I’m Not the One Who Seduced the Grand Duke Chapter 15

Wow, seriously……

[EXCLUSIVE] Grand Duke and Marquis Appear to Have Gone to Obtain His Majesty the Emperor’s Approval for Their Marriage……

[SCOOP] ‘It’s Definitely Something Serious When You See Them in Person!’ Imperial Palace Servants Take Turns Sharing Their Eyewitness Accounts!

The newspapers of Orden were working hard again today.

Hard enough to make me wish they would just be a little lazy for once.

“At this point, it’s practically a done deal.”

“……”

“I told you to just give up.”

Laura clicked her tongue as she spoke.

I shot her a glare, thinking, Are you seriously fanning the flames of a house that’s already on fire? But it no longer had any effect on her.

“But what have you been carrying around so diligently since earlier?”

“Oh, this? Hehe. You finally took an interest!”

Laura grinned as though she had been waiting for me to ask, then brought the box she was holding over to me.

And this wasn’t the only one. Before I knew it, boxes Laura had carried in one after another were piled up all over the office.

“They’re from the Grand Duke’s household! Apparently, His Grace sent them as gifts for you, Marquis!”

“What? Gifts…… Wait. All of this?”

“Of course not. There are still tons piled up by the entrance downstairs.”

Good heavens.

Even from a quick glance at the contents, there were expensive jewels, furniture made by master craftsmen, dresses, famous paintings, and works of art by renowned artists.

There was an astonishing variety of them.

“I guess His Grace is really serious about the Marquis.”

Laura giggled, saying the price range of the gifts was no joke.

And she wasn’t wrong. Just the necklace Laura had picked up could easily buy one of the four-horse carriages with silver fittings that nobles favored.

“Of course! The thought behind a gift is more important than its price.”

“You might want to put down that diamond necklace in your hand before saying that.”

The stones were so large that I could see them sparkling clearly even from here.

“Don’t open everything. Store them carefully in the warehouse. We might have to return them.”

“What? Return them?”

“I told you. I’m still thinking about it.”

“……”

At my instruction to leave the gifts alone, Laura’s movements, which had been full of excitement, came to a halt.

She soon approached me, seeming to gauge my mood before cautiously asking,

“Um…… Marquis. I’ve been meaning to ask you this for a while.”

“What?”

“Why are you hesitating over the marriage?”

“What?”

“No, I mean, no matter how I think about it, the conditions are just too good.”

Laura carefully explained that, even if it sounded a little materialistic, these were circumstances that were simply impossible to ignore.

‘It’s certainly hard to ask for a better marriage prospect. No, now that he’s shed his priestly robes, he’s practically the number-one bachelor in Orden’s high society.’

But still.

“I’ve told you before. I’m not thinking about marriage right now. Besides, there are so many other things I need to worry about……”

“Exactly!”

Huh?

“It might have been different a few years ago, but it isn’t anymore, is it? Your businesses are fairly stable now, and there are no more complications regarding your succession of the family.”

“……”

“I know you value your family very much, Marquis, but things are very different from four years ago. Of course, there are still some nobles who look down on you, but……”

“……”

“You’ve already earned more than enough recognition as the head of House Zaherette and as a businesswoman…… Don’t you think it might be time to seriously consider marriage?”

Laura’s words felt like someone had dropped a stone onto my head.

‘Now that she puts it that way…… she’s right.’

Simply to protect the family.

To become someone worthy of the position my father had left behind.

To keep from tarnishing the name of Zaherette.

I had been running forward without looking anywhere else, so consumed with the effort that I hadn’t realized I had already overcome most of the obstacles.

“Or surely you didn’t tell me not to bring up marriage while you strengthened the family’s foundation just as an excuse, did you?”

“No. No, I didn’t. Someday…… I suppose I’ll have to.”

Because if I never married, I couldn’t pass the family on to an heir.

“Exactly! That time is now!”

At some point, I had set down the quill in my hand. I crossed my arms and fell into thought.

Come to think of it, when did my views on marriage become so twisted?

‘No, actually, I’d never been particularly interested in it to begin with.’

Even when my father was alive, rather than spending time socializing with young ladies my age, I preferred shutting myself away to come up with my own business ideas or research my own blended tea recipes.

