~Chapter 35~
The man, who had a nervous expression, cautiously asked.
“Excuse me, but may I hear your name again? I seem to have misheard it due to my poor hearing.”
‘Glen will tell him.’
Riden didn’t answer and just smiled wryly.
Soon, Glen ran up and stood in front of Riden.
“Miss, have you finished what you needed to do?”
“Yeah, it’s done. Cut everything off and report the closure.”
“Understood.”
At that, Dalsy ran over, flustered, and knelt before her.
“B-but, Madam Housekeeper, didn’t you say you were the Baroness? Why are you following her orders…?”
Riden looked down at him with an irritated expression.
“Do you still not understand the situation? You didn’t want to acknowledge what the customer wanted, but now it seems you don’t even have the ability to understand the situation?”
“Pardon?”
“If you don’t have the will or the ability, why should I keep paying you?”
Finally, Dalsy, realizing Riden’s true identity, shifted the direction of his kneeling posture.
“So you are indeed the only daughter of the McCurry Count… I-I must have been both deaf and blind to not recognize you. I’ve served the Countess for a long time, and now, I’ll serve you properly, too, please come inside!”
Seeing him holding a measuring tape and pleading with her, Riden stood up from her seat.
“Someone who’s blind and deaf really has eaten well. This is enough, right?”
“Miss, M-miss!”
Glen had opened the door and was waiting.
Riden walked toward the door that was left open, slipping out of the shop.
Behind her, she could hear Dalsy pleading as he grabbed Glen’s trousers, but she didn’t look back.
‘Ugh, my money’s been wasted on things like this.’
She had seen several costume shops on the way here, but none had been as miserable as this one.
She could hear Glen brushing off the pants he had been grabbed by and walking toward her.
“Shall we head to the second store?”
Riden said as she climbed into the carriage.
She was curious how her money might be leaking in yet another bizarre way.
Later
“It’s time to get married, but an orphan girl… someone like Daine from this world?”
‘Mother, really…’
Her mother’s cold words made Riden remember Daine, who was left behind in another world.
It had been an ordinary night, when they were sitting side by side, watching TV.
A story about someone committing adultery was being featured.
Daine, leaning against Seongmin’s shoulder while watching, suddenly asked.
“What could be the psychology of someone who cheats?”
Seongmin answered nonchalantly.
“Maybe they just don’t like the person next to them anymore.”
“Can people really dislike someone that easily? Isn’t it strange? Deciding to marry someone isn’t easy, and the person you choose to marry must be someone you truly like. So how could they dislike that person so easily that they cheat?”
Seongmin, after thinking for a moment, replied.
“Maybe it’s like an old pair of shoes.”
“Huh?”
“Like, a new pair of shoes at first. You buy them because you like them, and you wear them a lot. Over time, they get worn out, but you don’t throw them away because they’re comfortable and familiar. But when you take them off and leave them somewhere, you don’t really feel like going back to get them. You think, ‘I’ll just buy a new pair of shoes.’ Maybe that’s the psychology behind cheating.”
Daine, who had been leaning on Seongmin’s shoulder, lifted her head.
“You’re saying people are like shoes? Like objects!”
“I’m not saying that’s what people are, but that could be the psychology of those who cheat.”
Daine playfully said.
“Ugh, my husband feels so distant.”
Seongmin, holding onto Daine, gently pulled her back to his shoulder.
For a moment, Seongmin seemed lost in thought.
‘The manager must have known I was on the plane with her. Does he think I cheated?’
He would probably resent me.
Though he denied it, deep down, he knew that she had treated me like an old pair of shoes. He would stew over that, thinking about it again and again.
He wished Daine would suffer for a long time.
At that moment, his brother Byungmin entered.
“Seongmin, what about the portrait of the McCurry Count’s daughter? Give it to me.”
“McCurry? Oh.”
“She’s an orphan with lots of money, and they say she’s pretty. We should get her.”
Byungmin received the portrait and looked at it.
“She’s pretty, don’t you think? You’re not interested?”
“No.”
“Okay, then she’s mine. No backing out.”
Byungmin, tilting the portrait of the McCurry Count’s daughter this way and that, said,
“Hmm… I wonder if she really looks like this. It’s not a photo, so I can’t be sure.”
Seongmin wasn’t really interested in what his brother was saying. He just muttered something in response.
“She might look more like this in real life. This is without Photoshop or filters.”
“Oh, right. That makes sense.”
Byungmin chuckled, then put the portrait down.
“Still, I have to meet her.”
“You’ll meet her soon enough. She’s debuting, right?”
“Before that.”
Seongmin looked up at Byungmin, who was smirking.
“She’ll be sold off quickly with her looks, but you’re saying we should wait?”
Byungmin’s smile widened.
“I want to see her with my own eyes before her debut.”
Seongmin didn’t respond. It was typical of his brother, and he wasn’t surprised.
At the Social Club
Inside the social club, which primarily catered to male customers, four noblemen sat around a table, playing poker.
The game had reached its end. It was time to reveal their hands and declare the winner.
Florence, the viscount, revealed his hand, anticipating his victory.
“I got four of a kind.”
Four cards with the same number.
As he casually swept the chips toward himself, a man seated to his left revealed a rarer hand.
“Straight flush.”
The man had a hand with a higher probability, and the chips quickly moved toward him.
“Damn, these medieval bastards are good at cards. Damn it!”
Florence had lost again, and in a bad mood, he roughly stood up.
“Not playing anymore?”
“I’m done.”
Florence left the social club and stepped outside.
He didn’t know what to do to relieve his stress. He stood on the street, glancing at the women passing by, scrutinizing them with a lascivious look.
From the maids hurrying along to the noblewomen leisurely checking out goods at the stalls, many women with different price tags passed in front of him.
Florence pocketed his hands, feeling the satisfaction of the coins inside.
The gold and silver coins felt nice in his hands.
With this money, a noblewoman would be hard to get, but a commoner would do…
Then, he heard it.
“Miss McCurry!”
“Huh?”
“P-please forgive me! I’ll run the shop properly if you give me one more chance!”
‘McCurry?’
He heard the name and turned around.
A woman stood in front of a costume shop. She was the same woman he had seen in the portrait. In real life, she was even more beautiful.
Her platinum blonde hair cascaded gently, following the curve of her soft face.
Her beauty was beyond words. She was truly aristocratic.
Florence couldn’t take his eyes off her.
‘She really is beautiful.’
He closed his mouth and smiled lecherously.
‘So, this is the McCurry girl?’
He watched her as she climbed into the carriage, with a man following her. Quickly, he hopped into his own carriage.
