YSD. Chapter 13

Daphne looked up at the person blocking her path.

A familiar face… It was an unfamiliar face.

Someone she had never seen before in her previous life

Will she know who it is when she hears his name?

“My name is Madeline Davent, and I am in charge of the Betrand family’s accounting, Your Highness the Princess.”

He was a stranger, as expected.

However, the last name sounds familiar.

‘If it’s Davent, then it’s Zegman’s original surname.’

He changed his last name to Bertrand when he got married.

He was a sort of son-in-law who lives with his wife’s family.

Rumors widely spread that the second child of the poor count family had come to bloom through a fortunate marriage.

“Ah! You are His Grace’s uncle. Umm, so, Sir Madeline?”

“Please feel free to call me Madeline, Your Highness. Now, when you marry my nephew, we become a family.”

Madeline laughed heartily, wiping sweat from his reddened face.

The eyes of the knights standing at the corner of the corridor narrowed at the sound of laughter that they didn’t want to hear.

One knight even clicked his tongue.

‘There’s no title.’

Daphne deliberately called Madeline ‘Sir’ even though she knew that he was the eldest son of a count.

‘Usually, the eldest daughter or eldest son inherits the title, but Madeline is here now.’

There’s no way they would let their precious successor do accounting for another family.

It was a kind of experiment.

Although Madeline did not respond much to the title of ‘Sir’.

‘It must have been a while since the emperor sold his knighthood to make money.’

So, it was now that even ordinary people from everywhere were knighted.

There was a lot of criticism that the honor of the knights was tarnished thanks to that.

Nevertheless, the fact that he wasn’t even the eldest son of the count.

‘That means he’s a lout among the louts who can’t be helped even at home.’

Obviously, even Count Davent and Zegman have had more than one or two unsolvable accidents with him.

Then, in the end, he would have been kicked out of the family.

He wouldn’t have wanted to do hard work just because he was an aristocrat.

‘You’ve sold Zegman’s name to sit here.’

It’s so obvious.

The annoyed eyes of the knights standing at the corner convinced her.

‘In novels, they’re always like this.’

“Shouldn’t you be close to your family, Your Highness the Princess?”

As he said that, his eyes scrutinized Daphne.

He had a lot of greed.

“Originally, it’s right for a woman who came to marry to greet the elders first, but Your Highness the Princess is young, so I came here first.”

He had a high self-esteem.

“Come to think of it, did you write a letter of regard to your father? Say, His Majesty the Emperor! A daughter should send a letter of regards to her father every day. And I would appreciate it if you could include my name in the letter…”

Even a desire to get ahead that doesn’t fit his means.

Perfect, perfect.

She didn’t even have to look into it to know.

‘Is it you? Traitor.’

Shortly after Zegman’s death, Kael gets involved in an incident.

It was because of a traitor.

As soon as this guy sold the name of the Bertrand family, he took a bribe and fled.

The Bertrand family was financially compromised from him setting fire to their precious food warehouse while fleeing.

‘Finance was a problem, but Kael’s mental state was a bigger problem.’

The death of one’s parents in succession.

Betrayal of an uncle at his own will.

It was enough to completely crush the mental state of a boy who was only fifteen years old.

On top of that, the fallen honor was a bonus.

‘Thanks to that, Kael had a hard time gathering people afterwards.’

Daphne’s eyes narrowed at the sight of Madeline.

‘I was thinking about how to find it because the original work only described it in one line.’

She didn’t know it’d roll over on its own.

‘It’s probably because I look easy to use.’

Daphne laughed inwardly.

“Your Highness the Princess?”

Madeline called Daphne when she just stood there silently.

“Ah.”

Daphne looked at Madeline in embarrassment and blushed.

“I’m not used to the word family yet.”

She blinked her eyes as she said that on purpose, then smiled.

The smile of a person who is innocent, naive, and easy to use.

“Please take good care of me, Madeline.”

Madeline’s face was filled with satisfaction and greed.

“Of course, of course. Trust me. Your Highness. After all, I am very competent.”

What are you talking about?

It looks like he has the word ‘incompetent’ written on his face.

“And, Your Highness,”

Ahem!

Madeline cleared his throat and lowered his voice.

The voice was so low that even the knights standing in the corner, as well as Mariel standing right behind Daphne, couldn’t hear it.

“As you will soon see, I am the only one who will be on your side here.”

What does this mean?

“In fact, not only my nephew but also Your Highness’s ladies-in-waiting…”

“Uncle.”

The conversation was interrupted.

When they looked up, Kael was coming down the stairs.

“Kael—Your Grace the Grand Duke.”

While trying to call him in a friendly manner, Madeline soon changed his way of address after seeing his cold eyes.

“Have you eaten?”

Kael, naturally standing between Daphne and Madeline, asked.

“Not yet. If you don’t mind, I’ll join you…”

“Oh my, you should get something to eat. I will tell the maid to serve a warm meal to your room.”

‘Huh?’

She was sure Madeline was standing by the dining room door, and Daphne was standing on the other side.

Before she knew it, Daphne’s body spun and she was at the door of the dining room.

Kael naturally led her.

“Then enjoy your meal.”

“No. Nephew…”

Thud.

Madeline tried to hold on, but the door closed.

Daphne, who entered the dining room before she knew it, blinked.

