“There’s always something happening in the world.”

After carefully reading even the uninteresting articles, Kisa closed the newspaper as there was nothing left to read.

The nanny, who had been anxiously watching her, brightened up.

“Now you’ll go meet Young Master Daniel, right?”

“No, I’m going to read this now.”

Smiling brightly, Kisa held up a magazine with provocative text and flashy images on the cover.

It was the same magazine that had featured an article about Daniel a few days ago. When Kisa asked to take it with her to read in more detail, the Count handed it over without comment.

“Oh, my lady…”

Leaving the nanny whose expression quickly fell, Kisa turned the pages of the magazine. Except for Daniel’s article, she had only skimmed the rest, but now she intended to read it properly.

As it was her first time directly reading this kind of lowbrow magazine, she felt a bit excited.

Moments later, Kisa could feel a gentle shock from encountering a new culture. My goodness, to think such a world existed.

It was incomparably more detailed and stimulating to base instincts than the occasional behind-the-scenes gossip from high society she used to hear from Melissa.

Of course, there were many articles written in a “believe it or not” style or purely for entertainment, so they shouldn’t be blindly trusted, but honestly, it was fun.

Kisa skipped over the articles that seemed completely unreliable and eagerly read through all kinds of gossip.

Among them, the article that most piqued her interest was about the king of the distant Chamal Kingdom looking for a new queen. She remembered seeing related articles in the newspapers too.

It was said that he announced plans to remarry less than two weeks after the death of the previous queen, which seemed too much even for a king, but the story in the magazine was even more outrageous.

According to information obtained by this magazine through a reliable source, the King of Chamal, who is plagued by suspicions of driving out his first wife for not bearing a son and causing the death of his second wife due to her endless infidelity, hopes for a young and beautiful third wife.

Moreover, it is said that in private settings, he openly lamented that his marriages repeatedly failed because Chamal women are strong-willed and don’t know how to serve their husbands…

Anyway, as he declared his intention to take a foreign woman as his third wife, there is growing anticipation that a queen of Chamal might emerge from our Sorbi Kingdom.

“What trash.” Kisa inadvertently voiced her thoughts. Yes, no matter how you look at it, the King of Chamal is trash.

His womanizing and personality issues were well-known facts, frequently discussed even here in a foreign country.

“I hope the remarriage fails.”

If not, the woman who marries him would be too pitiful. Even if she bears children, there’s no chance of succession since the princes and princesses from the previous empress are already grown. And being a foreign queen, she’s unlikely to be welcomed by ministers or citizens, so she’ll be isolated.

Above all, her husband is a womanizing scumbag.

Although Chamal Kingdom’s national power was weaker than Sorbi’s, the royal family, including the king, was wealthy thanks to several gold mines owned by the royal house.

As such, material compensation would likely be provided generously to both the bride-to-be and her family, but even so, the new queen’s life didn’t seem likely to be happy. Isn’t it just the bride’s family hitting the jackpot? This is practically human sacrifice.

“Um, my lady.”

At that moment, Kisa was roused from her thoughts by the nanny’s cautious voice. The nanny seemed to have checked on the situation in the reception room once again while Kisa was absorbed in the gossip magazine.

“Young Master Daniel is still here. It’s been nearly four hours now.”

“Four hours? Oh my, it’s already dinner time.”

“My lady!”

“Alright, alright. I’m joking.”

No matter how much the Count had allowed the engagement to be broken off, he wasn’t the type to not offer Daniel a meal.

However, dining at the same table with Daniel wasn’t very appealing. After all, meals should be eaten comfortably.

“I’ll go to the reception room now. Satisfied?”

“Oh! You’ve made a good decision!”

“But before that, there’s one thing I need you to do.”

“What is it?”

“It’s…”

After giving the nanny an errand, Kisa headed towards the reception room located on the first floor.

As the face of the mansion, the reception room for greeting guests was elegantly decorated under the Count’s meticulous management, but it was currently filled with acrid smoke.

Cough, cough, Kisa rushed to the window and flung it wide open. Daniel, who was leaning back in his chair as if lying down, chuckled.

“So you’ve finally come?”

He put down the still-lit cigar in an ashtray already piled high with smoked ones.

“I thought I’d die of boredom waiting.”

