Chapter 5 The Most Filial Son Ever

In the night when most people were asleep.

Lydia tiptoed down the stairs of the marquis’s residence, almost crawling.

Arriving at the marquis’s room, Lydia looked left and right and carefully opened the door.

The marquis was still at the lord’s castle in the marquisate.

Around the end of the coup, his illness became so severe he couldn’t move to the capital.

And Lydia came to rob her sick father’s safe.

Devon probably hadn’t expected Lydia would know even the location of the jewels the marquis had hidden.

Lydia, who entered with such plans, almost screamed at the object placed in the middle of the marquis’s room.

She covered her mouth in shock.

A coffin, there was a coffin. A coffin for her father who was still alive.

“Devon, you crazy bastard.”

Though she covered her mouth, she couldn’t help the curse that escaped.

Though her father was struggling between life and death, he was still alive.

Shouldn’t a son at least hope for his father’s recovery?

“Ah, could this be my coffin?”

Suddenly she remembered when they had left her to die after she drank poison.

Right, it couldn’t be Father’s coffin, could it?

Lydia crept toward the coffin. However, the gold-leafed letters on the coffin lid clearly read ‘Calluy Evansi.’

Her father’s name.

Crazy bastard.

Was it his hobby to make coffins in advance for people who weren’t even dead?

In her previous life, even though Lydia was alive and well in the labor camp, Devon held her funeral.

He buried an empty coffin and erected a tombstone without even having her body.

“……I wonder if he erected a tombstone?”

Maybe he didn’t put up a tombstone saying she was a disgrace to the family?

Since Lydia hadn’t seen her own grave herself, she couldn’t know that much.

“Well, I admit I committed crimes.”

Lydia had actually tried to poison Giselle.

But the marquis? The marquis was innocent.

He wasn’t a good husband but he was at least a decent father.

Even when Lydia brought a potential groom who had nothing and might endanger the family, saying she wanted to marry him, he reluctantly allowed it.

When that groom joined forces with Devon saying he would start a coup to become emperor, he supported them with everything the family had without reserve.

Not because he liked Richard, but because he supported Devon.

If there were any flaws, they were that he caused her mother heartache and that he placed considerable importance on bloodlines.

“Are you getting revenge for Mother?”

What an unparalleled filial son we have here.

Lydia pursed her lips. Lydia had always had unrequited love for her mother.

Mother’s love was only for Devon, the eldest son of the marquis’s family.

“What’s the use of thinking about the past?”

She came down secretly but only dug up old memories.

Lydia approached what she really came to take. There was a small secret safe inside the headboard of the marquis’s bed.

On the day when the marquis had to stay in the marquisate due to his health while the rest, including Lydia, left for the capital, he had called Lydia and told her,

That there were some diamonds there if she needed to use them.

Even then, the marquis was already showing symptoms of the White Ghost disease, so he must have considered it practically his last will.

But why did he tell Lydia instead of Devon?

“Could Father have known?”

Lydia had sold most of her jewels for Richard who was practically penniless.

Worried that Richard might feel hurt in his pride if he used the marquis’s residence’s wealth, she gave Richard money from selling the jewels.

She suddenly had the intuition that the marquis knew this and secretly told only Lydia.

“One thing’s for sure. Father failed at raising his children.”

One obsessed with a man, one obsessed with who knows what making their father’s coffin in advance.

Lydia clicked her tongue and opened the secret safe in the bed’s headboard.

Inside was a large flat box.

Lydia held her breath as she opened the box.

A mystical sparkle reflected on Lydia’s face.

The marquis had definitely said ‘a few diamonds.’

But this wasn’t just a few.

Lydia quickly closed the box and preciously held it to her chest.

“Father, I’ll use them well. And please wait a little.”

Because I’ll definitely save you.

While silently praying to her father, Lydia left the marquis’s room.

She headed to the empty room that maids used for sewing.

After stealing a sewing basket from there, Lydia quickly returned to her room.

In a small travel bag in one corner of the room were the underwear and negligees that Anna had packed during the day.

Taking out the underwear, Lydia carefully ripped apart the part where two layers of fabric were sewn together.

Then she embroidered diamonds one by one over the torn part.

“They won’t know about this.”

The original Lydia didn’t know how to sew.

Once when embroidery became popular among noble ladies, she tried hard to learn but had no talent for it.

It was closer to poking holes in her fingers than embroidery, and Lydia quickly gave up.

After that, she never went near a needle again.

She had many maids who could sew for her. But not in the labor camp.

There, she had to mend her own clothes. Sometimes when guards threw torn socks at her, she had to mend and return those too.

Nella taught Lydia sewing every night, sacrificing her already insufficient sleep, and before long, Lydia’s skills improved enough to make a complete outfit.

“It feels nostalgic.”

Just before dying, she spent nights sewing, layering any scrap of fabric she could find because it was too cold.

But that felt like it happened a very long time ago.

