Chapter 17:
Yvonne Moore and the Fake Engagement
“I must’ve been out of my mind….”
Franz—no, **Yvonne**—opened her eyes, then squeezed them shut again and held her forehead.
Even with her head pounding, the things that had happened the previous night came back vividly enough to make her want to die.
She had run into **Kirian Hischlegger**, of all people…
“Yeah. You were a bit crazy.”
“Eek!”
Only then did she realize **Paradi** was sitting beside her reading a book. He snapped it shut irritably.
“Shouldn’t you be done getting startled by now?”
“Shouldn’t *you* be done sneaking into my room by now?”
“Don’t be dramatic. Get up. The troupe will be here soon.”
Today was stage-rehearsal day. The night before, searching for somewhere to sleep, she had crawled into the troupe’s dressing room and passed out.
Yvonne groaned and pushed herself up using the wall.
“I can’t believe I survived to see the sunrise.”
“Right? Your head’s still attached…”
Yvonne rubbed her neck as if to make sure it really was.
Kirian Hischlegger was a man whose gaze alone could intimidate others.
For someone as timid as she was, even letting her eyes brush his felt suffocating enough to die on the spot.
And yet…
“Paradi. Hit me. Just once.”
“…Why?”
“I—I agreed to be Kirian Hischlegger’s sworn brother…”
She truly wanted to bite her tongue off and die. She must have thought that if he saw her as a brother, he wouldn’t kill her.
Kirian Hischlegger had no real reason to kill “Franz,” but alcohol made every delusion sound plausible.
Caught up in a drunken impulse, when he asked whether she too was someone who forgot her family, she responded:
‘Oh, Lord. Today I have found my long-lost brother. All is by Your grace…! Truly, I am blessed.’
It was a theater-style line, a call-and-response, but Kirian understood the intent well enough.
Interpreting it as genuine joy at meeting a lost sibling, he even smiled—those sculpture-like lips curling with satisfaction. He looked like a well-fed predator.
“I’m going crazy…”
She lightly banged her forehead against the wall, sighing deeply.
“What *were* you doing last night?”
Paradi suddenly turned pale. He grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him.
Resting her face against his chest, she confessed:
“I told him… since we’re family, let’s get along.”
Hearing that thunderous confession, Paradi wanted to shake her by the collar and scream.
She was playing “family” with the man who sent assassins to kill him? Completely insane.
“Then what about the reason Yvonne Moore fell out with that bastard?”
“…How do you know about that?”
Paradi could guess Kirian Hischlegger had been the one who sent the assassins, but he had no intention of revealing it.
If she learned her new “sworn brother” was behind it, she’d panic even further.
Sure, she ought to know someday… but now was not the time.
“For someone who’s scared of villains, you’re going way overboard.”
“I… I can’t tell you everything. But he’s not *entirely* a bad person. Yesterday, Devin’s gang was about to beat me up, and he saved me.”
“What? So you got hit?”
“No, no! I didn’t get hit.”
“Thank goodness… then great.”
“Great? I almost got beaten up!”
“Well, things are already like this, so you might as well befriend him. Send him some tickets to the performance as thanks. Try to get along with the guy if you can. As for revealing you’re actually Yvonne… we’ll think about that later. For now, go home and rest. You look awful.”
Before she could ask anything, Paradi slipped out of the dressing room.
He immediately ordered a servant to deliver theater tickets to Kirian. The note enclosed was short.
**I owe you one. Now we’re even.**
—
Upon returning home, Yvonne washed off the smell of alcohol first thing. Wearing a fresh indoor dress, there was no trace of “Franz” left on her.
If anything, the only similarity was that their faces looked a bit alike—though their whole *aura* was different. Yvonne looked feminine and composed; Franz was more like a mischievous boy.
Just changing outfits transformed her so drastically it surprised even her.
Paradi believed it was because Yvonne was always repressed when she was being “herself.”
“Oh! Miss. Hurry, please,” Beth urged as she dried Yvonne’s damp hair.
“What is it? I want to rest.”
“You have a visitor coming soon!”
“A visitor?”
“The Duke of Hischlegger.”
“…What?”
Yvonne’s face turned ashen. For a moment she seriously considered hiding under the bed.
“He came yesterday but missed you, so he said he’d return today.”
“What does that even mean? No—forget that. Who gave him permission to enter my house?!”
“I’m sorry! He’s so terrifying, I couldn’t tell him not to come in!”
