“…Are you feeling unwell? It must be because of that bastard Masid, the stress he caused you, right?”
Ail’s expression, filled with joy as he stared endlessly out the window, froze in place.
Liselotte learned again that a smiling face could still be stern.
In truth, nothing hurt. She had done similar things so many times that there was nothing particularly stressful about this.
At most, she was a bit tired from having to get up early because the collateral relatives were noisy since morning.
She wasn’t sure if that even counted as stress.
Still, it might be useful later to at least get a diagnosis.
The more cards she had, the better.
Besides, she had money to collect from Masid anyway, so calling the High Priest for treatment hardly counted as a luxury.
“I’m not in pain, but I will be.”
Ail clearly didn’t understand, but there was no need to teach him her little tricks, so Liselotte kept her mouth shut.
By now quick to grasp her intentions, Ail checked the schedule and explained:
“Thanks to Sir Masid, I already looked into the High Priest’s schedule. Even if we call for him now, it will take some time.”
“How long?”
“Well… even if we donate twice the usual amount to the temple, it will easily take a week.”
“Then push for three times that amount.”
“That should narrow down the date. I’ll try to move it up as much as possible.”
After giving a polite bow, Ail hurried off, seemingly to contact the temple.
Liselotte yawned and gestured to Marsha.
“Marsha, could you send a letter to the East for me?”
“Yes, of course!”
As if waiting for the order, Marsha swiftly prepared the stationary and fountain pen before her.
Liselotte wrote the letter very concisely.
This would likely be the last letter she sent to House Gloria.
[Greetings,
This is Liselotte Keilos.
It is very unfortunate to hear that the agreement cannot be canceled.
If so, then please finalize the agreement within one week as stated in the proposal that Aide Hedmilton first sent to me.
After that, the North will not have any openings in its schedule, so we will not accept any further proposals.
Lastly, let me address one point.
The East claims that the North unilaterally patrolled near the magic stone mines without prior consultation, but no knight would believe that a sword aura alone could cause an explosion.
If that were true, then every mine in the border region—where subjugations are frequent—would have exploded countless times.
All of this happened because the East failed to dispatch a subjugation unit in time.
Had the dispatch gone smoothly, the magic stone mine explosion near the East would have been handled far more flexibly.
All of this is the result of frequently replacing the aide in charge from your side and, despite the North’s requests, assigning unqualified personnel.
On the contrary, the North has been doing everything possible to carry out damage recovery even under these circumstances.
Therefore, we request the following penalty fees:
- Subjugation unit labor costs: 12.7 million gold
- Knight treatment costs: 5.2 million gold
- Compensation for the East’s substitute dispatch of a subjugation unit: 2 million gold
- Liselotte Keilos’s hourly labor cost: 1.3 million gold
- Penalty for breach of our contract, violating the cooperation agreement and arriving late to the joint subjugation: triple the amount, 9 million gold
Total: 30.2 million gold
Since nothing was clearly agreed upon in writing between the North and the East, we will consider the negotiation proposal regarding damage recovery nullified. Thank you.]
‘If you don’t stamp it, it’s void, you bastards.’
In essence, since no contract actually existed for the damage recovery, the East had nothing they could claim.
Meanwhile, because an agreement had been finalized regarding joint cooperation, they could demand compensation for the unilateral burden placed on the North concerning the subjugation.
Of course, the matter of the magic stone mine would become a future hair-pulling brawl, but that was another story.
Contracts, by default, must be established in writing.
For a verbal contract to occur, there must be mutual agreement between both parties.
However, since no proper agreement had ever been made regarding this damage recovery, it had never been established from the beginning.
‘If it comes down to it, I can just pay the damages they demand with the penalty fee.’
But from the East’s perspective, the cost would be greater than the return, so if they had any sense, they would not bother poking the beehive.
Either way, she had nothing to lose.
“When will the High Priest arrive?”
Liselotte hummed as she sent the letter.
And that evening, a letter arrived from an unexpected place.
[Liselotte.
This is the first letter I’ve sent you since you left to the North.
I heard you’ve recently been threatening the East.
Diana is having a hard time because of this. I don’t know if we can talk it out, but let’s discuss it.
If you’re doing this because you need money, then you should have asked me instead.
Valen Perida.]
A letter had arrived bearing the seal of the Imperial Family.
And it was from her own older brother, Valen, the Male Lead.
***
“I’m sorry, Valen. I shouldn’t have brought this up for no reason…”
A modest tea time was held on a terrace overlooking the Imperial Palace garden.
Unlike the beautifully arranged and splendid scenery of the garden, the atmosphere at the table was dreary.
Diana could not lift her head.
Her eyes were swollen and red, likely from shedding tears.
Valen looked at her, filled with pity, unable to even offer comfort.
His low-saturation violet hair and slightly upturned eyes.
Despite the delicate impression he gave at first glance, his sharp, keen gaze revealed how sensitive he was.
He quietly stared at the letter in his hand, then pressed his fingers against his forehead.
“She really is hopeless.”
Beside him, Diana explained in a trembling voice.
“That’s right! Our aide kept asking for her confirmation, and at the end even requested a reply within an hour, but she never answered.”
That wasn’t quite what he meant, but Valen didn’t care.
As Diana said, the letters exchanged were questionable if one were to call them communication at all.
Liselotte’s letter stating that she had dispatched the subjugation unit was the end of it.
Of course, it contained all the necessary information such as the size of the unit and the location.
But when it came to damage recovery, even in an urgent situation, both sides needed to coordinate.
Now it had practically faded into disuse, but long ago, mishandling such matters could escalate into a territorial war.
Diana chattered weakly.
“We asked several times, but the only reply we got was that the mine exploded, and right after that she requested cancellation. And now she’s demanding an outrageous amount of money.”
Why on earth had Liselotte stuck her nose into the complicated matter of joint subjugation?
When she lived in the Capital, she had never shown the slightest interest in such things.
Valen pressed his eyes with one hand, annoyed.
No matter how he looked at it, it was indeed his sister Liselotte’s handwriting.
A bit neater than before, and the phrasing was properly aligned with etiquette.
It was refined enough that he even briefly wondered if someone had forged it.
But judging from what Diana said, it really had been Liselotte after all.
How long had it been since peace returned to his heart after not seeing her since she married the Grand Duke?
Yet even through letters alone, she still had the talent to flip his insides upside down.
This was an intuition only family could feel so intensely.
“If she wanted to interfere, she should have done it from the beginning. Why is she suddenly acting like this?”
At his suspicion, Diana hesitated before continuing.
“Well, um… I think she may have been hurt because I accidentally mentioned the change in her dress style before.”
“…Was it the day you contacted me to go shopping?”
“Yes. Ever since then, she’s been openly cold when sending letters…”
“So she’s insisting the explosion at the magic stone mine didn’t happen because of the Northern knight.”
“Yes. Since the subjugation unit was sent before negotiations were finalized, Father was very flustered.”
Diana drooped her head weakly.
Strength gathered sharply in Valen’s gaze.
