ITMWG 90

Chapter 90…

 I can just be his wife.

“Madame. It’s time to take your medicine.”

As Altair was reviewing the materials he had found, Marie carefully prepared the medicine for Nadia.

She stared at the medicine in discontent, but Marie never backed down.

In the end, she couldn’t break Marie’s stubbornness. How could she ever win against a maid who was using the excuse of it being for her health?

She gave up and swallowed the medicine, but the bitter taste lingered in her mouth, making her frown.

“Ugh…”

No matter how good the medicine was for her body, it tasted so strange that she lost her appetite every time she took it.

“What on earth did Leon put in this?”

Nadia grumbled as she handed back the empty cup, and Marie tilted her head.

“Well. I’m not sure… Doctors don’t usually talk about professional things to maids like us. Moreover, sir Leon is not very talkative.”

“Is that so? I thought Marie and Leon were pretty close…”

When Altair went to see Leon because he was sick, wasn’t Marie, who was supposed to be out of the estate, with him?

When she pointed that out, Marie pretended to be ignorant.

“As a servant, I just take care of the talents that Madame values.”

“Marie, you don’t have to hide it from me. Marie will be getting married soon, and I can help you marry the person you want.”

The best thing about being a close maid of a noble lady was that her master would gladly find a good match for her.

That was the reason why not only the palace maids but also the noble families’ maids were eager to become the ladies’ close lady-in-waitings.

Of course, Nadia knew that Marie didn’t come to her for such benefits, but since she was someone who supported her a lot, she wanted to help her get a happy marriage.

Marie shouldn’t give up on someone she liked just because her circumstances were not favourable.

In fact, this is also the secret pleasure of noblewomen.

It was rare for noblewomen to find someone they could marry for love.

If they had good parents, a groom would be chosen with their daughter’s wishes taken into account, but usually, in a marriage between families, the interests of both parties took priority.

So, it could be said that noblewomen satisfied their unfulfilled romance by marrying their close maid to a respectable person for love.

Marie waved her hands in shock, perhaps noticing that Nadia’s eyes were sparkling with joy.

“No, it’s really not like that, Madame! I have no intention of getting married yet, and I’m not that close with the doctor either. For now, I just think about serving you.”

“I appreciate Marie’s kindness, but dating someone isn’t a bad thing. You don’t have to deny it like that. Marriage isn’t all that bad…”

This time, Marie smiled brightly, her eyes sparkling with delight as she continued Nadia’s words.

“In your case, rather than saying ‘marriage isn’t all that bad’, it’s more of ‘marriage is very good’, huh?”

“Huh…?”

“Because, the lord really loves you. You two are always overflowing with love. This lawsuit is no exception. It’s not common for someone to go this far for their wife.”

“That may be so…but to say overflowing with love…”

Love?

Her heart felt frigid and ticklish at the unfamiliar word.

Altair and her did not get married because of love.

They were clear about what they each wanted, and they simply chose the right person to fulfill that.

In fact, they had never even said ‘I love you’ to each other…

Seeing her face darken slightly, Marie hurriedly added.

“If everything goes according to plan, you will have the title Vine Marchioness. Then you will be higher in rank than your husband, but ordinary men cannot endure that. Isn’t it because His Lord loves you enough to accept that?”

“Altair is a man who is not intimidated by the even the Emperor. He is confident in himself. It’s not because he loves me, but that doesn’t matter to him at all.”

“Of course, he is such an upright person…but that’s not all. I am certain, Madame.”

Her heart swelled when she heard Marie’s words.

She knew what a noblewoman’s role was.

Taking care of the household was more important than a husband’s affection.

The purpose of marriage was not love, but to continue the lineage, so she knew whether Altair’s cherishing and loving her was not important at all.

But…

“Is that really so? You think Altair cherish…and love me?”

She wished Altair would love her.

The object of this wish was not ‘ his wife’ but ‘her’.

Nadia wished Altair would love her as herself, not as his wife.

However, they were not an ordinary noble couple. It was absurd to hope for such a thing, since she got married in a hurry, hoping only to survive.

Even knowing that, she still kept that thought, became greedy, and worked hard for it.

The reason she felt that way was…

Maybe… It is because I like Altair so much.

When Nadia admitted that to herself, her heart began to act up and she felt fearful.

She knew what kind of person Altair was. She had seen it all through the novel.

The most important thing to Altair was Aylesford.

After his parents tragically passed away and he was left with an unstable estate at a young age, Altair endured all sorts of things to protect the land.

So Aylesford was everything to him, his life itself.

The reason he showed her some favour was because she had been a great help in the development of Aylesford.

