“What do you mean! What did you just say!”

“Du-Duke, Your Grace.”

‘What’s going on, why is it so noisy?’

Odette’s eyebrows twitched.

“You worthless quack! Are you certain? Are you sure of what you just said!”

“Yes, yes… Duke, Your Grace.”

This groveling voice definitely belonged to the Tyrot ducal family’s physician.

“Damn it, bloody hell…! Damn it…!”

Her father’s furious voice.

‘Is he still angry? Should I open my eyes a bit later?’

Odette’s forehead must have furrowed as she pondered.

“Odette, my child! Are you conscious?”

Upon hearing the voice of the Duchess, her mother who was unconditionally on her side, Odette’s eyes flew open.

“Mother…?”

The Duchess, who had been sitting beside Odette on the bed, burst into tears as soon as she opened her eyes.

“Sigh, you thoughtless child… What are we going to do about this.”

“Mother… What are you doing here? Am I sick or something?”

“My child, well……”

“Enough with this ‘my child’ nonsense! Damn it! How are we supposed to handle this disgrace now!”

Seeing her father’s flushed face, Odette sent a pleading look to her mother for help. The Duchess then shouted irritably.

“Please stop it! Is it really necessary to raise your voice like that in front of the child who just collapsed?”

“It’s because you’re like this that the child has grown up to be such a reckless brat!”

“Are you saying it’s my fault that she’s pregnant now?”

“Are you saying it’s not?”

As Odette alternated between looking at her parents raising their voices at each other, she suddenly doubted her ears.

“Wait. What did you just say, Mother? Pregnant? Who’s pregnant?”

“……”

As Odette stared at her parents, who sealed their lips as if on cue with grim faces, her complexion turned deathly pale.

“No, no way? That can’t be… I’m certain I kept taking the medicine you gave me, Mother!”

1 or 2 years ago, when Odette started causing trouble with men, the Duchess handed her some medicine she had concocted from somewhere.

‘Even if you enjoy yourself, there shouldn’t be any traces left. You don’t want any blemishes when you get married, do you?’

It was an expensive contraceptive secretly circulated among noble ladies.

Not only did it have a reliable contraceptive effect, but fertility could be immediately restored once the medication was discontinued, so noble families paid a hefty sum for this medicine without hesitation.

“Are you sure you kept taking it? I should catch that pharmacist and break his legs right now.”

As Odette watched her mother muttering fiercely, she suddenly recalled that she had skipped the medicine for 2 or 3 days at a time over the past few months when she got tired of taking it.

‘No way, even so….’

Odette bit her lip.

Then the Duke opened his mouth.

“It can’t be helped. We need to make a decision.”

Her father’s voice was low and heavy. Odette asked in the most fragile voice possible to win her father’s sympathy.

“A… decision, Father?”

“We need to bring in a daerisal-sawi.”

“What?”

At the unexpected word, Odette sprang up from the bed.

It’s not uncommon for the only daughter of a prestigious family like Odette to accept a relatively lacking daerisal-sawi as her husband.

But Odette was different. She had no intention of ever marrying such a worthless man.

Her husband had to be the most perfect man in the empire, no matter what. Like Leon Aranias, for example.

Of course, if you only consider the conditions, Crown Prince Nigel would be the most perfect, but he wasn’t someone Odette could easily manipulate.

But Leon was different.

He appeared to be a straitlaced man armed with chivalry, but Odette sensed an upright purity in him that seemed willing to give his liver and gall bladder to his woman.

A rare, genuine manliness. Leon definitely had that. Along with that devastatingly sexy aura.

“No, Father. You know I won’t accept anyone other than the man I like!”

“Get ahold of yourself!”

However, Duke Tyrot’s rebuke immediately blocked Odette’s rebellion.

“If it becomes known that you were the supplier of tali among the nobles, your marriage prospects will be ruined anyway. What prestigious family would want to accept you as their lady of the house? Unless they’re a household obsessed with money to a ridiculous degree.”

“…But!”

“Rather than being poorly tied to such a household and having them suck up all our wealth, it’s better to bring in a daerisal-sawi and order him around as we please.”

“That’s true. But even if it’s a humble family, if they somehow find out that this child is pregnant….”

To make matters worse, even the Duchess chimed in.

“That’s why we need to quickly have the wedding before her belly starts to show! Or pick one of those pathetic men this child has been hanging around with! It’s not like there’s only one or two of them, right?”

At the conversation between the Duke and Duchess, Odette was on the verge of going crazy and bouncing off the walls.

She couldn’t understand how her life had ended up in the gutter like this in just a single day.

I’m Odette Tyrot. I’m supposed to have everything I want. I’m supposed to have the man I want!

“No, Father! You promised me, that you would make sure I get Leon Aranias!”

“You crazy thing! Did you forget everything you heard earlier? Didn’t you hear that fellow is deliberately sabotaging our company?”

“Still, still! I don’t want anyone but that man. I must have that man!”

Since childhood, whenever Odette wanted something, she would throw tantrums for days to get her hands on it. The ducal couple usually couldn’t win against their only daughter’s stubbornness in the end.

“Get ahold of yourself!”

But unlike usual, the Duke was extremely cold and resolute.