Was it because her fingers were clumsy?

Though her unfamiliar fingers couldn’t match her skills from her previous life, they still produced decent work.

“They would never think I’d take diamonds by embroidering them.”

Because the Lydia that Devon knew couldn’t sew. And sewing skills weren’t something one could learn overnight.

Lydia spent the whole night embroidering diamonds into the underwear by the light of a single candle.

* * *

“So you’re leaving without even seeing my wedding.”

Richard spoke as if disappointed when Arsen came to say goodbye before heading to the border of the marquisate.

Arsen just nodded with a formal smile.

“I hear you’re taking Lydia?”

“I thought it would be good to have a temple in the border region of the marquisate.”

“Really, is that the only reason?”

Richard knew from Giselle that Lydia had become a priestess. But he felt uneasy.

Currently, the temple that worshipped Anastasia as their main goddess taught that there were many paths to serve the goddess.

They spread the teaching that one could serve the goddess without becoming a priestess, or even after quitting being a priestess, so it wasn’t difficult to leave the priestess’s robes.

If Lydia and Arsen fell for each other at the border and Lydia quit being a priestess to marry him, that would be that.

The only fortunate thing was that due to social pressure, one couldn’t quit the priestess position immediately.

They would receive less criticism if they served for at least 1-2 years before quitting.

Since the temple also recommended serving as a priestess for at least 2 years, it was safe to say they wouldn’t marry for a while.

“Be careful of Lydia.”

“Do you think I would lose in a fight with the lady?”

“That’s not what I mean.”

Richard was serious.

“Have you already forgotten how she drank poison saying she would die in front of me? Besides that, she’s the type that exhausts people. It’s best not to get involved.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Keep that in mind? What does that mean?”

He found himself nitpicking words without meaning to.

He didn’t want to be like this, but Richard felt anxious about Arsen becoming closer to Devon.

Devon already held too much power.

His influence grew day by day to the point where he could rival even a novice emperor who had just ascended to the throne.

As a meritorious subject, and now with Giselle joining the Evansi family, Devon would become the Empress’s brother and furthermore the uncle of the future crown prince.

Richard had planned to crush Devon from the start.

But if Devon gained Arsen and the Black Wolf Knight Order too, that would become complicated.

“I don’t know what misunderstanding you have, but I have no relationship with Lady Lydia. And I won’t develop any kind of relationship either.”

“Do you really have no feelings at all for Lydia?”

“I swear on my sword, I have none.”

Only after Arsen confirmed several times did Richard seem somewhat relieved.

“Right, you wouldn’t like a woman with such flaws anyway.”

Flaws? Wasn’t that too harsh to say about someone who had been his fiancée?

Arsen barely managed to smooth his furrowing brow.

It was contradictory to react negatively to slander against Lydia after saying he had no feelings for her.

So if he had no feelings, he shouldn’t react to slander, but did his brow just furrow?

This time Arsen’s eyebrows really did crease.

But fortunately, the topic moved from Lydia to the remaining loyalists of the former emperor who were still in hiding somewhere.

“We shouldn’t have let Viscount Herbon live back then. Don’t you agree, Sir?”

* * *

Two days passed in an instant.

Lydia stumbled down the stairs with a haggard face from staying up nights sewing.

Following the butler’s guidance to the reception room, she found Arsen already there drinking tea.

Arsen frowned seeing Lydia’s pale face.

Could it be that Devon, this bastard, didn’t provide meals again?

How else could someone become so gaunt in just two days?

Whether Arsen thought that or not, Devon held out a document to Lydia.

It was the consent form for Giselle’s adoption.

Lydia signed as promised.

“Can I go now?”

She really hated seeing Devon’s smirking face.

But Devon wouldn’t let her go easily.

“Lydia, my sister, this brother told you to pack only necessary clothes, but your bag seems quite full.”

“Are you going to inspect my luggage?”

She had carefully hidden the diamonds just in case, but to think he would actually inspect the luggage.

Devon ordered the butler to empty Lydia’s bag on the floor.

“Devon!”

As Lydia screamed, the contents of the bag spilled out.

Underwear and negligees scattered everywhere.

“Isn’t this too much?”

Lydia shouted and ran to snatch the bag from the butler’s hands.

Then, as if holding back tears of shame, she bit her lip and stuffed her underwear back into the bag haphazardly.

She had expected this.

To prepare for this, she had torn the underwear and fixed the diamonds inside so they wouldn’t move.

Thanks to that, even when they fell to the floor, no sound of minerals could be heard.

Seeing Devon’s embarrassed expression, Lydia bit her lip harder to keep from laughing.

Of course, she held the bag containing diamonds even tighter.

“Let’s go now, Sir Arsen.”

Lydia turned without lingering but suddenly gave Devon a glance, saying goodbye with her eyes.

‘Devon, go ahead and play master of the marquis’s residence while I’m gone. When I return, you won’t have that luxury.’

* * *