Not only Grand Duchess Riona, but also Lady Marshal of the Alhemitz Count family and Lady Bolan of the Palmania Count family participated in today’s tea time.
The two women were smiling, hiding their sharp thorns.
“Somehow you seem to have gained more weight on your face, Esika?”
“Indeed. I was worried because I heard you were holed up in your room, not going out.”
“Thank you for your concern, Lady Countess.”
The maids were filling the two women’s cups with tea.
“Mmm, the tea fragrance is so good. As expected, Klaus’s black tea is of the highest quality.”
Marshal exclaimed in admiration, and Bolan subtly praised the Grand Duchess.
“Since the Grand Duchess manages the maids thoroughly, the hospitality for guests is very generous.”
Riona moved her lips.
“Today, it was prepared by my daughter-in-law.”
“…Ah…”
Marshal and Bolan smiled faintly at the corners of their mouths and glanced at Esika.
Their eyes held blatant malice towards Esika.
Esika, a vulgar daughter-in-law from a vulgar family, was something shameful that should not be shown outside.
Riona flaunted her power in the Duke’s family by displaying the act of putting down her daughter-in-law in front of them.
It was also a boast that no matter how rich a family’s daughter was, it meant nothing to the Klaus family.
The abuse intensified as the two Countesses were employed as Riona’s teachers.
Of course, they had been severely dealt with by Esika at Alhemitz before… But they thought Esika would not be able to move in Riona’s presence.
“Have you heard that the young lady of the Grand Duke Heinz family is looking for a groom?”
“Can you guess who I thought of immediately when I heard that, Grand Duchess?”
Riona listened to her friends’ conversation while leisurely fanning herself.
Bolan clapped her hands and said exaggeratedly.
“If only Duke Callian Klaus wasn’t married, it would be perfect.”
Esika’s hand holding the teacup twitched slightly.
“If the Duke were single, the Grand Duke’s family would have sent a marriage proposal straight to Klaus, right? The Heinz Grand Duke’s family is just the right match for a family like the Klaus Duke’s family.”
Esika smiled inwardly.
These people always overpraised Callian to please Riona.
“Esika, you should know how lucky you are. My goodness, to have married a husband like Duke Callian.”
Bolan spoke as if it was regrettable that Callian couldn’t marry the Grand Duke’s daughter.
Riona drank her tea with a deep smile.
‘That’s right, someone like you doesn’t match our family’s status.’
And then Esika opened her mouth.
“It seems the news about the Heinz Grand Duke’s family was delivered late.”
At those words, Riona’s eyebrows twitched.
Lady Bolan, noticing Riona’s reaction, quickly spoke as if admonishing Esika.
“By saying it was delivered late, do you mean you knew about it beforehand?”
Esika put down her teacup with an elegant posture and said.
“Yes. I received a letter saying that a matchmaker also came for my second elder brother.”
At those words, Bolan and Marshal widened their eyes.
Riona too stiffened her eyebrows and looked at Esika.
After a moment, Riona moved the corner of her lips and spoke as if it was absurd.
“You’re saying the Heinz Grand Duke’s family sent a matchmaker to your family home, the mere Brigitte?”
The difference in status between a Grand Duke’s family and a Baron’s family was enormous.
“Say something that makes sense, child. You’re making me embarrassed in front of the guests.”
At Riona’s sharp voice, Bolan and Marshal exchanged glances and snickered.
“I heard our daughter-in-law injured her head before, perhaps she hasn’t fully recovered yet, Grand Duchess.”
Riona replied to this while fanning herself.
“Ever since she fell alone and hit her head on a rock, she’s been behaving incoherently. Please understand, ladies.”
“You must be very worried. Oh my, it makes the news of the Grand Duke’s daughter’s matchmaking even more regrettable…”
Before Marshal could finish speaking, Esika opened her lips.
“The Heinz Grand Duke’s family is very interested in maritime trade business. For nobles to sit at desks and only shuffle papers is an old-fashioned thing of the past.”
“Again with that nonsense…”
“If you don’t believe me, you can check for yourself. Although my brother refused, the physical matchmaking letter should still be at Brigitte. Unlike families with nothing substantial but a single title to boast about…”
Esika said with a slight smile.
“The Heinz Grand Duke’s family is a prestigious family that wisely and intelligently faces the future.”
At Esika’s words, the tips of Riona’s eyebrows were trembling.
She was speaking indirectly now.
That those who were putting on airs here with just a single title were neither wise nor intelligent.
But she spoke so subtly that if one were to get angry at this…
“There seems to be a reason why the Heinz Grand Duke’s family is so trusted by His Majesty the Emperor. Don’t you think so, Mother?”
It would be no different from insulting the Heinz Grand Duke’s family.
Bolan and Marshal also missed the opportunity to interject and put Esika down, and were just rolling their eyes.
‘If the Grand Duke’s family really sent a matchmaker, just how wealthy is Brigitte?’
