Chapter 34: Give Me Time

No one said a word. Bliss, who had clearly misunderstood, continued to avoid Caelan’s gaze. This was all because of the Imperial Princess. If only she hadn’t said such things.

‘Since our words overlapped, I hope he didn’t hear it properly…’

“A baby?”

He heard it. To escape this situation, Bliss forced a bright smile.

“I think you must have misheard?”

“I think I heard correctly.”

Seeing Caelan brush his thumb across his lips, Bliss bit her lower lip. She should have waited until Caelan brought it up. When Imperial Princess Jasmin had asked if she wanted a baby, she clearly thought it wasn’t the case, yet she misunderstood after just a few words from Caelan.

‘It’s natural to misunderstand when he’s this close.’

Bliss couldn’t even manage a forced smile anymore.

“Ah yes, that too.”

Caelan nodded, muttering why he hadn’t thought of that. Bliss pretended to look around before shaking her head.

“Please forget what I just said.”

“Why? Weren’t you expecting it?”

“No. Absolutely not.”

Bliss used her hands, which she had extended to stop Caelan from approaching, as a gesture of denial. She definitely hadn’t brought it up for that reason.

“I thought it wasn’t the case from the beginning. But because everyone kept saying that was the only reason, but no, absolutely not. Really.”

“It seems like it’s not not the case?”

“More importantly, what did you say just now? About the money I spent?”

Bliss looked up at Caelan, thinking she could escape this situation the moment she mentioned money.

“You said something about money, right?”

“That’s right.”

Nodding, Caelan reached his arm behind Bliss. When Bliss turned her head following his arm, she saw a ledger that she hadn’t noticed before.

“When did that…”

“I told them to put it in the room, but they left it here.”

Caelan roughly opened the ledger to check its contents and handed it to Bliss. This was actually why he had approached Bliss so closely in the first place. As Bliss took it, Caelan stepped back, thought for a moment, and then chuckled.

“I created a situation for misunderstanding. Sorry.”

“What is this?”

She couldn’t even say it was okay to his apology. Feeling that would only prolong the awkward situation, Bliss buried her face in the ledger she was holding.

She was too flustered to start from the first page, so she just opened it randomly and quickly scanned the contents. It was her desperate attempt to escape this awkward situation. Then, belatedly noticing the letters and jumbled numbers, the color drained from Bliss’s face.

“This is…”

“That’s the money you’ve spent so far.”

At Caelan’s voice, Bliss briefly looked up at him before looking back at the book. It contained explicit details of the money spent by herself, or more precisely, by Bliss before she had possessed this body.

From dates to where the money was spent, the amounts used, and if there were any special reasons, those reasons too…

“You must have been living comfortably under your father’s care until now, but what should we do about this?”

Caelan leaned against the vanity and crossed his arms.

“I’m not your parent.”

Bliss raised her head, seemingly no longer interested in looking at the ledger.

“That’s right. You’re not my father.”

“I’m not someone who will just let it slide when you spend my money.”

“…But we’re married.”

Bliss muttered with a blank face. The original her thought she could spend money freely because she was married to Caelan.

Caelan took the ledger from Bliss’s hands and looked it over. While scanning through the considerably thick book, he spoke.

“Since you’re not fulfilling your duties as a Marchioness, I have no reason to turn a blind eye to you only enjoying the rights. I won’t ask you to fulfill your duties now, but I’d like you to pay back what you’ve used so far.”

“Caelan.”

“I’m sorry for bringing this up now. You seemed different lately, so I thought this might be the right time.”

“By duties as a Marchioness, do you mean…”

Just as she was getting tense, wondering if he really meant having a baby, Caelan cut her off mid-sentence.

“What else would a Marchioness’s duties be? Taking care of the Marquis household. Should I explain in more detail?”

“Wait, wait a moment. Let me think about this.”

Although Caelan hadn’t said anything difficult, nothing was making proper sense to her.

Bliss turned away from Caelan. As she ran her hands through her hair in frustration, things finally started to make sense in her head.

‘No wonder Caelan seemed to be accepting everything.’

Though it clearly wasn’t his personality to do so, she had been careless while finding it strange, unable to see his true intentions. Now that he presented the ledger like this, she felt rather relieved thinking ‘this is more like him.’ Bliss nodded compliantly.

