Chapter 185
The carriage ran along the road.
"Marquis Kraft, do you seem to be in a bad mood today?"
Count Macenas in the front seat asked.
They were on their way together to the Art Gallery where the Republican Faction Duke's solo exhibition was to be held.
Pastel, who had been sullenly looking outside, turned her head.
"Do I? I guess it's because I tend to sleep in during the mornings."
The Count glanced up at the sky.
"Morning passed quite a while ago."
The sun was high in the sky.
Duke Nastasya, enlightened enough to create the Republican Faction, had the flexibility to leisurely open her solo exhibition at lunchtime.
To be exact, it was because she had just arrived in the Capital and was handling a tight schedule, opening her solo exhibition only after finishing itineraries like visiting the Royal Palace as the Leader of the Republican Faction.
"Do I? I guess it's because I tend to sleep in during lunchtime."
There was no way she was still sulking at Lord Demon and acting like this.
It was just because she had a lot of lunchtime sleep.
A sleepy Pastel is in trouble, trouble.
She had so much sleep that maybe the Fairy of Dreamland had come to visit her.
"More importantly, Count, you had an Arranged Marriage, right?"
Count Macenas looked puzzled. He didn't seem to guess the intention behind the abruptly popped-up topic. Then, perhaps judging it as small talk to build rapport, he leisurely shook his head.
"Free Love."
"Pardon?"
Pink Eyes went round. Her gaze swept over the Count, who was wrapped in gold ornaments over a black suit.
An unimaginable surprise.
She thought Count Macenas, who even put books made from Demonkind families into his collection because they were profitable, would have secured a massive amount of money through an Arranged Marriage.
Since he was from a Count's Family, there was no reason for him to go out of his way to choose a partner with a high status but a small dowry.
Count Macenas laughed.
"I think I know what you are thinking, Marquis. But my judgment was correct on this. Free Love makes more money than an Arranged Marriage."
Oing.
"Even if one obtains a castle through a single large contract, it is merely a castle. Such things can be acquired in any number if you put in the time."
A declaration that he could easily purchase a castle if he just put in a little time.
"However, a trustworthy business partner cannot be bought with money. Rather, money only breeds greed. In this reality, isn't the only thing you can trust the family you chose yourself? I merely abandoned a mere castle and chose a business partner."
The Count looked outside the carriage. His gaze seemed to be looking at someone who wasn't there.
"For my wife is worth as much as the entire world."
It was a gentle smile.
Pastel's mouth fell open slightly.
Heeh.
The conversation they had at Count Macenas's Villa came to mind.
When she threw out an empty promise, telling him to betray the Imperial Bank and choose Marquis Kraft, what answer did Count Macenas give?
—I will invest as much as the entire world.
Uwaa.
Pastel felt slightly sorry.
She hadn't known it at all at the time, but since His Imperial Majesty the Emperor was behind the Imperial Bank, betraying the Imperial Bank might have been an investment so large that he had to risk his wife's safety.
She thought the 'entire world' was just a joke to set the mood, but it seems it really was an investment of that magnitude.
Pastel clenched one fist tightly.
"You will never regret investing in me."
Really, really.
The Count, who had been thinking of his wife, looked back and laughed cheerfully.
"Ahaha! That is quite reassuring! We are on our way to meet Duke Nastasya right now, so I will look forward to it!"
Oing.
What am I doing with Duke Nastasya?
Pastel, the eternal Confidant of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor, had absolutely no reason to whisper with the insidious Leader of the Republican Faction.
It seemed Count Macenas was harboring some mistaken expectations.
Heok.
Could it be that Count Macenas is a hidden Traitor of the Empire who is in cahoots with the insidious Republican Faction...?
Oh my goodness.
If the Chairman running the Demon World Corporation, which is supposed to restrain and control the United Kingdom, betrays us, this is exactly the traitor of Prophecy itself...!
Pastel was startled.
However, she couldn't make an accusation against the thankful investor who had invested the entire world in her, so she pretended not to know.
Ppyororong~.
Good Pastel heard nothing.
The Count, who had been laughing refreshingly, gradually calmed down. Perhaps feeling quite embarrassed about confessing his love for his wife, he calmly took out a cigar and put it in his mouth.
"But for you to ask such a question, Marquis, it seems your thoughts are getting complicated about how to choose a partner?"
Uwaa, I caught right away that she was in a state of bursting interest.
"My thoughts are indeed complicated. And I don't really have anyone suitable around me to ask."
"That must be troublesome."
The Count cut the end of his cigar and lit it. Smoke flowed from his lips.
"Speaking as someone with experience, the more you delay marriage, the better."
Uet.
You were a devoted husband just a moment ago, but suddenly are you making a 'marriage is hell!' remark?
"They will send portraits from here and there, but they are all nothing more than pretty drawings. It won't be too late to worry about it when you've gained some age and your eyes are no longer bewitched by such outward appearances."
"That's true. Everyone draws their portraits with incredible skill before sending them. When I visited the Capital, Duke Nastasya drew a portrait of me, and I could only marvel, wondering if one had to go to such lengths."
"Duke Nastasya did?"
