Please Repay Me with Marriage! - Chapter 39

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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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Please repay me by marrying me!
Chapter 39
Zenis and the other mercenaries were given a separate guest cottage, but Leonard, the prospective Marquis Consort, was assigned a bedchamber on the east side of the third floor of the main house.
To be precise, the bedchamber was not all he had been given. Nine rooms in total belonged to him: the bedroom on the east corridor, a study, an office, and a lounge that opened onto the balcony.
“Of course, once the wedding is over, you won’t be using this bedroom.”
“Even if your wife throws me out?”
“Then just be good to your wife so that never happens, hm?”
Irene winked briefly at Leonard, then stepped back and told him to get some rest for today.
“Tomorrow you’ll be run off your feet, so brace yourself.”
“You mean Groom Training.”
Irene smiled and nodded.
“And we have the wedding preparations to see to as well. I’ve already drafted everything, so all that’s left is for you to choose what you like and put your seal on it. Here.”
Irene slipped a thick ring onto the little finger of Leonard’s left hand herself.
It was originally meant to sit on the ring finger of the Marchioness, so it had only just squeezed onto Leonard’s pinky. Carved into its surface in intaglio was the House of Blair’s crest.
“You’re the Marquis Consort now, so you know you’ll be the one running this household from here on, right?”
“I’m not sure I’ll be able to manage it.”
“You’ll learn. Damond will help you.”
Leonard wasn’t confident even with the Chief Steward’s help, but he couldn’t very well whine before he’d even tried, so he nodded.
“There’s one thing I’d like to ask. Who is responsible for security at this estate?”
“Our house knights, of course.”
Irene answered, then added with a soft “Ah,” as if something had just occurred to her.
“Is that why you’re asking? Because of those unidentified people surrounding this mansion?”
Leonard’s eyes widened.
“You knew?”
“Of course I did. Those people are my secret bodyguards, looking out for me.”
“I see.”
If that was the case, then it was fine, Leonard thought, nodding to himself.
He hadn’t noticed them when he’d visited this estate before and after the banquet, since he hadn’t made a point of paying attention. But when he returned today, something had snagged on his Ki Sense.
People hidden here and there, forming a ring around the estate. Spaced at regular intervals and melting into the surroundings, their concealment went well beyond the level of an ordinary knight.
To put it plainly, it was an assassin’s craft.
Had there been one or two, he might have let it slide, but there were easily more than ten, so Leonard walked into the house pretending he hadn’t noticed. If it came to it, he planned to lean on his comrades to find out who they were.
“For your information, your comrades have already tracked those people down and given them a good shaking. My poor shadows still have bruises on their faces, so don’t go getting suspicious, and get to bed early. Understood?”
“Understood.”
Still, he seemed to be trying to earn his keep. Leonard smiled faintly and nodded.
As if pleased with him, Irene gave him a lovely, crinkling smile.
“I’ll introduce you to them when I have time. Oh, and the position of Knight Commander is currently vacant.”
“Why is that?”
“Because the position of Marquis Consort has been empty until now, of course?”
In other words, that post was meant for Leonard.
“Damond will take you to the Training Grounds tomorrow and introduce you to the knights.”
“So I’m a stone that’s come rolling in to displace the stone already lodged in place.”
“Correction. You’re a stone that rolled in and slipped neatly into the hole that was waiting for it.”
Saying it was already very late, Irene left with nothing more than a light smile.
“In this estate, you hold the same rights as I do. So do whatever you like. And don’t go shrinking away just because you think you’re some outsider.”
Leonard couldn’t bring himself to ask her anything as her back receded from him.
Do whatever I like, she says, as if she knows what I’m about to do.
‘She’d probably answer “anything,” which is what makes her frightening.’
Leonard ran a hand through his hair once, sent away the attendant who had been trailing behind him like a shadow, and stepped into the bedchamber.
The room, which had once been the Marchioness’s bedroom, was filled with heavy wooden furniture with hardly any ornamentation. Perhaps it had been arranged with his tastes in mind.
‘…It’s not bad.’
It was enough to make him regret that he wouldn’t be able to use this room once the wedding was over.
Should I ask whether I could at least use it for a midday nap? Leonard caught himself thinking such a thing and let out a snort of self-directed amusement.
“Well, then, now let’s…”
Shall we go have that serious conversation?
Irene had said he should go to bed early since tomorrow would be busy, but that was exactly why they had to settle things tonight.
Leaving the bedchamber, Leonard glanced without thinking toward the west corridor where Irene had gone, then slipped out quietly without making a sound.
Servants who hadn’t yet finished their work were still wandering the corridors, but no one noticed Leonard, who had concealed his presence.
Thanks to that, Leonard was able to make his way to the dining room of the guest cottage without anyone catching sight of him.
It was a room with a broad table large enough for five people to sit around with room to spare, and one where the walls kept sound in well once the door was shut.
The mercenaries were already gathered there, seated just as he had arranged beforehand.
