Chapter 146

Chapter 146. The Wicked Woman Comes Ashore, Part IV

Shortly thereafter, rumors circulated that the Crown Prince separated himself completely from the Aristocratic Party. It was rumored that he condemned the deep-rooted corruption of the Aristocratic Party and declared that he would clean it up.

That was why the number of nobles who spared themselves was increasing, and the Count, who had not otherwise sinned but also the main figure of the Aristocratic Party, stayed in the mansion, forgetting to find a mate for Aria. It was an exquisite timing as if to relieve her anxiety. Thanks to that, Aria was relieved.

“I think you should follow the princess to the end. She said she had other plans.”

Mielle, who was recovering at some point and was beginning to move in and out of the Duke's mansion, told the Count who was in agony. It was the first dinner she had attended in a long time. Unlike before, her subdued eyes allowed Aria to guess her change.

“Well, I've already been offered a proposal to unite the innocent nobles.”

However, the Count was skeptical. Not only that, but most of the nobles who did not commit any crime were the same. He meant that there was no need to get involved. It was because there were already many examples of breaking up and bankruptcy.

In addition, the princess had been praised more than anyone else as a tool to subdue the Crown Prince, and now that she could not perform her role, it was wise to leave the sinking ship. The division of the Aristocratic Party accelerated as the Duke was about to give up trying to use her.

“... Father!”

Mielle raised her voice to call the Count, but the Count just ignored her and kept sipping his wine. He was a perfect example of a nobleman who could abandon his companion in order to keep his power, so he kept his mouth shut and continued to eat.

“Mielle, your father is in trouble.”

Aria said soothingly on behalf of the Countess. Mielle responded to Aria, looking askance at her,

“You're saying that because you don't know anything.”

The Count and Countess were surprised because of her strange reaction. They looked at Mielle with their eyes wide opened. It was a reply that Aria hoped and expected.

Miele, who she had encountered once in a while, suddenly revealed her thorns and let out her poison. She seemed to realize that nothing could be achieved by pretending to be nice. But it wouldn't change. Aria smiled awkwardly with a pretty hurt face.

“Ah... is that so? I think I was being presumptuous. I was just saying that you better obey your father's wishes for the peace of the family…”

“... Mielle, I think you'd better stop talking about this like Aria says.”

In rare cases, the Count sided with Aria. Mielle was nervous and Aria was apologetic. It looked as if the two were in a twist. The servants and maids, who had been waiting on, were of the same mind. After Emma's incident, they thought Mielle had gotten weird, and they gossiped.

“Mielle, I think our father will make a wise choice enough.”

Cain, who was listening quietly, also refused to take Mielle's side. In the end, the isolated Mielle left the dining room without even half emptying her long-awaited dinner.

Stuck in her room and crying her eyes out, she headed straight to the Duke's mansion the next day at the break of dawn. The princess, who knew Mielle was in a bad shape, urged Oscar to please her.

“How could they...? How could they do that? I got a ring from Oscar...”

What she worried about most was Oscar's future. Oscar comforted Mielle, who was crying.

“Don't worry so much. Probably we can change the public's opinion very soon. ”

“Do you mean the princess is preparing?” Mielle blinked her eyes and asked.

Oscar nodded and affirmed, “Yes. You can hear good news soon. Then we can convince the Count again. We can also gather the scattered Aristocratic Party again.”

When Mielle heard the explanation, she took out her handkerchief. She wiped off her fine eyes and straightened her face.

“... I'm sorry. It seems like I was a little nervous these days because a lot of bad things just keeps on happening.”

Oscar's expression dimmed subtly at the words ‘bad things'. He must have remembered what had happened to Aria not long ago, and the fact that it had a lot to do with his sister. Of course, this little girl in front of him was too.

“You must be worried sick. You'd better have some warm tea and make yourself feel at home.”

He tried his best not to go against her mood. He could only do what his sister told him to do. He had no choice since he was lacking experience and the connections. His only option was to carry favors for her as if he was dead or to sharpen his sword for the sake of the occasion.

He blamed himself for being so bad that he was named the successor to the Duke family, and he ordered his waiting servant to change her tea.

“Thank you very much, Mr. Oscar.”

Mielle nodded with a blush at his tender affection. She was able to recover her happiness because he was nice to her in each passing day, and she was able to escape the pain of losing Emma.

She already realized that it wasn't because he purely liked her, but it was somehow good. There was nothing more she could wish for other than Oscar being around her.

* * *

A few days later, the Duke sent a letter to the Count, not Mielle. It was a letter that arrived secretly at dawn, avoiding the public's attention. After reading the letter that arrived from the Duke's family, the Count had been in serious trouble for some time looking for information. He had also met frequently with other acquainted aristocrats.

Sometimes they would visit the mansion of the Count, but they took Cain quietly to the lounge without even giving a formal greeting for what was so much to hide.

‘What the hell is going on?'

Aria, suspicious of this, was standing on the first floor just in time for their return. It was already late at night when the Count and some aristocrats, who had come as guests and who had never thought there would be anyone else with them, tried to hide their astonished faces and avoided her gaze.

“Aria, what are you doing here at this hour?”

Cain, who followed the Count, also hurried to Aria's side in astonishment. He spread his clothes over Aria's rather light-looking interior suit and said, “Go upstairs quickly.”

“I heard we had guests, but I'm sorry I didn't even say hello. But I think it was wrong for me to meet them like this… I'm sorry.”

When she said that it was not intentional, the afflicted cleared their throats loudly and denied it. One of the nobles said, casting a disagreeable glance at Aria,

“I think it's an inevitable choice for the sake of this pretty and kind-hearted lady. If this continues...”

“... I get it, I get it. I'm on my mind, so let's go back.”

The Count pushed the back of a young nobleman who was trying to say something. Cain and Aria were left in the hall because they went out the door together, saying, “Let's go back now because it's already late.”

So Aria's gaze went to Cain. Cain had been eyeing Aria's light interior suit since then. Then, at Aria's gaze, he was surprised and said, “Go up.”

“I'm worried. You look busy too…”

‘Yeah, he'd know something.' Aria, who changed her target, narrowed her distance to Cain because the Count and the nobles disappeared so quickly that she could not find any information.

“I was sad because I couldn't see you even at dinner time.”

Far from being sad, she had been busy avoiding Cain's eyes every time she had run into him. As she changed her posture and approached suddenly, Cain's face heated up uncontrollably. It was an inevitable instinct.

“... There won't be anything to worry about. Things will work out soon so make sure you do what you wanted to do. Oh, maybe you should learn a foreign language. Well, you don't have to do it right away.”

‘Foreign language?' Arya's eyes frowned faintly at Cain's advice. ‘Suddenly, a foreign language...? Are they all going to be exiled together? No matter how scattered they were by the Crown Prince's ruse, if the remaining nobles seek asylum in other countries at once, chaos will ensue within the empire.'

But if they do that, a war would break out, and they would never go that far unless they were crazy. Unable to guess what was going to happen, she tried to get more information from Cain, but after the Count returned from seeing the nobles off, she was forced to go up to her room.