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In response, Anne ridicules Catherine and Cesare in a mocking tone.
“I don’t know who you are, but you don’t seem to have the heart and manners. How can you compare our bad luck to a mere drama? Unnie, don’t you have to apologize to us?”
It was a normal voice that she didn’t think was coming from a person who was crying and suffering until just now.
‘You don’t know Cesare’s face.’
The more aristocrats on the outskirts, the more likely they will build a wall with incidents and accidents in the empire’s core.
Even Catherine, who was educated by noble ladies, didn’t know Cesare’s face accurately, so it is even more so for Anne, who doesn’t know the politics.
Count Chen panicked and denied Anne’s remarks.
“N, no. He’s not like that. Please be careful with what you say, Anne.”
“Be careful? Our wedding was insulted. How could the Count say such a thing—”
“I don’t know. Just be careful!”
Count Chen’s face was flushed red as he shouted. Anne flinched her shoulder with a puzzled face.
“H, how can you be mad at me?”
“Wife, how is it possible that you can’t even recognize Grand Duke Cesare’s face? What a shame!”
Count Chen bruised Anne in front of Cesare. It was an attitude of being careful not to touch his mood.
“T, that
”
Only then, Anne glanced up at Cesare’s face and hardened her face.
But Cesare didn’t even give a single glance at any of the conversations they had. Catherine knew that Cesare’s attitude wasn’t because he was deliberately trying to shame her but because he didn’t really care.
Catherine beckoned to Damien. Damian walked from the wagon with a large box on his back while wearing golden armor.
Dozens of shiny gold bars were placed side by side in the open box. If Madame Pompadour had not cast strength magic, Damien would never have been able to lift it with his bare hands.
Anne looked up at Catherine in disbelief.
“What are these
.”
“Count Chen? This is a gift I gave to the Count. As Anne’s older sister, I think I should show this level of sincerity.”
No matter how rich Count Chen’s family was, this amount of gold bars was not an easy amount to consider. Count Chen’s expression and attitude, which treated her as an absent person, quickly became humble.
“Thank you.”
“Now that I’ve shown sincerity, I’ll have to bring it up sooner rather than later. I’m here today because I have something to tell you along with Anne’s wedding.”
“N, nothing! Feel free to say anything, sister-in-law. Aren’t we relatives now?”
At Count Chen’s request, Catherine opened her mouth at ease.
“I bought all the land that Chen Romance had borrowed. Please remove all your stuff within this week.”
A brief silence passed. Catherine stared at Count Chen and Anne alternately, with a smile on her face. After a while, Count Chen laughed in disbelief.
“What do you mean, sister-in-law? What land did you buy?”
“Didn’t you hear that, brother-in-law? Literally. I bought all seven lands from the former owner, Grand Duke Cesare, so I want you to take care of it.”
Unlike the last moment when she was embarrassed, Anne couldn’t even open her mouth and only held her wedding dress in her hand. Count Chen, who had only let out an empty laugh, called for Cesare, who was absorbed in reading. In a very earnest voice.
“Your Highness the Grand Duke? What is this
.”
“Miss Catherine is right. The investment ends today, Count.”
It was then that Count Chen seemed to have come to his senses. He took a step forward of Cesare and shouted.
“This is not right, Your Highness! Aren’t those lands the land that my father borrowed from you?”
“It’s borrowed land, so it means we’ll take it back.”
“The contract says it will be available to Chen Romance until the end of this year!”
Cesare closed the book at the rising voice. When his eyes met, Count Chen, who was exhaling harshly, closed his mouth late.
With everyone holding their breath, Cesare responded coldly to Count Chen’s argument.
“You seem to have overlooked a very important fact, Count. There are exactly two weeks left until the contract is renewed. Did you forget that I have been taking care of your family and renewing the contract at the end of the year regardless of the date?”
Count Chen’s expression turned into a belated realization of the terrible truth.
“I understand that the Count took the convenience I provided for granted. So, instead of in September, when the contract expires, you send someone every December, at the end of the year, right?”
The noise of the guests gradually grew louder.
“T, then I will buy the land.”
Cesare rejected Count Chen’s offer at once.
“I am not selling my land, Count. I’m sure your father told you? Grand Duke Cesare doesn’t sell his land, so to develop the family business, you must find another land to purchase.”
“Then how did you say that you dug the ground with that woman?”
Count Chen’s furious fingertips were pointed directly at Catherine. Cesare answered with an eye as if asking for something obvious.
“Miss Catherine asks me, do I know anything about the land used by Chen Romance? If she asks for it, I will give it to her.”
Catherine had a hunch about the misleading remark. Starting tomorrow, rumors like this will begin to circulate in imperial social circles. “Grand Duke Cesare fell in love with a woman from the countryside. He is willing to give away land that is not for sale!”
