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chapter 12
“Do you like me that much?”
“Yes!”
“Then later, please promote this stationery shop for me.”
As the child kept nodding, their plump baby cheeks wobbled adorably.
“Okay! I’ll say it’s not a ruin, not like a battlefield at all, it doesn’t look dangerous, and it doesn’t feel like a place where ghosts would appear!”
Saying it like that only made it sound even more exaggerated…
Still, I was weak against children, so I awkwardly nodded.
“It’ll take about a week until ‘Mel’s Stationery Shop’ opens.”
“Then I absolutely will!”
The child said, widening their eyes.
“…I’ll dress up really nicely and show up in front of Mel’s Stationery Shop!”
They hugged the music box they had placed on the floor tightly and continued.
“First, I’ll go to my older brother and give him the gift, and I’ll tell him about you too.”
‘So they’re going to promote the stationery shop to their brother too?’
If this child’s older brother was around fifteen, then our shop could probably handle customers that age as well.
“Take this and give it to your brother too.”
With sparkling eyes, the boy received the sealed slush bottle.
“Okay!”
And just like that, my meeting with my first potential customer ended neatly.
I sent off the mysterious noble boy—who never told me his name—in a rented carriage and asked,
“Where are you going?”
“To the im—no, I mean, I’m going home!”
From inside the carriage, I heard him whisper something to the coachman, but I didn’t pay it much mind.
And so, a long day passed.
After entering the stationery shop, I thought back on everything that had happened today.
After finishing garden cleaning, I brainwashed the spies from Lennox and Hildegard’s side who had been lingering around, and I sent off the letters of annulment and excommunication.
‘And I even met a demon by luck and made slushies!’
I even ended up promoting the stationery shop to an academy boy.
The shop hadn’t even officially opened yet, but so many things had already happened in a single day.
‘Just how many more things will happen from now on?’
“Dominic.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you think the annulment letter and the excommunication letter have arrived by now?”
The postal administration is fast. Since it’s a public service, they pour manpower into speed and accuracy, so by now the letters I sent must have reached the noble houses.
What would have happened? Would it have caused an uproar? Or would they quickly accept my demands?
I was curious, but it was a shame I couldn’t see it myself.
* * *
That night, the two letters sent by Meldenique arrived at each ducal house.
As she had expected, the two imperial ducal families were thrown into chaos. The first to react, even before House Babelloa, was House Hesman.
Upon arriving at the mansion, Lennox looked at the old butler blocking his way and said indifferently, with a displeased expression.
“What is it?”
“W-well… an annulment letter has arrived at the estate, Your Grace.”
Even if Meldenique said it, he wouldn’t believe it. She was a woman whose words and actions were notoriously unpredictable.
‘The spies reported nothing, and suddenly this?’
They were capable men he had personally selected.
And yet they reported nothing—so she had actually sent an annulment letter?
“Where is Meldenique now?”
“She… sent it by post. She did not come personally.”
Suppressing the strange chill creeping up his spine, Lennox glared at him and said coldly.
“Ignore it.”
He clenched his teeth as he recalled his father’s final words.
‘There will be no annulment. That woman is absolutely necessary for our family.’
More precisely, it was her bloodline that was necessary.
“Lennox House of Hesman and Meldenique Babelloa must marry.”
“But Father, that woman has a cursed bloodline! I cannot marry such a—”
The father, dying from injuries sustained in a carriage accident, weakly shook his head.
“Kinnua is not a cursed bloodline. That is a false rumor.”
“What?”
“Kinnua inherited the power of dragons. But no one in that bloodline has been able to awaken it.”
“Th-that…”
“The blood of Kinnua flows in Meldenique. That power is latent within her.”
The previous Duke of Hesman continued speaking with difficulty.
“Watch over that woman and marry her. And suppress any power she might awaken. Once she bears a child, that hidden power will be inherited through generations.”
Even as he lay on his deathbed, the old man’s eyes were filled with greed.
“A child with dragon power will become the strongest human on the continent, and fortune will follow wherever they go.”
