Chapter 14
Edith moved the discussion to the study and deliberately set a serious tone.
“This is about our family. You know as well as I do that things can’t go on like this, Father.”
“It’s all my fault. Back then, I got too greedy with business ventures, and it all led to this mess…”
“Let’s skip that part.”
She cut him off cleanly. If she didn’t, he would spend hours recounting the story of those days.
“More importantly, Father, we need to sort out the family finances. I’ll be receiving a salary soon, but at this rate, you might just spend every coin I earn at the gambling house.”
The problem was too severe to sugarcoat. She had been thinking about how to overcome this obstacle ever since graduating from the academy and before entering palace service.
“As for the property… I haven’t sold off the territory. Ownership of this mansion is still intact.”
“That’s a relief. But I understand that the right to collect revenue from the territory is in the creditors’ hands.”
At present, the household had no income at all. Because of the massive gambling debts, every bit of profit from the Long Green Horn Territory was being taken by creditors. The money was seized under the name of interest; unless the principal was repaid, not a single coin would ever come back from the land.
Edith was convinced the only reason ownership of the territory remained was because her father hadn’t sold it yet. If things continued like this, losing the land and going bankrupt was only a matter of time.
That was why drastic measures were necessary.
“Father, I’m sorry, but you need to grant me this request.”
“What… request?”
If she were truly the original Edith, she might never have been able to make such a proposal out of familial affection.
“Please pass the ducal title and headship of the family on to me.”
For a brief moment, clarity returned to the duke’s muddled expression. He pushed up his swollen eyelids—puffed from years of irregular living—and looked at her with a baffled expression, as though he couldn’t grasp the situation.
“What? That’s far too sudden. What are you talking about?”
Ordinarily, the position of family head was inherited only upon the predecessor’s death. Even if it wasn’t codified in law, it had long been upheld by tradition.
Exceptions were extremely rare—cases where the family faced a crisis severe enough to shake it to its foundations.
Edith considered their current situation exactly such a case. If she stood by and did nothing, disaster was inevitable. First of all, she had no way to stop the duke from draining even her salary for gambling. Worse still, the entire family would soon be completely ruined.
Given how dire things had become, she believed that if the duke agreed, it would be better for her to inherit the title and authority herself.
“The family is on the brink of collapse. If you acknowledge that fact, then you should hand everything over to me. That’s the only way to prevent the worst outcome.”
“Hm… the title, you say…”
“If things get any worse, we’ll go bankrupt outright. But if you entrust it to me, at least the debt won’t continue to grow.”
As she worked to persuade him, Edith found herself thinking how nice it would be if she could act this sharp and composed in front of Clyde as well.
Whenever she stood before him, the atmosphere always drifted in strange directions, her words tangled, and rational responses became difficult. If circumstances allowed, she could be just as decisive as she was now.
She carefully laid out the situation for the duke—what had already happened and what was likely to follow.
She framed his gambling addiction as a serious mental illness.
According to the novel’s setting, they were blood relatives. If the duke squandered the family fortune, Edith had no legal means to stop him. Even her future servant’s salary—their sole remaining source of income—could be seized as collateral under his authority as family head. In fact, he could even stake her lifetime earnings.
After a long conversation and thorough, logical explanations, the duke was nearly halfway convinced. Even though the pros and cons were clear, his weak-willed nature made him hesitate, unable to reach a decision.
“Father, you do intend to quit gambling, don’t you?”
“Of course. I’ll never set foot in that place again. That’s why I stayed home today, isn’t it?”
She didn’t believe him, of course. She asked only because it was necessary for persuasion.
Matters like this had to be decided decisively once the stage was set. If she stalled, the duke would start overthinking—and might even head to the gambling house that very evening and incur irreparable debt.
Wearing the mask of a daughter deeply worried about her father, Edith carefully hid the fact that she was prioritizing her own future more than the family itself.
“I believe you, Father. And in that spirit, we should overcome this misfortune together.”
Emotion flooded the duke’s face.
“Edith…”
“I’ll do my best to repay the debts we already owe. That’s what the head of a family does, after all—take responsibility and lead.”
In truth, her money was going to be taken for debts and interest anyway. She was merely phrasing it more gently.
“It feels like I’m placing far too heavy a burden on you.”
He was almost there. Edith drove the final nail into her argument—not with words, but with tears she forced to well up as she embraced him tightly.
She patted his shoulder, urging him to stay strong.
“We have to do it. There’s no other choice.”
“Yes… yes, Edith.”
The moment the duke, in a rare state of clarity, made his grave decision, she pressed forward without delay. Hand in hand, they went straight to the imperial palace and submitted the paperwork at the administrative office that recorded noble successions.
Because ugly rumors about the Ketsmoris family had already spread far and wide, the official in charge kept sneaking glances at them—but still prepared the documents exactly as Edith requested.
Once both their signatures were affixed to the papers transferring the title and family headship, the matter was finally settled.
