Chapter 17

Roseanne had originally been an ambitious girl. From a very young age, she believed that in the vast Eastern Territory, the only man suited for her was Emile Cline.

‘Emile is wonderful. He has a clean-cut face and good manners, too.’

Since Roseanne was the only girl of an age that matched Emile’s in the Eastern Alliance, that ambition seemed entirely feasible.

That was, if Yvon weren’t around.

At first, she thought Yvon was merely a child whom the good-natured Count and Countess Cline had taken in reluctantly. She assumed that when the time came, they would marry her off appropriately to the wife of a vassal.

However, as the years passed, Roseanne’s dream of becoming the mistress of the Cline Countship drifted further away.

‘It’s all because of that girl, Yvon.’

Had she been an ambitious child like herself, Roseanne wouldn’t have felt so aggrieved. But Yvon was a woman who seemed to have left every ounce of ambition behind in her mother’s womb from birth. Someone who, despite luckily obtaining the position of mistress of the Cline Countship, had no idea what it actually meant.

That was why Roseanne’s insides twisted even more.

‘What am I lacking? My face is prettier than Yvon’s, too. When Yvon is a child who doesn’t even know what the mistress of a Countship does?’

If Emile had acted as though he couldn’t live without Yvon, she would have given up long ago. But the relationship between Emile and Yvon was lukewarm at best.

‘That is the opening.’

So Roseanne had approached Emile.

<Isn’t it boring playing with a girl like that, Emile? I’m different.>

Even up until then, what Roseanne had expected was for the naive young master to blush and be at a complete loss.

However, when she actually seduced him, Emile became a completely different person.

<I have no need for anyone unless it’s a relationship to enjoy lightly.>

At Emile’s attitude, Roseanne felt disappointment and excitement simultaneously.

‘He’s the man who’s perfect for me.’

Nodding along to a relationship that held only disadvantages for her was because she wanted to see the sight of Yvon discovering their relationship one day and falling into despair.

And if she disappeared on her own feet, all the better. However, Yvon was frustratingly slow on the uptake.

In the meantime, the two of them had reached a suitable age, and the Countess—who had treated Yvon as an embarrassing existence and never shown her at public events—suddenly changed her attitude.

<What is this, Madam?>

<An invitation. An invitation to Emile and Yvon’s wedding.>

<Are you preparing for the wedding already? Talk of an engagement only just came up.>

<Yvon is family now. Every leader of the Eastern Alliance will attend the wedding. Because we must announce that fact far and wide to everyone.>

Her stomach had turned inside out just hearing the news of the proposal, but to make matters worse, they were rushing the marriage forward. Roseanne bit her nails.

‘No! If things go that far, I won’t be able to turn the situation around!’

Thus, Roseanne rushed to the Count’s mansion in desperation. It felt as though she could do anything if it meant breaking Emile and Yvon’s engagement.

And the opportunity came much more easily than expected.

<Emile?>

On a day when they rolled around in the study as was their habit, Yvon had come to Emile’s study at the break of dawn.

‘It was exquisite timing. Had Emile been awake, I wouldn’t have even been able to show myself to Yvon.’

However, Emile was unusually exhausted and fast asleep. To the extent that Roseanne—who normally would have been chased out—remained in the study until then.

Thanks to that, Roseanne was able to mock Yvon to her heart’s content. Though she hadn’t expected her to leave home right away.

‘Since she disappeared like this, Countess Cline must be deeply disappointed in Yvon, too. As time passes, she’ll grow furious, calling her an ungrateful brat who doesn’t even know the grace of being raised.’

And Roseanne had thought they would give up on Yvon.

Yet Countess Cline turned pale as she searched for Yvon.

“Dear, let us search further. If that doesn’t work, even if we have to inform the entire Eastern Alliance.”

“Of course. Do not worry.”

With the atmosphere flowing contrary to her expectations, Roseanne pinched her own palms and forced out crocodile tears. Then, in a mournful voice, she spoke: “Yvon is truly too much. Making everyone worry like this……”

Everyone’s eyes turned toward Roseanne. Crumpling her skirt, Roseanne desperately pushed on with her words: “I swear to heaven I committed no shameful act. No matter how much I spoke to her, she wouldn’t listen and even recklessly threatened me, and now running away from home…”

‘Give up on that girl quickly. Tell me that she was unsuitable for the Cline Countship after all.’

