Chapter 9

The day after going undercover, Riat immediately began recruiting knights for her domain.

When she tried to find out roughly how much an ordinary knight was paid, she simply offered what she thought would be enough to make them work hard for the territory. Within only a few hours of the announcement being posted, countless knights had applied.

What was more, this all happened while Sicarius was asleep, so the moment she woke up, she was confronted with an enormous mountain of paperwork.

Their enthusiasm was so great that some knights even came directly to the mansion.

“……Exactly how much did you offer them?”

“Eighty gold a month?”

“……Did you set that amount knowing that knights normally receive about twenty gold a month?”

“Then let’s make them swear four times the loyalty.”

“…….”

Sicarius looked at Riat with an expression that clearly said she had a lot to say but had decided not to.

Perhaps because she had already grown accustomed to that look, Riat merely shrugged and gazed out the window.

A long line of knights stood outside. The sight of knights arriving in full uniform made the applicants for the husband competition visibly nervous. Some of them even subtly checked their reflections and tidied their hair.

This is actually having a pretty good effect.

Just as Riat was feeling satisfied, Sicarius pointed out the fundamental problem.

“It is against imperial law for an individual noble to form a private knight order. First, a report must be submitted to the Imperial Palace, and approval must be obtained.”

“What? There’s an annoying process like that?”

“Yes. And in the case of Pshikia County, although you are currently the lord, the territory was under a special investigation by the Imperial Palace until only a few days ago. They will therefore be reluctant to allow you to establish a knight order immediately. The Imperial Family will probably offer to temporarily provide a knight order. If you dislike that arrangement, you can instead appoint one of the knights sent by the Imperial Family as your knight order’s commander.”

It was a remarkably complicated process.

Riat slightly furrowed her brow before casually asking,

“How long will they provide them temporarily?”

“Basically, one year. Three years at the longest, but……”

One year as the standard?

Would that mean the knights of this territory would only stay for about three months before she died?

Riat blankly calculated how much time she had left before shaking her head.

Even the servants in this mansion had been sent by the Imperial Palace. She couldn’t have the military filled with Imperial Palace personnel as well.

Honestly, as long as she could spend her remaining one year and three months peacefully, she didn’t care who came.

But she didn’t want to live amid unnecessary power struggles.

“Ask them to appoint a knight commander.”

“……That may not necessarily be the best solution either……”

For the first time, Sicarius stumbled over her words in front of Riat, even trailing off without properly finishing her sentence.

Surprised by this unusual behavior, Riat widened her eyes.

Since her aide was a person sent by the Imperial Palace, Riat initially thought Sicarius simply preferred having knights dispatched from the Imperial capital and was disappointed that she was only asking for a commander.

But that didn’t seem to be it.

Sicarius simply seemed troubled by something, and whatever it was, it appeared to be something unfavorable to Riat.

In other words, Sicarius looked worried about what might happen to Riat.

Riat slowly exhaled, feeling somewhat surprised.

Has anyone ever worried about me before?

She briefly asked herself the question before deciding it was a pointless thought.

After all, Sicarius Irendel was an aide sent from the Imperial Palace.

And yet, despite that, Sicarius’s concern stirred a strangely pleasant feeling in her.

Riat curved her gentle eyes into a soft smile.

“It’s all right. I’ll do my best.”

“……I’m only thinking about what sort of trouble Your Excellency might cause.”

At Sicarius’s response, accompanied by her abruptly turning her gaze away, Riat finally burst into laughter.

However, that pleasant moment didn’t last long.

Suddenly, the office door flew open.

Only Riat and Sicarius entered and left the count’s office freely, along with the servants who came in to clean. And no servant who knew that their master was inside would dare open the door without permission.

Riat’s gray eyes turned toward the doorway in confusion.

Then, in an instant, they became cold and colorless.

Her expression turned so chilly that she looked almost like a doll.

“How did you get here?”

“Riat! How could you not contact us even once after the banquet ended?!”

“Do you have any idea how worried Father and I have been?!”

The people who had appeared in the office were none other than Riat’s father and her younger brother.

The moment they appeared, Riat’s face turned cold, and Sicarius quietly rose from her seat.

The fact that she pulled her chair back without making even the slightest sound revealed how carefully she was moving.

I told her that refusing them wouldn’t help if they barged in anyway…….

Sicarius tried to leave as quietly as possible, but unfortunately, Riat’s family was standing directly in the doorway.

They seemed to have intended to enter the office, but Riat’s expression was so icy that they hadn’t been able to step inside immediately.

“Did you perhaps inherit the position of family head along with all of its authority, and also give up every bit of noble etiquette? I distinctly remember refusing your request to visit me……”

“We’re family! How could you do that to us? Besides, we heard you’ve started some strange competition. We’re genuinely worried about you!”

“That’s right. There are people everywhere outside. Some of them might intend to harm you! How could you act so carelessly? Do you know what kind of rumors are circulating in the capital right now……”

“Hahaha.”

A sudden burst of laughter echoed through the office.

There was genuine amusement in the sound, as though the situation was simply too ridiculous not to laugh at.

But at the same time, unmistakable disgust was woven into it.

Riat bent nearly in half as she laughed before wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes.

Then she asked,

“Who do you think is causing me the most harm here?”

“……Riat. I’m sorry that we weren’t able to pay enough attention to you in the past. But continuing to behave like this isn’t good either. No matter what, we’re family, aren’t we?”

Rantoon, Riat’s younger brother, spoke calmly.

