Chapter 117

‘Besides.’

It wasn’t as if the people here liked Nerys Truydd so much because she was good at flattering others. In the end, if you won over the Grand Duke, the rest would always follow.

After thinking for a moment, Catherine spoke.

“Your Excellency, keep insisting His Grace meets with me. The best thing is for him to be so sick of it he won’t throw us out, but he can’t stand it either. Oh, and please yell at me.”

“What?”

The Marquis was dumbfounded. Catherine laughed.

“Why do you not get it? You have to get angry with me. Loud enough for people outside to hear. Say you don’t know why you even brought me here, that nothing will come of it if I’m so timid, that I’m useless—harsh words, enough to make anyone listening feel bad. Right now. Keep it up until I tell you to stop.”

The Marquis did as he was told. Since these were all things he harbored inside, it wasn’t even that difficult.

After a few minutes, Catherine pressed her ear to the door leading outside, then slowly signaled the Marquis.

The shouting Marquis ended it appropriately, saying, “If you’re going to act like that, get out of my sight!” or something similar. Catherine, still in her haphazard state after bathing, rushed out of the room as if she’d truly been thrown out.

Bang. She slammed the door behind her and, like someone overwhelmed with emotion, took deep breaths. Then she closed her eyes sadly.

‘Now.’

One, two, three.

She counted silently, and when she opened her eyes—

“…Miss Haricote.”

Ellen, with a shocked expression, was staring at her—just as Catherine had hoped.

The Marquis disliked Ellen for what he saw as disrespect, but Catherine knew better. Ellen’s attachment to Cledwyn, her former master’s son, ran deep.

So what a fitting scene this was?

A “guest lady” showing she was fundamentally different from the Marquis himself—something for the Grand Duke’s ear.

Catherine composed her expression, feigning distress, and called out to Ellen in an intentionally familiar way.

“Eh, Ellen.”

“Miss Haricote, what… Did His Excellency just shout at you?”

“Please… just pretend you didn’t notice. It’s nothing.”

“How can this be nothing? Does this happen often?”

Ellen’s pupils trembled. In those perceptive eyes, Catherine could tell Ellen was already drawing conclusions about things left unsaid.

A poor, insignificant family, a young lady easy to push around, a greedy Marquis… In Ellen’s mind, the scenario must be falling perfectly into place.

‘Shouldn’t be difficult.’

She’d surely seen something like this before.

Stage one was a success. That’s how Catherine saw it.

(T/N: Ohh, I like her new opponent. Let’s see how Neryss will handle her.)

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“I heard Lady Ellen gave Miss Haricote a room of her own, as far from the Marquis’s as possible, and a better one too.”

“You did well. In truth, it wasn’t proper for a distant relative and a young lady to share a room.”

Nerys’s voice in response to Dora’s report was utterly indifferent.

The junior administrator listening grew frustrated inside. Had Lady Ellen lost her mind? She wasn’t even old enough for that!

Everyone in the castle despised the Marquis. So, they hated the woman he brought with him as well. The purpose behind bringing a young woman at this time was painfully obvious, which made it worse.

‘He went to see Lord Hilbrin and made a fool of himself again, I hear.’

As a subordinate of the Advisor, this junior administrator had some ability—enough to know that the Marquis had tried to badmouth “our Advisor” to Hilbrin and was humiliated.

Yet now, the head maid Ellen, who should be most attuned to His Grace’s feelings, was bestowing coats and rooms on the woman the Marquis had brought.

Moreover, rumors had started to spread about the Marquis kicking her out of his room in a bathrobe, stirring up a subtle mood of sympathy for her.

The junior administrator had been annoyed every day lately.

‘Our Advisor is the only proper consort for His Grace!’

So what if the guest lady was pitiful? With someone like that backing her, it wouldn’t matter if she had the best reputation in the world—Maindulante wouldn’t have her!

‘How annoying!’

“Are you all right with this, my lady?”

Dora, thinking much the same, asked cautiously. Nerys gave a wry smile.

“Why wouldn’t I be? Ellen’s well within her rights to do as she pleases.”

The administrator nearly burst with frustration. How could she be so composed? What if that strange woman caused trouble?

Regardless, Nerys immediately shifted the conversation to other work, and the administrator soon got caught up in the paperwork.

While the administrator buried herself in documents, Nerys glanced out the window.

She sighed inwardly.

‘Am I all right?’

Dora couldn’t possibly know what Nerys was truly feeling, yet she asked such a question, as if naively believing in a future full of hope Nerys herself couldn’t see.

Since the last tournament, Cledwyn and Nerys still hadn’t had a private conversation. To outsiders, they acted perfectly cordial, but it was clear things weren’t the same as before.

She believed Cledwyn was disappointed with her now. Surely, his feelings for her had cooled.

After receiving so much help, when asked if she liked him even a little, she’d replied coldly. Who would keep caring for someone like that?

But what else could she have said?

Cledwyn would have to marry someday. The sooner, the better.

And whoever he ended up with, it would not be Nerys Truydd.

So Nerys had no more reason than anyone else in Maindulante to be angered by the Marquis and Catherine’s schemes.

This situation was absurd, and it was certainly an insult to Maindulante. But—

‘I’ll just have to wait and see. If I want to find out.’

Just what were those two counting on, barging in here so recklessly—surely they weren’t completely ignorant of who Cledwyn Maindulante was?

‘It was strange as well.’

Because Dora and her subordinates kept bringing her information, Nerys knew exactly what Catherine was up to.

