Lucerne continued casually.
“First. Give me a map of the secret passage.”
“Yes, I will. But please accept this as a contribution. As far as I know, it’s information that only I know.”
Lucerne nodded. And Elisha pricked her ears, alert for his second request.
“Second.”
“Yes.”
Elisha nodded resolutely.
“Marry me, right now, tonight.”
“…….”
The collapse of Elisha’s expression gave Lucerne a new pleasure.
“Yes…. W-Wha, I beg your pardon?”
“I need a bride.”
“Now?”
“Yes now. Don’t you know me?”
“That—”
Elisha touched her lips. She lowered her head.
“You are a Count—a countess, a hereditary noble. I need a hereditary noble wife. Besides I need a girl that’s likeable and willing to do everything. Marry me and take me into your family* [t1v: it’s implied that he takes on her last name and lives with her family—a reversal of tradition where the wife typically does this instead]. That’s what I want.”
“But….”
Elisha looked embarrassed.
“Why—You don’t want to marry an illegitimate child?”
Lucerne asked without hesitancy.
“No, that’s not it. I know why you need a hereditary aristocrat. But isn’t it too much of a loss for you to get married for that reason?”
“……What?”
“If you paid one-tenth of that, you would get to choose from tons of brides willing to throw away their names and their families. It’s worth the tremendous price of 30,000 gold coins.”
Lucerne beamed.
“It looks like I’ve chosen well since you are already worrying about me.”
“…….”
“Elisha, you have the footing to be my bride. The next is need and interest about information that you claim to have. The collateral is your body.”
“…….”
“You will prove your worthiness, you will act as my wife and receive proper compensation. It’ll be mostly money or whatever you want. It may take awhile, but if you want and the timing and conditions are favorable, I’ll divorce you.”
“…….”
“If you cheat on me or if you’re Jacob’s spy, you’ll face a terrible fate.”
Lucerne saw Elisha’s hands shaking thin.
“What if I disappoint you?”
“Then I can handle the collateral as I please.”
The collateral was Elisha’s body.
“Are you going to kill me?”
“No way, how could I kill a woman like you.”
Lucerne had a very sarcastic tone.
“Follow common sense, what do a bride and groom do when they get married?”
Elisha shut her mouth. Lucerne spoke in a sweetly friendly tone.
“If you were Jacob’s spy, you’d be trapped in my bedroom, crawling on all fours. You’ll live with your body, not your head.”
Elisha’s eyes shook, it was visible she was trying to calm down.
“So, I hope you’re not Jacob’s spy. you can do it well. Elisha.”
” ……Yes.”
She soon nodded with calm eyes. She couldn’t have been calm if she knew how much joy her aloof look had given Lucerne.
“Then I’ll play with my collateral until you give me that precious information.”
Lucerne whispered. Elisha avoided his eyes.
***
“I can’t forgive you for humiliating me!”
Jacob was jumping up and down. Carola was also upset.
‘Why did you have to get involved with some bitch that does laundry?’
Lucerne, who she had been working so hard to approach for a long time was bewitched by some maid, not her.
In addition, Jacob looked angry as if the maid were his lover. Carola felt like an insignificant thing had stolen the attention of the two men.
“This is a big deal. Let’s complain to the Head.”
Jacob said. Carola nodded from the side.
“Poor you. Carola is so sad, too! We’ll come with you and plead with the Lord.”
Once upon a time, a member of the Cartier family said, ‘Within a few days on the Cartier estate all kinds of life altering events occur, such things take place within a year of the small royal family.’
The main dish of today’s family breakfast was Jacob’s angry face.
“Is the Head of the House coming to the dining room today?”
“Yes, you’re not in good shape……. But he said he’d come out.”
“That’s right, um, you should!”
Jacob spoke with a swagger. Soon, Jacob’s cousin Marco came out to the restaurant. His wife, Arien, was nowhere to be seen. Marco smiled slyly and talked to Jacob.
“Hey, I heard you. I heard you received a blow from the illegitimate kid last night.”
“You bastard……. It’s just a laundry wench that was taken away. He would look triumphant with that.”
“Isn’t it insane, eh? What family in the world tolerates an illegitimate child striding around like this?”
“It can’t be helped. Doesn’t the Lord look upon him fondly now? Let’s just wait and see…….”
Marco and Jacob exchanged glances.
Marco’s father, Merha, was the only son of the living patriarch. However, he was now a priest who went to the temple. He was aiming for the position of the Great Pope, the pinnacle of the temple’s power.
It was the result of reckoning that between Jacob’s father and Lucerne’s father, the youngest and genius son of the Head, would not be able to beat them. So Merha chose a different path.
No one betted on both son’s croaking. Instead Merha gave Marco all his strength, saying, “If I stayed still, I would have been the successor.”
