Chapter 6
“Uncle Plon said so. He said a pretty woman is practically born wearing three medals. No matter how smart I am, compared to Ira—with her lovely curls and fair skin—I’m less valuable to the family with my glasses, stiff hair, and freckles.”
“That’s true.”
Helena threw a punch into the empty air.
“A punchable truth!”
She was completely serious. After punching the face of an imaginary enemy, she drove her knee into its groin, then climbed on top of the fallen opponent and stomped up and down.
Watching Helena wage war all by herself, Eliza burst out laughing.
Flipping back her long hair, Helena said,
“Honestly, if someone says nonsense like that, they deserve to get punched.”
Then she turned back to Eliza and spoke gently.
“Eliza, listen carefully. If a girl is pretty, then sure, it makes it easier for the family to marry her off somewhere good. I admit that’s an advantage. But that’s all it is.”
Helena let out a long sigh.
“Life isn’t some thin little fairy tale book that ends with ‘and they lived happily ever after.’ The period where your life is determined by what you’re born with is very, very short. After that, everyone has to take responsibility for their own life.”
Eliza looked as though she were trying her best to understand. Blinking slowly, she said,
“…Your words are harder to understand than trade funds.”
“That’s okay. You’ll understand someday. And there’s no need to care about what Uncle Plon says. He’s the real triple-medal champion. Ugly, bald, and fat. Who does he think he is, sticking his nose into other people’s lives?”
Eliza laughed loudly at Helena’s words, then put down her book and wrapped her arms around Helena’s slender waist.
“Big sister, we’ll still get to see each other often, right? I can’t cling to you like Henry does, but I hate that you’re leaving the capital too. This is so unfair.”
“Eliza. Even after all the times I bullied you, you still like me?”
At that, Eliza frowned and replied huffily,
“That was when we were kids! If you bring that up again, I’ll really get mad.”
After letting out a deep sigh, Eliza continued,
“Everyone just keeps saying it’s fortunate, but I don’t understand what’s supposed to be fortunate about it. You didn’t do anything wrong, Sister! The one who sleeps around is Crown Prince Rufus, and you were just there.”
Helena gave a thumbs-up.
“Welcome to the world of irrationality, absurdity, and lack of freedom, my little sister.”
“Oh, honestly!”
Patting her younger sister on the shoulder, Helena leaned close and whispered into her ear.
“Eliza, want me to tell you a secret?”
“What is it?”
“Your sister is going to become a spy.”
“……”
“This marriage has another purpose. I am heading south under Her Majesty the Empress’s orders, bearing an important mission. I plan to uncover the secrets hidden by Count Ishpern—my future husband—and seize wealth and glory for myself.”
Eliza sprang up from her desk and immediately began darting around the room, avoiding Helena’s grasping hands.
“I’m not talking to you anymore!”
“Aw, why? Is it because I’m only your half-sister?”
“I never said that!”
“So we really aren’t true sisters after all—!”
“Ah, seriously!”
After chasing each other around the room—and then reversing roles several times—the two finally stopped in front of the window.
Across the green meadow, along a white sand road carved through the grass like a parting in hair, a group of people was approaching the mansion.
Seeing the crest embroidered on their cloaks, Helena muttered,
“Why would anyone make something that ugly into a family crest?”
“Ugly? It’s a juniper branch with berries on it—the symbol of protection for House Ishpern.”
“Well, House Winston has a zinnia crest. It looks pretty on handkerchiefs and clothes. That thing just looks like bugs hanging in clusters.”
Leaving behind a speechless Eliza, Helena flung the window open.
She stepped onto the small balcony attached to it and looked down below.
Three riders had just passed through the mansion gates. One man rode ahead of the others and said something to the guards.
When the guards opened the gate for him, he pushed back the hood of the cloak bearing the Ishpern crest.
Helena didn’t know why, but she recognized him immediately.
‘Benjamin Ishpern!’
As if sensing her gaze, he lifted his head and looked upward.
Beneath his tousled black hair, she could see a face so pale it almost looked white.