“I’ll pay it back.”

“You’ve thought well. Then, as soon as possible…”

“Give me time.”

When Caelan just stared at her, Bliss shook her head.

“You know my situation better than anyone. I don’t have any money.”

Although she received some money in her name every month, it was nowhere near enough to cover the amount written in that ledger. Moreover, even that money was Caelan’s. Since it was money she would have to pay back anyway, it was the same as saying Bliss had no money at all.

She tried to think of what to say, but nothing convincing came to mind.

“How could I pay it back right now when I don’t have any money? As you know, I’ve never even earned money before.”

She couldn’t bring herself to say she would pay it back no matter what if given enough time. She had no immediate ideas, and she didn’t want to ask Count Bonita for money either.

“So please give me time.”

Bliss took the ledger back from Caelan and held it against her chest.

“I’ll think about it.”

Bliss turned around. She wanted to be alone right now. Though she was trying to leave the room saying she would think about how to pay back the money, that wasn’t the only reason.

“Bliss.”

Just as she was about to open the door, Caelan called out to her. Bliss, who had been looking at the door, let out a silent sigh and turned around.

“Yes?”

“Let’s talk about the baby another time.”

“…You should rest first.”

Bliss showed an awkward smile to Caelan before hurriedly leaving the room. As soon as the door closed and Caelan disappeared from sight, Bliss let out a deep sigh.

“From now on, I must never act hastily.”

Bliss briefly looked back before moving away from the door.

***

Having nowhere in particular to go, Bliss entered a random room and sat in a chair to open the ledger. Unlike before when she had opened it randomly, she started from the beginning.

“My goodness, who spent all this?”

Though she had accepted that she had spent it, Bliss was acting as if someone else had spent it.

“Haa, if I had known I would have to pay it back, I would have told her to spend less… No, what am I thinking right now?”

It’s not like knowing would have changed anything. How could she have known she would enter this novel in the first place?

“How many times a day did she change clothes to buy this many?”

Bliss clicked her tongue at the number of dresses purchased at once. Then, touching her forehead, she turned the pages of the ledger one by one. Not just dresses from the dress shop, but accessories and various other items as well. There was even money spent on holding parties.

Since staring at it wouldn’t provide any answers, Bliss closed the ledger.

“How am I supposed to pay all this back?”

In her current situation, she had absolutely no means to raise such a large sum of money. Moreover, she wasn’t even familiar with this world yet, and now she had to shoulder such a huge debt while taking things one step at a time.

【I don’t know whether to call you pathetic or him petty.】

Still leaning her head back and sighing, Bliss muttered.

“It’s funny coming from me, but he’s not being petty, he’s just drawing a line with me. He’s someone who spends money freely wherever it needs to be spent…”

Bliss, who had been muttering about what she knew of Caelan from the novel, suddenly sat up straight. Then she took out Echo, which she had been holding close to her chest, and brought it near her face.

“Why didn’t I think of this before?”

【By ‘this,’ do you mean me?】

“You’ll teach me something, right? Could it be something I can make money with? It would be better if it’s a skill…”

【You dare call my teachings mere skills?】

“I wonder if it will take long? I asked for time, but I don’t know how long he’ll wait, and I don’t have anyone I can rely on to borrow money from either. No, if I had known from the start that he would ask me to pay back the money, I would have prepared alternatives earlier, why am I like this?”

She had started by asking what Echo could teach her, but somehow ended up just lamenting her situation.

“I only knew how to go around playing and spending money, what could I possibly do? It was a problem from the start to thoughtlessly spend such large amounts of money just because I was a noble lady. I wonder what she was thinking spending money like this…”

【You took that body, so you must take responsibility.】

At Echo’s words, Bliss fell silent. Echo was right.

“That’s true.”

Since she had become Bliss, she had to accept and take responsibility for everything her past self had done. Bliss lowered her head deeply and closed her eyes.

Now she didn’t even have the energy to be shocked or shaken by whatever Echo might say.

【I have decided what to teach you.】

Bliss raised her lowered head to look at the dagger.

【I will teach you…】

“What?”

What did it just say it would teach?