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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 80
Chapter Title: Our Rose
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✵ ✵ ✵
“Do I have to answer?”
Ella broke the long silence. Kai anxiously watched her profile, which, for some reason, seemed to hold a smile.
The Duke leaned back leisurely in his chair.
“...No. I won’t.”
But the Duke’s face contorted at the next words that flowed from Ella’s lips.
“Princess… I believe you are mistaken about something. I know you are unavoidably emotional and illogical.”
Ella wasn’t even amused anymore.
A joke is only funny the first time.
“I came here to offer you an opportunity. While you’ve been playing around with men in this peaceful Princess’s Palace, the Prince has been traversing battlefields and earning merits!”
“Then why come to me?”
Ella scoffed. She crossed her arms and looked at the Duke’s face, which bore a crack that could no longer be mended.
“That is…”
“You came because you don’t trust Robert. Even if that bastard sweeps through the North, joins hands with the Archduke, and butters up all those stuffy old nobles.”
Ella’s blue eyes shimmered like a clear stream. For a moment, Kai forgot to breathe at the sight of that sparkle.
“…You came because you think I’m the one who will become queen.”
That confidence.
That overflowing affection for herself.
That dignity, never lost for a moment.
Kai was in awe of Ella.
She doesn't act ruthless and cruel because she's incapable of it.
She simply has no need to be ruthless and cruel.
She knows she doesn’t have to resort to such things. She knows she can win anyway.
Kai felt a stuffy shell that had been covering a corner of his heart crack and fall away.
*You can win without being ruthless, without being cruel, without killing people or betraying their hearts.*
It was as if Ella’s very existence was saying so.
“I could go to Madam Margaret. I could advise her to terminate her contract with you, now that I possess a mana stone mine.”
The Duke spoke with a façade of calm, but a simmering anger roiled beneath the surface.
Ella realized with certainty that she had made the right choice.
‘I wonder who’s the emotional one here…’
“But you didn’t, did you? For all I know… you might have already been rejected.”
Margaret had never mentioned the Duke contacting her. It was possible he hadn’t actually done so yet.
But one thing was certain…
‘If the Duke before me truly believed he could persuade Margaret, he would have gone to her first, not me.’
He was the type who, if he judged that he truly had the upper hand, enjoyed slowly tightening his grip and shaking his opponent.
So why would he skip Margaret and come to threaten me first? He could have cornered me after striking a deal with her.
‘A lie.’
Ella grinned.
Wasn’t another hypothesis more plausible?
That in reality, the reports of Robert’s military achievements to the king were exaggerated, and that all Robert had done for a week was whine, so the subjugation of the North wasn’t going as planned…
And so, it seemed he was about to sink with a rotten rope, and wanted to join hands with me, betray his son, and get his hands on the Mermaids’ Tomb.
He wanted to be compensated, one way or another, for the enormous amount of money and troops Robert had taken.
If that inference was correct, Ella had nothing to lose right now.
And wasn’t the Duke’s current expression telling her whether that inference was correct?
The turmoil in her stomach suddenly settled into a calm.
Ella snapped her fingers.
“Attendant! Bring me the dress for tomorrow! I feel like I could put on a corset and everything else right now!”
“A-Are you serious?”
The attendant guarding the door asked. The Duke’s face twisted. But it was the Duke who had ignored the unspoken dismissal and remained seated.
Which meant there was no breach of court etiquette.
“Yes, bring it before I change my mind.”
Ella said, looking down at the Duke coldly.
The Duke rose from his seat with a displeased expression.
“You will regret refusing today’s deal.”
“…Right. I do hope a day comes when I can learn the meaning of regret. So far, my life has been too good to have any.”
As soon as she finished her reply, Ella personally opened the door to her office. The Duke straightened his jacket and walked out with brisk steps.
Once the Duke was gone, Ella closed the door again and looked at Kai. She smiled bitterly.
“…Were you worried, even if he is the father who cut out your tongue? Your face turned pale when the Archduke was mentioned.”
Kai’s face hardened.
That wasn’t why his face had hardened. He should say so, but…
As if she hadn’t expected an answer, Ella walked past Kai and sat on the sofa.
She looked at the rabbit doll Kai had made and spoke.
“Let’s sell this. I’ll introduce you to an engineering professor I know. The least annoying of all the engineers I’m acquainted with.”
“…”
“This cute, trivial thing is said to be worth some money… Take it and leave.”
Kai’s eyes widened. His pale fingers turned even whiter. Knowing this, Ella continued without looking at him.
“What’s so surprising? It doesn’t seem like the Archduke would bat an eye if I kept you as a prisoner any longer, so there’s no way I’d continue to feed, clothe, and shelter you.”
