FERH 14

Chapter 14

The maid withdrew.

It seemed she had realized she couldn’t complete her task no matter what she tried, so she left.

Just as Lianel thought she might finally get some rest, Vanesha entered.

“I heard you’ve been lying around doing nothing, so I thought they were finally moving a corpse out.”

Vanesha sneered at Lianel the moment she saw her.

“Oh, you’re not dead yet?”

“Yes, I’m still in the process of recovering.”

Lianel answered indifferently.

What the?

Even a fly entering the room would have been treated with more sincerity than that.

Since Vanesha had planned to provoke Lianel into causing trouble and falling out of favor with the duke, such a reaction was the last thing she wanted.

So Vanesha raised the intensity of her words to get a rise out of Lianel.

“Receiving a guest while lying down—how disgraceful! You’re no different from the lowlifes outside. Honestly, the idea that someone like you carries the blood of a great noble family is absurd!”

“If you were an actual guest, My Lady, you would have sent a servant to inquire whether I was available before entering. Instead, you barged into my room. I’ve never heard of etiquette requiring one to rise and greet an uninvited intruder, but perhaps customs have changed without my knowing?”

Vanesha’s lips trembled.

She had expected Lianel to scream or grab her by the hair—she had never imagined a calm, precise rebuttal.

And of all things, Lianel used etiquette—Vanesha’s weakest point—to do it.

“In any case, this works out well. While you’re here, please turn off the lights. I dismissed the maid, so there’s no one else to do it.”

“Who do you think you’re treating like a maid!?”

“You entered my room without a word, so I assumed it was something along those lines.”

She didn’t even put strength into her tone. On her bored face was an overwhelming air of I could crush you without effort.

“Oh! Why don’t you turn it off yourself?”

“I’m too tired.”

“If you’re that tired, why bother breathing? Just die already!”

“That’s an incorrect analogy. Some people mistakenly believe they can consciously stop breathing, but respiration is controlled by the autonomic nervous system. Even without conscious effort, my body breathes on its own.”

“You—!”

Vanesha stomped her foot, speechless.

It was clear Lianel had acquired a new ability while she was gone—
the ability to drive someone to the brink of detonation through sheer irritation.

At that moment—

“What’s going on?”

Rupert entered—the one who was programmed, so to speak, to follow Vanesha unless otherwise instructed.

“You—”

Before Rupert could clutch his temples from meeting Lianel’s eyes, Vanesha hurried to block his view.

But Lianel’s voice was faster.

“I was teaching the future duchess some basic biological knowledge, as she seemed to be lacking. Ignorance isn’t a sin, but refusing to learn once aware of one’s shortcomings is negligence.”

“What?”

“If biology is too difficult, I recommend Our Body – A Strong Basics Guide by Pavlen. It’s written for five-year-olds, so even those with low education levels can understand it.”

Her tone remained flat and even, despite the situation.

“You little—!”

Vanesha exploded again.

The next day.

Lianel was summoned to the duke’s office.

“You know why I’ve called you.”

Behind the duke stood Vanesha.

She quickly covered her lower face with her hand when she met Lianel’s gaze—but Lianel had already seen the smirk she tried to hide.

It wasn’t hard to guess what happened.

“Well then, speak.”

At the duke’s signal, Lianel replied:

“The bed was comfortable, and the host was unkind. I give it three stars.”

“…I did not call you here to ask for a lodging review!”

The duke snapped.

Oh, it wasn’t?

She had thought he was asking for her thoughts after staying the night. Lianel looked a little deflated.

The duke took a deep breath before continuing.

He didn’t want this to feel like interrogation or scolding.

“Tell me what happened yesterday with Vanesha.”

“Yesterday….”

Lianel blinked several times as she recalled.

“Lady Violenne visited the guest room while I was resting. And…”

She paused, then continued calmly.

“We exchanged knowledge about the human body. It was very educational.”

“…”

The duke stared at her expressionlessly for a moment, then turned to Vanesha.

“That’s not what you told me.”

Vanesha’s face stiffened.

