The Trash Lady Who Stole the Duke's First Night
Chapter 27
A cold smile slipped past his lips, and he shook his head. Smoothing a hand over his mouth, he picked up the green envelope.
He raised an eyebrow at the piggy-pink ribbon, which made his mood sour just touching it.
Whenever the Imperial Princess sent something wrapped in a piggy ribbon, she invariably made her entrance accompanied by utter nonsense…
“Young Master, please sign the merchant guild documents first. In any case, Her Highness the Imperial Princess will soon inva—visit in person…”
The butler offered another thick stack of documents.
Carlos silently reviewed the detailed terms across hundreds of pages, revised wordings, pressed his seal, and penned replies.
Only after signing his sixth document did he slowly swivel his chair around, his eyes sunken and dark.
Beyond the massive picture window that cleared his suffocating mind, he could look down upon the stream and village wrapping around the Duke’s Castle.
Lilacs, weeping willows… a rabbit…?
❖ ❖ ❖
Beneath the shade of a willow tree. Elio jammed a straw into her carton of white milk and drank without stopping. Her hands and dress were filthy with black grime.
I’ve already received three months’ worth of living expenses, haven’t I?
Is getting called trash of a noble lady really that bad a deal if it comes with that kind of money?
She took a deep breath.
It’ll all be forgotten in time anyway. People forget about other people’s business in no time, don’t they? Besides, they say I can’t be held legally accountable.
Wiping her sniffling nose, she smoothed down the creases of her skirt.
People in the countryside rarely read newspapers, so it’ll be fine. I’ll just find a maid’s position first, and keep practicing purification and Healing Magic.
She loosely rolled up her soaked sleeves. Heaving the fallen bicycle upright, she glared toward the Duke’s Castle.
……Liar.
…Bastard.
Hanging the bag on the handlebars, she repeatedly squeezed and released the squeaking left brake.
In two months, I’m leaving for the countryside right away.
Settling onto the saddle, she pressed down on the pedals beneath the blue sky, as if to shake everything away.
❖ ❖ ❖
Why hasn’t the Empress sent assassins?
Carlos walked with slow strides, measuring the Empress’s inscrutable intentions.
It’s not as if she’s given up on placing her own child upon the throne.
Water dripped from his freshly washed hair. He adjusted his attire, fastening the open buttons over his chest.
He strode steadily along the path toward the willows, weaving between flourishing lilacs.
Looking at the sweet, purple wave, another soundless chuckle escaped him. It was a place unsuited to him.
The moment he rounded a lushly foliaged corner, he stopped in his tracks.
His eyes narrowed gradually, while in the distance across from him, a pair of blue-green eyes trembled faintly.
“Kyaaaah!”
With his hands behind his back, Carlos let out an incredulous laugh.
Just what on earth was she doing now?
The rabbit, who had been hesitating on the steep downhill slope, had faltered, slipped, and come hurtling straight down.
Or rather, the bicycle was rolling down entirely on its own while the rabbit was being dragged along in pure terror. She seemed to have panicked upon seeing him.
“S-S-S-Sir! Sir!”
The tearful voice of the woman hurtling down called out to him. Her tiny face was struck with dread.
Carlos tilted his head slightly, then—
One step.
Two steps.
With his long legs, he casually stepped aside. A flutter of white hem and a wave of gold flashed past him.
“You… you… baaaastaaard—!”
At her clear, violently trembling voice, white birds scattered into the sky with a rustle of wings.
Carlos finally burst out laughing.
Hearing the man’s hearty laughter, Elio’s mouth fell open in utter shock.
I’m falling. I’m falling…!! I’m falling in!!
The handlebars shook, and the accelerated bicycle charged straight toward the stream.
Squeak, squeak, squeak. She squeezed the right brake over and over, but it only creaked stiffly without gripping.
She had never intended to ride down this slope in the first place.
It was all because of that man.
Why, why did he have to appear out of nowhere?
Why did he dodge?!
Plunging toward the stream, Elio held her breath at the vibrant blue ripples rushing before her eyes and squeezed them shut. She threw her arms out to paddle.
At that exact moment.
A huge splash surged over the stream, kicking up a hazy spray and dust.
Whir, whir. Half-submerged in the water, the overturned wheel spun idly at high speed.
Elio’s heart plummeted. The frantic pounding of a heartbeat echoed, and a faint vibration resonated from a thick, broad chest.
Biting her lip, Elio did not lift her head. Pressing her forehead against the firm chest of the man holding her, she kept her eyes clamped shut.
Through the rustling leaves, a low, amused voice drifted out.
“So now I’m a bastard?”
Carlos looked down at the bright red nape of the rabbit he had swept up into his arms.
Wondering what she had been thinking, he gathered in the slender limbs she had flung out so desperately, his chest heaving with laughter. At the sound of his amusement, the waterbirds took flight in a flurry of wings.
“Have I been upgraded?”
“You… bastard…”
Elio muttered, burying her face in both hands. Flushed hot all over where their bodies met, she curled even smaller against his broad chest.
The white waterbirds on the blue stream scattered into the air once more.
At the sound of Carlos’s booming laughter.
As the sun tilted, the loudly fluttering waterbirds regained their peace, leisurely diving and drifting along the blue ripples. As if intrigued by the man and woman who would not leave the stream for so long, a summer watercock—a migratory bird that arrived only during the humid rainy season—slowly circled around them.
