Chapter 10
#10
A pretty, kind, pitiful, and yet cheerful and vivacious young lady.
That was Maria, according to the thirteen-page report the Butler handed me.
I couldn't tell if she was truly pretty since no portrait was attached, but after examining her life story, I could certainly see that she was kind and pitiful.
A life where one doesn't know who their father is wasn't easy. She had to grow up amidst poverty and scorn.
But Maria didn't suffocate under those burdens; instead, she lived a life trying to overcome them.
Though it seemed she hadn't truly overcome them.
God was cruel and didn't reward Maria as much as she strived.
She studied hard, and even excelled, but the jobs available to her were, as with most commoner women, day labor or working as a maid in a noble family.
Just like her mother, who had briefly worked as a maid for Lord Wensbury, who had come to the capital for recuperation.
Poverty didn't improve, and Maria's mother, who had worked herself to the bone as a single mother, fell ill.
Now, at twenty-one, all that was left for Maria was poverty, drudgery, and a sick mother.
Despite all that, she worked hard, always smiled, and nursed her ailing mother.
"Why would I kill someone like her? If I can't help, at least…"
Maria's truly tearful story automatically made my lips pout.
I didn't know who wrote this report, but they were unnecessarily good at writing.
They recounted her story in detail while using restrained words, which made Maria's story even sadder.
I thought of Panya, who had said she had injured parents and hungry siblings, and I thought of Lara, who always smiled brightly.
I smelled their scent from Maria, a woman I had never even met.
And at the same time, I felt a sense of unease about the future.
The scent of unease emanating from the heroine who would turn me into a villainess, take Ricardo, and threaten my life.
"What am I going to do with you?"
I sighed and looked at the report.
The name Maria, written here and there, stabbed at my eyes.
The only good thing was that no matter how much it stabbed at my eyes, it was better than a sword stabbing my neck, right?
"Ugh…"
The thought of a sword stabbing my neck made me groan involuntarily.
Just in case, my hand instinctively went to my neck. As always, I could only feel soft, smooth skin.
It was only natural, but it felt so fortunate.
"Really, what am I going to do with her?"
I sighed again as I looked at the report.
I couldn't kill her, nor could I save her.
A beautiful but cold, power-hungry, and arrogant noble Young lady.
That was what Ricardo thought of Bianca.
No, that's what he used to think of her, in the past.
The living symbol of the promise between the Wincaiser and Croford families, forged for the sake of family power, was his engagement to Bianca.
For ten years, Bianca had simply been his fiancée.
A fiancée who would one day marry him and bear an heir to connect the Wincaiser and Croford families.
That was how Ricardo had thought of Bianca.
Again, that was in the past.
"Heh…"
A small smile appeared on Ricardo's face as he thought of Bianca.
It was because he remembered Bianca's face as she stared at Lara, who was making a stiff face and growling.
Bianca, who always seemed prim and haughty, had a face full of bewilderment.
He remembered her frozen face, unsure of what to do, and her long eyelashes fluttering in confusion.
He also remembered the corners of her lips twitching and her fingers fidgeting whenever Lara shouted, "Roar!"
"Pfft!"
Thinking of that face made Ricardo burst into a bigger laugh this time.
He had really thought that Bianca hated children. But seeing her with Lara, she didn't seem like someone who hated children at all.
Rather, it seemed like she liked them. That fact was very unexpected for Ricardo.
He didn't remember where it was, what gathering it was, or even whose child it was, but there was an incident that Ricardo remembered.
It was a small child.
Maybe two or three years old.
Since he and Bianca were together, it must have been the child of some noble.
At first, it was a cute child, smiling quietly. Ricardo remembered that Bianca hadn't reacted much until then.
Or perhaps, since Bianca was always by his side, he remembered it as nothing special.
Anyway, the cute and innocent child grabbed a cake that was a little ways away while the nanny was distracted.
The cake was softly crushed in the small, chubby hand, and the child was delighted.
Then, the child smeared the cake on the table in front of them, rubbed it on their face, and smeared it in their hair.
"Kya-ha!"
The child, covered in cream, bread crumbs, and some kind of purple jam, laughed gleefully.
"Oh my!"
