The Archduke’s Flower Is in Danger - Chapter 13

“What on earth did you do while I was away?”

“What do you mean, what did I do? It was Idel Fleure who caused all this!”

At Count Fleure’s thunderous roar, the Countess wiped away her tears with an aggrieved expression.

“She deceived us and secretly took the Imperial University exam… and then she decided to marry the Grand Duke on her own! She acted so boldly!”

The Countess shouted in resentment, clutching her handkerchief as if she were trying to wring it dry. Count Fleure massaged his aching forehead and let out a deep sigh.

Perhaps it was because he had been too focused on managing the estate to pay attention to household affairs. On his way back to the capital after inspecting the territory, he had been nearly paralyzed with shock by a letter received from the Grand Duke.

—Is this true?

—It is. This is the newspaper issued today. The Grand Duke made the official announcement.

A messenger from the Grand Duke had been waiting in the alleyway leading from the Fleure estate to the capital. He delivered the shocking news along with the Duke’s letter and a newspaper.

—My daughter is marrying the Grand Duke? What sudden nonsense is this? What kind of parents are left in the dark about their own child’s marriage?

The messenger then pulled another letter from his breast pocket.

—His Grace instructed me to deliver this letter as well.

It was the second letter, meant to be delivered only if the Count reacted with hostility to the news of the marriage.

—Wh-what?

Count Fleure fell into a state of shock far greater than when he had read the first letter.

—A betrothal to the Marquis of Chalet… and are these details regarding the Marquis written here true?

The second letter was essentially a formal investigation report. It detailed how the Countess had proceeded with the marriage between the Marquis and Idel, and even included the specific “gratuity” she intended to collect. Furthermore, it clearly listed the evidence regarding the Marquis’s bizarre fetishes and the mysterious deaths of his previous wives.

—How could there be any falsehood in what His Grace sends? Additionally, please accept this.

The messenger pulled out a document. Count Fleure’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head as he confirmed the contents.

—Th-this is…

—He said this is to cover the cost of the prospective Grand Duchess’s dresses. He heard the Countess told her to leave everything behind if she wished to leave the house. This is the price for the only items she took with her when she left the estate.

What on earth kind of dress cost was equivalent to the annual budget of the Fleure estate? The transferable Imperial Bank account held an unbelievable sum.

Having regained his senses after a moment of daze, the Count rushed back to the estate and began questioning the Countess.

“Did you know what kind of man the Marquis was when you pushed for this marriage?”

“What kind of man? He is the head of a Marquis family known to be the wealthiest in the Empire! Becoming his wife would have been a blessing for the eldest!”

“Did you truly not know of the Marquis’s fetishes? Even if you didn’t, you pushed for this marriage without a word to me and tried to accept payment for it!”

“H-how do you know that…”

The Countess stammered, thinking of the secret contract containing the conditions for handing Idel over. With the marriage to the Marquis cancelled, it had become useless paper.

“Does that matter? What matters is that you tried to conduct a marriage like a business transaction!”

“Hah! What if it was a transaction? Marriages between noble houses are often so. My only sin was trying to find a good match for the eldest, who is of age.”

“That’s right, Father! Please stop. Mother did it out of affection for sister… she was worried sister would miss her prime because she doesn’t participate in social activities at all.”

As the voices of the Count and Countess rose, Roseline stepped in smoothly to defend the Countess.

“Mother and I only wanted what was best for sister, so it is very hurtful. For sister to enter the university and decide to marry the Grand Duke without a single word to us.”

Roseline’s eyes brimmed with tears as she wore a sorrowful expression. Seeing his daughter like this, the Count’s voice finally softened.

“Sigh… fine. What is done is done.”

Count Fleure felt a deep sense of guilt for what had happened while he was preoccupied.

Idel…

Though he never expressed it, his eldest daughter, born without a scent, was his greatest heartache. At first, he too had found it strange that his daughter was born without the family’s hereditary trait. That was why he hadn’t been able to actively defend his late wife when her fidelity was questioned by the family. After the woman he loved passed away and the child was left alone, he raised her out of a sense of responsibility.

—Father…

The child, who craved her parents’ affection, had quietly followed him and spent more and more time in the library. The child who read the books he read had suddenly grown into a lady.

Idel would often start to say something but end up writing in a notebook instead. One day, he had been startled by the writings in her notebook. Her thoughts on revising the ancient laws of the Fleure estate and improving the lives of the people through administrative procedures were brilliant enough to be admirable.

I wanted to talk with her someday…

The gap between father and daughter, which had grown for over a decade, was not easily closed. Since he had no son to inherit the title, the Count had secretly considered passing the Countship to the brilliant Idel. Therefore, he hadn’t rushed her marriage, hoping she would study and grow as much as she wished. Even if he failed to express it properly, Idel was the daughter of Fleure whom he acknowledged.

He regretted using his busyness as an excuse to neglect household affairs and delaying conversations with Idel day after day. He could only imagine how desperate she was to have secretly taken the Imperial University exam. It must have been the escape chosen by a child persecuted by the threat of marriage.

But to think she met the Grand Duke of all people…

The creases between the Count’s brows deepened. He would have granted permission for her to enter the Imperial University, but the sudden marriage to the Grand Duke was his greatest concern.

A daughter born without a scent and a Grand Duke of noble royal blood. If that passage he saw in the family’s ancient books was true…

His daughter and the Grand Duke were a bond that must never meet.

In the afternoon as the sun began to tilt, a guest visited the Grand Ducal residence. A slightly early afternoon tea was prepared in the drawing room.

