Chapter 75

Chapter 75

Rosaline sincerely thought so.

‘Laria also became a princess, so why can’t I be an adopted daughter?’

Kallaudin made Laria his daughter-in-law simply because she was the daughter of a friend of Matilda. It would be ridiculous if he treated her, who looked just like Matilda, worse.

Of course, since she had led the conversation up to this point, Rosaline expected that Laria would be displeased and cheered as it was a good option. Otherwise, all of the preceding words would sound like pretense, so she had no choice.

After coming this far, Laria couldn’t change her words and only had one thing to say. So, Rosaline waited leisurely.

Everyone was waiting for Laria’s words to continue the conversation with Rosaline.

‘Hurry up and ask Kallaudin to do that!! Everyone knows that the Duke listens to everything you say!! Please!!! Hurry!’

“Cough, cough!”

Finally, Laria’s mouth opened.

‘Damn! To be sick now…’

“Cough, cough, cough—!!”

The sudden coughing did not stop easily.

“Laria! Are you all right?”

Evan next to her gave her water and looked at her, worried. Olivia and the Duke also looked worried and stopped eating.

“Couuuuugh!!!”

A small and cute-looking kid coughed roughly with all her body shaking. Rosaline also looked at her with worried eyes.

“I, I… bathroom—cough!”

“I’ll take you!”

Eventually, Laria staggered due to an unquenchable cough, and even Evan followed her, supporting her.

‘Doesn’t that look like a really bad disease?’

Rosaline was worried for a moment but suddenly became conscious of the table where the conversation was cut off. She swore inwardly.

She hadn’t gotten close to Kallaudin yet, so she wasn’t going to bring the word adoptive daughter herself…

‘What’s with the coughing coming up at that moment?!’

She was caught in a situation where only her inner feelings were discovered and couldn’t get any sympathy.

After a while, Laria and Evan came back.

“Laria, are you all right?”

Olivia asked anxiously, and she nodded.

“Yes, thank you.”

Rosaline wished for Laria to continue the previous topic, though after coughing, she said something else, apparently forgetting what she was talking about before.

“Ah, Evan said he ordered a camera.”

At that, Kallaudin sighed and opened his mouth.

“I said to buy one used by reporters though he made a fuss about not wanting to buy a second-hand camera and that he had to make a customized one.”

“Because it’ll have Laria’s name engraved on the camera’s body.”

Evan replied casually.

Seeing that, Kallaudin smirked and responded sarcastically back.

“As a result, it will take more than five years to take a picture of Laria for the first time.”

Olivia laughed out loud and intervened.

AD

“Then, wouldn’t it be worth buying a new product that is already finished for more money? Or, we can threaten the owner.”

“Lady Olivia…”

Laria slowly shook her head and took Evan’s arm with a smile.

“It’s all right. Even if it takes a few years for the first one, we can shoot a thousand copies that same day.”

“You can take pictures of the ceiling now, too.”

Kallaudin raised his hand as if taking a picture of the ceiling.

And then…

“Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!”

As soon as he finished speaking, Rosaline grabbed her stomach and laughed hard.

“Matilda was the only one who laughed at Duke Icard’s crappy jokes. Don’t ever look serious and do your best to rip your face apart.”

How well Rosaline laughed, even Laria opened her eyes wide and stared at her before muttering quietly.

“As expected, the method with high accuracy to check someone’s sincerity…”

[ T/N: I don’t know if you remember this, but Olivia once said to Laria that a person who laughs wholeheartedly at Duke’s jokes can’t be sincere in their actions lol. ]

“Huh? What did you say?”

Evan asked back.

However, Laria smiled, saying, “It’s nothing,” and started eating again.

* * *

‘Adoptive daughter? You sure dream big.’

Matilda’s family was not very good. It was a feudal lord’s household that worked in the region. Nevertheless, the scale of her hopes for the future was comparable to that of a kindergartener when she was aiming for the position of a princess in a school play.

“It’s too fishy…”

Olivia spoke, crossing her arms and frowning.

I was currently having tea time with Olivia. Evan went to the training ground for his sword training, and before that, he casually said, “I reserved four VIP seats because I want to enjoy the founding festival.”

‘No, you didn’t need to pay this much attention just because I said that I was looking forward to Foundation Day. Of course, I didn’t say I didn’t need it.’

“Thank you, I’m really looking forward to it! I’m so happy that we’re sitting next to each other. You must have worked so hard to get it!”

“It was a little difficult.”

‘I’m sure it’s Morand who had a hard time, but you sure are shameless…’

After sending Evan away, I went to Olivia’s room, and she seemed to keep thinking about Rosaline.

“Very suspicious.”

It was one of the reasons I invited Rosaline to the family dinner.

I wanted to make sure of her true feelings about Duke Icard because he would make at least one joke over the meal. And, there was also a purpose of showing that to Olivia.

“There is something she’s aiming for. You have to be on guard.”

Olivia used to be very wary of me for the same reason.

Of course, she must have tried to remain on guard until the end, although when I asked her to be my godmother, her resolve melted completely. I guess the fact that she had never received a godmother’s proposal weighed on her mind.

Anyway, after we became godmother and goddaughter, Olivia put everything aside and cared for me.

“I wonder what she’s up to, what clever scheme.”