"Oh!"
"Pfft! How cute."
The others around them laughed as they watched the child. As if the innocent child's laughter was contagious.
Ricardo was one of them. He smiled as he watched the child, who was a mess but enjoying themselves.
Until he heard Bianca's murmur from right next to him.
"...Disgusting."
Ricardo turned his head at the coldly spoken words and saw Bianca frowning slightly, her expression as if she had seen something she shouldn't have.
Her expression was as cold as the voice Ricardo had just heard.
Of course, Bianca's words were true. The child who had smeared cake all over themselves was dirty. One couldn't say they looked clean at all.
But wasn't that how all children were?
They put anything they couldn't eat in their mouths, and they did everything but put anything they could eat in their mouths.
But most adults tried to understand that. Because they were children.
Especially if they weren't the nanny who had to clean it up and wash the child.
If the child was smiling like an angel, like just now, they would just chuckle.
Not frown at the child like Bianca did.
So he had guessed that his fiancée hated children.
Ricardo's expression became as cold as Bianca's had been a moment ago as he watched Bianca turn her head away as if she didn't want to see any more.
"Why do you have that expression?"
Bianca asked Ricardo after their eyes met, and only then did Ricardo realize that his expression had changed.
"What expression?"
"You look like…"
Bianca stopped talking.
"It's nothing."
"...Okay."
Bianca turned her head again, and Ricardo also turned his head. They didn't look at each other, but as always, they looked in opposite directions.
Each looking at what they wanted to see.
Ricardo, the heir of Wincaiser, the most prestigious first Duke family in Splendor, actually wanted a simple future.
A loving wife and cute children. To form a family like that and live happily.
If possible, he wanted to give the position of heir of the Wincaiser family to someone else and build a happy family in a quiet, remote place that had nothing to do with power or honor.
For example, in a peaceful and quiet place like Anceny, which Lord Wendsbury had once mentioned.
"Hoo…"
Ricardo sighed softly.
Dreams were dreams because they couldn't be achieved. He knew that his dream was the same.
Unless he, an excellent swordsman and knight who had served as the Splendor Empire's youngest captain of the royal guard, became disabled, the position of heir of the Wincaiser family would never go to someone else.
The heir of the Wincaiser family could never escape the center of power and honor. Living in a normal rural corner like Anceny was also impossible.
But even if he gave up all of that, the wish that Ricardo couldn't give up until the end was to build a happy family.
What he, who had experienced the horrors of war, wanted more than anything was peace, happiness, and stability. And Ricardo thought that the destination was family.
The reason why his knights and soldiers risked their lives in war was always the same.
To protect their loved ones.
The reason why enemy soldiers risked their lives and tried to stop them was always the same.
To protect their loved ones.
Ricardo wanted to do that too. He wanted to protect his loved ones and be happy together.
That was Ricardo's dream.
A dream that he thought he couldn't achieve.
"Bianca."
He called out the name that had almost extinguished the candle of that dream deep in Ricardo's heart.
His fiancée, who wanted the position of Duchess more than anyone else, who didn't seem to be able to accept a simple life, and who didn't seem to be able to live anywhere but the capital.
His fiancée, who seemed to care more about the position of Duchess than being his wife, even if they got married.
And above all, his fiancée, who he thought didn't like children, so he had given up on dreaming of the kind of happy family that Ricardo wanted.
His fiancée, whom he had to accept out of obligation.
"Bianca."
But recently, it had been different.
Ricardo felt like light was shining on the future he was drawing. And the person shining that light was surprisingly Bianca.
She didn't hate children.
She was someone who used money wisely.
She was someone with compassion.
Yes. To sum it up, she was a kind person.
Ricardo had just not known that until now. He had just not seen Bianca's other side.
Just like how a painting that you always saw from the right suddenly looked like a completely different painting when you accidentally looked at it from the left one day, the same person, Bianca, now looked completely different.
He didn't know how this magical thing had happened, but it did.
In the picture of the future that Ricardo was drawing, the face of the wife in his happy family, which had always been blurry, now looked like a specific person's face.
Bianca's face.
"I should start preparing for the wedding."
Ricardo finally thought it was time to carry out what he had been putting off for so long.
