I Was Tricked Into A Fraudulent Marriage By The Obsessive Villain - Chapter 3 Part 6

Inside Duke Silas’s reception room.

“….”

With a smile on her face, Johanna gazed at Duke Jonathan Silas, who was pouring tea himself.

It seems that the Ninth Prince is fond of tea ceremonies.

Perhaps because he serves him by his side, there is nothing unnecessary about the way he personally drives the tea.

“Please have some.”

A steaming cup of tea was placed in front of her.

“This is the tea that was recently imported from Duchy. I heard it’s a trend among the noblewomen, so I brought a few in advance, and the taste is quite good.”

“……”

Johanna silently gazed at the teacup in front of her and then spoke.

“Just leave it.”

“What do you mean?”

Jonathan asked with his sparkling brown eyes.

The way he dealt with people with a smile on his face was similar to that of the Ninth Prince.

The man who tried to take Iona with a smile on his face.

“Ah… Could it be because of Sir Hardin.”

The man’s puzzled look as he took off his watch and then remembered.

Pretending as if he’s clueless, then suddenly acting as if he just remembered, his act was incredibly arrogant.

When Johanna expressed her consent in silence, the red-haired man sitting across from her continued to speak.

“Isn’t it good for you too, Duke. He’s now the commander of the knights, after all.”

“……”

“In the first place, it was absurd that the Empire’s greatest sword was merely staying as a common knight. This is your chance to…”

“Just… leave it.”

Johanna interrupted Jonathan’s words and firmly asserted.

“Duke Silas. Perhaps you think I don’t know what the duke and your master are up to.”

There was no expression on Johanna’s face as she spoke in an unwavering voice.

“Try as you might, the Hardin family will not make any move.”

“You mean like when the First Empress passed away?”

Jonathan, who had been quietly listening for a while, finally spoke.

“……”

Johanna’s fingertips twitched at Jonathan’s sudden outburst.

As soon as she became an adult, she perfected the art of politics, where her face showed no change in expression.

But the slight movement of her white fingertips had already been noticed by her opponent.

After briefly catching a glimpse of Johanna’s fingertip with a sidelong glance, Jonathan continued speaking.

“When Empress Thaliastra was cornered, what did the Hardin family, who was her right arm, do?”

“……”

Johanna closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them, brushing off her past regrets.

She suppressed the blue flickering within her purple irises.

“The Hardin family…”

“Whatever the Hardins did, my master and I remember it clearly.”

Jonathan said, entangling his gaze with Johanna’s.

The two pairs of eyes clashed in the air.

“Nevertheless, you have made the second daughter the prince’s consort, and now Sir Hardin has been appointed as the commander of the knights. Where can you find a greater glory than this?”

What house treats the daughter of an enemy so well?

The corners of her mouth twitched upwards, and Johanna spoke with a glint in her eyes.

“I thought I asked you to leave it. Just because Hardin isn’t moving doesn’t mean we’re not Hardin anymore. I trusted that your master knows why I haven’t shown any movement until now.”

“…….”

Jonathan stared piercingly at her clear violet eyes without saying a word.

This was indeed not an ordinary bet.

The aura emanating from her delicate, slender body was like that of the previous duke.

‘So it wasn’t just luck that kept you in your position.’

He thought that she had kept the position of duke because of Carvain’s help, but meeting her in person made him realize that his thoughts were wrong.

“By not helping the Second Empress, Hardin has already become a vassal. I am just doing my best as the master of the duchy.”

Jonathan also knew that.

In the situation where the Second Empress had everything in her hands and was manipulating it like dough, Hardin was the only family that maintained neutrality.

But mere neutrality was not enough.

“That’s not enough.”

“…..”

The violet eyes trembled slightly, and a small wrinkle appeared on her white forehead.

“You will now be a maternal relative. You will become the future empress’s family.”

There was no hesitation in his voice when he openly said that the Ninth Prince, not the crown prince, would ascend to the throne.

“Duke Silas!”

“Yes. In a few days, she will become the Grand Duchess, that’s right.”

Johanna snorted. But Jonathan continued without paying attention.

“No matter what you do, the situation will not change.”

In the end, Hardin must support the Ninth Prince.

“…..”

“If you thought you could just maintain neutrality until the end, then you’re being arrogant. From the moment the second lady became the prince’s wife, Hardin and the Ninth Prince shared the same fate.”

“…..”

“Or why not. Would you help the Second Empress again? Just like your father did in the end?”

“…..”

Jonathan, who had been pressing hard on her, let out a small sigh and lowered his guard.

Even if the woman in front of him had a weakness for the Grand Duchess, his opponent was Hardin.

The ruler of the western dominion who had ruled with arrogance since the founding of the country.

If he kept pressing and made a mistake, he wouldn’t be able to escape unscathed.

“As for Sir Hardin’s greetings, I will speak separately.”