Count Chen seemed unwilling to dare to criticize Cesare. As he grabbed his head and let out a silent scream, Cesare tapped his tongue to comfort him.
“Don’t do that, Count Chen. I’m just investing. If it’s a business that’s shaken by the loss of just one person, it might be better to close it quickly and start over.”
Catherine also joined in consoling Count Chen with regret.
“Count Chen, I’m sorry that things have happened this way. For your information, I didn’t buy all the land with the Chen Romance brand in the mind of paying Anne for the crime.”
Anne bit her lip. Looking at the blank face, Catherine continued speaking casually.
“Don’t worry; it’s not because Anne stole my ex-fiancĂ© or because she’s accused of cheating on me on that subject. Anne is innocent. She has nothing to do with me.”
“C, Count
”
“Of course, I will follow in Chen Romance’s footsteps in the future, buying the Chen family’s coveted land first at triple the price! It has nothing to do with Anne, so don’t worry.”
Anne drew tears from her eyes as if she had waited. Unfortunately, Count Chen seemed unable to see his wife’s pitiful appearance as he contemplated how to handle the current situation.
It was then. A black shadow began to form in the blue sky. When she looked up, a giant turtle was approaching slowly.
“Queen.”
After leaving the cardinal to fulfill Catherine’s command to report, Queen returned and said.
「As ordered, the cardinal has been dumped into a distant lake. I can’t get rid of the smell of poop from my mouth.」
“Thank you, you did a great job.”
What Catherine really wanted was not Queen’s report.
“Oh, it smells fishy.”
Her real purpose was to induce Anne, who was sensitive to smell, to make rash remarks.
「
Smell fishy? Did you just tell me that I smell fishy with your dirty mouth?」
That’s why she dared to summon a devil with strong pride. Queen’s fierce voice resounded in the sky. The rolling blue eyes were directed towards Anne.
Surprised, Anne covered her mouth with both hands and instinctively shook her head.
“I, I never did that!”
「You didn’t? How dare you! To say that this Queen, recognized by the ocean’s ruler, the Queen of the sea, has a fishy smell!」
Anne shuddered and wrapped her shoulders in a voice ringing in the sky, and then a blue light began to wrap around her.
“Kyaa!”
“Anne!”
Count Chen hastily ran to Anne, but after her light faded, it was not the bride in her wedding dress that was left where she was. There lay a little green turtle alone.
「For the rest of your life, live like a fishy turtle. It will be a very useful life.」
Queen, who left a malicious word, was enveloped in a white bubble and disappeared.
Anne was so enchanted by it that she became a turtle. Aah, such a terrible thing happened! The guests all mocked each other, pretending to be worried and pointing their fingers at the bride of the Chen family, who became turtles.
“Oh my. How can there be such a shameful thing!”
“You mean the main character of the wedding is a turtle?”
There was no one on Anne’s side, not even a maid from the outskirts of OrlĂ©ans.
Count Chen, who was looking at the turtle on the grass with a blank expression on his face, rushed to Cesare.
“Your Highness Grand Duke! Please release the magic from my wife!”
Cesare shook his head.
“Queen is a high-ranking devil comparable to Lemor. If I take the devil’s place and untie the magic that Mrs. Chen has, how do I deal with it?”
“S, still, Grand Duke is still an Archmage, right? That devil—”
“That devil?”
The devil’s captain wrinkled his eyebrows at Count Chen’s hasty remarks. He leaned comfortably against the back of the chair with his legs crossed and commanded Count Chen.
“Then pay the price.”
Count Chen’s face quickly turned to despair. He looked like he had aged from sixty to eighty overnight.
“The price of saving your wife. Or are you going to ask me to invest again, just like your biological father did? But what can I get by investing in the Count’s wife? It doesn’t seem particularly useful.”
Cesare turned his gaze to the turtle with his arms on the table. All the guests’ eyes turned to the turtle, or to be more precise, the turtle Anne.
“She’s not as skillful as my Lady.”
All the guests’ eyes turned to Catherine.
“She doesn’t look as bold as my Lady.”
All the guests looked at Catherine with interest. ‘It seems that the woman of the Archduke is a bold wizard!’ Their murmur grew louder.
“It’s just a small, smelly turtle.”
With this, the newspaper’s headlines tomorrow morning will be updated once again: “Duke Cesare fell in love with a bold wizarding woman from the countryside. We are willing to give away even unsold land! Even become a fool!”
Count Chen’s wrinkled face could not overcome the shame, and it was time to turn red gradually. A roar of laughter erupted from somewhere.
The woman who came out from among the guests was Maggie. She approached Catherine with a throbbing sound of threatening heels.
“Then what about this, Unnie?”