The Reason I Got Engaged to My Ex-Boyfriend - Chapter 61
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 61
At his superior’s unexpected interruption, Melvin’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Huh?”
“That pretty and charming commoner girl must be some great love found once in a thousand years.”
“…No, well. I didn’t say it was that serious…”
He hadn’t imagined a future of serious meetings, proposals, weddings, and children nestled in his arms. …Really, he hadn’t imagined it.
It was just natural human desire to want to look good to an attractive member of the opposite sex he occasionally encountered.
“But I’m the fifth son who’s been pushed aside as far as possible at home, so if Miss Berry wants it, we could even go to a deeper relationship…”
Melvin, who had been grinning while speaking words full of personal interest, soon flinched.
Like a proper adult who knew how to separate public and private matters, Ransel spoke while still wearing an angelic smile.
“Sure, why don’t you try your best to reach a very deep relationship. Date, marry, cause all sorts of scandals.”
“…It’s not that serious.”
He usually seemed to have no interest in Semapelaz, so why has he been acting like this since earlier.
“Why, what. Do you know that girl?”
At that, Ransel, who had hesitated, replied in a rather sullen tone.
“I don’t know.”
He had to not know.
Though she was someone he knew too well, he alone had to not know.
The fake identity of Berry, which he had deliberately created to be similar to the pretty name ‘Mary’…
Still, he had to not know.
Here, uniquely, he alone must not take interest in that girl or meet her.
The special ability unique to the direct Arviente bloodline that temporarily made magic disappear upon touch.
Never had that ability felt as much like a curse as it did now.
Ransel deliberately turned his head with an indifferent expression.
As expected, the talk about ‘Semapelaz’s pretty, hardworking hamster-like commoner girl’ was all too audible.
***
A strange atmosphere pervaded the mansion when I returned after finishing work.
After showering and changing into comfortable clothes, Senya approached as if she had been waiting and informed me of the cause of the strange atmosphere.
In the early evening, Belzebutte had bought a large and fancy bouquet as I requested and presented it to Sophia.
Sophia, who had casually accepted it saying ‘What’s all this,’ had apparently shed tears of emotion alone in her room…
‘It seems it wasn’t such a difficult request for the Duke after all.’
For me, whose one and only romance in both past and present life had completely failed, the arranged marriage couple who had lived in a business relationship for decades was too difficult to understand.
Anyway, thinking it was fortunate that Sophia seemed to have received it happily, I began my work.
“Marsha.”
“Yes, Miss.”
“Go out and guard the door like a fortress. Don’t let anyone else in.”
“Yes, yes? Suddenly? Why…?”
“Yeah, there’s something like that.”
I vaguely deflected while pushing Marsha out beyond the door.
Marsha went out of the room, flustered.
‘I’m too busy, can’t help it.’
Dun Like’s perfume bottles were made by attaching small logo stickers directly to glass bottles made at Riniel’s workshop.
Originally, I used to attach stickers whenever I had spare time at Frill’s mansion.
‘Suddenly there are too many customers…’
Today I didn’t have time for that, and the amount of work to be done had actually increased.
So I ended up in a situation where I had to attach stickers all night until dawn.
Hmm. I lightly psyched myself up and rolled up my sleeves.
It was work that required great care to ensure the stickers weren’t crooked, but if I proceeded without rest, it seemed I could finish everything before sunrise.
Just as I was concentrating and carefully attaching one sticker, Marsha knocked on the door.
“Miss. The Colonel has come.”
I paused and looked back at the door. What business could there be suddenly?
‘Well, Ransel knows everything about what I’ve been doing lately…’
“Tell him to come in.”
As Ransel entered through the slightly opened door at my words, I caught a glimpse of Marsha with an extremely serious expression.
Hmm, it feels like a prisoner receiving a visit in jail…
Meanwhile, Ransel seemed to have noticed the stickers and glass bottles on the table and hesitated.
“What’s all this?”
“Good timing. Help me out too.”
“Huh?”
And so the (reputedly) terrifying demon colonel came to help with sticker-attaching work.
I traced over the smooth glass bottle surface and said.
“You attach the sticker to this part, like I did. Simple, right?”
“Mm, got it.”
Ransel placed the glass bottle I had worked on first in front of him like a sample and began attaching stickers.
He had completely healed his arm’s gunshot wound with tremendous recovery power.
If Ransel helped, I wouldn’t have to work all night until dawn.
“…”
And then, watching the mountain-sized guy sitting in the corner of the sofa attaching stickers, I said.
“Give it here.”
I slowly examined the bottle Ransel handed over, then spoke again.
“I told you to attach it straight.”
“It is straight.”
“It’s completely different from what I attached.”
“Where exactly is it different?”
Ransel looked back and forth between the sample and the glass bottle in his hand with an unconvinced expression.
“…Try attaching it a bit more carefully.”
Still, he was helping.
With a generous heart, I put the glass bottle back in its place.
Hoping Ransel’s sense for attaching stickers would improve a bit, I sat next to him and attached stickers together.
Then, feeling uneasy and glancing at Ransel…
I eventually stood up.
“Never mind, don’t help. I ordered these to match exactly the number of bottles.”
“No, tell me exactly which part is wrong.”
“Everything’s wrong. Completely crooked.”
“…”
I snatched the bottle back from the aggrieved-looking Ransel.
My (ex) boyfriend who would buy a cake with just a tiny bit of strawberry jam and call it a fresh strawberry cake couldn’t even do sticker-attaching that a three-year-old could probably do. There’s nowhere to use him, what am I really going to do with this guy…
“But can I talk about what I came to say now?”
…Come to think of it, he’d been just attaching stickers at my request since entering the room.
I hesitated, then just nodded.
“The First Princess has taken an interest in that perfume brand.”
At the following words, my hand attaching the sticker stopped.
‘The First Princess.’
She was the person I most wanted to meet. She was the one in charge of the Eagle Incident.
Then Ransel smiled broadly as if this was the reaction he expected.
“She’s so interested that she asked me to get the perfume through you.”
Getting it through two intermediaries made it seem like some smuggled goods, but it actually made sense.
‘Because direct members of the Imperial Family can only use products from brands exclusively for the Imperial Family.’
For royalty and high-ranking nobles, not just their health condition, but every single preference regarding what they eat, wear, and use was tremendously valuable information. Enough so that secret doctors like Dr. Henri existed.
Especially the preferences of royalty could become politically important factors, so the current Emperor wanted his children not to show any vulnerabilities in that regard.
So he gathered renowned artisans from across the Western Continent to create brands that only direct members of the Imperial Family could use.
‘Well, that’s what the established rules say. In reality, they secretly obtain and use whatever they want behind the scenes.’
Most of the imperial children would break the rules by making up ridiculous excuses like ‘I can’t cough without that handkerchief’ or ‘My legs might break if I don’t eat that chocolate.’
However, the First Princess, Anais, perhaps because she was the eldest among the Emperor’s children, had a strong image of being conservative and dignified.
Because of that, she couldn’t obtain external perfumes in such ways, and it seemed she had only secretly mentioned it to Ransel.
“So what did you answer?”
Please, I hope you gave me the answer I wanted to hear.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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