| Chapter 27

“Yes?”

“Little one. It’s me, Laurel.”

Her proper voice reminded me of the white body intertwined with Kirhin, making my face flush. As I hesitated, Laurel opened the door and entered the room.

“What a pretty room. It suits you so well. I guess the rumors about the Baron cherishing you are true.”

I quietly watched her as she slowly surveyed the room. Laurel noticed the wide-open window and quickly walked towards it.

“Aren’t you cold? You’ll catch a cold if you sleep with the window open at night.”

“What brings you here?”

When I asked flatly, she turned to me with a bright smile after closing the window.

“I wanted to greet you. You seemed displeased, but thanks to you, I was able to escape from a difficult situation. Thank you.”

It didn’t sound like a sincere greeting. Ignoring my silence, Laurel noticed the book on the bed and approached it in one step, picking it up.

“‘Highlund’? This is a book you’d have to wait three months for even in the library. Are you reading things like this now? That’s impressive.”

“What do you want to say?”

Laurel’s eyes met mine as she was flipping through the pages. I thought her brown eyes sparkled with a strange light.

“Earlier, did you see?”

Perhaps contempt showed on my face. Laurel momentarily looked hurt and lowered her gaze. As she caressed the cover of the book, she smiled bitterly.

“It’s like a transaction. Remember Senar?”

“It seemed like your choice from beginning to end.”

When I replied cynically, Laurel let out a hollow laugh and sat down heavily on the bed. The bed bounced up and down.

“You’re not jealous, are you? Are you having other feelings for your handsome new brother?”

I think my expression was answer enough. Seeming to understand, Laurel raised the corners of her mouth and lay down on the bed with her arms spread wide. Her calm voice flowed out slowly.

“I’m envious. That you can see it that way. No, I guess it means I did well enough.”

“……”

“Living as a woman of low status in this world is really shitty, Lucy. I don’t know how you got this opportunity, but if just a few more years had passed, you wouldn’t have been any different from me. You’re pretty, so maybe it would have been even more miserable.”

Laurel, who had been looking at the ceiling, turned her head to look at me. Her angular eyes were loosely curved.

“So don’t look at me with such disgusted eyes. When you look at me like that, it makes me want to die.”

Faced with her calmly sunken gaze, I didn’t know what to say. As I hesitated, Laurel took a short breath and abruptly got up from the bed. A calm smile I knew well appeared on her long face.

“Good night, Lucy. I look forward to our future together. And,”

Her small, rough hand gently touched my shoulder. Laurel added in a low voice.

“I’m sorry about Mrs. Vino.”

Even after Laurel closed the door and left, I couldn’t move for a long time. Because inexplicable tears suddenly burst forth.

Not knowing why I was crying, I sobbed and sank down in that spot. The tears didn’t stop until late into the night.

* * *

A party was being held at Balshwin Castle. The current Count Balshwin had three daughters, and it was the second birthday of his youngest daughter.

The Count wasn’t of an extravagant nature, but with dozens of noble family members gathered, the banquet couldn’t help but be splendid. Moreover, Balshwin Castle was the largest after the royal palace, so it exuded an incredibly imposing atmosphere on its own.

“Come, let us dedicate all the glory of our house to Count Balshwin!”

“Long live Balshwin!”

People, intoxicated with alcohol, raised their glasses without exception. Their gazes were directed towards the man sitting in the highest chair.

Dark red skin and deep gray hair were like symbols of the Balshwin family. The reason stated in the story that was passed down was that their origin was a barbarian warrior was because of their large build and great strength. He, barely thirty, looked stronger and more stern than anyone else.

The current Count, Beitram Balshwin, had once gotten lost in the forest while hunting as a boy and encountered a bear alone.

People, hearing the bear’s roar, imagined a horrific scene and frantically searched for the boy, the sole heir of the Count’s family. However, the scene they encountered was different from their imagination.

In the middle of the lush forest, Beitram, covered in warm blood from head to toe, was cutting open the bear’s belly with an expressionless face.

His father wasn’t particularly surprised even at the news of finding Beitram.

“If he were to fall to the likes of a bear, it would be better for him to die now.”

That was all he said, coldly.

Beitram inherited his father’s coldness, combat ability, and business acumen intact. No, it could be said he surpassed them.

He didn’t just stand by and watch those who interfered with the affairs of the Balshwin family. He would always find some excuse to ruthlessly eliminate them. The most representative victim was the Ohr ducal family.

There were four families that made great contributions to the establishment of the kingdom of Edmus, which unified the scattered continent. Two barely maintained their lineage, relying on past glory, while the other two prospered further. Those two families were the Ohr and Balshwin families.

The biggest money-maker in Edmus was the route for importing fur and spices, and the merchant group doing this business was under the Ohr family. Beitram, not satisfied with just trade deals with Freemont, decided to snatch this enormous source of income.

He first married Cecily, the daughter of the Ohr ducal family. The royal family didn’t want the power of the two families to combine, so they pressured the ducal family, but Beitram kidnapped Cecily and forcibly had relations with her. Then he spread the rumor throughout the world and boldly stepped forward to say,

“The honor of a noble lady is at stake. I want to take responsibility and protect her. As it’s an affair of love between young people, I ask the royal family to quickly permit this marriage.”

The Duke of Ohr didn’t approve of Beitram, but it was already done. Once the rumor spread that she had spent a night with Beitram, if she didn’t marry him, Cecily wouldn’t be able to have a proper marriage.

Moreover, somehow Cecily had genuinely fallen for Beitram. Unable to go against his daughter’s wish to marry him, the Duke of Ohr formally requested permission from the royal family, and the royal family couldn’t refuse the request. They had no grounds to refuse.

However, in conclusion, there was no joining of forces between the two families. After the marriage, the Ohr family began to walk the path of destruction as if cursed.

No one doubted when the elderly Duke of Ohr lost his life to a bandit attack while returning from inspecting his territory the year after the wedding.

But when the eldest son, who had succeeded the title in grief, died of an unknown illness after three years, people began to whisper.

Cecily didn’t know that her eldest brother had quarreled with her husband over the fur and spice business rights, and she was also preoccupied with being pregnant with her third child at the time. Beitram had made sure she was isolated from worldly affairs, focusing only on childbirth and childcare.

Even after giving birth, being a lady who had grown up sheltered and ignorant of the ways of the world, she thought it was just love when he sought her body until she became pregnant again, and Beitram knew this well.

So he comforted her as she grieved over the misfortunes that had befallen her family, holding her children weakly due to successive pregnancies.

“I’ll serve the Duke well to ensure this never happens again. So I want you to focus only on your body and the children. I’m very worried because your health is weak.”

But the tragedy wasn’t over. The second brother, who was waiting to succeed the title and reorganizing the family, was suddenly found dead while walking in the forest one day.

There were no external injuries, and he looked peaceful as if he had just fallen asleep. However, when the servant who first discovered him testified that there was foam around his mouth, rumors of poisoning began to circulate.

The arrow of suspicion, of course, pointed at Beitram. At the time, he had been seen frequently meeting with fur traders. Everyone knew that the Balshwin family coveted the Ohr family’s business.

Perhaps even the death of the eldest son had been poisoning.

Beitram intends to kill all the heirs of the Ohr family to take over the business rights.

How sad that only the blind daughter doesn’t know about the family tragedy and is being toyed with in the arms of the enemy.

But no one dared to raise the issue officially. Because not long after spreading the rumor that it might have been poisoning, the servant was brutally murdered, and the house where his wife and young children lived was burned down.