His tone was almost as though he were soothing a sulking child.

Riat merely tilted her head.

Since she seemed relatively more willing to listen than she had moments ago, Rantoon softened his voice even further.

“I’m truly sorry for what you went through after you came here—to the Bortus Count’s estate. I can’t even imagine how much emotional suffering you endured. So please, won’t you give us a chance now?”

“……”

“I want to hear your story. I came because I wanted to talk with you, Riat.”

His infinitely gentle voice seemed to thaw the frigid atmosphere in the office.

Riat simply stared at Rantoon without saying anything.

Thinking this was her chance, Sicarius quietly moved toward the exit.

Perhaps Riat’s family also thought the atmosphere had improved, because they cautiously stepped into the office.

Riat glanced briefly at Sicarius’s retreating back before turning her gaze back to Rantoon.

Rantoon was smiling with genuine warmth.

His affectionate gaze was filled with tenderness, as though he were looking at his most precious younger sister.

As though he were truly sorry that he hadn’t known about all the hardships she had endured.

No.

They did know.

They had simply pretended not to.

Because Riat had to sacrifice herself for them to have better food and clothing.

Because they needed to subtly arrange meetings with nobles who wanted to meet their younger sister.

Riat had been forced to meet far more young noblemen whom her brothers brought from the academy than the nobles her father had introduced to her.

She had been dragged out against her will and forced to smile at them.

Then, a few days later, those men would send gifts while claiming they had fallen hopelessly in love with her.

Her brothers would tear open the gift packages and laugh excitedly about the jewelry that had been sent.

They thought it was merely teasing a friend.

But Riat had been the one humiliated by it.

For two or three regressions, she had tried to believe in her family.

Even when she died after becoming entangled in the rebellion, her family had never come looking for her.

Yet even after regressing, she had been unable to completely let go of her expectations of them.

That expectation had been the hope that things would be different in this life.

Even though she resented them, she thought that if they came to her and sincerely asked for forgiveness, perhaps everything that had happened in her previous life could simply become something that had never happened.

Perhaps she could forgive them.

But that had been a foolish belief.

They had not changed until the very end.

Although the things they had done no longer technically existed because she had regressed and created a new future, if circumstances arose again, they were the sort of people who would undoubtedly do the exact same things.

That was the belief Riat had finally arrived at.

You were at rock bottom before I regressed.

And you’re still at rock bottom after I regressed.

Riat recalled that fact once more and smiled brightly.

Since Rantoon had continued watching her, her smile seemed like the first step toward reconciliation.

Rantoon and their father happily began walking toward Riat.

But the words that came from her were utterly flat.

“Did you come because you need money?”

“……What?”

“You’ve been going around boasting that you’re now part of a count’s family, haven’t you? Is it becoming difficult to keep up with that lifestyle? Did you buy something on credit somewhere? I can take care of something like that. Are you short on living expenses?”

“……”

“Have you already spent all the money you received when I was sold to Count Bortus? Then again, that was only five thousand gold, wasn’t it?”

At Riat’s gentle words, her father’s face finally flushed with anger.

Rantoon hurriedly tried to stop his agitated father, but he strode toward Riat and shouted.

“You! How dare you—!”

Riat assumed the only reason he hadn’t raised his hand yet was because he really was in desperate need of money.

“I was willing to overlook this ridiculous competition you started, thinking you must have been driven to it by everything you’ve been through! But must you really behave this foolishly?! Do you have any idea how much your actions have damaged our family’s reputation?!”

Listening to her father—or rather, the former head of House Pshikia—shout furiously, Riat calmly asked,

“You seem to have forgotten, so let me tell you. Who do you think established the current reputation of House Pshikia?”

Not only had she personally executed the traitor, but without her, House Pshikia would have already fallen into poverty and disappeared.

Her father, who had no intention of earning money and cared only about maintaining connections with other nobles while wandering around outside.

And her two brothers, who possessed not even the slightest trace of talent.

The only reason that family had survived was because of her.

They were nothing more than a damn family that had lived entirely off her.

Besides, on the day House Pshikia was elevated to a count’s house, hadn’t the formal clothes they wore been purchased with the money Riat had earned by being sold to Count Bortus?

Riat curved her lips into a smile.

Her attitude only made her father angrier, until eventually, his hand rose high into the air.

Seeing Rantoon hurriedly trying to stop him, Riat guessed that he had probably warned their father on the way here not to raise a hand against her, no matter how badly their conversation went.

“You need to know when enough is enough! We let you get away with everything, and now you think the whole world is beneath your feet! You really—!”

“Not once.”

Riat cut him off.

There wasn’t a trace of emotion in her voice.

She uttered those words like someone spitting out coarse grains of sand, then raised her gaze at an angle to look at him.

Even beneath the midday sunlight, her gray eyes had sunk into an endless darkness.

“Father, you have never once indulged me. You never told me to do whatever I wanted. No, you never even asked me what I wanted to do. Not once.”

“At the time, the circumstances were—”

“I always become humble whenever I’m standing before Father. It reminds me that I still have a long way to go if I want to live shamelessly.”

After saying this, Riat seemed to have no desire to continue the conversation.

She gave Sicarius a meaningful glance.

Sicarius had failed to leave the office, and with a somewhat disheartened expression, she obeyed the order.

“You’ll need to leave now. Otherwise, I’ll call the knights, and you’ll be dragged out of the estate by them. So please walk out on your own before rumors spread that you were seized by the knights of the county and thrown out. After all, you seem like people who care very much about your reputation.”