/
When I came out, I met an unexpected face I thought I would miss.
“Rubetriaaa!”
It was Victor.
“Oh, Brother-”
“You idiot! Didn’t you say you wanted to lose weight by exercising?!”
“Ugh.” Feeling like my eardrums would be torn, my hands automatically went up, but other hands covered my ears before me. I looked up, and it was Lark. He smiled apologetically when our eyes met.
“You said you were going to work out! So why did you give up and cheat again? There’s no such thing as medicine to lose weight!”
“Enough, Sir Victor.” Lark put me behind him and stopped Victor.
During my two weeks of isolation, because Viego monopolized the once-a-day visitation ticket to outsiders, I hadn’t seen Victor’s face in the meantime.
He just stomped his feet and heard the incident.
‘Looks like he was very worried.’
It was a situation where his immature younger sister wanted to lose weight and sought medicine, causing a huge stir… It wasn’t that I couldn’t understand a brother’s feelings of scolding his sister as soon as they met after a long time.
“Your Highness, please move. She should be thoroughly scolded.”
“Ah, don’t. Dad and Brother Viego have already scolded me.”
Frankly, I hadn’t been scolded. Using Lark as a shield, I stuck my head out from behind him and shook it.
“I must scold you too!”
“I don’t want to!”
“Sir Victor, stop it. She was locked up for two weeks and needed to depart as soon as the trial ended. How tired she must be.”
Victor’s expression softened as Lark calmed him down. Still pouting his tightly pursed lips, Victor let out a sharp breath as if trying to control his anger. “What the hell… How are you going to be alone… for a year. Ugh!” As expected from Victor’s expression as he nervously tousled his hair, there was more concern than anger.
I felt a little sorry for Victor, who would be upset without knowing the circumstances. Hesitantly, I came out from behind Lark and grabbed Victor by the hem of his clothes.
“I’ll write you a letter, Brother…”
“Damn…” Victor, who was looking down with his tight lips twitching, soon hugged me. “… Don’t starve like an idiot to lose weight. You will binge when you’re hungry, and it’s more counterproductive.”
“Mm.”
“Don’t cry… A year goes by so quickly…”
“Mm.”
“… We can visit you once a month with the investigation team, so wait for me.”
“Mm.”
“What about the attendants?”
“I have Rebecca. I’ll go to the Lubon villa first. Also, Viego told me to bring his secretary with me.”
“What about the escorts?”
“There’s no need to worry because His Highness the Crown Prince has attached a lot.”
“Huu, you’ll get bitten by mosquitoes, so make sure to close the door in the evening before you sleep…”
“Summer is over… But I’ll lock the door well.”
“Alright. Father and Brother might not answer your call because they’re busy, so if anything happens, you should write to me first.”
“Ah, okay.”
“Ha… seriously, you…” After letting me go, Victor quickly raised his hand and pinched my cheeks tightly without allowing me to escape.
“Ah!”
“You have to be scolded! You have to get scolded! Huh!”
“Agh! Aaaagh!”
“Oho. That’s enough.”
Fortunately, thanks to Lark’s help, I could avoid the tragedy of getting my cheeks torn off.
Leaving behind Victor, who continued to chatter for a long time after that, I quickly got on the carriage. As Lark, who was in charge of escorting me to Lubon, took his place beside me, the carriage began to depart slowly.
As I opened the window and greeted Victor, I raised my head at the gaze I suddenly felt. It was my dad who was looking out from the third-floor room.
“Dad!”
“…”
Even from afar, his sullen look was still there, but he didn’t ignore my last greeting.
“I’ll be back!”
My father’s hand swayed slightly as I shook mine with all my might.
***
“Viego! Even though it’s the imperial family, isn’t this too much?!” As soon as Rubette left for Lubon, Molga came to Viego and spoke.
Viego, who was examining the pile of papers, raised his eyes toward Molga. “Which part?”
“You know Rubette well, too. She knew nothing. Didn’t she go to the investigation team to turn herself in because she was worried about the 5th Princess?”
“She did.”
“His Highness the Crown Prince is also being too much. He clearly knows that the 5th Princess barely escaped the sentence of isolation because of Rubette, but instead of appreciating, he’s going to keep an eye on our duchy for a year?”
“…”
“Why did you agree to this? Even if His Excellency the Duke said he would cooperate, shouldn’t you have stopped him?”
“Grandma,” Viego muttered in a low voice. Molga was startled by the strangely different atmosphere from before. After opening his mouth heavily, Viego stared at Molga for a while without speaking immediately.
A brief conversation with Lark flashed through his mind.
“Thank you so much for your cooperation. If nothing had poked me, I wouldn’t have allowed the investigation team to be placed at the duke’s mansion so casually.”
