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What Was Happening Behind the Scenes

Translated by: ME

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*****

「So, my fiancée Wellmy. I imagine there is something you wish to ask?」

Afterward.

Having left the banquet that had commenced immediately following the declarations, several of us had gathered in a private parlor.

Eides and Wellmy.
Sister Lola and Crown Prince Leonir.

Minister of Justice Kilrain and Master Crates.
The daughter of Viscount Carla, and the Ernest family butler, Goldray.

And finally, Oleia, the maid two years my senior.

These were the individuals most deeply involved in the matter. That said, Minister Kilrain had merely come to request a signature on the witness-trade documents and exited shortly thereafter.

「I shall take the formal deposition at a later time,」 he left us with only those words.

「...I don't particularly have anything I want to ask,」 Wellmy muttered, sitting on the sofa and briskly turning her face away.

---As if unable to endure it a moment longer, Sister Lola threw her arms around Wellmy from the side.

「S-Sister?」

「I'm so sorry, Wellmy...! I was so slow to rescue you...!」

So saying, her sister—with tears shimmering in the corners of her eyes and her slender shoulders trembling—looked far healthier and more robust than she ever had while at the Count’s estate. While Wellmy felt relieved by this fact, she shook her head in bewilderment.

「It’s not as if I was being treated poorly.」

That was the truth, and it wasn't something for her sister to fret over. If anything, Wellmy was the one who had been slow to save her sister from her wretched circumstances.

As Wellmy thought this, her sister gently stroked the area beneath Wellmy's eyes—where her expression had crumbled slightly from tears—with a hand placed softly against her cheek.

「The dark circles under your eyes are terrible. And you’ve grown thin. ...After I left, you were handling the Count’s work that he refused to do himself, working alongside Goldray, weren't you?」

「...I couldn't do it as skillfully as you, Sister.」

Unlike her sister, Wellmy did not possess such high aptitude for estate management. At best, she had poured all her effort into handling various matters just enough so as not to cause trouble for the common folk.

Even that much had significantly carved into her sleeping hours; she could never hold a candle to her sister, who had continued to support that house in such an environment for so many years.

「Besides, I was on the side of those who treated you cruelly.」

「No, Wellmy. You did everything you possibly could for me. ...To ensure our parents didn't fixate on me, you hid my appearance and prepared the detached building, didn't you?」

「...」

「And when I was bedridden with fever, you were the one who provided the doctor and the bread porridge.」

「Isn't that right, Oleia?」 her sister asked, turning to the only maid in the house—aside from Goldray—who could be trusted. The maid silently bowed her head.

「...I gave it to you saying it was trash.」

「On that day, I had been ordered that 'Lady Lola requires no meal.' Yet, I was astonished when Lady Wellmy brought the bread porridge herself.」

The maid, whose expression rarely changed, wore a faint smile today.

「Furthermore, regarding Lady Lola's late mother's keepsakes and other expensive accessories... you made her take them so she wouldn't be in want should the plan fail, didn't you?」

「That was harassment! That’s all it was!」

「You secretly tucked accessories engraved with my name into my luggage as 'harassment'?」

「I-I just didn't know!」

Her sister gave a small giggle; she must have seen through everything. Even knowing she had been found out, Wellmy couldn't change a demeanor cultivated over so many years so easily.

---(I wanted you to hate me.)

It was true she had gone out of her way to put her sister's name on the magic engravings just to make it seem like she’d made a stupid blunder.

Being thanked made her feel an itchy restlessness, and her face turned red. To make matters worse, Goldray, with his bushy white beard, decided to interject unnecessarily.

「Those items were purchased by Lady Wellmy herself using the proceeds from selling her own accessories, and she signed for them personally. I had gathered that such was the case.」

「...!」

Since the house’s assets would eventually be confiscated anyway, Wellmy had sold everything except the minimum number of dresses and accessories needed to avoid suspicion at evening parties, converting them into high-value, compact gemstones.

As she glared at Goldray for his loose tongue, she couldn't stop her cheeks from growing hotter. She also disliked the fond, amused expression the butler wore as he looked at her.

「But, Your Highness and Lady Carla, where did you both notice the truth?」

When Goldray posed the question, Carla and Leo exchanged looks. The sharp-featured daughter of the Viscount shrugged as if to say "after you, Your Highness," and Leo began to speak.

「The first time I felt a sense of incongruity—or rather, the first time I was surprised—was when Wellmy accurately saw through my true identity.」

He had likely deciphered the true meaning behind her insulting words: (a coward like you). Indeed, at that time, he had looked surprised for some reason.

「After I happened to learn that Lola possessed purple eyes and looked into the family to find they were sisters, the incongruity only grew.」

It would be odd for a girl who was gaunt, unhealthy, and dressed in old, plain clothes to be the sister of a woman who was always garishly dressed and stuck like glue to someone like Irvine.

「She only associated with people of little consequence or ladies who loved nothing but gossip, and yet she said those things to me... despite that, there was no sign of my identity spreading. It was then I realized she had some sort of objective.」

And then, it seemed it was actually her sister who had stopped Leo and the others when they tried to move after deducing the situation and consulting with Carla.

