ITIWAFRBIAHS Chapter 10

3. Each One's Position

After my stepbrother stormed out, my fiancé and I moved to the reception room to continue our meal.

I wanted to check on my stepbrother's condition, but if I left my fiancé alone in this situation, my favorability rating would really plummet, so I decided to visit him a little later.

Fortunately, the pancakes my fiancé had procured were delicious, but honestly, I felt like I might get indigestion. It was because my fiancé kept throwing endless questions at me.

They were mainly like this:

"Rose, do you have any particular taste preferences?"

I answered that I liked everything except carrots.

"I see. Then what about your preferred color?"

I answered red. Purely because he asked about taste first, it reminded me of a hit song from a few summers ago.

"Yes. When did you start preferring the color red?"

Well, probably from a few days ago when I possessed this body? Of course I couldn't answer that, so I roughly said I wasn't sure and that it had been that way at some point.

My fiancé kept nodding with a smiling face.

After that, endless questions continued. Favorite flowers, preferred time of day, disliked places, disliked...

At first I thought it was a sign of intimacy, but at this point it felt like my psychology was being stripped bare. I thought he was conducting some kind of psychological test.

Normally I would have conducted a mutual interrogation to balance things out, but feeling guilty about the medicine bottle, I just answered in detail.

Please let this restore my favorability rating a bit.

"Don't you have any questions for me?"

That question finally came out.

I lifted my teacup to cover my mouth (the teacup and tea were also procured by my fiancé) and hid my expression's wavering.

Answering "no" here would be wrong, but asking whatever comes to mind would also be a disaster.

Good! Based on years of indirect experience, this is definitely the right answer!

"I learned the secret behind this garden's beautiful appearance - would you be interested in hearing about it?"

Heh. Good. It was a sensible answer that combined my fiancé's interests with our previous topic.

"......"

But why is your reaction slow, fiancé?

Why no response?

"How did you know?"

"I met the gardener. When I asked, he answered."

"When did you meet him?"

Are you interrogating me?

I suppressed the urge to make a sour face and gave him an answer. You should be grateful for this face of yours, fiancé.

"Last night in the garden. I got lost trying to get to the kitchen and was lucky enough to meet him."

"I see."

My fiancé seemed to answer almost reflexively.

"Still, coming out to the garden in the middle of the night seems rather dangerous. If you have urgent matters to attend to at night, how about calling for a servant?"

"Yes. I'll do that from now on."

A nighttime summons - I have a feeling my complaints would end up as side dishes for the next day's lunch.

I took my fiancé's words as concern and agreed appropriately. I'll call when the situation calls for it, and judge for myself when it doesn't.

But really, won't you listen to the garden cultivation secrets?

Asking again would seem a bit persistent, so I waited for my fiancé to bring up that topic again, but that never happened. Instead, my fiancé looked at my face intently, then soon smiled and said:

"Then I'll return to my room briefly for work. I'll see you at lunch."

"Yes, yes."

Come to think of it, if my fiancé procures all three meals, that means I meet this person three times a day without fail. Being able to see that face three times a day - what pure profit.

I clenched my internal fist while outwardly asking thoughtfully:

"Aren't you overworking yourself? You're handling business at this mansion while also helping with my affairs."

"Ah, that matter is fine."

My fiancé paused while grabbing the door handle and looked back at me. It was a dazzling eye-smile.

"I always know the most efficient methods."

"What are you searching for so earnestly?"

"Huk!"

Jeril dropped the bundle of books he was holding. The book corners clattered against the carpet with dull sounds that echoed through the study.

The man who called himself 'Lord Moore' stood at the study door.

A perfect smile hung on his face like a painting. The boy turned pale and tried to back away from the man step by step. His thigh twinged and the contents of his pocket jabbed into his flesh.

It was Rose's crystal medicine bottle.

The boy glared at the man suddenly as if he had gained some kind of strength from that light collision. The man, beautiful as a famous painting, tilted his head curiously.

