The Male Lead Is Trying To Tame Me With Money - Chapter 176

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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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Side Story 02-6.

In this world, there was a folk belief that married couples would find happiness only if they saw each other’s wedding attire for the first time on the day of the ceremony itself.
For that reason, Casian, who had made a hobby of tailoring my dress, could not lend a hand to the actual wedding preparations.
‘It’s a shame to miss such an opportunity… but when Mother was preparing the wedding, His Majesty apparently couldn’t bear to wait any longer and insisted on watching her in the dress. Mr. Parker told me so himself. As a son who takes pride in his mother, I mustn’t earn praise for looking like my father, must I?’
The example was cautionary enough that I couldn’t talk him out of it.
The problem was that between my hometown and the capital, I’d cooperated so actively with others’ hobbies that I’d barely any experience selecting my own wedding attire.
I accepted my own unsuitability for the task and ended my deliberation on the division of labor, then promptly asked Mother and Wilhelmina for help.
Thankfully, both of them gladly heard my request.
Wilma and Mother, together with Wilma’s grandmother, Countess Lopez, all joined in selecting my dress, and thanks to them, it progressed smoothly—now only the final adjustments remained.
The two elder ladies said the final adjustments would be sufficient with only Wilhelmina’s eye and left it all to us.
They had far more important and delightful work to do—choosing the dinnerware for the reception.
In any case, I was grateful for their initiative in stepping forward, which lightened our burden considerably.
Thanks to them, I was able to have this tea time with my dear friend Wilhelmina after the dress adjustments were finished.
Wilma had arrived at the manor two days prior and had already exchanged not only greetings with Maribel but also gone through a round of work coordination.
Wilma had mentioned she wanted to help with work and also interact with Maribel, so she’d kindly said she would stay here until the wedding.
When Wilma brought up that conversation, I showed my delight at the prospect of temporary additional help, and I simply touched my teacup quietly rather than comment on Maribel.
“Rose, there’s nothing to be shy about, is there?”
“Since Wilma is my closest friend, I felt a little thrilled at the thought that you understand me so well.”
At my words, Wilma gave a light cough.
“You’re teasing me again, pretending to praise me.”
Yet there was not a trace of displeasure on Wilma’s face.
“So what’s your impression of her?”
“I felt a bit of pity. It’s been about four weeks since she came here, hasn’t it? But already she seems quite adapted to the work. It feels like she’s done physical training, and without ever asking for the workload to be reduced, she’s steadily managing everything well.”
When Wilma said this last part, her eyes held a faint note of reproach.
There was also a hint of concern that it might be too much for someone still young, not yet a debutante.
“I am being considerate, actually. Her work hours and volume are far less than when I was about fifteen and managing the Estate’s work. Besides, since Maribel wanted to move her body, I deliberately assigned her to the kindest and most patient knight I know.”
The real reason Maribel collapsed exhausted each night was honestly less about the work and more about the sword training itself.
Mr. Parker had told me that even though she’s a minor duchess, as the only daughter of the Irenol house and given the existing perception that the Irenol countess had a delicate constitution, she’d struggled to receive proper swordsmanship training.
But here, Maribel had introduced herself as Maribel from the start, and possessing the formidable strength befitting an Irenol countess, she only brightened her trainer’s smile during practice.
The two got along so well that training hours naturally increased in a virtuous cycle.
Just then, her training was about to begin, and I could see her changing clothes and running toward the training ground through the window.
When I smiled at the sight, Wilma also rounded her lips in a smile before speaking.
“Well, whatever it is, it’s ultimately her own choice. You and Prince Casian have already paid a fair price for it.”
That price included not only the countless things we’d gone through to reach the Duchy of Liearden, but also the possibility of existence annihilation we’d accepted by summoning Maribel to the future.
I’d explained the situation to Wilma, Wesley, and Mr. Parker to prepare for any contingency, and I’d shared this part as well.
“Are you still displeased about it?”
“Isn’t that natural? You’re the most precious friend I have, and yet you speak as though you could leave me alone on a whim.”
“It’s only a possibility, as I said. A very small one, and unfortunately so.”
“…Yes, truly unfortunate.”
Wilma gave a firm nod in agreement with my words.
It had been four weeks since Maribel arrived.
