“And you. I trust that you have reflected greatly. I will release you from your close arrest, but you are forbidden to go out for a while. You are only allowed to go to church for prayer. Do you understand?”
Isabella nodded slightly with a pale face.
“I’ve reflected a lot, father. There won’t be any more troubles caused by me.”
“Good.”
Having settled matters this way, Cardinal de Mare picked up his steak knife again.
“Now, let’s finish our meal and go back to our rooms. Ariadne, it may be a bother, but please check everyone’s bedrooms.”
Just as Ariadne was about to answer, bowing her head, Hippolytus interjected.
“But, father.”
He meaningfully looked at the gold seal of the mistress on Ariadne’s hand.
“When mother comes back, shouldn’t she take over the household management? It wouldn’t be right to trouble our young sister when there is a rightful mistress.”
Even Lucrezia, upon hearing this, was so surprised that she looked at Cardinal de Mare. Isn’t this asking for too much in one day?
Ariadne shook her head. She had known for a long time that Hippolytus was not very bright, but he truly was an incorrigible nobleman.
“Hmm…”
But Ariadne’s father had less conscience than she thought. Instead of outright rejecting Hippolytus’s suggestion, he started to contemplate it.
What came out of Cardinal de Mare’s mind after some thought was the solution that decisionmakers, who have nothing to do with practical affairs, like the most, ‘I’ll split it in half between the two of you, so don’t fight and get along.’
“Indeed, Ariadne is young and the seal of the mistress doesn’t suit her.”
The part about her being ‘the second daughter, born from a mistress’ was omitted after that. Ariadne’s heart sank, thumping.
“But your mother has made too many mistakes as a mistress. It’s not fair for her to be reinstated immediately.”
This time, the faces of Hippolytus, Lucrezia, and Isabella contorted. After pushing his wife and children back and forth between cold and hot water, Cardinal de Mare proposed a compromise.
“So when your mother drafts the budget, let Ariadne execute it.”
“I don’t want to!”
The voice that burst out unexpectedly belonged to Ariadne, not Hippolytus or Lucrezia.
Cardinal de Mare widened his eyes, looking at his second daughter, who had never said she didn’t want to do something before.
“Why are you talking like this all of a sudden?”
He did not know that his second daughter, then and now, never let go of the gold that fell into her hands.
“Yes, authority comes with responsibility, but if you want me to take responsibility, you have to give me authority.”
Ariadne stared at Lucrezia and Hippolytus with sharp eyes and then turned to the Cardinal.
“If you impose the duty of managing the house on me while putting shackles on my hands and feet, I can’t do it. Just take everything.”
Hippolytus stood up abruptly and scolded Ariadne.
“When father tells you to do something, you should just say ‘Yes, yes.’ A mousesized thing like you, daring to stare…”
Ariadne didn’t back down and retorted.
“Brother, don’t interfere with household matters!”
She then appealed to Cardinal de Mare.
“The primary reason I can’t pass the seal of the mistress to my mother has to do with my brother.”
“What?!”
Ippolito was now ready to strike his halfsister, Ariadne. He rose from his seat and strode towards Ariadne.
“Have you finished speaking?!”
Ariadne signaled to Sancha who had been standing by the dining room entrance. Understanding quickly what her lady wanted, Sancha hurried upstairs.
Just before Ippolito swung his fist, Cardinal de Mare restrained his son.
“Stop! Can’t you sit down?!”
Finally, at his father’s reprimand, Ippolito begrudgingly returned to his seat, still grumbling.
He glared at his halfsister as if he was about to shoot flames from his eyes. Shut up, shut up, I don’t know what she’s going to say, but shut up…!
“Do you know, Father, that while Brother Ippolito is currently receiving 15 ducats (about 15 million won) as pocket money, he has asked me for an additional 23 ducats (about 23 million won) for petty cash?”
Cardinal de Mare was surprised and looked at Ippolito. His eyes demanded an answer. Ippolito, who had been threatening his sister, quickly changed his demeanor in front of his father. He halfgrovelled, halfjoked.
“Well… If you’re a man, you have to have social relations, you have to buy meals and drinks. I also have to maintain connections.”
But his halfsister was not so forgiving. Like a predator that had spotted prey, she cornered him.
“All the noble children worth calling your friends have all gone down to Taranto, so what kind of networking are you doing in the middle of winter in San Carlo?”
Ariadne sneered and pointed at Maletta with her chin.