Jonathan said, finally looking at Johanna’s expression and taking a step back.

“But, Duke Hardin. The time will come when you have to make a choice.”

To stand by the Second Empress again this time.

Or to stand by the side of His Majesty the Ninth Prince, who shares his destiny with the Grand Duchess.

***

“Ugh…”

She felt like her whole body was burning. She raised her heavy eyelids against the piercing sunlight.

As she opened her eyes, an unfamiliar ceiling came into view.

“Ugh…ugh…”

An involuntary groan escaped from her lips.

When she tried to move slightly, her limbs ached as if they were numb. Her neck, in particular, which had been gnawed at all night, was so stiff that it almost felt frostbitten.

“I must have finally gotten crazy. You…”

She muttered with a bitter laugh.

Drunk. I was drunk!

And on top of that, I spent the night with that man again.

I thought I was more discerning and rational, but rationality be damned. I guess I wasn’t.

She tilted her head slightly to clear her mind and looked around.

There was no one in the room.

It felt as though what happened the previous night had been a dream.

“…I was the one who rejected him twice, and now I’m the one who’s being rejected. What.”

Her grumbling voice poured out involuntarily.

In the midst of this, she found a note left on the bedside table.

The neat handwriting seemed to resemble the man’s appearance.

It was a note saying that he had to leave first since she was still asleep and that he would come back to see her again in 3 days because he had something to do.

It was like a love letter that should be exchanged between lovers.

“We don’t have that kind of relationship to warrant such behavior.”

After briefly taking in the man’s note, Iona quickly dressed and left the room.

The sun had risen high in the sky, and she was already walking towards the guild.

In the next moment, the artifact she had put in her pocket rang.

“Hmm?”

As soon as she put it in her ear, Runkel’s voice filled her personal channel with complaints.

— Ah, where were you, Boss!

She furrowed her brow for a moment at the loud voice that hit her eardrums.

— You could have just dragged A Thousand Silver Coins down the mountain, but everyone thought it was unfair for one person to go up the mountain alone, so they made us all go up the mountain together! Ah, where are you!?

Runkel, who spoke like a machine gun, asked impatiently.

“Easy, easy. My ears aren’t stuffed.”

— Ah, I don’t care! Come quickly!

“Why are you in such a hurry in the morning? I’ll go in when it’s time to go in. I’m on my way.”

— The client contacted us!

“What?”

Iona’s footsteps stopped at Runkel’s words.

“The client?!”

— Yeah! He said he’d be here in three days. It’s an emergency! We still haven’t found his wife, Boss!

“……”

Iona’s eyes rolled at Runkel’s words.

Their investigation into the client’s identity, which started as soon as she returned from De Libertas, was still ongoing.

But nothing had come up, and his whereabouts were still unknown.

And now he shows up…

“What about Austin?”

— The Sub-Leader said he had something to check and told us to wait. Quietly, as if doing something secretive.

“Really? I didn’t ask him to do anything…”

— Ah, anyway. I’m currently questioning the maids who formerly worked in noble households to see if they’ve heard any rumors.

Wait. Nobles…

Hearing Runkel’s words, something flashed in Iona’s mind for a moment.

“Yes, nobles.”

The fleeing woman definitely seemed to be of noble birth. Moreover, she was a high-ranking noble who couldn’t reveal her status.

In that case…

— So where are you, Boss? When are you coming?

“…I have somewhere to stop by for a moment. Continue to question the maids for now. I’ll look for him on my own.”

— Hey, don’t hang up! Boss!

Iona took out the artifact and stuffed it into her pocket.

When it came to nobles, there were people around Iona who would put them on their palms and recite it.

Iona hailed a carriage from the street.

“Take me to Duke Hardin’s residence.”

She doubted her own intelligence as to why she only remembered it now.

When it came to nobles, there was no one who knew as well as Johanna.

In her younger years, she was a socialite, and as an adult, she ruled the pinnacle of the nobility and reshaped the political world.

I felt like she had gone a long way back on the fast lane.

Perhaps Johanna could provide some answers.

After some time, the carriage arrived at Duke Hardin’s residence.

The mansion that she had vacated for three years was still the same.

With its unnecessarily extravagant garden and the unnecessarily grand mansion.

“Welcome home, Miss.”

As soon as Iona entered, the butler came out to greet her as if he knew she was coming.

“Butler. It’s been a long time. How have you been?”

The butler’s face lit up with a smile at Iona’s greeting.

After smiling kindly for a moment, the butler raised the corners of his mouth even higher and spoke.

“There is no reason for this old man not to be well, except for you, Miss.”

“…Huh?”

“Don’t even get me started. I’m constantly wondering if you’re out there flirting with someone, or if you’re being held by the guards, or if you ever had a day of peace.”

“…What am I, a harasser?”

I grumbled at the butler, who shattered the mood of their emotional reunion.

The butler responded with a smiling face.