Chapter 06…
“Uncle Plon used to say that a beautiful woman is practically born with three medals. No matter how smart you are, someone like me—with glasses, stiff hair, and freckles—will never help the family as much as a girl with beautiful curly hair and fair skin.”
“That’s true.”
Helena pretended to punch the air.
“That’s a hit-worthy statement!”
She got serious. After punching the faceless enemy in the air, she kneeled at the opponent’s chest, jumped on top of the fallen foe, and bounced up and down.
Eliza watched Helena’s solo battle and clutched her stomach, laughing.
Helena flicked her long hair and said,
“Phew, if someone talks nonsense, they deserve a beating.”
Then, turning to Eliza, she spoke gently.
“Eliza, listen carefully. If you’re beautiful, the family can marry you off anywhere easily. That’s definitely an advantage, I admit. But that’s all it is.”
Helena let out a deep sigh.
“Life isn’t like a thin fairy tale book where it ends happily ever after. Being born with something only shapes your life for a very short period. After that, you have to live taking responsibility for your own life.”
Eliza seemed to struggle to understand Helena’s words. She blinked slowly and said,
“…Your words are harder to understand than the trade fund.”
“That’s okay. You’ll understand it all eventually. And you don’t need to worry about what Uncle Plon says. He’s the one with three medals, yet ugly, bald, and fat. And he thinks he can meddle in someone else’s life?”
Eliza laughed and, putting the book aside, hugged Helena’s slender waist.
“Sister, we’ll see each other often, right? I can’t stop you like Henry, but I don’t want you leaving the capital either. This is just unfair.”
“Eliza, even though I’ve troubled you so much, you still like me?”
Eliza frowned and said coyly,
“That was when we were little! If you bring it up now, I’d really get angry.”
After a deep sigh, Eliza continued,
“Everyone just says it’s fortunate, but I don’t know what’s so fortunate. You didn’t do anything wrong! The flirt is Crown Prince Rufus, and you were just there.”
Helena gave a thumbs-up.
“Welcome to the world of absurdity, injustice, and helplessness, my little sister.”
“Oh, really!”
Helena patted her sister’s shoulder and whispered into her ear.
“Eliza, want me to tell you a secret?”
“What is it?”
“I’m going to become a spy.”
“……”
“This marriage has another purpose. I’m following the Empress’s orders and heading south with a critical mission. I’m going to uncover the secret that Count Issufern, who will be my husband, is hiding, and claim wealth and honor for myself.”
Eliza jumped up from her desk and began darting around, avoiding her sister’s grasp.
“I’m not talking to you!”
“Oh? Because I’m your older half-sister?”
“I didn’t say that!”
“See, you’re not a real younger sister…!”
“Oh, really!”
The two of them chased and dodged each other around the room until they finally stopped by the window.
Outside, on the green meadow with a white sand path like a stripe in the grass, a group of people were approaching the mansion.
Helena examined the crest on their cloaks and muttered,
“Why would they make such an ugly thing a family crest?”
“Ugly? It’s the Issufern family crest with juniper branches with berries, symbolizing protection.”
“The Winston family crest is a hibiscus. It looks nice on handkerchiefs or clothes. But that one looks like a bunch of bugs hanging from branches.”
Ignoring the speechless Eliza, Helena opened the window wide and stepped onto the small balcony, looking down.
Three people on horseback were just passing through the mansion’s main gate. A man rode ahead of the group and spoke to the guards.
When the guards opened the gate, he threw back the hood of his cloak, which bore the Issufern family crest.
Helena immediately recognized him.
“That’s Benjamin Issufern!”
As if sensing her gaze, he looked up.
Under his tousled black hair, his face looked pale and almost white.
“……!”
It was too far to see his expression clearly.
But Helena could tell.
He was smiling.
“Smiling…?”
Holding her hair in the hand of her maid, Helena pondered.
The Empress had described him as “cautious like a small bird and fierce like a beast.”
Yet he had eagerly accepted the marriage proposal, as if desperate and reckless.
Moreover, the group Helena had seen with Count Issufern consisted of only two people. Including the Count himself, that made three.
Even if they minimized the visitors because of using the gate, it was too few.
The gate, a relic from the magical age, allowed instantaneous travel between cities across the vast empire.
However, using the gate required a huge amount of magical ore and came at a very high cost.
So it was customary to reduce the number of people traveling as much as possible.
But still, only three, without a carriage or attendants? That was careless.
“And they’re smiling after arriving like that…? Are they idiots?”
Helena looked at herself in the mirror with a serious expression.
Her hair, meticulously brushed by the maids, gleamed, and her face, carefully made up, looked more beautiful than ever.
Helena spoke sharply.
“Why do I have to look this good? Do it roughly, like usual!”
The maid answered cautiously,
“Miss, since this is your first meeting with Count Issufern, it’s better to look beautiful.”
“Is it really better?”
“Excuse me?”
Helena narrowed her eyes at the maids.
“What’s important isn’t how I look. It’s what kind of man he is.”
The maids, already used to Helena’s unpredictable words, could only giggle.
“Oh my, Miss, you’ll find out soon enough. All of it.”
“Hahaha! This one’s something.”
One maid, leaning closer, whispered to Helena.
“Miss, all the rumors we’ve heard about Count Issufern were wrong.”
“What rumors?”
“That he’s a tremendously handsome man…!”
Helena’s eyes widened.
“Not that handsome in reality?”
The maid, trying to keep calm, blushed slightly.
“It’s not just handsome! I can’t believe such a beautiful man exists…!”
“Really? Really?”
“I-I want to see him too…!”
Helena grabbed the maids’ flailing hands firmly.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“Huh?”
“Miss! You told us to do our makeup roughly…!”
Helena smiled wickedly.
“You’re not going.”
“Ah, Miss…!”
“On the eve of a wedding, the maids shouldn’t be running off to see the groom’s face while the bride is anxious. You have to stay with the bride.”
“But you weren’t nervous at all. You were thinking about something else…!”
“If I can’t see him, neither can you.”
“Waaah…!”
“I don’t want to lose either, so I’d better get ready nicely. Let’s see, let’s draw lines on the pumpkin properly.”
“Miss, calling such a beautiful face a pumpkin…”
Despite the words, the maids eagerly resumed dressing Helena.
Helena watched as they brought various accessories to try on her and thought,
‘It’s good if he’s handsome, but too handsome is a problem if I have to strike him from behind…’
When Helena Winston appeared in the banquet hall, all eyes immediately fell on her.
She was dazzlingly beautiful today.
Her voluminous auburn hair was decorated with a kilogram of pearls, and her silver dress layered light purple and crimson silk lace along the skirt.
She looked like a goddess draped in the clouds of a sunset.
Gasps of admiration erupted throughout the hall.
“Miss Winston, you look stunning today…!”
Yet Helena seemed unsatisfied.
Standing on the railing of the staircase descending into the hall, she straightened her waist and neck and surveyed the guests. Then she said,
“What day is it again? There are so many people here in the hall.
