11. Something About Pelliese
2023.10.11.
‘Ah, warm.’
The fireplace blazed brightly with logs heaped in by Hena.
The bandages reapplied and changed carefully by Hille.
And a belly filled with soup brimming with Ralph’s heartfelt care.
‘Too warm…….’
It felt as if my body were melting.
The sensation of warmth seeping through the cracks of melting skin finally lulled my mind into drowsiness.
Amid hazy memories of a man and the warmth of blankets, Louise’s voice drifted like a swimmer.
‘Next winter, we’ll sleep comfortably in a warm place.’
My sister always kept her promises.
……Then why does that make me so angry?
Under Yu An’s eyes slowly closing again,
her dry lips crumpled and twisted as if tightly suppressing emotion.
***
The winter in the capital, Cielo, wasn’t particularly harsh.
Instead of snow, vibrant colors adorned every well-kept street, and the squares and commercial districts were crowded daily with people clearing snow to welcome visitors.
Crossing several plazas before entering the palace, Marquis Companni clicked his tongue at the long line stretching from the entrance of the First Prince’s residence.
Rumors abounded in Cielo that unless one was a powerful noble invited to the council of ministers, one had to go through First Prince Bollonico to gain an audience with the Emperor.
Which was partly true.
The First Prince’s palace was filled with extravagant decorations—golden silk was common, and rare pink peacocks and black ivory, seemingly cut from distant lands, gathered together all the world’s most precious and bizarre curiosities.
‘Is this a royal palace or a circus, tsk.’
Ignoring the sharp glares from others telling him not to cut in line, Marquis Companni stepped toward the entrance at the end of the long queue.
The foreign servants, each with vacant, unhinged expressions, recognized him and quickly made way.
He briefly savored the envious stares, adjusted his attire, and swiftly made his way to the audience chamber.
Bollonico, the First Prince of the Euphris Imperial family, with their distinctive golden hair and strikingly blue eyes resembling the Emperor, looked particularly spirited today.
Beneath his sharply cut bangs, which nearly covered his eyebrows, his nose lifted high as if unaware of the sky’s limits, and his smug face brimmed with inexplicable pride.
His neatly cropped golden hair shimmered annoyingly with every slight turn of his head.
“May boundless glory be upon the great Euphris—. Your Highness. I, Harol Companni, have completed the task you commanded and come to report.”
“Ah—. Moldy Marquis.”
Kick, kick.
The servants lined up like wings beside him covered their mouths and laughed at Prince Bollonico’s words.
To avoid displeasing the prince, they had to laugh along, but Marquis Companni stiffened.
Being called so childishly was proof that First Prince Bollonico was in a twisted mood.
“Bollonico, I’m disappointed.”
The prince’s sentiment drew an exaggerated reaction from the servants.
“Oooh.”
“How could anyone disturb the Highness’s peace?”
‘Worthless foreign servant scum…….’
Companni forced a smile while muttering inwardly.
And the most irritating one was the flamboyant parrot perched on Bollonico’s shoulder.
—“Brother-in-law! Brother-in-law!”
Relentlessly repeating the same phrase, grating on nerves.
“I confirmed Gerret Pelliese’s interference and guided the second daughter of the late Pelliese Count to the Black Mansion.”
“Who doesn’t know that?”
First Prince Bollonico rose from the dancer’s lap, tucked his shiny golden hair sharply behind his ear, then folded his arms like an angry child and looked down at the deeply bowed Marquis Companni.
“You know Bollonico isn’t curious about that.”
The Marquis briefly looked bewildered, then opened his mouth, realization dawning. What Bollonico wanted to know was the Crown Prince’s reaction to the new bride and the mansion’s current state.
“It’s the same. The mansion remains unchanged—nothing diminished, nothing added. Marquis Rev entered the bedroom, but the Crown Prince didn’t even acknowledge him. He seemed as listless as always.”
“Haaaah—.”
Bollonico stretched his perfectly manicured fingers, displaying them as if to show off, then lightly tapped his mouth.
He cleverly concealed his gaping mouth, slowly blinked his long eyelashes, clearly expressing ‘boring.’ Marquis Companni’s already gaunt face grew even more haggard.
“Bollonico, it’s dull. Same report every time.”
“Moldy one, I’m bored!”
—“Bored, bored!”
“What can I do? I can’t force the monster out of his room and put him on display. Can I?”
“Monsters don’t belong in beautiful places!”
—“Right! Right!”
The foreign servants and the parrot Lorenzo loudly echoed Bollonico’s words.
Companni, who had long vowed to make anyone among those spectators pay if they were ever expelled, glanced warily at Bollonico, whose cropped hair swayed as he curled his lips upward.
“Bollonico, I heard an interesting piece of news.”
“Hm?”
“While the Moldy Marquis crawled here like a 150-year-old turtle, your little ‘bird’ brought the news first.”
Indeed.
Behind where Prince Bollonico sat, a small bird with bright yellow feathers, as radiant as his golden hair, diligently pecked at seeds in its cage.
“The monster himself moved and brought in the ninth bride the Moldy Marquis delivered, into the mansion.”
“Eh—?”
“Bollonico, I was shocked. I rarely get surprised, don’t I?”
—“Shocked. Truly shocked.”
