-121-
“Julietta… You mean the daughter of Marquis Even?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“You’re saying it was that young lady who came up with the idea of copying Sub-Baron Evit’s flower tea café? Really?”
“It’s highly likely. No—without a doubt, it was her.”
Elam’s voice was firm. There was a certainty in his tone, enough to make me set down my wine glass and ask,
“I’m curious why you think that way. You sound almost certain—what makes you so sure?”
“Because in every business venture that man has undertaken so far, all the important ideas came from Julietta.”
“Is that… true?”
“Yes. At least, that’s what I know.”
He nodded calmly, and I couldn’t help but think. The Marquis of Even’s businesses had been carried forward by his daughter?
If what Elam says is true, that’s astonishing.
I had thought Marquis Even was the threat, but there was another danger hidden behind him. Which meant the ones who had obstructed Sub-Baron Evit and me this time weren’t just the Marquis, but the marquis’s daughter as well.
The realization was so unexpected I lost my appetite. The delicious food before me no longer tempted me to pick up my fork. When I turned to Lucius, I saw that he too wore a grave expression.
“Lucius, you didn’t know either, did you?”
“No. I’m surprised as well. It always struck me as odd that Marquis Even, who can’t manage even one thing properly, was somehow juggling multiple businesses. But I never imagined his daughter was helping him.”
“Exactly. So, what businesses does Marquis Even actually run?”
“Construction, transportation, agriculture, and the café business.”
“All four in completely different fields.”
Those are not ventures you can even begin without considerable knowledge. If the key ideas hadn’t come from the Marquis himself but from his daughter, then that young lady must have studied extensively in those fields.
But she’s the daughter of a marquis, not from a merchant family or even a regular noble house with commercial roots.
Unlike Count Werner’s family—Angelica’s house—which had inherited business for generations, the Marquis’s daughter had no such background. This was purely Marquis Even’s greed, his desire to grasp both wealth and power. He was expanding business while also increasing his influence in politics.
The troubling part is… the one behind all this may not just be the Marquis himself.
I didn’t particularly care how many businesses the Marquis ran or how recklessly he threw his weight around in politics. What mattered was that he was interfering with Sub-Baron Evit and me.
But to learn that his daughter was involved too—that caught me off guard. The counterfeit products, the café blatantly copying Evit’s idea—was all of that really her doing? She’s about my age, isn’t she? Could she really be that interested in business?
In the original story, she died in an accident early on. There was barely any information about her.
She had briefly appeared as one of the young ladies who envied Angelica, but she quickly exited the stage after her accident. Because of that, I had known almost nothing about her. Maybe I should hear Elam out in more detail.
“You said Marquis Even’s daughter contributed important ideas to the business. I’d like to know more about her. She doesn’t sound like an ordinary noble lady.”
“In most things, she seems like any other young noblewoman. But… she is rather cunning, and she knows how to use her head.”
“In what way, exactly?”
“She’s quick to understand anything that benefits her, and she reads situations well. She always acts in ways that give her the upper hand. That part, she takes after her father. Oh—and she absolutely hates suffering losses. She’ll never do anything that might put her at a disadvantage.”
“She sounds… very rational.”
“It’s less rationality and more an extreme dislike of losing. She can’t stand being outdone. Because of that, her judgment is sharp, and she’s not lacking in intelligence—but in my opinion, she’s using it in the wrong ways.”
Elam let out a faint sigh and shook his head. From the way he described her, she was clearly no ordinary lady. Intelligent, calculating, ambitious—character traits more befitting a supporting character in a story.
But in the original tale, the Marquis’s daughter had been nothing more than a background extra. One of the petty noble girls who pined after the crown prince Rayel and envied Angelica’s position as future empress. That was all.
She had so little presence that she hadn’t been worth paying attention to. There were other minor characters far more interesting.
If what Elam said was true, shouldn’t those qualities have appeared in the original too? Even if she was only meant to exit quickly, the author must have thought through her character. Surely, there should have been some sign.
But there hadn’t been. Not a trace.
She’d been written as little more than filler, without notable lines or actions. Honestly, the original author was strange—creating such solid character settings only to discard them unused.
