Chapter 17
You Son of a Bitch
"Whee-ik-. Confirmation kill!"
"Get out!"
Klaud slumped into a chair after sending the bewildered butler away.
His outstretched hands barely supported his golden head, unable to cope with the sudden news.
"No way."
"Everyone but you says it's true, so why not? What's so embarrassing about it? It's only natural between a married couple."
The chattering of the maids outside the window grated on his ears even more.
Scandalous rumors, like needles, pricked at his troubled heart, crossing the walls to torment him.
The Madam's moans were so loud they could be heard on the first floor. But the Master didn't make a peep. It's been ages since the Master slept so soundly until so late. The Madam's face has grown gaunt. How intense it must have been...
***
Eddie Lev, who had been silently observing Klaud's reaction, finally spoke.
"You were hasty, Claude Euphris. It's not right to do this without consulting us. We let you be because you always know what you're doing, but you even submitted a Consummation Proof to the Imperial Family. I can't tell you how shocked we were to hear that news at dawn."
"Eddie, Klaud's a man, too."
Lancelot began to chime in, pretending to take his side.
"What's the point of changing wives eight times? He's still a virgin. And his wife didn't run away after the consummation, did she? It's a match made in heaven!"
"You're the only one who needs to have a head full of flowers, Lancelot."
Eddie retorted, and Lancelot added, picking at his ear.
"Your bedroom skills, which have become famous enough to make the whole mansion buzz, must have come from your mother's side. It's absurd that my cousin and friend, Lancelot Lev, is a stone statue in bed."
The more explicit Lancelot's expressions became, the more Klaud's face turned ashen.
The strangely excited atmosphere of the mansion.
The chattering maids and the shy voice of that woman among them.
The fact that she could walk around so nonchalantly, even after seeing his worsening appearance at night, was impossible without the premise that they had consummated their marriage the night before, as they said.
She must have something to believe in to laugh and chatter like that...
"But it's not a lie, your face really does look better, you know? Take a look. Eddie, you too."
He didn't know why a man would have a hand mirror, but Lancelot sidled up and held it out to him.
As Lancelot said, the disgusting half of his face was still the same, but the other side had a strange vitality.
"Surprised? The dark shadows of fatigue under your eyes have disappeared by half? What did I tell you? You're more tired because you don't have a woman!"
"Get out."
"Me? Not Eddie, me?"
Lancelot made a 'who, me?' sound, pointing at himself.
That disgusting expression made Klaud even more furious.
"I'm telling you I'm right! It's because you've finally found your match that your face looks so much better! It happens when you meet someone who suits you well. It's rare, but it happens. Look, you're not talking about nightmares either. You didn't have any nightmares, did you? After all, people need to have proper physical activity, whether it's day or night..."
"That's ridiculous."
"The power of love is really amazing-."
"Love?"
Klaud laughed as if he couldn't believe it.
One corner of his lip curled up crookedly.
Lancelot stepped back with a look of realization.
Klaud's eyes, which had been full of annoyance, suddenly became as unfathomable as an abyss.
He had made a mistake.
"I don't love anyone. You know that."
Lancelot, staring at the gloomy smile, admitted his mistake and sighed deeply.
Klaud glared at Lancelot's retreating figure as if he were his ninth bride.
Eddie closed the bedroom door with a deep sigh.
***
Evening came quickly.
After sorting out his complicated thoughts, Klaud came to the conclusion that he should meet the person involved and settle the matter directly, rather than being swept up in the absurd rumors.
He had just heard from the butler that the uninvited guest had begun to roam the mansion in earnest from today.
Since the snow had stopped, his prediction that she might be in the garden as before was correct.
Klaud, who was waiting for the uninvited guest by the window, roughly threw it open as soon as he saw Yuan appear in the garden without a single maid following her.
The woman was wearing only a thin shawl in the cold winter, staring blankly at the garden trees.
He wondered why she was looking around a place where not a single flower bloomed in the middle of winter, and which wasn't even properly maintained, but Klaud had more important matters on his mind.
"Hey."
The beginning was very rude.
But he had no courtesy to show to a woman who had forced a Consummation Proof on him against his will, after he had spared her life when she was blocking the door.
He had to finish this quickly, as a headache was starting to creep in.
The small body, which had flinched at the sound of 'Hey,' slowly turned to him.
A terrified expression.
But Klaud was now certain that the terrified expression was not because of his hideous half-face.
After seeing this appearance twice, there were only two possibilities for her to be walking around so normally.
Either the woman was blind, or she had an incredibly strong stomach.
"You have something to say to me, don't you?"