However, Jacob was the eldest son, and Marco, who inherited such desire, had the same opinion on the Lucerne issue. An inferiority complex, a sense of fear, and a desire to subdue Lucerne.
‘When we become the patriarch, we remove that illegitimate child first.’
***
Soon after, when the Lord arrived at the dining hall, Lucerne’s seat was empty. The Head was an old man with a dignified appearance. His stubborn mouth retained a satisfaction and prestige peculiar to a powerful man who held everything within his greedy grasp.
“Lucerne has arrived,”
announced the butler. Soon the door burst open, and Lucerne sauntered in. The Lord, who had already heard the news last night, frowned.
“What’s this habit of being late for a family meal?”
“I’m late because I had some work.”
Lucerne calmly sat in the chair. The butler glanced at Jacob and Merha who were nervous.
As usual, the meal went by awkwardly and quietly. But soon that frail silence was broken. Because Jacob made a loud noise.
“Lord, how long are you going to pretend you don’t know what’s going on in this house?”
“What do you mean?”
The Head’s eyebrows were twitching.
“Lucerne—that guy stole a woman I’m protecting. And it is said he took her against her will, she was scared and hated it. The woman’s crying moans are said to have been ringing in the mansion all night, but are you pretending you don’t know?”
Marco added cautiously:
“I’m not on anyone’s side, but I think these actions are out of line this time. There are rules we must obey as a high-ranking noble family.”
“Rules?”
Carola blinked without missing a chance. Marco coughed for nothing.
“Why……… if an illegitimate child takes away the property of a family, usually in a noble family…I can’t bear to say it myself.”
Marco slipped out. Jacob raised his bloodpressure.
“Lord! I have to whip Lucerne and cut off his arm for coveting my possession according to the law.”
A faint irritation coloured the expression of the Head. There was never a day when an incident did not happen in this house.
“Lucerne, is it true that you stole Jacob’s possession?”
Lucerne held out his glass with a void expression. The servant hesitated and poured dark red wine into the glass. He took a sip of wine.
“Yeah.”
“Why are you so brazenly admitting to it? What the hell are you thinking?”
“I’m the one who’s curious. What’s the problem?”
“What?”
“I just embraced a woman to follow the Lord’s instructions.”
Jacob and Marco looked like they heard a strange noise.
“The Head of the house has long instructed me to take a woman of proper nobility as my wife. Jacob’s maid was a woman the rank of a Count, so we promised to marry last night and passed the time with affection. I am in a hurry, I never know when I have to enter the battlefield. Today’s life could become tomorrow’s cold body. We just had the first night that we agreed upon.”
“You’re going to get married?”
Even the words of the Head trembled. *Chang* Carola couldn’t hide her trembling hands and dropped the fork.
“If you’re sleeping with a woman of noble birth, you’ll have to take responsibility and get married. That’s the education I’ve learned in this family, and why can’t anyone think of such a basic thing?”
Jacob’s face turned red and green.
“Lord, he’s making a bizarre excuse. She’s the woman I’ve been fond of!”
“She’s a woman who is in debt to Jacob. You dragged a 14-year-old to do the laundry and shores until her hands were swollen. Is there a man who makes his beloved woman work like that? That’s what I learned from my grandfather, how about you?”
Lucerne continued to eat, speaking softly. Jacob’s face turned red and blue. No one else thought about lifting a fork.
“Don’t play with words! ‘Cause it’s true that you stole the woman!’
“Lucerne, if you wanted a woman, you could have negotiated with Jacob. You’re playing with words to hide your sins.”
The Head made sense.
“Besides I’ve already arranged some women for you. I can’t believe you did all of this so suddenly— after insulting the women and sending her back. Are you looking down on this family?”
The Lord broke the table. At that momentum, everyone around the table looked frozen.
“The women sent by grandfather were not of good quality.”
“What? Are you saying the women were lacking?”
“No, they’re too high-status and valuable.”
“…….”
“Give me the status of a nobleman and I can do whatever I want. I don’t need a precious woman. She is the most desperate woman I’ve ever seen of noble status. Besides, Jacob doesn’t care much about the Countess. Someone else’s trash is a treasure to me, there’s no reason why I wouldn’t want her.”
“Ha, this guy…….”
He looked very discouraged.
“And it’s good for Jacob, too.”
Lucerne threw a cherry. He put it down and said lightly.
“She said she was about to be sold to the whorehouse soon. There is no way to pay off her debt of 30,000 gold coins by selling her, so I thought Jacob would benefit if I paid back the debt instead. I acted too hastily for Jacob.”
“You, you…….”
Jacob was stunned by his impudence. Listening to Lucerne, the Head’s eyebrows twitched.
“Lucerne, you’re so arrogant. But….”
The Lord slowly turned his head and looked straight at Jacob.
“What do you mean by 30,000 gold coins in debt? How can a woman owe such a large sum of money?”
