🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 4
I am not commoner Kim Yuna. I am Duke Stadion. Agatha, Agatha.
Repeating that spell in my head—
“D-Duke Stadion? I-I heard you were sick……”
“I’m fine now. See? Perfectly fine.”
Wasn’t I basically award-winning actress material at this point? I was way too good at acting.
I really looked like a duke just now, didn’t I?
“A-ah… Congratulations. But why am I here?”
“That puppy. You were planning to leave it behind, weren’t you?”
The woman shut her mouth tightly. So she did know that was the wrong thing to do, huh?
“I’m taking it with me.”
I slowly walked toward the puppy, and then the woman suddenly screamed.
“Kyyaaaah!”
And ran away.
What the hell, that crazy— Ahem. A lady with a problem, perhaps.
I picked up the puppy. In my arms, the small dog curled into a little ball, and I stroked its head.
Its gaze looking up at me was so gentle. It must know what kind of situation it was in.
Animals may not be able to speak, but that does not mean they cannot feel emotions. I whispered softly into the puppy’s ear.
A fresh start begins with a fresh name.
“Your name is Ttori. Ttori.”
It looks very smart. It’s frightened now, but it’ll get better soon enough. Because I’m here.
Nothing like this will ever happen again, baby. From now on, you’ll live very happily with me.
Ttori had black eyes and pure white fur, and was charming beyond words. It also reminded me of Mary, which made me like it even more.
Emma, who had come closer without me noticing, added from behind,
“Are you all right, Your Grace? I heard this kind of thing has been happening a lot lately, but to think you’d take in such a cute one……”
“This sort of thing happens a lot?”
Hmm. If I have nothing else to do, maybe I should try that……?
“Are you really going to do this?”
Emma asked me with a shocked expression.
“Yep. Pretty cool, isn’t it?”
For several days, I had stayed holed up in my room and turned my idea into a business plan.
“…It is unusual. Very unusual. Really unusual.”
“That means you’ve never seen anything like it?”
“No noble would ever think of doing something like this. It’s not productive. Other people might point fingers at you.”
Emma said carefully.
“So what?”
“Pardon?”
“I’m Agatha.”
A shameless villainess with money and rank coming out of her ears—Agatha.
So what was there that I couldn’t do?
“That’s true. Lately, Your Grace has become so angelic that I forgot. Right, you’re Lady Agatha!”
Emma said, sounding genuinely surprised, then giggled.
Somehow, I felt like I was being subtly insulted.
Well, anyway.
Agatha’s terrible reputation would be a shield for me, so what did it matter what I did?
“Who do I usually call when I do things like this?”
There was someone who used to handle Agatha’s affairs for her. His name was on the tip of my tongue. I clung to my memory-loss persona and asked as if I knew nothing.
“Ah, when you need to do something. I mean, when you want to spend a lot of money?”
I nodded.
I had read the novel carefully, but since Agatha wasn’t the protagonist, the story didn’t really go into her schemes except for the things she did behind the scenes.
Agatha was the one who played the villainess role to the fullest.
So there were many things I remembered only vaguely.
“Hmm. In those cases, you’d leave it to your aide, Mr. David.”
“David?”
I know him.
He was the Stadion family’s loyal servant in the novel, the one who handled everything whenever Agatha thought up something wicked.
While reading, I had always wondered why he was so blindly devoted. That had actually been one of readers’ main reactions too—wondering whether that wicked Agatha had put some kind of curse on him.
That wicked woman is me.
“Then call David.”
“You really mean to do it?”
Emma asked again with concern. Such unnecessary worry.
“If I weren’t serious, why would I be this enthusiastic? I’m doing it.”
“Yes, understood, Your Grace.”
And the next day, David came straight to Stadion.
* * *
Rustle, rustle.
The only sound in the office was David carefully reviewing the business plan I had made.
It felt a little like getting approval from a team leader at work.
Even the speed of David blinking and the movement of his fountain pen made me nervous.
No, why should I be nervous? I’m the one spending my own money! Even if I said I’d throw it into the ocean, that would still be my business, wouldn’t it…?
“This looks interesting.”