Despite being a noble lady and a relative of a great family, Catherine greeted even the lowest servants with ease. She spoke to errand boys as if they were equals.

She lacked etiquette, but never left a bad impression. She always looked people in the eye, and her smile seemed genuinely to wish happiness on others.

It was a posture suited to winning the favor of the straightforward people of Maindulante. If her goal was to make a good impression, it made sense.

‘But it’s pointless if she doesn’t win over Cledwyn.’

Catherine was clever—there was no way she didn’t know that. Which meant she must be trying to appeal to Cledwyn in some way.

But what, exactly?

‘The former Grand Duchess’s memory?’

It seemed clear that Ellen’s kindness toward Catherine was related to the former Grand Duchess—she resembled her more and more, the more Nerys looked at the old portrait. Their eyes were the same color, and even the courage in their smiles was remarkably alike.

‘It’s not strange, since she’s a relative.’

For a house like Tipion, there must have been countless distant branches no better than strangers. The Marquis might have picked a girl for his grandson based solely on her eye color.

The fact that he’d brought Catherine, who wasn’t even a great noble’s daughter, suggested he was counting on the resemblance between the two women. He believed his grandson would react to someone who looked like the mother who’d died before his eyes as a child.

‘Disgusting man. Using his grandson for power plays as if he’s just marrying off livestock.’

But if the whole plan was simply to stir memories of Edith Tipion, who had married the Grand Duke for political reasons, Catherine’s behavior was far too… nonaristocratic.

Just then, someone knocked on the door.

“Ahem.”

It was the very person she’d been thinking of. The Marquis entered without waiting for an answer after knocking on her office door. Nerys greeted him calmly.

“What brings you here, Your Excellency?”

“There’s something I’d like to discuss.”

“Go ahead, please sit.”

The administrator scooped up all the documents scattered on the table and retreated to their own office. Dora smoothly served tea.

Without waiting for an invitation, the Marquis took the seat of honor and spoke.

“My grandson must be quite busy these days?”

Since the first day, the Marquis had barely had a conversation with Cledwyn. Nerys sat across from him and nodded.

“Yes.”

Such firm affirmation briefly left the Marquis speechless. But what could he do? He could only vow to scold his grandson later.

“Fine. I’d meant to say this to my grandson, but I’ll tell you instead. We’re staying in the main palace now, yes?”

“That’s right.”

“Even so, my Catherine is a young lady with no fiancé. Isn’t the main palace too full of outsiders? She’s my grandson’s relative, after all. Wouldn’t it be better to move her to the West Palace—where my daughter used to stay? I don’t mind the main palace myself.”

Nerys’s hand paused as she raised her teacup. A faint look of discomfort crossed her face.

The Marquis grinned to himself. Just as he thought.

‘They say that girl’s mother once occupied the West Palace.’

Ridiculous. What lowborn girl could possibly take the place once held by the Marquis’s own daughter?

‘She’s just like her father—a fool driven mad by women, unable to govern the domain properly.’

That’s why the care of this grandfather was so necessary.

This was the next phase of Catherine’s plan—to foster the reputation that the “kind but unsuited for intrigue” Catherine was being forcibly pushed by a “power-crazed Marquis desperate to get his way.”

And that, in contrast, the castle’s people, who had already come to see Catherine as honest and refreshing, would grow even more sympathetic.

The Marquis thought everyone in the castle was garbage, but he couldn’t deny that these were the Grand Duke’s eyes and ears, as Catherine had said.

Nerys looked at the Marquis for a moment, then shook her head.

“I’m sorry, but who enters the West Palace or not is entirely His Grace’s decision.”

“Is that so?”

Of course, this girl, who had no business even seeing the West Palace, wouldn’t hand it over easily.

This was enough to satisfy Catherine’s goals. The Marquis pretended to be annoyed.

“Fine, I suppose it can’t be helped. When an elder speaks—hmph, hmph!”

“One moment, please, Your Excellency.”

Nerys gestured.

In an instant, everyone else in the office exited the room, even the junior administrator tucked away in a small side room.

Well, well. The Marquis narrowed his eyes. Nerys spoke calmly.

“I’m not finished, but Your Excellency seems impatient. That’s something you have in common with His Grace.”

“Now…”

Did she just call him “His Grace,” not “Your Highness”? The Marquis wondered if he’d heard correctly.

Suddenly, those jeweled eyes met his directly. There was a sharpness that made him uneasy, as if she could see right through him…

‘No, that can’t be.’

How could a girl like that possibly understand a grand noble’s thoughts? The Marquis closed his eyes for a moment to collect himself.

But even when he opened them, all he saw were those gem-like eyes.

“Let me help you. But please, keep your voice down.”

Nerys could practically read the Marquis’s thoughts as if they were written in the air.

She lowered her voice, almost to a whisper.

“…What if the Grand Duke’s men find out? Do you know how hard I work to keep this secret?”

What?

The Marquis’s eyes glazed over. Nerys deliberately put on a playful smile.

This was the moment—to defuse things and win him over.

“You must have heard where my family comes from. Do you think the Elandria family would have sent me here for nothing, after I awakened the Jeweled Eyes? Your Excellency. …The Elandria family wants to fulfill your wishes as much as possible. As we have for years, let’s keep our alliance strong.”

Yes, the alliance between House Elandria and House Tipion had to stay solid. Nerys truly believed that.

That way, this man would trust her more and tell her everything she needed to know.

It was Nerys who had been waiting for a chance to be alone with the Marquis.