“Bollonico, I’m certain. There’s something about Pelliese.”
—“There’s something about Pelliese. Something about Pelliese.”
“Bollonico, I’m heading to request an audience with His Imperial Majesty. Want to come along, Marquis Companni?”
Marquis Companni was stunned—first by the news that Crown Prince Clade had personally brought the new bride home.
And then again, by the rare glint of genuine interest flickering across Prince Bollonico’s face.
‘There’s something about Pelliese.’
Why the Emperor had suddenly decided one day to give a woman from Pelliese as bride to the Crown Prince.
Why, even after being deceived by Gerret Pelliese, the Imperial Household still insisted on bringing a woman from Pelliese into the Black Mansion—twice.
Why Bollonico, who hadn’t been named Crown Prince despite being 23 and thus extremely sensitive, was rushing to report to the Emperor that the Crown Prince had accepted a bride from Pelliese.
Even pretending ignorance felt suspicious beyond measure.
‘There really is something about Pelliese.’
Something truly extraordinary, capable of sparking interest even in that doll-like Bollonico!
***
Count Gerret Pelliese had been holed up in his laboratory for several nights straight, sleepless.
Even if he couldn’t immediately attend to his ‘special’ guests in the side room, there were still ways to generate income.
“Yu An Pelliese. Does Gerret Pelliese think I’ll collapse just because I don’t have you?”
Gerret Pelliese ground his teeth as he thought of Yu An, who hadn’t sent even a single letter.
This laboratory, passed down through generations of family heads, was a treasure vault he wouldn’t trade even for the Academy’s Grand Library.
Reach out, and ancestral wisdom poured forth in the form of research materials.
Unfortunately, Gerret Pelliese lacked the knowledge to understand such specialized documents, so he had focused his passion on manufacturing medicines rather than prescriptions, commercializing them and supplying them to trading houses.
This had drawn harsh criticism from academia, accusing the Pelliese family of abandoning the noble path of medicine for that of merchants.
But to Gerret Pelliese, it all sounded like envy.
Using commercialized medicines and treatments for special clients, he had grown the Pelliese fortune.
He was the rightful head, sustaining this magnificent family.
With ten years of accumulated, groundless confidence, he believed Yu An’s abilities were useful in many ways—but not so essential that their absence would immediately bring collapse.
“Why isn’t it working when I followed the instructions exactly!”
Not until he realized that every medicine he was supposed to deliver immediately had turned out abnormal.
The Count stared at the new products Yu An had been researching, growing increasingly agitated.
The color of the medicine he had just made was different from those Yu An had prepared earlier.
It was a simple cold remedy, formulated during the time of his father—the previous Pelliese Count.
Sweet in taste, powerful in effect, and with no side effects, it had sold like wildfire…….
“Tch! Tch!!”
It wasn’t just the color. The taste was horribly bitter, and strange granules crunched between his teeth.
Only then did Yu An’s voice flash like lightning through Gerret Pelliese’s mind—her muttering about ratios being off, rewriting the prescription again.
“Damn it! Not a single thing I remember properly!”
Of course.
He had relied too heavily on Yu An Pelliese all along.
“Priscilla! Priscilla—!!”
With the delivery deadline approaching, he finally began frantically calling for his wife.
He needed to check the ledgers.
He had been pondering for a while now—perhaps reroute the medicines meant for less important families to the powerful ones instead.
***
“Mother, what’s wrong?”
“Regina. You came just in time. What should I do?”
Regina hurried over, alarmed to see her already thin mother looking even more haggard.
“You’re good with numbers. Help your mother, won’t you?”
“What?”
Priscilla nervously opened the ledger she had been clutching to her chest.
The ledger, which had maintained neat handwriting until halfway, turned into nothing short of a scribble pad toward the end—sparse gaps and chaotic, illegible writing.
“What is this?”
“The le—d—ger!”
Priscilla whispered very softly.
“Your father asked for it, and I hadn’t prepared it in advance, so I got scolded!”
“Mother, if you don’t do these things ahead of time and keep delaying, what do you expect…….”
Regina looked back and forth between the bundle of documents and the ledger Priscilla thrust into her hands, her eyes widening.
She caught sight of the household finances, noticeably diminished within just a few days, hidden among the barely legible scribbles.
“Why are the earnings like this?”
Male lead first thought she played hard to get, only to realize she
really disliked him
Short intro:
What she can’t stand the most is the streets full of effeminate men, especially that so-called top beauty whom she avoids at all costs.
Shen Yaoxing looks at Jiang Mingyue, who keeps approaching her with coy shyness.
Shen Yaoxing: Bro, don’t be like this, I’m really about to throw up!
She fears nothing in heaven or earth, except for him getting close to her.
*
At first he thought she was just using the trick of feigning indifference to attract his attention. Later, he learned that she truly despised him.
This dealt a heavy blow to Jiang Mingyue, and he vowed to make her, like everyone else, fall at his feet in worship!
***
Synopsis:
Before transmigrating, Shen Yaoxing only wanted to find a reliable man to spend her life with. Who knew that after transmigrating, she would become a reliable woman herself…
A forced misandrist, highly skilled, and reliable female lead
vs.
An initially aloof and arrogant, later morbid, obsessed male lead
_____
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