Chapter 24. Overreaching Desires  

The books Ael had borrowed quickly became nothing but paper waste.

The viscount couple and Elise went downstairs, satisfied only after watching Ael frantically gather the torn pieces while crying.

Ael was so distraught that she didn’t even notice they had left.

Seeing the torn pieces, some even spat on and wet, Ael wiped her tears with the back of her hand.

When she saw the words written on the scraps, more tears came. They were words she had asked Kyle about and had explained to her.

Feeling like that day, which had come to her like a gift for the first time in her life, was torn and insulted, Ael cried even more sorrowfully.

She also blamed herself.

‘I shouldn’t have borrowed them.’

If she hadn’t borrowed them, the books would still be in the Academy Library, ready to impart new knowledge to new people.

Moreover, the fact that she entered using her father’s identification card affected Ael even more.

It was something she wasn’t allowed in the first place. The very thought of wanting to see it was an overreaching desire.

If she had just stayed home that day, none of this would have happened…

The viscount couple ordered Ael not to leave her room and simultaneously instructed the maids not to bring her any food.

If it weren’t for the potatoes Jenna secretly brought, risking a severe scolding, Ael would have continued to starve.

The problem was that she couldn’t eat much of it anyway.

Ael lay quietly on her bed all day.

She felt hunger, but she had no appetite at all.

Moreover, as time passed, she didn’t even feel the hunger anymore. Ael could only think of one thing.

‘Why was I born?’

When she thought everything was her fault, the end of her thoughts was always the same.

Ael imagined the viscount’s house without her. Everything was so peaceful it was almost absurd.

The viscount couple and Elise would live without anything to annoy them, and the servants would be more comfortable without having to deal with an employee whose position was ambiguous.

Perhaps Jenna would be the only one to mourn her absence.

But if they hadn’t met from the start, Jenna wouldn’t have any thoughts either.

‘Maybe she would have left here sooner…’

Jenna was still working at the viscount’s house because she was working with Ael.

Jenna, who worked diligently without slacking off, would have quit this place sooner and found a better job by now, where she would be recognized and even receive recommendations.

Thinking like that, while not eating anything and curling up, Ael’s wounds couldn’t heal properly.

The bruises on her face and arms didn’t fade away; instead, they remained like reddish stains on Ael’s body.

The confinement that seemed like it would continue was unexpectedly lifted due to a truly surprising event.

* * *

“The Grand Duke has invited me to his summer villa!”

Elise hugged the letter she received with an overwhelming expression. Then she checked to see if she was dreaming or if she had misread the letter.

But no matter how many times she looked, the letter clearly invited her to spend the summer at the Grand Duke’s villa.

And it wasn’t just Elise. The Grand Duke had also invited the viscount couple to the summer villa.

“Oh my, what is this! The Grand Duke has chosen you!”

The viscountess was even more moved than Elise, dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief.

After the tea party hosted by Riena, rumors spread throughout the social circles that Elise had lied.

As a result, the invitations from families that frequently contacted and invited them stopped abruptly.

The few invitations that did come were clearly intended to mock them.

So they avoided social gatherings and went to their usual shops, but even the shopkeepers’ attitudes had changed. They, too, had heard the rumors.

The problem was that the shopkeepers no longer allowed them to have credit and began demanding payment for the goods they had taken.

‘They said it was fine, and now they want money?’

The shopkeepers hadn’t given anything for free, but the viscount couple felt wronged by their demands.

‘Besides, the Grand Duke was supposed to pay for all of it!’

The Grand Duke had never mentioned it, but in the viscount couple’s minds, it had become natural for the Grand Duke to pay off the amounts they had spent on goods.

They even harbored resentment towards the Grand Duke for not contacting them despite their situation.

But then the Grand Duke suddenly invited them to his summer villa.

“By the way, the Grand Duke has several summer villas… Where did he invite us?”

The viscount took the letter Elise received and tried to check the name of the villa. But soon, the viscount’s face clouded.

Viscount Aradis was very interested in other people’s properties.

He would inquire about what new ships the other nobles had purchased and what estates they owned as if he was managing his own assets.

Among them, Viscount Aradis showed the most interest in the Grand Duke’s property.

‘Because the Grand Duke might become my son-in-law.’

The Grand Duke had given up his right to the throne in exchange for guaranteed comfort.

The most fertile farmlands and forests, several castles and mansions, and even the merchant guild managed by the Grand Duke’s family.

Viscount Aradis often imagined what it would be like after Elise married the Grand Duke.

The Grand Duke wouldn’t treat his wife’s family poorly. If other nobles looked down on them, it would eventually tarnish the Grand Duke’s own reputation.

‘It’s only natural for him to pay off the debts and give us a large sum of money. He will probably allocate a good piece of land from the Grand Duchy to the Aradis family. After all, once Elise has a child, it will belong to that child, so it’s not a loss for the Grand Duke.’

Until that child grows up, it would be land managed by Viscount Aradis.

What’s the problem with that? It’s only natural for the Grand Duke’s father-in-law to live comfortably off the taxes of a wealthy estate.

Viscount Aradis’s imagination grew larger and more detailed.

As the Grand Duke’s father-in-law, I must maintain dignity. Therefore, I should enjoy hunting, like wealthy and high-status male nobles do. Didn’t the Grand Duke also enjoy hunting very much?

I could borrow one of the hunting rifles the Grand Duke keeps buying from the Empire.

With that, I could roam hunting grounds rich with game, where others rarely go, and other nobles would look up to me.

‘Then I will accompany those who share my interests… Let’s see, in summer, we’ll stay at nearby villas and hunt.’

While indulging in such fantasies, the viscount checked how many summer villas the Grand Duke owned and where they were. He knew all the Grand Duke’s summer villas, but…

“…Was there a villa of the Grand Duke here?”

There was the name of a forest he had never seen before.

If it were a sizable and beautiful villa, he would have heard the name of the forest at least once, but seeing a forest name he had never encountered, the viscount went to the study, brought out a dusty map, and searched for where that forest was.

After a long search, he found that it was a forest not far from the Grand Duke’s mansion, which confused him even more.

‘If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be better to just invite us to his mansion?’

Why bother inviting them to a villa in a nearby forest, and to a villa that surely wouldn’t be very large?

And there was something else strange about the invitation.

“We are to leave tomorrow?”

The letter stated that everything they needed would be prepared there, so Elise and the viscount couple only needed to bring themselves. But still, leaving tomorrow was unexpected.

Usually, when noble families invite someone, they contact them at least a few weeks in advance. But tomorrow?

Even a kidnapping would proceed more slowly than this.

When the viscount looked at the letter again and again in confusion, the viscountess scolded her husband.

“Why are you overthinking it? The Grand Duke must have invited her to a less conspicuous place because he knows how Elise has been suffering from people’s gazes lately. And what’s wrong with it being next to the mansion? He must be thinking of Elise as the future Grand Duchess and wants to show her the territory in advance!”

The viscount, who had momentarily doubted, smiled contentedly at his wife’s words. Indeed, that must be it.

‘Moreover, inviting not only Elise but also us, her parents, must mean he wants to have a serious discussion.’

The serious discussion with the Grand Duke would likely be about the dowry.

Large figures floated in the viscount’s mind. Elise might become the woman who receives the highest dowry in Denertum’s history.

The viscount couple and Elise, trembling with happiness, hurriedly prepared to leave.