The Regret Novel Female Lead with Unbreakable Mentality Chapter 41

10. Aurum Market

The next day, I was sitting face-to-face with Yuliana in the outdoor garden. Ah, seriously, how am I supposed to give my father-in-law the will to live? This is a real dilemma.

 

After thoroughly questioning the family doctor last night, I found out that Neslan was in pretty bad shape, even coughing up blood. Apparently, if he doesn’t continue with life-sustaining treatment, he won’t last much longer. The doctor said that while there’s no guarantee he’ll survive even with treatment, the real issue is that he has no will to get treated. Even the doctor was worried about that.

 

I was half-listening to Yuliana’s words while sipping tea when I heard someone loudly protesting to the gatekeeper.

 

“Open the mansion gates at once!”

 

Perking up at the familiar voice, I heard an even gruffer tone follow.

 

“I heard my aunt has been imprisoned in the Kalinos Family’s dungeon. I need to find out what’s going on, so open the gates.”

 

It had been a day since Caitlyn was confined. The news of Caitlyn’s confinement had quickly reached her family, the Ronus family. Well, thanks to the information Caitlyn provided, they must have been making a tidy profit. Now that she’s locked up, of course they’d come storming in. How foolish.

 

Yuliana, sitting across from me, spoke up. “It’s Count Ronus. You should go handle it.”

 

“Huuh? Giselle? But Giselle is incompetent.”

 

“Yes, but now that you’re the lady of the house, you should at least be able to manage this.”

 

I glanced around and then pulled the opaque veil held by the maid over my head.

 

As I wrapped the veil around me in a rather ungraceful manner, Yuliana whispered in a chilly voice. “What are you doing?”

 

“We haven’t ~ officially announced the marriage yet! Giselle’s face is a se~cret~♡”

 

With a playful wink, I had the gatekeeper open the mansion gates, and I saw Count Ronus flinch. Well, to him, it must look like a sudden intruder has appeared.

 

“Are you perhaps… someone related to the Kalinos family?” He looked me up and down as if sizing me up. With the position of Duchess of Kalinos vacant, he must be curious if I’m the one who fills that role.

 

I cheerfully countered his thoughts with a playful remark. “I’m not telling you!”

 

“What on earth are you saying…? Who exactly are you? I came to see Madam Yuliana Kalinos, so please step aside.”

 

I shook my head internally. This foolish man is even more foolish than the clingy, regretful male lead number one. He doesn’t even recognize me. Is it because my face is hidden by the veil? Or perhaps he simply can’t imagine that ‘foolish Giselle’ would be staying with the Kalinos family. It’s not like I’m using a disguise artifact, yet he can’t recognize me. How utterly clueless.

 

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and spoke to him coldly. “Nope, don’t want to.”

 

“Ha, what is this? I clearly stated that I wish to see Madam Yuliana.”

 

“Yeah, and I said no!”

 

His anger at my absurdly rude yet cheerful voice lasted only a moment before a sly smile curled at the corner of his lips. “You’ll regret treating me this way.”

 

Oh, does he have some grand scheme up his sleeve?

 

“I’m~ ve~ry scared, it would be better to close the gate! Gatekeeper, close it please~♡”

 

Did he think I was the kind of person with time to spare for his nonsense? Maybe Giselle in the past was, but not me now.

 

“I-I can’t just—”

 

I heard the gatekeeper’s flustered voice and laughed brightly. “You can.”

 

With a bang, the door closed right in front of Count Ronus.

 

I waved playfully at Yuliana, who couldn’t hide her shocked expression, and whispered so only she could hear. “Giselle did great, right? Compliment me~♡”

 

Honestly, I think Yuliana decided to cut ties with the Ronus family when she got rid of Caitlyn. That’s probably why she sent me out. If I made enough of a scene, it’d be a win-win situation for her too. I bet she didn’t expect me to be this undignified. It’ll be quite the scandal for the other fa families too, won’t it?

 

But as if she could read my innermost thoughts, Yuliana whispered with feigned kindness. “Yes. Well done.”

