[CHAPTER 113]
“My sister is spending a pleasant time with her lover.”
Ariana answered as calmly as she could.
Lionel’s eyebrows twitched upward.
“Ah, is that so? What are they doing? I haven’t seen the Duke of Calade lately, you see.”
“Well, I don’t really know the private lives of lovers in such detail.”
“From someone who likes her sister as much as you do?”
At the mocking tone dripping from his words, Ariana turned her head away.
At some point, Lionel had already set down his cutlery and was gazing at her intently.
Once, she had felt love in his golden eyes that resembled the sun.
Now, she knew that what lay within them was actually possessiveness and a desire to dominate.
Enduring the pressure of a gaze that wanted to crush her, Ariana deliberately replied briefly.
“I’ve been busy with work.”
“Ha ha!”
Lionel burst into open laughter.
Seeing his shoulders shake as if he had heard an amusing joke soured her mood instantly.
When he finally stopped laughing, he shook his head from side to side.
“What kind of work would you have? Anyone would think you were some busy merchant.”
“……I am currently working as the deputy head of my family’s merchant guild. Please don’t look down on me as useless.”
Unable to endure the blatant contempt, Ariana snapped back sharply.
Lionel’s expression changed immediately.
As if he had heard something he should not have, he stiffened and glared sharply at the Count.
“What is this, Count? Ariana became a deputy guild head?”
“Ah, yes. She looks like she’s just a pretty face and can’t do anything, but she actually has some knack for it, so she’s been helping Your Highness—.”
The Count, who firmly believed Ariana’s lie that Lionel liked capable women, eagerly began to appeal on her behalf.
Bang!
Lionel clenched his fist and slammed it onto the table, lowering his voice.
“How disappointing. To make a flower-like daughter do such rough work.”
“Y-Yes?”
Caught off guard by the unexpected reaction, the Count was flustered, and Ariana stiffened.
She had spoken impulsively without thinking.
Lionel continued, clearly unable to hide his irritation.
“I thought the Count was a fine father who raised his daughter with great care. But how could you let her catch such outside influences? You know full well that a woman only needs to support her husband.”
What he wanted was a Crown Princess who would always smile beautifully, not a woman who overstepped her bounds and interfered in her own affairs.
So Ariana building a career and experience as a deputy guild head was, to him, not only unnecessary but inappropriate.
She had expected it, yet the cold reaction still dampened Ariana’s mood.
In an instant, a chilling silence fell over the dining hall.
Dabbing his mouth with a napkin, Lionel spoke as he prepared to stand.
“Ariana, I sincerely hope you’ll come to your senses soon and return to how you were before. We were quite good back then, weren’t we?”
Even at the wistful, tender tone he carefully put on, Ariana did not waver.
“With all due respect, I prefer how things are now, Your Highness.”
“……You intend to keep this up to the end?”
“Our end came a long time ago.”
“Ha!”
Lionel twisted his lips and let out a hollow laugh.
After glaring at Ariana for a moment, he rose to his feet.
The Count also glared at Ariana before hurriedly following after him to see him off.
Ariana was left alone at the table.
It truly was the worst dinner imaginable.
But what was worse was the ominous feeling that today’s misfortune would not end there.
* * *
I hid behind a tree so as not to interfere with Aizen’s fight.
At first, at least.
‘Oh no, it’s just the two of us and I’m not even armed, what do we do?!’
I was worried sick because of thoughts like that, but.
“Fifty-eight.”
“Aagh!”
“Fifty-nine.”
“Ugh!”
“Sixty.”
“Ghk!”
Each time Aizen swung his sword, the black-masked men were swept away like fallen leaves, and I relaxed.
Mm, no need to count to a hundred!
He did not even seem to need my help much, so I spread a handkerchief on the ground, sat down, and massaged my legs.
When he finally knocked down the last masked man, I sprang up and helped drag the unconscious men together into one spot.
“Phew, that’s done! Good work, Aizen! You’re not hurt anywhere, right?”
“Of course. It’s been a while since I loosened up my body, so I even feel refreshed.”
Swish.
He sheathed his sword and smiled brightly.
We found some rope inside the greenhouse, tightly bound the masked men, and then began exploring the interior in earnest.
The greenhouse, hidden deep in a secluded forest, looked ordinary at first glance.
It seemed like a place meant for plants that needed humid conditions.
However, when we opened the inner door and went further inside, a different world unfolded.
“This place……”
The heavy floral scent that hit me made me frown without realizing it.
Unlike the outside, where common medicinal herbs grew, this area was filled with flamboyant flowers.
“There are many flowers I’ve never seen before.”
Looking around, Aizen absentmindedly reached his hand toward a nearby flower.
It was a bluish-purple flower with petals jutting upward like a lotus.
“Don’t touch it!”