"I'm asking what you're searching for so earnestly."

"...If you do anything suspicious, I'll call the police."

"Haha."

The man burst into laughter.

The boy remained tense from head to toe, glancing at the telephone installed in one corner of the study. It was a silent demonstration that he could run over and make a call at any time.

Lord Moore stopped laughing.

"Are you deaf?"

Lord Moore moved toward the bookshelf where Jeril Sawyer stood. The way he trampled on the documents and books scattered under his feet as if they weren't there, walking as freely as if strolling down a main street, was brazen. And he made eye contact with Jeril.

"Go ahead. Make the call."

The man stared at the boy like a snake without eyelids.

"I'll start by cutting off your mother's hands and feet and throwing her in prison."

The boy froze.

"And next, I'll make her only son crawl around on the streets too."

The man smiled brightly. It was a beautiful smile like a jewel.

"Oh, is it not a son but an eldest daughter?"

Madam Sawyer's son couldn't respond.

Lord Moore reached into his coat with a smiling face and pulled something out.

The boy was startled as if the man had pulled out a gun. The man, as if the boy's reaction wasn't even worth mocking, placed it on the desk without any reaction.

"......"

"Won't you pick it up? Isn't this what you were looking for?"

The boy picked up the scroll on the desk with trembling hands. That scroll of one aged paper page was part of what the boy had been looking for, but not all of it.

Finally, the boy spat out words as if vomiting:

"What did you do with the rest you stole, the remaining content!"

"I gave it as a gift."

Rose's fiancé smiled with furrowed brows.

"And you need to speak properly. The one who stole wasn't me - it was your stupid mother."

"Peaceful."

I sprawled out on the study sofa and muttered.

I declined the walk and am currently lying down, wasting time leisurely. I even ordered a camera right after breakfast earlier. Maybe that's why I don't feel much shopping urge. If the working staff saw this appearance, they'd be shocked, but fortunately this isn't the time when they come to the study.

I kicked my skirt around and muttered drowsily:

"Should I read a novel or something?"

Honestly, ever since finding out this place is inside a romance novel, the romance novels from this world have started feeling kind of boring and don't really appeal to me anymore.

So something I can read without putting much thought into it... Hmm, fairy tale books it is.

Reading fairy tale books from this world wouldn't be a bad idea either. Because this morning, the 'gardener rose fairy theory' became a bit more plausible.

Right after my fiancé left following breakfast, I called the butler to the reception room.

While talking about the camera, I casually broached the topic of how the treatment of the young gardener working night shifts was, and the butler answered like this:

'There are gardeners, of course. But they only work early in the morning. And we don't employ gardeners that young.'

'...I see.'

Could it have been unauthorized work?!

No wonder it seemed strange. What kind of work is this, like doing graffiti under an overpass at night? Next time I meet him, I should either scold him and send him back, or see his situation and say I'll arrange employment. It was too strange to allow a child to work at night, no matter what.

Huh, wait. But is it really possible for an ordinary boy to continuously operate in someone else's garden at night without permission? Maybe he's a fairy after all, so he's not getting caught with special abilities? I'm the romance novel protagonist so I was lucky enough to meet him!

I nodded, thinking it was quite a plausible guess, and pulled out a fairy tale book. This action came from the expectation that reading fairy tale books with fairies might provide favorability hints for the gardener as the plot develops.

So I brought about six books to the desk and sat in the chair. And as I reached for the first fairy tale book, I saw a book next to the fairy tale books that I hadn't brought.

"Huh?"

What's this? A book that was originally on the desk? That thing, about the thickness of two fairy tale books, was a leather hardcover. The leather was so old and worn it was shiny.

Usually in romance novels, old books discovered by chance like this contain magic left by ancestors or forgotten mine documents. I excitedly picked up the book. Unlike the plain spine, the front had this written in intense black letters:

<The Old Lords>.

Ooh, maybe old land documents!

