TMIAP Chapter 25

Liella Mollette felt she might go mad with anxiety.

She had been clutching and releasing the hem of her dress since morning, until her maid Becky made a fuss.

"Miss!"

Becky knew that this demure and elegant young lady had a habit of gripping her dress tightly when nervous. It was only natural—she had been serving as the maid who tended to Liella's wardrobe and shoes for several years now.

"Lord Solivén will be returning soon. If you continue like this, he'll think you're an unrefined young lady."

Becky chided her mistress lightly, as she always did. Becky was quite an experienced lady's maid even in La Spezia, having arrived at the Mollette household with no fewer than three letters of recommendation.

Though the Mollettes were a wealthy family, this young lady was only minor nobility, so she always nodded obediently and released her skirts when Becky reprimanded her thus.

But today was rather different. Liella, who had been sitting with her back curved in the guest room—not even her own room—clutching the hem of her lustrous satin dress, looked up at Becky the moment she heard her words and glared.

"If you don't know anything, be quiet, Becky."

Becky was momentarily startled, then her face flushed red with humiliation.

Lord Solivén, after all, was the most eligible bachelor that every noble family in La Spezia was desperate to invite. In the Mollette household alone, everyone from Madame Mollette downward was counting the days until his visit.

Moreover, until just recently, this very young lady would blush and grow demure whenever Lord Solivén's name was mentioned. So naturally Becky was shocked by this unexpected outburst.

"Miss, am I displeasing you? Shall I leave?"

But Becky asked politely once more.

This was a sort of mercy that Becky extended to her mistress.

That is to say, she was giving Liella Mollette the opportunity to acknowledge that she had taken out her frustrations on an excellent lady's maid, and to look around herself calmly.

Others might accuse her of not knowing her place, but Becky believed this was her pride as a lady's maid.

A young lady and her maid were always in a symbiotic relationship. If one side ignored the other, it would be no exaggeration to say that young lady would ruin every social gathering that season.

However, Liella completely ignored Becky's mercy.

"Get out."

Becky blinked twice and looked at Liella suspiciously. Liella cried out sharply.

"I said get out!"

"Very well. Call me if you need anything."

Becky walked out quickly.

Before the door closed, the maids waiting outside the drawing room looked back and forth between Liella inside the room and Becky walking out, their gazes expressing curiosity.

Becky frowned and shrugged—at an angle where Liella couldn't see her, of course. But even if she had done so where Liella could see everything, Liella wouldn't have noticed that Becky had done it.

For Liella had been thinking of nothing but Monica Orphen lately.

Monica Orphen!

As soon as the door closed, Liella collapsed face-down on the table. It was behavior that Madame Mollette would have chided as lacking in refinement if she had seen it, but since no one was there, it didn't matter.

"Ah!"

Liella swallowed her fury.

Monica Orphen. That damned girl! Why on earth did she appear, and from where! And why was she there of all places?

'She must have come to La Spezia to humiliate me!'

Liella's fist lightly struck the table. Thump. Even that was struck with just enough force to show the last remnants of breeding as a well-educated lady, but Madame Mollette would have had a word or two to say if she had seen it.

'Liella!'

What a curious thing. That three-syllable new name her adoptive mother called her felt far more frightening than any long lecture about refinement.

Liella Mollette.

More precisely, it was a long name: Liella Amel something-or-other.

Twelve-year-old Lizzie Orphen had struggled for four days to memorize that name. And after successfully reciting her full name before the stern-faced Lord Mollette, Lizzie believed she had truly become Liella Mollette.

But Monica—Monica Orphen.

Because of that girl who had reappeared before her after ten years, Liella Mollette felt like she had become that worthless orphan girl Lizzie Orphen once more, here in La Spezia so far south of the capital.

That she had appeared before her after so long—well, yes, that could happen.

It was cruelly unfortunate for her, as accidents of coincidence go, but Liella thought of it as a kind of payment. Some sort of karmic balancing for the tremendous fortune of becoming the adopted daughter of the Mollette household at twelve years old.

Otherwise she couldn't explain why she had instinctively defended that girl the moment Madame Mollette tried to dismiss Monica Orphen.

'And what about how that venomous face changed in an instant?'

Monica Orphen had been confronting Liella furiously, then suddenly became docile in a single moment and called her "Miss Liella." And she even swore to Liella that she would never let her tongue run loose.

Though Liella remained anxious, she had thought things were working out unexpectedly smoothly.

But of course they wouldn't.

'Just my rotten luck...'

