“Hey, Marianne! What is the meaning of this mountain of invoices!?”
In the parlor of the House of Lawrence’s mansion in the royal capital.
Cedric slammed the thick bundle handed to him by the butler down onto the table.
“Just this month’s jewelry shop and dressmaking costs exceed fifty gold coins! I told you my allowance from Father had been cut, didn’t I!?”
Marianne, who had been sitting on the sofa, jumped, her shoulders flinching.
But she immediately looked up at Cedric with moist eyes, pressed her hand to her chest, and let out a faint voice.
“Th-that’s not… Cedric. I was only working so hard to prepare myself to become a wife worthy of the marquess household. Besides, my skin breaks out unless I use high-quality silk…”
“Do you think that excuse will work!? It was the same at last week’s ball! Because you selfishly complained that ‘your body felt cold’ and left in the middle of it, you ruined the meeting with the merchant guild that my father had entrusted to me!”
The gesture that would once have looked like that of a “delicate little sister” was now, to Cedric, nothing but a seed of irritation.
Back when Eleanor had been around, Cedric never needed to worry about behind-the-scenes arrangements at balls.
Eleanor had thoroughly researched each noble’s interests and weaknesses in advance, and had even told him the order of greetings and topics to discuss. Even when he forgot someone’s name, she would quietly supply it from beside him.
But with Marianne, not even ordinary social conversation could be managed.
Whenever she displeased someone, she would burst into tears claiming she was being “bullied,” and would only ever turn to Cedric for help.
The nobles around them had openly directed mocking looks at them, saying things like, “So the House of Lawrence’s new fiancée is nothing but a spoiled, useless woman.”
“More importantly, what is happening with the repayments from the earl’s household!? Ever since Eleanor disappeared, I hear even the payments to the bank have fallen behind! Father says he won’t lend any more on top of that!”
When Cedric shouted at her, the “fragility” quickly vanished from Marianne’s face, replaced by a twisted look of frustration.
“Wh-why are you blaming me!? To begin with, wasn’t it because you agreed to the plan to drive out my sister!? It was you who said, ‘Eleanor is nothing but a stubborn, unappealing woman—I want to marry you instead’!”
“Wha—!?”
“Even Father does nothing but shout angrily every day, and he can’t even balance the territory’s ledgers by himself! If it were my sister, no matter how busy she was, she would have solved everything in a single night! It’s all my sister’s fault! Running away without even handing things over properly—that heartless wicked woman ought to be cursed!”
Marianne screamed hysterically and threw the teacup on the table onto the floor.
Crash—the porcelain shattered.
Cedric stared blankly at the tea scattered across the floor.
‘If it were Eleanor, this never would have happened..’
What crossed his mind was the profile of Eleanor, who had always calmly moved her pen without ever losing her composure.
No matter how unreasonable the demands placed on her, she had always carried them out perfectly, saying, “Understood.”
She had never once complained, never once lashed out at anyone, and had borne the weight of everything herself.
Why hadn’t he stopped her from leaving, back then?
Even if he married Marianne, he could simply have had Eleanor continue doing the work.
Having thought this far, Cedric irritably kicked at the broken fragments on the floor.
“…Find her.”
Cedric threw the hoarse words at the butler waiting by the entrance.
“…Pardon?”
“There’s no use searching only within the royal capital! You said a woman resembling her had boarded a carriage heading south, didn’t you!? Check the inns along the highway again! Bring Eleanor back… bring Eleanor back! If she comes back, everything will return to how it was…!”
Biting his nails, screaming with bloodshot eyes, there was not the slightest trace left of the once-proud young lord of the marquess household in Cedric’s appearance.