So he does have eyes, the brat.
My heart flipped over like a pancake at David’s positive reaction.
“This may be rejected at first, but in the long run it could improve Stadion’s image as well. Recently, since many imperial domestic divine beasts have lost their abilities, it has become common for them to be abandoned.”
Yes, yes. I had thought of all that too.
I changed my posture from the properly seated position I had been maintaining.
I crossed my legs and leaned back in the chair.
“Once divine-beast companions turn into ordinary animals, they get abandoned or cause social problems. This will definitely be a good business. It’s a really good idea.”
Oh, come on. That’s too much praise. Stop there.
“Ahem. So, do it like this…….”
I got excited and pulled out every part of the plan I had made, from A to Z.
David listened carefully to everything I said. He had neatly trimmed short hair and horizontally long eyes.
His face reminded me of a retriever whenever he smiled. Not in a dangerous way, though—he looked more like he smelled like milk. Someone who would seem very far from betrayal?
In the novel, he helped Agatha the villainess with all sorts of shady things. Maybe that was a twisted expression of loyalty?
“Of course I will help with anything you do, Your Grace. Are you planning to devote yourself to this for the time being?”
“Yes, apparently. If I’m going to do it properly, I should.”
“…Then what about the Crown Prince?”
“The Crown Prince? Why the Crown Prince?”
The soft light in David’s eyes dimmed. It was like the sea at noon turning into the sea at night.
His heavy gaze came down on me.
“You mean the matter of you assigning someone to watch over His Highness the Crown Prince.”
David spoke carefully.
“Ah, that…….”
You did that too? Agatha, that is a crime!
‘This girl, this girl has no fear of the law!’
Phew. Since there was no one here to listen, it was no different from shouting into a well.
“That needs to stop. Ugh. You really don’t have to do anything like that anymore. No, absolutely don’t do it.”
“Why……?”
“I don’t like the Crown Prince anymore. So you should know that too, David.”
At once, David looked much more relaxed. He smiled brightly and asked me,
“Then will you get rid of the secret room as well?”
Secret room?
What is that? Were they raising some giant snake like in Harry Potter? Give me a hint, Emma.
When I glanced at her, Emma nodded. Did that mean it had to be removed?
“Ahem. Yes, that too. We should get rid of it as well.”
David’s expression brightened even more. He looked like a retriever that had just been told it could go for one hour of a walk and then another one after that. Seriously.
After discussing a few more things about what I planned to do, David left. Even at the very end, he reminded me several times:
You’ve thought this through very well, Your Grace. From now on, please do not even speak with His Highness the Crown Prince.
As David kept talking, I couldn’t help but notice something.
David wasn’t worried that Agatha was blindly clinging to the Crown Prince.
It was clearly jealousy.
Agatha hadn’t placed some kind of curse on David. She hadn’t threatened him either, and she hadn’t made a contract with him.
‘You brat. You liked Agatha.’
It was love for Agatha.
In that sense, I felt sorry for David. The Agatha he had loved would never return.
* * *
I only remembered the secret room David had mentioned about two days later.
I had gotten so caught up in the happiness of making my dream come true that I had completely forgotten about the secret room, but then David sent me a letter insisting that it absolutely had to be removed.
I put down the letter I was holding.
The tasks you requested seem likely to proceed smoothly. However, Your Grace, I must caution you that the secret room must be disposed of.
…(middle omitted)…
Your faithful friend, David.
At that point, I could no longer possibly forget.
“So what is this secret room?”
At my question, Emma jumped in surprise.
“T-the secret room? Why?”
Why was she reacting like that?
“I don’t even remember what it is, but David says it absolutely has to be removed.”
When I waved the letter at her, Emma’s face turned serious. Then, with an even more serious expression, she began pacing around the room.
“In the romance novels I read often, when a female lead who has lost her memory meets the male lead, she regains her memories.”
“So?”
What is she trying to say?
“What if, when Your Grace goes to that room, you regain your memory?”
“What?”
“And then what if you start loving His Highness the Crown Prince again?”
She looked exactly like someone who had just heard the line, “Yena is Jung-seon’s daughter!”
