The books Ael had borrowed turned into paper waste in an instant.

The baron couple and Elize only seemed satisfied after seeing Ael frantically gathering the torn papers while crying, then they went downstairs.

Ael was so distraught she didn’t even notice they had left.

Looking at the paper scraps, not only torn to shreds but also wet with spit, Ael wiped her tears with the back of her hand.

Seeing the words written on the fragments made her cry even more. Those were words she had asked Kyle about and received explanations for.

Ael wept more bitterly, feeling as if that day which had come like a gift for the first time in her life had been torn and insulted.

She also cursed herself.

‘I shouldn’t have borrowed them.’

If she hadn’t borrowed them, they would still be in the academy library in their original condition, passing on new knowledge to new people.

Moreover, the fact that she had entered using her father’s ID attacked Ael even more.

It was never permitted to her in the first place. The very thought of wanting to see this was an overreaching desire.

If she had just stayed home that day, this wouldn’t have happened…

The baron couple ordered Ael not to leave her room, imposing confinement, and simultaneously ordered the maids not to bring her any food.

If it weren’t for the potato that Jena secretly brought, risking severe punishment, Ael would have truly continued to starve.

The problem was that she barely ate even that.

Ael lay still on the bed all day.

She felt hunger, but had no appetite whatsoever.

Moreover, as time passed, she couldn’t even feel the hunger anymore. Ael thought of only one thing.

‘Why was I born?’

Thinking that everything was her fault, the end of her thoughts was always the same.

Ael imagined the baron’s house without her. Everything was peaceful to the point of absurdity.

The baron couple and Elize would have lived without anything to be irritated about, and the servants would have been more comfortable without an awkwardly positioned employee who was troublesome to deal with.

At least Jena might be sad for her.

But if they had never met in the first place, even Jena wouldn’t have thought anything of it.

‘Perhaps she could have left here earlier…’

It was because of working with her that Jena was still working at the baron’s house.

Jena, who worked diligently without ever being lazy, might have quit here sooner if Ael wasn’t around, and by now, found a better job where she would be recognized by people and receive letters of recommendation.

Thinking like this, curled up without eating anything, Ael’s wounds had no chance to heal properly.

The bruises on her face and arms, far from disappearing, remained on Ael’s body like reddish-brown stains.

The confinement that seemed like it would continue forever was lifted due to a truly unexpected event.

* * *

“The Grand Duke is calling me to his summer villa!”

Elize hugged the letter that had come to her with an overwhelmed expression. Then she checked to make sure she wasn’t dreaming, or if she had misread the letter.

But no matter how many times she looked at it again, the letter clearly invited her to spend the summer at the Grand Duke’s villa.

It wasn’t just Elize, either. The Grand Duke had invited the baron couple as well to the summer villa.

“Goodness, what is this! The Grand Duke has chosen you!”

The baroness was even more moved than Elize, constantly dabbing her tears with a handkerchief.

After the tea party hosted by Riena ended, rumors naturally spread throughout high society that Elize had lied.

As a result, invitations from houses that used to contact and invite her frequently stopped as if it were a lie.

The few invitations that did come were clearly for gatherings where anyone could see they intended to mock her after inviting her.

So she avoided social gatherings and went to shops she used to frequent, but even the shop owners’ attitudes were different from before. They had heard the rumors too.

The problem was that they no longer allowed the credit they had been giving until now, and started demanding payment for the things they had bought so far.

‘They said it was fine, and now they’re asking for money?’

Even though the owners hadn’t given things for free, the baron couple felt wronged by their demands.

‘Besides, the Grand Duke was supposed to pay for all of that!’

Although the Grand Duke had never mentioned it, in the baron couple’s minds, it had somehow become a given that the Grand Duke would pay for the items they had purchased.

So they even harbored resentment towards the Grand Duke for not contacting them despite their situation.

And then the Grand Duke suddenly invited them to his summer villa.

