Chapter 57 …
Fior found Eper annoying as he spoke shamelessly with an impassive expression.
“Your Highness. This is marriage fraud—marriage fraud!”
“You’re being too harsh. I never said divorce was a condition when the marriage proposal was made, so it’s not fraud.”
Fior, who had watched Eper since childhood, couldn’t understand him.
For so many years, Eper had desperately wanted to free himself from the imperial succession, and how many failures had he repeated to carry out this plan until now?
In the end, he had arranged a marriage with a fallen house just as Herian wanted, convinced that after the divorce he would finally escape this shackle.
“You were the one who said it would be good since you already have a lover—no unnecessary feelings would build up.”
And now he was saying he didn’t want a divorce because he had developed feelings. He had tried to abandon the responsibility of the throne, only to bring in another person he now had to take responsibility for. Fior couldn’t understand it.
“Why are you suddenly getting so greedy?”
“I don’t know.”
Even he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what about Roselia had captured his heart.
It wasn’t simply because she was beautiful—he had seen many beauties in his life. Her personality didn’t seem particularly good or bad either.
It had helped him grow closer to Sienna, but that alone wasn’t enough to make him fall for her.
When he tried to cut off his feelings by putting up walls, they didn’t break—they doubled. When he cut them again, they became four.
What could he do when his feelings multiplied exponentially every time they met?
When Eper said nothing, Fior let out a long sigh.
“Your Highness. If you’re going to start this, tell the Grand Duchess everything first.”
“Tell her what?”
“That you broke up a perfectly fine couple for the sake of your freedom. That you already knew everything when you proposed the marriage.”
Eper bit down on his lower lip and sharply turned his head.
“They didn’t separate naturally. They loved each other since childhood. If they don’t return to each other after the divorce, then in the end, Your Highness stole her.”
“……”
“The truth comes out eventually. And the Grand Duchess deserves to know it.”
The guilt Fior felt had gradually spread to Eper as well.
“I never said I was being greedy.”
The confession he had hoped might ease his chest only ended up weighing his heart down further.
“I’m just… like this.”
* * *
As soon as dawn broke, a line of carriages stretched before the entrance of the Grand Duke’s castle.
Most of the distinguished guests who had attended the wedding had come from far away, so except for a few who had personal audiences with Eper, they spent the night at Elrenoa Castle and departed in the morning.
Only those commonly known as Eper’s close aides remained in the reception room of Elrenoa Castle. Count Pelua was among them.
“You’re meeting the Grand Duchess, correct?”
Count Langvieu, lavishly adorned in expensive accessories from head to toe, asked Count Pelua.
Count Pelua, who clearly lived in a completely different world from him, replied in a trembling voice.
“Ah, yes. I’m scheduled to see her shortly.”
“We are waiting to meet His Highness the Grand Duke.”
“Haha… I see.”
Not knowing what to say, he clenched his sweaty hands tightly in tension.
After a long silence, Count Langvieu spoke again.
“You arranged to meet the Grand Duchess here as well?”
“N-no. I’m waiting because we have a lunch appointment.”
“His Highness the Grand Duke will be coming this way soon.”
Only then did Count Pelua realize that everyone in the reception room was looking at him.
They all disliked that he remained here, as though a single loach might muddy the entire pond.
“I-is that so? Then I should excuse myself.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Ah, in that case…”
He awkwardly half-rose, about to sit again—when he heard someone sigh and quickly stood back up.
“Now that I think about it, I believe she asked to see me briefly before lunch. Please excuse me.”
The count gave an awkward bow and left the reception room.
As soon as Count Pelua left, Count Langvieu shook his head and sighed.
“Good grief. How can someone be that tactless…”
“I just hope the Grand Duchess hasn’t inherited that sort of disposition.”
At one count’s remark, everyone in the room froze with their teacups in hand. Count Langvieu glanced around and spoke carefully.
“Whatever disposition the Grand Duchess has isn’t particularly important.”
Since they all knew that the young ladies who had once been caught gossiping here by the Grand Duke had fled in a hurry right after the wedding, the discussion about Count Pelua and his daughter ended there.
“By the way, I heard the Langvieu family’s new business was another huge success?”
Count Langvieu smirked as he took a sip of tea.
In truth, when his wife said she wanted to invest in puppet theater, he had strongly opposed it. What profit could possibly come from such sentimental nonsense? Yet unexpectedly, it was earning even more than stage plays.
“I never expected the puppet theater to do so well. As expected, Count Langvieu, your insight is remarkable.”
Everyone hurried to praise him, and then someone subtly revealed their true intent.
“My wife keeps insisting she wants to see it at least once.”
“Ah, my son too. He keeps begging me to take him to Langvieu…”
What they were really curious about wasn’t the puppet show itself. They just wanted to see with their own eyes how it was making so much money.
Count Langvieu lifted his teacup again to hide his expression.
‘Crafty bastards. Now that it’s successful, they just want to steal the secret.’