The strongest human on the continent? It felt as if the glorious revival of House Hesman was right before his eyes.
“I understand, Father.”
With trembling hands, he closed his father’s eyes.
After that, Lennox faithfully carried out everything his father had ordered.
He deliberately approached Meldenique, deceived her, and spent years carefully taming her, binding her so she could not escape.
‘Where does she think she’s going? Her rebellious phase is too long.’
He curled the corner of his mouth.
“She’ll come back anyway.”
As he stood there organizing his thoughts, the butler wiped cold sweat from his forehead.
“However, Your Grace, there was a warning written on the envelope.”
“A warning?”
This was the first he was hearing of it.
“It said… that if the annulment letter was ignored, you would be turned into a… well…”
The elderly butler looked at him with a faint, almost disdainful gaze.
He had served the Hesman family for a long time—there was no way he would be disrespectful.
“‘If you ignore the annulment letter, I will turn you into a nationally notorious adulterer.’”
Lennox’s face twisted horribly.
The butler quickly composed his expression and handed over Meldenique’s letter.
Tearing open the envelope, Lennox’s eyes scanned the contents as multiple sentences tangled together.
“I have all evidence of you cheating with Sherya, so I hope you will quietly agree to the annulment.
You do care about your reputation, don’t you?
—Meldenique”
“Meldenique Babelloa…”
He muttered darkly and crushed the envelope in his hand so no one could see it.
He needed time to figure out exactly what she was planning.
“For now… leave the annulment letter alone.”
It hurt his pride tremendously, but it couldn’t be helped.
Strangely, it felt as if he had been put on a leash by Meldenique for some time now. When it was supposed to be the other way around.
Annoyed, Lennox roughly loosened his tie.
“This matter is to be kept quiet.”
Just as the butler was about to speak—
A small girl, who had apparently been hiding on the staircase landing, staggered down with a shocked expression.
“…Brother.”
His much younger half-sister, Mirisa.
There was a large age gap between them. She was born from an affair between his father and a noblewoman of a minor house.
Of course, it had been considered a disgrace, and the matter had never spread outside the family.
But did she know about her birth?
She was frail, young, and shy.
If there was one firm belief she held, it was that adulterers deserved to die.
Looking at his visibly distressed sister, Lennox frowned in annoyance, then quickly smoothed his expression.
“Ah, Mirisa. Your brother is here.”
Did she sense the lack of sincerity in his voice?
The girl only blinked her violet eyes and did not approach. Instead, she stepped back and muttered through clenched teeth.
“Don’t tell me… even though you already have a fiancée… you were cheating?”
Lennox shook his head quickly.
Cheating with Sherya? It wasn’t even physical—what a ridiculous accusation.
He didn’t consider his current situation adultery, so he smiled gently to soothe her.
“No, Mirisa. It’s a misunderstanding. I simply have a good relationship with her.”
“That’s what people call cheating.”
His expression darkened.
“…”
Before him, Mirisa muttered as if protesting.
“Cheating is a bad thing. I’m… really, really disappointed.”
Lennox snapped irritably at the small girl.
“That’s not what I meant!”
Tears instantly welled up in her eyes—not from fear, but from emotion.
“Lady Meldenique… she’s so pitiful…”
Mirisa had often overheard whispers within the household about whether she herself had been conceived through an affair.
For such a child, hearing rumors about her brother’s alleged infidelity—even if their relationship was distant—must have been a shock.
With tears brimming in her eyes, Mirisa turned and hurried back up the stairs.
Thud. Thud.
Her footsteps faded away.
“Damn it.”
He had been in a good mood just thinking about business plans.
Strangely, everything felt like it was falling apart.
Meldenique Babelloa—because of her.
He roughly ran a hand through his hair and ground his teeth.
No. He just needed to get married. He would repay this humiliation somehow, one way or another.
He recalled his father’s will once more. To marry Meldenique before her power awakened, and produce a child.
“…All I need is a child. Just the heir of the family bloodline.”
But unfortunately for Lennox, things were not unfolding in his favor.
And for now, he had no idea just how far out of his control everything was becoming.
