It Was Definitely a Contract in My Favor

Was the saying that half of Libien’s businesses belonged to the Grand Duke just an exaggerated rumor? Olivia, struggling to maintain her composure, spoke in a half-sarcastic tone.

“……Should I call this progressive, or romantic?”

“Let’s go with romantic.”

“Does Your Highness the Grand Duke also dream of a love marriage?”

“Something like that. I am waiting for love.”

Since he said such things with an utterly serious face, she could not even offer a joking remark about how funny it was. But it was hard to believe those words were sincere, given the course he had taken until now.

“I thought you were someone who weighed pros and cons better than anyone, but it seems you had this side to you.”

Winston quietly looked at Olivia with a faint trace of a smile. Was Olivia really the only woman who had approached him with this matter? Even so, considering the sincerity of coming all the way to Libien, he had come to the train station to meet her himself rather than sending someone. Having done that much, Winston thought his duty was fulfilled, and he continued, looking out the window at the outskirts of the city center.

“Still, there is some time left, so I will hear the rest of your story. If it were merely a name you needed, there would have been many other options. Why me, of all people?”

“An interest in the North, a trophy better than a Duke, a gentleman who would at least listen to such far-fetched stories. There was only one such person in the entire empire.”

“That is certainly welcome news.”

“Have you lost interest?”

“It is not the kind of deal I have much interest in. Continue.”

She had deliberately tried a bit of sarcasm, but Olivia did not bat an eye. While Winston was inwardly raising his assessment of her, Olivia was lost in brief deliberation of her own.

Unless she brought out a proper card, it seemed difficult to move his heart, so rather than irritating him with pointless words that would only add boredom and grate on his nerves, it seemed better to lay everything out and wait for his judgment.

Olivia, thinking that humoring him was more difficult than the old men of the council, brought out the card she had prepared.

“There is a gold mine I can bring as a dowry.”

A gleam stirred in Winston’s eyes. Fortunately, the gold mine had briefly caught his interest, but Winston, thinking it was just another empty promise, pressed Olivia with a slightly aggressive posture.

“I would know better than Miss Russell who holds the ownership of the few gold mines in the empire.”

“Your Highness would have no choice but to not know. It has not yet been developed, and it does not belong to the Russell family.”

“If it is a slush fund of the Brown family, all the more unwelcome.”

“Hmm, but it is one of the assets I received in a legal division of property.”

Just how far did he intend to doubt her? Olivia paused to catch her breath, then looked at Winston, who was acting as if he had nothing to lose, and smiled as if to say, let’s see how long you can keep that up.

“During the property division for the divorce, he disposed of what he felt were the most useless things to me.”

Such as the northern businesses the previous Duke had invested in before his death. The gold mine that came along with them was the same. Alex would likely never know until the day he died that there was a gold mine among the lands he had handed over.

“Among them were documents for foreign lands that he found too troublesome to manage, and could not manage anyway.”

Olivia, seeing Winston’s face gradually losing its composure, was certain she had chosen the right path. For that remarkable man to give up on controlling his expression. Finding this rather thrilling, Olivia pretended not to notice and asked him back.

“The land in question with the gold mine. There should be a place you can guess where it is.”

It was clearly Libien. The gold mine of Ilasua, which had been subjugated to Libien through this conquest war! It had been only recently that he had lamented it was land that already had an owner.

Winston could not easily open his mouth as before. As Olivia said, if that gold mine became the Grand Duke’s household’s property, there were many things that could be solved at once.

Only then did Winston realize that Olivia’s words about the Grand Duke’s household’s circumstances had not come from ignorance, but from knowing too well.

“Is your appetite whetted now?”

Winston, letting out a hollow laugh as if he had been dealt a blow, looked at Olivia differently. She might have boarded the train to Libien certain that he would not be able to refuse this proposal. Just as he pushed with all his might when he had conviction before an opportunity, this too was an opportunity for her.

“I underestimated Miss Russell. Your business instincts are this outstanding.”

“Yes, this much should make me quite a decent option as Your Highness the Grand Duke’s partner.”

Surely even a romanticist like him could not kick away the fortune that had rolled into the North—such was Olivia’s thinking. She looked at Winston, lost in thought, and opened her mouth once more.

“Having lived, I came to realize that Your Highness the Grand Duke is fighting an invisible enemy.”

Before someone who weighs this and that, one need only show that she is the person he must grasp. With that thought, Olivia candidly laid out her honest feelings. Another reason she had chosen this man, Winston.

“I too may have been fighting the same enemy, perhaps.”

Winston recalled Olivia’s actions as seen through the newspapers. The woman who had fought to become Acting Duke until just before Duke Brown returned. This woman, more passive and more noble than anyone he knew, was bringing out only words that suited his taste.

If her earlier remarks were schemes aimed at him, what about this one? Was it sincere? Even Winston, who had been through everything, could find no answer before that mask that could even deceive herself.

“Having always walked only the path others laid out for me, trying to forge one alone is truly difficult. But you know, once I stepped forward like that, I could not go back to the way things were.”

“So this time, instead of a Duke, you are aiming for the Grand Duke’s seat?”

“Oh my, so you do enjoy such jokes.”

Olivia looked at Winston for a moment as if surprised, then erased her fabricated smile and answered seriously.

“I won’t be greedy. I only hope you will consider this proposal favorably.”

Winston grew curious about the many things that had changed her over the past three years. He wondered if he dared harbor such curiosity about a person standing at a dead end, but thinking of the negotiating terms she had laid out, it occurred to him that he too had nowhere to turn back.

But it was precisely at times like this that he had to be cautious. It was not so urgent a matter that he would sell off the one feeling he had kept as his own after laying everything else down. He still knew nothing about Olivia. It was only what he had heard through her own mouth. It was time for investigation.

“Regarding marriage, let us speak after deliberation. For the time being, I will treat you as an honored guest at the Grand Duke’s residence.”

“Ah……”

Because she had thought she might receive a definite answer here, a sense of regret burst out from within. Olivia, having let out a sigh, turned her gaze out the window. Just then, the carriage stopped, and the coachman’s word that they had arrived was delivered. It was the moment her eyes, which had been dying down, sparkled once more.

“Could I get off here?”

It was not the kind of behavior one would expect from someone expressing a desire to turn back because she was displeased with his words. Winston replied with a light heart.

“It is quite a walk to the residence.”

“I cannot miss the chance to admire the full view of the residence.”

Admire that eyesore? Was she serious? After pondering for a moment, Winston, under Olivia’s gaze that somehow looked almost earnest, got off first and extended his hand to her.

The more they conversed, the more she seemed an unfathomable woman—the thought circled in Winston’s mind. Olivia lightly placed her hand and, with his help, stepped down from the carriage, then secretly let out a breath. The cold air soothed Olivia’s insides, which had been unknowingly tense.

While Winston briefly went to speak with Victor, Masha approached her side. Olivia quietly whispered to Masha.

“It’s harder than I thought.”

“You said you were presenting a card that could never be refused.”

“I didn’t know he would be such a mad romanticist as to refuse it.”

“What? His Highness the Grand Duke is a romanticist?”

“Shh.”

“Good heavens, for such a handsome man to also have romance.”

“……Masha? That’s not something to have sparkling eyes about, this.”

But Masha let Olivia’s words go in one ear and out the other.

“I couldn’t tell you earlier. His Highness the Grand Duke is really handsome.”

Masha, seeing Winston in person for the first time, followed his figure with her eyes as if entranced.

“To the point where I understand why you chose to go to the North, Young Lady.”