“Welcome, Count.”

“I greet Your Grace.”

“I heard you returned yesterday. To seek me out as soon as you returned to the capital, you must have been quite surprised.”

“What parent would not be surprised by the sudden marriage of their child?”

“I wonder. You seemed quite indifferent until now.”

“…It is my failing.”

Count Fleure lowered his head slightly and let out a heavy breath through his nose. As the Grand Duke said, it was an outcome caused by his own neglect. Even if what had happened could not be undone, he had to prevent the misfortune that might befall his daughter due to this marriage.

“First… I intend to return the Imperial Bank account Your Grace sent through the messenger.”

“That was merely a small token of gratitude for the House of Fleure ‘caring’ for the prospective Grand Duchess so well.”

Kaeron Roman de Helios rejected it as if it were unnecessary when the Count offered the document from his pocket.

A small token of gratitude. It reminded the Count once again that an amount equivalent to the Fleure estate’s annual budget was truly nothing more than the cost of a dress to the Duke.

Indeed, the scale of the Grand Duke’s wealth was enormous, even based only on what was public knowledge. Every noble involved in real estate investment knew that the owner of the major buildings and lands in the capital was the Grand Duke. Furthermore, the Grand Ducal territory, which held vast lands passed down from the previous Dukes of Roman, reached all the way to the sea. The scale of the trade business conducted through the ports within the territory was growing day by day.

“Then I shall invest it into a bond under Idel’s name instead. It is the dowry I intended to give her when she married.”

“Do as you wish. However, there is no need to deliver anything else to the Grand Ducal House in the name of a dowry.”

“I understand.”

Count Fleure looked at the young Grand Duke sitting across from him. The Duke, with his cold and arrogant expression, seemed to have the blood of the Jupiter Imperial Family flowing more thickly through his veins than anyone else. He was a man more like an Emperor than the Emperor himself.

That was why the Count was even more uneasy. He needed to confirm something.

“If I may be so bold… may I ask the reason Your Grace decided to marry my daughter?”

“The reason?”

The Count could not bring himself to mention the words he had heard through Roseline. If the Grand Duke had truly fallen in love with Idel at first sight and was currently infatuated… and if the reason was because of her “scent”…

Kaeron, who had been watching the Count’s anxious face, finally spoke. Since it was the face of a father worried for his daughter, he decided to be honest.

“You received the letter, so you must know. She wished to avoid an unwanted marriage. Furthermore, she said she took the Imperial University exam because she wanted to be completely independent of the Count’s House.”

The unwanted marriage was one thing, but to want independence from the Count’s House… Count Fleure lowered his pained gaze.

“She thought of earning her own living after graduating from the university, even at the cost of abandoning her ‘noble face.’ However, under the remaining laws, a noblewoman who is not divorced cannot engage in social activities.”

The Count’s eyes wavered minutely. Had she wanted to escape so badly that she would even cast aside her noble status? His heart ached thinking of the desperate state of mind she must have been in.

“I decided to give her freedom three years from now.”

“That means…”

“Yes. This is a contract marriage. A contract proceeding because of mutual need.”

The shocked Count widened his eyes and asked in a thin, trembling voice.

“Then it is merely a contract… a marriage proceeding without any emotion?”

“Emotion? What is this emotion you speak of, Count?”

“I heard that Your Grace expressed affection for Idel before others.”

“Ah… I intend to solidify her status as the Grand Duchess publicly. As you know, the power of a Grand Duchess comes from the firm support of the Grand Duke.”

The Grand Duke, speaking with an impeccable expression and a cold voice, did not look like a man in love. His actions regarding Idel felt like nothing more than the treatment given to a partner with whom he had entered a contract.

Count Fleure closed his lips tight, his eyes reflecting a complex mix of emotions. He felt a deep sorrow for his daughter, who had chosen a contract marriage with divorce in mind for the sake of her independence… and a simultaneous sense of relief that the Grand Duke had not fallen in love with her.

“I… entrust Idel to you.”

For now, he had no choice but to silently support the path his daughter had chosen. Watching over her so she could do as she wished was the only atonement he could offer for having neglected her.

Idel Fleure was seeing off Count Fleure after his visit to the residence. It had been a while since she had seen her father, and his face had grown noticeably haggard. Even the bergamot scent that always accompanied him had faded significantly.

“Idel…”

“Yes. Please, speak.”

The Count, who had been searching her face with worried eyes for a long time, finally spoke with difficulty.

“Whenever you wish, you may return to the Count’s House.”

These were not words to say to a daughter about to be married. Idel realized her father, after his private talk with the Grand Duke, had learned the reality of this marriage.

As he hesitated before finally leaving, Count Fleure said to her.

“…You are my daughter.”

“!”

At that single, low sentence, the bridge of her nose stung and tears filled her eyes. It was the sentence she had wanted to hear her entire life and she was hearing it only now.

The Count, looking at his daughter with a pained expression as she struggled to find words with her tear-streaked face, turned away in silence. Standing at the entrance, Idel watched blankly as he walked back toward the Count’s estate.

Father…

If he had said those words just a little earlier would her situation be different now?

No, even so…

Idel shook her head. Even if he had, she knew well that she would not have wanted a life lived only as someone’s wife. To graduate and work, a divorce was necessary, and the conditions of the contract the Grand Duke offered were perfect. The only variable was her own heart, which wavered for him.

As she stood lost in thought for a long while, someone quietly approached her side.