Chapter 15. An Unwanted Debt

As if reading his thoughts, an exquisitely timed voice fell. When Calyx’s eyes met his, William visibly froze.

Calyx, who had been quietly watching him, smirked.

“I know my role better than anyone.”

“……”

“So. Are you sharpening the axe well?”

‘Sharpening the axe’ was their code phrase asking about the status of soldiers hidden throughout Matila.

As was customary when discussing matters others shouldn’t hear, shrill moans began to sound from the adjacent room.

Using the cries of pleasure-seeking men and women as cover, the two once again entered into dangerous discussion.

Even as they exchanged information, the smile lingering on Calyx’s lips didn’t fade for a long time.

* * *

“You see, Mr. Katz, I’m absolutely terrified of books.”

The suitor sitting across from Lottie blinked his eyes. Not how her day was going, or popular plays or sports, but books?

“Hardcover books are truly violent! Imagine having to hold those thick, heavy things all morning with arms as delicate as mine. And all those words crammed onto the paper—I’ll surely go blind!”

“I… see.”

“I don’t want to become blind. Then I wouldn’t be able to see my pretty face anymore.”

Her bizarre logic continued thereafter.

When he mentioned opera, she claimed sopranos could hit such high notes because they swallowed live nightingales.

When he brought up restaurants, she blinked her eyes and insisted she couldn’t understand a single word of Trienese.

Mr. Katz looked at Miss Ebenscher sitting across from him and realized.

This woman isn’t innocent. She’s just stupid.

What use was beauty or inherited wealth in a woman with whom conversation was utterly impossible?

“I love children. When I get married, I’ll plant lots of flowers in the garden. Because all children are born from flower buds!”

It was the decisive statement that cemented his judgment.

Mr. Katz was so dumbfounded that he looked toward Isabelle, who was sitting by the reception room window. Her face too had crumbled considerably thanks to her idiotic grandniece.

In the end, Mr. Katz fled like a fugitive just five minutes after arriving to propose.

The next visitor, and the one after that, escaped at similar times and in similar ways to Mr. Katz.

When the maid announced that there were no more morning visitors, Isabelle’s hand holding the needle trembled visibly.

Lottie saw this clearly but pretended not to notice as she popped a cookie into her mouth.

‘Today I’ve successfully driven away the men who came to court me.’

As news of Lottie and Andrew’s broken engagement spread widely, Blue Brick had once again become crowded with unmarried men seeking to propose to her.

Not just once but twice she had been involved in tremendous scandals, yet still received this many proposals—her grand-aunt might have been pleased.

If Lottie had been an ordinary girl with fantasies of marriage, that joy might have borne fruit.

‘I will never, ever marry anyone.’

The truth she had realized at the hunting grounds made Lottie feel like she was flying through the wind whenever she recalled it. Her resolution to remain unmarried had solidified.

Now she needed to consider what would come after not marrying anyone.

‘Without economic independence, declaring myself unmarried is nothing but an illusion.’

If she had been the daughter of a middle-class family, it might not have been such a difficult concern.

But she was an Ebenscher.

Her father was Count Ixe, a title passed down from his deceased uncle, and before that from his grandfather, and he had a duty to preserve it.

As his daughter, Lottie could not be unrelated to that duty and responsibility.

For her, who had no brothers, the best duty she could fulfill was marriage. Taking in a son-in-law to continue the family line and bearing his heir.

Therefore, Lottie’s resolution to remain unmarried was no different from abandoning her innate duty as a family member. Even if she became economically independent to avoid marriage, that wasn’t the end of the matter.

‘If I remain unmarried and Father passes away…… the title of count and its accompanying domain will either be suspended or disappear forever.’

If her father adopted a son to inherit the family, Ebenscher would remain Ebenscher forever as it is now.

The family would continue its long history as it always had, and she could live freely forever.

She knew this, understood it well.

‘So why does a corner of my heart feel so uncomfortable and frustrated?’

Is that really the only way? Is there no way for her spinsterhood and the family’s continuation to coexist without borrowing someone else’s hand?

‘I’m an Ebenscher too.’

Thinking “Even though there’s a queen now,” Lottie swallowed a bitter laugh.

She had once been the queen’s daughter-in-law.

