The carriage kept going, though Jeanette didn’t know where. Eventually, it came to a halt, and the men violently dragged her out. Someone pushed her hard enough that she fell, but her skin came in contact not with soil, but a wooden floor. One of her hands had gotten free, and she hurriedly ripped off the blindfold to assess her situation.
It seemed the men had brought her into some dilapidated house. The room was full of dust, and spiders nested in the corners. The furniture was so ragged that it looked like it’d crumble at the slightest touch.
Jeanette continued glancing around while removing her gag, and her eyes widened when she noticed who was standing in the room. “Mother?!”
“It’s been a while, Jeanette.” Leila crossed her arms, staring down at Jeanette triumphantly. Ariel was next to her, uncomfortably looking away from Jeanette.
I thought this was just Ariel’s doing, but mother was involved too! Thinking things through, Jeanette tightly gripped the pouch by her waist. Inside were her emergency crime-prevention balls, the Itchy Eyes Meal and the Knurl of Endless Sneezing, but of course she couldn’t throw them at her stepfamily.
“Um... What’s going on?” she asked. Even Jeanette, who was used to her stepmother’s “rewards,” couldn’t connect the dots this time. She couldn’t think of a reason for them to abduct her either.
Leila sneered. “Jeanette, you need a change of clothes,” she said, glancing pointedly at Ariel. The girl sighed and spread out the clothes they must’ve arranged prior to this.
Ariel held out a pure white lace gown.
“Is this...a wedding dress?” Jeanette blinked, for the dress didn’t suit this tattered cabin’s atmosphere at all. Why would they...? Oh! Could this be an early present for my and Claus’s wedd—
“Don’t get the wrong idea now. This is not for your and Claus’s wedding,” Leila clarified flatly, as if having read Jeanette’s thoughts.
Jeanette frowned dejectedly. “Oh, I see...”
“That said, it is yours to wear,” Leila added, running her finger down the dress with obvious amusement. “You see... Someone did a huge favor for me. I want to pay him back, so I need you to cooperate.”
Something clicked in Jeanette’s mind at those words. “Mother... You fell into debt after what happened with the tulips a few days ago, didn’t you?!”
“Can you not say such things out loud?!” Leila screeched, her face hardening in an instant. When she realized she’d let herself be provoked, she cleared her throat. “Ahem... The person I mentioned said that I don’t need to pay him back monetarily. Rather, he wants my daughter as a bride. You’re the perfect pick for that, aren’t you, Jeanette?”
I see, so that’s why mother brought me here, Jeanette thought as she nodded in understanding. “By the way, just who is this man? And how much money did you borrow from him?”
“The one you will be marrying is Marquis Balladur.”
Marquis Balladur? I’ve heard rumors about him. According to Jeanette’s information network, the marquis was over sixty years old and had a taste for young women. He spent all his days locked in his bedroom and left all the land management to his son. Jeanette had seen him from a distance a few times. He had muddy, cloudy eyes, as if he were always drunk. Once, she had attempted to greet him, but Claus swiftly stopped her with a smile on his face.
“I don’t owe him much money at all,” Leila claimed. But the amount she then uttered was enough for a skilled artisan to live on for a decade.
That’s much more than I thought! Yet even though the amount was high, Jeanette would’ve been able to pay it off right away. However...
I can’t just settle this matter by paying it on her behalf...
When it came to the usual rewards, Jeanette would’ve exclaimed, “I’ll use my connections!” and skipped away while humming. But no matter how she looked at this situation, it was merely a debt. If she were to shoulder it for her stepmother, the woman would get a taste for it and just run off to get into more debt.
So...what is the correct answer to this reward? Jeanette ummed and ahhed for a while, then suddenly lifted her head. “Oh! Then how about this: I’ll shoulder the debt, and in exchange, you can work at Roussel Corporation until you’ve earned the money back.”
“No,” Leila responded, shooting her idea down bluntly and leaving Jeanette dejected again. “Me, work at Roussel Corporation? What an unfunny joke you’ve thought up.”
“It wasn’t a joke...” Jeanette said. Mother participated in the tulip speculation, so I was sure she’d become interested in business...
While Jeanette was feeling disappointed, Ariel, who hadn’t said a word until now, unassumingly turned to face Leila. “Mother...” Her expression was filled with fear and hesitation.
Jeanette had never seen Ariel look like that. The same must’ve been true for Leila, who gazed at her daughter in confusion.
“Marquis Balladur is really scary, right? Sending Jeanette off to someone like him... It’s too much.”
“Gracious! What are you talking about, Ariel?!” Leila spluttered. Once more, both she and Jeanette looked surprised. “I already told you so many times! That man wants young women. If not Jeanette, then you’ll be the one sent off to marry him! You don’t want that, do you?!”
Ariel trembled at her mother’s threat, but nevertheless objected. “I know... But Jeanette doesn’t want this either! She even warned you not to get involved with the tulips before!”
“You... Just whose side are you on?!”
“Yours, of course! But I think you’re going too far this time!”
Jeanette watched in disbelief as Leila and Ariel quarreled before her very eyes. Is Ariel trying to stand up for me...?
Until now, no matter how hard Jeanette tried to befriend Ariel and held her hand out to her, the other girl had never taken it. Ariel was in love with Claus, and her feelings for him made her resent Jeanette. Yet that same Ariel was now getting into a fight with her own biological mother to protect Jeanette.