“Oh, you’re here.”
“You got here sooner than I thought.”
They had clearly been drinking while they waited. The table was crowded with liquor bottles, sausages, smoked duck, and a plate of roasted beans.
One look at the place told him how these men had been getting by. Leonard waved away the cup Michel offered him and dropped into an empty chair.
“The carving outside is your work, isn’t it? Why on earth did you carve a camel of all things?”
It was Michel who answered, snickering.
“Leave him be. It’s his hobby. Whenever there’s a kid around, he pulls out his carving knife first thing.”
Hiss was a massive man with an even more fearsome face, a perfect bandit in appearance, and even his own comrades would jump in surprise now and then.
Beneath that rough exterior, though, he was surprisingly soft-hearted, especially toward children. The same went for the young Leonard.
When Leonard was first sold to the mercenary corps as a servant, Kamila had subjected him to nothing but harsh training, saying she meant to make him her heir. Hiss took on every bit of the rest: feeding him when he was exhausted, bathing him, putting him to bed, all the endless chores of raising a child.
If not for Hiss’s care, Leonard might never have grown up so sound.
That was why he was the only one among them who called Hiss “Uncle.”
“Oh, did you carve that for Charlotte?”
“That one’s for the adorable little one, not for her.”
“That young lady is going to be someone special. You don’t know, Ray? That little girl walked all over the garden holding Hiss’s hand and pulled off every squirrel and bird carving he had.”
Vin added with a grin that her room was probably a zoo by now, and Leonard’s expression turned strange.
“That’s impressive. She didn’t even cry when she saw your face…”
“You didn’t either.”
“If I’d seen Uncle first, I might have cried.”
The reason he hadn’t cried was that Kamila had rolled him around like a barrel on the very first day he was sold to the mercenary corps, calling it training.
In truth, that day wasn’t the first time he’d trained. For as long as he could remember, Leonard had learned how to move his body from his birth mother, and not just any way, but the way of an assassin.
The one difference was that Kamila’s training was far harsher than his mother’s had ever been.
‘I told you to earn your gold coins, but I won’t keep you alive just because it’d be a waste of money, little one.’
“Now that I think about it, you ran off on your first night after sharing a room with Hiss. Wasn’t that because you were scared of him?”
“Why would I be scared of Hiss? There was someone far scarier.”
“Hmm…”
Yeah, that’s true, everyone nodded in agreement.
Over the long years, countless people had come and gone from the Iron Blood Mercenary Corps, but none had possessed a charisma as overwhelming as Kamila’s.
That was probably why she had held the captain’s seat from the day she and Hiss founded the company alone, right up until the moment they left it.
“I’d never met a woman like her in all my days. Why do you think I swore I’d live alone until I died?”
“Don’t make me laugh. It’s just because you didn’t want to spend money on a wedding.”
“Don’t slander me! I’ve told you a hundred times that if I ever find a woman I love, I’ll hand over every last bit of my fortune!”
“If you ask me, he won’t get married just because of that line of his.”
“Michel, why don’t you give it a try?”
“Right. You could take his whole fortune and divorce him.”
Michel shuddered violently at Hiss and Leonard’s prodding.
“Are you out of your mind? I wouldn’t take him even if he offered twice his fortune!”
“Well, I’d hate that even more!”
Watching his comrades bicker and make a racket, Leonard felt as though he had slipped back into the old days.
It hadn’t been such a long time since then, so why did it feel so distant?
Leonard called up Kamila’s face, which had nearly faded from his memory, then picked up the cup he had pushed aside and drained it in one go.
“Sorry, but I have to turn in early tonight. So let’s get to the point.”
He grabbed a handful of roasted beans, tossed them into his mouth, and looked each of the mercenaries in the face in turn.
“Why did you come up to the capital?”
“Uh…”
As if passing the answer along, everyone glanced at the person across from them or beside them.
The silence that settled over the room only grew heavier as time went on.
When Leonard’s eyes narrowed at that, Michel was pushed into speaking, whether he liked it or not.
“Well, ahem. We came because we were worried about Lady Zenis.”
“You didn’t come up back then, did you?”
“That’s not true. We did come up back then.”
“You didn’t follow me to the capital, did you?”
“No, of course not. Back then we were in Elpias County, right? Right?”
Vin and Hiss nodded vigorously, in perfect unison, as Michel looked around for agreement from one person to the next.
Honestly, all of them had grown into old foxes, and they were uncannily good at acting. If I hadn’t heard the story from someone else, I would have been fooled too.
“So in other words, Sir Hawk went all the way to Elpias County to hire a guide to lead him back to Elpias County.”
“Uh… Yeah. If he’d hired one here in the capital, it would’ve been easier. I wonder why he didn’t?”
“…”
We’re finished.
Even without Leonard’s icy stare fixed on them, the way Michel blurted that out in such a dim voice let everyone know at once what had gone wrong.
Even Michel herself.

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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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