘No, maybe she will laugh at me.’

Of course, that was also not what he wanted.

‘I have to stop him.’

He had to keep an eye on Leonid not to talk nonsense to Marcia.

So he went into the dining room without notice. So that he can monitor him as naturally as possible until the end of the dinner.

Besides, Richard was also there. He might as well add some nonsense.

Because he’s quite annoying.

The reason for allowing Richard to stay here right after the funeral was simple.

It was to prevent Dominic from doing anything dangerous again by holding him hostage.

Dominic will also be somewhat relieved if his son stays close to Fabian, and he will see an opportunity and try to take advantage.

Then there was a possibility that Dominic’s monitoring route would be reduced.

It wasn’t difficult to deal with the sloppy little boy.

“At that time, I fell in love with her at first sight.”

He purposely said out loud that he fell in love at first sight.

He also emphasized that there was an assassin who was after him.

The beggar boy tried to kill him with a simple trick that even ordinary women could easily figure out.

Richard wasn’t a dumb kid. I’m sure he understood.

By the way……

“……Oh my God, there was a poisoned dagger in the beggar’s pocket?”

‘Pfft.’

Fabian laughed a little inwardly. Because it reminded him of Marcia’s sloppy acting.

That rather convinced him. She knew everything and acted so.

What the beggar boy was trying to do, and why he had his hand in his pocket.

“Fabian.”

Leonid’s voice brought Fabian to his senses.

When he looked up, Leonid was waving his hand at him.

“Your hand stopped.”

He pointed to the letter Fabian was writing.

“You have to write it and quickly send it. Did you think of something else?”

Fabian looked down at the letter. There was a strange word in the sentence he was writing.

[According to the analysis results above, it is suspected that the reserves have decreased rapidly, so please send a correct smile as soon as possible.]

‘I’ll have to rewrite it.’

He rubbed his temple with one hand and crumpled the letter paper with the other.

Leonid chuckled and joked.

“Are you busy thinking about your wife?”

“What……? What are you talking about?”

Leonid was just trying to tease Fabian, but his reaction was strange.

Leonid, who had known him since childhood, noticed it immediately.

“Huh? I guess it’s true.”

Fabian frowned and pulled out a new piece of paper.

As he started writing again, Leonid grinned.

“If you keep thinking about her, take your time and talk to your wife. Your wife has only talked about you the whole time.”

Did you? Did you just talk about me all the time?

‘Why?’

Fabian tried not to care, but the fountain pen moved a little slower.

“It’s not that I interfered, but your marriage isn’t even perfect yet, even though you’re officially married, aren’t you working too much?”

“……what do you mean by not perfect yet?”

“I mean it’s better to have a successor as soon as possible.”

The pen point pierced the letter paper.

Darn it. Fabian crumpled the second letter paper.

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

Leonid shrugged.

“Then have you spent your first night? But no matter how much I look at you, I don’t see any signs of it. You two are newlyweds, but all you two do is make eye contact in the same room……”

“What does that have to do with you?”

Fabian frowned in displeasure.

“Can you shut your mouth?”

Oh, he’s really mad. Leonid smiled and raised his hands.

‘But teasing him is fun.’

Fabian pulled out the third letter paper with a frown on his face.

He took a deep breath and shook his head lightly once. However, the effort was in vain, and Leonid spoke to him again.

“By the way, is that true? Did your wife really save your life?”

Fabian sighed.

I’m done with the letter.

It was obvious that I would throw away several letters again.

It would be better to rewrite it after the conversation is over.

“It is. Someone really ordered a child to assassinate me. He has a poisonous dagger that can kill a large horse in one breath. I don’t know how she figured it out. ”

“Looking at her earlier, I noticed that she seemed to have known he was an assassin from the beginning.”

Fabian nodded.

“Yeah. I didn’t think she was lying. She seemed to be very quick-witted.”

It wasn’t the only time Marcia noticed an assassination attempt and gave him a signal.

At the family dinner, she also knew that his dessert was poisoned.

How did she know?

Did she know because she was related to the person who sent the killer?

It was his relatives who always tried to kill him.

If so, they might have sent Marcia.

‘But it can’t be.’

There’s no reason for Marcia to secretly tell Fabian that she’s an assassin.

Moreover, neither Marcia Blick nor her father Igor Blick had any contact with the people of Laurent.

It was doubtful when Marcia tried to meet Archduke Laurent with Larissa.

“She is Larissa, the one who will become Your Highness’s fiancée.”

Did she try to approach him on purpose?

But she insisted on a contract marriage

Judging by the conditions and her attitude towards Larissa, it seemed that she was just busy taking care of her younger sister.

In other words, she did not seem to have anything to do with the assassin.

‘But there is something strange about simply saying that she’s quick-witted……’

As if she can read people’s minds.