Chapter 61
“Hmm?”
“Unnie, why are you worrying about my future too?”
Jeff turned his head and looked Hera directly in the eyes.
The emotions in his gaze caught Hera off guard.
A serious voice, an unexpected question, eyes demanding an answer.
She had forgotten, having grown used to it.
Jeff sometimes behaved like an adult.
“Does me living a proper life make you happy?”
“Of course it does. Of course, Jeff.”
Hera grabbed Jeff’s hand firmly and met his gaze head-on.
Jeff’s sharp, intelligent eyes didn’t shy away from hers.
“It’s a waste. Being born so smart and healthy, yet living without spreading your wings…”
Hera looked at Jeff and Lina, thinking:
She couldn’t help everyone in the world, but she could help those she was connected to.
It was far too sad for someone born healthy to live an unhappy life.
“Jeff. I want to know what kind of potential you have. Let me help you.”
“Unnie…”
Jeff’s ears turned red.
He couldn’t bring himself to look into Hera’s enthusiastic, clear eyes and lowered his gaze.
The hands she held felt hot in his.
“The truth is…”
Before Jeff could say anything hesitantly, the voice of the mansion’s servant caught Hera’s attention.
“Miss, Duke Lorant has arrived.”
“I thought your house was under the bridge? Or not?”
At the entrance of the Tolinga mansion, Merriot ran into Jeff, arms crossed.
Jeff, dressed comfortably as if it were his own home, irritated Merriot, and she forgot her original plan to ignore him and spoke first.
There was no helping it; Jeff was standing squarely in the center of the entrance like a sentinel, making it impossible to ignore him.
“There’s no proper house there. Saying it’s under the bridge is a bit misleading.”
“Haha. How is it that nothing ever pleases you?”
“I feel the same.”
She had started to feel used to arguing with Jeff, even though there was no reason to become so familiar with it.
Unfortunately, her connection with this man was now coming to an end.
“Your Grace Lorant.”
Hera, having finished her brief preparations, came down to the entrance and met Merriot’s gaze.
As she called out to him, his eyes fixed on her as well.
Hera thought it was unusually hard to find where to look on Merriot’s face today.
Normally, even in casual attire, he drew attention.
But today, he appeared flawlessly groomed from head to toe.
It seemed as if crystals were reflecting light just around him.
“Oh, what brings you here today?”
Merriot’s presence was overwhelming, and Hera, remembering their encounters as a Blue Rose, couldn’t look him directly in the eye.
Miles, the Tolinga butler, stepped forward to take Merriot’s gloves, but Merriot waved him off, signaling he was unnecessary.
Miles, understanding the signal to step back, left with a reluctant expression.
Now, only the three of them remained in the entrance hall.
“I didn’t come to have a long talk, just to ask a few questions.”
Merriot said this but didn’t continue further.
He intended to wait until Hera met his gaze.
When Hera lifted her head and looked at him, he smiled, seemingly satisfied.
“What questions?”
“Are you still unwilling to be engaged to me?”
Hera’s eyes wavered, then she nodded.
“Yes.”
“Do you want the one who abused Lina Baker to be properly punished?”
Merriot still didn’t say that the abuser was Paul Chelsning in front of Hera.
Trying not to show disappointment, Hera answered.
“Yes.”
“The price won’t be cheap.”
“How much?”
“I didn’t come to make a deal, Miss Emilia. I came to ask if you’ll join my plan or refuse.”
To encourage Hera, who couldn’t easily respond, Merriot added a few words.
“My plan will never harm you, Emilia Toling.”
Whether intentional or not, calling her “Emilia Toling” as if she were a third party eased Hera slightly.
She didn’t want to harm or tarnish the reputation of Emilia Toling.
“I’ll join.”
Upon her acceptance, Merriot smiled satisfied.
He then signaled to the servants outside.
The servants busily moved the gift boxes lined up on the carriage inside.
“…What is all this…?”
Hera was surprised at the gifts piling up in the entrance, and Merriot teased her.
“Did you think I’d come to your house unprepared?”
Merriot was always composed.
Sometimes irritatingly so.
But today was different.
One hand was behind his back, the other extended forward.
Polite, elegant manners.
“Miss Emilia, would you do me the honor of being my partner at the royal ball?”
Every young noblewoman dreamed of such a moment: being asked to be a partner at the royal ball.
Hera took Merriot’s extended hand.
She thought he was too flashy, herself too plain, and her bare hand on his gloved one felt discordant.
A false scandal, a false engagement announcement, a false partner.
Everything was off.
As if they were from different worlds.
So Hera felt no flutter at this dreamlike moment.
Her feelings showed on her face.
Jeff watched her worriedly.
Meanwhile, while Hera received Merriot’s request to be his ball partner, a scream echoed from a basement on the outskirts of Central.
“Ugh, aaaah! Stop! Stop!”
A middle-aged man sat bound, rope coiling from his ankles over his entire body.
He writhed in pain but couldn’t escape the chair tied with him, only flailing in place.
“Do you have anything to say to me?”
The one torturing him was Ober Toling.
He deftly removed his blood-stained leather gloves and tossed them aside.
Then, putting on a new pair, he picked up a weight heavier than the one before.
The man’s thighs were already crushed under the weight.
Viscount Solsiang trembled all over, letting out a voice like a scream.
He could endure no more extreme pain.
“It was Count Neumann who cleared the way from Mozeni to Central! Not me! It was Neumann!”
Ober chuckled lightly.
No one doubted that Count Neumann, who owned a massive southern domain, supported Merriot.
Of course, he must have received Neumann’s help coming from Mozeni to Central.
Ober wasn’t asking the obvious.
“You know. But isn’t the problem that the Viscount bribed Central’s gatekeepers to let Duke Lorant in, and still didn’t report it to the Crown Prince?”
Viscount Solsiang was a typical opportunist.
He tried to bet on a new power rather than sticking with the fully packed entourage of the Crown Prince.
He opened the gates of Central for Merriot.
Thus, Ober didn’t immediately know Merriot had arrived in Central.
It took time to figure out who the traitor was, as the gatekeeper bribed by Solsiang was cleverly diverted.
“I—I really didn’t know! I just heard about it from others! Ober! You’re misunderstanding! Don’t you see this was Count Neumann’s plan? It was so cleverly orchestrated…!”
“The wrist that orchestrated that clever plan would be this wrist, right?”
The Viscount, trying to blame Count Neumann entirely, went pale when Ober dropped a pale left wrist onto his lap.
It wore the Neumann family ring.
Ober gazed at the gradually paling Solsiang Viscount like an observer.
“You… you…!”
The Viscount glared at Ober as if to kill him.
“A commoner rolling in the mud dares to kill a noble?”
To the nobles, Ober was a figure of ridicule and discomfort.
Especially those who knew his past.
The disgust in the Viscount’s eyes was felt by Ober completely.
For someone who has never felt hostile despair, this was the limit.
Oblivious that he was being looked down on, Viscount Solsiang glared fiercely at Ober.
Ober placed the weight he was holding into a basket.
The added weight pressed harder into the Viscount’s thighs, digging further into his flesh.
Groans escaped the Viscount involuntarily.
