Chapter 100
Whether Milliona was flustered or not, Wilhelmina pulled over a chair from the corner of the laboratory.
She dusted off the cushion and sat down.
As if she were in her own home, she handed the bottle she was holding to the waiting butler and said,
“Replace this with cold water.”
“Yes, madam.”
The butler bowed his head and left, accepting her natural demeanor.
What on earth…
Milliona wanted to throw her out immediately, but her visitor was the grand duchess of a ducal house.
It seemed wiser to first listen to what she had to say, so Milliona leaned her back against the bookshelf and asked,
“When did you arrive? I didn’t receive any notice of your visit.”
“I just escorted Mabel back since it was getting late. And I happened to have something to say to you, so I asked the butler to lead me here… but it seems you didn’t hear about it.”
Only then did Milliona recall the butler’s face, as if he had wanted to say something before offering her a drink.
She hadn’t heard him out because she had been in too much of a hurry. Clearing her throat awkwardly, she changed the subject.
“Ahem, well, thank you for that… but wait, Mabel should have gone to the Western Sun gathering?”
As Milliona expressed thanks and then asked again, Wilhelmina let out a short sigh.
Perhaps because of the alcohol, Milliona’s judgment was clouded and her questions were all over the place.
“There was an incident at the Western Sun. Do you know Eupina Anette?”
“The youngest daughter of the Anette family? Yes, she’s a close cousin of Mabel’s.”
“Close,” Wilhelmina narrowed her eyes, displeased at that choice of word.
“It seems there was a quarrel with that girl. It has been resolved, but Mabel was still troubled. She kindly asked me for advice, and we spoke until just now.”
“I see.”
“…”
For a moment, silence fell.
Wilhelmina asked in a low voice,
“Aren’t you curious?”
“Curious about what?”
“About what happened at the Western Sun, how it was resolved… and why Mabel came to me. Doesn’t it bother you? An outsider interfering in your family affairs without permission?”
Milliona frowned and tilted her head.
“Mabel trusting you—what does that have to do with me? And if the problem has already been solved, there’s no reason for me to step in.”
The fact that Mabel had clashed with Eupina was surprising, but that she had asked Wilhelmina for advice wasn’t unpleasant.
If anything, Mabel had chosen wisely.
After all, even if she brought a children’s quarrel to her, what could Milliona do…?
“You think, ‘Since I don’t understand, it’s better she talk to someone else’—is that right?”
Startled at Wilhelmina’s words, which sounded as if they had read her innermost thoughts, Milliona drew a sharp breath.
“You don’t seem inclined to hear this, but since you are Mabel’s mother, I’ll explain. …Eupina Anette was jealous of Mabel.”
Without waiting for Milliona’s reply, Wilhelmina briefly explained what had happened at the Western Sun.
Milliona frowned at the mention of the counterfeit trap, and was puzzled when she heard that Mabel had pitied Eupina.
Why pity someone who bullied you?
Wilhelmina provided the answer.
“Because of her hopeless future. Eupina has no chance at her own happiness. Seeing that, Mabel was reminded of her mother.”
“…What do you mean?”
“She pitied Eupina, who had no path in life except marriage—just as she pitied her mother, who had no choice but to be an inventor.”
“…!”
A memory flashed across Milliona’s mind.
Shortly after her husband had left, when Mabel had come to show her an invention—
Mabel, you don’t need to do this.
What kind of face did Mabel make then?
While Milliona was still lost in confusion, the butler returned.
Wilhelmina accepted the cold water from him, poured a full glass, and offered it to Milliona.
“Here, drink.”
“No, thank you. More importantly, about Mabel…”
“Drink first. We’ll talk afterward.”
There was an odd force in Wilhelmina’s words that made refusal impossible.
Milliona slowly raised the glass to her lips.
When she finished drinking, Wilhelmina spoke.
“When I first heard Eupina’s story, I thought Mabel was worried about her own future—that perhaps she didn’t want to be an inventor, or that she had another dream.”
But it had been the opposite.
Milliona already guessed what was coming.
Mabel wanted to be an inventor.
No matter how much Milliona tried to stop her, Mabel would not let go of her dream.
“And I assumed you wanted an heir. That’s why you treated Mabel coldly and made unreasonable demands. But when I learned that her participation in the Western Sun had been your order…”
“You thought I was trying to force her to give up inventing?”