Fed, clothed, and sheltered.
Kai felt those words lodge painfully in his heart.
For the past week, that was all the Princess had done after taking him in as a so-called prisoner.
Fed, clothed, and sheltered him.
“But I can’t be expected to provide travel expenses for a prisoner, can I? I won’t stop you if you decide to return to the Archduchy. However…”
Ella put down the rabbit doll. She leaned her neck against the back of the sofa and looked at Kai askance.
“If you care for yourself even a little, don’t go back to a father who cuts out his own son’s tongue just because he’s displeased.”
*That’s not a father.*
She didn’t say those words.
For fear it would sound too much like she was talking to herself.
✵ ✵ ✵
Five days later—
I woke up feeling sore all over.
It’s because of the dance practice…
Ugh…
Eric had told me that if I stepped on his foot, I should just relax my body completely and lean on him.
So I did, and I was dragged around like a scarecrow, jumping and spinning…
Amazingly, I was actually dancing.
In any case, after dancing like that for a few days, my body was sore.
Even though all I did was let Eric lead me around…
‘Then just how much stamina does Eric have?’
I glanced at Eric, who was sitting across from me. He didn’t look the least bit tired.
And…
“I heard the elders handed the account books over to you while I was away. In the ducal house, there has always been a financial component that the lady of the house must participate in. I trust you will do well from now on, Imeline.”
The Duke didn’t look tired either. He had done a great deal since returning to the duchy a week ago.
Not only did he preside over every family meal without fail, but he also had the butler arrange for repairs to the residence, summoned his vassals to his office to discuss business, and even paid a visit to the Princess’s Palace.
And since his return, he had gone hunting every single day—
‘Don’t most people just collapse into bed and sleep all day when they come home after a long time away?’
A man utterly devoid of common sense…
A diligent psycho. The Duke was truly a hopeless case.
Even as I thought this, I put on an obedient smile.
“The butler will help me a great deal, won’t he? Right?”
I looked at the butler, who, now that the Duke was back, was at least paying less attention to me as he dealt with the Duke’s affairs.
‘Well? You said you’d take care of everything if I just brought the ledgers, right?’
The butler, seeing my almost threatening gaze, gave an awkward smile and nodded.
“I will assist the young madam well.”
“Good. If the butler is assisting, it should be trustworthy. However…”
The Duke set down the knife he was using to cut the turkey, which was coated in a fragrant raspberry sauce. The knife scraped against the plate, making a hair-raising sound.
I flinched and looked at the Duke.
Bang!
The Duke truly went hunting every single day.
He devoted himself to the hunt as if starved for it, and saw much blood.
I heard the servants whispering among themselves.
‘He even brought back a lark? How strange. He usually lets the small birds go.’
‘The groundskeeper said he shot and hit everything he saw today, even badgers and squirrels. He said he just left the ones that were hard to bag in the forest.’
Corpses, rotting in the forest—
I could immediately recall that foul stench.
‘You’re going to kill it even if I give it to you, aren’t you?’
The gunshots that had echoed all afternoon yesterday had made me look out the window several times, even while I was dancing.
‘You’ll kill it even if I don’t.’
‘Hello, Imeline.’
The corpses of Philip and Helena kept floating through my mind.
I remembered the hole that had been pierced through my chest in my dream. The deep red blood, like the raspberry sauce on the Duke’s carved meat, that had flowed from my heart and soaked the carpet.
Right here, in this mansion.
“You must remember that there is no one to help you at the Princess’s Palace, Imeline. You must do your best to uphold the honor and dignity of the Orleans family.”
The Duke’s red eyes gleamed menacingly.
Without realizing it, my right hand, which held the knife, tightened its grip.
*If only I could, I’d kill him right here and now.*
A man who kills and spares living creatures according to his whims, does he even deserve to breathe the same air as me?
‘It’s because of you…’
And there was no rule that said a man who had already killed once wouldn’t do it a second time.
Today, for some reason, I found the Duke particularly hard to bear.
It was then.
From across the table, Eric wiped his lips neatly and spoke.
“Why would there be no one to help Imeline at the Princess’s Palace? I will help her. So you need not worry about the honor and dignity of the Orleans family.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Eric rose from his seat. As he stood, the Duke chided him in a deceptively gentle tone.
“Eric. I have not yet finished my meal. Where do you think…”
Eric walked toward me, ignoring the Duke’s voice. Then, he extended a hand to me and said.
“Didn’t you say your stomach hurt? That it was cramping…”
Huh?
I tilted my head.
“Our… Rose…”
Eric clenched his teeth. The tips of his ears began to turn red.
I was momentarily stunned.
