Before entering the street where grain merchants gathered…
Lydia had instructed Arsen and the others not to stop her no matter what she did. Until then, Arsen had assumed Lydia was just planning to say some harsh words.
“How dare you try to swindle our family?”
But when Lydia kicked a basket of beans and grabbed a scoop from atop a flour sack to smash it down, he wondered if he really shouldn’t intervene.
“My, our Miss is quite fiery.”
“……?”
When even Kedrick, one of Arsen’s most trusted subordinates, reacted this way, Arsen’s mind became as confused as the flying corn kernels.
So this all started when Lydia entered the shopping street and pointed at potatoes displayed at the first shop, asking how much they cost.
“A box of potatoes is normally ten gold coins, but I’ll specially do eight for you.”
The market price for a box of potatoes was twenty silver coins. Lydia, trying not to furrow her brow, asked how much the flour beside it cost.
Again, the merchant quoted a price more than 10 times the selling price. The next shop, and the one after that, did the same.
“As you can see, I’m now a priestess. Since becoming a priestess, I want to give to those in need……”
Lydia glanced at the small potatoes as she spoke.
“Don’t you think you’re charging too much compared to the quality of these potatoes?”
“Oh my, I’m already giving you a discount.”
The merchant was absolutely certain that Lydia wouldn’t know potato prices. It made sense—even commoners from wealthy households didn’t know the prices of staples like potatoes or flour.
Usually servants or maids did the shopping, and household expenses were managed by the butler, so there was no need to know.
But she was a Marquis’s daughter. A Marquis’s daughter might know the value of sapphires or rubies, but it would be normal not to know the price of a single potato.
And what kind of person was Lady Evansi?
According to the boutique, robe shop, and the innkeeper where she was staying, she was a greenhouse flower of a lady with absolutely no “sense of money.”
“Isn’t that right, Mallan?”
The merchant gave a sly smile to Mallan, who was fidgeting behind Lydia. The eyes of other merchants also focused on Mallan.
That gaze was a threat. A silent threat that if he didn’t answer properly now, there would be no next transaction.
As Mallan rolled his eyes, not knowing how to respond, Lydia smoothly stepped between him and the merchant.
“No need to ask Mallan.”
Because she had already asked around.
“Do I look that stupid to you? Buying a box of potatoes for ten gold coins when they’re not even jewels?”
“Uh, what?”
Lydia took a step toward the merchant.
“Looks like you were trying to make a profit by taking advantage of me?”
“No, no, not at all.”
“No? All of you here were trying to swindle me.”
Lydia bit her lip and glared equally at the owner of the next shop and the one after that.
“This is tantamount to insulting me.”
“It’s not.”
“I’ve been insulted, and who are you to say it’s not?”
A bit of unreasonableness was necessary in front of such swindlers.
“Are you disrespecting me because I’ve been driven here after becoming a priestess? Is that it?!”
And showing a bit of inferiority complex and exaggeration was good too.
“You.”
Lydia pointed at the merchant who was trying to slink away.
“Do you know who my father is?”
“Uh, uh, uh, Marquis Evansi.”
“And you’re trying to swindle me? Wait, you knew my father and still tried to frame me? Does our family look easy to you? Huh?”
That’s when it started. Lydia began shouting nonsensical accusations like “you took me for a fool,” “you disrespected me,” “you insulted our family,” while throwing whatever she could grab.
Potatoes flew through the air, flour swirled like snow, scoops shattered, and merchants stomped their feet in confusion.
“This is satisfying.”
Watching the merchant who couldn’t move an inch against Lydia, Mallan was trying hard to suppress his laughter.
The scattered potatoes were a shame, but from his perspective of always having to cower, wasn’t this exhilarating?
“Still, you should stop her at the right time. Look, Miss’s arms are starting to shake.”
Lydia’s forearms were trembling. Just as Arsen clicked his tongue and was about to intervene, Lydia stopped abruptly at the sight of something.
“Fine. If you won’t sell me grain, I’ll grow my own.”
Her gaze turned to a tray of green seedlings.
“Mallan.”
“Yes, Miss.”
“Go buy all those plants, and those plants next to them, no, just buy all the plants and seeds in that shop.”
Then Mallan said with difficulty:
“Miss, they won’t sell us seedlings. Or seeds.”
At those words, Lydia’s eyes widened, and an icy silence fell. Before the pale-faced merchants could explain that it wasn’t true, Lydia grabbed her nape and shouted:
“Call out Count Wonde! How dare you disrespect the Evansi family like this?!”
