“Diana, what do you mean by that? Are you saying you won’t appoint a guardian at all?”
“That is my own business, so you needn’t concern yourself.”
I was about to say that I was finished with what I had to say and he could leave now, but Count Kolkos waved his hand. Cutting off whatever I would say next, he asked again.
“Diana, could it be that you feel guilty toward your parents? Because it seems a guardian would take your parents’ place?”
“…”
“No, Diana. A guardian is nothing of the sort. As you know, a guardian is…”
“Someone who exercises the house’s authority in my place. Is that something that dares to be compared with my parents?”
Count Kolkos and my mother and father. Just putting them on the same line in my thoughts made my blood run backward. I cut him off stiffly.
“Yes, Diana. You understand well. So we should choose a guardian quickly…”
“Enough. Whatever you say, my mind won’t change.”
At that, Count Kolkos shook his head and said,
“Diana, you’re still young. It is hard for a child to look after a house all alone. You may not know this, but without a guardian you cannot even properly spend the house’s money.”
The voice that had been coaxing me grew steadily stronger. Perhaps angered by the unexpected turn, Count Kolkos’s neck flushed red.
“Why should that concern you, Uncle?”
“Diana, I am your one and only blood relative.”
His snake-like eyes, which he had made sound so affectionate and worried, kept darting about without rest as he studied me.
There had been a time when I believed that because we shared blood, he would love me the way my parents had. The result had been a cruel betrayal.
Cassion and Janice, who don’t share a drop of my blood, were far better.
“Diana, think of the servants of the Irenber house. Without a guardian, they cannot even be paid their wages.”
A house’s money could be used on a temporary basis for only one year after the death of its head. And even then, only for fixed expenses that had been going out continuously.
If the guardian was still not appointed after that grace period ended, then, as Count Kolkos said, the house could not even pay its servants.
The Irenber house was given an especially long grace period. Not that there are more than a few months left of it now.
An ordinary house had to appoint a guardian within one year, but the royal family had specially granted Irenber an additional six months.
Considering how large a house Irenber was, and how weighty a matter the sudden death of the Head of House and his wife had been, it was a reasonable decision.
Now I have six months left.
I had to do something within that time.
When I fell silent, lost in thought, Count Kolkos reached out his hand. He tried to take my hand where it rested on the table.
The thought of touching skin with a hypocrite like that gave me goosebumps. I pulled my hand away before his could reach it, thinking,
So he doesn’t even consider the possibility of my appointing someone who isn’t him? Disgusting.
“Diana, think of the Irenber house. Delaying the guardian appointment will do the Irenber house no good.”
Disgusting and stupid as Count Kolkos was, there was one thing he knew about me precisely.
That I loved the Irenber house dearly.
He had made very handy use of that fact.
“It is for the sake of the house.”
The words he used like a magic spell whenever I questioned something Count Kolkos did. The memory made me shudder with revulsion.
I wouldn’t be fooled this time. What was good for me was what was good for the house.
I shook my head and said firmly,
“Don’t bother trying to persuade me. My decision won’t change.”
Count Kolkos pressed his lips shut. His hand gripping the arm of the sofa tightened.
“You must have had a very hard time lately, Diana. I will come again next time.”
He had played even his final card and gained nothing, and Count Kolkos could not hide his flustered state. With his mouth stiff and set, he managed with difficulty to promise a next time.
“Even if you come ten times, my mind will not change, Uncle. So please don’t come next time either.”
But when I boldly tried to crush even that promise, Count Kolkos scowled. Unable to hold back his anger, he sprang to his feet and said,
“You… how far do you intend to mock your uncle?”
When he stood up straight, a huge shadow fell over me. He looked down at me as though scolding a small child.
“Mock you? I only want to think it over carefully.”
Count Kolkos’s gaze changed in an instant. He said, with a sharp glare,
“Diana, as great as your grief at losing your parents may be, how long do you think you can neglect the house? I have soothed the vassals and kept putting it off until now, but I cannot put it off any longer. You must wake up to reality. Though I suppose a thirteen-year-old can hardly understand.”
In those words, which belittled me under the guise of a lecture, Count Kolkos’s bare face, his greed, was finally laid out in the open.
And it’s such a shallow scheme.
Watching him bristle after only a few jabs at his temper, I was almost embarrassed to have been fooled by him in the past.
I thought about snapping at him some more, but held back. Even a single word was a waste on him.
But the patience I had so painstakingly summoned came to an end almost at once.
Because Count Kolkos crossed a line he should never have crossed.
“My brother and sister-in-law would surely be glad to see me become your guardian.”
I had held my tongue when he spoke the house’s name. I had held it when he said a guardian wasn’t taking the place of my parents.
But this time I could not.
My mom and dad would be glad if Count Kolkos became my guardian?
Wasn’t that the same as saying my parents wanted me to be unhappy?
What nonsense!
I clenched both fists and said,
“Uncle, have you perhaps heard this story?”
“What story?”
“The story of a house that chose the wrong guardian and was ruined.”
“W-what?”
Horror settled over Count Kolkos’s oily face.
“There’s been a story going around lately about a house that took in a guard dog, and the dog turned on its master, bit him, and took over the house. It seems rather famous. You truly haven’t heard it?”
“Diana, are you saying that I…”
“Whatever you imagine, that’s exactly right, Uncle.”
I raised my head and glared at him with all my might.
In any case, Count Kolkos was in a position where he had to be chosen by me. No matter how angry he was, he would not be able to do anything drastic. So a provocation of this degree was allowed.
Sure enough, Count Kolkos’s brows drew tightly together and then smoothed out. He took slow breaths and tried to calm his anger.
