Chapter 44
Gepetto found out what was going on the next day.
“A Saint?”
Deep down, Gepetto had hoped Seraphina wasn’t the Crown Prince’s child. She was far too cute to be that unlucky bastard’s kid!
But he hadn’t expected this kind of twist.
“Marsha and Esha knew the moment they saw her, so how did you not know?”
“Of course I didn’t know! Do I look like someone who would ever go to a temple?”
“No.”
“Then why ask if you already knew?!”
Apparently, Gepetto had never even seen a Saint before and had no way of knowing.
‘Well, just because he’s free of the curse now doesn’t mean he suddenly knows things he never learned.’
“But why does she keep calling me uncle? This is a total scam…”
As he grumbled, Seraphina began to tear up, and Gepetto panicked.
He gently patted her back.
“No, don’t cry. Don’t cry.”
Thinking it wasn’t enough, he quickly changed the subject.
“Anyway, what happened to your friend? That Eshan or Ashen kid or whatever.”
Just then, Esha walked in, clicking her tongue behind a fan held over her face.
“My, where have your manners gone? From now on, when you call me, make sure to say ‘Count’ properly.”
“Shut up.”
Gepetto snapped as usual, but Esha didn’t mind.
“So, did you decide to become the lord after all?”
Although I had intervened in Esha’s matters, the final decision had to be hers.
‘It’s her life, after all.’
Knowing Esha had a gentle nature, I had worried.
Fortunately, it seemed she had made up her mind.
“If I left my father alone, who knows what trouble he’d cause next? I figured it was better to keep him close and keep an eye on him.”
Instead of driving her father away, Esha replaced all the staff at the lord’s manor with her own people.
Recently, as the new lord of Marceline, Esha was busy but living happy days.
Gepetto muttered.
“So that’s what a successful delinquent looks like.”
“Quiet.”
“I’m just saying I’m jealous. Tell me your secret to success.”
“Make good friends.”
“My god. It’d be faster to die and be reborn.”
Esha ignored Gepetto’s nonsense.
Now that her biggest problem was resolved, she seemed much more at ease.
“By the way, were the rumors about Marquis Lebanon true? I thought they were exaggerated.”
“Turns out the rumors were downplayed. When they dug up the backyard, they found two more victims.”
“Ugh.”
Esha shuddered in disgust.
After chatting idly for a while, their conversation turned to Marienne.
Because lately, there was no one else scratching at their nerves.
“By the way, how long is Princess Marienne planning to stay in the Empire? Isn’t her stay a bit too long?”
“They say her leg injury hasn’t healed yet.”
“Seriously? Even Princess Luigi went back, so what right does Marienne have to keep staying here?”
Luigi had returned to Morutum Kingdom a week ago.
Her husband was waiting for her. Though they often lived apart, they were still a loving couple in their own way.
In contrast, Marienne…
“She doesn’t really have a reason to be sent back.”
Since she insisted on staying in the Empire, they couldn’t exactly kick her out.
“She came in the first place for trade negotiations. Since there haven’t been any results yet, she technically has a reason to stay. Besides, she hasn’t done anything that seriously harms the Empire…”
Though Marienne hoped for a political marriage with Asher, she had never directly demanded it.
And the tricks she pulled in the Empire were petty in scale.
If anything, her schemes had only further isolated her.
Gepetto was incredulous.
“How is she not harmful? She’s basically freeloading.”
“What country would kick out a foreign royal over meal expenses?”
If they did that, people would question whether the Empire was so poor it couldn’t afford it.
In short, it was an issue of dignity.
“Royalty really are such a pain. Honestly, I wish she’d just commit some blatant evil act already.”
“Hey, words have power.”
“…I’m just saying it out of frustration. It’s not like I actually want that to happen.”
Esha mumbled.
“By the way, don’t you think we haven’t heard anything about what Princess Marienne is up to lately? I’ve only heard she keeps getting rejected from social gatherings. Is she really holed up somewhere?”
“Now that you mention it.”
In the original story, Princess Marienne hadn’t stayed in the Empire this long.
In the original, after Princess Luigi’s death destabilized the Empire, Asher sent Marienne back.
In other words, the fact that Marienne was still in the Empire was a result of the future I had changed.
Which made me wonder, too.