Maletta, who had been standing at the entrance of the dining room where the exclusive servants and maids were standing, adjusted her posture in a hurry as the family’s gaze focused on her.
“Or is the networking you’re talking about with the maids of the house?”
The eyes of the entire family were on Maletta. Maletta stood out among the maids. Not because of her looks, but because of her outfit.
What Maletta was wearing was the outfit of a de Mare family maid, but the material and tailoring were completely different from the children standing next to her.
The de Mare family’s maid outfit consisted of a brown top with a white blouse peeking through, but Maletta had modified it to her liking, maintaining only the form.
The neckline of her brown top was so low that it exposed most of her upper body, and the white shirt she wore underneath, unlike the other maids’ thick cotton material, was made of a seethrough linen material even in the middle of winter.
Moreover, she wore a necklace made of South Sea pearls around her neck. It wasn’t a freshwater pearl pendant that maids occasionally wear, but a necklace of South Sea pearls as large as thumbnails.
The smooth surface with an elegant luster was a highquality product that even Lucrezia would admire.
Seeing Maletta’s outfit, Cardinal de Mare realized where Ippolito’s money was going and let out an exclamation.
“This is…!”
Ippolito, with living evidence in front of him, was trembling and couldn’t say a word. He just gritted his teeth and repeated something that sounded like a curse.
Despite his son’s exposed face, Cardinal de Mare tried to mediate one more time.
“Wouldn’t Ippolito’s spendthrift habits be controlled if your mother watched carefully?”
Ariadne let out a hollow laugh.
“When it comes to her son… my mother is very lenient. How do you think Ippolito’s spendthrift habits got so bad in the first place?”
Cardinal de Mare let out another exclamation. There was not a single false word. At that moment, Sancha came down from the second floor with two books from Ariadne’s study.
One was Ariadne’s ledger, and the other was a thin book bound in leather.
“And Father, how much do you trust Mother?”
Ariadne offered a cold smile as she received the two books brought by San Cha, and extended to Cardinal de Mare one of the thin volumes that was not a ledger.
It was another type of ledger. Judging from the cover, it appeared to be the kind used in tailoring or costuming.
Cardinal de Mare’s eyes nearly bulged out as he examined the contents of the ledger.
Male lead is a Destined Young Husband (Female-dominant)
One-sentence summary: Wife-master, listen to my explanation!
Li Ruantang, a young lady from a prestigious family, stumbled and fell. When she woke up, she saw a noble and beautiful young man sitting by her bedside, wiping away tears.
The young master had slightly reddened eyes, and his every move exuded charm.
The sight made Li Ruantang’s eyes hot and her heart flutter. After all, she had made a bet with the young master Meng from the neighboring family. If she couldn’t marry a husband before the end of the year, she would have to admit defeat and give up the jade she had worked so hard to obtain.
Outside the window, the flowers were in full bloom.
Rather than losing the bet, the jade, and her face, Li Ruantang calculated that it would be better to seek marriage with the young master in front of her, killing three birds with one stone.
…
Meng Jun never thought that an accident during a spring outing would lead to them rolling down a cliff and into a river, yet still survive.
Now they were trapped in an unknown village, and Meng Jun had overheard that the family who had rescued them had their own intentions.
After all, it was Li Ruantang who had lost her mind and sought marriage first. He was only trying to protect himself!
Glancing at Li Ruantang, who was listing her own merits, the young husband’s voice softened, and he blushed as he lied, “W-wife-master, Wife-master, don’t you remember me?”
The young husband’s voice was clear and handsome, coaxing Li Ruantang’s heart to be soft and sweet, and she spared no effort to protect him.
It wasn’t until they returned to the capital that Li Ruantang suddenly remembered.
When they had fallen off the cliff, in order not to implicate Wei Yunruo, whom he secretly admired, the young husband had instead pulled her, who was slightly farther away, down the cliff with him…
Short summary by Yuushi L: Initially, the male lead (ML) liked another girl, while the female lead (FL) liked the ML. Both fell off a cliff. The FL temporarily lost her memory, and the ML, fearing others might take advantage of him, claimed FL was his wife while they were staying in a village. Later, when they returned home, the FL regained her memories and remembered that the ML liked someone else, so she kept her distance from him. However, during their time living together in the countryside, the ML’s view of the FL had completely changed. From this point, his pursuit of the FL begins.
Link to read