He decided to give her one last chance. A last chance for the woman to confess and leave on her own two feet.
But the woman, except for a slight flinch, stared straight up at him without moving.
As if she had to say what she had to say, no matter how scared she was.
Not even knowing that he was watching her thinly trembling cheeks.
"You said I could stay if I was useful in this mansion."
The woman was quick to understand.
The fact that she gave such an answer immediately after he asked if she had anything to say meant that she had clearly inferred from his question that he meant for her to get out of this mansion.
"Don't you remember that you slept well last night thanks to me?"
Klaud quickly scanned the woman's tired face with his eyes.
The absurd assumption seemed about to become a reality, and his spine tingled again.
The 'intense consummation' that the maids and Lancelot had been babbling about was messing with his head.
It was a more terrible imagination because he couldn't remember anything.
"...Don't give me that crap. There's no way I would."
The woman answered immediately as he shook his head in denial of reality.
The woman's face looked truly hurt and pitiful, and her large, dark eyes were filled with injustice.
He felt like he had become the world's biggest son of a bitch in an instant.
***
The Pellieresse mansion, which Yuan Pellièse had left, looked no different from usual on the outside.
Compared to the frugal days of the previous Count and Countess, it was full of glittering and beautiful decorations, and there were many servants compared to the size of the mansion, so it was always kept clean.
But the inside story was different.
"If I didn't have a good reason, would I have come all the way here myself? My father won't take his medicine because he says he won't be treated by anyone but Pellieresse anymore, so what am I supposed to do? And I tried to understand because he said he wasn't feeling well, but look at the Count's face now! He looks so healthy, is he really sick?"
"That's what I'm saying. The medicine they sent every week has been cut off since yesterday. What are they trying to do? They kicked out all the servants I sent. I drove all the way here myself. Count. Do you know how much gold our family has poured into Pellieresse?"
"What about the gold our family invested? My son had a bad fall and had eight stitches in a torn wound on his face, while the Count locked the mansion doors and what were you doing? If you took that much gold, you should at least earn your keep!"
Count Pellieresse, who had almost always had guests in the side room of his laboratory, watched as the nobles who had begged him to at least make a reservation in front of him turned around after he had locked the door for only a few days.
Since he had greedily divided the guests according to the amount of their investment, the nobles who had paid a lot of gold could not stand even a short break and rushed to this remote Pellieresse mansion.
"Now, now. Calm down. Haven't I been overdoing it lately? I only have one body, but the academy keeps calling me to go to academic conferences and whatnot, and the Imperial Family keeps telling me to develop cheap medicines for the people. Even ten bodies wouldn't be enough. How can I not get sick? I don't even have time to eat these days."
It wasn't something a fat man should say, but as the panting gradually subsided, the Count pitifully pulled down the ends of his eyebrows and lamented.
"Making one medicine is no easy task. Can we use the same ingredients that commoners eat for what we eat? The medicinal herbs that come over mountains and across rivers are brought in with the utmost care, lest they get even a single scratch. No matter how much gold you pour in, do you know how much it costs for transportation? You know that, don't you?"
"Well, even so-."
"There are many precious medicinal herbs in the North because they are afraid of monsters, but they can't bring them in. There is only desert to the west, so only the east and south, but the tolls are no joke. Inspections are always strict. But how can we openly advertise that we are bringing these precious medicinal herbs to the capital only for the precious people? If the rumor spreads that Pellieresse makes special prescriptions for special people, will the Imperial Family stand still? Will the rich commoners stand still? I have a lot of worries too?"
"Still, we're not trying to blame the Count, we're just saying that it's hard for us to suddenly cut it off like this."
Count Pellieresse boasted his smooth, oiled tongue with a truly aggrieved expression, and won over the people who had barged in.
After spending the whole morning like that, he had no choice but to lie down, completely drained, but even when he was lying down, he felt like he was going crazy because the gold he had just missed was still flickering before his eyes.
If an uninvited guest hadn't come to make him get up, the Count would have been feeling increasingly anxious and lethargic after Yuan had cut off contact for more than a week.
He tried to make even an urgent medicine alone in the laboratory, but it was always in vain.
Even if he prepared it according to the prescription, the difference of that one touch that Yuan had finished made the quality completely different.
'If I had known this would happen, I should have remembered it too.'
He thought he could keep his niece around for a few years without worry under the pretext of Louise's treatment, but he never thought she would have such an opportunity.
And that she would seize that opportunity without looking back and not even contact him once.
He was lying down with his head in his hands, feeling resentful and wronged.
'How could she do this to me?'
