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Chapter 11
“Decadent Handsome Man vs. Flower Boy, Which One Would You Choose?”
“…Y-You mean… the shop?”
The shopkeeper spoke in confusion.
As expected, was the villainess trying to seize the shop too? His vision went dark.
“I’ll pay the shop’s sale price of seven million marks, plus another three million on top of it.”
Diabella flipped over the hand she had slammed onto the table and held it out. Folded inside was a check for ten million marks.
“Use it for your child’s medicine. And even after I acquire the shop, you won’t need to leave.”
“Pardon?”
“I intend to hire the two of you as the general manager and head designer of the boutique I’m planning to open. I’ll pay generous salaries as well. What do you think?”
“Wh-What?”
The shopkeeper’s jaw dropped at the completely unexpected offer.
Because she was infamous as a villainess, he had assumed she would use some absurd excuse to steal the shop away. But instead, she was offering extra money—and even saying they could continue staying here?
There had only been one reason he hadn’t sold the building despite urgently needing money for his child’s medicine.
This shop, though it barely earned enough, was the couple’s only source of income. If they sold it, they would have no way to survive.
But now the marchioness was not only buying the shop at a generous price, but also offering them paid employment? It felt like a dream.
“A-Are you truly serious?”
“Of course. A woman does not speak twice with one mouth.”
The shopkeeper and his wife hugged each other and burst into tears.
“She’s not a villainess—she’s an angel sent to save us,” they whispered.
“Who lives in the upper floors of the building?”
“The second floor has been empty because we couldn’t find tenants, and… we use the third floor ourselves.”
The shopkeeper answered carefully.
Just being told they wouldn’t have to leave the store was already more than enough. He couldn’t bring himself to ask if they could keep living upstairs too.
I suppose we’ll have to vacate the third floor and find somewhere else to live… he thought sadly. After paying off the debt, maybe they could at least rent a tiny one-room apartment.
“Hm… Then continue living on the third floor, and could you clear out the second floor for me?”
“…Would that truly be alright?”
“Of course. If the business expands later, I may eventually use the third floor too, but that’s a problem for another day. For now, you may continue living there. It’ll be easier to care for your child while working at the shop, won’t it?”
“Thank you! How could we ever repay this kindness?”
The wife threw herself at Diabella’s feet, sobbing.
Surely the marchioness truly was an angel sent down for them.
When she looked up with tear-filled eyes, the marchioness’s face seemed dazzlingly radiant.
“The marchioness went strolling through Panople Square? Alone?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
At Bellop’s report, a vein bulged sharply across Raymond’s forehead.
The woman truly had no understanding of danger.
She had only just recovered from nearly dying after drinking poison, and already she had gone all the way to the distant territory—and now she had wandered alone into Panople Square, crowded with suspicious people.
“Was there any danger?”
“Well… there was an incident at a shop. Someone dared attempt to harm milady.”
“What did you say?!”
Raymond shot to his feet.
The chair he had been sitting on crashed loudly onto the floor.
“And you just stood there watching?!”
“Of course, I intended to step in and protect milady, however…”
Bellop added awkwardly.
There had been no chance for that, because milady had already brutally trampled the man herself.
Then he proceeded to describe the horrifying scene he had witnessed in vivid detail.
“…Ugh.”
Raymond held his head and righted the fallen chair before sitting back down.
Of course. What was I even worrying about?
If there was one person in the world who needed no concern whatsoever, it was his wife, Diabella.
“Ahem. In any case… what happened to the man afterward?”
“The young master of House Diarte appeared suddenly and handed him over to the guards.”
“The Diarte duke’s son? Which Diarte? Terton von Diarte? Bernus von Diarte?”
“It was Sir Bernus von Diarte.”
“Hm… Bernus von Diarte…”
For some reason, hearing Bernus’s name appear so suddenly left a bitter feeling in his chest.
Why was that?
Among the noble ladies of the Luten Empire, there existed a secretly popular game of “choosing your type.”
It was none other than:
The classic flower-boy handsome Raymond VS the decadently handsome Bernus.
A once-in-a-generation battle of preferences.
Of course, some ladies wailed that it was impossible to choose just one, but most passionately supported one side or the other.
Like fervent fan clubs, they rivaled each other fiercely.
Between Team Raymond and Team Bernus stood an enormous, insurmountable wall.
Whenever noble ladies were introduced to someone new at social gatherings, they would first exchange names and family introductions—and then, in hushed secrecy, ask:
“Which side do you support?”
If they discovered they supported the same side, they embraced each other with overwhelming delight and quickly became close.
If they supported opposing sides, however, things turned slightly awkward and distant.
Anyone hearing it might think it childish, but for noble ladies starved for entertainment, it was both more important and more enjoyable than any political conflict.
One spring, the rivalry had become especially fierce.
And it had all started like this:
A young baron’s daughter from the countryside had arrived in the capital for the social season.
“Hello. I’m Sophia of House Ackerman.”
Sophia nervously greeted the first noble lady she met.
“Hello, lovely to meet you. I’m Marine of House Pavlov.”
Marine welcomed Sophia warmly, then quietly added:
“Which side are you?”
“Huh? Side?”
“No, not that. I mean whether you’re Team Raymond or Team Bernus.”
“Ah… um…”
Naturally, Sophia—who had only just arrived in the capital—had never even heard of Raymond or Bernus.
“Oh my! Then your eyes are still blessed!”
Marine practically gasped in excitement.