“All Sexual Ethics Laws of the Lübeck Empire are crimes not punishable over the victim’s objection.”
Elio stared blankly at the wicked lips of the stern man who was suddenly reciting religious scripture and law to her out of nowhere.
……Crimes not punishable over objection……
“It means that if the victim expresses to the Temple that they do not wish for punishment, the perpetrator cannot be punished.”
Letting the man’s words flow past like birdsong, Elio counted the petals of a lilac. Carlos gently lifted her drooping chin.
“You’re not paying attention at all.”
“…Liar. You said I only needed to study Verse 1… Now it’s Verse 27… I get it, so please stop already.”
Elio grumbled under her breath and rubbed her swollen eyes. Even in the fresh stream breeze, her eyes still burned hot.
“Now that you’ve become the woman who assaulted me, you ought to know the Sexual Ethics Law well.”
“Then why haven’t you issued a correction yet?!”
“Then both you and I, having sworn false vows, would be locked up side by side in the Imperial Palace’s dungeons. We’d be torn to shreds by the Empress and the Papal Faction for arbitrarily defying an imperial decree and desecrating a royal union.”
Carlos spoke coolly as his gaze met Elio’s reddened eyes.
“I-I…”
“…Why did you cry so much?”
Carlos gently caressed her hot eyelids with his thumb, clicking his tongue softly. Whether she had cried too much or her skin was simply delicate, the feverish heat wouldn’t subside at all.
“Because of you, Sir, I’ve become trash…! My portrait was plastered all over the front pages saying I assaulted you—how can I stay calm?! My marriage prospects are ruined, and it’s going to be so hard to m-make a living…!”
“You aren’t guilty, so that’s enough. You don’t need to care about the noise in political circles. Legally speaking, you’ve committed no crime—”
“In Parliament and the newspapers—!”
“Let them fight among themselves. In any case, the people of Schuppenhardt don’t believe the Lübeck newspapers, nor do they care.”
“It was printed in Cyprus’s newspapers too! They said I was the one who bewitched and seduced you first, like some absurd…!”
Just how on earth could anyone seduce this man? Elio opened and closed her mouth as she looked at the well-built man sitting backlit against the sun.
“P-Please correct it right this instant! Say that I never unlawfully seduced you. That neither of us had any interest in each other, and that we never even spent the first night together.”
Carlos brushed his hair back with a rough sigh.
“I will correct it in two months. Not now.”
“You mean after we separate?”
“Yes.”
“If you correct it only then…!”
“I gave you a letter of recommendation, and I’ll find you a match, so whether you look for work or a husband, there won’t be any issues. And I told you, I will cover whatever amount of money you need.”
Elio strained her tearful eyes. How am I supposed to believe that you’ll still take responsibility for me after we separate?
“It’s nothing more than a political fight between the Papal Faction and the Emperor’s Faction. The higher your station, the more common it is to be torn apart by yellow journalism, regardless of the facts. Your father simply threw himself into that filthy fray.”
Carlos continued coldly.
“Would you rather be driven into the corner as a lady who conspired with her father to bribe a priest and slander me with a forced consummation? Parliament already knows you’re innocent. Even so, they’re just using you as a lightning rod…”
Seeing the woman hesitate with trembling lips, Carlos took a deep breath and rubbed his brow.
“Don’t worry. I will resolve everything in two months. Neither my knights nor the people of Schuppenhardt think ill of you. You don’t need to pay it any mind.”
“How can I not pay it any mind? Am I supposed to keep living as trash for the remaining two months? Even if people don’t believe it, your name will follow me around like a tag forever!”
“…….”
“It’s already completely etched into people’s minds! Now, whenever anyone sees my face, they’ll immediately think of you and view me as some trash lady desperate for the Schuppenhardt ducal family’s power and wealth. That I’m determined to leech off Schuppenhardt for the rest of my life. I’m… I’m not that kind of person!”
“Is that the problem?”
Carlos let out an impatient sigh, his dark eyes staring directly into hers.
“Then be a more brazen piece of trash.”
Elio parted her lips blankly, unable to comprehend what she had just heard.
“Telling a person to be trash? I am not such a shameless woman who craves a man’s power and wealth!”
“So you dislike power and wealth? Even after becoming a commoner, you still spout such naive nonsense. Why is that shameless? The world is full of women like that.”
Carlos said with a sharp edge to his tone.
Elio, her chest heaving with agitation, violently brushed off her wet skirt and rose to her feet. As if all strength had drained from her body, she wobbled under the mere weight of the black bag.
“…I-It’s completely impossible to have a conversation with you, Sir. I’m leaving first. I can’t talk to you anymore today. Let’s talk again next time.”
Carlos snatched away the black bag she was unsteadily clutching to her chest.
“I’ll walk you back.”
“No, thank you. Give it back! Taking someone else’s groceries…”
“Are these… groceries? Grapes and a loaf of plain bread? When are you ever going to grow if this is all you eat?”
“Why do you keep telling me to grow?! Is that what’s important right now? So what if Parliament knows I’m innocent? How am I supposed to hold my head up in front of the territory’s people? You want me to be a woman who forcibly violated a great knight out of sheer greed? Telling me to try being trash! Easy for you to say!”