I Just Needed Someone to Hate - Episode 4.2

“……”

“It seems she’s being extremely cautious so as not to tarnish her daughter’s reputation.”

“Her title won’t disappear just because her reputation takes a hit.”

Ludwig Rex muttered as he left his office.

“I don’t know why we have to cater to their demands.”

Once the substitute for the Prime Minister’s son abandons her with a light heart, it’ll be easy to pick her up again, as if they never proposed in the first place, thanks to those sanctimonious bastards. It’ll also be easy to make those noble sirs beg.

Hanna didn’t hear the words that followed, as they were spoken in a voice too low and soft.

“It might be easier to manipulate her as I please.”

❖ ❖ ❖

To Edmund, Vivianne Mergoville was still an enigma. The sight of her in clothes that didn’t suit this street, looking cold, bothered him, so he turned the saloon’s steering wheel and took her to a nearby clothing store.

But Vivianne, for her part, looked bewildered that he had brought her to a clothing store instead of her original destination, an electronics store.

Then, once they arrived at the clothing store and he took her inside, she rummaged through the coats with a sparkle in her eyes, just like a noble lady of her age. Before he knew it, he had become a non-existent person to her.

The change that had been on the table that morning was now displaying its cute presence on the clothing store counter.

Vivianne stood in front of it, deep in thought, choosing between the belt and the gloves in her hands. Just as she would pick up a belt that matched her newly chosen cape coat, her eyes would be drawn to the gloves decorated with pretty crochet lace.

The noble lady, who had been engrossed in the clothes, finally turned to him.

“Earl…”

It felt like she was bombarding him with the sound of “Your Excellency” all at once, a phrase he barely heard a few times a month.

When Edmund nodded, Vivianne glanced at the clerk who was tidying up the clothes in the distance, then turned her head back to the clothes.

“Edmund.”

Not ‘Colt’ or ‘Your Excellency,’ but his name. She said it demurely in a very small voice, as if she wasn’t used to calling him that.

She must have said it to hide his identity and avoid attracting attention, but there was something cute about it in its own way.

“Which one do you think is better to choose? I guess a coat needs a belt, right?”

Even so, she was clutching a pair of gauntlet-shaped leather gloves in her other hand.

In the upper echelons of society, the trend was to match gloves, belts, and bags, so it must have been hard to let go of either one.

When he shifted his gaze to where Vivianne kept looking, the clerk was just hanging the most expensive-looking fur coat in the store back on the rack. Vivianne had excitedly picked it up, only to put it down after seeing the price tag.

Edmund moved and took the hanger from the clerk. When he returned to where he had been, Vivianne was staring at him with a stiffer expression than before.

As if she had guessed what he was about to say, she shook her head and took a step back.

“Try it on. Then I’ll give you my opinion.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll just take this off…”

As Vivianne was about to put down the belt with a pale face, the clerk chimed in.

“Oh, a fur coat is a much better choice in this weather. Look, miss. You’re shivering. If the weather gets any colder, you won’t be able to wear the coat you’re wearing now.”

As the clerk was about to launch into a lengthy explanation of the coat, Edmund tossed the coat to Vivianne. Come to think of it, her lips were still blue even indoors.

She seemed to be very sensitive to the cold. When Edmund urged her with his eyes, Vivianne gave him a resentful look, then took the coat and put it on, as if trying to avoid the clerk.

Once she put it on, she seemed to like the warmth, as she crossed her arms and buried her face in the voluminous fur collar. Edmund watched Vivianne’s long, dark hair cascade down her shoulders.

The coat suited her as if it had met its owner. When she put on a matching belt, the gentle curves of her figure were subtly revealed.

The clerk was rattling on about the trendy nipped-in waist design, but he couldn’t hear it.

The design, which revealed only about half of her slender calves, wouldn’t be cold, and it didn’t feel out of place compared to her appearance in a dress yesterday.

The clerk, noticing that he wasn’t listening at all, scurried over to Vivianne and fastened the buttons near her left waist.

“The gloves suit you.”

At those words, Vivianne looked at him. He had wanted to say that the belt suited her because the feel of her bare hand that he had touched in the morning wasn’t so bad.

But looking at those lips, his thoughts disappeared. Besides, she looked so much like a noble lady that she seemed out of place without gloves.

Vivianne was about to take off the belt at almost the same time that Edmund took out his checkbook from his inside jacket pocket.

“The fur coat, belt, and gloves together. Do you have any useful scarves?”

“Ah, yes. Yes. A scarf. I’ll get it.”

As the clerk walked away, Vivianne looked at him with an even more tearful face. When she heard the clerk’s voice saying, “Um, the payment is…,” the anxiety on her pretty face reached its peak.

Ah. I see. Only then did Edmund realize what the problem was. Her trembling hands gripped the small bag she always carried.

