CH 22

Translated by Lara

The servant, who was not good at running a letter, scratched the back of his head. Because a butler couldn’t be hired, the servant took over the role.

“I-I’m not sure. He said he came from a family with a long name, and I was told to deliver this to the master.”

“Have you got any other messages?”

Communication with a servant who didn’t know how to write and wasn’t educated was inevitably difficult.

“Yes? Yes. He said he’d wait for something.”

“What is that?”

The servant scratched his head again. She thought she should hire a butler first when she got her first salary from the palace.

Edith bit the servant and checked the outside of the envelope.

「Peyton Grayves of Black Vine Soil.」

What? Peyton?

Edith doubted her eyes.

Peyton was the sub-top and villain in the original story. He was a character who was at odds with Clyde; he was brilliant and had great action power.

However, like in most novels, the flaw was that he was born with the sub’s sorrow. Good things used to be driven to Clyde, the main top, and slightly lacking things used to go to the sub.

According to the introduction, it was said that all kinds of tricks and plots would be used later, but that part didn’t appear until Edith read it.

Why did this man send her a letter? It was also packed in a luxuriously burdensome envelope.

「Dear Sir Ketzmorris, I am sending you this letter with reverence.」

Wasn’t the greeting too polite? This phrase would likely come out in situations where extreme respect is needed. There’s no way a simple party invitation would be written like this.

There was a lot of polite writing in the lower line. Astonishment spread across Edith’s expression as he skimmed the non-point diagonally and came to the main point.

「The Ketzmorris and Grayves families have maintained a long-standing friendship. I hope to develop this relationship and make it into a 100-year relationship.」

If it’s a 100-year relationship.

「I don’t know what Sir Ketzmorris thinks of me, but I’ve had you in mind for a long time. If you give me a chance, I would like to meet you.」

“Eh?”

She raised her voice even though she was talking to herself.

It was a marriage proposal. From colorful envelopes to the beginning of the letter, the rhetoric continued to contain the story of a marriage.

She couldn’t believe the sub-top Peyton suddenly offered marriage to Edith.

Why on earth?

Peyton proposed a strategic marriage to Adrian in the original story, not Edith. The intention was to combine Adrian’s family, which has promising businesses in the commercial and industries, with Peyton’s family, which is pioneering a distant continent across the sea.

It was a very reasonable choice for a businessman. The way they convey his intention to marry was also easy.

In the article’s introduction, Peyton was set as a villain, but there was nothing to hate until the beginning of the story she read. Maybe the first half was fine to blow up his massive defeat later.

Edith pondered as she traced the shiny envelope’s edges with her fingers.

Why did the letter that was supposed for Adrian come to her?

What influence did she have on Peyton?

‘Perhaps because I have inherited the title?’

A purely strategic choice would put Edith on the list as Peyton’s Marriage partner.

First, it has the advantage of being equal as both of them are from the duke family.

In this empire, only a handful of families have the rank of duke. Among the families, there are very few young ladies who are of marriageable age, even if they include collateral family.

It must be natural for any family to want to be associated with a family with the same status.

The second advantage, Edith wasn’t the duke’s daughter but the one who held the duke’s title.

‘Is it because of my title that Peyton, who had no contact with me, is doing this to me?’

Business is good, but honor is more important in this world. Peyton might be greedy enough to have a duke spouse.

Edith’s status was higher for now, even though he was still the duke’s son.

But did Peyton have a good idea of how much debt she owed? He should have known that Edith had to pay off her father’s debt under the circumstances.

He probably didn’t know the exact amount. He might have put in a marriage agreement with the idea of finding out for now.

Here she made an assumption.

Perhaps Peyton had decided to marry her because she had moved differently from Edith in the original story.

If he chose Edith, who has a better social status, rather than Adrian, who has a business advantage after careful consideration.

‘Is it okay to change this much? It’s so different from the original.’

The degree of change was so great that it was disconcerting. A butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil caused a gust of wind in Texas.

The difference between fiction and reality began with a small one.

Edith wouldn’t have forced her father to give her a title if it was in the original story. Although her original character wasn’t described in detail, it is common sense. Therefore, she was highly likely to receive Peyton’s marriage letter because she had become a duke.

What about Clyde or Adrian? Would she have changed them too? Was it already different before she arranged their meeting in the maze garden?

It was also doubtful that Clyde enjoyed chasing her.

It was also suspicious that Adrian tried to approach her during his academy days.

An uncontrollable epiphany poured into her mind like a blocked dam that burst. The change had already occurred, and she may have lived in this world for four years without knowing it.