“Hey…”

I smiled softly and said.

“Still, she resembles Lady Matilda a lot, so even the servants seem to be careless. I also want to respect Lady Matilda’s blood.”

“Sigh… You’re so nice that it’s frustrating. This is why I didn’t like you from the beginning.”

Olivia was annoyed.

“I heard Rosaline said she should be treated better in this mansion than you?”

‘No, who had told that rumor to her? …To find them and employ them for being so sensitive and witty.’

“Ah… Well, I’m not saying it’s wrong, but it bothers me that it’s being controversial like this for nothing.”

Laughter filled my heart.

“Are you going to listen to everything she says, and even give her your share of stuff?”

“Because she wants to have it… No matter how much Lisa says it’s mine, it’s still rude. I just didn’t want things to get noisy.”

Of course, because of my pitiful expression that day, the mansion became even noisier.

“Besides, it’s not even my position anyway. It was given to me by Duke Icard…”

“Thanks to you, we even received a medal, so what do you mean it’s not your position? You’re definitely Icard’s treasure.”

“Still…Rosaline’s words are not wrong. Just because I am a friend’s daughter, I have become Princess of Icard, who is full of power, wealth, and honor, so Miss Rosaline deserves the position of an adopted daughter.”

Planting the message of “Rosaline aims for Icard’s adopted daughter position for power, wealth, and honor,” I drank tea calmly as I watched Olivia’s face turn red.

‘As expected, the summary always has to be exciting to be catchy!’

So, Olivia… Now, hurry up and show me the dignity of the villain who grabs Rosaline’s hair and throws her away at the scream of “Who are you to aim for Icard’s place?!”

Nonetheless, my pounding expectations did not come true because Olivia only grinned her teeth but was no longer angry.

After being silent for a while, she only muttered.

“I’m sure Kallaudin knows everything.”

“…What? About what?”

“You don’t seem to know because you’re nice and trustworthy, but isn’t everything strange? A child that looks exactly like Matilda, that appeared on her anniversary.”

I thought it was really strange, too. Though without saying such a thing and only leaning my head, Olivia snorted and folded her arms.

“As if customized, even Matilda’s favorite clothes and eating habits.”

I swallowed dry saliva. I didn’t know that.

“I don’t know because you’ve never seen Matilda, but from intonation to unconscious habits, even food and facial expressions are all the same.”

“…Goodness.”

‘This is made on purpose.’

“Of course, it is a strange and suspicious situation, but…”

Olivia uttered with a sigh.

“Even though he knows everything, Kallaudin can’t let her go.”

Right. If the ultimate villain of the Empire didn’t realize her ulterior motives, then he couldn’t be qualified to be the ultimate villain.

“Because Matilda’s absence is still too much pain and weakness for him.”

I could tell now. What Rosaline was aiming for was the Duke of Icard. She didn’t care about the rest because she only had to control the mind of the final decision-maker, anyway.

Somehow, I used a strategy to make her final goal of being an ‘adopted daughter’ spit out, but originally, she was going to get closer to the Duke slowly and secretly make it look like a wish made it true.

“I heard that she’s still going to Kallaudin’s office, but he doesn’t seem to send her out.”

“…Pardon?”

“Matilda liked to paint. Although She called artists to buy their work, she also liked to draw herself. In particular, she often painted Kallaudin.”

I knew that Matilda was good at painting because of Redian’s work, but I didn’t know she even drew herself.

“I heard that she went in with an easel.”

I doodled on such a person and received gold coins… It was something I could do since I didn’t know anything.

“I guess he can’t let her go.”

Olivia shredded the cake she loved so much and gave a troubled expression.

Not me, Morand, and other servants of the mansion, nor Evan can interfere this time. It was not because Kallaudin didn’t know.

‘He lost the wife he loved so much, and adopted a relative who resembles that wife as his adopted daughter…’

They wrote the script well. The directing was pretty good, too. In addition, even the difficulty was easy since they were aiming for one person only.

However…

“Somewhat… that’s too much. I’m usually tolerant of others, but I don’t think this is right.”

A viewer called Laria was a bit more serious, so I’m thinking of placing the flag here.

“Still, I can’t help it. Even if I’m angry, even if she takes half of the Icard’s wealth… If Kallaudin feels a bit better, then that’s good.”

“But… godmother…”

“When Matilda died, I thought that Kallaudin would follow her to death, too. Like a crazy man, I didn’t even eat and stayed in bed. Now that he has doubled Icard’s fortune, it will be back to square one even if he loses about half.”

“….”

“It would be comfortable to think that he spent that money to buy a doll that resembles Matilda.”

Olivia’s face, who said so, was dark.

My mind suddenly became dull.

If money was at stake, it was a different story. It was rather annoying that she was already belittling me, though now she was even taking Evan’s half as well? In addition, he would gradually grow away from his father if every time he visits the Duke, all he hears was Matilda’s name.

I did things that crossed the moral line, but that girl was deplorable.

“Well… Wouldn’t it be okay to have one child that looks different like the Duchess in heaven?”

“Yes, that’s right. We can have one person like that, auntie.”

But, the place is mine.

That same afternoon I wrote a letter to Sven and sent it with Serena, who came on the pretext of medical treatment.

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