12. The Fate of Ricardo and Lilia

Three days after my fun holiday with Ryan, he came to the store.

I thanked him for the holiday and secretly offered him some cake as a service.

After some time, the number of customers dwindled down. We proceeded to share stories of what happened during the three days we didn’t see each other.

“Have you heard about what happened to Ricardo?”

When he suddenly asked that, my expression turned ugly.

Ryan laughed when he saw it.

“Pfft, kuku… do you hate him that much?”

“Shouldn’t that be obvious?”

I answered with a bitter expression. I seriously felt as if I had just bit into something disgusting.

I didn’t want to hear or learn of his story if I could.

But to be honest, I was curious to an extent.

Even if I didn’t want to hear it, the gossip-loving ladies came to the store and told me anyway.

After all, Lilia was their alumni. Perhaps, gossiping about acquaintances was entertaining.

“…Didn’t he get married about half a year ago?”

“Yes, but as for whether or not it’s a happy marriage…” Ryan laughed.

That day when I finally stopped with my charade—

—I didn’t just unleash my pent-up rage and annul our engagement.

I submitted all the evidence I had of the threats he had made, proof of his misdeeds, and a small magic tool that recorded the fact that he forced me to be engaged with him.

The notary officer, who apparently took my side, responded to the situation seriously and brought them back to the castle.

The development from there was spectacular.

The Duke of Sterling’s family, whose reputation had originally been bad, was punished by the kingdom due to the documents I had collected in order to shield myself. They were criticized harshly.

Although their house remained safe, some of their territories were confiscated and so were the properties they had unjustly acquired. Thus, the power of the duke’s family was reduced.

In addition, in anticipation that the duke’s family would try to harm me, the authorities also demanded they compensate me.

They were basically rewarding me for giving them an opportunity to punish the Sterling family.

Thanks to that, the Sterling family was now on fire.

They couldn’t afford it.

I was hoping that it’d be effective in protecting me to some extent, but I honestly didn’t think it’d do much.

If it was the Sterling’s predecessor, then they would surely possess the skills to recover from that. But Ricardo’s father, the current head of the family, was incompetent. As it was, even if I didn’t do anything, they’d fall and roll down the slope.

In the meantime, Lilia got married.

Or rather, she had to get married. It was because she was already formally engaged with him. Moreover, she didn’t have the financial resources to compensate the Sterling family if she were to get a divorce.

Unlike me, she was the daughter of a venerable marquis family. Long story short, her track record suffered.

However, Lilia was also a bit idealistic, if I do say so myself.

At a first glance, everyone would agree that Ricardo was ‘perfect’—including Lilia.

During their dating period, Ricardo must had been kind to Lilia. Because of that, when the man was on the verge of his downfall, Lilia was in denial. She managed to stay positive and married him.

I wanted to praise her devotion.

But once the lid was opened, Ricardo turned out to be nothing more than garbage. There were also his shameless parents. They just wanted the home of Lilia’s parents. Despite being a duke’s family, they had no shame or conscience.

Lilia’s mutual friends had long given up on her. They pretended to be her friend just to hear her complain.

I didn’t have the right to say anything about anyone—but those friends of hers sure had guts.

When I told Ryan about everything, he was impressed by my accurate information network.

It seemed that a network of girls shouldn’t be underestimated…

“Do you think they also badmouth you, Flores?”

“I don’t know. I never heard them say anything about me.”

When he heard that, his face grew astringent.

It seemed that Ryan bothered to talk about Ricardo because he wanted to let me know.

Regardless of everything, everyone from Ricardo’s family was despicable.

I didn’t want to be involved with them anymore, but they were still irritating, to say the least.

Should I had been more thorough in exacting my revenge?

Although I felt a little regretful, investing more time with that scum would be a waste.

Stopping at that level was just appropriate, after all.

“Flores, your expression has turned really ugly, now…”

“Uh-oh…”

Having that pointed out so suddenly, I had to change my expression immediately.

However, Ryan didn’t seem to be turned off. He was laughing happily.