Please Repay Me with Marriage! - Chapter 2

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Repay me with marriage, please!
Chapter 2
O divine one!
If You truly exist and are listening to my prayer, then I beg You: strike that wicked man with the thunderbolt of judgment!
Just before she died, Irene prayed with every fiber of her being.
If someone would grant it, she felt she could offer her soul in return. Even if the one who answered was a devil.
And so it seemed that gods or devils truly did exist in this world, for she, who should have met a miserable end, was given back her life.
And not only that, but she was carried back through time to the very day she had turned twenty.
If she had gone back just a few days more, she might have saved her parents. But when she opened her eyes, their funeral was already over.
Through her hazy consciousness, Irene looked back and forth between the hearth in her father’s study and the two younger sisters clutched against her. Everything around her felt so distant that it was as if she were dreaming.
Yet the heat of the hearth warming her cheeks and the warmth of the two sisters held tight in her arms reminded her that this was real.
If she was twenty, then Elisabeth was sixteen. And Charlotte was five.
Her younger sisters, whose faces she could barely remember after so long, were there in her embrace, small and young just as they had been back then.
She dared not let go, afraid that if she loosened her hold, they would vanish like a mirage. Irene could only gaze at her sisters’ faces without end, barely able to draw a breath.
Just then, the study door creaked open carefully. The one who entered was the butler who had served the House of Blair for many years.
“Oh… so you’re here, Lady Irene.”
As always, his weathered face wore a gentle smile as he held out both hands toward her.
“I’ll take the young ladies from here. You should return to your room and rest, Lady Irene…”
“I never told you to come in.”
“Pardon?”
“I’ll keep my sisters with me. I want to feel Father’s warmth, so leave quietly.”
Yet instead of bowing his head, the butler let his words trail off.
“But, Lady…”
“Did you not hear me? Shall I call the knights to escort you out?”
“M-my lady?”
At Irene’s sharp tone, he appeared deeply flustered.
Turning away from him as he faltered, helplessly lowering his gaze, Irene bit down hard on her lower lip.
“I’m sorry. It’s just that the sudden turn of events… I think my nerves are frayed.”
“No, the fault is mine.”
“Please go. …I want to be with my sisters right now.”
“Yes. …I will come back tomorrow morning.”
Why? So he could steal the Seal of Blair from the desk drawer in this study?
Swallowing those words, Irene watched the butler leave the study until he was out of sight, his gaze lingering back over his shoulder as if he were reluctant to go.
‘This isn’t a dream.’
Cheeks stiff from drying tears. The warmth and weight of her sisters, who had cried themselves to sleep. The hem of her skirt clinging to her legs. The crackle of burning firewood.
Such vivid sensations whispered to her. This is reality.
Then what about the things in her head, the things that ‘happened’ afterward?
The butler stole the Seal of Blair and brought it to her uncle, and her uncle presented a forged will, using the seal as proof.
In the trial to determine whether that will had been falsified, she lost. In the end, she was stripped of her title, fortune, and territory, and was on the verge of being cast out onto the streets.
Then she was forced to depend on her uncle’s mercy, entering his house to be worked like a maid, and finally sold off as the second wife of an old nobleman. Could all of that really be nothing more than a dream?
‘…It’s something that could very well happen.’
The butler had already opened the study door without his master’s permission.
Whether what she had lived through was a dream or something else, there was no way to confirm it for now.
What mattered was only one thing.
From now on, she had to protect this family and her two younger sisters.
‘It won’t hurt to prepare in advance.’
Carefully setting the two sisters she had been holding down on the carpet, she gently pressed her lips to their cheeks, which she had longed for so desperately.
Then Irene searched for the Marquis’s seal and the Ring of the Household Head, hidden in the secret compartment of the first drawer, just as she had once learned to do sitting on her father’s knee.
They were there together with them: her father’s true will.
‘I don’t remember ever seeing this.’
…Ah, so the butler had taken care of this as well.
Now she finally understood how the forged will, so elaborate that it had been nearly impossible to tell whether it was genuine, had come to be.
Irene clenched her teeth hard, barely managing to smother the blazing fury within her.
‘No matter what happens, I will never let it be taken.’
Hiding her father’s will inside her clothes, Irene slipped the Ring of the Household Head onto the ring finger of her right hand and clutched the Seal of Blair in her palm.
No matter what, she would have her revenge. Not only on the uncle who had stripped her of everything, but who had also killed her and the man she loved!
Until dawn broke, she kept watch over the hearth that warmed her younger sisters, her eyes red and bloodshot.