“Diana. Where did you hear such a thing, and from whom?”
Choosing to back down rather than quarrel with me, Count Kolkos let the anger drain from his voice. He feigned a gentle tone as he asked.
Heard? I had lived it.
“One should not listen to what others say. Believe only what you have seen and experienced yourself.”
Count Kolkos acted as though he were offering some profound advice.
I snorted inwardly.
That’s exactly why I can’t trust you. Because you’re the bad man I saw, heard, and lived through myself.
Breathing in the same room as Count Kolkos had become unbearably repellent. It was time to wrap this up.
“I’ll ask just one thing of you, Uncle.”
“Diana. Say anything.”
“Leave now, and never come to see me again. Like when Father was alive, you in your provincial estate and me here. And on top of that, show no interest in whether I’m living well, and just live assuming that somewhere there is blood relation. How about it? Not difficult, is it?”
Had he really thought I would ask him to buy me a doll or some expensive chocolates? With a shocked face, Count Kolkos barely collected his emotions and forced out his words.
“How could I go down to my estate and leave you, a child, all alone?”
Being this stupid was a talent in itself. I’d put it simply, and he still didn’t understand.
Talking to a fool would only make my mouth sore. I had no duty to make him understand, either.
So instead of answering him, I crossed the reception room and flung the door wide open.
“Goodbye, Uncle.”
I hoped this would be our last goodbye. I meant it with all my heart.
“My lady, I heard you told Count Kolkos to his face that you won’t make him your guardian.”
How did Janice know?
There must be a rat in the house that eavesdropped and carried tales.
“It’s true. But where did you hear that?”
“From a rat. Anyway, what will you do, my lady? The others are in an uproar.”
“The others?”
“Yes! The maids and the attendants. If you don’t appoint a guardian, our wages get frozen, don’t they? I’m fine if mine are a month or two late. But the others…”
Our mansion had an unusually high proportion of young attendants and maids. My soft-hearted father had kept hiring children from the slums who could not find proper work.
They lived from one month’s pay to the next, or supported their families on their wages, and so they were very sensitive about their pay.
Driving off Kolkos is good, but there are far too many problems to solve. I have to settle the servants’ nerves, meet Cassion, and choose a guardian. Can’t I take care of it all at once?
Doing it step by step would take far too long. I was a little worried about having rubbed Count Kolkos the wrong way, and it also weighed on me that there was little time left to appoint a guardian.
Only six months left now, isn’t it?
When I counted the days in my head, I felt lost. I had to find a way. I hoped a good idea would come.
“Yes! That’ll do it.”
Suddenly, a brilliant thought appeared in my head.
When I cheerfully shouted it out of nowhere, Janice asked in bewilderment.
“Pardon? What will do what?”
“I’m going to get married.”
“What? Who? To whom?”
“Me. To Cassion.”
“What? My lady is marrying whom?”
“Cassion. The Third Prince of the Kingdom of Petrora.”
Janice’s mouth dropped wide open.
[Marriage of a minor requires the permission of a parent or legal representative, except in the case of marriage to a member of the royal family. — Petrora Civil Code, Article 189]
A law I had once read flashed through my mind like a ray of light.
If one married into the royal family, a guardian was unnecessary, and one was immediately regarded as an adult and recognized as a proper Head of House. Then I could spend the house’s money as I pleased and handle the house’s affairs.
Putting forward some stranger as guardian for no good reason could repeat what had happened before. There were not as many trustworthy adults as one might think. There was Aunt Cho, but Cho was going to become the head of Chorni.
And Aunt wants to live like the wind.
If she became my guardian, her face would naturally become known. Then Cho of Chorni, and her wish to live like the wind, would all come to nothing.
So I would skip the guardian appointment and simply become Head of House myself.
A perfect method. A way to repay my debt and take my revenge.
What I had to do, the road I had to take, became as clear as a finely drawn map.
My marriage partner would be Cassion.
For the sake of my revenge, and to repay the kindness Cassion had shown me, I resolved to marry him.
But can I even get married?
The king’s opposition and Dayson’s scheming were problems, but there was a bigger one.
Unfortunately, in his childhood Cassion had been terribly frail.
He was healthy when I saw him at the execution ground, but now he’d be eleven…
He had been so weak that he should have worn a sign saying I am dying.
Can he even walk into the wedding hall? More to the point, shouldn’t I be preparing his funeral? He looked just like a baby rabbit on the verge of death…
I was worried about Cassion’s condition.
“Janice, I have to go to the royal palace!”
Once my goal was certain, I grew impatient. I wanted to see Cassion right now. I needed to confirm that he was all right.
“The royal palace, all of a sudden? My lady, shouldn’t you wipe your nose first? Besides, the palace isn’t a place you can just walk into because you want to.”
I took the handkerchief Janice held out and blew my nose with vigor.
It was the aftermath of the tears I had shed from the overwhelming joy of finding a way to protect the house without appointing a guardian.
“Sniff, hm, the palace is always open to nobles.”
“But that’s for adult nobles. It isn’t a place for a child like you, my lady.”
The girl said nothing but correct things.
By the rules, for a thirteen-year-old without a guardian like me to enter the palace, I would have to state my intention to the royal palace and wait for permission.
Only the heads of the kingdom’s powerful houses and their spouses could come and go from the palace at will.
If I were Head of House Irenber, I could have come and gone from the palace as if it were my own home, but unfortunately I was merely an heir-in-waiting without even a guardian.
“I think it’s best that you don’t go.”
Janice tried to dissuade me, seemingly worried that I would be thrown out. In truth, if I went without preparation, the chance of being thrown out was one hundred percent.
But I’ve got my ways, don’t you worry.
