Merilyn nodded. “It seems like the breakup affected her greatly. She looked very lethargic as well.”
Silence pervaded the solemn atmosphere before a man’s voice eventually broke it.
“She cried?”
At his sudden interruption, all the maids jumped in surprise. “M-Master!” they cried.
Duke Floyen, the owner of the estate, leveled them with a stony expression, making them tremble with fear. After being caught red-handed gossiping about Jubelian, there was no way they could provide a decent enough excuse that would spare them punishment.
Instead, however, the duke’s peacock-blue eyes fell on Merilyn. “You,” he commanded coldly. Merilyn held her breath. “Tell me in detail what you saw.”
✤ ✤ ✤
When I woke up, my body felt lighter than it had yesterday. Ah, today’s going to be a good day, I had thought. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to spend a few days as a homebody. My plan was to eat a lot of delicious food and live in seclusion for a while.
Unfortunately, that was just wishful thinking. For some reason, Father asked to have breakfast with me this morning.
“How is the food?” he asked.
“The food is good, of course. It’s your presence that’s making me sick, Father,” I wanted to tell him, but I kept quiet. There was no way I could express the truth like that. “It’s great,” I said instead, eating quickly. The faster I finished my meal, the sooner I could return to my room.
I practically inhaled the food despite finding it a bit burdensome for a light breakfast.
“Eat slowly. You’ll get sick.”
Father looked at me like how one would look at something pathetic. Again, I’d sooner fall ill from having to endure his company. The food’s nothing compared to him. I had already been shocked by the sudden breakfast invitation, but his staring was making things worse.
Why was he doing this? Was he silently scolding me for breaking up with Mikhail?
I wanted to leave the dining room as soon as possible, but doing so would only reveal my discomfort. I continued to force my food down my throat. Before long, Father looked away from me and sighed, doubtlessly disappointed by my behavior.
Indeed. The fact that he probably thought I was pathetic made plenty of sense. He bore the grand title of a duke and led an elite group of imperial knights along with the entire central army. Twenty years ago, after leading the war to a great victory, he became the empire’s most revered hero. The strongest swordsman.
Father had everything. He was handsome, too. Even now, he still received marriage proposals on occasion.
His opinion on me couldn’t be helped. Compared to him, I wasn’t just mediocre. I was truly pathetic. My transgressions didn’t stop at being untalented, either; I also dragged my reputation into the ground after chasing Mikhail around. I didn’t have any friends because I was bad at socializing.
In other novels, villainesses were still popular within their social circles no matter how outrageously they behaved. Jubelian’s character was a bit more realistic in this sense.
I had unconsciously began to sulk at the thought when I made eye contact with Father once more.
“Do you want this?” he asked. He must’ve thought I was looking at the plate of food in front of him. I shook my head, but he was already tossing a large chunk of meat onto my plate. “Eat.”
Despite being full, I couldn’t refuse. Why was he doing this to me?
As I silently suffered from overeating, he suddenly called out to me. “Jubelian.”
“Yes?”
“What is your ideal type?”
I dropped my fork at the unexpected question. Why on earth was he asking me this? A servant in the dining room quickly replaced my fork with a new one, but I was so shocked that I felt like I was just going to drop it again if I picked it up.
“I’m just curious,” he supplied.
Although it was a simple question, it didn’t make sense coming from him, considering how he had been treating me the past eighteen years. He had never been interested in me before, so why was he asking me this now?
An uneasy thought suddenly occurred to me. No way… was he trying to marry me off to someone else?
He must’ve really wanted a successor.
The more I thought about it, the likelier it seemed. It was a credible hypothesis, really. Despite being his only child, I didn’t qualify as a successor to whom he could pass down his title. I’d rather have a stepmother and half-brother than get married, though!
After quickly mulling over the intentions behind his questioning, I mentioned something that suddenly came to mind. Something completely impossible.
“I’m not sure. Maybe a man stronger than you, Father?” I proposed innocently.
