FWRP 15

Chapter 15

Let me think back through everything carefully.

After following her into an alley where hardly anyone passed by, I could finally breathe again.

Even though I knew I should let go of her hand because of the emotions that were continuing to boil inside me, I wanted to savor the joy of victory a little longer, so I didn’t.

The atmosphere had definitely seemed good.

I’m sorry, Ian. It’s all because of me…….

But the moment she confirmed that there were only a few people passing by, Vanessa let go of my hand without hesitation.

The disappointment lasted only a moment before I shook my head at her apology.

Don’t worry about it. But if something like this happens again, I might have to reconsider.

……What? Our relationship?

Isn’t that obvious? I’m not patient enough to keep turning a blind eye when problems like this keep happening.

If something like this happened again, I intended to thoroughly beat Carlisle Leonard once more, even if Vanessa tried to stop me.

For that to happen, I needed to make my relationship with her more solid than it was now.

To Vanessa Sharoz, Carlisle Leonard was someone she had once loved, while Ian Ruthcliffe was nothing more than a business partner.

Ian Ruthcliffe, bound to her by a contract, and Carlisle Leonard, the man she had once loved.

That difference kept gnawing at me.

Enough to stir up childish jealousy.

When that time comes, Vanessa, you’ll have to choose, too.

……What if I say I don’t want to?

Who knows? Even so, I don’t think my feelings will change.

Even if she opposed me beating him to a pulp, I would do it anyway.

After all, now that we were going to be married, I had no intention of letting her go.

But if she and Carlisle Leonard were to become emotionally involved again……

If, no matter how hard I tried, she never developed even the slightest feelings for me……

The thought made my stomach churn, and I couldn’t control my expression.

Vanessa’s expression wasn’t pleasant either, and in the end—

We had to part without even having a proper date.

“Haa……”

Ian slowly opened his eyes and took out the cigar he had been keeping inside his coat.

It still felt as though the warmth of her hand remained in his palm.

They say the first time is difficult, but the second time becomes easier.

Once he had held her hand, he wanted to hold it again.

Eventually, an uncontrollable desire had begun to boil inside him, making him want to hold her hand the entire time.

Even though he knew it was greed.

Because despite her appearance, the faint warmth of her hand felt like it reflected Vanessa’s true feelings.

Did I look like some inexperienced country bumpkin?

Well, no wonder.

He had been the one to suggest going on a date, yet he hadn’t properly done a single thing.

“It’s not good to look like you have too much experience, but you can’t act as though the only thing you’ve ever held in your hands since birth was a toy.”

“I never held toys. I held a sword first.”

“……Are you going to say that in front of the mistress, too? ‘I’ve held nothing but a sword since birth, so I don’t know how to hold hands’?”

When Denian had asked incredulously, Ian had wondered whether something like that really needed practice.

In the end, apparently it did.

“I didn’t realize the mistress’s hand was a sword hilt. Why not just make a fist instead?”

With so little time left, Denian had told him to imagine that his own hand was Vanessa’s and practice holding it.

Ian had unconsciously clenched his hand.

He had immediately decided that Denian’s salary for the month would definitely be reduced because of the look he had received.

Still, if the date went well, he had been willing to reduce the number of months Denian’s salary would be cut.

A little.

He wasn’t completely unwilling.

Ian repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fist, then frowned.

Why was she angry?

In the end, he had circled all the way back to where he started.

The reason he had held back his anger in that situation was purely because Vanessa and Carlisle had been childhood friends—and, for a time, lovers.

He had hesitated because he was afraid that if he intervened, Vanessa might take Carlisle Leonard’s side.

As for Carlisle’s lack of manners, he had been like that since childhood. Ian had merely stated a fact.

Could she still have feelings for him?

Was that why his declaration that he wouldn’t let Carlisle off the next time something like this happened had sounded unpleasant to her?

No…… that couldn’t be it.

If that were the case, she wouldn’t have told Carlisle not to call her by her name so casually.

Then perhaps she had been offended because Ian said that even if she told him she didn’t want him to, his thoughts wouldn’t change?

……How was he supposed to put up with that?