Though his tone was playful, his lips were twisted into a fierce expression. The man rose from his seat and slowly approached Kisa.

“Why didn’t you just go home first? I wouldn’t have minded.”

“How could I? The precious young lady of Vanspelt was going to come meet me.”

“You must have gotten stubborn.”

For a full four hours, he had neither returned home nor come back to Kisa’s room, instead planting himself in the reception room waiting only for Kisa.

For Daniel, giving up and retreating was more damaging to his pride than being treated as an unwelcome guest.

What a sore loser. The reason he was forcing a smile-like expression despite his fierce eyes must be for the same reason.

“Anyway, can you just briefly state your business? I need to go eat dinner soon.”

Kisa held out her hand to prevent Daniel, who had come within a few steps, from approaching any closer.

“And you smell. How many cigars did you smoke in someone else’s house? Your manners are terrible.”

Daniel stopped in his tracks and raised both arms to shoulder height.

“My, my. You’re being too harsh on your lovely fiancé.”

“Good grief. What fiancé? We’ve already exchanged letters breaking off the engagement.”

At the mention of breaking off the engagement, the smile disappeared completely from Daniel’s face.

“No, do you think our family will accept such a thing? I’m still your fiancé. And so are you.”

“What difference does it make if the Lowens don’t accept it? It’s just an engagement, not a marriage. It’s a relationship that ends the moment one side cuts it off.”

It was a fair point. The reason breaking engagements is frowned upon in aristocratic society is due to concerns about deteriorating relations with the other family and public opinion, not because there’s any special binding force to an engagement.

“As it was written in the letter accompanying the engagement termination document, I gave a two-day grace period because your family needs time to accept it. The news of our broken engagement will be announced to the world the day after tomorrow, and then everyone will know.”

Kisa shrugged her shoulders as Daniel often did and smiled triumphantly.

“The fact that Kisa Vanspelt and Daniel Lowens are no longer in any relationship.”

Daniel showed an unexpectedly calm response of expressionless silence, but judging by the slight twitching at the corners of his mouth, his inner state wasn’t as calm.

“…Take it easy, Kisa.”

“I am taking it easy. I wanted to slap you a few times, but I ended it with breaking the engagement.”

“I’m not in the mood to play word games with you right now.”

“Neither am I. I just want to eat dinner soon.”

Ha, he sighed, looking at the floor as if trying to swallow his resentment.

“You need to know that I’m being very lenient with you.”

For a moment, the Count’s face overlapped with that image, and Kisa’s heart creaked.

When his daughter caused trouble or disappointed him, the Count would sigh like that and say something like this. Asking if she knew how much he was indulging her compared to her brother who would inherit the family.

Because of such memories, Kisa reflexively shrank back when faced with angry or overbearing men. And the current Daniel fit both categories.

‘No. I can’t let myself be looked down upon this time too.’

Kisa took a deep breath for a moment, recalling the day she first learned of Hazel’s existence. The anger and wretchedness of that time, and finally the desire to return these feelings, were instantly revived.

“What exactly are you being lenient about?”

To hide the fact that she was intimidated, she deliberately glared at Daniel even more.

“Tell me. What are you being lenient about?”

Daniel clicked his tongue at Kisa as if she were the most brazen person in the world.

“Thanks to you leaving me stuck here, I’ve had time to think sitting over there. Thank you. As my head cleared, various things came to mind.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“That article in that subversive third-rate magazine a few days ago. Your father put it out, didn’t he?”

Although it was obvious which article he was referring to, she decided to pretend not to know for now. There was nothing particularly good about revealing the truth.

“What? What article?”

“Don’t play dumb. I wondered what gutsy bastard would write such an article. Usually, they come to our family first to demand hush money.”

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Fine, you and your father will deny it to the end. But you’ve messed with the wrong person. You should have ended your attack with just me.”

Daniel gritted his teeth and glared.

“How dare you involve the innocent Hazel?”

It was the first time since coming of age that Daniel had expressed such anger.

“Do you know how much harm Hazel is suffering because of that article? She can’t even open her tea shop because there are so many people snooping around.”

Hazel, the woman with whom he had sworn eternal friendship. She was clearly Daniel Lowens’ sore spot.