「She said, 'If you move now, it will trouble Wellmy.' I wondered what she was talking about, considering she was the one in a far more dire situation.」

---(So that's how it was.)

In that case, Wellmy's evaluation must have been quite frustrating for Leo. As she internally agreed with his exasperated expression, her sister spoke back with a troubled face.

「But, Your Highness. As I discussed with Goldray, we were still minors then, and the preparations and evidence were insufficient... while I could have left based on my treatment, there would have been nothing we could do for Wellmy, would there?」

「Well, on the surface, Wellmy was being cherished.」

「When I noticed the double-entry bookkeeping, Wellmy stopped me... I figured she had some goal and had arranged things so that I would be the one to notice.」

At the very least, it would have been impossible for Wellmy to leave that house based on her parents' abuse. If she hadn't been the whistleblower, it wouldn't have been strange for her to be condemned as an accomplice to tax evasion.

「...I would have been fine being dealt with along with the rest of them.」

「How could that possibly be fine?」

Wellmy showed her dissatisfaction, wondering if her sister couldn't have been rescued sooner, but her sister spoke as if to soothe her.

「Because I understood Wellmy's goal, I tried to use it to save you as well.」

「I wondered what I was to do when she arrived at my estate and immediately began weeping, saying 'Please, just save my sister,'」 Eides chimed in, leaning back on the sofa with his legs crossed and his chin resting on his hand. As he teased her, her sister’s face turned bright red.

Eides’s atmosphere was quite different from his public impression. While his arrogant attitude suited his handsome features, his sadistic way of speaking seemed to be his true nature.

---(I'm going to be this man's wife...)

It didn't feel real yet, but imagining the future, Wellmy felt internally exhausted. She had been forced into a promise to "do whatever he says" by a man who was handsome, brilliant, talented, and seemingly enjoyed tormenting people.

While she was already trembling at the thought of what kind of demands he might make, the thought crossed her mind that (Sister might actually have hated this too...)

...Well, he was handsome, and she had a good impression of him when they first met, so it wasn't as if she hated being engaged to him.

While she was making excuses to no one in particular, her sister and the others continued the conversation.

「You make it sound like you went through so much trouble, Eides. You dumped the whole response on me back then!」

「Goodness, Your Highness. Did you find it so distasteful to deal with the woman you loved back then?」

「I didn't say that!」

「Then my actions were not incorrect.」

Leo was flustered by the playful tone. Their easy relationship suggested that Eides’s claim of being fond of him was true.

「And what about Lady Carla over there?」

「My reasons were similar to His Highness’s. I associated with young ladies whose peerage was decent enough, so I approached thinking there might be some benefit. Then, seeing Irvine and Wellmy being all over each other while ignoring his fiancée, I offered a few words of caution.」

「And then?」

「I told her that if she wanted to be well-behaved, she should go to her sister. At first, I thought she was just being nasty, but then I realized something. Despite appearing to mock her, Wellmy never once spoke ill of Lola.」

That was the truth.

Wellmy didn't know what others were saying about her sister elsewhere, but every time Irvine or his followers spoke ill of her, Wellmy did only one thing.

「I don't want to hear about that person,」 she would say, making no effort to hide the look of disgust on her face.

It was simply because she truly didn't want to hear bad things about her sister. If they had continued, she felt she might have raised her hand against them, just as she had with Eides.

Irvine simply misunderstood, thinking Wellmy was (jealous because she loved him), and everyone else took the hint, assuming she hated her sister so much she couldn't even speak of her.

「And what about you, Magus Lord Ormirage?」

「By the time I received Leo's letter, the stage was already set. I was intrigued by such a passionate love letter.」

As he spoke, Eides glanced toward Wellmy, who knit her brows and scowled.

「I never sent you a love letter.」

「Is that so? I could have sworn it said, 'You are such a wonderful person that I have fallen for you. That is why I wish to entrust my most precious and wonderful sister to you.'」

「...You're delusional!! Are you a narcissist?!」

「Well, believe that if you wish.」

---(What a truly disagreeable man!)

She was indignant at his arbitrary interpretation, but since the core essence wasn't entirely wrong, it only made her angrier.

At the time, she had been desperate to catch his interest and hadn't had the luxury of worrying about how he might perceive it; nor did she think Eides would have such a personality.

---(If I had known, who would... who would ever...!)

As she groaned to herself, her sister smiled and stroked her back, causing Eides’s expression to soften even further.

「Well, with those circumstances, I was surprised to find Crates at the destination. At that point, I found it amusing to wonder what kind of connections Wellmy had.」

「...Well, she is my daughter, after all.」

It was likely because he had left a Ducal house only to be betrayed by Wellmy's mother immediately after. Master Crates, though older than Eides, was still at an age where it was too early to look so aged; his hair was about half-grey, a testament to his hardships.

Wellmy looked toward him as he gave a wry smile.

---(My true father.)

And the mentor who had taught her the magic of curse-breaking.

Now that what she had vaguely suspected was confirmed as fact, Wellmy was at a loss as to how she should look at him.

*****

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