“What do you mean? Poked? Are you suspicious of Rubette?”
“Mmm, no. Why would I be suspicious of the princess? Nobody would have gained trust from me quickly like the princess.”
“Then why do you speak like that-”
“As I said, it’s not because there’s a problem with the princess. But there’s something like the circumstances inside the family that should be known. You know, everyone has a dirty back story that they don’t want to show.”
“Don’t worry. As the head of the household, I take pride in managing the family more transparently than anyone else.”
“Yes, yes. I also believe in you just looking at your willingness to cooperate… But someone with a really bad back story would be upset, don’t you think?”
“…”
“… But what about Madam Molga? Is it okay not to ask her permission in advance?”
Why had he brought up Molga there? Lark’s unexpected question must have a base in it.
“It’s about proving Rubette’s innocence, so why would Grandma object? Don’t worry. She’ll be more welcoming than anyone else.”
“Okay. We’ll see.”
However…
“Tell the crown prince that it is unfair. Putting a family under the supervision of the imperial family… They will look down on us from outside.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that.”
“… What?”
“It is not unfair at all. We need to cooperate with it since we’re involved in the case of the imperial family.”
“Rubette is not at fault-!”
“Yes. We are family, so we trust Rubette. But everyone else doesn’t. To definitively prove her innocence, we must cooperate with the investigation team.” Viego, who spoke with a determined expression, added, “Grandma doesn’t want Rubette to be constantly suspected. I thought you would nod your head more readily than anyone else.”
“No, that’s-”
“Is there any other reason you are concerned about the deployment of the investigation team?”
“Any other reason?”
Viego’s eyes quickly scanned the bewildered look that passed over Molga’s face. Soon he said, “Otherwise, please say no more about this matter and leave.”
“…”
Wanting to persuade Viego further, Molga hesitated here and there for a long time biting her lip, but eventually swallowed a sigh and took a step back. When Molga left, Viego’s eyes turned to the closed office door.
“Brother, you know…”
“I don’t think Grandma likes me very much.”
And what had he replied to Rubette, who had once hesitated to confide in him?
“Are you drawing a line to Grandma and the twins because she was a mistress once?”
Yes, he’d just brushed it off as his little sister’s complaint.
“Hah…” Viego lightly touched his forehead and tilted his heavy head with a sigh. His eyes shook in confusion like never before.
***
Bang, bang, bang.
Morga, who left Viego’s office with an angry gait, finally calmed down her excitement at the sight of the investigators camped out in front of her room.
Her smiling expression turned upside down the moment she entered the room.
‘Seriously, this annoying girl-!”
It was clear that the imperial investigators were placed in the mansion not to prove Rubette’s innocence but to keep an eye on herself.
‘The crown prince has already been firmly embraced by that wench Rubette. As expected, it was a good choice to change the route quickly. No, but I really don’t understand.’
Molga gnashed her teeth.
The crown prince, Lark, had probably been told by Rubette that she had been abused. However, it was difficult to guess the exact reason why he supported her so.
‘It’s none of his business. So is it for a sense of justice? No, rather than that, I think it’s more about marrying her to get hold of the Diollus family.’
Thinking, Molga shook her head again.
‘Is the crown prince a fool? If that’s the case, my daughter is there too. Even though I was a mistress, our Lillia would be much better than a failure without a spirit…’
If so, it was clear that Rubette, who had changed 180 degrees, was doing something to win over the crown prince.
Otherwise, there would have been no reason for the crown prince to choose Rubette…
‘I don’t know how she lured the crown prince… What a great girl. What kind of person would change like this just because she survived death? Does this make sense?’
She recalled Rubette’s last expression when she smirked before her face.
Angry, Molga hit the table with a bang.
“…!”
At that time, a letter was placed on the table still shaking from the shock. It was sealed with a familiar wax seal. Molga, who had finally found the letter, was startled and quickly picked it up and looked around.
“This crazy, really…”
Since the investigators were all over the place, they should pay keen attention to each letter sent and received. Opening the envelope and checking the letter, there was only one line written on it.
[Why aren’t you sending money this month?]
Molga’s expression immediately turned into a stern frown.
The sender of the letter was Count Bert, her useless biological father.
‘The old man is never behind.’
Gritting her teeth, Molga unfolded a piece of paper and began to fill in her reply.
Things got tough. The imperial family is watching me, so don’t write for the time being.
And why can’t the 2nd Prince, that stupid bastard, do things right?
Molga, who had been scratching with the pen, let out a long sigh and shook her head.
‘I can’t say this much.’
Soon, Molga lit the candle, burned the unfinished letter, and prepared to leave.