Though people talked about it with light laughter, Maximus, the person involved, was dying inside. Wherever he went, mockery followed him, and even without anyone saying anything, he could feel gazes looking him up and down everywhere.

Just like Ariel and Latnon had been the hot topic in high society, Maximus Roysel’s name kept coming up constantly. 

Just like when the story about Ariel being a lifeless stone had spread before. Maximus, who had to endure people’s contemptuous gazes the moment he stepped one foot outside his mansion, couldn’t bear it.

“D*mn it!”

Maximus Roysel threw his hat in irritation in the inn room he had stopped at on his way down to his territory. No matter how he thought about it, he was furious that he was being pushed out to his territory like this.

Before going down to his territory, Count Roysel had given him a chance. He should know that if he couldn’t somehow turn the situation around, the title would go to his younger brother.

So Maximus Roysel tried to spread rumors with a famous woman to prove his innocence, just like Ariel had done. However, his attempts repeatedly failed.

If Latnon Harkshien was the most famous among female nobles, Lady Blanc was the most famous among male nobles. Maximus went to Lady Blanc and requested that she sleep with him for just one night, but Lady Blanc immediately called the guards and threw him out.

“Why should I sleep with you, my lord?”

Roysel, with his pride thoroughly crushed, said it didn’t have to be Lady Blanc and went to find a madam to arrange a courtesan. But the courtesans also refused Maximus. It was natural enough. 

The courtesans also saw no reason to be with him when stories followed that he was sexually dysfunctional or couldn’t perform properly. Eventually, he reluctantly mixed bodies with one courtesan who really needed money and even gave her money.

“Now go out and say you spent an ecstatic night with me, that you had a better night than with Latnon Harkshien!”

But even after several days passed, no rumors about that night emerged. Only stories circulated among the courtesans and the men who sponsored them that ‘it was true that Maximus Roysel was incredibly bad.’ 

When Maximus Roysel learned of this fact and went to find that courtesan, it was useless. It only had the opposite effect.

Maximus Roysel raged and broke furniture in the mansion, wildly swinging his sword until he even killed his own horse. Eventually, Count Roysel became extremely angry and drove him out to his territory.

“What the h*ll did I even do!”

He fumed that this was all because of Ariel and Marquis Harkshien. He still couldn’t understand why Marquis Harkshien was going around with a lifeless stone like Ariel. He hadn’t lied about anything or done anything wrong, so why did he have to go through this? 

Everything seemed unreasonable.

He wanted revenge somehow. The title he was supposed to inherit, the wealth he could freely use once he received the title, even the honor he could gain by marrying a Naiad. What he had unfairly lost was too precious.

But he didn’t know how to move. Wasn’t he now being driven out to his territory? Once he arrived at his territory, it seemed like he would never be able to come out again. But he couldn’t just not go to his territory without any plan.

“Ahhhhh!”

Maximus screamed and smashed all the furniture in the inn room again. Since it was a high-class inn for nobles, there were many expensive items, but he wasn’t particularly worried. From his father’s standards, they seemed like cheap items anyway.

Knock knock.

At the sound of knocking on the door, Maximus caught his breath. He didn’t want to show his disheveled state, being a noble and all. But if the innkeeper was bothering him over such petty money, he planned to make him pay for daring to insult a noble.

“Come in.”

Maximus raised his thin arm to sweep his sweat-soaked hair back. Since he didn’t usually move around much, he was dripping with sweat from just that much effort.

Through his sparse hair, he saw a woman who had opened the door and entered.

“…Lady Bascant?”

“That’s right, Lord Roysel.”

“Why are you here, my lady?”

Maximus knew her. Wasn’t she the woman who had spread rumors with Latnon Harkshien?

Did she perhaps have feelings for him? So she had hurriedly chased after him before he went down to his territory? So she came to spend a night with him and then spread rumors that he was much better than Marquis Harkshien?

“Do you perhaps—”

“No.”

Maximus, who had opened his mouth while having delusions, closed it with a noticeably disappointed expression. He thought there was no other reason for her to come find him if that wasn’t it.

“I heard you’re going to your territory.”

“…”

Maximus’s expression became deeply furrowed. If she had come here, she must have already known he was going, so why bother mentioning it?

“There’s a way to get it back.”

“What?”

“You just need to marry Ariel Naiad, don’t you?”

“Do you think that would be so easy?”

If he married Ariel Naiad, he could certainly receive a title. Even if he didn’t inherit the Roysel family, since Ariel was an only daughter anyway, he could become an adopted son-in-law of that family. 

He actually preferred the highly honorable Naiad surname over Roysel, which only had meager wealth from granary territories.

But would Ariel want to marry him? No matter how attractive he might be, Latnon Harkshien was a marquis with a higher title than his. Though it was frustrating, Harkshien also had more wealth than Roysel.

“What if there was a way?”

A sinister smile crossed Renard’s face. At her secret plan that no one would think came from a noble lady, Maximus’s eyes seemed to waver for a moment. But soon the room was filled with the satisfied laughter of both people.