Chapter 11
After I returned to the ducal residence with the check carefully tucked against my chest, the news spread at lightning speed. Lisa, who came to tidy up the many ornaments in my hair, said with a bright smile,
“Oh my, Lady Laria…! I hear you won an enormous amount.”
“Yeah. I just got lucky.”
Lisa was a veteran maid who had worked at the ducal residence since she was very young. She wasn’t the type to make a fuss—calm, efficient, and deft with her hands. Every time she helped with my clothes or appearance, I could feel her professional eye at work.
“Thank you, Lisa. Even if it’s only my back, I feel like I might end up in the newspaper, so thanks for making me look pretty.”
She was the one who had carefully mixed and matched what few dresses and accessories I had when I said I was going out today.
She was so composed that she felt a bit distant, but there was no denying her competence.
“Everyone I ran into said you looked beautiful.”
Of course, I didn’t know whether they truly meant it, but flattery was still praise.
“Yes. Red really suits you, Lady Laria.”
“Evan wore a red cravat too, so everyone said we looked good together. Maybe they thought we were cute since we’re a little married couple.”
“I should speak to the butler and secure a bit more budget. I’ll order more dresses in red tones. The young master’s eyes are red as well, so you must have looked like a perfectly matched pair.”
Seemingly pleased with her own judgment, Lisa took one more look at my reflection in the mirror before changing the subject.
“But what do you plan to spend all that money on?”
“Well…”
Since Lisa might be a watcher placed by Duke Icard, I didn’t let my guard down.
“It’s money I came by easily, so I should use it for something good.”
It was obvious that people would track how I spent such a sudden windfall.
So rather than saying anything unnecessary, I chose to be vague.
“I’m thinking of holding onto it for now and maybe donating it.”
“Oh my, to where?”
“I’m not sure yet. I’ll have to look into it slowly.”
Lisa spoke with admiration, and I trailed off, muttering,
“Well… maybe to poor, sick orphans or something…”
That poor, sick orphan was me, so it wasn’t exactly a lie.
Come to think of it, my life before transmigrating had been the same. No parents, no money, and I was often sick.
It wasn’t for nothing that I’d felt a pang of pity when I saw Evan standing blankly at his graduation ceremony.
My own graduation, with no one there to congratulate me, wasn’t a good memory either.
“You’re truly kind-hearted, little madam.”
“Just call me Laria. ‘Little madam’ feels awkward.”
After finishing my hair ornaments, Lisa smiled as she undid the buttons on the back of my dress.
“…Lady Matilda was also a very warm-hearted person.”
Ah, she was talking about the duchess—Evan’s mother, my mother’s friend.
Lisa continued in a slightly wistful tone.
“She used to make donations all over the place.”
“I see.”
“She was incredibly lucky too. We used to say she carried good fortune wherever she went. In some ways, you’re very similar to Lady Laria.”
“R-really?”
“Even down to saying that being called ‘madam’ felt awkward and asking us to call her Lady Matilda.”
From what I could tell, Lady Matilda seemed very different from me, but apparently others saw similarities.
“If Lady Matilda were still alive…”
Lisa smiled faintly, sadness in her eyes.
“She would have cherished you dearly, Lady Laria.”
“Do you think so?”
“Absolutely. The atmosphere of the ducal residence when she was here and after she passed away is like night and day—oh!”
Lisa had been speaking gently when she suddenly startled at a sound coming from deeper inside the room. Lowering her voice, she whispered,
“Is the young master inside?”
The room Evan and I shared was called a room, but it was quite spacious. There was no door dividing it, yet it was clearly separated into an inner and outer area.
“Yeah. I told him I was going to change and not to come this way.”
“Ah…”
“Why?”
Lisa bit her lower lip as if she’d misspoken.
“It’s just… it might’ve been better not to talk about the late duchess in front of the young master.”
Even though it was praise for his own mother, I supposed it could still be uncomfortable.
For some reason, people here talked about Lady Matilda a lot.
Probably because the atmosphere of the ducal residence had changed so drastically after her death.
Whenever I snuck into the garden to eat Oclasia fruit, servants or maids who hadn’t noticed me would pass by saying things like, “When Lady Matilda was still here…”
‘It’s not Evan’s fault that Lady Matilda passed away, but…’
The one person who could have said that to him and comforted him—Duke Icard—was practically neglecting Evan now.
I hadn’t experienced that exact feeling myself, but still, I couldn’t help feeling sorry for him.
“Well then, you should wash up and change your clothes now.”
Lisa let out a small sigh, unable to fully hide her discomfort.
After washing up and changing into indoor clothes, I went into the inner room, where Evan was reading with a blank expression.
He must have heard our entire conversation, but he said nothing.
“Reading again? You really only read difficult books.”
When I spoke first, Evan nodded without even looking at me.
I lay down on the bed and stole glances at him from the corner of my eye.
Truthfully, there wasn’t much information about Evan Icard to begin with.
In the original story, Evan was barely even worthy of being called a sub–male lead—he was just a side character with no presence at all.
He appeared in only a few lines. Probably because he was always detached and inactive.
‘More like background scenery than a side character.’
His married life with Laria ended in a single sentence: he didn’t cry. That was it.
So the information I actually knew in detail was how Seymour, the commoner male lead, climbed so high, and how much catharsis Princess Elani delivered.
“You’re younger than me, but you’re really impressive.”
“I was reading books like this even when I was younger.”
Evan replied calmly.
“It’s nothing special.”
“Is that so?”
I burrowed deeper into the bed.
“Okay then. I won’t call you impressive anymore.”
I’d recovered quite a bit, but I was still far from healthy. My stamina was already completely drained.
Just going to the horse-racing event with this paper-thin body had been a serious strain.
As I yawned and pulled up the blanket, Evan muttered,
“…You don’t have to stop, you know.”
I blinked.
His sulky voice continued.
“You’re surprisingly cold.”
He was oddly cute, so I bit my lower lip to suppress a smile.
Rather than being blunt, Evan as a child seemed more like he was pretending to be.
‘Well… in a ducal residence where everyone longs for Lady Matilda, how could he have found a place to belong?’
It was a situation that wasn’t really anyone’s fault, yet it inevitably made a child shrink inward. And I was weak to children like that. No matter what happened later, I wanted to be good to Evan.
“Well, not just the book—today’s horse racing was impressive too. Nineteen to one!”
I said, yawning.
“I just got lucky with a random pick, but you studied hard and got a great return. You’re more impressive.”
“W-well…”
When I saw the back of Evan’s neck turning red, I chuckled to myself. A shy child was undeniably adorable.
“Still, today was fun, right?”
Unable to fight the drowsiness, I muttered one last thing.
“I hope we can go out like this more often… all of us together…”
It really was fun. Going with Duke Icard meant being guided to the VIP seats, and everyone treated us kindly. Being praised as the “little madam” of House Icard felt good too.
Winning money was nice, but the taste of power was exhilarating.
After wandering the ducal residence like a ghost every day, it was fun to dress up properly and go out. I’d never lived like this in my previous life.
But what I liked most was that I wasn’t alone. Even if the people I was with were Duke Icard, who might kill me someday, and Evan, who wouldn’t bat an eye even if I died.
I’d originally planned to go alone, but inviting Evan and Duke Icard along had truly been the right choice.
Every time people said we looked like a nice family, I felt strangely happy. And somehow, I thought I saw Evan nodding in my fading vision.
