CH 169

“I can’t believe you’re ‘that’ younger sister the Duke of Euclid has been looking for all this time…….”

She must be quite acquainted with Hermann seeing that she sincerely looked surprised.

“And you’re also the lover of Dietrich Lagrange?” 

‘We're not lovers, though.’

I shrugged, denying Olivia’s lament inwardly. 

“Since you are able to wield both of them, you must have nothing to fear from this world.”

I didn’t think I have a hold on Dietrich and Hermann to weild them, but I didn’t deny her words. 

The terrified Olivia asked me with a pale face.

She must have misunderstood something and her trembling fingers revealed her apprehension.

“No matter how much I apologize, it would be of no use, would it? We’ve messed with Euclid and Lagrange at the same time, after all…..I can’t even ask the House of Lords for help.”

I let out an exclamation at Olivia’s dispirited voice, “Oh.”

Lagrange and Euclid were families whose respective powers were equal to those of the imperial family.

So, how frightening would it be to imagine that such two families could work together to destroy them?

“That’s–”

Bang–!

“Not–”

“Madam!!!”

I tried to reassure her by telling her that it wouldn't happen, but situations seldom helped me.

“Please save me, Madam!”

I turned to look at Hans, who had been thrown into the room, and Dietrich, who was stepping on his fallen head, emerging through the gap of the door that was roughly opened.

“Why are you taking so long?” 

He asked like a sigh as he stepped on Hans’ neck, who had been screaming, to the point that he lost consciousness. 

I place my hands on my sides at his seeming rebuke. 

“I told you not to follow me. Why is it so hard for you to trust me?”

He had planned to send Zagan and Amon earlier, too. 

As I heaved a deep sigh and even shook my head, he moved his chin as if he had done nothing wrong. 

“I’m not the only one who followed you.” 

I turned my head toward the window he was pointing at and touched my forehead in shock.

Zagan, who was carrying Veronica, Yuric, and even Hermann all at once, was sweating profusely and repeatedly flapping his wings laboriously. 

“.......Heavens.”

The poor demon, who had been knocking on the window with his fingernails, was unable to bear the weight of three people so he leaned downwards, and then, under Veronica's bullying, whimpered upwards again.

I hurriedly rushed and burst open the window, letting Zagan in. 

“A demon? Is that perhaps the famous demon of Lagrange?” 

Surprised by the appearance of Zagan, Olivia started to hiccup. 

After Veronica and Yuric, followed by Hermann, stepped on the windowsill and entered the room, she fell backward screaming as if she was about to faint.

“D-Duke!” 

Although Hermann’s reputation was great with the Southern nobles, she was trembling even more than when I scared her using the name of Lagrange.

“Aren’t you Madam Denborough?” 

Hermann's eyes widened as if puzzled by the situation, and he reached out to help her up from her fall.

The moment Olivia, who was looking up at him with tears in her eyes, carefully placed her hand on his, “Don’t tell me, Countess Denborough is one of the people who tormented Anissa?” 

Hermann clicked his tongue briefly and let go of her hand without waiting for her to answer.

“Oh my!”

Thud. 

So Olivia, who was trying to lean on Hermann and raise her body, had no choice but to fall back on her hips.

‘And now he’s also stirring things up.’

I felt sorry for Olivia, who was only guilty of having a jerk like Donovan as her nephew, so I couldn’t help but stepped forward.

“Hermann, today is the first time I met with the Countess, so please don’t get the wrong idea. Also, Countess.”

“Ye-Yes?!” 

Olivia responded politely and bowed her body, forgetting that she was treating me disrespectfully earlier. 

I chuckled at her excessive manner and reached out my hand. 

“First, please sit down. The conversation might take a while.” 

She grabbed my hand, scrambled to get up, and yielded to me the large armchair she was sitting in.

“Please sit here, my lady.” 

“Thank you.”

When I sat down, Dietrich closed his mouth and stood next to me. 

As if Hermann didn’t want to lose as well, he stood on my other side so I had no choice but to speak while sandwiched between the two men.

‘..........This is suffocating, you people.’

“Countess, I’m sorry but Donovan is probably dead.” 

I tugged on Dietrich’s sleeve, who was pretending not to know anything and looking indifferent.

“Dietrich.”

“Why.”

“What about the Viscount?” 

“…….”

He did not intend to answer my question and suddenly began to stare blankly into space.