“By the way, the Grand Duke must have several summer villas… which one did he invite us to?”

The baron received the letter Elize had gotten and tried to confirm the name of the villa. But soon, the baron’s face clouded over.

Baron Aradis was very interested in other people’s assets.

He would inquire about what new ships other nobles had bought or what territories they owned, as if he were managing his own assets.

Among these, Baron Aradis showed the greatest interest in the Grand Duke’s assets.

‘Since the Grand Duke is likely to become my son-in-law.’

The Grand Duke was someone who had been guaranteed comfort in exchange for giving up his right to succeed to the throne.

The most fertile farmland and forests. Several castles and mansions. And even the merchant guild managed by the Grand Duke’s family.

Baron Aradis would often imagine what would happen after Elize married the Grand Duke.

The Grand Duke certainly wouldn’t treat his wife’s family shabbily. After all, if other nobles looked down on them, it would ultimately become the Grand Duke’s own shame.

‘Of course he’ll pay off our debts and give us a large sum of money. He’ll probably separate a good piece of land from the Grand Duke’s territory and give it to the Aradis family. Since it will belong to the child once Elize has a baby anyway, it’s not a loss for the Grand Duke at all.’

Of course, until that child grows up, it would be land managed by himself, Baron Aradis.

What’s the problem with that? It’s only natural for the Grand Duke’s father-in-law to live comfortably off the taxes from a wealthy territory.

Baron Aradis’s imagination grew larger and more detailed as time went on.

As befitting the Grand Duke’s father-in-law, he should maintain dignity. Then, like wealthy and high-ranking male nobles, he should enjoy hunting. Doesn’t the Grand Duke greatly enjoy hunting as well?

He should be able to borrow one of the hunting rifles that the Grand Duke keeps buying in the empire.

Carrying that and roaming hunting grounds where others rarely visit and game is plentiful, other nobles would look up to him.

‘Then, among them, I’ll end up going around with those who share similar interests… Let’s see, in summer, I’d stay at a nearby villa and hunt.’

While indulging in such delusions, the baron checked how many villas the Grand Duke had and where. That’s why he should know all about the Grand Duke’s summer villas, and yet…

“…Was there a villa of the Grand Duke’s here too?”

There was the name of a forest he had never seen before.

If it were a large and beautiful villa, he should have at least heard the name of the forest, but it was truly a forest name he was seeing for the first time. The baron went to his study and brought a dusty map to find out where this forest was located.

After a while, when he realized it was a forest not far from the Grand Duke’s mansion, he was even more confused.

‘If it’s like this, wouldn’t it be better to just invite us to the Grand Duke’s mansion?’

Why invite them to a villa in a nearby forest? And to what was clearly not a very large villa.

And there was another strange point in the invitation.

“Leave tomorrow?”

The letter said that everything needed would be prepared there, so Elize and the baron couple could just come with their bodies alone. But even so, to leave tomorrow?

Normally, when inviting someone among noble families, it’s natural to contact at least a few weeks in advance. But tomorrow?

Even a kidnapping would proceed more slowly than this.

As the baron looked at the letter again and again as if it were strange, the baroness scolded her husband.

“Why are you thinking about it so crookedly? He probably invited us to a place less noticeable to others on purpose, knowing that Elize has been suffering from people’s gazes lately. Besides, what’s wrong with it being next to the mansion? He clearly thinks of our Elize as the future Grand Duchess and wants to show her the territory in advance!”

The baron, who had momentarily harbored doubts, soon smiled with satisfaction at his wife’s words. Indeed, is that so?

‘Moreover, the fact that he invited not only Elize but also us, her parents, means he surely wants to have a serious conversation.’

The serious conversation the Grand Duke wants to have with him must be about the gratitude money.

Large numbers floated around in the baron’s head. Elize might become the woman who marries with the highest gratitude money in the history of Denertum.

The baron couple and Elize trembled with happiness as they hurriedly prepared to leave.