Chapter 55
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
Dear, I believe you may be misunderstanding.
Episode 55
'Promise me. On the day Grace comes of age, you will transfer all of my possessions to her.'
Before Elenoa Rothesa died, she thrust a contract into Capren Oellin's hands, backed by an enormous sum of money.
The contract stipulated that he would receive one million grans simply for signing, and another million grans upon fulfilling its terms.
One million grans.
It was nearly equivalent to his annual tenant fees—a fortune he could scarcely fathom.
An amount the lower classes could never dare dream of possessing.
For a noblewoman who spent her days embroidering and sipping tea at home—and worse, a foreign wife at that—to speak of such wealth was unthinkable.
When Capren Oellin first saw it, his overwhelming emotion was rage.
'When did she hide this money? She's insane! Squirreling away funds behind her husband's back! Where is it? Hand it over at once—it's mine!'
'That is... why do you believe it belongs to you?'
Throughout their marriage, Elenoa Rothesa had been a docile woman.
Or rather, she had merely pretended to accept her circumstances, feigning meekness.
But in those final months before her death.
Everything changed.
Despite her frail body, she ventured out, meeting with people the Duke knew nothing of, and in the end, she gazed upon him with cold eyes and defied him.
...How dare she.
Yes, dare.
'What money do you possess to give me one million grans? Unless you've been embezzling my funds without my knowledge!'
'What if the money comes from neither you nor me?'
'Ha! If it's not from either of us, how could you possibly give it to me?'
'That doesn't matter, Capren. What matters is whether you'll honor this contract with me or not.'
The woman, pallid and wan yet still possessing the beauty of someone in her twenties, extended the paper toward him.
'I know all your possessions will go to Norman. So please, allow me to pass even these meager things to Grace. Surely you can grant me that much.'
Raw resentment crystallized in her cold gaze, directed squarely at the Duke.
It was Capren Oellin who had deceived a young noblewoman from a foreign land and taken her as his second wife.
Bewitched, he had pursued her relentlessly, obsessively.
He had employed unsavory tactics to claim her, and in a state bordering on madness, he had made Elenoa Rothesa his bride.
He had pursued her for six months, employing every despicable scheme until her guardian had no choice but to surrender her to him.
And even that was not enough...
'I promise. I will raise Grace without want. If you wish, I can even bequeath my title to her! So please, stay by my side! Damn it, if you leave now, you'll never see Grace again! No—I'll send that child somewhere no one knows and have her raised as a commoner!'
It was Capren Oellin who had seized her when she threatened to return to her homeland with Grace.
He had pleaded and clung to her, and finally, he had resorted to threats.
He had forcibly taken the infant Grace and hidden her away, and through neglect of the sickly child, he had brought her to the brink of death from consumption.
When Elenoa Rothesa finally reclaimed her baby, the child was already devastatingly frail.
Too weak to endure a long voyage aboard a great ship, too fragile for the jolting of a train across vast distances.
Even to Capren Oellin's eyes, the infant's labored, wheezing breath seemed on the verge of ceasing entirely.
At that sight, his first thought was, 'That woman will flee if the child dies.'
To the Duke, what mattered was a son to carry on his line—not a daughter.
At least if the girl had resembled me, I might have understood. But she was the spitting image of her mother alone, making her all the more unfamiliar to me.
Nevertheless, Grace Oellin was essential.
She was my means of keeping Elenoa.
I knew nothing of love.
But to me, Elenoa was like a drug—a woman I could not live without, one who drove me to madness.
She was indispensable, intoxicating.
Yet even my obsession and fervor withered when she fell ill with an incurable disease that had already claimed her death date.
I had no desire to lay hands on a sick woman.
Elenoa possessed a peculiar aura that subtly pressured those around her.
When illness took hold, that presence became all the more stark and undeniable.
'After all, every coin you leave behind will come to me anyway. So why should I trouble myself with such tedious matters?'
'After all, this money is not mine right now. Therefore, even if I die, nothing will go to you. In any case... you won't sign the contract? Fine. Then I'll find someone else.'
Just before her death, Elenoa lost her sight.
Of course, I never knew exactly when her vision began to fail.
Elenoa was always expressionless and composed, never wavering.
It was only near the end that I finally noticed she could barely see ahead of her.
And since she lost her sight entirely before death, I had no reason to fear Elenoa's threats.
A small, frail woman—sickly and blind.
Without influence or strength, yet her beauty remained as radiant as the day we first met.
And yet...
Despite being so utterly insignificant, I found myself unable to dismiss Elenoa, even unto her final breath.
So in the end, I relented and signed the contract.
I scrawled my name and signature across the yellowed paper with a bitter scowl.
'You must honor the contract, Capren Oellin.'
The very next day, she returned with one million grans from who knows where.
'...No, she must have taken it from that bastard.'
Rudiger Lucen—Elenoa's cousin, who appeared suddenly one day without warning.
