Grand Duke Richard held the contract in his hand, glaring at me sideways before sneering coldly.
“You’re asking me to give you half of my assets after I’m acquitted and have recovered my assets?”
“Yes. To be precise, not as a gift, but as a division of assets after divorce. Gifts are subject to gift tax, but division of marital property isn’t taxed.”
“Hah, unbelievable.”
I shrugged at him. What, never met a tax-savvy lawyer before?
“My usual policy is not to take on cases without a retainer. But because it’s you, Your Grace, I’m making a spe.cial. ex.cep.tion. and only charging a contingency fee with no retainer.”
“Do you even know how much half my wealth amounts to?”
Of course I did. I clearly remembered how in the novel he made an enormous fortune by interfering in the male lead’s business at every opportunity and snatched up all the good investment opportunities.
“Of course. And without me, all that wealth is going to be confiscated anyway.”
So wouldn’t it be better to at least salvage half of it? I looked at the Grand Duke with that full meaning in my eyes. He took a breath, then narrowed his eyes at me.
“How exactly are you going to prove my innocence?”
“Come on, I can’t reveal that now. That’s my trade secret.”
If I told you now, you’d drop me and do it yourself, you cunning bastard! Who’d fall for that shallow trick? I shook my head firmly, making it clear I wouldn’t be duped.
At my unyielding answer, he clicked his tongue. I smiled sweetly.
“Sooo all the client… I mean, Your Grace, needs to do is sign this contract.”
“Wait, I want to add a condition to the contract.”
Worried for a moment that he might be trying to reduce my fee, I was relieved to hear it was just something trivial, that we wouldn’t develop feelings for each other. That actually worked in my favor. Typically, clients who lose out from their trials end up resenting their lawyers. There’s a reason I exercised caution when walking at night in my past life.
“Yes, yes, sure, whatever you say.”
While I answered absentmindedly, the Grand Duke stared intently as the new clause was added to the contract. Honestly, it was a useless clause, but his expression was more solemn than ever. With professional courtesy still intact, I flashed a trustworthy and kind smile as I pulled out a second document from my coat.
“Here, sign this one too.”
“You already prepared a marriage registration form…?”
His eyes widened slightly in surprise. I simply lifted my shoulders in a casual shrug.
“I’m very thorough in my preparations.”
As he filled out the marriage registration form, I looked on with satisfaction at the contract that would soon bring me great wealth.
“Elena Christie.”
“Yes?”
I reflexively answered when he suddenly called my name and looked up at him.
“Even if it’s just a contract marriage, I should at least know the name of the woman I’m marrying before I sign.”
“Oh…”
He seemed to be reading the personal information written on the marriage registration form. Come to think of it, I hadn’t even told him my name before asking him to marry me. Embarrassed, I scratched my cheek. At some point, he had stopped reacting to the absurdity of the situation and now wore an expression of resignation.
“All right, Elena Christie. What happens next?”
Having finally signed all the documents, he looked almost relieved. Like he’d resigned himself to going along with it, since things had come this far.
“Now, Your Grace…”
I smiled triumphantly and slowly pulled out one last piece of paper from inside my coat. It was time for him to sign the final document.
* * *
With all the documents perfectly prepared, I left the prison in high spirits and headed toward the protest led by Lieutenant Victor Genoa. The group was murmuring uneasily as if something had gone wrong. The youngest-looking one pointed a finger at me.
“Lieutenant! It’s her, isn’t that the woman from earlier?”
All eyes turned to me, and Victor Genoa marched over furiously.
“You there, miss! Did you steal my ID badge earlier?!”
“This one, you mean?”
I nonchalantly held out his ID badge. Victor shouted in outrage.
“Hah! You dare act so shameless after stealing from me! Arrest this woman immediately and report her to the police sta…”
“Wait!”
I stretched out my arm to block the advancing young men and smiled brightly.
“I actually had something to tell you all, so thanks for approaching me first.”
“…?”