What is Marienne doing right now?
‘I never should have gotten involved in something like this…!’
Marienne was curled up in her guest suite, unable to take a single step outside. Wrapped in her blanket, trembling as she imagined the future to come – that was all she did each day.
Because every day, her father sent letters berating her.
「Since you have used the secret funds I provided, you must be ready to show results worthy of them. When do you plan to show me some real achievements?」
But there was no way Marienne could show any results.
After the tea tasting incident, most social gatherings had rejected her.
She never even got the chance to explain herself and found herself increasingly isolated.
Thinking that maybe if she refilled her father’s treasury things would improve, Marienne tried selling her luxury goods, but—
‘Those sly merchant bastards.’
When she was buying, they treated her like an angel from heaven.
But when she tried to sell, they became impossibly picky and forced the prices down as much as possible.
‘If father finds out about this…’
As failure, once only a vague fear, began to loom as reality, terror overtook her.
‘I never should have fallen for such nonsense.’
Marienne resented Benny, who had coaxed her into this mess.
Completely forgetting that she herself had eagerly believed Benny’s words.
At that moment—
‘What do I do now?’
“Princess, a letter has arrived for you.”
Another letter. Another damn letter had arrived.
“I said I don’t want to read it! I don’t want to see it!”
Marienne screamed, covering her ears.
“……”
The knocking stopped.
Then, after a moment of silence outside, something slid in through the crack under the door.
A letter fell softly onto the floor.
Its envelope looked different from her father’s letters.
‘Come to think of it, the voice just now didn’t sound like Benny’s either.’
Marienne threw off her blanket and picked up the letter.
Without fixing her disheveled hair or even sitting at her desk, she crouched by the door and read it over and over.
Because its contents were that shocking.
The letter suggested a solution.
‘It says I can bring Laura down?’
Of course, it also stated Marienne would have to risk a lot. If she failed, she would lose everything.
But if she succeeded—
‘I can overturn everything.’
She could make up for being born in a small kingdom and for her humiliating mistake at the tea tasting.
In which case—
‘How could I let an opportunity like this slip by?’
Four days later.
Esha met with Asher.
Newly titled nobles were required to pay their respects to the Emperor.
Since the Emperor was currently in a coma, Asher was handling these duties in his place.
Esha had expected it to be a solemn and serious occasion, befitting the formal recognition of her title, but…
“So, right now…”
Within five minutes of entering the palace, she realized how wrong she was.
“You’re asking me… for good date spots?”
“No, I’m looking for places suitable for inspections.”
“But just now you asked for places women would like, didn’t you?”
“Isn’t it possible to inspect such places too?”
“Ah…?”
My god, how could someone be so shameless?
“So, are you going to tell me or not?”
He was even brazen about it.
“No, I mean… sure, I’ll tell you.”
But it wasn’t a bad request to fulfill.
Esha smiled inwardly.
‘This investment will pay off one day.’
She genuinely supported Asher and Laura’s relationship.
“If you’re looking for a quiet path where you can hide your identity and take a walk, the road from the fountain in District 2 to Vallite Lake is nice. The scenery is beautiful, and since the path is flat, it’s not tiring even if you walk for a long time. And also…”
Fortunately, Asher listened attentively, even taking notes on what she said.
‘With that level of sincerity, he’ll treat Laura well too.’
Esha felt slightly reassured.
However.
On the day of the date.
“That outfit is…”
“You said it was an inspection, didn’t you?”
Laura appeared wearing clothes that could hardly be called date attire.
They weren’t just plain; they were so drab they looked rough, likely made from cheap fabric. The cut was so loose that it was impossible to gauge her figure.
Under the deep hood pulled down over her head, only a glimpse of her neck suggested she was even a woman.
“There’s no better outfit for hiding my identity.”
“Fine, but… why did you bring the child?”
Asher pointed to the child in Laura’s arms.
Peeking out from where Laura couldn’t see, the child stuck out their tongue at him.
“This way, no one will suspect my identity. Who would ever think a woman carrying a child is Laura of Rewaiz?”
It was as if she were reciting straight from the textbook on disguise – flawless logic.
Asher fell silent.
‘What an idiot.’
Esha clicked her tongue.
‘Why can’t he just take what’s handed to him?’
