Chapter 19

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Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: A Tool's Purpose
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“This is a happy reunion with my daughter. Would you mind giving us a moment?”

That was the first thing Duke Alloje said as I entered the Alloje family’s reception room.

Naturally, his gaze was fixed on the Argenta people who were about to follow me in.

The Argenta attendants, including Pielle, hesitated.

“Surely you don’t think I would harm my own daughter?”

Duke Alloje asked, as if the thought was absurd.

Only then did Pielle and the others take a step back.

The Duke didn’t know it, but they had retreated only after I gave them a subtle look that I was fine.

—Creeeak… Thud.

The moment the reception room door closed, the smile vanished from Duke Alloje’s face.

The gaze that fell upon me was not that of a man looking at his daughter, but at a tool.

“So, how are things progressing?”

It seemed that secretly sending someone to demand ‘proof of the wedding night’ wasn’t enough for him.

To ask this the moment I arrived.

“I hear the two of you are so inseparable it’s blinding.”

Duke Alloje continued.

A bitter laugh almost escaped my lips, but I answered him faithfully.

In this moment, I had to be ‘Duke Alloje’s faithful pawn.’

“I’ve succeeded in continuing to share a room with Diello. The problem is, Diello Argenta is too…”

I trailed off, putting on a troubled expression.

“…pure of heart.”

“What?”

When telling a lie, it’s best to mix 95% truth with 5% falsehood.

That way, the other person won’t easily notice anything strange.

I don’t know if Diello was excessively pure of heart, but he was certainly pure in many ways.

‘You can trust anyone from Argenta who travels to the fourth floor.’

I let out a sigh, recalling the night he had said those words.

“It seems he’s taking his time opening up to me, likely because I’m from the Alloje family.”

“And it’s not because you haven’t been trying?”

Duke Alloje’s sharp gaze swept over me.

I shook my head.

“Of course I’m trying. But you know this as well, Your Grace. For a family head and a Pero to be bound, it takes more than simply taking their chastity.”

“…I am aware of that.”

The more a family head opens their heart to a Pero and gives them their purity, the more the seal suppressing their abilities gradually fades.

“So I think it will take some time.”

“Tsk. You couldn’t have anticipated something like that?”

Duke Alloje clicked his tongue at my words.

Then he spoke with a shameless face.

“There’s a reason they say physical intimacy builds affection. Can you not even do that properly?”

I knew he was trash, but seeing him in person, he was worse than I could have ever imagined.

I had been possessed while being carted off to the Argenta estate, so this was my first time facing Duke Alloje alone.

Thanks to that, this was my first impression of him.

The worst of the worst. The scum of the earth.

Just as I thought that.

—Fwoosh.

The air around me seemed to grow heavy. To be precise, it felt as if the very moisture in the air was pressing down on me.

And the teacup on the table between us. I felt an intense pressure emanating from the water within it.

The source, of course, was Duke Alloje.

The Alloje family head’s ability to control water had begun to press down on me.

For a moment, my breath caught in my throat.

“Did you not hear my order to seduce him by any means necessary?”

—Flick!

The water in the teacup before him instantly transformed into a sharp blade, pointed directly at my throat.

“!”

I felt a stinging sensation, followed by something trickling down my neck.

It wasn’t tea, but blood.

My blood.

A sudden chill ran down my spine.

“…Of course, I am trying to do so.”

I said, my voice unintentionally hushed.

I felt as though I’d be stabbed in the throat if I spoke any louder.

“What use is effort without results?”

Duke Alloje scowled.

The pressure intensified until it was difficult to even breathe.

It’s fine, you knew he would pressure you like this, didn’t you?

In the original novel, Duke Alloje was thoroughly depicted as a scoundrel.

At this rate, I’d have to report every detail of how far I was getting with Diello at night.

Not that there was anything to report.

If he was going to be like this, I was sorry, Diello, but I had no choice but to play my last card.

“…But it’s just not working, Your Grace.”

I bit my lip with a look of distress.

“Why? Don’t tell me that man has lost his abilities at such a young age?”

It was clear the ability the Duke was referring to was not Argenta’s control over fire.

He was probably talking about his performance in bed.

How crude.

I had expected it, but his vulgarity was beyond imagination.

With that in mind, I shook my head.

“I don’t think that’s it. But…”

I’m sorry, Diello!

I made a silent declaration of conscience before I spoke.

…with the desperate face of someone at their wit’s end.

“He says his heart isn’t in it, so he just can’t go through with it.”

He can’t get it up! What am I supposed to do!

“Forcing it would only make him close himself off more, which would be counterproductive… So I’m trying to get closer to him slowly.”

“…This is maddening. All this nonsense about being pure of heart…”

Duke Alloje leaned back against the sofa, looking utterly dumbfounded.

But as a family head with his own Pero, he had to know.

That forcing intimacy without a genuine connection was pointless.

—Splash!

The tea water that had been poised to slit my throat returned to his cup.

He took a sip of the tea, now mixed with my blood, without a hint of hesitation and spoke.

“We don’t know when the real Pero will appear. Before that happens, you must seize his potential. Understand?”

“…I understand.”

Duke Alloje’s eyes narrowed.

“What’s most important is not to get caught. Do not forget, Croire Alloje.”

He lifted my chin with his fingertips.

“Useless tools are discarded.”

And I would be discarded even after I had served my purpose.

Knowing this full well, I nodded.

This was the extent of the relationship between Croire Alloje and Duke Alloje.

Even in the novel, Duke Alloje had never once acknowledged his illegitimate daughter, Croire Alloje, as his own.

“…I will keep that in mind.”

This much of the conversation was well within my expectations.

Pretending to gauge the Duke’s mood, I opened my mouth.

“However, Your Grace, I have a request.”

Duke Alloje raised an eyebrow.

Who would ever call this a conversation between a father and daughter?

“What is it?”

He looked displeased.

*You can’t even perform your duties properly, and you’re already making requests?*

“I would like you to divert the dignity maintenance funds allocated to the Duchess to me. Not all of it, just a tenth would be sufficient.”

“Oh?”

Duke Alloje looked incredulous.

It must seem like I was greedy for money despite my incompetence.

But I had already prepared my justification.

“In that household, the Duchess has almost no personal funds aside from her allowance for upkeep. To win Diello’s heart, I need to do something, whether it’s with my attire or my appearance, but without money, I can’t do anything.”

Of course, a person’s heart cannot be won with money alone.

But there are people who believe it can.

A prime example was Duke Alloje himself.

His brow twitched, but then he nodded.

“I suppose that’s true. I will divert a portion to you. However.”

His eyes gleamed.

“When you come next month, you had better have better results to show for it. Do you understand?”

“I understand.”

Success!

The Argenta Duchess’s dignity maintenance fund, which I had seen in the documents, was enormous.

It would be more than enough to buy up that currently unused land in the center of the continent.

“Good…”

As if the conversation was over, Duke Alloje gestured with his hand.

Was he telling me to leave now?

Just as I started to rise.

“Now, turn around.”

“Pardon?”

My back? So suddenly? My question made Duke Alloje’s brow furrow.

“Diello Argenta’s name.”

—Thump, thump.

He tapped the table as if knocking, and black-clad Alloje servants appeared without a sound.

They grabbed both of my arms.

In the Duke’s hand, a small blade had appeared from nowhere.

“We need to re-engrave it.”

“……!”

The chilling words fell.