He murmured something to himself. Then, his gaze returned to me. “Are you serious?” he asked, voice still cold.
Upon hearing his tone and meeting his icy eyes, I realized that I had made a mistake. After all, there could be no man stronger than Father within the empire. To avoid annoying him any further, I hurriedly amended my answer. “I mean, that would be nice, but no such person exists, right? Father is the empire’s strongest swordsman!”
His expression softened at my praise. Ah, it was really hard to stay on his good side…
“So, what’s your final answer?”
I had hoped to move on to a different topic by now, but it seemed that he had no intention of doing so. To avoid getting matched up, I needed to list some near-impossible conditions no one would ever meet. All without annoying him.
No other family possessed higher prestige than the Floyen household. Even if he introduced a man for me to marry, I could just say that he didn’t fit our family’s standards and dismiss him.
Having cleared up my thoughts, I looked up at Father, determined. “I’m not going to marry a man unless he has everything. I want the most wealthy, famous, and competent guy there is.”
I snuck in the insinuation that I wasn’t going to marry at all and observed his expression for any changes. His face stayed the same, making it hard for me to guess what he was thinking about.
After a long silence, he finally spoke.
“I see.”
It seemed like I had convinced him. I sighed in relief. I was so tired all of a sudden. I only needed to keep enduring this for a little while longer, then I could go back to my room. Spending time with Father made me deeply uncomfortable, so I desperately waited for breakfast to end.
“Jubelian.”
“Yes?” I was a little nervous about what he might say next, but this time, I was ready to answer. No matter what he wanted to ask me, I was prepared to come up with something.
His lips slowly parted. “Let’s go somewhere together.”
I dropped my fork for the second time, startled by his out-of-the-blue question.
“Go somewhere?” I echoed, disbelieving. I searched through eighteen years of my memories to see if I had ever accompanied Father anywhere, but nothing came up. “Why?”
He spoke calmly. “Just because.”
Bewildered by his brief answer, I felt a dull ache rise in my head. Why were you doing this to me, Father?
✤ ✤ ✤
We ended up going to Arcade Street. There was a high-end shopping mall here, similar to modern shopping malls where several stores gathered under one roof.
Father pointed to a strange-looking owl watch. “That.”
The clerk guiding us called out to someone. “Neil, add the owl watch!”
I sighed with frustration. My head throbbed, so I briefly closed my eyes. I didn’t get it. Why the hell was he doing this?
When I opened my eyes, I tried to not let my gaze linger on any one object for too long, but as I walked past a myriad of stores, a porcelain rabbit caught my eye. It was really expensive.
In my previous life, ceramics were a common thing, but in this world, it was a high-quality item that only a few people could afford. That was why ceramic figures in the form of animals, flowers, and people were envied by many. It was a shame. I didn’t even consider it all that lovely…
Around us, onlookers seemed to rave about its beauty, but the various pigments that were made to color the rabbit’s smooth veneer just looked messy and bizarre to me. I couldn’t understand why someone would pay so much money for something like this.
At that moment, I felt a burdensome gaze behind me and quickly directed my attention elsewhere. Ugh, not again…
Although I had been determined not to look at any one object for too long, I had been staring at this bizarre thing for a while. As I dwelled on my mistake, I heard Father say something.
“That one as well.”
Right on cue, he pointed at the porcelain rabbit.
I frowned, frustrated. Why did he keep buying things that I glanced at? I thought this would just be a simple outing, but he was buying everything I laid my eyes on. This was really uncomfortable.
Shopping might’ve been an inevitable part of my new life, but I didn’t want to lavishly waste money without careful consideration like this. I liked to buy things that were actually to my liking. Was he testing me to see how I would behave once I ran out of patience?
All I wanted to do was to return home, but the reality of it was that I was the duke’s daughter. My dependence on Father meant that I couldn’t rebel against his will, otherwise I’d just end up in trouble. This was all my fault for failing to gain any independence from him.