Chapter 88
Episode 88
The woman was dressed shabbily compared to the other nobles.
She greeted the nobles as she came up the stairs, but no one acknowledged her. It was a stark contrast to the reaction my Aunt and I received.
While my Aunt and I were constantly engaged in conversation with people, the woman with dark brown hair stood alone by the wall.
As I glanced at her, my Aunt said,
"That's Young Lady Bartu."
My perceptive Aunt seemed to notice my curiosity about her and told me her name.
"Young Lady Bartu?"
"Letitia Bartu. The eldest daughter of the Bartu Earldom."
"I heard about all the nobles in The Capital from Chairman, but I didn't hear about the Bartu Earldom."
"That's because they're riddled with debt and barely holding on."
"Then how did she get here? Only people Chairman deemed important are here."
"Earl Bartu is a loyal lackey of the Empress Dowager and Duke Marche, Empress Yvonne's family. He does all sorts of dirty work and barely managed to send his daughter here. To catch the eye of a powerful figure. This is a matchmaking opportunity for Young Lady Bartu. It's a dirty story for you to hear, though."
I blinked and looked at my Aunt.
"Chairman said that because I'm Dubled's Young Lady, I can have everything, but on the other hand, because I'm Dubled's Young Lady, I shouldn't be a child for too long. So I need to know both the dirty and the clean."
My Aunt smiled faintly and rubbed my cheek.
"I'm starting to like you more and more, which is a problem."
I giggled.
At that moment, Letitia Bartu headed to the lounge. I told my Aunt, "Bathroom," and followed her.
Letitia was washing her hands at the sink in the lounge. Her eyes, reflected in the mirror, were black and dry.
"Hello, Young Lady."
"Hello."
She must have heard people calling me Dubled's Young Lady, because she didn't ask who I was.
When I went to sit on the sofa, she looked at me.
"It's better to be outside. To them, this lounge is a rat hole for losers."
"But it's boring outside. They're all adults, and they only talk about difficult things."
When I said it innocently, Letitia smiled helplessly.
"Well, if you're Dubled's Young Lady, they won't be able to look down on you easily."
"Let's play together!"
At my words, Letitia smiled gently.
"Okay. What shall we play?"
"Tell me a fun story."
"Shall I?"
Letitia, sitting next to me, told me imperial myths and fairy tales.
I occasionally clapped my hands and cheered enthusiastically.
"Tell me about the whale too!"
"The whale?"
"The story about the Dad whale looking for the Mom whale and the baby whale."
When I mentioned the recently popular fairy tale, Letitia's hand twitched.
"That's... I'm sorry, I don't know much about whale stories. Oh, it's already late. I'll go out first."
It was obvious that she was deliberately avoiding the situation, but I didn't mind.
Because I knew why she was avoiding it.
The story of the whale family goes something like this.
A Dad whale and a Mom whale, living in different places, meet by chance and fall in love, and a baby whale is born.
The Mom whale and the baby whale are caught in an unfortunate accident and disappear, and the Dad whale desperately searches for them.
The reason Letitia didn't tell this simple story was because it was her story.
To be exact, it was a story that Grand Duke Locar, the Emperor's brother, deliberately spread throughout the empire in order to find his beloved woman, who had suddenly disappeared, and the child she had borne.
Letitia had once worked as a maid, hiding her identity, to pay off her father's debts.
As a maid to Grand Duke Locar, who was secretly recuperating to hide the fact that he had lost his sight due to illness.
At that time, the two fell in love and had a child, but for some reason, Letitia ran away as Locar's eyesight gradually recovered.
'But in the end, it's a happy ending, like the whale family story.'
Letitia was the woman who would later become the Grand Duchess.
And she was the person who would become the 'path' to my godmother, whom I had to obtain.
Sharon called my Aunt and me to show us the completed sketch.
It was a surprisingly lovely and cute design.
It even had a certain elegance, making me wonder if I could even wear it.
My Aunt nodded.
"It would suit LeBlaine well."
"You don't say~! After completing the sketch, I was amazed by my own talent. This dress is perfectly for Young Lady!"
"And a few more on top of that. You can prepare accessories too, right?"
"Ugh, I can't say no when my muse asks. Well, fine. I like Young Lady too."
My Aunt stamped Ariege's seal on the dress receipt.
I peeked to see how much it was and almost fainted.
'How much is all that!'
It couldn't even be compared to Melbein's dress. I couldn't even count the number of zeros at once.