Lydia turned around sharply, refusing to hear anyone’s explanation, and said to Arsen,
“Sir Arsen.”
“Yes?”
“Prepare for territorial warfare. We need to sweep this all away. I’m too angry to stand this.”
* * *
The commotion in the square spread instantly, reaching the lord’s castle in Count Wonde’s territory. The Count’s proxy, Luzan David, hurriedly sent a letter inviting Lydia to the lord’s castle.
However, upon receiving the letter, Lydia—
“Who does he think he is, ordering me around? A mere proxy!”
She tore the letter to shreds and returned to her room.
Kedrick approached the stunned servant standing there and kindly explained that the Miss’s pride had been deeply wounded today.
While they were trying hard to appease her, he suggested that if Luzan came to the inn and flattered her a bit, the matter wouldn’t escalate.
Lydia, who had stayed in her room resting even after the servant left, only came out at dinner time.
After picking at her dinner, Lydia stood up first, saying she was tired.
“My arms and legs hurt so much, Sir.”
With a whiny voice, Lydia winked her left eye at Arsen.
This was to deceive Kedrick, Arsen’s closest aide.
If they could deceive Arsen’s closest person, wouldn’t they also fool Richard far away in the imperial palace?
“It hurts so much I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep.”
Here’s what Lydia expected to happen:
First, Kedrick and others would make a “what’s wrong with her now” expression at Lydia’s sudden childishness.
Second, Arsen would reply, “Then I’ll call a physician for you.”
Then Lydia would say, “It’s not that serious,” while subtly seducing Arsen with “I wish someone would massage my legs….”
But Arsen would put up a wall against her, insisting on calling a physician, and Lydia would pretend to be upset and return to her room, ending the situation.
The conclusion would be successful if Kedrick began to suspect, “Could Miss be interested in our commander?”
“I thought as much. I could tell you were overdoing it from when you flipped that potato box.”
“Next time you need to cause a scene, ask us to do it, Miss.”
But what kind of reaction is this?
Kedrick and the others each added a comment, saying they had expected this. Even Arsen was nodding in agreement with them.
“If you sleep like this, your whole body will be sore tomorrow. Commander, go massage her a bit.”
“Me?”
“We can’t do it, can we? Tomorrow when the Count’s proxy comes, Miss needs to establish dominance right away, and it would be terrible if she’s bedridden.”
“I see.”
What do you mean, “I see,” man?
Lydia was bewildered by the situation unfolding completely opposite to what she had expected.
“No, excuse me……?”
“Can you make it up the stairs?”
“Of course not. Earlier, I saw you barely making it down while clinging to the railing.”
That never happened. When Lydia looked at Kedrick in confusion, he winked at her. Lydia, unaware that Kedrick and the others had agreed to push Arsen and her together, was simply perplexed.
“I see.”
While Lydia was flustered, Arsen stood up and scooped her into his arms.
With her feet lifted off the ground, she instinctively wrapped her arms around Arsen’s neck, but she was still dumbfounded.
It felt like all the plans she had carefully crafted during dinner had turned to bubbles.
“Hey, Sir Arsen.”
Lydia thumped Arsen’s chest with some emotion as he opened her room door with familiar ease.
“Didn’t you see my signal?”
“I did.”
“When I give the signal, you’re supposed to act like you hate it, like you don’t want this, remember?”
Yesterday could be excused because he didn’t know it was an act, but what was his reason for behaving this way today when he knew?
How could they successfully execute their plan with such poor coordination?
Honestly, Lydia was doing all the acting while Arsen just needed to refuse, yet was that one thing so difficult for him?
As she was lowered from Arsen’s arms onto the bed, Lydia gave him a resentful look.
“Your arms and legs are hurting, that’s not an act, is it?”
“It’s not an act, but it’s not bad enough to make such a fuss.”
“So you are in pain.”
It felt like talking to a wall. There was a strange sense of déjà vu, as if this had happened before.
And that conversation had ended with only Lydia being thoroughly teased.
“So what, are you really going to massage my legs?”
This time it was Lydia’s turn to tease him. She deliberately stretched her legs toward Arsen.
Surely this would make him uncomfortable, right?
Lydia planned to snap at him when he hesitated, telling him to stick to the script next time.
“Of course. That’s why I came in here.”
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theyre so cute hssjssk arsen’s too funny even if he’s just being his dry self 😂 poor lydia, her plans concerning arsen never go the way she wanted them to