PVMC 21

Chapter 21

‘Good. One thing’s finished for now.’

Thanks to Selina, who sold her soul for money, the preparations went fairly smoothly. After leaving the shop, I took a look around the area.

“Why?”

Matthias, who had come along with me, asked. Since I didn’t head straight home, he seemed curious.

“Well, we don’t get out very often.”

Of course, I did come out today because I had business to take care of. Still, since things were going well, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to take a short breather.

“Should we hang around a bit before going back?”

“……But.”

“We can just tell Sophia that things didn’t go smoothly and it took longer. We worked really hard trying to pawn the necklace, right?”

My mouth worked just as hard, too.

‘And I blocked every attempt to pull something in the middle.’

Either way, it was true that we’d obtained it with difficulty.

“Once everything’s done, let’s rest properly.”

I still needed to teach Matthias how to read and other things.

Things had started moving more urgently than I expected, so I hadn’t had the leeway to worry about the finer details.

Still, it was fortunate that he had a gentle disposition. If not, keeping him around might have become a bit troublesome.

But once Xavier was dealt with, there wouldn’t be anyone left who could lay a hand on me.

By then, I figured I’d be able to take care of Matthias as well as other business-related matters.

‘I need to shape him into a proper person as much as possible.’

One saving grace was that, at the core, he wasn’t a villain from the start.

As expected, early education had a huge impact on a child’s growth and development.

It seemed he’d been completely warped by misguided educational policies, so I planned to let him experience as much everyday happiness as possible to prevent the same thing from happening again.

You have to enjoy even small, modest happiness to understand how precious it is.

“What should we do first once everything’s over?”

Education was a given, of course.

At that moment, Matthias tightly grabbed my hand.

Startled, I looked up at him, and he parted his lips slightly.

“Stay with me.”

“…….”

“Always.”

As he said that, Matthias pulled me toward him. In the blink of an eye, I was pressed right up against him, and I could only move my lips blankly.

“Why?”

“Ah, no.”

At that moment, without realizing it, I avoided his gaze.

“It’s nothing.”

A corridor lined with a long red carpet.

Late at night. Lady Odilon, walking leisurely along it, was in an exceptionally good mood for once. Originally, she’d planned to move as soon as day broke.

‘How could I possibly stay still?’

After receiving such a charming proposal.

With life suddenly becoming enjoyable again, Lady Odilon even hummed softly, her shoulders bouncing.

‘Even now, it still surprises me.’

When she first heard it, she’d thought she was being mocked.

Rumors of discord with her husband were already well known in high society, but no one had ever made her such an audacious proposal.

All she’d ever received were empty pieces of advice—things like how their relationship would improve someday, or how someone else had overcome a slump in their marriage.

Someone openly coming to her and saying they’d help her get divorced—that was a first.

And the fact that it came from a young lady who’d always seemed extremely quiet whenever she saw her made it even more novel.

Well, for her, no matter which choice she made, there was nothing to lose.

Since she’d been given confidence that the plan would succeed for certain, there was no reason not to take part.

‘For now, I’ve secured private soldiers as well.’

Persuading the emperor had been easy.

As his cousin, entering the imperial palace itself wasn’t difficult, and just as Aria had said, the emperor was currently in a state where he’d do anything to capture slave traders.

Because he had the goal of cutting out a long-standing corruption at its root, she probably could’ve received enough help even if she’d gone directly to the emperor rather than to her.

But approaching the emperor directly would’ve been burdensome. Perhaps that was why she’d come to her instead.

And what she wanted wasn’t complicated—she wanted her to gather the emperor’s private soldiers.

‘I like her.’

From the look of it, her family’s debt was considerable, to the point that other families were turning their backs on her—but that would likely be temporary.

She was clearly sharp. If she could somehow resolve her debt problem, Lady Odilon thought she might help her a little later on, as a commemoration of helping with her divorce.

“Hm?”

At that moment, Lady Odilon, who had been walking along in high spirits, tilted her head.

But when she recognized the person approaching, her face stiffened.

The tall man walking toward her was the Duke of Frombel.

‘What’s he doing here?’

Despite not being on good terms with the emperor, why did he keep coming and going from the imperial palace? Though they were of the same imperial bloodline, she simply couldn’t look on him favorably.

“What brings you here?”

The Duke of Frombel, having also noticed her, arrogantly lifted his chin. Lady Odilon let out a hollow laugh and raised her own chin.

“Do family members need a reason to see each other?”

Implying that she was closer to the family than he was and therefore saw them more often, Lady Odilon frowned irritably.

“And why are you here, Duke? It’s not meeting time right now, is it?”

“Do family members need a reason?”

……Is he mocking me right now?

Throwing her own words back at her like that rubbed her the wrong way.

Not wanting to deal with him any further, Lady Odilon snorted and stepped aside.

He’d lacked self-awareness even when the former emperor was still alive.

“You look quite displeased that I’m here.”

“At least you have that much awareness. The problem is your lack of conscience.”

“You’ve always spoken rudely to your elders.”

“Perhaps you should reflect on your excessive shamelessness, which hasn’t changed either.”

Even now, just thinking about how her cousin had suffered because of him made her teeth grind.

Wasn’t he the one who, in order to become emperor himself, had driven his cousin—then the crown prince—to the brink of death?

Having no desire to associate with him any longer, Lady Odilon immediately walked away.

But the feeling was mutual.

The Duke of Frombel glanced sideways once at the woman passing by him, then continued forward as if nothing had happened.

In truth, he had no particular interest or feelings toward any of the imperial family besides the current emperor. They were simply people who might as well not exist.

Perhaps because he was confident they posed no threat to him, he hadn’t paid them much mind until now.

But there was one exception.

Not that woman.

—A-Are you insane?! How could a human being do something like this…?!

The person who had directly witnessed his desperate inferiority complex.

That ill-mannered family member who had glimpsed his ugly inner self disgusted him deeply.

“Th-Then let’s just take a simple walk today!”

It was hard to get tickets to see a play at this hour, and it was too late to move on to somewhere else.

Since nothing good would come from standing out, there really wasn’t much we could do even if we said we were ‘hanging out.’

It was a bustling area anyway, so just walking around offered plenty to look at.

“Yeah, sounds good.”

Matthias nodded readily. I smiled awkwardly and loosened my grip slightly on the hand I was holding.

But as if he intended to keep holding it, I felt his interlaced fingers tighten firmly.

Sensing his absolute refusal to let go, I eventually surrendered.

“Let’s go, then.”

“!”

At my words, Matthias beamed.

Seeing how clearly happy he was, I turned my gaze away for no particular reason.