Why is she here?

What a natural flow.

When Daphne came to her senses, she and Kael were the only two left in the dining room.

‘Wait, Mariel!’

Mariel couldn’t even come in!

“You’d better leave the lady-in-waiting outside, Your Highness.”

Kael spoke in a low voice to Daphne, who was flustered.

“Are you willing to take her around even after the morning incident?”

“Mariel is not the emperor’s person.”

The other two are the emperor’s people, though.

“Mariel is my lady-in-waiting.”

“You trust that lady-in-waiting.”

Kael’s eyes narrowed at the unexpected thought.

“No. I simply know that Mariel will not betray me.”

“…Isn’t that the same thing, Your Highness?”

Kael said as he pulled out Daphne’s chair.

He meant to talk without Mariel.

There was nothing she could do.

Mariel isn’t needed.

Daphne shrugged her shoulders and sat down in the chair.

“It’s different. Mariel will betray me if an opportunity arises.”

If a new person appears who will give her a way to get away from Daphne, Mariel will immediately take that hand.

However, if there’s one thing Mariel doesn’t know.

It was the fact that it was not easy for even the emperor to get Mariel out of Daphne’s hands now.

“I merely prevented her from forsaking me.”

“……”

As soon as Kael sat across from her without a word, the servants who appeared from out of nowhere began to bring food.

It seemed that there was a door leading to the kitchen inside.

‘Wow, it smells delicious.’

Even though she knew this was a bad situation, her mouth was watering.

Actually, she was hungry because of the mouthwatering smell that wafted in the hallway earlier.

Daphne gulped down her saliva so that it was not obvious.

When the servants set all the food on the large table and left, Kael opened his mouth again.

“I told you yesterday that I would accept your support. Truthfully, I can’t trust Your Highness the Princess.”

She supposed so.

It was always rather suspicious if it was too good.

But that’s it.

“Your words are circling around, Your Grace.”

Daphne laughed.

“You’ve already reached a conclusion.”

“That’s right.”

Kael nodded with a small sigh.

“However, I would like to ask you one last question.”

“What is it?”

“Reason.”

Daphne’s eyes narrowed.

“I haven’t heard the reason why Your Highness the Princess hates the royal family so much.”

Daphne silently tore the bread in front of her and chewed.

She swallowed the bread and opened her mouth.

She couldn’t tell him the story of Alan, so she was going to tell him something else.

“After I was adopted, the orphanage received a lot of donations.”

A rare kind teacher, friendly children, and a very poor orphanage.

The emperor adopted a child there and made a large donation.

Aristocrats scrambled to make donations to follow such an emperor.

It was a heartwarming story.

“But soon after, the orphanage caught fire.”

The good story changed in a flash.

There was nothing left in the ashes.

No large donations, no buildings, no teachers and children.

There was nothing left.

“People said it was the work of a gang of robbers who aimed for the donations.”

But everyone who knew, knew.

That this is what the emperor did to get rid of the start of future trouble.

‘Alan set fire to deal with me as well.’

The father and son are the same.

“…I asked you something unnecessary.”

“It’s okay.”

Daphne chuckled lightly.

When Alan told her about this, she was so shocked that she almost lost her mind.

And she followed Alan even more fiercely because she was vengeful.

“Sorry for the late reply.”

Squeak, there was the sound of a chair being dragged.

Kael rose up and politely bowed.

“I would like to ask Your Highness for your support.”

Finally, the words she wanted came out.

“I look forward to your kind cooperation, Your Grace.”

“Then, let’s finish talking over our meal.”

At Kael’s words, Daphne nodded, her eyes shining.

Ah! She was hungry!

Daphne popped one of the braised baby potatoes that had been laid out appetizingly in her mouth.

The butter was generously used, and the buttery aroma rose with the savory taste.

She wanted to eat it with sugar.

“First off, it would be good to start a business. What I would recommend the most is land development.”

“What of land development?”

“Hmm, there are many, but the most typical case would be mines.”

“Mines…”

Kael trailed off his sentence. It was a given. Daphne chewed on the potatoes and stared at Kael.

‘The current grand dukedom is affluent, but that doesn’t mean they have enough money.’

Very little money could be made in a territory where only winter came.

On the other hand, the budget for monsters and winter was enormous.

‘In the past, the former grand duke’s business methods were excellent, so he was able to maintain the wealth, but he is no longer here.’

Simply put, even a slight twist has become a precarious situation.

Therefore, they had no choice but to react like that to projects that cost a lot of initial investment, such as mines.

Nevertheless, in his previous life, Kael wisely overcame this crisis.

‘Then everything was ruined because of the traitor.’

Augh, Daphne shook her head.

“Don’t worry, Your Grace.”

Kael looked up at Daphne, who grinned.

One side of her cheek holding the baby potato was protruding.

“I’ll do the mine later.”

Is there more?

However, other projects related to land development besides mines have not come to mind.

There was a limit to what one could do on frozen ground.

“You could advertise to get investors, hmm. It’s a mineral too precious to share.”

It’s such a waste to share that. It’s such a waste.

It was a mineral that had to be monopolized no matter what.

Daphne smiled brightly, hiding her dark inner thoughts.

“So, shall we start with a simple explosion first?”

…A simple explosion?