Chapter 11

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 11

Chapter Title: The Bet of Bestowing Favor

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"Hello, ex-wife."

As their eyes met, Biern greeted her calmly, a faint smile playing on his lips.

Gladys, who had been fidgeting nervously with her clasped hands, jumped in surprise and looked up. While she floundered, lips moving without words, Biern approached nonchalantly and sat down across from her. It was a reunion in a way she had never imagined.

"It's been a while."

Gladys finally managed to speak. It was a foolish greeting, despite all the practice she'd done on the way here. Biern nodded without replying.

"I've committed a grave rudeness, showing up like this without warning. But I thought meeting here would be better than out in public..."

Her voice trembled harder, unable to finish the sentence, but Biern remained silent. Gladys bit her lip, on the verge of tears.

The gap between the boyish Biern she remembered and the man before her now was quite wide. His sharper features and the imposing build of his matured frame made her shoulders hunch involuntarily.

In the end, Gladys could no longer bring herself to look at him and bowed her head. Her vision blurred, and thick teardrops fell onto her trembling hands.

Biern watched her cry without a hint of emotion. Soon, Mrs. Fitz brought in the tea. She pointedly ignored Gladys, set the tea table, and withdrew.

Biern gazed impassively at the woman who had once been his wife and picked up the teacup before him. Even after the sugar cubes dissolved in the dark, heavy tea, Gladys couldn't stop sobbing.

"You're as predictable as ever. It's almost refreshing."

Biern let out a low chuckle that sounded like a sigh. Even on the day he announced their divorce, Gladys had wept just like this, stifling her sobs.

"Predictable enough to be boring, too."

Biern shifted his gaze out the window and slowly sipped his moderately cooled tea. As his awareness sharpened, his patience rapidly waned.

"As far as I recall, our affairs were cleanly settled, Princess."

His eyes, reflecting the sparkling river and distant forest beyond, narrowed slightly.

"Give what you're here to give."

Biern set down his half-empty teacup and turned his head.

"Take what you're here to take."

The faint smile vanished from his lips, and his expression hardened in an instant.

"Isn't that right, Gladys?"

"Biern, I..."

"Get to the point."

Biern spoke in a tone devoid of enthusiasm.

"Have you forgotten how little patience I have, just because it's been so long?"

"I'm... sorry."

Gladys, barely stifling her sobs, forced the words out.

"I'm truly sorry... because of me. I'm so sorry."

She squeezed her eyes shut and opened them, sending large teardrops streaming down. Her small, tear-soaked face glimmered delicately in the morning sunlight.

Biern leaned back in his chair and regarded her. The woman before him was as beautiful as ever. The fact that it stirred no emotion in him was unchanged as well.

"And?"

A smile returned to Biern's lips.

"You didn't come to Rezen just to say that. Did King Lars of Lars order you? Now that all your troubles are gone, try making up with your ex-husband—something hopeful like that?"

Gladys's lips trembled faintly as she lowered her gaze. Her clasped hands, held as if in prayer, had gone pale as a sheet. The clear answer conveyed in silence deepened Biern's smile.

"What a dutiful daughter, obeying her father's words so well. Still as good-hearted as ever."

An innocent, tender-hearted princess who knew nothing of malice. If humans were divided into good and evil, Princess Gladys Hartford undoubtedly fell into the good category. Biern could acknowledge that much. Though he didn't value that kind of goodness highly.

"It's not just because of that."

Gladys dabbed her tears with a handkerchief and looked up again.

"I wanted to apologize. That's why I gathered my courage. I've always felt sorry toward you. I... I really have."

"You're under some delusion, Princess."

Biern slowly closed his eyes, feeling a dry, foreign sensation in them.

"That deal was fairly even. If anything, we might have come out ahead."

"But you..."

"I'm so touched that my ex-wife worries about me like this. It's bringing tears to my eyes."

Biern straightened up from his half-reclined position in the chair.

He harbored no particular grudge against Gladys. There had never been any pure affection between them to leave such resentment, and four years was a long time besides.

So this foul mood—if he had to name it—was probably just irritation.

Biern stared down at the table, then lightly pushed his teacup with long fingers. The cup fell to the floor with a crash of shattering porcelain, breaking the library's silence.

Even with Gladys pale before him, Biern calmly pulled the bell cord. Moments later, a middle-aged maid entered. Biern's gaze passed over the sobbing Gladys and the glittering shards to fix on the flustered maid.

