When The Count’s Illegitimate Daughter Gets Married

Chapter 15

He knew how much Laritte loved this old villa.

The first floor was always free of dust (The second floor had been abandoned.) The walls were clean too.

Before he came to this house, she had also bought a seedling and raised it well.

Little flowers used to bloom every day on the table where she usually took her meals.

Laritte told him.

But each and every one of them was a lie!

“No, it can’t be like this. I should be the one to do it.”

Ian turned around, clutching the invitation.

Laritte tried to snatch it from behind.

“If you go alone and fail……”

“…..?”

“I can confess to the government that I was the one who invited you.”

She was really stubborn.

He frowned and glanced back at her.

Her face was still calm.

“Or you’ll be executed.”

“I wouldn’t be.”

“Really?”

‘How can you be so sure?’

When she asked again, he hesitated.

She was the last person to know about his whereabouts.

‘What if he actually fails?’

Looking at her calm expression, he felt shivers running down his spine.

Laritte knew Ian as much as he knew her.

In the end, he had no choice but to surrender to her.

Ian strode towards the door leaving her behind. He deliberately raised his voice so that he could be heard clearly.

“All right, if we’re going to attend the banquet, we have to wear formal clothes. How much does a ginseng dress cost? But before that, I’m going to have to sell some wood.”

“…..”

“Of course, you don’t have to help me. It must be hard to cut those items.”

‘I can see you’re already struggling.’

When he didn’t get any response from Laritte, he sighed before he went to search for the ax.

Ian was still standing in front of the porch.

He was agonizing for a long time….

Until he heard a rumbling sound from inside of the villa and shouted.

“Okay, all right! You!”

Laritte, who was lying on a wooden board, opened her eyes abruptly.

He stomped his foot loudly before walking towards the source.

He reached a hand towards her.

“Let’s go together, okay?”

“Ah.”

She stood up with Ian’s help after giving out a slight exclamation.

“Phew….and you don’t have to buy a dress.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s probably still there…..”

Laritte followed Ian up to the second floor.

The floor still remained untreated, covered with dust and cobwebs.

Taking the lead, Ian went ahead and cleared the cobwebs.

“W-What are you looking for?”

“The attic. It doesn’t smell good there, so please wait downstairs.”

Laritte rolled her eyes.

‘Why do you want to go to the attic now?’

The villa was shaped like any other house. The farther they went, the more the roof became slanted.

But there was no attic on the ceiling of the second floor.

She kept following him curiously.

Ian sighed when he noticed that Laritte was still following him.

He picked up a suitable block before putting it in a gap in the ordinary ceiling.

‘You don’t want to destroy the house, do you?’

Suddenly, the ceiling, which obviously didn’t have a gap, rattled open.

It made Ian recall about his old days. From NôvelDrama.Org.

When he was a kid, a servant always used to open it for him. It was the first time he got the chance to do it himself.

He tried to climb up using the fallen rope ladder as a prop.

As expected, it wasn’t that strong.

He reached out to get a dusty box from the second floor.

“What is it for?”

“It contains my mother’s clothes.”

They were not just ordinary clothes, but the favorite dress of Selena Reinhardt.

It was obtained from a Dragon’s skin.

It also had a beautiful neckline.

It was woven with special fibers that were highly elastic. It seemed as if it would never be worn out.

It was considered to be one of the beautiful dresses made out of a Dragon’s skin in the Kingdom.

The deceased Duke had gifted it to Selena as a proposal for the marriage. It was her priceless possession.

“My mother used to love it. It seems as though this dress reminded her of many precious memories. That’s why she brought it here.”

“You used to live here with the former Duchess, didn’t you?”

Ian nodded.

Carefully opening the box, Laritte found a pure white dress.

The hem of the dress flowed downwards as she took it out. It was composed of simple yet luxurious restrained decorations.

‘Beautiful.’

As she was still staring at the dress, Ian added to break the awkwardness he felt.

“It doesn’t look like it, but it belonged to my late mother, and it was made many decades ago, so it might not be of today’s trend…..”

He wanted to say, “If you don’t like it, I’ll have to go down and cut the extra furniture of the villa.”

But to his surprise…

“No, I like it.”

‘Did that trend come back again?’

The design itself didn’t feel so different from what Rose used to wear recently.

But, Laritte had never seen anything so beautiful in her life.

Only then did Ian stop making excuses.

“…Is that so?”

In fact, he thought the dress suited her very well.

An elegant white dress that goes well with fancy silver shoes as if they were made out of silk.

It was no exaggeration for him to say that it was as though it was only made for Laritte to wear.

If Selena knew about this, she would have been very delighted to see that the dress she treasured so much was given to Ian’s wife.

Laritte also was reverent at the thought of being able to hold the relic of Ian’s mother.

However, unlike his inner thoughts, Ian spoke with a peculiar expression of indifference.

“I’d still have to cut the furniture anyway.”

“…..Why?”

“We don’t have enough money to reach the capital.”

It was early spring, so renting a wagon would also be expensive.

Moreover, it was not a one-day trip to the capital, so they would have to stay in an inn along the way.

“…..”

Ian quietly went downstairs to the first floor and began to look for the ax.

***

As the National Foundation Day got nearer, Laritte had to visit the town more frequently.

Ian did help by cutting the furniture and loading the cart with wood, but it was up to Laritte to go to the village’s town to sell the wood.

She couldn’t sell all the wood at once as they only had one cart.

Ian was told to wait patiently at the villa while she went to the village alone.

However, she felt like she was determined to clear up the Duke’s charges.

But Ian was unaware of it.

“You can leave it now.”

“I don’t see the village yet. Let me carry it just a little further….”

Ian shifted his steps by dragging the cart.

They couldn’t go into the village together, but they could pull the cart near the province.

Laritte didn’t seem to be tired even though it took another ten minutes for her to get to the village.

“I saw someone over there.”

“Where….!”

“You’re nervous too, aren’t you? So let go.”

‘A lie again.’

Ian’s lips curved up into a smirk, his heart still thumping lightly.

There was no way that a Swordmaster would notice the presence of a person later than a normal human, Laritte.

Even though his face was calm, her lies always fooled him.

Thinking over her carefree words, Ian put down the cart handle.

If they got caught together, not only him but also Laritte would be in grave danger.

“Be careful when you come back. I will be waiting here.”

Laritte glanced at Ian, briefly giving him a sullen look.

But it didn’t miss Ian’s eyes.

He was to hide behind a tree and wait as Laritte makes her way to the town.

Hiding his presence was a piece of cake for a skilled Swordmaster.

There was no chance of him being caught even if someone passed through the path.

“I’ll be waiting.”

So once again, Laritte led the wagon towards the village.

Ian stood there, watching the woman walk away until he couldn’t see her back.