“Pardon? Why not?”
When I hurriedly stopped him, he withdrew his hand with startled eyes.
Frowning deeply, I took in each of the flowers one by one.
There were flowers I did not recognize, but also ones I knew well.
Most notably—.
“Do you see that red flower over there? Do you know what it is?”
“Hmm…… isn’t that poppy?”
“That’s right, it’s a poppy. And the one you were about to touch is called Blue Lotus.”
I pointed to a flower with pale purple petals blooming delicately on a long stem.
“This one is a species called Salvia divinorum.”
“I see.”
“What these three flowers have in common is that they contain addictive components and are used as ingredients for drugs.”
The moment I realized it, the sweet floral scent suddenly felt like poison.
Aizen seemed to feel the same, as he shielded me and took a guarded stance.
“That’s not quite it. Just the flowers themselves don’t produce narcotic effects.”
I slowly surveyed the greenhouse filled with dangerously beautiful flowers.
They were neither ornamental nor medicinal.
Considering that they were being cultivated in a remote part of the Count’s territory, that there was a group guarding the greenhouse, and that the Como Merchant Guild was presumed to have come and gone from here—.
“It seems the Count of Granger is secretly cultivating and selling drugs.”
I pulled the corner of my lips into a grin.
Got you red-handed, Count of Granger!
* * *
Why is it that ominous premonitions never turn out wrong?
After the dinner with Lionel, the Count summoned Ariana and unilaterally notified her of her dismissal.
“I am relieving you of the deputy guild head position. Go back home and do embroidery like a proper young lady.”
“That’s ridiculous! How can you do this so suddenly, Father!”
“Suddenly? It’s right here! You insolent thing, you deceived me with a lie that His Highness would like it? If you hadn’t lied, I would never have allowed it in the first place!”
Ariana, having nothing to say about that, fell silent, and the Count lit his cigar and continued to threaten her.
“Enough talk. Prepare yourself to become a chaste and demure Crown Princess! That is what you are truly meant to do!”
Ariana let out a hollow laugh.
Even though she had received help from Jenna, nothing had changed at all despite her resolving the guild dispute and uncovering Jim’s corruption.
The familiar realization struck her again that, to her father, she was nothing more than a doll to be placed on the throne as Crown Princess and exploited.
“If you understand, go and send a reply to His Highness. He has proposed a marriage talk to you.”
“……! W-What? Is that true?”
Ariana’s eyes widened like lanterns.
The Count exhaled cigar smoke and laughed pleasantly.
“What a gracious man. Even though you waver back and forth, he loves you consistently. Ariana, for a woman, being loved by her husband is the best thing.”
The Count advised her in a gentle tone, pretending to care for his daughter.
But not a single word reached Ariana’s ears.
If I’m forced to marry His Highness the Crown Prince like this, everything will be over.
My life, and the people around me.
“Tsk! There you go again with childish nonsense! I’ve decided to accept the marriage talk, so you should come to your senses now.”
At his condescending tone, Ariana felt a surge of emotion rise up.
Since she had already given up on being an obedient daughter, there was no reason to endure this any longer.
“You’re the one who needs to come to your senses, Father.”
“What?”
“After becoming deputy guild head and reviewing the guild’s situation, I realized how irresponsible, incompetent, and recklessly you have been running the pharmaceutical company.”
“Have you lost your mind?! Open your eyes properly and—!”
The Count’s face flushed red as if struck to the bone by her sudden words.
Had she been tainted by bad influences after growing close to her older sister?
Ignoring him, Ariana poured out the words she had been holding inside.
“Even if I become Crown Princess, there will be no benefit to you. If I gain that kind of power, I will ruin you.”
“Ariana Granger!”
“I am not your doll, but a person. If you try to control me at will, you will be the one who gets hurt, so just watch.”
“Y-You wretch……!”
The Count, whose blood pressure shot up, clutched the back of his neck and staggered.
Paying him no mind, Ariana left his office.
She stormed back to her room, breathing heavily, and shed a few tears.
She was upset, but she had always been the type to cry first when angry.
‘I can’t marry His Highness the Crown Prince like this. I need to find a way. If only I were the head of the family…….’
Then the Count would not be able to force her into marriage so easily.
Because she would have the power to protect herself as the family head.
Wiping away the tears clinging to her chin, Ariana opened the law code.
‘I have to find it. A way to inherit the title, even if by force.’
However, there was no method other than inheriting it after the predecessor’s death.
After searching through the inheritance laws, she let out a heavy sigh.
‘Would it be better to injure my body somewhere and make myself disqualified as Crown Princess?’
Just as her thoughts were spiraling into extremes.
“……Huh?”
As she flipped through the law book, Ariana’s hand suddenly froze.
A sharp light flashed into her blue eyes, which had been sinking into gloom.