His patience wasn’t broad or generous enough to simply overlook Carlisle hovering around his ex-lover after they had already broken up.

Judging from the way Vanessa had treated Carlisle, that didn’t seem to be a problem.

Then what on earth was the problem?

……Ah.

Only then did Ian realize his mistake.

From early morning until lunchtime, they hadn’t had a proper meal.

“This is…….”

They had spent the entire time walking around without eating anything before returning home.

Of course she would be angry.

[Give me a chance to make up for my mistake.]

Two days had passed since their decidedly un-date-like date.

Today, Vanessa was looking over a letter from Ian Ruthcliffe.

What mistake?

Was he referring to what he had said about reconsidering their relationship if things like this continued to happen?

Well, at the time, she had already been furious over the situation, and Ian’s words had felt like he was fanning the flames, so she had been rather angry.

But after returning home and thinking about it carefully, she realized she probably would have said the same thing in his position.

For one thing, she hadn’t properly explained why she had broken up with Carlisle Leonard.

From Ian’s perspective, it was a perfectly reasonable thing to say.

If she had gone to the trouble of accepting his proposal of a contract marriage, only for him to have to repeatedly watch her ex-lover cling to her because she hadn’t properly dealt with the past, she would probably feel as though she had gotten herself involved in an unnecessary headache, too.

Of course, she had found his cold “There won’t be a second time” attitude somewhat irritating.

But the two of them were nothing more than contractual partners to begin with, so she couldn’t exactly say his words were unreasonable.

Still, Vanessa was the one who had unilaterally ended the date, and she had spent the time since then wondering what she should say to him.

So why had he sent this letter?

She was the one who should have apologized for what happened that day.

Is he misunderstanding something?

Vanessa slowly recalled the date again.

The atmosphere had actually been better than she had expected.

She had thought it would be a waste of time, but seeing Ian awkwardly stumble through the date had been unexpectedly amusing.

Of course, after meeting Carlisle, she had failed to hide her emotions.

Even so, she had apologized because she didn’t want to ruin her date with Ian.

And the response she had received in that situation was:

“If this happens again, I’ll reconsider our relationship.”

She hadn’t been able to hold back and had left.

But if he was reaching out to her like this first, she was grateful.

She didn’t know what misunderstanding he had, but—

She needed to remain married to him until her revenge was complete anyway.

There was no reason to let their relationship deteriorate unnecessarily.

Vanessa quickly wrote a reply and then called Dia.

“Miss, did you call for me?”

“Could you deliver this to the Ruthcliffe estate?”

“Should I bring back a reply?”

“No. Just deliver it.”

“Yes. I’ll be back.”

Good.

That solved one problem.

Vanessa waited until Dia left, then picked up the documents lying on her desk.

[Current Status of the Children at St. Berthold Orphanage]

“It’ll be troublesome if he isn’t here either……”

There was one thing Vanessa needed most in order to take revenge on the Leonard Marquisate.

She needed to recruit, from an early age, the person who had essentially been the brains of the Leonard household in her previous life.

Even a broken clock needs a battery if it’s going to be right twice a day.

The man who had turned every one of the Leonard Marquisate’s big successes into a stable source of income.

Mareo.

He had practically always been at the Marchioness’s side.

The fact that Vanessa had ever exchanged words with him had been almost entirely a matter of coincidence.

When she learned that he had spent his childhood in an orphanage and had been sponsored by the Leonard Marquisate until he came of age, she had been utterly astonished.

Even though he was obsessed with money as though possessed by an evil spirit.

Perhaps this was one of those rare instances where the “instincts of a broken clock” had kicked in.

Otherwise, there was no way people who looked as though it physically pained them to pay even the annual contributions required by the Empire would suddenly volunteer to become sponsors.

In any case, all Vanessa knew was that Mareo had grown up in an orphanage.

That meant she had no choice but to investigate the records of every orphanage in the Empire.

In her previous life, Mareo had tried to expose all of the corruption and illegal activities of the Leonard Marquisate to the Imperial Family.

He had failed.

And the day he failed was none other than the day a red diamond was discovered in the Margula Mine, which the Leonard Marquisate had acquired at a bargain price.