 

…?

 

“After dealing with Caitlyn, your handling of this situation was also quite satisfactory.”

 

“Huh?”

 

Was this some kind of high-level sarcasm? I looked at her with a suspicious expression, and Yuliana asked an unexpected question.

 

“Do you know why I brought Caitlyn into the family?”

 

“H-How would Giselle know? Giselle doesn’t know a~nything?”

 

“Because I believed that nothing weak should ever enter our family. It was like a filter of sorts. But then you came along.”

 

“No way…”

 

“Now, someone dirty and violent like Caitlyn Ronus is useless. So it’s right to get rid of her. And we should keep a proper distance from rootless families like theirs.”

 

My jaw dropped. If I had known Yuliana liked my original personality, I would have played the weak and pitiful person! But before I could figure out how to respond, she stood up and spoke bluntly.

 

“Now that I’m halfway convinced, I’ll be nice to you for a while.”

 

“What did you say? I didn’t quite catch that?”

 

“If you want, you can even call me Mom.”

 

I’m screwed. I’m seriously screwed.

 

As I stood there, dumbfounded with my mouth agape, Yuliana continued with a satisfied expression. “I’ll inform Duke Kalinos. It’s about the time we announce the wedding, don’t you think?”

 

Watching her leave with a pleased look on her face, I was left speechless. Yuliana had evolved. And in a way that seriously threatened my knack for causing trouble…!

 

* * *

“The Kalinos family is unbearably arrogant!” Count Ronus returned to his family with nothing gained, grumbling as he threw objects around. As the glass fell to the floor with a shattering noise, his aide quickly spoke up.

 

“C-Count. Is something wrong?”

 

Since Caitlyn was an outsider by marriage and only a collateral of the Ronus family, and worked at the Kalinos family, it was hard to formally object, given the rules of each family. However, the actions of the Kalinos family had crossed the line.

 

“Even when the patriarch of the Ronus family visits, they send out some crazy woman whose face I can’t even see. How can that even be acceptable?”

 

This was an insult to him! Even without this incident, there had always been bad blood with the Kalinos Family. They maintained a lofty attitude, always seeming to disregard him while he purchased their research results.

 

Marquis Berto used to speak ill of Vientin Kalinos all the time, calling him trash.

 

His relationship with Marquis Berto was more akin to that of a vassal and lord, or perhaps like that of a crocodile and a plover bird. Naturally, he quickly absorbed Berto’s opinions like litmus paper.

 

“Ha, it doesn’t matter what the Kalinos family does. As long as my aunt is alive, we’ll get her out.”

 

If that were to happen, it would be easy for Caitlyn to leak information about the Kalinos family once she was free.

 

The Kalinos family is certainly a fearsome one. However, the Ronus Family also had a secret weapon.

 

“Fools. They’ll definitely regret it.”

 

“Of course, Milord. A groundbreaking invention has been created.”

 

He pressed the large black box on the desk and grinned. “A black-and-white recording magic artifact. There’s nothing like this in the empire.”

 

“How did you invent something like this? It’s truly remarkable!”

 

“Hohoho… Now, take a look. Even though it’s a bit blurry, isn’t it recording? While it can’t record sound, it captures a full ten seconds of footage!”

 

Recording or video magic artifacts were extremely rare in the empire.

 

“His Majesty has quite an interest in such magic artifacts.”

 

“It’ll be spread throughout the entire empire. I’m curious to see how amazing it will be!”

 

Every year, the empire holds an exhibition called the ‘Aurum Market’. It’s an event where the nobles and gentry, in honor of the inventor god Aurum, present each family’s research achievements. Each family set up small booths to showcase magic research theories, potions, inventions, and more. Since it’s the leading event for market research trends, even the emperor pays close attention.

 

“In this era, titles are important, but so are money and a creative mind. Ha! If we sell all these video magic artifacts… even Duke Kalinos will have no choice but to kneel before me.” He laughed insidiously as he handled the black box, treating it with the tenderness one would show a treasure chest.