I Got Engaged To The Blind Duke Chapter 2

Knock, knock. Marin knocked before opening the door, then entered the room holding a tray with both hands.

She saw her mother, Roanna, lying weakly in bed.

Her once-lustrous blonde hair was now filled with strands of gray and white, and her cheeks had become so sunken that her sickly appearance was obvious at a glance.

Suppressing the sadness in her eyes, Marin called out to Roanna in an intentionally cheerful voice.

“Mom.”

Roanna’s eyelids trembled before slowly opening.

“Marin.”

Roanna slowly raised her upper body and sat up, leaning against the headboard.

“You look even healthier today. I think you’ll recover in no time.”

At Marin’s cheerful remark, Roanna formed a gentle smile with her pale lips.

“Thank you. But you’re old enough to get married at any time now. How much longer are you going to keep calling me Mom?”

“Oh, my! I’ll still be calling you Mom even when I’m as old as you are!”

Marin widened her eyes as if she couldn’t believe what her mother had just said, then broke into a sweet smile.

“Goodness, who’s going to stop you? Your brother or…”

Roanna smiled along with her, but suddenly stiffened and couldn’t finish her sentence.

“Mom! Your unstoppable daughter has brought you some delicious medicine and soup!”

Marin deliberately pretended not to hear and proudly presented the tray.

Roanna lowered her gaze to the medicine and soup, then looked up with a gloomy expression.

“Have you eaten?”

“Of course! I just had two whole bowls.”

Although she hadn’t eaten since yesterday, Marin deliberately puffed out her stomach and pretended to be full.

Roanna gazed at her sadly before turning over and lying back down in bed.

“I don’t have an appetite. So you can eat my portion, too.”

It was a single bowl of soup that Marin had barely managed to make by scraping together every last ingredient in the house.

She couldn’t possibly eat something so precious instead of her sick mother.

“Mom…”

“I really don’t have an appetite.”

Roanna’s tone was firm, as though she had noticed Marin’s lie about being full.

Once she became this stubborn, there was no stopping her.

“Mom. Then would you like me to read you a book?”

It was the most effective way to coax Roanna.

“Aren’t you busy today? Actually, I haven’t been sleeping well lately. When you read to me, I can fall asleep more easily.”

A look of anticipation appeared on Roanna’s face.

“You should have told me sooner.”

“I didn’t want to trouble you when you’re so busy.”

“I’ll read to you. But in exchange, you have to eat your soup.”

Roanna weakly shook her head as if she couldn’t possibly agree to that.

Bang, bang, bang.

Just as Marin was about to speak again, trying to persuade her mother by any means possible, she heard someone knocking on the cottage door.

“Mom, it seems someone is here. I’ll read to you later. I’ll leave the soup on the table, so eat it if you get hungry. All right?”

“……”

Leaving Roanna, who gave no answer, behind, Marin walked out of the room. She passed through the small kitchen and immediately opened the cottage door.

The landlord, Jorno, a middle-aged man with a belly as large as a pregnant woman’s, grinned at her as though he were delighted to see her.

“Marin.”

“Lord Jorno. Hello.”

At the unwelcome sight of the landlord, Marin forced herself to hide her displeasure and greeted him.

“That’s right. I’m always doing well. How have you been, Marin?”

“I’m doing well. What brings you here?”

Jorno burst into hearty laughter as if he had just heard an amusing joke.

“What brings me here? Between the two of us?”

At Jorno’s lecherous gaze as he openly looked her up and down, Marin clenched her fists.

Despite being a married man, he never failed to flirt with her using that same disgusting look.

Should she just punch him once? Then run away?

Marin thought of her sick mother lying in the room and hid her trembling hands behind her back.

“If you don’t have any business here, I’m quite busy.”

When Marin spoke coldly and tried to close the door, Jorno grinned and quickly grabbed it.

“The rent has tripled starting this month.”

“What do you mean…?”

Marin stared at him in bewilderment.

“Marin has always paid her rent on time, so I haven’t raised it until now. But I’ve already raised the rent for the other houses a long time ago. The rent is due in five days, right? I’ll come collect it myself. If you don’t have the money, you’ll have to move out.”

Jorno glared at her and issued his threat.

“How am I supposed to come up with that much money right away if you suddenly triple the rent? Could you please give me a little more time?”

Marin lowered her head and pleaded with him.

Winter was approaching soon. It would be disastrous if she and her sick mother were thrown out of their home.