In the blink of an eye, she became the Fourth Duke of Fedleton—along with inheriting an enormous mountain of debt—and assumed responsibility for House Ketsmoris.
Now the former duke, her father, left the palace and immediately claimed he had somewhere to be, disappearing down another road. It was obvious where he was headed.
He had completely lost his sense of reality when it came to money. Though he praised Edith for “trying so hard,” he gave no thought at all to how the debts he had already incurred would be resolved.
The fact that he ran straight back to the gambling tables—without even a hint of guilt toward the daughter who had taken on all his debt—made that painfully clear.
Still, something had changed. From this moment on, any debts the former duke incurred would be purely personal. No matter that Edith was his daughter—she was no longer obligated to repay them. A family head did not assume responsibility for a member’s personal debts.
As she returned home alone, Edith couldn’t suppress her turbulent emotions.
Still… this was the best option. I searched every possible solution before coming to this conclusion.
She had suddenly taken on a massive burden of debt, and it made her sick to the stomach—but there was no helping it. Under current law, a child was responsible for a parent’s debts. The only way to escape that shackle was to become the family head.
The former Duke of Fedleton could no longer sell the territory or lay a hand on the household’s assets.
All debts and all property now belonged to Edith.
“Ah, Duke of Fedleton.”
Clyde pushed up a pair of decorative, non-prescription glasses on the bridge of his nose and looked at her with a sly expression.
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t address me that way, Your Grace of Helliard.”
Edith shot back by invoking one of the crown prince’s many titles, her teeth clenched as if grinding the words.
He let out an amused chuckle. Compared to before, the stiffness between them had eased considerably, and he seemed quite pleased with that.
“I mean it as a compliment, Edith. I couldn’t stop worrying about your family situation, and you resolved it like this—impressive.”
“Resolved… you say? If you knew how much debt I’m carrying, you’d be horrified.”
“Do you really need to worry so much when your future is still so bright?”
“Even so, thank you for saying that.”
She couldn’t help the sigh that slipped out at the end.
He had work to do in his office that day. Since the emperor had been bedridden for years, Clyde had been acting as regent and rarely had time to rest.
Wherever he went, Edith followed closely, attending to his duties like a needle following thread.
During the dreadfully dull afternoon, he found small amusements to pass the time. He took out several ornately decorated pairs of glasses from his drawer and tried them on in front of the mirror, one after another—almost like costume play.
When daily life felt stifling, he would also swap out his paper knife or pen. For a crown prince, it was a surprisingly upright and diligent sort of diversion.
“Want to try one on, Edith?”
He gestured to her standing nearby.
“No, I think I’d look strange.”
“Come on, just try it once.”
He chose a pair of round, gold-rimmed glasses engraved with fine patterns and placed Edith in front of the mirror. Even as she refused, he stubbornly insisted on putting them on her.
“They don’t have lenses, so you won’t get dizzy. It’s fun when someone looks different.”
There were others in the spacious office besides the two of them. The other attendants and officials were initially startled by how casually Clyde treated her, but they were gradually getting used to it. Even when witnessing the crown prince’s conspicuous favoritism and his attendant’s unreserved behavior, they pretended not to notice.
In Edith’s original world, fashion glasses were common, so she didn’t feel particularly curious about his accessories.
“I look better without them…”
But he kept pressing, and she eventually let him do as he pleased.
“I still want to see.”
Standing face-to-face, Clyde tidied her stray hairs. With his fingertips, he smoothed the strands near her ears and tucked them neatly behind, working carefully on both sides.
I really do feel like a doll, she thought. If this wasn’t driven by a desire to marry her, then she was clearly just a convenient toy to play with.
As she puffed her cheeks in displeasure, Clyde lightly pressed the soft curve of her cheek with a knuckle.
“You know you look like a kid like this?”
“I’m old enough, you know.”
“You’re cute—like when you were little.”
Her mouth fell open, the air inside escaping.
Did he remember Edith’s childhood—one she herself couldn’t recall?
Edith retained learned information from before her possession, but memories tied to emotions had vanished completely the moment she entered this body. She didn’t even know why she couldn’t remember.
“…When I was little?”
Even as she asked, fear creeping into her voice, his fingers continued to toy with her ear.
Clyde stretched his thick, sensual lips into a lazy grin, acting as though nothing was amiss, focusing entirely on fitting the glasses onto her face instead of answering.
He bent slightly at the waist to meet her eye level.
Suddenly, an odd warmth washed over Edith. Was the room too hot—or was she simply more sensitive to his body heat?
His shimmering golden irises held her captive. Like staring straight into a sunlit beach, her vision seemed to waver with heat haze.
“Everyone has a childhood. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
With a strangely suggestive air, he placed the glasses on her face.
His large hand blocked her view. All she could see—blurred before her eyes, and in the handspan-close distance—was Clyde’s hand and Clyde’s face.
A distinctly masculine presence radiated from him.
It was intense enough to make her stomach tingle, deeply memorable.
Overwhelmed by how vividly his physicality pressed in on her, her lowered lashes trembled softly.