They were probably thinking something like this inside.
Until some point, she had been an unworthy daughter-in-law from a vulgar merchant family in the countryside, but now Esika’s coldly smiling demeanor was no less than that of a lady from any noble family.
“…I see.”
Riona’s hand holding the teacup tightened.
“Actually… my second elder brother wanted to become in-laws with the Heinz Grand Duke’s family through my marriage, not his own, but he said the timing wasn’t right.”
At those words flowing from Esika’s mouth, Riona could no longer hold back.
“Are you saying you should have married the Grand Duke instead of Callian?”
As the atmosphere froze over, Esika covered her mouth with an “Oh my.”
“Of course not. I just thought you ladies were regretting the missed connection between the Heinz Grand Duke’s family and the Duke…”
Bolan and Marshal flinched at Esika’s gaze pointing at them.
“I’m just saying it’s the same for both sides. Well, the Heinz Grand Duke’s family is a family anyone would want to be connected with, isn’t it?”
Under the table, Riona’s tightly clenched fist trembled.
‘This one dares to openly scratch at my insides.’
Originally, Esika wasn’t the type to retaliate so harshly.
If someone troubled her, she would respond emotionally, losing face and making only herself look foolish, eventually begging for forgiveness – that was Esika’s pattern.
‘I don’t know where she learned this behavior, but I need to put that girl in her place.’
Unlike the easily manageable Esika of the past, the one before her eyes now was returning the favor in the nobles’ way without changing her expression even once.
“Esika has completely changed into a witch. She’s become venomous and isn’t easily dealt with.”
It was just as Yuri had reported.
‘No matter how much you struggle, you little novice, you’re no match for me. Poor Esika.’
Riona raised her elegant hand and picked up a peanut cookie from the plate.
The power within the Klaus Duke’s family ultimately came from her son, Duke Callian Klaus, who was under her skirts.
So no matter how much the mismatched wife Esika struggled, she could never beat Callian’s mother.
Crunch-
Her most intuitive method of maintaining her son’s loyalty was ‘pity’.
Riona bit into the cookie elegantly.
And chewed it leisurely.
**
Callian gazed at the garden scene for a long time.
The tea table piled with luxurious refreshments and the figures of four women were visible.
Among them, the only one catching his eye was Esika Klaus.
Every time the wind blew, Esika’s beautiful silver hair fluttered.
Had her blue eyes always been so clear?
“…”
She was smiling brightly while serving refreshments to the Grand Duchess and her friends.
Beneath her neat eyebrows, her blue eyes seemed to sparkle every time she smiled.
After staring blankly at her for a while, Callian finally touched his forehead.
“What am I doing?”
Callian had clearly been angry with Esika Klaus.
To say that anger had risen to the tips of his hair would be a more accurate expression.
Yet here he was, blankly stealing glances at her drinking tea.
Callian’s eyebrows stiffened.
He felt that he shouldn’t be here doing this right now.
As he turned to head back to the mansion, he could feel his heart continue to beat rapidly.
As if he had just finished sword training in the practice grounds.
Callian took deep breaths to calm himself.
And at some point, he noticed a familiar white horse standing in front of the mansion.
The golden saddle was embroidered with the imperial crest.
Knowing the horse’s owner, Callian slightly furrowed his brow.
“It seems His Highness the Crown Prince has arrived. I will go ahead and prepare.”
Hans quickly moved away, and Callian walked with reluctant steps.
As if his mind wasn’t troubled enough, it seemed the prince had come to review the war supplies again.
A man with an intimidatingly cold atmosphere, whose mere presence exuded the scent of blood.
Crown Prince Resban Deon Lucein was standing in front of the mansion.
Callian, stopping before him, calmly bowed his head in respect to the royal family.
As he lowered his gaze, he saw the heavy sword that always hung at Resban’s waist.
“I greet the small sun of Tureshian.”
Resban nodded with an expressionless face.
“The weather is good.”
A noble and strong one, and a troublesome one to deal with.
As Callian was about to guide Resban, screams of servants suddenly came from the garden he had just left.
“Grand Duchess!”
“The Grand Duchess has collapsed!”
“Doctor! Quickly call for a doctor!”
Male lead says he’s pregnant — and it’s female lead’s child
Something seems a bit off about this world.
Wang Zhao thought as she watched a pregnant man walking towards her…
Intro
Female lead finds herself in a world where the men who possess the ability to bear children.
As she navigates this unfamiliar reality, she is caught off guard by the sudden appearance of her boyfriend, who reveals that he is pregnant.
Is this truly her boyfriend?
Why can’t she recall any details about their time together?
She begins to doubt whether the child her boyfriend is carrying is even hers.
Is there a hidden reason behind her amnesia, or could it be a side effect of her sudden arrival in this strange new world?
Just when it seems the protagonist’s life couldn’t become any more entangled, her ex-boyfriend makes an unexpected appearance, raising questions about the protagonist’s past.
__________
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