“Do you think that Leon fellow is the same as the other idiots rolling around with you? He’s a paladin, a paladin! What do you think he’ll say if he finds out you’re pregnant? He’s the type of person to report you to the temple for the crime of promiscuity and tear apart our family! What you need to find right now is a husband docile enough that he won’t dare find fault with you even if your flaws are exposed!”

“But, but!”

“Enough. Odette Tyrot.”

“……”

“No matter how much you are my one and only daughter, I cannot forgive you for endangering the lifeline of our family, the company. As it is, with the Ranomer Company boasting about jointly developing magic tools with the Lyuschino barony, our existing clients are already turning their backs on us one by one! And you, not only did you fail to help the family, but caused this huge incident?”

The moment the name ‘Lyuschino barony’ left her father’s mouth, Odette’s eyes turned even more vicious.

However, the Duke’s momentum was so overwhelming that even the indomitable Odette had no choice but to suppress her temper for now.

In the meantime, the Duke and Duchess had already begun discussing practical alternatives.

“What about Timothy Colin? You two seem to be spending a lot of time together lately.”

The Duchess shook her head at the Duke’s words.

“Timothy from the Colin viscounty? He’s known for being a good-for-nothing. No matter how much of a daerisal-sawi he is, how can we stand to see him idling around and clinging to Odette.”

“That’s true. Hmm… It would be good to have someone obedient who does what he’s told. Wait a minute, what about that fellow? Simon Blanche. You even personally recommended him to the company, so you two must be quite close.”

With each name that came out of her father’s mouth, Odette’s displeasure grew.

It was true that she had been spending time with Simon lately, but that was purely with the intention of using him. To bring down Kasha Lyuschino.

She did keep him around often because he was quite obedient, but marry that man?

The third son of a marchioness from a mere baron’s family. And someone with a dubious history with Kasha Lyuschino on top of that?

“No, Father. Are you in your right mind?”

“You’re the one who needs to get ahold of yourself! I’ll have the marriage wrapped up within a month, so keep that in mind!”

“What did you say? A month?”

“Bringing a daerisal-sawi into our family is quite a big deal, so even if the paladin order meddles with the company for the time being, it will divert attention to some extent. If our company’s image is ruined now, it can’t be restored! So this marriage will proceed no matter what. Hurry, before your pregnancy is found out!”

Odette realized her father’s eyes were flashing with cruel calculation.

And that her father would no longer go easy on her after she had caused massive damage to his assets.

Sensing reality slowly crushing down on her, Odette tasted bitter despair for the first time in her life.

A few days later, at Darius Park where the imperial picnic was being held.

The beautiful promenade and quaint forests along the banks of the Arnin River that ran through the capital sparkled under the late summer sun. The promenade was already adorned with the colorful dresses of noble ladies.

Ladies with lace parasols and fans, and the gentlemen escorting them, gathered in small groups to engage in lively conversation.

“They still haven’t found the true culprit behind Marquis Malik’s murder, have they?”

“Well, the viscount apparently had so many enemies while alive that it’s not easy to identify a suspect.”

“Goodness. No matter what, a nobleman was murdered, so this can’t just be overlooked, can it?”

“That’s certainly true.”

“There are also rumors of a lunatic who kidnaps and murders only young children… The atmosphere in the capital has been so ominous lately.”

“I know, right?”

“Oh, by the way. Did you hear about the Tyrot ducal family?”

“Oh my. Is it really true? That they’re accepting Simon Blanche as a daerisal-sawi?”

“No way. How could that be? Lady Odette is so prideful, there’s no way she would accept Simon Blanche as her husband.”

“Shh. I heard this from my uncle who is a priest at the temple he visited… They formally requested Priest Almens to officiate the wedding ceremony!”

“Goodness, oh my, oh my. So that’s why Lady Odette hasn’t been showing up to parties or gatherings lately?”

“Who knows. I heard she’s supposed to attend today’s picnic though……”

With so many juicy topics to gossip about, the picnic was pushed to the back burner as everyone chattered away.

But then suddenly, a certain sight captured their attention.

“Oh my. Isn’t that Sir Leon?”

Amidst the flashy attire of various nobles, a man with exceptional physique and dazzling looks stood out.

His platinum blond hair sparkled more brilliantly than the late summer sunlight, and his firm muscles rippling under his paladin uniform drew the eyes of all, regardless of age or gender. However, it wasn’t just his appearance that caught people’s attention today.

“Kasha! Wait. Please wait a moment!”

The beautiful and noble paladin. The one whose mere appearance made the hearts of all young ladies in high society race, was chasing after someone while desperately calling out.

Realizing the identity of the person he was pursuing, people were gripped by various emotions.

Jealousy, envy, curiosity, shock….

Feeling those emotions pricking her skin, Kasha Lyuschino slowly turned around.

The plain gray dress and brimmed hat she had chosen to avoid standing out were futile. Just having this man by her side made her the protagonist no matter where she was.

Whispers from here and there reached her ears.

He even took her to the Grand Duke’s villa in Elor?

She rejected the Crown Prince’s invitation……

“I told you I wanted to walk alone, Sir Leon.”

Leon couldn’t take his eyes off her stiff face as she finally opened her mouth.