~Chapter 90~
A few days later.
Marquis Bossejour secretly entered the Noble Assembly meeting room.
‘No one’s here, right?’
He looked around carefully, then approached the chairman’s seat.
Click.
He put a key in the keyhole and turned it, opening a drawer.
The drawer was empty, but the marquis felt around inside without hesitation.
Click.
There was a sound, and the bottom of the drawer came loose.
Inside the hidden space was a large box holding a seal.
“….”
The marquis’s eyes showed a mix of emotions.
The chairman’s seal of the Noble Assembly.
It was the seal that officially approved all decisions made by the assembly.
It wasn’t personal property; it belonged to whoever was chairman, and
by rule, it was to be kept and used only in the assembly hall.
It was strictly managed, never to be taken outside, and only the chairman could access it.
Gulp.
The marquis swallowed nervously and picked up the seal.
He was about to stamp it on Laritte and Gregory’s marriage registration when—
“I believe Lady Ansie’s marriage registration has already been filed.”
A clear voice rang out.
“Huh!”
Startled, the marquis gasped and looked up.
Step. Step.
Heavy footsteps echoed.
From the shadows, a tall man appeared.
He had pale platinum-blond hair and piercing blue eyes.
Like a graceful but fierce snow leopard, he gave off a chilling pressure…
“…Duke Claudius?”
Why was the duke here?
The marquis blinked in confusion.
“May I ask why you need a new marriage registration?”
Dietrich asked calmly.
The marquis snapped out of it and tried to explain.
“Ah…”
But he couldn’t get a word out.
Of course not.
He had no excuse.
“I hear you’ve gotten quite close with Count Gusto lately,”
Dietrich said with a smile.
“I was curious why two people who barely knew each other suddenly became friends.”
“A, ah, well…”
The marquis fumbled for words, but Dietrich was quicker.
“So, forgive me, I looked into your friendship.”
The marquis’s eyes went wide.
“Are you saying you investigated me?!”
“Investigate? That sounds so harsh,”
Dietrich replied with an unbothered shrug.
“But it seems your friendship was built through a certain young man.”
“What?”
“Your one and only son, the young marquis Raul of Bossejour, and a junior knight of the Imperial Knights.”
At that,
The marquis flinched like he’d been whipped.
Dietrich’s smile grew darker.
“It seems Sir Raul was more interested in other things than his duties as the emperor’s knight.”
But while his smile was warm, Dietrich’s blue eyes were icy.
“For example… he tried to win big at the Valne gambling house.”
“W-what are you talking about?!”
The marquis shouted.
But Dietrich didn’t care at all.
“Sadly, it seems Raul wasn’t very lucky at gambling.”
“Hey!”
“3,976,842 derks.”
The marquis was shocked into silence.
He knew that number was exact.
Dietrich spoke lightly.
“That’s how much Raul has lost at Valne casino so far.”
“D-Duke, that’s…”
“But what’s more amazing is that all nearly 4 million derks were suddenly paid off.”
Dietrich said with an uninterested expression.
“I wonder where he got that much money. I’m really curious.”
He looked at the marquis.
At the same time, any remaining politeness in his face vanished.
“What will you do? Will you explain this to me and get some leniency, or…”
His cold voice was like a death sentence.
“Would you rather see the Claudius family report both the Bossejour and Gusto houses to the tax office?”
That evening.
Laritte received an unexpected visitor.
“Lady Ansie.”
Without warning, Duke Claudius came to the Ansie townhouse.
“Duke?!”
Surprised, Laritte jumped up from her seat.
Her eyes were wide as Dietrich asked her seriously,
“May I ask you to come with me to the High Temple?”
Dietrich explained what had happened.
It turned out that when Gregory first forged the marriage registration, he left out the chairman’s seal.
“I don’t think he even knew the seal was required.”
That seal was a safety feature—just like keeping a copy of the papers at the temple, it prevented fraud.
Count Gusto had long ago chosen his eldest son as his heir, so he never bothered telling Gregory about such details.
He didn’t want Gregory to get ambitious and cause trouble.
“But this time, that silence backfired.”
Gregory acted on his own, and only after the deed did Count Gusto realize the seal was missing.
So Count Gusto went to the marquis, the assembly chairman.
“Why should I stamp it?”
At first, the marquis planned to report the issue, but Count Gusto made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“I’ll pay off all of Raul’s gambling debts.”
“….”
The marquis, troubled by his son’s situation, accepted.
He stamped the marriage registration at the Marriage Bureau.
But he couldn’t change the copy held at the temple.
‘Unlike the Marriage Bureau, which is part of the palace, the High Temple is a separate institution.’
It was impossible to take the seal out, so he couldn’t secretly stamp the temple’s copy.
So, the registration at the temple still didn’t have the chairman’s seal.
They planned to secretly swap in a new stamped copy, but…
“So that’s what happened,”
Laritte nodded.
Dietrich looked at her with steady eyes.
Laritte had lost some weight.
Her face looked pale.
She acted fine on the outside, but inside, things must have been rough.
“It must have been a shock to suddenly ask you to come to the temple,”
Dietrich said with a regretful face.
“I needed your help to check the paperwork, so I was hasty…”
Dietrich trailed off.
It was only right for Laritte herself to request the documents.
But—
‘Will she be okay?’
Laritte had already suffered enough.
He worried about burdening her more.
Plus, the Ansie family wasn’t a powerful central noble house like the Claudius family.
After already being refused once, it must be intimidating to demand the papers from the temple again.
But—
“I’ll go.”
Laritte answered without the slightest hesitation.
“Please let me go with you.”
Her face was pale, but her eyes shone brightly.
‘I’m glad.’
A faint smile spread across Dietrich’s face.
It was just like Laritte.
She seemed delicate, but she had a strong will and never gave in.
…And he really liked that about her.