“You’re right. He *is* terrifying… ugh…”
As Yvonne scrambled to prepare, the doorbell rang.
“He’s here!”
“Tell him I’m not home. Beth—just say I’m not here.”
“I can’t! I don’t want to deal with him again tomorrow!”
Beth, horrified, hurried off to greet the guest. Yvonne felt like dying.
She didn’t know why Kirian Hischlegger had come to see her, which only made it more frightening. And though she had agreed to be “brothers” with him, she still found him completely unnerving.
Besides, it was Franz who had agreed to get along with him—**not Yvonne**!
“This is insane…”
Wearing a look of doom, she braced herself to greet him. Footsteps echoed rhythmically in the hall. She felt like a cow being led to slaughter.
Moments later, trembling violently, she met him in the parlor.
Unlike pale, hungover Yvonne, Kirian looked perfectly at ease, as if he were in his own home. Only his sharp, piercing eyes betrayed otherwise.
Her voice shook; she barely stopped herself from stuttering.
“H-hello, Your Grace. What brings you here today?”
“You look well.”
Though he had sent assassins after Yvonne Moore, they had vanished without a trace.
Yvonne Moore herself seemed powerless and harmless.
It had to be Paradi Laurent’s doing—they were lovers, after all.
“So… what business brings you here?”
“It’s about the diamond mine in the northeast. I’ll be direct. I need your mine.”
“My mine? But it’s been closed…”
“A closed mine would be even more useless, then. You may sell it to me, or negotiate rights to extract.”
“W-wait, wait. This is too sudden. And I’m not planning to sell it.”
“Why cling to a piece of land that’s reached the end of its life?”
“Because closing it doesn’t mean it’s worthless.”
…Damn.
It seemed Yvonne Moore was smarter than he expected. She even knew the truth—that mining had stopped due to technological limits.
He had assumed she was a clueless heiress.
“There are many rare wild animals living there. I don’t want to destroy lives for a bit of money.”
“A bit? If you hear the amount, you won’t say that.”
“How much are you offering?”
“Twenty percent of the mining profits.”
“I don’t know the exact sum, but compared to the weight of life, it’s nothing. I refuse.”
Though her voice trembled with nerves, her eyes were firm. She looked delicate and innocent, yet her manner toward him was different.
*Impressive.*
When he first saw her trembling in the palace, he thought she was a cowardly young lady. Apparently not entirely.
“You rarely participate in social activities.”
The sudden change of topic stunned Yvonne.
“If you wish, I can invite you to imperial balls or tea parties held by other houses.”
Noble society was a web of connections.
All gatherings—tea parties, readings, everything—began with introductions. But Yvonne had grown up in the countryside and moved to the capital later, so she knew almost no one.
On top of that, she lost her family young, severing her remaining connections. In name she was a noble, but in society she was isolated.
People still believed the rumor that she was an ill-tempered heiress for that reason.
She’d even turned down Paradi’s invitations out of fear.
The reality was that without someone’s help, entering capital-city society was nearly impossible for her.
“….”
Yvonne’s eyes wavered. She had turned down Paradi’s help because she didn’t want to burden him with her weaknesses as well.
He had already done so much for her. If she let him support even her most vulnerable part, she feared she’d lean on him forever.
“…I decline.”
But Yvonne lacked confidence.
She remembered the day after she sued her aunt and uncle and finished the trial—the day their malicious interview hit the papers.
Her front gate had been smeared with filth, and her walls scrawled with insults. And worst of all, piles of curse-filled letters arrived for her.
The world had been cruel to a young girl who’d lost her family and was barely surviving.
Yvonne was afraid. She still didn’t feel ready to face the world as Yvonne Moore.
“I like my life as it is. It’s quiet and peaceful.”
Her smile was bitter, her hands anxiously twisting her skirt.
Kirian considered pressing her further, but decided to wait for a better time and rose from his seat.
Her face was so pale she looked liable to faint any minute.
In his carriage, he checked the performance tickets sent that morning by Paradi.
Something was going on between Paradi Laurent and Yvonne Moore.
He needed to act before she became too entangled with the Laurent family. To do that, he first had to establish some rapport with them.
And, of course, he needed to eliminate Franz’s fear of him.
“…Looks like I have work to do.”
Since Franz worked for the troupe, he might as well attend the play.
Thinking of what food to bring for the scrawny Franz, Kirian rode home.