“Perhaps I can pay with jewelry…”

When Vivianne said that, a check signed with Edmund’s name was placed on the counter. Nevertheless, Vivianne’s expression did not change.

After glancing at him with an incomprehensible look, she grabbed her bag and abruptly walked out. It was the first time he had seen her usually calm face so sharply honed.

Watching Vivianne’s silhouette through the glass window, Edmund pondered that she had never confessed the Mergoville family’s financial situation to him.

“Why did you do that?”

Vivianne was the first to speak. Her voice was filled with suppressed resentment. It was a very different look from when she had calmly talked about her fate yesterday morning, which was impressive.

Edmund did not answer. Premature comfort would only be poison, and besides, he had no talent for that sort of thing.

“Promise me you won’t do that again.”

After a long silence, the words that came from Vivianne’s lips were resolute.

If it had been some soft-hearted fools who didn’t know the Mergoville family’s circumstances, they would have only worried about what they had done wrong. They might have raised their voices, saying that they were only trying to be considerate, but they got this reaction.

Edmund had no desire to show off with a few coins, like those foolish fellows.

What pride.

Edmund looked at the two pale crimson eyes that were looking up at him as if blaming him for not answering. He shifted his gaze back to the front and said nonchalantly.

“It was the price of your life.”

“……”

“Didn’t we make a deal?”

Vivianne’s eyes gradually calmed down as if she was recalling what he had said this morning.

“……”

So, it wasn’t pity or charity. It was paying a fair price.

Edmund, after confirming that the color had returned to Vivianne’s lips, no longer looked to the side and allowed his companion to sort out her thoughts.

Vivianne didn’t speak for a long time. He didn’t get a thank you, but he could tell just by glancing at her profile.

The sound of the radio was heard sporadically through the open doorways of several stores. It was full of enthusiastic reactions that the Daatro Empire would be broadcasting the Emperor’s New Year’s address on the radio for the first time in history.

He shifted his gaze back to the street. Judging by the fact that there were a few more unfamiliar faces whispering to each other after glancing at Vivianne, it seemed like he would soon be in trouble.

Who was behind it? Anyway, it seemed that the noble lady had more than one enemy.

“Let’s go.”

Whether the unfamiliar faces to him were familiar faces to her, Vivianne suddenly gave him an order to leave. The look in her eyes was urgent.

“I don’t want to see your face right now, so disappear from my sight.”

When Edmund readily stepped back, Vivianne bit her lower lip, raised her chin, and moved on. As expected, a splendid limousine soon stopped in front of her.

Soon, the driver got out of the driver’s seat and opened the back door.

Someone with red heels touching the ground and adorned with luxurious designer items from head to toe got out. Edmund was just about to lean against the wall of a phone booth and light a cigarette. The voice was very clear even from there.

“I’ve been hearing good things about my regards to your mother.”

The noble lady’s momentum made Vivianne take a step back.

“I hear things are going well with your fiancé, and your brother aced the promotion exam, and your father will be getting his seat back in the council soon, right?”

“Cynthia.”

“But what are you doing in a place like this? I heard you were wearing the same clothes you wore yesterday this morning.”

“……”

“Since when have you been wearing ready-made clothes?”

Edmund slowly lowered the cigarette he was holding.

Noble lady marionette.

Seeing it from a distance, he could now clearly see whose work it was. Among his subordinates, there was one who pretended to be smart, but always chose to use clumsy self-defeating moves against a single person.

It was the bastard she called her fiancé.

Ludwig Rex.

Even if the other party, who was only a subordinate working as a quasi-organized member of the underworld, didn’t know him, Edmund knew the chairman’s son’s work very well.

On the same day, the morning at the Eastwell Estate began with a phone call from an unexpected person and a phone call to an unexpected person.

“…Ah, Marchioness Mergoville! You’re answering. I didn’t think I’d be able to say hello since you’re so busy.”

The house was filled with winter sunlight. A white cat that had been playing among the shadows of the windows moved and jumped into its owner’s arms.

A woman with wavy orange hair that reached her shoulders was sitting in a chair in front of the window. The antique design of the chair had many ornate curves, making it look like a throne.

In the woman’s hand, with her elbow slightly resting on the window frame, was a photograph, a sight that was hard to believe even with her own eyes. It was a tidbit that the media would love.

The cat reached out and tapped the end of the photo as if being affectionate. The woman curved her golden eyes and said.

“Of course, my father is doing well, Marchioness. You know, even though the economy is so difficult, the demand for wine is steady. I don’t know why people across the continent have so many reasons to party.”

A perfectly manicured hand stroked the cat’s soft fur.

“Yes. Well, I heard that there are a few vineyards that have been damaged so badly by the war that they can’t be used anymore. But there are so many better lands in this country and that country. I heard from her mother that Vivianne is doing well too. What else? She should be proud to have a fiancé who cares so much about her.”

After a brief pause, the woman continued.

