Please Repay Me with Marriage! - Chapter 38

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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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“Pay me back by marrying me!”
Chapter 38
“Lady Elisabeth, I’m back.”
“Oh, you’re back?”
When Ann, her personal maid, returned to the room, Elisabeth was sitting by the window, her chin propped on the sill.
Ann approached with a smile. Elisabeth didn’t spare her a glance, too absorbed in the view beyond the glass.
“Is that mercenary uncle carving again today?”
“Mm, he’s making something enormous today. Look, over there. It’s such a strange shape.”
Following Elisabeth’s pointing finger, Ann stepped up beside her and looked out the window.
In the garden of the annex, under the shade of a great tree, Hiss had pulled up a chair. He was whittling a tree trunk nearly as large as himself into the shape of a four-legged beast.
He wore nothing but a vest, no shirt, so every time he flexed his arms, the muscles rippled plainly in view.
He was broad and rough-looking to begin with, and his face was fierce besides. Had someone seen him up close, they might well have been frightened.
From the second-floor window, though, looking down from a safe distance, Hiss didn’t seem so terrifying. That was why Elisabeth had taken to sitting by the window in secret whenever he came out to carve, watching him.
Ann, her maid who never left her side, had watched right along with her every time.
“Hmm… He looks just like a horse, but he’s got two huge humps on his back.”
“Could it be a camel, the kind they say people ride instead of horses in the desert? Or one of the Ancient Beasts that are supposed to fill the Weinberg Great Forest? Which do you think it is?”
Elisabeth chattered on, her cheeks flushed bright with excitement.
Ann watched her with a fond smile and murmured agreement here and there.
“I’m not sure, my lady. If you’re that curious, why don’t you go down and ask him yourself?”
“Eh? Um, t-talk to him directly? That’s a bit… I mean, I really don’t think I could…”
Elisabeth trailed off, flustered, then noticed what Ann was holding and widened her eyes.
“And what’s that flower?”
If it had been arranged in a vase, she would have assumed Ann had brought it to decorate the room. But the pale yellow freesias in Ann’s hand were bundled together with clusters of small white blossoms, wrapped up prettily as a bouquet.
“Pretty, isn’t it? It’s a gift for you from the young lady of the annex.”
“The young lady of the annex?”
It referred to Zenis, who had been staying here for the past few days.
Zenis Elpias.
The young lady who would become a relative by marriage once Irene held her wedding.
The dinner party a few days ago had been the first and last time Elisabeth had crossed paths with her.
Still, Elisabeth knew everything about how Zenis, and every other guest staying in the annex, spent their days in the mansion. After all, she was the little mistress of this enormous house.
Once her personal maid Ann set out to gather information, it was only a matter of time before she picked up every scrap of gossip from the servants scattered throughout the house.
“Didn’t you say she’s been shut up in her room the whole time?”
The only times Zenis had left the annex were for dress fittings, and even those had taken her to the main house.
She had said it had been ages since she’d come to the capital, so surely she’d be out and about, wandering around the city. Yet Zenis had not once left the mansion.
“She went out for a little while this afternoon, I heard. She stopped by a flower shop and bought flowers as gifts for the Marquis and the youngest young lady.”
“I see…”
She went out on her very first trip just to buy gifts for us!
Elisabeth’s cheeks bloomed pink.
“If she went out and bought gifts herself, then Miss Zenis doesn’t dislike me, does she?”
“Oh, how can you even say that? Why would the young lady of the annex dislike you!”
“But I told her she could call me Eli, and Miss Zenis wouldn’t grant me permission to use the nickname… She hasn’t called me Eli even once.”
The bright, eager look on her face faded into a sulk before long.
As her personal maid, Ann ought to have been indignant on her behalf. Yet, improperly, all Ann could find was that Elisabeth looked simply adorable.
“You seem to have really taken to the young lady of the annex, my lady.”
“Eh? Well… It isn’t so much that I like her. She’ll be family soon, and she’s about my age, and… and…”
Elisabeth twisted a strand of her long hair around her finger.
“Her hair is similar to mine.”
Unlike her sisters, who both had silver hair, Elisabeth was the only one with golden hair, and she had always been dissatisfied about it.
And now the young lady who would become part of the family had the same golden hair and blue eyes as she did.
Elisabeth thought it was truly a remarkable bond.
“And since we’re the same age… If I try hard, maybe we could become friends?”
“Not ‘if you try hard,’ my lady, you certainly will. She sent you such a lovely flower, didn’t she?”
“Right? Miss Zenis wants to be friends with me too, doesn’t she?”
Ann nodded vigorously at Elisabeth, whose eyes were shining.
