TMDL 41

Chapter : 41

The two who had left the market got back into their carriage and arrived at the restaurant. As they entered the lobby under Raiden’s escort, a staff member greeted them politely.

“Welcome, Your Grace, Duke Betelheim.”

“Is the manager here?”

“Yes. Please wait just a moment. I will bring him right away.”

As Freya followed the hurried footsteps of the staff member with her eyes, the interior of the restaurant came into view. On the first floor, spacious halls stretched out on both sides around the central lobby, and on the second floor she could see private rooms.

“Oh my, look over there. It’s Duke Betelheim.”

At that moment, chattering voices reached the ears of the two as they waited.

“My goodness, it really is him. How lucky to run into him here.”

“And the young lady beside him… isn’t that the Marquis Valce’s daughter?”

“They’ve come to dine together. So I guess that rumor is true.”

From the moment Raiden and Freya entered together, they had already drawn everyone’s attention in the hall. The growing stares and rising voices were burdensome, but Freya, used to such things, let them pass and kept a calm expression.

“I thought it was just idle gossip, but seeing them like this, it really feels like they’re getting engaged.”

“So did I. But how did the two of them even get together? They hardly had any connection before.”

“Maybe through work. The Duke is the Chancellor, and the Marquis’s daughter works with him a lot, right?”

At one young lady’s words, another, who had lifted her water glass, curled her lips.

“Oh my, developing personal feelings while doing official business? Isn’t that a bit shameless?”

“They say the quieter someone looks, the more they hide. How impressive. They’ve been deceiving everyone all this time.”

Deceiving what, exactly? Freya sighed inwardly at their careless chatter.

It was obvious whom they were targeting. Reacting here would only be tiring. Just think of it as background music.

“…….”

Though Freya ignored the backbiting, not wanting to cause trouble, Raiden beside her did not.

In an instant, his expression hardened and he sharply turned his head toward the young ladies. Just as Freya reached out and tugged at his sleeve, the same voices rang out again.

“I heard that the Marquis Valce’s daughter stole Duke Betelheim from the Duke Vinok’s daughter.”

“Really?”

“Come to think of it, I heard the Duke Vinok’s daughter was lovers with Duke Betelheim.”

“If that’s true, that’s shocking. How could she steal her cousin’s lover?”

Freya’s gaze grew cold as she looked at the girls making such a fuss. It hadn’t been long since the truth about Astella’s lies had spread—so why were they still saying things like that?

Of course, there were still people who believed Astella was the Duke Vinok’s only daughter. Even though her relationship with Raiden had been revealed as false, they couldn’t completely turn their backs on someone who was still, in name, a duke’s daughter.

“The poor, delicate Duke Vinok’s daughter must have been deeply hurt. And what does the Duke even see in such a wooden doll of a woman?”

“No, I heard the Duke couldn’t help it either. From what I hear, the Marquis’s daughter has some dangerous leverage and is blackmailing him.”

“What? How could she do such a thing… She really has no conscience.”

If anyone lacks a conscience, it’s you. Who’s blackmailing whom with whose weakness?

Now they were even writing a novel—utterly ridiculous.

Let me see their faces.

It looked like they were just gossiping based on rumors Astella had spread again. Freya found herself curious about what kind of people they were.

As she released Raiden’s sleeve to approach them, he twisted his body and strode forward first. Startled, Freya grabbed his arm.

“Wait, Raiden. What are you trying to do?”

“They’re slandering you, Freya. I can’t keep listening to this.”

“Wait. It’s not a good idea for you to step in right now.”

“But—”

“I’ll go.”

Stopping the Raiden who had been holding back, Freya walked toward the table where the young ladies sat.

“Hello, everyone.”

“Oh, Marquis Valce’s daughter.”

The young lady sitting in the middle recognized her.

With dark purple hair, yellow eyes, and two moles on her left cheek, she was the Count Nennit’s daughter.

Setting down her teacup, she lifted the corners of her lips.

“What brings you here? You seem to be here to eat—why aren’t you going in?”

“We’re waiting for the manager, and I happened to see you all. I thought I’d come say hello since it was nice to run into you.”

Freya also took in the faces of the girls on either side of Nennit’s daughter: the Baroness Merville’s daughter and the Baron Ramil’s daughter, who always went around together because their families had close ties.

In the original story, they were the girls who hovered around Astella. If I had to say, they played the role of instigators.

They were a typical group of side characters who praised the heroine. Freya had met them a few times at social gatherings since possessing this body, so she quickly remembered who they were.

“We met all three of you at the Marquis Delt’s tea party last time, didn’t we? You’re still as close as ever.”

“Our families have known each other for a long time.”

“It’s nice to see you cherish those ties. But I think your friendship would shine even more if you had more… nutritious conversations.”

“What did you say?”

At Freya’s blunt words, Count Nennit’s daughter raised her eyes. Freya gave a light smiling glance and continued.

“You’re all daughters of distinguished families, so I thought it wasn’t fitting for you to spread baseless rumors after hearing nothing but gossip.”

“Marquis Valce’s daughter, what are you saying right now?”

“How can you carelessly say that we’re spreading rumors?”

“You’re the ones being careless.”

Her sharp gaze pierced the three who bristled.

“Saying I stole my cousin’s lover, or that I’m blackmailing Duke Betelheim with some weakness. Making up groundless stories like that—aren’t those rumors?”

“You’re exaggerating.”

“Groundless? The Duke Vinok’s daughter said it herself.”

“Don’t pretend otherwise. We know exactly what you did to the Duke. Did it hit a nerve because we pointed out the truth?”

Hostility toward Freya overflowed from the three.

She knew Astella had spread new rumors to clean up after being exposed, but it hadn’t been long—so why were they taking her side so readily?

Even with heroine bias, would they really defend her without any proper confirmation? Moreover, the three subtly placed more weight on Astella than on Raiden.

There was a huge difference between Raiden, an actual duke, and Astella, who was merely a duke’s daughter. So why were they siding with her like that?

Is there something I don’t know? Did Astella do something for these three?

As far as Freya knew, their families didn’t have much interaction with the Duke Vinok’s household, and the three weren’t particularly close to Astella either.

If they were doing this just to curry favor, it felt too thoughtless, which left Freya with an uneasy feeling she couldn’t shake.

“Why can’t you speak now? Surely you’re not shamelessly left with nothing to say?”

“Of course not. I just feel sorry that you’ve made the wrong choice.”

“The wrong choice?”

“You mean you trust the Duke Vinok’s daughter more than Duke Betelheim? Even though I came here together with the Duke?”

Freya glanced back at Raiden behind her. Count Nennit’s daughter flinched.

“Well, the Duke might have been forced to come with you! If you really have leverage on him—”

“You must think Duke Betelheim is the kind of man who’d be dragged around just because a marquis’s daughter has one weakness on him. How absurd he would find that if he heard it.”

“Th-that is…”

“It’s pitiful to see you blindly believe rumors whose only source is the words of a young lady, and in doing so, you’re disgracing the Duke.”

Shaking her head and letting out a sigh, Freya’s cold gaze settled on the three young ladies.