They looked at me like I was insane. But come on, I wasn’t the type to be bothered by that.
“From this moment on, all of you are to obey me.”
“What, what did you just say?”
“She’s nuts.”
Harsh words burst out from among the group. Victor stepped forward, lowering his voice threateningly.
“Miss, if you keep spouting nonsense, there will be consequences.”
“If you don’t believe me, check these documents.”
I pulled out two sheets of paper from my coat, holding one in each hand, and thrust them right under Victor’s nose. His face grew paler as he read the documents I held.
One was the marriage registration form. The other was that the final, critical document Grand Duke Benedict Richard had signed.
I, Grand Duke Benedict Richard, hereby delegate all my authority to my Grand Duchess, Elena Richard. I order those loyal to me to treat the Grand Duchess with the same respect they would show me.
Victor blinked, stunned. The other men froze, speechless.
“W-what… is this…?”
“Now then, from this moment forward, you’ll all follow the commands of the Grand Duchess, right?”
With the all-powerful document a legal representative could carry, a client’s ‘handwritten power of attorney,’ I began sorting out the situation, step by step.
The first thing was to disband the protesters, who just screamed ‘vicious criminals’ or ‘villain’s henchmen.’
“This kind of demonstration will only hurt the trial. From now on, follow my instructions.”
The soldiers started to grumble in protest, but upon confirming the power of attorney, they bowed respectfully with all the patience they could muster. After all, their noisy antics had so far done nothing to sway the court or public opinion.
“We obey your command, Your… Your Highness the Grand Duchess.”
After giving a few more instructions to the Grand Duke’s subordinates and returning home, my drunken father was shouting as usual.
“Elena! Elena, you damn bitch! How dare you skip work today?”
Then came a sneering voice from the side.
“Ha! I told you we didn’t need a useless leech like her in this house.”
This time, Elena’s brother, Cain, was also with him. Judging by his presence after being gone for several days, he must have run out of gambling money. He curled his lips into a nasty smirk.
“This time, I bet you instead of money.”
“Wh-what?”
“It’s money you couldn’t earn even if you worked for 50 years, so just shut up and come quietly.”
Laughing to himself, Cain grabbed my wrist roughly. Bruises quickly bloomed on my already-thin wrist. I shouted and yanked my arm away with force.
“Why should I earn money for you two?!”
“What? Is this bitch crazy!”
The two men seemed quite surprised that Elena, who had been obedient without any resistance, was now standing up to them. Elena’s father pointed his finger at me with a flushed face.
“After we raised you, you owe us, you ungrateful brat!”
“Raised me? What are you talking about! Just being tied by blood to scum like you is sickening.”
I started saying it to provoke them at first. But somehow, it overlapped with my situation in my previous life, and a hot resentment bubbled up in my chest.
“Two fully-grown men leeching off a powerless girl—how pathetic can you get?!”
I never got to say that because I ran away from home in my past life. I shouted sharply at the two men, who were oozing with malice and greed.
“I hope bugs like you crawl out of my life forever!”
“You bitch!”
Thwack!
A burst of light exploded in my vision. Cain had punched me in the face.
“Ugh.”
Slap-!
As I was groaning, I was immediately grabbed by the hair and slapped by the bastard who was supposed to be my father.
“You stupid bitch, just saying whatever you think because you think you can! I’ll beat some sense into you right now!”
He reached for a broken shovel handle. I touched my swollen cheek and curled my lips into a twisted smile.
“You’re the ones who need to come to your senses.”
At that moment— Bang! The old wooden door burst open, and uniformed men stormed into the house. It was all planned. They were the police officers I had called before I came home. Seeing the scene, they rushed forward.
“Don’t move! Greg Christie, Cain Christie! You’ve been caught red-handed for the gross offence of assaulting a noble!”
I bared my bloodied lips in a victorious grin. They say ‘strike first, win first,’ but that’s a lie. In reality, it’s: ‘Strike first, lose first.’ The first to strike gets sued—and has to foot the bill.
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