“I don’t understand. I’ve explained this much. Can’t you see how kind I’m being right now?”

Blake, with an annoying tone, twisted his face, then picked up the white queen from the chessboard.

“Odette, why does it seem like you couldn’t bring out this queen?”

Because Blake had touched the board beforehand? Or because Odette wasn’t proficient in chess?

No, those are just additional reasons.

“Because my mind got caught up in something less valuable.”

Upon closer inspection, every previous move started when Odette moved a less valuable piece.
As the pieces were dying off, the initial goal of bringing out the queen became a thing of the past.

“Now do you understand? Feelings towards me, the owner of that hair… those are low-value pieces. But your safety, comfortable life. These are high-value pieces.”

In essence, Blake is saying this.

Get your mind off low-value things and don’t miss the high-value pieces.

Realize what is more important.

“If you plan to hold my hand, be absent from the wedding tomorrow. Instead, spare the owner of that hair.”

“…Isn’t holding hands enough?”

“Haha, that’s what you call words now.”

Blake, as if expressing amusement at hearing interesting words, erased the traces of laughter in an instant.

All that remained were cold, deep violet eyes.

“I wanted to say this for a long time, but don’t you think it’s too much for a mediocre person like Ertman Marquis to act as a marchioness? You should know your place.”

Where does this bastard think he can act as a marchioness?

Mumbling like that, Blake sneered coldly.

“…Is that the reason for interfering with my marriage?”

“Oh, of course not. I just think it’s better to eliminate variables as much as possible.”

In short, it means Odette doesn’t want a chance for her to escape after gaining the position of the Marchioness Ertman.

“If you want, I can arrange a new marriage partner for you anytime, so don’t worry too much.”

“People related to you by blood?”

Strictly speaking, it would be better to say it’s related to the Rodel Marquis. Anyway, it’s not such close blood ties.

The Rodel Marquisate is the maternal family of Katarina Hwangbi, and to Blake, it was a family equivalent to an extended family.

If she gets married, it would become a structure where she cannot escape from Blake’s clutches.

“If I take Blake’s hand… I’ll have to marry the person he arranges without any resistance.”

Even if she knows, she cannot avoid it.

Just like this situation.

As the thought reached her, a deep sense of powerlessness and despair began to rise through Odette’s flesh.

Only Blake’s cold purple eyes remained.

Only after hearing all the talk did Odette realize why Blake had committed such deeds.

Really, there was no need to state the conditions for the threat in the envelope containing the hair.

Just by Odette sitting here, he had already achieved his purpose.

“All this time, it was Blake who sent military supplies to the northern border.”

Incidents that erupted strangely during Cedric’s absence.

Odette hadn’t paid much attention to those events, but she understood that they were unnatural.

Most of those incidents were things Blake had touched.

“He deliberately waited for Cedric to leave the capital.”

Only then could it be difficult to respond promptly to the problems.
So, when Cedric receives the situation belatedly and attempts to solve the problem, the situation becomes much more complicated and challenging to resolve than when he initially tried to suppress it.

What Blake aimed for was a situation getting more tangled, gradually tarnishing Cedric’s reputation, and resulting in hindrance. While Cedric is frantically solving problems in all directions, Blake can comfortably expand his influence.

“The problem is… the situation didn’t play along.”

The reason was simple.

Odette had been continuously informing Cedric of the situation in the capital.

Thanks to Odette’s ‘ability,’ Cedric could quickly deal with various problems, and the situation didn’t flow as Blake intended.

Naturally, from Blake’s perspective, he would want to get rid of the servant who conveyed the situation.

“And I got caught.”

Odette had been denying it, but her excuses didn’t work on Blake. She had hidden her ability to avoid being exposed.

However, once caught, no matter whom she married, the outcome would be the same.

Blake tried to interfere with Odette’s marriage to get a hold of her leash, and she probably faced a similar threat.

“I knew it would come to this, and yet, I kept bowing my head.”

Playing the role of a clueless and timid maid, she suffered slaps and various hardships, all to keep her head down.

She had lived, always bowing her head, wanting to escape from the palace and this crack.

But now, with that goal in sight, this kind of situation occurred.

“To go this far to tie me down…”

In a moment of grinding helplessness and anger, Odette clenched her teeth.

“Wait a moment.”

To go this far?

Odette unconsciously scanned the surroundings quickly.

The scattered red hair, the chessboard more than half empty, and Blake, who was watching Odette’s agony with interest.

When their eyes met, he raised an eyebrow.

“Do you have something to ask?”

The moment Odette saw his attitude, she sensed.

“…perhaps.”

This situation might be false.