“……!”
The distance was too great to make out his expression clearly.
And yet Helena knew.
He was smiling.
‘Smiling…?’
Entrusting her hair to the maid’s hands, Helena sank into thought.
The Empress had described him as “as wary as a little bird and as savage as a beast.”
Yet he had accepted the marriage proposal with desperate haste, like a man who wanted marriage so badly he couldn’t afford to hesitate.
And the group Helena had seen accompanying Count Ishpern consisted of only two others.
Three people total, including the count himself.
Even considering they had used the Gate and traveled lightly, it was far too few.
The Gates—relics from the Age of Magic—were vital means of transportation that allowed people to cross the vast Empire from city to city in an instant.
However, using a Gate required an enormous amount of mana stones, and the fees were outrageously expensive.
Because of that, it was customary to reduce the number of travelers as much as possible when using one.
But even so, arriving with no carriage and no attendants—just three people—was excessive.
It was a matter of courtesy.
‘He comes barging in so carelessly, and then smiles about it…? Is he an idiot?’
Wearing a serious expression, Helena stared at herself in the mirror.
Her carefully brushed hair gleamed silkily, and the face painstakingly made up by the maids looked more beautiful than ever.
Helena said irritably,
“Why did you make me this pretty? Tone it down. Like usual!”
One maid answered cautiously,
“My lady, it’s your first time meeting Count Ishpern. It’s better if you look beautiful.”
“Is it really?”
“Yes?”
Sharply eyeing the maids, Helena said,
“What matters right now isn’t how I look. It’s what kind of person he is.”
The maids, long accustomed to Helena’s sudden remarks, merely giggled.
“Oh, my lady, honestly. You’ll find out soon enough. In every possible detail.”
“Kyaahaha! Listen to her.”
After the laughter died down, one maid leaned in and whispered conspiratorially,
“My lady, the rumors we heard about Count Ishpern were wrong.”
“What rumors?”
“That he’s unbelievably handsome…!”
Helena’s eyes widened.
“So he’s actually not that handsome?”
The maid, who had been trying hard to maintain composure, slowly flushed pink.
Covering her mouth with both hands, she squealed,
“It’s not just ‘handsome’! I didn’t know a man that beautiful could actually exist…!”
“Really? Seriously?”
“I-I want to see him too…!”
Helena clasped the excited maids’ hands together tightly.
“And where do you think you’re going?”
“Huh?”
“My lady! But you just told us to do your makeup casually…!”
Helena gave them a wicked grin.
“You’re not going.”
“A-ah, my laaady…!”
“What kind of maids abandon a bride trembling with excitement on the eve of her wedding just to go admire the groom’s face? You should stay by the bride’s side.”
“You weren’t trembling at all! You were thinking about something completely different until just now…!”
“If I can’t see him, then neither can you.”
“Waaah…!”
“I don’t want to lose either, so I suppose I should dress up properly too. Go ahead and keep trying to draw vines on this pumpkin.”
“My lady, with a face this beautiful, how can you call yourself a pumpkin?”
Even as they said that, the maids once again devoted themselves wholeheartedly to adorning Helena.
Watching them bring over various accessories and hold them up against her, Helena fell into thought.
‘It’s nice if he’s handsome, but considering I’ll eventually have to stab him in the back, it might be a problem if he’s too handsome….’
The moment Helena Winston appeared in the banquet hall, everyone’s attention turned toward her at once.
Tonight, she was dazzlingly beautiful.
Her voluminous auburn hair was adorned with nearly a kilogram of pearls, while her silver dress layered pale violet and scarlet silk lace along the hem, creating the image of clouds touched by sunset.
She looked like a goddess draped in twilight.
Gasps praising her beauty rose from every corner of the hall.
“Lady Winston, you are radiant as ever today…!”
But Helena seemed unsatisfied even with that.
Standing by the railing at the top of the staircase leading into the hall, she straightened her neck and back proudly as she surveyed the crowd below.
Then she said:
“What occasion was it today again? The banquet hall seems unusually crowded.”
