“I know I give off that impression,” he continued, “so I don’t blame that girl and her parents for being scared of me. What I’m trying to say is: I don’t want to bring you trouble.”
Now that he wasn’t trying so hard to be polite, he was very nice. His voice was deep, and a little hoarse, but it was warm and gentle—just as gentle as his hands whenever he touched flowers.
“What do you mean by trouble?” I asked while I worked to harvest some nearby green beets.
“You’re gonna become the countess, aren’t you? You shouldn’t be talking to servants like me. Nobles hate that. That young girl who got me fired made a lot more sense than you if you ask me.”
“Why should I hate speaking with you? This beautiful garden only exists because of you, and you’re also the reason why we get to eat such fresh, delicious vegetables.”
“I’m still just a servant.”
“Your presence is indispensable here,” I said with a smile. “Besides, we live under the same roof. We’re pretty much family, aren’t we?”
At my words, Johan opened his eyes so wide, the deep-set wrinkles between his eyebrows almost disappeared. When I saw his reaction, I realized I was being very presumptuous.
I have only been here a few days, and I haven’t even become Lord Kyros’s fiancée in a truly official capacity… I don’t have the right to call myself his family, do I?
Johan laughed. “You sound just like our lord.”
Just then, I heard someone calling my name in the distance. I poked my head over the hedge and saw Mio, Thomas, and Lord Kyros. It didn’t make sense to wait for them to step onto the soil, so I walked to them instead.
“Sorry! I was so engrossed in gardening that I forgot how late it was,” I said. “Is it already time for you to leave, Lord Kyros?”
“Huh? Oh… Hmm… Yes,” Lord Kyros replied absent-mindedly.
“His lordship, the lord of this great castle, stayed up all night, so he’s still half asleep,” Mio supplied.
“Oh my, you had to stay up all night? You must be so busy.”
“Yeah…”
I felt bad for him. Being in his shoes had to be very difficult. He was in full formal dress, but his green eyes were struggling to stay open.
His work must be hard… I wish I could help him somehow.
For some reason, Mio looked exasperated.
“I’ll go load your luggage in the carriage, my lord!” Thomas declared with a smile before running off. He waved at me with his right hand. With his left, he was holding the backs of Hanna and Ilsa’s collars.
Lord Kyros, still half-asleep, blinked in confusion. “My luggage?”
“You’re headed to the royal palace for a banquet, aren’t you?” Mio said. “Please give these two back to their original master.”
“Ah… All right,” he replied drowsily.
“Luggage?! Did you just call us luggage?! We came here at the behest of the count!” Hanna shrieked.
“She’s right! He’ll make us his concubines one day and—aaah! What do you think you’re doing?! Unhand me this instant!”
Thomas picked up the squawking waiting maids and threw each of them over his respective shoulders.
Whoa! He’s not the gatekeeper for nothing! Thomas is always so mild-mannered, but he’s so strong! How cool!
I got so excited that I ended up clapping. Hanna and Ilsa, on the other hand, were flabbergasted, and they glared at me. I could see the contempt and animosity in their eyes.
“Don’t get carried away, you broke country bumpkin! You’re just merchandise the count bought!” Ilsa yelled.
“You’ll never be a true countess!” Hanna added. “He only brought you here for duty—and to replace your dead sister at that! Everyone knows the younger daughter of House Chandelan is a total loser!”
“And everyone will laugh at the count for getting the short end of the stick! Aren’t you ashamed to cast such ridicule upon his name? Have some decency and go back to where you came from, you ugly wench!”
Ah…
Their abusive taunts didn’t shock me. I knew it all already. I was well aware I was ugly, that I was only here to replace Anastasia, and that this was a marriage of convenience. Hearing the truth didn’t hurt me, as I’d lived with it since I was born. One part did feel like a stab to the heart, though.
Lord Kyros will be mocked…because of me?
“Enough! How can you two say such things?!” Thomas shouted. He started walking away, but Lord Kyros grabbed his arm, stopping him. His green eyes honed in on the two waiting maids.
“How?” he asked them.
“Huh…?” Ilsa gawked at him.
“Make it clear to me. How is Marie ugly?”
“A-ah… W-well… Um…” Hanna stammered.
“You mentioned her house and how she’s ‘broke,’ but your house’s fame and fortune don’t belong to you either. Is there any way—any way at all—in which the two of you are personally better than Marie? Do you think you’re more beautiful? Smarter? Nobler? Kinder? Don’t make me laugh. Actually, do the two of you even have a single positive quality between you? Please, enlighten me, because from where I’m standing, there doesn’t seem to be a single thing I could ever come to love about either of you.”