Her temples throbbed. Liella reached up to rub her forehead roughly, then remembered that Becky had just carefully applied her makeup and lowered her hand. She tried to look for the pressure point stick but couldn't find it anywhere.

Liella leaned back in her chair again and sighed.

'Lord Solivén...'

At that evening party, Liella had ended up proposing to Lord Enrique Solivén first.

She knew. She knew how dishonorable it was for a lady to propose to a gentleman first.

Moreover, given Liella's current circumstances, she shouldn't have done it.

Liella knew very well that if anyone found out, it would more than suffice to set tongues wagging.

But she had done it because she was confident that Enrique Solivén would never breathe a word of her shame to anyone.

Enrique Solivén.

When the second son of an ancient noble family appeared in La Spezia society this year, everyone was surprised yet claimed they had expected it all along.

If not for the war, Enrique Solivén would likely have been a much-sought-after bridegroom with his handsome appearance and impeccable credentials.

Though he was a second son, the Solivén family had protected the kingdom for so long that they possessed easily ten titles. Everyone knew that Enrique Solivén would be given the second most prestigious title among them.

But when it was revealed that Enrique Solivén's older brother, Pablo Solivén, had been the decisive cause of their defeat, the Solivén family literally fell from grace.

Pablo Solivén hadn't even returned to take responsibility for the defeat—he had fled the battlefield.

A man who had served with him contributed an article to the capital newspapers claiming that Pablo Solivén had shamelessly feigned death to escape, causing a scandal.

The Solivén family publicly declared that Pablo Solivén was dead, but they could not escape the king's wrath. In the end, more than half of the war reparations became the Solivén family's burden.

Unfortunately, despite their overflowing honor, the Solivén family was not particularly wealthy. The peculiar fastidiousness common to military families had made them so.

Lady Solivén hurriedly put up the family's estate and villas—centuries old—along with the antiques that filled them and the jewels passed down through generations. She thought the nouveau riche nobles with their eyes red for prestige would compete to buy them.

But the nouveau riche were not fools. Their greatest weapon was their clever minds, having become nobles by capitalizing on wartime profiteering in the first place.

They joined hands and all turned their backs on the Solivén family together. Rather than compete among themselves and drive up the prices of the Solivén family's possessions, they attempted to join forces and divide them cheaply.

Especially since many had their eyes on Eridrae Castle, which was practically the symbol of the family. This was all the more so because Lady Solivén stamped her feet but stubbornly insisted she would not sell that castle.

However, there is always a traitor. In this case, the traitor was the Mollette family.

Liella's father, Lord Mollette, kindly extended his hand to Lady Solivén.

Lord Mollette, whose family was from a country other than the kingdom and who remained minor nobility, always relegated to the background even in the capital, bought Lady Solivén's possessions.

Naturally, Lady Solivén sent Lord Mollette her profound gratitude.

However, to the marriage proposal Lord Mollette subtly offered, she sent a firm refusal.

'Damn it!'

Liella still remembered the curse Lord Mollette spat out after tearing open the letter of refusal.

Lord Mollette was always gentle with his wife. It was only natural. It was Madame Mollette who had enabled Lord Mollette to establish himself in the kingdom.

The noble young lady who had dared to marry the young Lord Mollette—who held a minor noble title in the kingdom but never received a single invitation to society—had swept through society winning the favor of the ladies, and elevated the Mollette family to a position incomparable to before.

With such a wife who was even cheerful besides, it was natural that Lord Mollette had loved her consistently throughout their marriage.

But Lord Mollette did not extend that love to the orphan girl he had adopted. Liella had seen dozens of times the rough side of the military supplier merchant that he never revealed before his wife.

Each time, Liella would always think of the orphanage director who had branded her a stupid girl, and clutch the hem of her dress.

'Selling off even the family chamber pot, yet refusing the dowry?'

The dowry Lord Mollette had offered as the price for marrying Liella to the Solivén family was at a level that would more than cover the war reparations. Lord Mollette desired honor that desperately.

But Lady Solivén was adamant. The letter detailing her reasons for refusal was long, but Lord Mollette didn't even read it all before crumpling it and throwing it at Liella.

『I intend to leave the choice of my son's life companion to my son himself.』

Though she had phrased it that way, she was politely declining a marriage proposal where the class difference was clear. Lord Mollette ground his teeth and told Liella:

'Make that second son choose you, somehow.'

Lord Mollette's gaze was clear.

The time has come to repay the cost of raising you, and if you fail to be worth that cost, I will somehow sell you off at the highest price.

Liella could say nothing.