Interest Compounds on Revenge - Chapter 36

Lea gave the clothes she designed to Chainer, and she wove lace day and night.

Usually unnoticeable, when Chainer picked up a needle and thread, her eyes sparkled and she became frighteningly serious.

But today, she kept clattering her teeth with something in her mouth.

“Chainer, what’s in your mouth?”

Pauline found it strange that a sweet smell was wafting from Chainer’s mouth.

“It’s candy.”

“Spit it out. I’ll give you something else.”

Pauline took away the lollipop Chainer was holding and wiped around her mouth with a wet towel. It was clearly cheap candy sold in bulk at the market.

“Where did you get this candy? Eating this will rot your teeth quickly.”

“Sister Nancy gave it to me.”

“Nancy?”

Why is Nancy’s name suddenly coming up here?

Nancy was a maid who worked in the main house, so she wouldn’t often come to the annex where Grace was.

“If I tell her interesting stories, Sister Nancy gives me candy.”

“What?”

Pauline felt chills all over her body. Is this a truth of life? Bad premonitions always come true. After meeting Nancy at the dessert shop, it kept lingering in her mind.

It wasn’t just suspicion because she went to an expensive dessert shop. As far as she knew, Nancy’s family circumstances were particularly bad among the employees.

‘Why did she approach Chainer?’

Pauline asked Chainer what Nancy had asked her and what answers she had given. Soon, astonishing words poured out of Chainer’s mouth.

“Sister Nancy said it was a secret.”

“Chainer! Do you like me or Nancy?”

“Of course I like you, Sister Pauline.”

“Then, from now on, don’t ever tell your stories to other sisters who give you candy or snacks.”

When Pauline spoke in an agitated voice, Chainer seemed frightened and began to whimper.

Only then did Pauline realize she had been too harsh and comforted Chainer. However, she needed to drive the point home to Chainer.

“Chainer, if you talk carelessly about anything, we might not be able to live here together anymore.”

“Huh? I won’t! Never ever!”

Chainer shook her head vigorously and cried. Pauline patted Chainer’s back.

‘I need to give Luke a heads up.’

Although she didn’t know who had instigated Nancy, it must be a competitor trying to check on Chainer’s lace sales, which were doing well.

‘They’re so brazen. To dare bribe an employee of the Courtois duke’s household.’

Pauline sighed and shook her head.

* * *

Lea came to the chapel alone. She held the necklace in her hand and fell into contemplation. More precisely, she came to pray.

Rather than praying to God, she wanted to gain strength by looking at her father’s necklace.

‘Father, please give me strength to overcome my difficulties well.’

Lea pondered deeply about the situation she was in. If she made a mistake, she could face severe punishment for deceiving the royal family.

What people of high status valued most was face and honor.

To her, it seemed like an impractical way of thinking, but for them, the pride of noble status was an important justification that distinguished them from ordinary people.

“Grace!”

Terran’s voice echoed through the chapel.

Lea quickly put the necklace back in the box. She didn’t want to invite any unnecessary misunderstandings.

“Terran.”

“I found you, so you were here?”

“Yes, I was just thinking…”

Then Terran’s gaze stopped on the box placed on Lea’s knee.

“Ah, I was about to seek strength from the head of Hamilton Trading Company. I can’t let the general store fail.”

“Did you gain some strength?”

“Yes, a lot.”

Lea quietly stood up and returned the box to its original place.

Terran was surprised that Grace seemed more worried and depressed than he had expected.

Come to think of it, even before, when she was occasionally invited to the palace, she would sit silently in a corner seat and leave.

Despite her great position as his fiancée, she wasn’t very talkative and was particularly intimidated by the empress.

But since she wasn’t the Grace of before, he had faith that she would manage well.

“Vivian is a smart woman. She’s wise and open to new systems and cultures.”

“Who’s Vivian?”

“Ah, the empress.”

“You seem to be on close terms with the empress.”

Lea was quite surprised. Not only did he call the empress’s name casually, but he also seemed to know her nature well.

She recalled her memories from the royal banquet.

‘The empress was exceptionally young.’

She looked to be at most twenty-five or twenty-six. In contrast, the emperor appeared to be in his early thirties. Come to think of it, at the banquet, Terran had danced with the empress and conversed with her for a long time.

“She was an old friend.”

‘Ah! A girlfriend.’

A woman’s intuition is never wrong. When talking about the empress, Terran seemed very confident, as if he knew her very well.

“From what I saw, the empress seemed to be a person of great dignity.”

“Was she? She used to be quite a tomboy, but she was also independent and progressive. And pretty too.”

A gentle smile spread across his face.

‘Pretty too?’

Meanwhile, Lea suddenly felt short of breath.

‘You told me to keep only you in my heart, but Terran seems to have many others in his.’