“…Yes.”
At Wilhelmina’s quiet reply, Milliona drank another mouthful of cold water without a word.
Sharp woman. It’s almost a shame she’s bound by her status.
Now that the alcohol was wearing off, she could keep pace with Wilhelmina’s reasoning.
She recalled the clues she had let slip: her favorable stance toward the reading club, keeping close the Calsemo who doted on Mabel, the order to join the Western Sun… Even without Mabel’s consultation, Wilhelmina would likely have uncovered Milliona’s intentions quickly.
“The incident at the presentation… the wish to make friends—that was something you planted in Mabel, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”
After being ostracized at the Western Sun, Mabel had sought another chance to fulfill Milliona’s wish for her.
But she couldn’t join other gatherings, and without her debutante ball, she wasn’t invited to parties.
Just then, the presentation had been the only opportunity.
And Mabel had seized it, managing to hook the “grand duchess of a ducal house” herself.
What Milliona wanted from the reading club wasn’t connections to high nobles, but a chance for Mabel to escape the Metocan household.
Not to become a scholar or inventor, but to make friends, fall in love—to live as an ordinary girl.
So that she wouldn’t be forced into inventing, and ruin her life, like her mother.
…So that’s why she saw me in Eupina.
Hearing Wilhelmina’s words, Milliona finally understood Mabel’s sympathy.
Someone struggling against the fate imposed upon them—it was just like her younger self.
“Why? Why are you so intent on taking Mabel’s pen away?”
“…Grand duchess, surely you can guess the reason.”
Milliona hadn’t expected Wilhelmina to ask such a question after deducing so much.
With a wry smile, she answered,
“Deducing the situation and judging one’s feelings are different matters. Isn’t it unpleasant, having your inner thoughts exposed?”
It was surprisingly considerate.
Milliona ran a heavy hand through her hair.
The hair she had tied back had partly come loose.
“Why should I tell you something like that? If it were Mabel, maybe… but you and I have nothing to do with each other.”
“Sometimes it’s because you have nothing to do with someone that you can speak openly. Haven’t you ever needed a friend like that—someone you could tell your secrets to without consequences?”
“That’s…”
I can’t win with words.
Again, Wilhelmina’s counter sounded as if she had read her mind.
The worries she couldn’t confess to servants, other nobles, or even family lingered on her lips.
At last, Milliona admitted defeat first.
“…The Metocan line has long been a family of scholars. Though now we are known for inventions, in the past we studied philosophy and mathematics. I have two siblings. One was the eldest son, the heir. He was to succeed the house, while the others would enter the academy or the scholarly institutes. But one day… about twenty years ago now, I invented something.”
“What was it?”
“A spring. It already existed, but I strengthened it using metallurgy. That improved spring caught the eye of the late emperor… to be used as a weapon.”
From then on, things happened in the Metocan family that should never have happened.
The emperor wanted the brilliant inventor under his service.
But Milliona had been only ten years old then—too young to be given a title or position.
She couldn’t be appointed to a research institute or weapons workshop either, as there was no fitting place.
That was when the emperor devised a “solution.”
“I’ll bestow the Metocan family upon her.”
If he couldn’t grant her a title, he would strip her father of his and hand it to his daughter—such was the tyrant’s decision.
And so, the Metocan family shifted from a lineage of scholars to a family of inventors.
Along with vaults of gold bars, they were also awarded the epithet “Creative.”
Her siblings all left the household.
The dispossessed heir cursed her.
Her frail father passed away before he could care for the family.
Milliona was barely fifteen when all this happened.
From scholar to inventor, from youngest daughter to the witch who devoured her house—all within just five years.
She was left battered, unable even to decide whether she was a scholar or a noble.
It was then—
“I understand you. You did nothing wrong.”
She met a man.
A man who arrogantly claimed to understand everything about her, smiling as he said it.
A man who, to all appearances, sought only her wealth… yet Milliona leaned on him.
That was the beginning of tragedy.
“Grand duchess, in this world, a woman gains nothing from being intelligent.”
“That’s…”
While Wilhelmina hesitated to reply, Milliona continued with bitter self-mockery.
I’m liking this story more and more. I’m eagerly awaiting the release of the other chapters. 🤭🤗🤗🤗Thanks for the translation!💯