Count Macenas was surprised, though it was unclear at what point. Then, as if he understood something on his own, he rolled the cigar with his lips.
"Since the Kraft Family has no elders, receiving the Duke's help regarding marriage is also a good choice."
"Pardon?"
What help?
As she looked puzzled, the Count looked equally puzzled.
"An elder drawing and giving a portrait of a Marquis who hasn't even had an engagement means the elder is offering to be a Marriage Guardian. As the Family Head of a Marquisate, it might be awkward to call the Duke an elder, but Duke Nastasya, who had a deep friendship with your parents, can certainly be considered one. It's a good choice. Not knowing that, I just thoughtlessly gave you advice. I apologize."
Count Macenas bowed his head slightly.
Ue.
Uee?
Pastel's head spun round and round.
Drawing and giving me a portrait was a sign of goodwill, an offering to be my Marriage Guardian?
That somehow seemed right.
If gifting a portrait meant proposing an engagement, then naturally, the ones preparing that portrait for gifting would be parents or elders, wouldn't they?
Since Mom was dead and Dad was missing, the portrait gift might have been Duke Nastasya's expressing goodwill to act as a Godmother.
Oh my.
Was it really goodwill?
Why did it feel like she had fallen for some scheme...?
Pastel groaned as she tried to recall her memories from that time.
What happened when she received the portrait at Duke Nastasya's Mansion?
Setting the portrait aside, she could only remember the terrifying experience of Duke Nastasya, who had been pretending to be a young girl artist suddenly revealing herself as the Leader of the Republican Faction and beginning an Interrogation.
Heok, she couldn't even remember the conversation about the portrait.
Instead, she only remembered the incredibly useless fact that the Duke had been a Romantic Rival who fought with Mom over Dad during their school days and lost.
Oing.
Dad's side became lonely after Mom died. Duke Nastasya, who had been diligently managing her girlish appearance and snooping around, decided to take on the role that the dead Mom should have originally played when Dad's Daughter showed interest in marriage...
Uwaaa!
This was exactly the same kind of wicked intention as Lord Demon's wicked intention...!
Lord Demon faced the massive hurdle of Mom coming back to life and having to divorce Dad, but Duke Nastasya's wicked intention was so realistic that it was an entirely different dimension of insidiousness.
A level of insidiousness only possible for someone at the level of the Leader of the Republican Faction.
Heok.
I think it's too pathetic for the Leader of the Republican Faction, who wields power over the Central Political Circles and has Deep Schemes and Far-reaching Plans, to be engrossed in an affair!
Please maintain your dignity!
Pastel trembled, Padeulpadeul.
Her visit to the Imperial Capital was only for a fleeting moment, but she couldn't tell just how many schemes she had fallen victim to.
Whether it was His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of the Fuse Click-Click or Duke Nastasya of the Adultery Meow-Meow, they were all scary!
Lord Demon, save me!
#
They arrived at the Art Gallery.
The carriage came to a stop, and Lord Demon, who had been sitting side-by-side with the Coachman on the Coachman's Seat, stepped down. He opened the carriage door and escorted Pastel.
"Lord Demoon."
Pastel, who stepped down holding Lord Demon's hand, clung tightly to Lord Demon's arm.
In this harsh world, the only person I can trust is Lord Demoon.
Lord Demon, who had been ignored without even receiving a glance for a week, was flustered by the sudden change in attitude. He was so flustered that he was dazed for a moment, to the point of asking a question a beat late.
"Why are you acting like this? Is an Assassination Plot expected or something?"
Pastel shook her head vigorously.
Pink Eyes looked up mournfully.
"Lord Demon, do you know that? I have no one but you, Lord Demon."
And she added.
"I do have Melissa, and Ellie, and Alcier, and Renard and friends, but anyway, I feel like I have no one but you, Lord Demon."
Red Eyes turned subtle.
"Don't you think that's quite a lot, even as you say it yourself?"
Heueuk, that is true.
It seems to be the fate of a popular person.
Lord Demon sighed and looked around. As Count Macenas seemed to be inspecting the procession of carriages—whether they were gifts or bribes for the Duke was unknown—he looked back at Pastel and quietly opened his mouth.
"I had absolutely no intention of invading your privacy. I merely did the work that a Servant should have done. If you really hate it, I won't do it from now on."
It seemed getting cursed at over his washing her underwear had been weighing on his mind.
"And lately you keep bringing up your Mom out of context, but don't do that. You wouldn't know because you haven't experienced it, but digging into someone else's wounds is not a very good habit."
It seems Lord Demon is very heartbroken over the fact that he got dumped by Mom.
"That was something I said a week ago, and you still remember it?"
Pink Eyes looked up sullenly.
"You're totally petty."
Lord Demon was dumbfounded.
"Who are you calling petty right now?"
He looked like he had an awful lot to say.
"You, Lord Demon."
Her finger poked his chest.
"Nitpicking at your age is totally petty."
The girl grumbled.
"Have a merong."
A small tongue poked out.
Merong.
"Huh?"
Lord Demon felt dizzy, moving his hand as if to grab the back of his neck.