Chapter 13

Chapter 13

“Of course, my darling said he didn’t need a dowry or anything of the sort… But I do have Blair’s pride. I can’t very well marry him with some ordinary dowry, can I? So we made a wager.”

Her eyes, curved round as if she were thoroughly enjoying the situation, turned toward the Second Prince.

“That I would win that sword no matter what… and that whatever the final winning bid turned out to be, I would send that amount as the dowry.”

“What…”

“But oh dear, one hundred twenty thousand lark!”

Irenea shuddered once, as if nothing could be more dreadful.

Then she turned. Toward Lloyd, who stood there half in a daze.

“In that sense, I’m truly grateful to you, Young Master.”

“For… for what, exactly?”

“Thanks to you, my dowry has swelled by a full two hundred million lark.”

“Hhk…”

Realizing he had done a favor for Leonard, the man he loathed so terribly, Lloyd let out a strangled croak, as if he might faint on the spot.

Irenea laughed aloud at the sight, as though she had been treated to a fine show.

“As thanks, let me tell you in advance. A complaint will soon arrive at the Count’s residence.”

“What? A complaint? What on earth are you talking about?”

“There was a very interesting article in today’s paper from Lotus Press.”

Lloyd’s complexion changed, as if he had some inkling.

But he soon asked her back with a puzzled face, as though nothing had happened.

“I don’t know what you mean. Which article are you referring to?”

“The one claiming that my fiancé had some sort of relationship with my late would-be mother-in-law.”

“Hhk…!”

“Good heavens, what is this!”

The content was so shocking that all the people who had been pretending not to listen could no longer hide their startled faces.

Lloyd, who had never imagined Irenea would say it so openly, stammered in confusion as well.

“I-I’m hearing this for the first time. But if it was printed in a newspaper, surely there were some actual circumstances behind it? There’s no smoke without fire, after all.”

“Yes. And Lotus will have to prove in court that those circumstances came not from someone’s filthy speculation or slander but from solid evidence. Blair will spare no effort to restore the honor of my fiancé and the late Countess Elpiers.”

Her smile gone completely, Irenea turned a bitterly cold gaze on Lloyd.

“There are things a person does and things a person doesn’t… How dare you, of all things, do this to the dead.”

Not even a beggar on the street would be looked at with such pitying eyes.

Under that merciless gaze, which shattered his very dignity as a human being, Lloyd cried out, his face turning bright red.

“I-I didn’t do it!”

“I see. Then it must have been your father who committed such a rash act, printing an article in the newspaper without verifying the facts.”

Of course, this had been Lloyd’s doing alone.

Having been sound asleep until he learned that Marchioness Blair’s fiancé was Leonard, he had stormed into the press office, had them erase an article that was already more than half written, and ordered them to write one tearing Leonard down instead.

His father did not yet know any of this. Just imagining how furious he would be on seeing the complaint flying in from Blair turned Lloyd’s face pale.

“In any case, there’s no guarantee such a thing won’t happen a second time. From now on, I will not allow Blair’s name to appear in any paper published by Lotus Press.”

“What, that’s far too hasty a decision!”

It was no exaggeration to say that among the large and significant events across the capital and the whole empire, there was scarcely one in which Blair’s name did not appear.

Of course, an article could still be written without Blair’s name, but it was plain as day that it would be less competitive than those of other presses.

“I will track down the reporter who submitted the article anonymously and send them to apologize to Count Elpiers. So…”

“Oh my. You said it was the first you’d heard of it, so how did you know the article had been written anonymously?”

“T-that’s because just now you, Marchioness Blair…”

“I never said so, did I?”

Irenea looked around as if to ask whether that wasn’t the case. The people nearby nodded and said, “That’s right.”

“The talk of anonymity came first from your own mouth, Young Master.”

“Good heavens, so then it really was the Young Master…”

“But why on earth would Young Master Matthias do it? Does he bear some grudge against Count Elpiers?”

“Haven’t you heard about the duel?”

“You mean the one where he was knocked flat by a single punch…”

“The duel where, they say, he was shown consideration because he might die if swords were swung?”

It sounded as though they were explaining it to someone who didn’t know, but in truth it was mockery meant for Lloyd to hear.

Watching his face turn bright red, Irenea burst into clear laughter, then, as if she had never laughed at all, straightened her expression.

“And after all this, you call me hasty?”

“No, that’s, um…”

“From now on I don’t intend to believe anything Lotus Press says. I’d sooner read a gossip rag.”

At her mocking voice, Lloyd flared up and shouted. How dare she treat their press like some cheap rag!

“Marchioness Blair, isn’t that going too far?”

“But all this time, it’s been Marchioness Blair, Marchioness Blair.”

Her eyes flashing, Irenea took a step toward Lloyd. Overwhelmed by her force, he flinched and backed away.

