CH 13

It was really no laughing matter.

The day the top lord, who is the son of the Marquis of Firenze and who runs the business of the same name, decided to visit.

The servants who came out to greet him began to murmur at the sight from afar.

Even Albert was looking up with his mouth wide open, so I guess he said it all with his expression.

I, too, couldn’t keep my mouth shut as I watched Miller sitting on a huge, modern elephant-like animal.

“Long time no see, Liddell Catlan!”

The blond man shouted out with a triumphant expression. Because he was so far away that if he didn’t raise his voice, I wouldn’t be able to hear him.

There was an endless procession of carriages behind him, dressed in splendid costumes.

He was crazier than I thought……

On behalf of the owner who had no mind to greet the guest, the cold-hearted vassal standing by my side calmly opened his mouth.

“Welcome to Ensis.”

Are you crazy?

“…….”

Sein, you are crazy!

“…….”

Sein, completely ignoring my hand signal, came out with a polite expression and placed the teacup in front of Miller. It was completely similar to when Sir Roelich came to visit.

“Sein. I have a story I want to share with the lord, so can you spare us a moment?”

It was against etiquette to call another person’s vassal by name without permission, but he and Sein were old friends, so it was not a big deal.

At Miller’s order of driving him away, Sein immediately glanced at me, the owner.

I nodded reluctantly, and the loyal vassal then politely left the room silently.

As soon as Sein left, Miller, who was already arrogant, even crossed his legs and opened his mouth with a grin.

“It’s been a while, Lady Catlan? No, should I call you Baron Ensis now? Or should I call you Lord because this is your territory?”

“……Yes, it’s been a long time. Young master of Firenze.”

“Oh my, speak comfortably. We used to call each other by names in the past.”

This bastard? Is this the attitude of a person who came to do business? I narrowed my eyes, and Miller grinned.

“Oh, I didn’t get an invitation back then, so I couldn’t go to your wedding. It’s late, but I brought a small wedding present. What do you think, do you like it?”

Who in the world is crazy to call an ex fiance to a wedding?

Despite my absurd expression, Miller was busy saying things like, ‘The mansion is too small to fit all my presents.’

When we talk together here, the atmosphere will flow childishly as this guy wants.

“I’m sorry, but what qualifications are you here for? Top shareholder? Or as a blood relative of Firenze?”

If it is the former, I will stop that mouth of his that is speaking informally, and if it is the latter, he will be kicked out immediately.

However, Miller, who had been beaten once in a similar way before, changed the subject by shrugging at my thorny words.

“Why is the lord so stiff? We can just do business and talk about this and that as acquaintances. Well, I heard about it. Sir Roelich is in Ensis?”

It was also a topic I personally cared about.

I pondered for a while whether to casually participate in this conversation, or whether to draw a line again in search of my duty, and in the end I couldn’t overcome my curiosity, so I chose the former.

“…… Is there a rumor already?”

“Rumors are going to come out every time. It’s already widely spread. Soon, a play will be made with the Lord, Sir Roelich, and your husband. This is also a very popular gossip with young girls. Apparently, serving as a knight is a romance for young girls of that age.”

Teddius Roelich……I appreciate your loyalty, but…… You’ve given my reputation a lot of shit……

As I closed my eyes and pressed my temples tight, I heard Miller’s voice.

“…… So, did you really decide to let him stay at Ensis? Sir Roelich, I mean.”

“Well…… That’s what happened. He was too great for me to turn down.”

“The lord has a lot of people around her. o a loyal vassal and a reliable knight. Even a husband who’s very noble and pure?”

I raised my head at the sarcastic voice.

The blonde man had a subtle smirk as if he had suppressed his emotions.

For a moment, I knew what Miller, who was trying to pretend to be laid-back, ultimately wanted to say.

So I sighed and told him.

“Young master. It’s good to meet after a long time and say hello to each other. I still have a lot of work to do, so I won’t have much time to spare. Or shall we relieve our fatigue today and continue talking tomorrow?