"Clean it up."

With a lighter smile, Biern issued the order and left the library without a backward glance. After dismissing his attendants, he entered his bedroom, where a deeper fatigue washed over him.

Instead of flopping onto the bed as usual, Biern opened the window facing the river. The shouts and cheers of a group already practicing rowing carried in on a breeze laced with the faint scent of water.

Biern let out a sigh tinged with a wry laugh and leaned against the window frame, a cigar lit between his lips. The river flowed languidly, its ripples gleaming brilliantly. The long trail of smoke dispersed on the wind, and the sharp early summer light stabbed at his throbbing eyes.

It was boring. Infuriatingly so.

"So, it seems Count Leman is the frontrunner for a match with the Hardy family's lady right now?"

Erna Hardy's name had become a regular at the card table. Biern checked his hand and glanced at Peter beside him.

"Count Leman? That old geezer's still alive?"

Laughter erupted around the table at the serious question.

A man nearing seventy and a girl not yet twenty.

Biern raised an eyebrow slightly, leaned back in his chair, and crossed his legs. He had a good hand. Barring any upset, this round's winner was all but decided.

"They say Viscount Hardy meets with Count Leman frequently. They even enjoyed an opera together recently. With Erna Hardy, of course."

"Wow. As long as the price is right, nothing else matters, huh?"

"That's how those marriages go. If the old man dies quick, Hardy can sell his daughter off again. Must be a tempting match for him."

Mockery and pity for Erna Hardy flew back and forth as the game's mood heated up. Biern hung back, biding his time. He could raise the stakes and clinch it later.

"Oh, Biern. Heard Princess Gladys came to Schwerin Castle herself to meet her ex-husband? Must've been a passionate reunion."

Peter snickered lewdly and changed the subject. Biern lit the end of his cigar between his lips instead of answering.

Everyone's lives are so damn boring.

Killing time in idleness was dull enough that the nobility of high society each had some idiotic hobby. This summer season's hottest pastime seemed to be gossiping about the Hardy marriage trade and whether the former crown prince and princess would reconcile.

"My mother says Princess Gladys came to Rezen intent on forgiving her ex-husband and reuniting. No helping it if such a pitifully kind princess wants it. Though she cursed you out pretty harshly."

"Yeah, I heard. My little sister hounds me about you every time she sees me—driving me crazy. Our Prince Biern, you're the kingdom's top living romance novel."

"Say, if you marry the same woman twice, do you have two weddings? Having the bride and groom stand as witnesses twice at the same ceremony seems embarrassing."

Peter peered at his cards in distress, then asked with sparkling eyes. He seemed to have given up on the game. Biern answered by exhaling a long stream of smoke toward Peter's face.

Peter coughed and cursed, but soon latched onto another amusement. The table buzzed with predictions for the horse races and investments in a new shipping company before circling back to Viscount Hardy's marriage dealings.

"But even if they're desperate for money, selling your daughter to a dying old man? That's a bit much."

"It's a gamble worth taking, no? If he sires a late son with her—his only child—all that wealth goes to her."

"A son? Hm... will it even stand?"

"Well, he's confident enough to buy a young bride at that price."

Leonard shrugged and laid down his cards. A decent hand, but Biern still had the edge.

"Poor Miss Hardy. Never even had a proper suitor, and now she's doomed to be an old man's bride."

Peter sighed as if genuinely sympathetic.

"Come to think of it, doesn't Miss Hardy resemble Princess Gladys in a weird way? Looks are different, but the vibe's similar."

"Yeah. Both delicate beauties like baby deer."

Biern's lips twisted into a smirk as he surveyed the nodding idiots.

You idiots need to have your throat torn out by those deer's teeth to come to your senses.

"How about we do a good deed?"

As Biern picked his next card, Leonard made an outlandish proposal.

"Let the poor Miss Hardy enjoy a young man's courtship before marriage. Good memories for both, right?"

"Didn't you see her flee in fright from a mere greeting? No one's gotten a reply even sending flowers and cards in droves."

"Let's make a bet."

Leonard eyed the piled poker chips gleaming on the table. Biern, calculating how to end the game amid the idle chatter, furrowed his brow and looked up.

"Whoever gets chosen by Miss Hardy wins. Call it the bet of bestowing favor. What do you say?"