Chapter 006
Evgenia was left alone, and the coachman, standing awkwardly in front of her, didn’t know what to do and said:
“Well, Duchess, let me at least escort you…”
“No, it’s fine. I’ll get down alone.”
Evgenia descended cautiously, step by step, and sighed in relief.
She wasn’t even angry, perhaps because the situation was so absurd.
She was just curious why Raimund was behaving like this.
‘Did he finally lose his mind?’
As Raimund himself had said, as long as his Name was on Evgenia’s shoulder, breaking the engagement was impossible.
In such a situation, his act of openly bringing his future mistress to the banquet defied common sense.
‘Could he possibly think my talk of breaking the engagement is a test?’
Though she vocalized her desire to break the engagement, the engagement ceremony was actually proceeding without any problems, so it was plausible for him to think she was bluffing.
If he was mistaken in that way, she could roughly guess why Raimund was acting like a madman.
‘He must think I’m acting spoiled on purpose to make him break up with Stella.’
Before she realized her past life, she had done such things several times.
Threatening to jump down if he didn’t return immediately, or commanding all dressmakers in the capital to deny Stella entry if he didn’t go on a date with her…
In short, she had caused all sorts of absurd scenes to gain Raimund’s attention.
‘I thought his nonsense about ‘I might pay attention to you someday’ was meant to deliberately provoke me…’
Perhaps that was Raimund’s own version of goodwill.
A feeling like, If I protect this much freedom, I might look at you once in a while.
But unfortunately, Evgenia was the person who wanted to run as far away as possible from that ‘version of goodwill.’
‘Besides, I don’t even know if that kind of behavior can be packaged as goodwill…’
Tsk. Evgenia clicked her tongue softly and muttered.
“I need to make it clear to Raimund.”
Your love? I totally support it. So, let’s both go our separate ways. How should she phrase this so it sounds sincere?
Lost in thought, she walked until she reached the entrance of the hall.
She nodded lightly, and the doorman opened the door and announced:
“Entering is Lady Evgenia Martyre, the legitimate daughter of the Duke Martyre!”
The warmth of the banquet hall rushed in, fluttering Evgenia’s red hair.
At the same time, the amicable atmosphere of the hall froze solid.
Eyes that had quickly glanced at Raimund’s suit and Evgenia and Stella’s dresses narrowed thinly.
Vile snickering and rapidly flapping fans.
Evgenia, more than anyone, knew what they meant.
“Hah. How dare they…”
Both before and after she became the ‘crazy woman’ of the Atrox Empire’s social scene.
No one dared to laugh at her to her face.
Gossip and slander behind her back? Well, even the sovereign is cursed in his absence, so that was acceptable.
But laughing at her right in front of her eyes was impossible.
‘I’ve been quiet for this past month, and they’ve lost their senses.’
How can fully grown adults be so shortsighted?
Evgenia wrinkled her nose, demonstrably widened her eyes, and looked at the eyes peeking over the fans one by one.
Those who hastily lowered their gaze the moment their eyes met hers were the novices.
Those who flinched, then slowly turned their gaze away, pretending not to be surprised, were the intermediate level.
The one who stared back at her with more audacity was…
“…Lady Nagelsman. It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”
“Oh my, indeed. The last time we met was, let me see… at the tea party hosted by Count Giovanni?”
It was an answer clearly intended to provoke Evgenia.
Firstly, the last time Evgenia and Lady Nagelsman saw each other was two months ago, and Count Giovanni’s tea party was four months ago.
The reason for dragging up that day, despite knowing the facts, was obvious.
‘That day, because Raimund didn’t escort me, I bullied Stella and accidentally spilled tea on her, and Raimund appeared miraculously and escorted Stella away.’
It was a humiliation for Evgenia and nothing short of a play for those present.
Evgenia twisted her lips and said.
“No, the last time was at the Imperial Palace Spring Party two months ago. To think your memory is already so confused… I trust you remember your own name well, don’t you?”