It was a price that made even me, who had become quite wealthy through the Hope Merchant Group and was expected to become even wealthier, tremble.
'It's a price that can't help but smell like money...'
"Thank you as always, customer."
Sharon smiled and tilted her head to the side.
Then we returned home.
Dad and my brothers were waiting for us.
"What kind of dress is it?"
Henri said, his eyes crinkling.
"A re-ally pretty dress."
"I know Sharon's skills well, but I'm even more excited since you're the one wearing it."
I gestured wildly to Dad and my brothers, telling them how pretty the dress was and how expensive it was.
Even after I told them the price, my brothers looked like they were saying, 'So what?' which made me flustered.
'That's the sensibility of people who were born rich.'
I need to work hard and learn the mindset of a rich person who can spend money like that without even raising an eyebrow!'
And I also talked about Young Lady Letitia Bartu.
Although I knew the broad strokes of the future, I needed detailed information because there wouldn't be many opportunities to get involved with her in the future.
As I expected, Dad and my brothers knew a lot about the Bartu Earldom.
"Earl Bartu. I heard that he's been delaying his employees' salaries for months, so his daughter is doing the cleaning and laundry herself."
"Didn't he borrow a lot of money using The Capital mansion as collateral? What did he do with all that money?"
"The borrowed money will be used for the education expenses of his eldest and youngest sons. Even after borrowing that money, the youngest, Young Lady Bartu, has to support her tuition by doing transcription."
A noble Young Lady doing cleaning and laundry...
'If she has to manage that big mansion, she won't have much time to go out.'
On top of that, she has to do transcription and take care of her own children, so she probably has almost no time to go out.
Isaac frowned and said,
"She's not treated like a child but like a servant, why doesn't Young Lady disown them?"
Henri put sugar cubes in my teacup and answered.
"But I heard that the father and daughter were terribly close when she was young. The Earl lived with Young Lady in his arms, and Young Lady used to say that she would marry her father when she was young. She can't forget those memories."
"How foolish."
While they were talking, I was thinking about how to become friends with Young Lady Letitia.
'Ugh, I really need to become friends with Letitia...'
It was at that moment.
For some reason, the surroundings became quiet.
When I cautiously raised my head, Dad and my brothers were looking at me.
Dad asked,
"LeB, who do you want to marry?"
Huh?
"Are you asking the obvious? The little one likes me the most."
"Your delusion is too much."
Isaac and Henri said in turn.
"LeB."
"Little one."
"LeBlaine."
Their gazes were so fierce that I swallowed hard.
"Speak comfortably, LeBlaine."
"Yes, you can be honest, little one."
"Who is it, LeB."
It felt like a war would break out if I said it was one of the three of them.
I rolled my eyes and said,
"I, well... uh..."
I mumbled and found a refuge.
"Yohan!"
The faces of the three people except for Yohan hardened.
Their gazes pierced me fiercely like arrowheads.
"Why."
Dad's voice was so low it seemed to penetrate the ground.
Isaac glared at Yohan with a ferocious look and said,
"Why, that, inhuman, eldest brother."
He stuttered several times, grinding his teeth in the middle. The usual smile disappeared from Henri's face.
'Well, it's because he's the most normal among the family.'
Yohan slammed the book he was holding shut and stood up.
'See, Yohan doesn't react to these words.'
I was thinking that when Dad said with a grim expression,
"Where are you going."
Then Yohan replied calmly.
"I'm going to look for a tuxedo."
Henri and Isaac glared at Yohan as if they would tear him to pieces.
Dad called the butler.
"Throw that guy into the academy."
--He said.
I peeked my head out the door and looked around.
'Good, no one's here.'
After confirming that there was no one around, I carefully laid the doll on the bed and took out the Teleportation Circle from my pocket.
Then, thinking about the location, I tore it with a snap. When I opened my eyes after being enveloped in light, Seria was in front of me.
"Baby!"
"Hello..."
When I greeted her with a tired face, Seria quickly got up from her desk and made room on the sofa.
"I received the letter that you came to The Capital, but why did you come without contacting me?"
"I came to check on the progress of the work with Seria, and also because I have something to say."
The progress of the work referred to tracking down the 'customer' who kidnapped me and bought Seria's siblings.
"Yes, I heard that there was someone related to the slave traders among those who worked at the House of Hope, and I have finished confirming it. But the security is quite tight, so I've put a tail on them for now."
"Good job. We can't have them getting scared and committing suicide. One of them did that three years ago."
"Yes. But what's the matter?"