He didn’t like it much, but since everyone would start investing in puppet shows within a year anyway, he thought it wouldn’t be bad to establish himself as the original.
“Since the topic came up, I’ll invite you all in a few weeks. If we’re going to do it, we might as well watch comfortably at my castle.”
And, of course, prevent them from conducting market research.
“That sounds like a great idea.”
Though they saw through Count Langvieu’s intentions, none of them were about to miss such an opportunity and pounced like hyenas.
“Will you invite the Grand Duchess as well?”
Count Langvieu raised an eyebrow.
Come to think of it, while this would be a chance for the others to observe his business, for him it would be a perfect opportunity to grow closer to the Grand Duchess.
“Of course. Naturally we should invite her. There’s no harm in the ladies becoming closer.”
“Indeed. His Highness the Grand Duke seems to respect the Grand Duchess quite a bit.”
The oath Eper had shown at the wedding yesterday—
They hadn’t paid much attention since she was from such an insignificant family, but perhaps the Grand Duchess might end up holding Eper firmly in her grasp.
It was an unexpected variable, but seen another way, it was the most useful card to play.
“I hope she’ll help His Highness make his decision quickly.”
Count Langvieu smiled leisurely.
“The Grand Duchess will surely share the same will—for His Highness and for future generations.”
Under Elysia imperial law, the title of Grand Duke—being reserved for those born into the imperial family—was not hereditary.
Most children either earned a count’s title through achievements or married into suitable families and lived luxuriously.
But that usually applied only to grand dukes who were on good terms with the emperor.
“When Prince Herian becomes emperor, the future of the Grand Duke’s house will be a little different from the past.”
Even a passing dog could tell the two did not get along.
There was no way he would leave that seed alone.
Even now, as crown prince, he was pressuring Eper—so how much worse would it be once he became emperor?
Count Langvieu thought that the rebellion he had always been preparing could finally be carried out.
* * *
Because the entrance of the Grand Duke’s castle had been noisy since dawn—just like on the wedding day—I wanted to sleep more, but my eyes opened on their own.
I hadn’t slept well last night, yet today I greeted the morning feeling refreshed.
Maybe it was because I fell asleep thinking Eper was interested in me. Even my dreams were pleasant. I dreamed that I became human and blended into an ordinary daily life.
Hehe…! The day I become human isn’t far off now.
Still lazing under the blanket, I pondered how to seduce him.
We need a shared interest… Should I use Sienna?
A three-way meeting with Sienna would be difficult, but not completely impossible.
Assuming Eper kept returning divine power to me, it would be easy enough to solve using my ability.
To become human, my power to enchant humans worked on the principle of making them “misperceive.”
So I could make someone see an object as something else for about a day.
Of course, I couldn’t completely change the contents. Like the saying about being startled by the lid after seeing a turtle—what I could do was make someone mistake the lid for a turtle.
I should recruit a fox from Mount Tiris.
If I pretended to commune with it while subtly praising myself, wouldn’t Eper naturally start to admire me?
While I was idly spending the morning in bed thinking of all sorts of methods—
“Madam. Count Pelua has arrived.”
Count Pelua, who was supposed to have lunch with me, had come much earlier than I expected.
“Let him in. I want to speak with Father alone—could you step out for a moment?”
Moria smiled brightly and nodded before letting Count Pelua inside.
“Yes. It’s been a while since you two met, so please talk as much as you like.”
Though Moria withdrew as if not to disturb the father-daughter reunion, the moment she left I bluntly confronted him.
“It’s not lunchtime yet.”
“I came a bit early because I was worried about appearances.”
I wiped the sleep from my eyes and glared at him.
Oh? So you don’t worry about my feelings?
But judging by his expression, he seemed to have been through quite an ordeal, so I didn’t press him further.
After all, knowing the standing of the Pelua family, I was the one who had thrown him into the tiger’s den to gather information.
“So. How was the atmosphere yesterday?”
He had looked like he had a lot to say yesterday too. Count Pelua glanced around before speaking in a low voice.
“Well, you see…”
As I listened, my shock only grew.
“It seems all the attention was focused over there.”
“More than me?”
“…Yes. They said they wanted to see it.”
Most of the conversation at the wedding reception had been about Sienna—the fox I brought.
Had they seen it before? Had they heard of spirit beasts? They said it was cute, and so on.
“No, how is Sienna more popular than the bride?”
I never thought I’d end up jealous of myself.
“Fortunately, thanks to what my benefactor told me in advance, it passed smoothly, but even so, it seemed excessive.”
“…Yeah. Excessive.”
You call this information? Count Pelua—I didn’t think you were this incompetent!
“Anyway, while they exchanged numerous strange rumors, they hardly talked about you or His Highness the Grand Duke.”
“Strange rumors?”
“They were saying a nine-tailed fox eats human livers…”
I had been looking at Count Pelua with exasperation, but at his words I straightened in my seat.
What… is this?
Why was I hearing the gumiho legends from before I entered the novel?