“Yes. Mr. Rex is so worried about Vivianne that he called my secretary today and asked if she knew anything about what happened yesterday morning. He even asked if we could have lunch together if it was okay?”

The woman’s lips curved smoothly.

“No, of course I didn’t go. Whose fiancé is he, what would I hear? Anyway, it’s true that he’s a man who only knows her, just like I heard. Vivianne should take good care of her fiancé.”

The woman looked at the photograph in her hand again. It was a photo taken from afar of Vivianne, wearing the same evening gown she had worn at the party yesterday, buying cheap bread.

Click.

“Because I want it…. What she’s had more than she deserves so far.”

Those were the words that came out after the other party hung up first. Cynthia’s gaze was cast out the window. She had requested a follow-up report, but nothing had come back yet.

Was that amount of money not enough? Cynthia picked up the cat, held it in her arms, got up from where she had been sitting, placed it there, and moved on.

As she was walking down the endless hallway to go outside, she heard her father talking on the phone in his office. The Marchioness must have been in a hurry. Cynthia mused inwardly.

If you break down, I can be at the center of all the attention that was directed at you.

A queen who is not qualified should step down from the throne. She got into the prepared car with the feeling of being a pioneer who would reveal to the surface of society the fact that had long remained in her mind.

A broken Vivianne Mergoville. What could attract people’s attention more than the fall of an idol?

❖ ❖ ❖

“Anyway, you know.”

Cynthia said, circling Vivianne as if exploring.

“Is your mother still interested in the wine business? She seemed pretty desperate until a few years ago.”

It was then that Vivianne’s eyes sought out Edmund. The noble lady’s face, which had not shown any agitation, showed an unpleasant expression.

Even though the person in front of her was making an obvious provocation, she was the only one who could make eyes that said, “What have you been doing all this time, not disappearing as I told you to.”

Edmund leaned against the spot as he pleased and smoked a cigarette. Cynthia, who was moving behind Vivianne, didn’t seem to notice the exchange of glances between the two at all.

“She’s so desperate that I feel like I want to help her. Looking at you now, I should give her some business advice this time.”

As if she was too lazy to deal with her, Vivianne turned her head and moved on.

“Aren’t you taking care of your fiancé? Because you can’t….”

At those words, Vivianne’s steps stopped abruptly.

“Isn’t it because your man contacted me and asked if I would like to have lunch together?”

“…If you’ve said everything you want to say, go. I have nothing to say to you.”

Before those words were finished, the sound of a camera flash went off. Vivianne flinched, and a giggling laugh echoed through the street.

“Now there are two?”

The noble gaze unique to the Mergoville family turned to the photos and camera in Cynthia’s hand.

“One is Lady Vivianne Mergoville, who was photographed at a bakery on the street this morning, and the other is Lady Mergoville, the center of society, who was discovered on the street wearing ready-made clothes.”

“……”

“Oh, right, you don’t have any reporter friends to cover for you anymore, right? Don’t worry. You’ll get the price to buy a vineyard that your mother wants.”

Cynthia didn’t finish her words, and at the same time she turned around, Edmund snatched the photos that had been in her hand.

Vivianne shook her head and took a step back, but Edmund didn’t care. When his calloused thumb flicked the roller of the lighter, the fire burst out as if it had been waiting and swallowed the photo.

When a badly damaged photo fell onto the stone floor, Edmund Colt was still smoking the cigarette he had been smoking crookedly.

When the bodyguard came out as if kicking the car door, Edmund slammed the camera on the floor and pressed down on the broken camera with his shoe.

When Vivianne blinked her eyes twice, Cynthia’s bodyguard stood there with both hands slowly raised.

Edmund was aiming the pistol exactly at the bodyguard with a coldly hardened face that he had never shown her before.

With his eyes fixed on Cynthia.

“Photos?”

“……”

“What photos are you talking about?”

He had one hand in his pocket, and he tilted his head toward Cynthia as if showing off his threatening physique.

“Ah, that.”

Edmund’s gaze flowed to the black square photo that had fallen on the floor. He gave a low, cold sneer.

“I’m sorry it turned out like that. I’ll have to buy that lady a vineyard.”

“W-who are you?”

Soon, the insignificant woman, whose only reliance was on the paltry wealth and power she possessed, barked. It’s a similar repertoire. It doesn’t deviate from expectations by an inch.

“…T-this is illegal. You know that? Not only did you possess a firearm on the street, but you threatened someone. Just looking at this situation, it’s property damage….”

“……”

“You, you… you don’t know who my father is, do you, you gangster bastard.”

“Who is he?”

“……”

“The person who is your father.”

When Cynthia glanced at the bodyguard, the bodyguard nodded and slowly moved. It was when Edmund, without turning his head in that direction, pulled the hammer of the pistol without hesitation.

It was a very skillful hand movement. It was when the two flinched at the sound of the click.

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