She seemed to have roughly guessed at our true nature, and she also appeared to have figured out what era this is.
Around the third week, the maid attending to Maribel came to find me early one morning.
‘Miss Maribel is quite ill and won’t be able to come to the office today, she said, and she apologized.’
‘Did you call a physician?’
‘We did. But truthfully, I don’t think she’s actually ill—she seems to have been crying all night. Arriving suddenly in an unfamiliar place and not knowing when she might return, perhaps she’s come down with homesickness?’
The maid, who knew that Maribel had become lost, unable to remember where her hometown was, and was staying in this manor, spoke with concern on her face.
‘Ah, and now that I think about it, last night she asked me to bring newspapers from after she arrived and seemed to be checking several books spread out. I thought she was trying to find memories of her home….’
When I asked if there was anything unusual, the maid worried whether she’d done something wrong.
I told her it wasn’t like that and to take good care of Maribel, but I was overcome with a bitter feeling.
Having worked alongside her, I’d become even more aware of her intelligence.
When Casian, the younger me, had muttered only a few words and then sent someone to observe me working, she’d displayed such capability that it didn’t feel coincidental.
Someone so clever would have pieced together pieces of information she’d gathered over three weeks and the records in the library.
After that one day of illness, Maribel asked for my permission to rest another day or two.
During that time, Maribel seemed to have sought out the mages and asked them various questions.
The criminal mages originally serving their sentences in the Winter Palace had been passed on to us when His Majesty said he’d hold us responsible for them, and they’d been transferred here to provide labor.
‘She asked those pitiful, driven-out people about magic.’
‘The witch said it was fine to teach her, so she taught her, but is that really okay?’
I’d given the mages a subtle hint precisely because I knew what kind of choices Maribel would make as Empress in the future, but realizing this was her own choice made me feel bitter again.
Thus Maribel moved on her own to achieve what she desired.
Knowing her future, I’d even tried subtly to dissuade her out of compassion.
But despite my discouragement, Maribel spoke with a resolve so solid it seemed she’d grown years in mere days.
‘Rozelita, I… I love this land so much, and our house. I can hardly find an existence I love more.’
‘More than yourself?’
‘Yes. Far more than myself. So, as you often say, I’ve set my priorities that way.’
In Maribel’s face as she spoke, there was no hesitation or fear—only steadfast resolve.
I recalled that image and gathered my feelings together to tell Wilma.
“I felt it anew—how heavy is the love of those who carry the blood of Liearden.”
What she called her love encompassed not only the era in which she lived, but also the future Liearden she’d already experienced.
And she judged that I was marrying Casian, the sole direct blood heir of Liearden, and that I was someone working hard for this land.
So Maribel had decided to place herself second for the sake of what she loved.
Looking at my empty teacup, I suddenly remembered the time when I’d faced Maribel directly at the Peony Palace.
‘…I’m glad I could see you this close, just by being at Rozelita’s side.’
I’d thought that was simply her speaking of glimpsing the future….
But come to think of it, Maribel had never spoken alone with Casian since arriving here.
Even when she did, it was only when we happened to meet by chance because I was there—she remarkably refrained from exchanging words.
Her attention was fixed, strikingly so, on me and on the future of Liearden.
“What is it, Rose?”
“I was thinking whether I should create an opportunity for Maribel and Casian to spend time alone together.”
At that, Wilma’s face clouded over.
“Don’t you think if she wanted it, she’d have asked you by now?”
“That’s true.”
“Just leave it. I think you haven’t noticed because you don’t have siblings.”
Wilma’s eyes held a look of something almost horrifying.
“No matter how I look at it, Maribel seems to see Prince Casian as her younger brother. Her suddenly separated younger brother, even.”
With a soft clink, Wilma set down her teacup and shook her head firmly.
“However dear he becomes to her in the future, asking her to spend tender moments together now would be too much for the Maribel she is. That, too, is her choice.”
I chose to follow that resolute statement without objection.
Wilhelmina Lopez was far wiser than I in perceiving the subtleties between people.
*
Two days before the wedding.
And the troublemaker from the capital had—
“I have made time of my own accord and come to attend my son’s wedding! You won’t rebuke me for my effort to see his wedding, will you, Clupea Marquis?”
He’d journeyed all the way to this distant Duchy of Liearden.

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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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