Hanna and Ilsa gasped. They were so shocked that they didn’t manage even a word in reply. They just went limp and let Thomas carry them away without another word.
I heard someone chuckle. It was Johan. As for Mio, her face was as blank as always, as though what had just happened was nothing out of the ordinary.
Lord Kyros grinned before letting out a weak, “Ah, I’m so sleepy…” and yawning. Then, he snapped off a vine and walked up to me. His eyes practically glittered as he looked at me.
“Lord Kyros?”
“Marie,” he whispered. His voice was so sweet it startled me.
“Y-yes? What is it?”
His hands caressed my cheeks, and he let his fingers run up the sides of my face and behind my ears.
Huh?! What?! I let out a surprised yelp. However, his hands were gone as quickly as they’d come.
He took a good look at my face and smiled. “It suits you.”
“H-huh?”
“Red and green—those two colors are opposite, and that’s why they complement one another so well. It looks great.”
That was when I noticed that he’d put the vine in my hair.
“You’re beautiful, Marie.”
As he whispered my name, his finger brushed against my lips for a fleeting moment. Then he lifted my head upward and leaned in.
W-wait! I-is he…
Mio cleared her throat, making me jump. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but you’ve gone way over the time limit,” she said, then turned to Lord Kyros. “You shouldn’t have woken up so late.”
“Ah… Wait—”
“Of course, I could have given you a couple more seconds, but I had a feeling that wouldn’t have been enough. Besides, considering the situation, don’t you think you should leave that for another day?”
“Well…” Lord Kyros said.
Now that Mio had given me a chance to think of my current state of dress—lounge wear, rolled-up sleeves, dirty gloves, and makeshift socks—I was inclined to agree with her. Not to mention the light makeup I’d put on to prevent sunburns had most likely turned into a mess because of the sweat.
Johan seemed to have been trying to give us some privacy, and he was crouching, facing a shrub, but there was one more person around us now: Tunica. Our eyes met and she raised her hand to greet me.
“I only came to get some chamomile to use for my treatment preparations, but it seems I arrived at just the right moment. Far be it from me to pass up on free entertainment!”
I wish you’d at least pretend to have not seen anything…
“Now, if I may, my lord, that vine you just ripped off… Johan had spent a very long time raising it with care,” Mio added, her tone as unhurried as always.
“Oh. It that so? I’m sorry Johan. I’d just thought it was such a nice color…”
“It’s all right. It did shock me at first, but I got to see something nice, so…” he said with a smile and a shrug.
I want to run away…
And so, Mio dragged a still-yawning Lord Kyros away.
Apparently, high-ranking nobles would be gathering tonight at the royal palace. I wasn’t sure what they’d be doing exactly, but it seemed it would be an important ceremony that would last around ten days.
I went to the gate to see Lord Kyros off along with the rest of the servants.
“Please take care, Lord Kyros,” I said, waving my hand at him. He saw me and waved back.
“Tell me the truth, Lady Marie. You wanted him to kiss you earlier, didn’t you?” Tunica teased me.
I just forced a smile. “I know he was just half-asleep.” And with that matter settled, I went back to the vegetable garden.
Mio came to get me when the sun started setting. She took me to the bathhouse, and Tunica helped me wash off all the mud I’d gotten on myself after gardening for half the day. She also massaged me to rid me of the fatigue. After that, I enjoyed the delicious dinner Toppo had made, went back to my room, and had a cup of tea. After taking it easy for a while, I slipped into bed.
It’d been such a fun day. I’d been worried that Johan disliked me, but the two of us had finally had a good chat, and he’d allowed me to help him. Satisfied as I was, I was content to close my eyes and let the weariness of the day’s labor wash over me and lull me into a deep sleep…
But first, I considered the time. I assumed the party Lord Kyros was attending was most likely ending about now. I’d heard he planned on personally handing out invitations to our engagement ceremony during the event. I wondered how many people he’d given them to. How many would come to congratulate us? How many would frown after seeing me?
The answer was most likely all of the guests. They’d feel bad for Lord Kyros the moment they laid eyes on me. “Why is Kyros Granado’s fiancée such an unsightly girl?” they’d all wonder. “I thought the daughter of House Chandelan was a great beauty.”
I wasn’t the great beauty. I was the short end of the stick—the loser.
Hanna and Ilsa’s shrill voices echoed in my head. People will mock him. They’ll mock him because of me.
My chest throbbed in pain. The more I thought about it, and the more it hurt. Before long, the pain spread to my entire body. I felt it crawling under my skin. It was hard to bear—so hard to bear that I couldn’t sleep anymore.
After several such sleepless nights, a letter from the palace arrived. It had been seven days since Lord Kyros’s departure.