I Didn't Seduce the Dark Grand Duke — Episode 15

Wow, honestly…….

The newspapers of Orden were hard at work yet again today. So hard at work that I found myself wishing they'd just be lazy for once.

"At this point, it's basically a done deal, my lady."

"……"

"That's what I keep telling you — you should just give up."

Laura clicked her tongue as she said it. I shot her a glare, asking if she was fanning the flames of a house already on fire, but it didn't work on her anymore.

"By the way, what have you been hauling around so diligently since a while ago?"

"Oh, this? Hehe. You've finally taken an interest!"

Laura grinned as if she'd been waiting for exactly that, and carried the box she was holding over to my desk. And this wasn't all — at some point, the office had filled up with the boxes she'd been carrying in one by one.

"These are from the Grand Duke's household! Word is they're a gift from His Highness to you, my lady!"

"What? A gift…… no, wait. This is all of it?"

"Of course not. There's still a whole mountain of them piled up at the entrance downstairs."

Good grief. A rough glance at the contents was enough — priceless jewels, to say nothing of master craftsman furniture and gowns, famous paintings and artworks by renowned artists. The variety alone was staggering.

"His Highness seems truly sincere about you, my lady."

Laura smirked, remarking that the price tag on these gifts was no joke. And she was right — the necklace she'd just lifted was worth enough on its own to easily buy one of those silver-adorned, four-horse carriages that nobles so loved to ride around in.

"Not that it matters! What matters in a gift is the sentiment behind it, more than the amount."

"Then put down that diamond necklace you're holding first before you say so."

The stones were so enormous you could see them clearly even from here.

"Don't unwrap any of it. Store it all carefully in the warehouse. We may end up sending it back."

"I'm sorry — send it back?"

"I told you. I'm still thinking it over."

"……"

And with that, Laura — who had been bustling about in high spirits at my instruction to leave everything untouched — froze mid-motion. She soon approached my desk, glancing at me hesitantly.

"Um…… my lady? There's something I've been wanting to ask you for a while now."

"Ask away."

"Why are you hesitating about the marriage?"

"What?"

"Well, no matter how I think about it, the terms are simply too good."

She spoke carefully, saying it might sound a little mercenary of her, but even accounting for that, wasn't this an offer impossible to ignore?

'Well, she's not wrong. As marriage prospects go, there's no one better. If anything, now that he's shed his priest's robes, he's the number-one groom on the Orden social market.'

But still.

"I keep telling you — I have no plans to marry right now. And it's not like I don't have a dozen other things demanding my attention……"

"That's exactly my point!"

Huh?

"Maybe a few years ago, but not anymore, right? Your businesses are all well on stable footing now, and there's no more noise about the family succession."

"……"

"I know you treasure the family, my lady, but the situation is very different now than it was four years ago. Of course, there are still nobles out there who insist on underestimating you."

"……"

"You've already been recognized, fully and completely, as head of Zacherete and as a businesswoman. So I think it might be time to start seriously considering the question of marriage."

Laura's words landed like a stone dropped on my head.

'Now that I hear it out loud, she's right.'

All this time, I'd been running myself ragged just to protect the family. To become someone worthy of the position my father had left behind. To never sully the name of Zacherete. I'd been so busy charging straight ahead that I hadn't noticed — but looking back now, I had already cleared most of the hurdles.

"Or… don't tell me. All that talk about strengthening the family's foundations, and telling me not to bring up marriage — that was all just an excuse, wasn't it?"

"No. No, it wasn't. Someday…… I mean, I'll have to, eventually."

Because if I didn't marry, I couldn't pass the family on to an heir.

"Exactly! And that someday is now, my lady!"

At some point I'd set down my quill and sunk into thought, arms crossed. Come to think of it, when exactly had my view of marriage gotten this twisted?

'No, honestly, I never had much interest in it to begin with.'

Even when Father was alive, I preferred shutting myself away, sketching out my own business ventures or experimenting with proprietary tea-blend recipes, over socializing with ladies my own age. That was simply how I liked to spend my time.

'Which is why Father worried about me so much, too.'

And then his sudden death came, and the effort of holding together a tottering family pushed marriage even further down the list.