The ambition to live a leisurely life by stepping down after living a proper life was also too complacent. The world isn’t going the way she wants it to.

She shakes her head.

‘No. It is too early to make hasty judgments based on the marriage offer alone.’

She forcibly turned the positive circuit and thought as if struggling in the swamp where she couldn’t escape.

This letter might be about an ordinary person’s life that was not written in the original. In any novel, it is impossible to convey all of the characters’ biographies in writing.

It was now two years before the original story began. What if Peyton had brought up the marriage talk to Edith’s family at this time and withdrew it. Later he fell in love with Adrian and came up with various tricks.

Then it makes sense.

Edith looked far into her house’s garden, which more resembled a bush, and was preoccupied with what to do with the situation.

The issue of marriage has just started.

A single letter alone does not make it irreversible.

So there was also a way to make Peyton change his mind after dealing with it moderately.

‘No, no. I can’t do it in moderation. It would be better to be strong.’

She devised various ideas, but didn’t consider accepting marriage talks among them.

Regardless of the original story or how the story of the mid-to-late part unfolded, from Edith’s own standards, she could never imagine that Peyton would be her husband. It was the same even if he didn’t become a villain.

Married a man she had never seen before. It’s absolutely bad.

❋ ❋ ❋

The matchmaker came and went, and Edith also sent a reply in polite handwriting.

Initially, such a wedding was supposed to be done by parents and other adults, but Edith conducted it herself because the circumstances were not favorable.

Because it was a marriage according to the conditions, the conditions must be wrong to break the situation. Edith was the only one to go out to discuss it. Her mother, who went back to her parents’ house was too far away, and her father, who was hard to see, was a gambler.

The fact that she has the title, which was the core of the marriage conversation, was also a reason for attending the meeting. Although the family was on the verge of bankruptcy, the duke was a duke no matter what anyone said.

The meeting place was Peyton’s mansion. The distance was not far either.

In the Lagrand Empire, several families of the highest aristocrats were often referred to as ‘Pillars of the Earth’. Edith’s neighborhood was a gathering of high-ranking aristocrats, so it was also called Pillar of the Earth Hill.

A few blocks from Edith’s house, the most shabby mansion on the hill, Peyton’s mansion stood magnificently.

Adrian’s new aristocratic family was also wealthy, but Peyton’s family was a lord with a long history. Peyton was more prosperous compared to Edith’s childhood wealth.

After passing through the gate that was several dozen yards wide, a garden overflowing with formative beauty appeared. It was only after a long time in the carriage that she could reach the house’s front door.

A butler dressed in luxurious attire greeted her.

“Welcome, Duke. The master is already waiting in anticipation.”

He courteously guided her to the drawing room the size of her playground.

The whole thing that stood out to her was precious and a bunch of money. Thanks to that, the delusion of performance flashed by. With her eyes closed, she thought a vain idea that if she married Peyton, she might eat well and live well without suffering as a servant.

After a while, today’s protagonist appeared.

His elongated stature stood out from a distance.

While he was approaching with his chopstick-like legs, his gorgeous blonde hair, as if holding the sun on his head, was floating high enough to be afraid of hitting the chandelier.

“Sir Ketzmorris, I’ve really wanted to meet you.”

A soft, likable face approached dazzlingly like a flame.

Was Peyton’s character portrayed in this way in the original? Or did she just skim over and forget it?

The man, whose positive energy flows through his body, greeted her with a warm smile with the best courtesy.

“It’s nice to see you.”

Edith’s toes were slightly tense as she got up and responded in return.  The change in her mood was also due to appearance-oriented values.

Growing up in a wealthy family with a decent education, Peyton had a successful track record of business success that met expectations. In the original story, he was the best groom in the empire until he met Adrian and gradually revealed his true character as a villain.

If Edith had not inherited the duke’s title, she would not have dreamed of it.

“I was very excited while waiting when I heard that you would come in person. Be at ease. Would you feel better if I played some music?”

This politeness.

It looked like the male lead in a romance novel’s impression actually popped out.

She was convinced that the scene that reveals Peyton’s image in the original didn’t devote this much.

If it did, she couldn’t have been forgotten.

How could she erase the image of a man with warm brilliance like a halo and politely lower his hand from her memory?

“I’m happy to be invited. Am I in too much of a hurry?”

“Absolutely. If you saw me not sleeping at all last night, Your Grace would laugh.”

“Prince Grayves. Even the words….”

When he smiled, she wanted to laugh her heart out.

Wow, this guy is a sub-top and a villain?

Nonsense.

He’s the best in the world.