She also knew that whenever Altair praised, her would always say, ‘Aylesford’s prosperity is thanks to you.’

Were she not helpful to Aylesford, were she a useless being, would Altair continue to show her the favour he had shown so far?

It’s fine, I can be just Altair’s wife.

His love wouldn’t be possible.

Her mouth felt even more bitter now compared to when she took the medicine.

“Madame…? Did I say something wrong…?”

Marie asked worriedly as Nadia turned quiet.

She tried to smile and shook her head to reassure Marie.

There’s nothing to be upset about.

This was how most noble couples lived anyway. There was no reason to act particularly unhappy or discouraged.

If I can be respected and favoured as ‘a wife’, that alone is a good enough life.

When she thought about it that way, her heart felt lighter.

“I’d like to have some warm tea to finish my meal.”

“Yes. I’ll prepare whatever you like.”

Marie finally felt relieved and bowed before stepping down.

Then, as if waiting for that moment, the window was carefully opened and a black shadow jumped inside.

Nadia almost screamed in surprise, but the black shadow covered her mouth with his hand first.

“Madame! It’s me! Shh!”

It was a familiar voice.

She finally calmed down and looked at the other person with widened eyes. Before her stood Blan with a very tired expression.

When she nodded slightly to show that she had calmed down, Blan took a step back.

“I’m sorry. You must have been startled. I thought it would be troublesome if you screamed, so I stopped you…”

“It’s alright. If I screamed here, it truly would have been bad.”

“Yes. The defense of the Viosques duchy was so tight that it was hard to get in. I wonder how I’ll get out…”

Blan glanced out the window and shuddered.

Nadia giggled as she found his fed-up expression funny, but was very quick to realise something was strange.

Blan was not a knight on this expedition.

Here, Cain, not him, was leading the knights and acting as the leader.

Additionally, after getting through the Viosques’ security, Blan did not approach Altair but her instead. That could mean only one thing.

No way…

“Did you find information about the death of the previous baron?”

As she looked around carefully and asked, Blan quickly turned serious and nodded.

He approached the door, locked it, and lowered his voice so that no intruders would barge in.

“Yes. I was going to wait until you came back to our estate to report it…”

“I unexpectedly ended up suing my uncle, so my return would be delayed for quite a while.”

However, the deaths of the previous baron couple were in the past.

Just because her return to Aylesford was a little delayed, it wasn’t something so pressing that Blan would have to come all the way to the capital to report. In other words, Blan wouldn’t have come all the way here if it was not necessary.

Then does that mean that the past events have somewhat inflicted the present and there is some kind of urgent problem?

Blan, who couldn’t help but notice the question written on her face, roughly ruffled his hair and spoke. However, what came out of his mouth wasn’t about the deaths of the former Baron couple.

“Madame, I heard that you’re suing your uncle over your parents’ insurance money this time.”

“Blan knew about it too? It seems that Altair knew about it all the way back in Aylesford and came up with a plan.”

It appeared that he had been exchanging letters with Duke Viosques for a long time.

“All the information must have been obtained from the knights… so Blan must have known about it too… ”

When Nadia tilted her head in confusion, he nodded.

“Yes. That’s right. I already knew about that. It wasn’t a big deal then. But while investigating the previous lord’s case… I felt a strange sense of deja vu.”

“Deja vu?”

“Yes. To be specific,…during the investigation, I found out that the previous lord also had a large amount of death insurance.”

“What??”

It was an unexpected remark.

Even Blan, who investigated it himself, had a look of confusion in his eyes, as if he couldn’t have foreseen it.

“The recipient of the insurance money was Balhail’s father. It was an extremely unusual incident, but no one noticed it and let it pass quietly. If there had been no intervention from the ‘higher-up,’ it would have been absolutely impossible.”

“This…is so similar to my parents’ case.”

Her hands trembled in shock.

Blan nodded as if he agreed with what she said.

“The problem is that it’s too much of a coincidence that this happened to two people who were tied together by marriage.”

“That’s right. Considering such incidents, it’s really strange that the people involved in those two incidents ended up getting married.”

In that case, there were two possible answers.

It was either a real coincidence, or cases like this kept happening for some reason, overlapping one another, making it seem like a coincidence.

If I think about the probability…

Wasn’t the latter more likely to be true?

“…It seems that the ‘higher-ranked’ did something grimmer than we thought.”

It was assumed that the marquis got involved that one time because he was greedy for money.

Nadia thought that if her uncle received a large amount of insurance money, he would have given some of it to someone ‘higher-ranked.’

But what if this happened more than once or twice?

That means there must be a reason they had to secretly increase the money funding the other party.

A shady reason.

A chill ran down her spine.

The incident…

It might be bigger than she thought.