“Where does an upstart without a title get off treating me as his equal? Am I your friend?”

“N-no, and what is it to you whether I have a title or not, that you may treat people this carelessly? You, Marchioness, should not speak so casually to me either!”

“He really is sticking to plain ‘Marchioness’ to the end. Not going to add a proper title?”

At that, Lloyd seemed to bristle, and he scowled fiercely.

It looked as though he might strike Irenea if left alone. Leonard, who had been watching silently from afar, was startled for an instant and glared at Lloyd as if to kill him.

‘That bastard!’

At the same moment, Lloyd was suffocated by a fear he couldn’t explain. His windpipe clamped shut as if someone were strangling him.

A sensation in which every sense he could feel stopped dead in an instant, and all his nerves focused on a single thought in his head.

‘I’m going to die.’

Lloyd had felt something like it once before, as a child.

When he met the eyes of a giant brown bear at a hunting ground he had gone to with his father. At the tender age of eight, when he’d seen his whole life flash before his eyes, he had felt exactly like this.

“You’d rather die than show proper respect? Suit yourself.”

Irenea, who of course knew nothing of Lloyd’s state, turned on her heel and left him behind.

Then the fear that had bound not only his body but his very consciousness crept slowly back like fog.

Only then did Lloyd come to his senses, and he drew a deep breath like someone who had fallen into water and barely clambered ashore.

The people around him stared at him oddly, but Lloyd was so deep in panic that he couldn’t feel their eyes.

“Kiri, hire someone to check the Lotus papers starting first thing tomorrow morning. Tell them they’ll get a special bonus every time they find the word Blair.”

“Yes, Marchioness.”

After Marchioness Blair had left, the people chewed over what they had seen and chattered busily.

“You heard that quite clearly, didn’t you? That she won’t believe anything Lotus Press says.”

Interpreted a little childishly, it went like this: If you want to keep playing with me, don’t play with him anymore!

What could one do if it was a little childish? To stay on good terms with Marchioness Blair, one had to stay away from Matthias.

The press houses rivaling Lotus Press would probably run this in tomorrow’s papers with great glee.

The people clamored on, saying they were already looking forward to tomorrow’s papers.

“It’s rather unexpected. I thought Marchioness Blair was someone who strictly separated public from private.”

“That just shows how head over heels she is for her fiancé. You saw it just now, didn’t you? Paying five hundred million as a dowry.”

“Those who insulted Count Elpiers earlier ought to be a little nervous.”

“Ah, now I see why the Marchioness came wearing a mask. Wasn’t it to see the faces of the people who insult her darling?”

The auction had ended long ago, but no one thought of leaving. They were too busy talking.

“Hah! Hahh!”

Leonard watched from afar as the Second Prince let out a dumbfounded, incredulous laugh.

Had he not heard a cough beside him, he would probably have gone on enjoying that vacant face.

“Seller Number 20. The winning bid for your lot has been settled. We will guide you so that you may receive your sale proceeds.”

Despite the late hour, the check was processed in the blink of an eye.

And so an account stamped with the absurd sum of four hundred fifty million lark came into Leonard’s hands.

Four hundred fifty million.

“…Is this a dream?”

His heart was trembling so much that Leonard couldn’t even swallow.

At the same time, he realized.

That without even getting a word of refusal out, in a mere single night, he had been hooked, and hooked thoroughly.

* * *

“Marchioness, are you that happy?”

“Of course I am. Now he can’t get away from me.”

Irenea rubbed her cheek against the hilt of the sword she held in her arms and smiled brightly.

Had Emily been present, she would have gone into a fit, afraid that the delicate cheek would be scratched, but the more easygoing Kiri simply smiled right along, thinking that whatever made her Marchioness happy was fine.

“What happened with the thing I asked for before?”

“I understand it’s almost finished. As soon as it’s completed, it will be sent to the mansion… Hm?”

Kiri, who had been answering in a calm voice, suddenly looked puzzled, because the carriage had slowed.

They hadn’t yet left the auction house grounds, so it wasn’t going very fast to begin with.

When the carriage finally stopped altogether, Kiri opened the shutter on the carriage wall and asked the coachman.

“What is it?”

“There seems to be some kind of commotion at the main gate.”

“A commotion?”

“Please wait a moment. I’ll settle it and be right back.”

That voice, addressed not to Kiri but to Irenea, was Hawk’s.

She didn’t know what had happened, but with her brother gone to see to it, it would surely be resolved soon.

Letting out a short sigh, Kiri closed the carriage shutter. At the same moment, Irenea opened the window set in the carriage door.

“Marchioness?”

“Isn’t it a bit noisy out there?”

When she listened closely beyond the window at those words, she indeed heard a rather suspicious conversation.