Her sulky expression was so pitiful that anyone seeing her from afar would feel compelled to cheer her up.
But even then, Hedmilton only listened with a faint, easy smile.
Diana suddenly flinched as if she had only just realized something, opening her eyes wide and waving her hands.
“Oh, I absolutely don’t mean you were incompetent, Hedmilton. It’s just that, since you now have age and experience, you might have lost a little freshness, you know?”
“I see, that makes sense!”
Barely a moment after Hedmilton finished replying, Duke Gloria called out to her.
“Diana.”
“Yes, I’m coming!”
Hedmilton quietly spoke as he watched her walk away, her fluttering dress trailing behind her like waves.
“I’m sorry, but it seems my relatives are attending today. May I go pay my respects?”
“Of course.”
Perhaps because others were watching, Duke Gloria nodded with exaggerated generosity.
After offering him a light bow, Hedmilton walked toward the group who had been glaring at him.
Pushing through the crowd, he finally reached them, still wearing that same bright smile.
At a glance, it made him look thoughtless; on closer inspection, it was the cheerful smile of someone harmless and innocent.
The relatives gathered together did not greet him nor acknowledge him in the slightest.
The first to speak was a middle-aged woman with brown hair wearing a green dress—
A woman whose features carried a stubborn edge.
“You look very pleased with yourself.”
“You’re too harsh on a nephew you haven’t seen in a long time, Aunt.”
Despite his words, Hedmilton continued smiling innocently, almost playfully.
It was a mannerism that older adults might have brushed off as cute— But his relatives only reacted with sharper hostility.
His aunt, Belle, let out a small, derisive laugh.
“Well. I guess you have the leisure to attend a banquet, yet no thought of returning my mother’s property to the family, hm?”
“What are you talking about? I ran around so much trying to handle everything. Should I show you?”
He patted around his empty chest as if searching for something, and she swept him up and down with a gaze full of scorn.
Though Hedmilton was certainly taller, he somehow felt as if she were looking down at him from above.
“Didn’t I already give you the solution? Everything will be resolved once my mother passes away. Why do you insist on pouring money into treatment to keep her alive?”
The sharp criticism felt ice-cold in its quiet delivery.
To her, that woman was a mother.
But to Hedmilton, she was his grandmother.
He didn’t get to see her often because he had been working at the Gloria estate since early on.
Hedmilton pressed his palm with his fingernail where no one could see.
Then, still smiling faintly, he replied,
“Mm, but Grandmother is still fully conscious, and she speaks perfectly well. She eats well too.”
“I already told you. Mother raised me wonderfully, and she no longer has any lingering attachments to this world.”
“I see. Aunt, you’re really rational!”
Even though Hedmilton’s words were clearly a veiled rebuke, she remained unfazed.
“So if she collapses again, don’t save her. End it there. As if wasting half of her estate wasn’t enough, now we’re spending money on treatments too? What kind of waste is that?”
“Not a single coin of yours has gone into it, Aunt.”
“What nonsense. That estate is partly mine.”
“How strange. When you married, I’m quite sure you took your entire share as a dowry.”
He was trying his best to appear relaxed, but it was becoming almost impossible for Hedmilton to keep smiling.
Did Belle even realize what she was saying?
How was this different from telling him to let his grandmother die for money?
It was viciously selfish — cruel, even.
Just as Hedmilton, unable to contain himself any longer, was about to burst out,
“Even so, she’s your parent…!”
A bright, firm voice cut cleanly across his words.
“The estate was lost?”
Startled by the sudden interruption, the gathered relatives all turned their heads in one direction.
Turning as well, Hedmilton saw Liselotte leaning forward beside him, poking her head out as she listened closely — pink hair shining under the lights, her pale blue dress fluttering softly.
Belle’s mouth fell open at the unmistakable sight of royal pink hair.
“I think I might be able to help. May I hear the details?”
Liselotte lifted her head, eyes sparkling, and smiled brightly.
She endured their unwelcoming, startled gazes without flinching as she gauged the atmosphere — focusing especially on Hedmilton.
Hedmilton Rovans.
Despite his reputation as a competent aide of House Gloria, his father had been incompetent.
‘To be exact, he had simply been too kind.’
He was so kind that even when a business partner took his seal and handed over information to foreign merchant guilds, he couldn’t bring himself to take action.
Unlike him, Hedmilton’s grandmother had been a capable woman.
After losing her husband to a monster attack, she began embroidering handkerchiefs to sell so she could raise her two sons and one daughter on her own.
From there, she expanded her business.
When she grew older and her two sons and daughter had all married, she sold her merchant guild for a large sum.
With that money, she bought a grand mansion and a villa, and she occasionally gave the rest to her children when needed.
She was a devoted woman.
Hedmilton’s father, the eldest son, grew up watching such a person and attempted to enter business with a partner — but failed disastrously.
To save the failing merchant guild, he secretly borrowed money from his mother, even pawning half of the estate as collateral behind the family’s back.
‘Knowing when to cut ties is also a business skill…’
Objectively speaking, his father simply wasn’t suited for business.
In truth, using the estate as collateral wasn’t the real issue.
When her second son and daughter married, his grandmother had split her assets equally and given each of them their share.
Hedmilton’s father was only meant to inherit the estate after she passed away.
It seemed he had simply moved out to live separately for the sake of his own peace.
Because of that, the position of Head of House Rovans was still held by his grandmother.
From what Liselotte remembered in the original story, his grandmother had been a very bold, straightforward woman.
[Since the estate is yours anyway, do whatever you want with it.]
That was what she’d said when her son wanted to use the mansion as collateral for a loan.
But the business failed, and seeing her son wasting away in despair made even his grandmother fall ill.
She had gotten sick because she spared even the money for firewood, trying to give whatever she could to Hedmilton’s father.
‘The time when Hedmilton completely set his heart on Diana… was probably when he asked her to treat his grandmother, wasn’t it?’
Diana had healing power.
Power strong enough to surpass even the High Priest.
After his father’s business collapsed, most of Hedmilton’s wages went toward paying off debts.
He had no money to call a priest.
The only person he could rely on was Diana.
[Young Lady, please. Please help my grandmother just once. Please…]
Kneeling with reddened, trembling eyes, he had begged her — and she had not turned him away.
Through those times, Hedmilton endured by watching Diana, who, despite being terminally ill, always smiled brightly and happily.
His wavering heart had solidified during that period — that was when his feelings for her became certain.
Thanks to Diana, his grandmother narrowly survived the crisis.
Liselotte watched Hedmilton blink his large eyes and roughly estimated the timing.
‘Since the mine explosion was recent, this must be before he asked Diana to treat his grandmother.’
From the little she overheard, not only were they quarreling over the half-estate issue, they were also trying to avoid taking responsibility for the treatment costs.
‘No matter what, the way they speak about their own mother is…’
She could only feel sorry for the grandmother’s sacrifices.
In her heart, Liselotte wanted to treat the grandmother herself.
‘But I don’t have healing power.’
Money, though — that she had.
Healing could be bought by summoning the High Priest with enough payment.
‘For now, let’s hear more about this half-estate situation.’