As if he had expected this reaction, Jorno grinned and leaned closer to her face.

“Of course, it’s not as though there isn’t another way…”

Before he could even finish speaking in that sleazy tone, Marin slammed the door right in front of him.

“Argh! My nose!”

Serves him right. Marin firmly locked the cottage door and pressed her back against it.

Rattle, rattle. As Jorno grabbed the doorknob and shook it, her body shook along with the door.

“Hey! Open the door! You think I’ll let you off so easily? You dried-up broomstick! Ugh, spit, spit!”

Jorno shouted at the top of his lungs before finally leaving.

Marin swallowed a sigh and glanced toward Roanna’s room. Her mother had undoubtedly heard all that commotion.

Her mother was already emotionally fragile, and Marin worried that this might make her condition even worse.

Marin approached Roanna’s room and was about to knock, but lowered her hand.

Could she really comfort her mother?

Could she lie and tell her that everything would be all right?

Marin lowered her head and opened the door to her own room across the hall.

The hinges creaked noisily.

Marin glanced at them with displeasure. The hinges, rusted in several places, should have been replaced long ago.

The only furniture in the room was a shabby bed and an antique dressing table.

The dressing table was the only piece of furniture they had brought from their former mansion.

She remembered her father’s face as he asked her to take good care of it, saying that her grandmother had treasured it since childhood. She simply couldn’t bring herself to throw it away.

“I need money.”

Marin muttered softly to herself. She really, desperately needed money.

Sick people needed adequate nutrition, but every time she had to serve her ill mother a bowl of soup without even a single solid ingredient, it felt as though her heart were being torn apart.

On top of that, the rent had tripled. As if things weren’t bad enough already.

“Damn landlord.”

Marin sank into her chair and carefully took out a piece of paper hidden in the corner of her dressing table drawer.

The paper was covered in writing that no one in this empire except her could read.

Her gaze settled on the first line.

「The Western Duke’s Bluebird Does Not Cry」

She had realized that she was living inside this novel after being involved in a carriage accident.

She had hovered between life and death for over a month. When she finally woke up, she realized in a flash that this was the world of a novel she had once read.

Was it because she was the protagonist?

No.

It was because she had been born and raised in the western region where the story took place.

Anyone born in the West couldn’t possibly be unfamiliar with the House of Vines.

The plot of the novel, The Western Duke’s Bluebird Does Not Cry, was simple.

The male protagonist, a duke of the West, loses his eyesight after being attacked by monsters and gradually falls into despair. Then he meets the female protagonist, a prodigy in the field of herbalism, who cures his eyes. After that, the two fall in love. It was a romantic fantasy novel.

She had read plenty of novels about northern dukes, but she had chosen this one simply because a western duke seemed like a refreshing change.

And now, she had been reincarnated in the world of that very novel and had been living here all this time.

“Unbelievable…”

She was an insignificant extra who didn’t even appear in a single line of the novel. She was merely a background character who was supposed to do nothing but quietly exist.

If time continued to pass like this, she would probably naturally hear the news of the duke’s happy ending. After all, his wedding would be celebrated as the wedding of the century.

But the problem was money.

“I need money.”

She didn’t have the luxury of spending time being confused over the realization that she had been reincarnated inside a book.

Her family had gone bankrupt, and financial hardship had immediately come crashing down on her.

The Viscounty of Schwenz had once been a wealthy family, with vast lands and assets passed down through generations.

However, after the carriage accident, it was revealed that her father had accumulated an enormous amount of debt.

They had to surrender their land, assets, and mansion, and sell all the jewelry and dresses they owned.

After selling the last expensive dress they had left, they had barely managed to rent a two-room cottage at the foot of a mountain.

Ever since that incident, Roanna had been bedridden.

Marin had to do something herself.

Being the daughter of a bankrupt viscount who hadn’t even had her debutante ball was a title that was of absolutely no use in life.

“I need money.”

Marin repeated the same words, trying to convince herself.

Otherwise, she feared her resolve to step into the protagonists’ lives might waver.

Until now, she had struggled desperately to avoid getting involved in their lives by any means possible. But now, she has truly reached her limit.

Marin’s delicate, sprout-like light green eyes stared intently at the paper in her hands. It was densely covered with the important details of the novel she had read.

She already knew things about the duke, the male protagonist of this world.

It was time to use the only weapon she had.