* * *
The moment day broke, she sent a trusted servant to summon the lawyer retained by the Imperial Family. And through him, she carried out her father’s will.
Outwardly, she played the grieving daughter and shut herself away in her father’s study. Nearly every day, her uncle came knocking at the mansion gates, and she managed to send him away each time. In just one week, as the rightful heir, she completed the succession of the title.
She announced the fact, and only a few days later—
Uncle Kalio, Viscount Kalio, loudly challenged her right to inherit the title.
He claimed that he possessed the late elder brother’s true will, and as proof, he had the Seal of Blair and the Ring of the Household Head.
But that was a forgery Irene had carefully had made by someone and placed in the drawer of the study desk.
She immediately submitted the Seal of Blair, the Ring of the Household Head she had in her possession, and her father’s will, requesting an investigation into their authenticity.
At the same time, she also submitted as evidence a statement reporting that the counterfeit pieces, which she had made in anticipation of theft, had been stolen a few days earlier.
The master woodcrafter who had made the fake seal and ring at Irene’s commission testified that the items Viscount Kalio had presented were, without question, his own handiwork. Then the Imperial investigator also vouched that what Irene possessed was genuine.
Irene tried to use those items to send the steward and her uncle to prison together. But Viscount Kalio had long since bought off the presiding judge, so the steward took the full blame, lost his hands, and was executed.
“My dear niece, but for that wicked man’s scheming, we nearly came to an irreparable rift! I truly believed the will he brought was your father’s wishes. Isn’t it only my natural duty to act as guardian in place of your late father and find you both good marriages?”
The moment it became clear he could not strip her of the marquisate, he declared himself their guardian and tried to marry her off to a man under his thumb.
He was nothing but a treacherous man.
“How could I not understand my uncle’s intentions? However, the guardian of my younger siblings is I, the Marquis of Blair. I intend to look after my siblings myself, so I believe you should devote your full heart to Fiona instead.”
“Don’t speak like that. I understand how tenderly you care for your siblings, but you are not so young anymore, are you?”
“Young? I came of age this year. That is precisely why I was able to inherit the title.”
That was a true stroke of luck. Had Irene been even a year younger and unable to inherit the title, then even if things went well, her uncle would have become the Marquis’s regent.
“Still, I’d like to introduce you to a fiancé myself. Your father and I used to talk about it often. If one of us should die by some unforeseen accident, we would surely take responsibility for finding marriages for your sisters and for Fiona.”
How could I possibly trust the words of a scoundrel who would even tamper with a will?
Yet, now that he had donned the mask of a gentle uncle, it was hard for her, as a subordinate, to keep resisting.
For now, she needed to strengthen the house from within. If she wasted time feuding with her uncle for no reason, she might ruin everything her parents had built.
So Irene flashed an innocent smile and graciously said she would follow his wishes.
“Yes, then I’ll leave that matter entirely in your hands, Uncle.”
Trusting this man is like trusting a squealing pig.
And Viscount Kalio moved exactly as Irene had anticipated.

* * *
One month later, Viscount Kalio introduced a man to Irene.
She didn’t need to look to be certain. He was a man Kalio had paid to do his bidding.
So Irene immediately burst into a flood of tears in front of Viscount Kalio.
“It’s been barely a month since my parents passed away. How could I possibly meet a man and smile?”
“Well, but your parents would have wanted to see you happy…”
“Oh, Father! Mother! Why did you leave me behind? Father, Mother!”
Every time he tried to say a word, Irene wailed, and Viscount Kalio seemed to run out of words himself. He asked when would be a good time, and Irene wiped her tears and answered with a choked sob.
“I’d like to mourn my parents for at least three years…”
Irene was one thing, but Viscount Kalio was truly something else. On the exact third anniversary, he brought the same man back to the Marquis Residence.
This time, Irene did meet him. And she rejected him within ten minutes.
“He’s ugly. I like handsome men.”
So her uncle brought in a man who was handsome by anyone’s standards. Irene kicked him out within five minutes this time.
“He’s far too scrawny. I prefer a sturdily built man.”
So her uncle brought in a young, handsome knight. Irene kicked him out within three minutes this time.
“He reeks. A man ought to be tidy, you know.”
So her uncle brought in a young, handsome, and tidy man. But the moment Irene saw his face, she kicked him out.
“I like a knight with golden hair, like the prince in a storybook.”
By then, Viscount Kalio had reached his breaking point.
“What did you say?! I thought I’d let you go as far as you liked, but now you’ve finally crossed the line! Do you dare make a fool of me, your uncle?!”
Irene did not flinch at Viscount Kalio’s furious outburst. Instead, she put on a look of shock.
“How can you say such a thing? Since I’ll be spending my whole life with this person, isn’t it only natural to choose carefully? Even if it had been Fiona, not me, who was so particular about her future husband, would you have said anything? Honestly, this is too much!”
She buried her face in her hands and let out loud, wailing sobs.
But perhaps because he had been burned so badly before, Viscount Kalio would not be fooled by the display.
“Being particular has its limits! Do you really think every reason you’ve turned down these suitors is valid? Do you truly believe a man who meets your standards exists anywhere in this world?!”
“Of course he exists. Surely there isn’t a single man who can meet such simple standards?”
Watching her press her hands together and speak like a daydreaming girl, Viscount Kalio wore an expression of utter disbelief.
“Hah, fine. Go on, then, bring him here. And I’ll admit it without a word of argument!”
“Very well. I’ll introduce him to you soon enough.”
The very next day, Irene summoned the Chief Steward and declared that in two months she would hold a grand banquet at the townhouse in the Capital.
When the Chief Steward asked what sort of banquet she had in mind, Irene answered briefly.
“As dazzling as possible!”
“Whom shall we send invitations to?”
“Anyone I know personally, anyone we have business ties with, and the influential nobles. Send one to the Imperial Family as well. At that gathering, I’ll announce my fiancé. Oh, and it would be wise to start the wedding preparations in advance. I intend to marry as soon as possible.”
At those words, a single bead of cold sweat rose on the forehead of the Chief Steward, a man who had never been flustered in any situation.
“Forgive me for asking, my lord… but you don’t have a fiancée yet, do you?”
“That’s exactly why I want the banquet held two months from now.”
Irene smiled brightly and declared,
“Starting now, I’m going to go find one, my husband.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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