Land documents are good. Indeed, there are few assets as good as real estate. If the book title is <The Old Lords>, the content might hint at real estate that the old lords of this region embezzled as slush funds.

I opened the book eagerly. Sharp, ornate handwriting caught my eye first. The first page began like this:

[Don't hold the present as collateral and close the book now.]

It was blatantly threatening. It must have been written by someone with tremendous power.

Did they put a warning on the first page in case a servant accidentally saw the book while organizing and discovered the location of their slush funds?

I turned to the next page with the feeling of munching popcorn.

[The Old Lords. That's what we used to call them. Whenever I feel that indescribable horror still lingers in our community as unwritten laws and customs, trampling over the standards of common sense and ethics like lingering traces, I wonder if I might be witnessing the futility of human civilization......]

I was horrified. This, this is... an ideological enlightenment essay!

I was shocked, expecting phrases like 'The time is coming to erase the irrationality of the old system and establish our value standards anew. For the people!' to pop out any moment.

Th-this is exactly the kind of text that would be covered in those perpetually under-enrolled lectures during my major.

Recalling all the Russian literature lectures I half-dozedly attended, I flipped through the pages quickly.

The densely written text was packed with examples of past bad customs and the barbaric and unreasonable practices of past rulers metaphorically compared to monsters.

I broke into a cold sweat at the author's dedication to illustrating rulers as melting giant squids.

They must have been someone with tremendous conviction.

Now I understand why there was a warning at the front of the book. Given the era's circumstances, this book was probably branded as a seditious text and became a banned book. The book owner must have added it thinking of the safety of anyone who might read it.

Looking again, the handwriting of the book's content and the warning message are different too.

I wondered if I needed to read this properly and casually flipped through pages, discovering that several pages of the book were torn out. Wow. To physically censor it this much, this must have been the core content. Just in case, I skimmed the content of the preceding pages.

Sure enough, it was frighteningly grave content.

[That place where the horror is too grotesque to forget or to remember, where terror lingers only in habits and customs because we cannot bear to speak of the old lord of that place, still haunts the surrounding area. Bern......]

Huh, Bern is the name of the area where this mansion is located!

Hmm, the next pages were probably torn out because they contained content that truly criticized and harshly condemned this region's past ruler, which could have caused real trouble.

Or maybe they're separately stored in a more secret location.

Anyway, it definitely doesn't seem like a book that would have hints about secret land documents. Unless it harshly criticized the existence of secret land documents.

R-right. Actually, creating slush funds is wrong. I clutched my chest from the pang of conscience arising from modern values.

Anyway, it was too early a timing to read something so realistically related to this world. It feels like the possession sentiment inside me has shattered. I put the book down with coldly disappointed eyes.

But maybe I put it down too hard - the pages fluttered and turned several more.

And I discovered another torn page. If what I saw earlier felt like pages cleanly torn out, this one was tattered as if someone had crumpled the pages with their fist and torn them to shreds.

At the end of the page, there were still a few recognizable words, and I was startled by the familiar words.

[The Moore family's wickedness......]

What? The Moore family?

"......"

My fiancé's surname was 'Moore,' right? That's why they call him Lord Moore?

I looked through the torn pages, but two or three pages were ripped out together so the content didn't connect at all. I swallowed and closed the book.

My fiancé said he was the heir to some major landowner family. Wasn't that family a lord family in the old days?

Then my fiancé's family... maybe they became a wicked major landowner family through exploitation like the powerful families of the Joseon Dynasty.......

The owner of this book probably hastily got rid of the book containing such facts after this body became engaged to the Moore family heir, fearing it might be discovered.

I felt an intense reality check and put the book in the drawer.

The face-genius fiancé... might actually be so sparkly because he's maintained with money collected by oppressing people..... L-let me stop thinking about this.

Fairy tale books, I'll just read fairy tale books.

I read fairy tale books until lunchtime after that.

However, picture books for preschoolers were inadequate to repair my battered mental state. My thoughts were spinning frantically in accordance with modern ethical standards.