'I figured I'd just live like this, and eventually adopt a child to carry on the family. That was the plan.'

But under Orden's noble law, there was a stipulation that one had to be married in order to legally register an heir.

'So I suppose I'd just marry someone suitably matched when the time came — that was roughly my thinking, anyway. So what about now?'

"Come on, think it through, my lady. This is an opportunity! It's not just anyone — it's the Grand Duke of Bernstein. You don't think they call him the number-one groom for nothing, do you?"

No, no. Laura waggled her index finger back and forth, practically shouting.

"The conditions are enormous! Except until now, all of those conditions were sealed away inside that sacred priest's vestment. But what about now? What's happened now?!"

……The seal has been broken, hasn't it.

"Everyone else has their eyes ablaze, desperate to claw their way into that seat beside him — and yet here you are, my lady, the one actually being courted, looking like this…… Tsk, tsk."

Hold on. Looking like this?

I opened my mouth to protest that that was going too far — then promptly shut it again. Because Laura's eyes were still blazing.

"In any case! That is my opinion!"

Laura declared, clenching both fists like an orator mid-speech.

"If you must marry anyway! If you must live out your days wearing the ring anyway!"

"……"

"Then I recommend you marry the best conditions, the best face, and the best asset on the market — for your sake, my lady, and for the future of House Zacherete!"

The future of Zacherete. That phrase caught my ear, and my mind snapped into focus.

"Oh, of course, you'd become the open enemy of every lady in Orden. The proverbial enemy of all womankind, as it were."

Winning Leon Obsidian's hand in exchange for the hatred of every woman in the empire.

"If you're going to claim a beautiful man, you have to be prepared for at least that much, you know!"

"And that's really fine with you?"

"Well, it shouldn't matter to you anyway, should it? You've never cared much for high society. Unless it's a gathering of fellow merchant nobles, you never bother attending."

"That's true enough."

I'd always favored gatherings of nobles in the same line of business over ladies' tea parties or balls designed for husband-hunting.

'And since those tended to be dominated by men anyway, I only ever showed my face when attendance was truly unavoidable.'

So even if high society decided to freeze me out, it wouldn't sting much at this point. The only real concern would be a boycott by the noblewomen.

'Though honestly, even that would be hard to pull off. Zacherete's share of the tea market is unrivaled. And we're a brand that wins on flavor and craftsmanship, no less.'

In fact, several nobles had tried to jump into the business and steal Zacherete's seat, and every last one of them had gone under spectacularly and waved the white flag. When it came to business, I was reasonably confident I could handle that much.

"……All right. I'll think it over. Again."

I gave a nod, conceding the point. Laura's face brightened considerably, and she beamed, gesturing at the half-unwrapped boxes.

"Then, um… what would you like done with all of these?"

"Well……"

A mountain of gifts Leon had piled up and sent over for the purpose of courtship. Still overwhelming, of course.

"……Take them to my room for now. I'll go through them later when I have time."

"Yes, my lady! Understood!"

Blithely assuring me she'd have everything moved in a flash, Laura left the office in high spirits, humming a tune. I stared blankly after her retreating figure, then lowered my gaze back to the documents…… and immediately raised it again.

Damn it. What just happened.

"……Why do I feel like I just got swept along?"

The hotel Eldvrele, located at 7 Rodun Street. In its rooftop garden on the very top floor, women clustered in small groups at tables, chatting over tea.

"If I'd known this would happen, I should have approached him far more aggressively. Who could have imagined he'd throw over the priesthood……"

"You're telling me. I'm furious. My daughter adored the Grand Duke so desperately… Aiyo, ever since the first word came out — the newspapers, the gossip sheets, all of it — she's shut herself in her room and won't come out."

One of the noblewomen murmured distractedly, worried that things might spiral into a real disaster at this rate.

"Surely you feel the same way, my lady?"

The noblewoman, who had been pouring out her troubles with an anxious face, glanced off to the side as she asked.

"Countess Oscar."

At the noblewoman's question, the silver-haired beauty seated elegantly lifted her head with a faint smile.

But down beneath the table, in her hand, the gossip sheet was being crumpled into a hopeless wreck of paper.