So he’s dead. 

‘Well, he deserves to die because he knows his son was easily molesting powerless women frequently, but he hadn’t done anything about it.’

Instead of waiting for his mouth to open, I looked back at Olivia with a small sigh.

“It seems that the Viscount is dead as well.” 

“I see.” 

Olivia showed little interest in my words that her nephew and brother have died.

“Are you all right?”

“It’s not my brother’s safety I’m worried about but the Viscount of Oily, Princess.”

I briefly nodded my head at her calm words. 

‘Well, just because they were family related by blood doesn’t necessarily mean they care about each other.’

There were always enough people with poor family relationships than others.

“The Viscountess’ seat was originally empty…..Is there anyone prepared in the subsidiary family to be the successor?” [1]

“How could a mere Viscounty, which is not even a Grand Duchy or a Countdom, have a subsidiary family?”

“Don’t you have any relatives?”

“There may be distant relatives, but they live all their lives farming and are illiterate.”

It would take a long time to find someone to lead the Viscounty if there was no successor candidate prepared in advance for emergencies. 

‘This is a headache.’

I sighed quietly, scratching the side of my head.

‘The Countess is already married and left her house so she’s not officially a person from the Viscount of Oily.’

The Countess, who understood what I meant, opened her mouth as she sneaked a glance into Dietrich.

“Did you want to formally take Lindsay and the head maid?”

“Yes. But this is troublesome because the master of the Viscounty isn’t here.” 

“The head maid is bound by a life contract, and the maid named Lindsay owes a lot of debt. She also has ten years left on her contract.” 

At some point, she had pulled out a calculator and Olivia’s eyes sparkled as she pounds on the abacus. 

Tak, tap. 

The sound of her moving the abacus gently echoes in the drawing room.

‘Though she’s afraid of Dietrich and Hermann, she still thought of making a profit?’ 

I judged that Olivia’s establishment seemed to be reliable seeing as she could quickly change her demeanor into that of a merchant even when standing in front of the two pillars of the empire.

“The servants signed a contract with the Viscount so I can’t hand over them easily but, I’ve calculated the approximate amount…….”

“I’ll buy it.” 

Dietrich stepped forward, cutting Olivia's words about asking me to pay a formidable price to the head of the Viscounty. 

“What are you going to buy?”

“The Viscounty.”

“Pardon? You’re saying you’re going to buy the Viscounty?”

Olivia’s surprised eyes widened as if they would fall out of their sockets. 

He nodded briefly as he took the abacus she was holding like her life and smashed all the transparent glass beads on top of it.

“That’s right. I’ll buy everything.”

“What?” 

My jaw dropped at Dietrich’s ridiculous remarks. 

I only wanted to bring the head maid and Lindsay. What’s the use of buying the useless Viscounty? 

“You’re suddenly going to buy someone else’s family like this?”

“I was going to buy it anyway.”

Trample on it or steal it away.

I bit my tongue, trying hard to ignore his unspoken words.

“.......But why?”

“As your souvenir.” 

I didn’t need such a huge souvenir.

Dietrich continued as he pressed his fingers against my wrinkled forehead.

“This is the place where the You, whom I didn’t know, existed.” 

“…….”

“I demolished the mansion in a whirlwind, so I should at least take the house.”

“.........Ho.” 

He held up his pen as if to write a contract with Olivia in front of me, who was stunned.

“Wait. What’s the big deal if I had stayed here for a while? Why waste money like this?”

It was so far from the North that the money it would take to manage would be more than the revenue from this booger-sized but small territory.

“Anyway, won’t it be a property for you to manage once you’re in charge of the Duchy’s internal affairs?” 

My eyes widened at Dietrich’s out-of-the-blue remarks and stammered.

“Wh-Why would I be in charge of the internal affairs?” 

It was only in the past that I looked at it for a while under the pretext of preparing for the rose war, and it was not originally my job to manage the Grand Duchy.

As if puzzled by my surprised face, Dietrich raised his indifferent eyebrow.

“The internal affairs are originally taken care of by the Duchess.”

“So why am I in charge of the internal affairs? I’m not the Duchess.”

“…….”

“Who’s going to marry you?”

Crack. 

A fountain pen made of iron crumbled into powder in his hand.

NOTE: 

[1] I’m not sure why it says the Viscountess’ seat is empty when the previous chapters did mention the wife of the Viscount here and there.