I even found myself wondering whether it would be acceptable for fairies to live in hiding without resident registration or tax obligations.

So I ended up sitting across from my fiancé with haggard eyes even at lunchtime.

"Are you alright?"

My fiancé seemed flustered. The handsome man who had been holding a large white paper bag with what seemed like a triumphant attitude looked restless when I entered the reception room. Not just my eyes, but my overall appearance was noticeably haggard.

"Your complexion is quite pale."

As soon as I sat at the table, my fiancé reached out his gloved hand and took my hand.

This was about the third time, and this time there wasn't much emotional impact - like hell, that face is really just too incredible. My heart found peace.

Right. That face is natural. No amount of money could create it.

Besides, I can't necessarily believe everything in that book. Right, maybe it was left there to create conflict and misunderstandings leading to frustrating developments.

I waved my hand with a much more comfortable expression.

"I'm fine. It's not like I can change it now anyway."

"...What do you mean you can't change?"

"Well, people can't choose their parents. Ueok!"

The last sound definitely wasn't intentional. I was just surprised because my fiancé applied pressure to the hand covering my hand.

The intensity of skinship suddenly deepened!

But my fiancé was startled and removed his hand.

"I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine. It didn't hurt."

"......"

No, it really didn't hurt so it was fine. I don't lie about pain. If it hurt, I would have already gotten a medical certificate and applied for settlement money.

I gave a thoroughly trustworthy expression and raised my thumb, but my fiancé's expression still wasn't very good.

"It really didn't hurt. More importantly, what's that white bag? Lunch?"

"......Yes. They said it was the best place for takeout in the area."

My fiancé answered somewhat sourly. No, why are you apologizing and then getting sour yourself? Ey, well. Let's eat first and think later.

And when I saw my fiancé opening the bag... I almost cheered like when passing around drinks at the freshman orientation.

Awesome, it looks like chicken baked in the oven with butter seasoning! And it's one chicken per person!

"Wow, it looks delicious! Thank you so much. Then I'll eat well."

I immediately dismantled the chicken and started eating it—yum yum. It had cooled a bit, but the outside was crispy and the inside moist, and it was rich and stimulating in flavor, as if butter had soaked in.

Having a meal made me feel even more relaxed, so I casually asked things like this:

"Lord Moore, about the business you're doing. Did you inherit it from your parents?"

My fiancé, who had been picking at his food, put down his fork and chuckled.

"No. I took over an initial business from a distant relative."

Oh, I see. The possibility of ethical issues with his current wealth accumulation drops considerably.

"I think it's growing decently. At least I believe I can consistently maintain financial circumstances sufficient for Miss Rose to live as comfortably as now."

It was a confident and kind remark as a fiancé, but I nearly choked on my chicken at the suddenly advanced topic. Even so, my fiancé's words continued.

"Rose, in that sense, how about staying at my family home until you come of age? You certainly won't be uncomfortable there. Given the poisoning issue, this mansion doesn't seem very safe for you to stay in anymore. You can inherit the property through legal procedures when you come of age in six months."

"......Hmm."

I see. The previous line was groundwork for this proposal. I pondered my fiancé's suggestion while nodding to myself unnecessarily. And I came to a clear answer.

"I think it's a good idea!"

My fiancé's expression brightened.

"Right?"

"Yes. But first I want to talk more with Sister Jeril about the poisoning attempt."

My stepbrother's shocked feelings from this morning due to my fiancé should have calmed down by now.

If necessary, I'll call Sunset too and have a three-way meeting to discuss the poisoning attempt. If I don't wrap this up, I don't know what kind of development it might pop out as narratively.

Besides, this romance novel seems to be a conquest story, so I'd like to resolve this family's conflicts and settle things at this mansion as much as possible.

But if this doesn't work out well, I'll have no choice but to take a hard-line response.

Report to the police and run away! My life is the most precious thing!

"......I see! I hope things go as you wish."

My fiancé smiled brightly.