I had always preferred spending my time that way.

‘That was why Father had always worried about me.’

And after my father’s sudden death, those priorities had been pushed even further back as I focused on protecting the family as it struggled to stay afloat.

‘I just thought that someday, when I was older, I could adopt a child to inherit the family and live like this until then.’

But Orden’s aristocratic law required a person to be married in order to legally register an adopted child into their family.

So perhaps, by that point, I would simply marry someone who was suitable for my circumstances? That was more or less how I had thought about it, continually putting it off in favor of more pressing matters……

‘But what about now?’

“Now, think about it. This is actually an opportunity! Do you really think the Grand Duke of Bernstein is called the number-one bachelor for no reason?”

“No, no.” Laura wagged her index finger from side to side.

“It’s because his conditions are absolutely incredible! But until now, all those qualities were sealed away beneath those sacred priestly robes. But now? What happened now?!”

……The seal has been broken.

“Everyone else must be desperate to somehow get a place beside him, while the Marquis, who is actually being courted by him, is acting like this……. Tsk, tsk.”

Wait. ‘Acting like this’?

That was a little harsh, I wanted to argue, but I quickly shut my mouth.

Because Laura’s eyes were still blazing.

“Anyway. That is my opinion!”

Laura clenched both fists as if delivering an impassioned speech.

“If you’re going to get married anyway! If you’re going to have to live with a husband anyway!”

“……”

“I recommend marrying the man with the best conditions! The best face! The best marriage prospect! For your sake, of course, but also for the future of House Zaherette!”

The future of Zaherette.

Those words struck me like lightning.

“Ah, of course, you’ll become the public enemy of all the ladies of Orden. The enemy of every woman, so to speak.”

In exchange for getting Leon Obsidian, I would be hated by every woman in the Empire.

“If you want to win a handsome man, you have to be willing to put up with at least that much, right?”

“Are you sure that’s okay?”

“Does it really matter to you? You’re not interested in high society anyway. Unless it’s a banquet held specifically for nobles in business.”

“That’s true.”

Rather than tea parties hosted by noblewomen or balls held to seek out marriage prospects, I usually attended banquets where nobles involved in business gathered together.

‘Though there were more men at those, so I only attended the ones I absolutely had to.’

So being ostracized by high society wouldn’t really hurt me at this point.

The only thing I might have to worry about was a boycott by noblewomen.

‘But honestly, even that would be difficult. Zaherette’s share of the tea market is unrivaled. Besides, we compete through flavor and quality.’

In fact, several nobles had entered the tea business hoping to take Zaherette’s place, but every single one of them had failed miserably and raised the white flag.

I was quite confident in business, at least.

“……All right. I’ll think about it again.”

For now, I simply nodded and said I understood.

Laura’s face brightened considerably. She smiled broadly before pointing toward the half-opened boxes.

“Then, um, what should we do with these?”

“Those……”

The gifts Leon had sent in such abundance as part of his courtship.

They were still overwhelming.

“……Take them to my room for now. I’ll look through them when I have time.”

“Yes! Understood.”

Laura happily left the office with a hum, saying she would move them right away and that I had nothing to worry about.

I stared blankly at her retreating figure, then lowered my gaze back to the documents…… before lifting it again.

Damn it. What was this?

“……I feel like I got swept along with everything.”

 

***

 

Inside the rooftop garden on the top floor of the Hotel , located at No. 7 Roden Street.

Women gathered in small groups around each table, sipping tea and chatting together.

“If I’d known this would happen, I should have approached him more actively. I never imagined he would actually resign from the priesthood……”

“Exactly. It’s so frustrating. My daughter was so deeply in love with the Grand Duke……. Goodness. Ever since she first heard the news through the newspapers and gossip magazines, she hasn’t come out of her room.”

One of the noblewomen spoke anxiously, worried that something terrible might happen.

“You think so too, don’t you, Countess?”

The concerned noblewoman asked as she looked toward someone.

“Countess Oscar.”

At the noblewoman’s question, the silver-haired beauty sitting elegantly at the table lifted her head with a faint smile.

Yet beneath the table, the gossip magazine clenched in her hand was being crumpled beyond recognition.