“Of course! Since things have turned out this way, how about inviting the young lady of the annex to tea tomorrow or the day after? It would be a way to return her kindness for these flowers.”
“Shall I? What would be a good gift to give in return?”
“Flowers are best repaid with flowers. And the blue hydrangeas in the garden have just bloomed so beautifully.”
“Ah, yes, that would do. And they’re blue, too, how fitting.”
She gave me a flower the same color as her hair, so I should give her one the same color as her eyes in return.
Ann watched Elisabeth muttering to herself with a warm, pleased expression. For her to gain a new friend was a most welcome thing indeed.
“Coincidentally, the future Marquis Consort has returned home, so there’s supposed to be a dinner this evening. Invite the young lady of the annex yourself at the dinner table.”
“Shall I? …But what if she refuses?”
“Oh, please. The young lady of the annex would never refuse an invitation from you, my lady.”
Ann shooed Elisabeth into the bath, saying they had to get ready for the dinner. As she gently worked the lather through Elisabeth’s long, lush hair, she chattered on like a lark in full song.
“Oh, I suppose you haven’t heard yet, my lady?”
“Heard what?”
“Well, would you believe it? The future Marquis Consort called our Marquis an angel!”
“An angel?”
Elisabeth poked out her tongue. Who still says such corny things these days?
Ann poured warm water over Elisabeth’s hair, now frothing white, and answered with a giggle in her voice.
“That’s right. And aside from that, he went on and on with compliments, calling her pretty, calling her lovely, one after another.”
“Well, my sister is a bit pretty, I suppose.”
Elisabeth nodded, judging the matter objectively, and then her expression turned gravely serious.
“Surely it isn’t her money and not… He fell for my sister’s face at first sight?”
“Hmm, how could any man who sees our Marquis fail to fall for her?”
“Of course he couldn’t! But I hoped the man who becomes my brother-in-law would love her for her heart, not her money or her looks!”
Elisabeth pouted her lips and made her vow.
“If my future brother-in-law turns out to be just another snob…”
“A snob?”
Elisabeth slapped the surface of the bathwater with her fist and cried out.
“I’ll drive him out of this house, no matter what it takes!”
Two hours later.
Elisabeth, who had arrived early and was seated at the long dining table, widened her eyes as Leonard entered the dining room, escorting Irene.
A handsome face with lines sharper and more striking than any man she had ever seen, and Irene’s tender eyes gazing up at him.
“You’re seeing this for the first time, aren’t you? This is my first younger sister, Elisabeth, and my second, Charlotte.”
As Irene turned to Elisabeth and Charlotte, her gaze overflowed with happiness, like honey spilling from a honey jar.
Her mouth couldn’t be as honest as those eyes. Thanks to that, Elisabeth could not help but notice.
“Children, this is the man who is going to be your brother-in-law.”
The one who had fallen at first sight was not Leonard, but her older sister.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, my lady. I’m Leonard Elpias.”
So Elisabeth had no choice but to say so, as Leonard pressed his lips to the back of her hand.
“Ah… yes. I’m Elisabeth, Elisabeth Blair. I’m nineteen this year, and I’ll come of age next year.”
“I see. It’s a bit early, but allow me to offer my congratulations in advance.”
“Oh, my…”
What a dazzling smile. It practically glowed, a halo shining behind him. He really was worth the five hundred million rarc it must have cost to bring him here.
On top of that, even Elisabeth, who knew little about swordsmanship, could tell he must be no ordinary swordsman, judging by the build of his body.
Even the way he pulled out a chair for Irene, instead of leaving it to a servant, was free of excess and perfectly controlled. It was a manner so proper that no one who didn’t know would ever guess he was an illegitimate child and a former mercenary.
Once she had observed him long enough, Elisabeth could stamp her conclusion with certainty.
‘He’s far better than those empty husks of nobles who strut around like they own the place.’
And to think the snob who fell for a face was my own sister.
‘…Well, I suppose that happens.’
My sister is a capable woman, after all. She can tell a man’s worth from his face alone.
As long as he hadn’t bewitched my sister on purpose, and it was instead my sister who had set her sights on him, I could live with it.
And he thinks of my sister as an angel, too, apparently.
“I look forward to working with you, future brother-in-law.”
“Yes. I look forward to working with you as well.”
So now the only task left for me is making a friend!
‘When should I bring it up?’
Elisabeth stared intently at Zenis, seated across from her as usual, waiting for the chance to speak to her.
‘Why… why does she keep glaring at me with such fierce eyes?’
Could it be she didn’t like the flowers I sent her? Were they that shabby?
Entirely unaware that this misunderstanding was deepening.

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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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