If the Marquis’s daughter had survived longer, she could have played a villainess role, opposing Angelica later in the story. But she died early, disappearing before any of that could unfold. Such wasted potential. Though I suppose that was simply the fate the author gave her.
“You seem to know her quite well,” Lucius remarked quietly, having listened to my exchange with Elam.
Startled, Elam blinked before answering.
“Ah, yes. Though we live separately, I encounter her often enough. She sometimes comes to the restaurant with the Marchioness, and news about her travels whether I want to hear it or not. Besides… I grew up in the same household with her.”
“I see.”
“You grew up together?”
“Yes. Before her father inherited the marquisate, he lived in another estate. My mother and I stayed in the annex there.”
“I understand…”
So, even before he became Marquis, he already had both a legal wife and a concubine. He must have married early, with children born to both women.
If Elam and his mother had lived in the annex, that meant his mother had already been the concubine back then. Though Lucius once told me rumors suggested the current Marchioness had originally been the mistress.
I wanted to ask Elam directly, but it was too sensitive a matter. It felt wrong to dig further into his private circumstances.
For now, I needed more information about the Marquis and his daughter—that was the priority.
The untouched food on the table remained, but there was no way I could eat comfortably. Better to settle these matters first, then enjoy the meal later with a clear mind.
“One more thing. If the idea for the flower tea café really came from the Marquis’s daughter, then are you saying the Marquis himself only took what she gave him and put it into action?”
“That’s right. He might have had vague notions, but most of it came from Julietta.”
“But I thought you said the Marquis was clever—though uselessly so.”
“Yes, but only with petty schemes. He’s always grasping at ways to gain higher position and more wealth, but for all his ambition, his abilities are lacking. That’s why he’s had so few real successes.”
“Is that so? But he runs the businesses himself, doesn’t he? And I’ve heard his reputation in both society and politics isn’t bad. Plenty of nobles follow him now.”
He had managed to draw half of the neutral faction to his side and carve out his own power base within the emperor’s faction, which had lacked subdivisions. Surely, that required some skill.
“Neither his business nor his influence are truly his own achievements. He might believe otherwise, but that doesn’t make it true.”
“Are you saying…”
“…I see,” Lucius muttered grimly, nodding.
“The Marquis’s businesses started turning oddly profitable, and their management changed… all thanks to his daughter’s support. The same goes for drawing in the neutral nobles last time.”
“Yes. Without doubt.”
“Do you have proof? Something more than just knowing her well—evidence she’s helping him.”
“If you investigate the businesses, Your Highness, you’ll find it easily. It’s no secret Julietta is involved in his ventures. And as for the matter of the neutral faction—I saw and heard it with my own eyes.”
“What do you mean?”
“I witnessed Julietta urging him to bring those nobles into his camp.”
“What? Is that true?”
“Yes. The Marquis asked her, ‘I want to get back at Sub-Baron Evit, but I don’t know how.’ She laughed and said, ‘Just win over the birds who spread the news.’”
“Ha…!”
I was left speechless. So it really had been the Marquis’s daughter orchestrating everything. The Marquis himself was merely the front piece. Which meant the true strategist behind all their plans was her.
…Wait. In the original, the Marquis’s political maneuvers happened much later. But here, they’ve already begun.
Originally, the Marquis started drawing in the neutral faction and causing trouble in the latter part of the story. But here, it happened before the original even began. And now it turned out the Marquis’s daughter was part of it.
That’s undeniably a change from the original. In the original, Tiana and Sub-Baron Evit never partnered to open a branch in the capital, so there was no interference from the Marquis at that point.
Whether or not the Marquis’s daughter had helped with his failing businesses before her death in the original was unclear. But thinking back on her shallow appearances then, I couldn’t imagine it. Back then, she had seemed nothing more than an arrogant noble girl.
But here she’s different. Which means she’ll remain different from now on too.
Another character diverging from the original script. Maybe it was my presence here that caused it. But Elam’s account of her continued to gnaw at me.
If she’s turning failing businesses into successes, and advancing events that should have happened much later…
It all pointed to a certain kind of person.
Someone like me—someone who entered this world knowing the original story and is now trying to change it.
A transmigrator.