She had told him that Lianel insulted her and they had a loud quarrel. Yet Lianel was reporting events as if nothing unpleasant had happened.

This makes it look like I just barged into her room and threw a tantrum!

Desperate not to look like that, Vanesha quickly spoke:

“She’s lying! Lianel not only turned me away but insulted me like I was a mere maid! I only visited because I was worried after hearing she’d been lying around all day…!”

Her voice cracked, eyes shimmering with tears.

On her innocent, downward-tilted eyes, the teardrops glittered—making her look like a wronged victim.

“I only explained the proper etiquette for visiting someone who is resting.”

If one looked at the cause, it was indeed Vanesha who had picked a fight with a resting Lianel first.

But Vanesha could never admit that.

“Did you see that, Father?”

She shuddered dramatically and pointed at Lianel.

“She refuses to acknowledge her wrongdoing and behaves rudely! She even told me to turn off the lights for her! How could she say such a thing if she had any respect for me?”

She then covered her eyes with her arm, pretending to sob.

“I get it, truly. Someone like me suddenly appearing and acting as her new older sister—of course she must hate that! But to act that way even in front of Father is just too much…”

Vanesha tried to tear Lianel down while simultaneously presenting herself as “the magnanimous one” who still tried to understand her rude sister.

“I do not know why you came here,” Vanesha said, “Is your goal to distress Father and me? If so, I must say—you’ve succeeded. Watching you pains me.”

She fully expected Lianel to explode emotionally this time.

But—

“I do not waste my energy on such unproductive matters.”

Lianel remained calm.

“As I said yesterday, I am merely here on a business trip.”

“A—business trip? A business trip?”

Vanesha scoffed, shaking her head.

To Vanesha—who was waiting for Lianel to misspeak—this was golden.

“Did you hear that, Father? Lianel clearly no longer considers you her real father! Otherwise, how could she speak as coldly as if addressing some government official?”

Still laughing in disbelief, Vanesha asked:

“So? What business brought you all the way to the ducal estate?”

“To collect overdue taxes.”

Taxes?

The smile froze on Vanesha’s mouth.

Sensing danger, she hesitated.

“Lady Violenne received the Altin Plains and several buildings from Rupert Vincenheim as a free gift.”

“W-what…?”

“But since the two of you are not legally married, you are obligated to pay gift tax.”

Lianel placed a document she had prepared onto the desk.

“Please pay.”

The color drained from Vanesha’s face.

The brainwashed Rupert had no personal opinions.

Transferring land to him was as easy as breathing.

So when Vanesha suddenly became the owner of massive real estate, she wasn’t worried.

After all, it wasn’t ducal property but Rupert’s private assets. She assumed the ducal household wouldn’t know.

Even if they found out, she never imagined it would be Lianel who caught her.

Th—this…

And Lianel even brought the original property registration documents so Vanesha couldn’t deny it.

“And furthermore,”

Lianel slid another paper to where the duke could see it.

“I checked, and five of the buildings you own are operating as lodgings.”

Vanesha now feared every word coming out of Lianel’s mouth.

And the duke watching silently with folded arms added crushing pressure.

Stop it, you crazy woman!

But Lianel had zero intention of stopping.

The moment she requested “external work approval” from the duke, she had envisioned this entire scene.

Business trips were one of the most common audit targets for government officials. If someone lied about their trip or performed non-work activities, they always got caught.

So Lianel planned to stack indisputable achievements.

“However, you registered these buildings as public educational facilities to receive tax exemptions. You also failed to pay income tax from your unlicensed lodging operations. I’ve included the additional penalties for those in your bill. Please make the full payment.”

She placed the tax notice she prepared in front of Vanesha.

The amount exceeded even what she had charged Cedric earlier.

Vanesha stared at the number—so large she couldn’t even count the zeros—then looked up, barely holding on to her composure.

“T-this was just something Rupert put under my name for convenience! They’re not even really my buildings, so why am I paying taxes?”

It was her final attempt to resist.

But Lianel responded without even a smile.

“Oh my, so they were borrowed-name assets? In that case, you’ll also need to pay the additional fines.”

“…!”