She thought he had no interest in women at all, but Terran’s face looked affectionate and wistful as he recalled the empress.

Moreover, praising another woman as pretty in front of his fiancée wasn’t a particularly pleasant thing.

Perhaps there was another reason why the empress had invited her.

“I should go now.”

‘Why am I getting irritated?’

Lea stood up and left the chapel, ignoring Terran, even though he quickly followed behind her.

Soon, Terran’s hand grabbed Lea’s arm.

“Let’s go together.”

Terran smiled brightly at Grace. Lea’s face hardened at his expression.

‘He’s so clueless.’

“I’d like to stay with Terran longer, but I need to go see Chainer. It’s a shame, but this is as far as we go today.”

Lea smiled brightly on purpose and gently removed his hand from her arm.

“Ah! I was insensitive. Grace has an important matter ahead.”

‘That’s right, you’re a very dull man.’

Lea returned to the annex with quick steps. But as she walked, she pondered and realized that Terran seemed to have a separate reason for wanting to go to the palace together.

‘Does he want to flaunt his existence to the empress? Since they were close before, does he want to try to exert some influence?’

If that was the case, she could overlook it without making an issue, but if not?

Lea shook her head vigorously. She couldn’t forget the expression Terran had made when talking about the empress earlier. After whimpering like a wounded animal, it turns out he had a woman he liked.

“Miss! Where have you been?”

James woke Lea from her reverie.

“James, are you perhaps going to the annex?”

“Yes, I’m bringing you the newspapers.”

James’s hands were full of past newspapers. Lea suddenly felt curiosity well up and decided to ask. It seemed like James would give her an answer.

“I have something I want to ask, James.”

“Yes, please go ahead.”

“Um, please don’t mention this to Terran.”

“Of course.”

James answered readily.

* * *

‘This is outrageous.’

Lea’s anger hadn’t subsided even after returning to the annex.

[Miss Vivian was the young master’s first love.]

[First… love?]

She thought he was indifferent to women and solely devoted to serving the country as a soldier, but he had his own first love. At this point, Lea wanted to confirm one thing for sure.

[Then, there must have been talk of marriage between them?]

[That’s true, but it’s such an old story that it doesn’t really mean much now.]

It doesn’t mean much, but it still seems to mean a lot. James just couldn’t see it. The melancholic look in Terran’s eyes when he recalled the empress.

[Miss Vivian was, how should I put it, a very independent woman. She was knowledgeable and lovable.]

It was surprising to hear James praise someone so much.

[Come to think of it, her personality was similar to Miss Grace’s.]

James added that this was after Grace had fallen ill and her personality had completely changed, not like the old Grace.

Then did Terran feel affection for her because he saw similarities with the empress in her?

‘First love, huh.’

They say a man never forgets his first love. And I’ve heard it becomes the standard for his ideal type.

‘The empress must be very curious about me too.’

Lea also asked James about why Terran and the empress couldn’t end up together.

However, he was tight-lipped about that part. He acted as if it was some top-secret matter.

‘I’m dying of curiosity.’

Lea clutched her head with her hands. Could it have been an unrequited love or a ‘love opposed by enemy families’ kind of thing?

It felt like an earthquake had hit Lea’s head. Even she was bewildered by this contextless feeling of betrayal.

Why had she been so confident that a perfect man like Terran wouldn’t have had a woman he liked?

‘Could it be that he broke up with the empress because of his sense of responsibility towards Aiden? To take responsibility for Grace?’

If that was the case, she could imagine how much Terran must have disliked Grace.

* * *

Based on what he heard from Pauline, Luke began investigating Nancy’s background.

He assigned someone to follow her and see who she met when she left the duke’s residence.

The person she met turned out to be her uncle, and after talking with him for a while, she received money and parted ways.

The tail followed Nancy’s uncle, who headed straight to the post office after parting with Nancy.

Such meetings occurred several more times, and he mostly wrote letters at the post office, sending telegrams when in a hurry.

Luke was shocked when he learned the identity of the recipient. He immediately went to find Terran.

“Your Grace, I’ve uncovered the details of the incident.”

Luke handed Terran the records of the letters Nancy’s uncle had sent from the post office.

“As expected, Allen MacDowell was behind it.”

Terran’s face turned cold as ice. He had suspected to some extent.

“He’s completely lost his mind. How dare he consider me a competitor?”

“Are you going to let this slide?”

“What should I do? Should I smash that pretty face of his? Or should I make MacDowell’s company go bankrupt?”

“We can’t just leave him be. He’s a persistent and tenacious fellow, like wire rope.”

Luke was also greatly indignant.

“Let’s wait and see for now. It’s more important to cheer on how my Grace overcomes this ordeal.”

“Pardon? But…”

“We can crush him afterwards.”