A man with dazzling blonde hair and silver-rimmed spectacles, possessed of an irritatingly handsome face.
From the moment I met him, I realized Elenoa had changed.
What a vulgar woman!
Did she think I would believe such a transparent lie about a cousin?
It was a detestable face I never wished to recall.
And the audacity—that wretch appeared at my door even after Elenoa's death.
I trembled with rage, humiliating him so thoroughly that he would never dare set foot here again, nor even in this country.
I did not hesitate to sully the name of the dead.
And so... with Elenoa gone, I thought everything had ended.
Only later did I discover that the few items I had given to Grace Oellin possessed considerable value.
I quickly sold them off before she came of age.
With the proceeds from those items, I accumulated several gold ingots.
Thanks to that, I was able to secure my position swiftly within the Council.
Then... I discovered that the incense burner I had received directly from Elenoa Rothesa was a rare antique.
With whispers that it would fetch whatever price one named at auction, I sold it without hesitation.
At that moment, the contract I had signed with Elenoa Rothesa was the furthest thing from my mind.
In truth, I had torn up the contract with Elenoa Rothesa long before I even came of age.
There was no need to demonstrate that I would honor such a trivial agreement—what fool would actually keep it?
I thought that by doing so, the petty contract had been completely finished.
"I certainly burned it, and this time I'll... completely, utterly burn it to ash...."
...If only that contract hadn't kept reappearing with such chilling precision whenever I thought I could forget it.
Marquis Capren Oellin stared at the yellow paper that had materialized once more, his face drained of color.
It was as though he had glimpsed a ghost.
Destroy it and it reappears; destroy it again and it reappears. What sorcery could possibly be at work?
Could there be... a loyal servant of Elenoa Rothesa hidden somewhere in this Estate?
'...The head maid is the most suspicious.'
But how could the head maid possibly have opened my Vault?
The key to the doubly, triply locked Vault could only be opened by me.
Click.
"Do you think I would be frightened by this? That I would be afraid?"
Capren Oellin muttered darkly as he tore the crumpled contract to shreds with violent jerks.
"You're dead, Elenoa Rothesa. Dead, I tell you...."
What could a dead person possibly do? Hmm?
Marquis Capren Oellin threw the finely shredded contract out the window and grabbed his coat, leaving.
In his hand was a case containing five gold ingots.
He left the Study hurriedly, as though he harbored no regrets.
Beyond the open window of the Study....
The yellow paper, now whole once more, drifted back into the Study as if swinging on a pendulum.
It settled quietly in the center of his desk, the pieces gently reuniting.
Without a single trace of having been torn apart.
* * *
[The parties to this contract acknowledge that the contents of this agreement hold absolute and binding force.
At the request of the client Elenoa Rothesa, the contracted party Capren Oellin shall fulfill the contents of this contract.
The contract terms are as follows.
Capren Oellin shall transfer the personal effects of Elenoa Rothesa to Grace Oellin, the daughter between Capren Oellin and Elenoa Rothesa, upon her independence.
Should Grace Oellin's independence be delayed beyond the age of twenty, Capren Oellin agrees to deliver Elenoa Rothesa's belongings in the year Grace Oellin turns twenty.
The specified items are as follows.
1. A silver hand mirror carved with evening primrose.
2. A pair of pearl earrings.
3. Five pouches of medicinal compounds.
4. A gold bracelet set with a crimson ruby.
5. A book bound in dark red leather with no title inscribed.
.
.
.
The contract's purpose is to safely transfer these twenty items to Grace Oellin.
The fulfillment of the contract's terms constitutes the validity period of this agreement, and should the contract's contents be altered without Elenoa Rothesa's consent or should the terms not be fulfilled within the prescribed period, penalties shall be incurred for breach of contract.
The magnitude of such penalties is stipulated as misfortune five times the degree of discrepancy that would result from improper fulfillment, or a title and estate equivalent to ten million Grand.]
* * *
When Grace and Selena returned to the Estate, the sky had turned a vivid orange.
The fragrant aroma of buttered bread and chicken salad dressed with yuzu sauce was being prepared in earnest.
"Welcome back, both of you. Did you enjoy your outing?"
Gabriel greeted them with a benevolent smile.
Selena smiled elegantly and handed over her gloves.
"It was quite delightful. Outings are only truly enjoyable when they're occasional, you know. If one ventures out too frequently, the excitement simply vanishes."
"I'm relieved to hear it. If you were to go out like this every day, His Excellency would abandon his duties and follow the two of you about. For the sake of the family's well-being, I must ask that outings remain an occasional indulgence."
At Gabriel's playful remark, Selena laughed lightly and glanced toward Grace.
"What do you say to that, Grace?"
Grace, who had been following behind, smiled in return and replied.
"Surely not, sir. I doubt our outings would hold much interest for him."
"That's hardly true."
A low, weighty voice that had drawn near in an instant immediately contradicted her words.
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org