Having observed firsthand what kind of person her mother-in-law was, Lottie knew well that just because she had become queen didn’t mean she would recognize inheritance rights for unmarried women.

Changing the ancient inheritance laws would require enduring tiresome friction with conservative noble councilmen, and women without suffrage were of no help to her reign.

Was there no way to protect the family without marrying, without borrowing someone else’s hand?

That concern had led Lottie to immerse herself in Matila’s noble chronicles for a while.

Almost all of Matila’s nobles were people who had performed praiseworthy deeds and been awarded titles.

Naturally, she too would need to perform a deed to inherit the family. A deed significant enough to override the law excluding women from the line of succession.

But there was no war, so where and how could she perform such a great deed? And did she have any exceptional skills that would qualify as meritorious?

‘Marriage matchmaking?’

Recalling the several bundles of remarriage lists from her past, Lottie chuckled.

She had thoroughly investigated most men, understanding not only their lives but also their personalities and preferences, but now she was merely using that knowledge to put up walls against men like Mr. Katz.

‘What happened with Andrew was just a lucky coincidence.’

The truth that Andrew had found a woman he cared for, causing things to go awry, was known only to Lottie and the Thompson family, not to Isabelle and her father.

Outsiders who didn’t know the inside story sympathized with the two innocent families struck by sudden disaster. And as if by agreement, they all directed their arrows of blame toward one place.

— I know the most economical way to break an engagement. Would you like to hear it?

Thoughts of Andrew inevitably dragged up memories she had been suppressing.

That man had been right. Lottie had never seen a more convenient and economical way to break an engagement.

Lottie and Andrew’s broken engagement was officially packaged as the Thompson family giving up a woman the deposed prince had his eye on—a thoroughly unavoidable and aristocratic justification.

The Thompson family placed no blame on the Ebenscher family for the deposed prince’s misconduct. Likewise, the Ebenschers didn’t criticize the Thompsons for announcing the broken engagement.

As a result, no one suffered any loss.

And throughout the process, she had done nothing at all.

She hated the fact that she clearly owed a debt to Calyx Valdea. Even though it was a debt she never wanted, she had no grounds to be angry since she hadn’t suffered any loss.

She also hated that the means by which the debt was created was non-consensual, and that means was……

“Damn it.”

“……?!”

The maid clearing the table flinched at Lottie’s bitter curse.

Lottie fell into thought as she vigorously rubbed her lips with the back of her hand.

Why had he committed such an outrage then?

Was he a philanthropist desperate to help a woman in distress?

Or was it just a momentary amusement only comprehensible to a madman’s mind?

If so, does that mean I was just his day’s plaything?

No matter how much she rubbed her lips, the sensation that had clung to her skin remained vivid even now, two weeks later.

‘Why a kiss of all things.’

Even if she dismissed it as a madman’s mad act, why? With so many options like hugging or holding hands, why specifically that?

She recalled the first time she met Patrick after their engagement in the past.

That day was the first day the deposed prince, who had been strictly forbidden from entering the palace, was officially permitted to return to the royal family.

Having heard through the grapevine that her brother-in-law had suffered from madness for a long time, Lottie met Calyx Valdea with great tension.

— I’m pleased to meet my brother’s excessively beautiful sister-in-law.

Her brother-in-law seemed so upright that it was hard to believe he was crazy. That’s probably why she relaxed momentarily when he kissed her hand.

Unfortunately, the deposed prince’s madness was not completely cured, and eventually that incident occurred.

Even as he was being dragged away by guards, Calyx laughed like a madman. Lottie ended up bursting into tears because of that man who had completely ravaged her mouth in such a short time.

It was terrible, and she felt guilty facing her husband. She felt as if she had instantly become a promiscuous woman.

She never dreamed she would feel exactly the same emotions now, living her second life.

After the royal ball, she firmly believed she had succeeded in changing her future. She had no doubt she would live a completely different life from the past.

But the variable called Calyx Valdea kept trying to make things revert to the past with the same actions as before.

— What will happen, will happen.

No, Grand-aunt. That absolutely must not happen. If it does, I’ll die at that man’s hands.

“……”

When their eyes met, Isabelle, momentarily at a loss, pulled the corners of her mouth into an awkward smile.

It was a smile that seemed to feel both sympathy and anxiety for her grandniece, who appeared to have lost her mind from the shock of the broken engagement.