“No, you don’t have to. We’re having a meaningful enough conversation, aren’t we? Or, what, do you think I’m clinging to you in a pathetic way?”

It’s pathetic enough…….

A lot of time can be wasted on this unproductive subject.

No, but what’s so unfair for this guy? I put my chin on my hands to hear about what he has to say.

However, I knew that even if I asked him to say something, this crooked man would not be able to express his true feelings anyway. He’ll be bluffing again and spouting his objective opinion.

“Young master. Are you still concerned about our one-sided breakup?”

So it was better to ask directly. Unsurprisingly, Miller looked at me in surprise.

“But it was the young master who gave me an excuse. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to break the engagement so easily.”

It was an engagement between the great families.

It was common for the children of a family of that size to be politically bound.

Levitea, Valencia, Catlan, Ophius, Firenze.

The fact that these five families were connected by blood was a fact that every citizen of the kingdom knew.

So, my life could have just flowed that way. In front of me…… In other words, I could have started a family with a man whose pretentiousness was his life.

No, if Miller’s affair (?) hadn’t happened, it would have definitely gone that way.

“That’s a misunderstanding, I……!”

“Yes, I knew it was a misunderstanding.”

The man’s eyes widened at my words.

Well, I was the one who pretended to be hurt in order to break the engagement, so it would be absurd to react like this now.

An incident occurred around the time I possessed and found out what kind of book this world was set in. It was a scandal that a drunken Miller had inappropriate contact with an anonymous lady on the balcony of a party.

Miller was always pretending to see me as his fiancée, but this time around, he changed his color and clung to me and said that it was a misunderstanding and that he had never betrayed my faith.

But as I remembered the future of this world, I wanted to play the role of the fiancée who was betrayed and hurt and demanded a breakup.

Nevertheless, the duke who overprotected me, who had lost my memory, broke the long-standing engagement even at the risk of a disadvantage.

Catlan’s vassals, who don’t know I’ve lost my memory, looked at me more sharply because of this, but…….

Wait. Does that mean my public image now is an ‘immature young girl who was betrayed by an unfaithful fiance and married a gardener in the mansion hoping to find true love’?

Thinking about it that way, I could see the impact that Teddius Roelich had on his reputation could be viewed as cute.

“Then why……”

At Miller’s sullen voice, I spoke with my chin on my hand.

“I’ve been thinking for a long time that Young master and I wouldn’t fit together.”

Miller, of course, had a cute side.

As the only son of the Marquis, he was loved and grew up to be pretentious and arrogant. On the contrary, there was a side of him where he was naive for an aristocrat.

Nor was he that bad either. He just likes to spend money, and he acts in a frivolous style.

Rather, he was a person who would only live to look at his wife when he got married, or to live in captivity with his wife.

But Miller was a typical aristocrat of this world, and it seemed that he didn’t even love me.

Above all, he was a person who could never leave the capital.

“It’s not, right? You mean, you just broke up the engagement for that reason?”

The man said huffing.

That would be ridiculous. I don’t know, but there must have been a number of projects going on behind the scenes between the Firenze and Catlan families, taking advantage of our engagement.

Putting all the pros and cons aside, he would not understand why I suddenly had a ceremony with the gardener of my mansion.

However, from my point of view, if it wasn’t for that reason, I wonder what kind of great reason I would have to break up.

I wanted to run away from the approaching future, and he wasn’t a good fit for my escape companion.

“……Then why…… That, it was that man?”

Miller asked.

Jerk, rascal, bastard. As he paused, all the words that might come out later went through my head.

I glanced at the man who seemed to be heating up more than necessary.

Could it be that he secretly liked Liddell, the young lady, before I possessed her?

With that in mind, I was sorry to have unintentionally broken apart the relationship between the two, but I had no choice but to think that it was better to break up with Miller.

Living with a husband who sees me as someone else’s shadow for the rest of my life is the worst thing that can happen.

“Why did you marry a man who had no status, no wealth, no power?”

Uh, so that’s the only reason. Did it hurt your pride that much? This is why you are a bastard who feeds off on pride.