“It’s also a bit strange that Yvon managed to leave the Cline Countship before even a day had passed on her own. There’s no way she escaped alone. Perhaps there might be someone else she decided to run away with……”

‘Tell me that she won’t do, and that you’ll change Emile’s fiancée to someone else.’

Roseanne desperately wrung out her words.

And the moment she stealthily raised her head to gauge the reaction—

“……!”

Catching the gaze of Countess Cline, who was staring back at her, she couldn’t help but flinch.

Countess Cline was completely expressionless.

Meanwhile, the light emanating from her wide-open eyes was fiercely brilliant.

Just like a goblin fire.

As if that were her sole purpose, she spoke: “That is not what matters. What matters is that Yvon becomes Emile’s wife.”

It sent chills down her spine. Roseanne hung her head low and bit her lip tightly.

‘Just what on earth is going on? Why are they so obsessed with that girl, Yvon?’

At first, she disliked Yvon’s detached attitude. She had no parents and possessed nothing, so shouldn’t she be fretting over how to capture Emile’s heart? Every time she came to the Cline Countship, Roseanne found Yvon insufferably grating, and Count and Countess Cline felt strangely off.

But now she understood. The person who had created that bizarre relationship was not Yvon, but Count and Countess Cline.

‘Could that girl have a secret I don’t know about? Like being scheduled to inherit a massive fortune……’

Roseanne clutched her skirt tightly. If there was a reason it had to be Yvon—

‘I must find out that reason.’

Roseanne sank into deep thought.

That afternoon, Emile came up empty-handed once again in his search for Yvon.

‘She might have run farther away than I expected.’

Though he didn’t want to admit it, by this point, Roseanne’s words seemed to carry some weight. The wild speculation that someone had taken Yvon and fled.

‘Otherwise, there’s no way Yvon could have so easily……’

He didn’t know who the bastard was, but he wouldn’t let him die painlessly. As Emile gritted his teeth, he pulled out a handkerchief to wipe his wet hands.

It was right then that he realized the anomaly that had occurred to him.

‘It’s not here either.’

A plain white handkerchief lay there, missing his initials that Yvon had embroidered. Sensing a creepy chill, Emile rummaged through various parts of his room. The scarf, sweater, and gloves Yvon had knitted for him……

‘They’ve just turned back into yarn?’

How could this be? It was to the point he wondered if someone was playing a malicious prank. After standing dazed for a moment, Emile approached his bed. Hanging there was her masterpiece. An embroidery piece that noble ladies were said to take years to craft.

The piece that used to depict a ship breaking through rough waves was hanging there as if it had been nothing more than a pristine white cloth from the very beginning.

As if exposing the heart of Yvon, who had departed from this place.

***

The carriage journey was quite long. Above all, because the three of us were sitting directly facing one another, I couldn’t pull Pepe out of the bag.

‘Lord Pepe must be feeling stifled, too.’

Pepe mostly stayed quiet, but occasionally, as if unable to endure the stifling confinement, he would thump against the bag.

‘I want to pull you out, too!’

I had a mountain of things I wanted to say to Pepe, as well. But I couldn’t talk to him.

‘Because a talking knitted doll would look suspicious to anyone!’

In the end, with Pepe confined inside the bag, the time the three of us spent together stretched on. Rowan chimed in well, but tended not to talk about herself. Dante always maintained a posture where it was hard to tell whether he had his eyes closed to sleep or to listen.

Ultimately, I ended up rambling about myself a lot.

As a result, I naturally had no choice but to talk about Emile.

“So, because I couldn’t climb down, Emile offered to catch me, but we both ended up getting hurt. Here, this is that scar.”

“Oh my, you were quite a troublemaker when you were little.”

Rowan listened kindly to stories that could have been boring.

“Emile has a calm and gentle personality. I’ve never seen him get angry even once.”

It felt as though I kept speaking only of Emile’s good points for some reason…… Rowan, who had been listening intently to my story, clouded her face.

“To be betrayed by someone like that, your heartbreak must be great. Though if you look at it another way, you were lucky. With a personality like the one described, had he cheated, it seems he would have never been caught.”

“That’s…… true. In fact, until now, I couldn’t even think to doubt Emile.”

I bit my lip tightly. Had there been no catalyst, I would have had the engagement ceremony with Emile without ever knowing. But I had a catalyst.

‘Which was Lord Pepe opening my eyes.’

The kind dragon who showed me the future. I tightly hugged the bag holding Pepe with both hands.