“I wish I could erase seeing Lord Raymond and experience it again for the first time! He’s thrilling every time you see him, but the shock, amazement, and emotion of that first sight—that feeling was absolutely incredible!”
She eagerly dragged Sophia along.
“Come, I’ll point out Lord Raymond and Lord Bernus from afar. Don’t overthink it. Just pick the one who gives you that feeling the instant you see him.”
“Um… but what meaning is there in me choosing?”
Sophia asked in confusion.
“It’s not like I could actually date either of them…”
“Oh my! Date them?! What sacrilege!”
Marine trembled as though she’d heard the most offensive thing imaginable.
Then she patiently began explaining things one by one to this ignorant country noble.
“We supporters would never dare dream of such a thing. We merely admire them from afar, like gazing at unreachable stars. Ah, but recently Team Raymond has sadly been losing numbers to Team Bernus. Lady Sophia, I do hope you’ll join Team Raymond.”
Just then, Marine—whose “Raymond radar” had activated—gasped and clutched her mouth.
“Ah! Lord Raymond and Lord Bernus are talking together over there! Such a rare sight! I want to paint this composition and treasure it forever.”
Sophia looked where Marine pointed.
Aah! My eyes are blinding!
Two impossibly divine handsome men stood together.
Sophia stared at them in a daze until Marine asked once again, “So which side are you?”
And without thinking, she answered blankly:
“Lord Raymond.”
Honestly, it hadn’t mattered which one.
They were simply light itself.
But two weeks later, disaster struck.
“Oh my, Lady Sophia!”
Marine, who had happily spread the news that Team Raymond had gained another supporter, was horrified to discover Sophia standing together with Team Bernus.
“Ah… w-well, the thing is…”
Sophia panicked.
Truthfully, that day she had been so overwhelmed by seeing the two unrealistically handsome men together that she had absentmindedly blurted out Raymond’s name.
But a few days later, at another social gathering, Sophia saw Bernus up close—and realized he was completely her type.
She wanted to know more about which gatherings Bernus attended and what he liked.
So she quietly joined Team Bernus instead.
“This is betrayal!”
Marine trembled furiously.
And thus erupted a fierce war between Team Bernus—who argued that this only proved how irresistible Bernus was—and Team Raymond, who declared such an insult unacceptable.
Sophia herself, who had dared reverse her choice, was effectively banished from the capital’s social circles forever.
“What nonsense.”
When Raymond first heard rumors of passionate groups comparing him and Bernus, he dismissed it as utter stupidity.
What a meaningless, unproductive debate. Did these ladies truly have nothing better to do?
And yet… why did those old stories suddenly bother him now?
When Raymond announced his marriage to Diabella—the Black Rose of high society and the empire’s greatest beauty—Team Raymond had erupted in celebration.
“If we can’t have him ourselves, then the queen of high society choosing him is basically a victory for Team Raymond!”
But Team Bernus protested fiercely.
“That’s unfair! It wasn’t a proper match!”
They had a point.
At the exact time Diabella entered society searching for a husband, Bernus had not even been in the Luten Empire. He had been studying abroad in the neighboring Florence Empire.
“If Lord Bernus had been here, the Black Rose of the Empire would have chosen him instead!”
“Who knows about that? If she truly preferred him, she would’ve waited instead of choosing Lord Raymond. She chose Raymond because he’s her type!”
“Can you really say that for sure? This wasn’t a fair competition!”
Thus began the Second Great War.
The conflict had grown so large that noble ladies completely divided into two hostile camps, coldly avoiding one another.
Naturally, even Raymond eventually heard about it.
Once again, he dismissed it as ridiculous nonsense.
But after their marriage, one of Raymond’s close friends mischievously asked Diabella directly during a visit to the estate:
“Do you happen to know Sir Bernus von Diarte?”
“Hm? Who?”
Diabella replied lazily while staring into her hand mirror, uninterested in anyone except herself.
His friend—who had secretly bet on the “Diabella might choose Bernus” theory—deflated immediately.
Raymond simply shook his head as if to say See? I told you.
All such arguments were meaningless.
What were these women even fighting about behind the backs of the people involved?
Still… deep down, Raymond had felt strangely pleased.
In the end, she had chosen him.
That very night, he had gifted Diabella the heirloom necklace.
Traditionally, it was meant to be given after a wife bore her first child, but for some reason he had wanted to give it to her early.
Though apparently, even a necklace carrying such significance had meant nothing to her.
“…Haah.”
Raymond sighed.
His wife had always only cared about herself.
And now that she was already married to him, what did it matter if she happened to meet Sir Bernus?
To a woman utterly intoxicated with herself, why would a man’s appearance matter so much—
Wait.
Raymond tilted his head.
“A handsome man!”
He suddenly remembered the first thing Diabella had shouted after recovering from her month-long illness and behaving like a completely different person.
She had pointed at his face and exclaimed it.
“And when you’re not angry, you’re a warm handsome man.”
He even remembered the dazed expression she had worn while saying strange things.
At the time, he had found it absurd—but inwardly, he had also been rather pleased.
Well, I am handsome.
He had even secretly glanced at himself in the mirror afterward.
But what if she had reacted that way in front of Bernus too?
What if she had stared at him in a daze as well?
Surely not.
The proud, arrogant Diabella would never do something like that.
No—she absolutely shouldn’t.
And yet, the thought alone suddenly left his lips dry and his throat burning.