“W-what did you say?”
“I heard there’s a doctor who treats memory loss very well. Should I track him down for you? With the power of the Martyre Dukedom, we can surely find that doctor before your condition worsens.”
Lady Nagelsman wasn’t listening blankly because she didn’t understand her words.
Rather, it was because she understood them too well that she couldn’t find a reply.
Evgenia gently patted the shoulder of the Marchioness’s daughter, who couldn’t close her mouth between bewilderment and astonishment, and sweetly curved her eyes.
“Even if you seem fine now, wouldn’t your condition worsen if, say, you went out for a night walk and were kidnapped without a trace and abandoned on a desolate island with no people or anything else?”
“…Kid-kidnapped, Lady Martyre! What on earth are you…!”
Evgenia chuckled lightly as she quietly observed Lady Nagelsman’s pale face.
Ahaha. Haha, ha.
Her clear laughter erupted, momentarily focusing the attention of others.
Standing at the center of attention was something Evgenia was very accustomed to.
Curiosity, vile amusement, or fear.
Evgenia, who briefly enjoyed the blend of different emotions in the gazes, shook her head.
“It’s only a what if, a what if. Why are you so surprised?”
The laughter was still on her face.
But the golden eyes visible between her curved eyelids were cold as ice.
Evgenia lightly gripped Lady Nagelsman’s shoulder and added, as if joking.
“…Well, I won’t deny that the Martyre Dukedom has the power to make that ‘what if’ a reality.”
“…!”
“Stay moderate, just moderate. To a degree I can tolerate. Understand?”
Evgenia had never pushed Lady Nagelsman in this manner before.
The reason was simple.
She was Raimund’s cousin.
But that was only important to the past Evgenia, who was obsessed with Raimund.
To the current her, it didn’t matter in the slightest.
‘I hope she runs to Raimund now and complains about me to get him to break the engagement. Should I act like this in front of the Duke and Duchess Larsen too…?’
Evgenia released the thoroughly intimidated Lady Nagelsman and took a wine glass from a server.
Just as she was sipping the wine and looking for a good spot to kill time, the gentle music suddenly stopped.
“What’s going on? The music stopped all of a sudden…”
“It seems Lady Nagelsman has prepared something again. It’s understandable that her banquets are popular, as she always hosts such new events.”
“To cut the music entirely instead of changing it, she must have prepared something truly amazing, haven’t you?”
For the nobles who constantly sought novelty and trends, such events were nothing short of a festival where dopamine surged.
A creeping murmur arose, carrying a mixture of bewilderment and unconcealed excitement.
Click— Clack—
Lady Nagelsman, showing off the hem of her voluminous dress, appeared, but her face did not look bright at all, for some reason.
As if this was not something she wanted to do.
“Everyone, today, I have prepared a very pleasant… event. It is…”
Lady Nagelsman took a short breath and forced a smile.
She snapped her fingers, and two sturdy men ascended from below the staircase where she stood.
The two handsome men were dressed in quite unconventional attire.
Standing on both sides of Lady Nagelsman, wearing only jackets over their bare chests, without shirts or anything else, made it seem like…
‘Hmm, they don’t look like people engaged in particularly honest work.’
As she observed them with a hesitant gaze, a belated realization dawned on her.
The jackets of the two men were perfectly color-coordinated with Lady Nagelsman’s dress.
It was a couple’s, no, a triple-look, subtly revealing that the garments were made from the same fabric despite the different styles.
The moment she realized this, an unknown sense of foreboding crept up.
‘…Surely not, right?’
She had given her a warning, so surely she wouldn’t disregard her kindness.
Surely not.
“I shall select the two individuals with the most ‘couple-like’ attire at today’s banquet… and grant them the right to spend the summer at the seaside villa located in the Nagelsman Marquisate.”
…It seemed Lady Nagelsman had indeed developed young-onset dementia.
And an acute case at that.
