Chapter 17

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter Title: No Mercy (17)

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I could feel the gazes of people turning toward me.

Shock and astonishment were mingled in them.

I erased the flustered expression that had crept onto my face from their stares.

Gathering my scattered emotions, I let a smile curve my lips.

"Is that so?"

I turned my head, and there was Bellieta dancing amid the crowd.

Her gaze met mine amid the murmurs.

While her face slowly stiffened upon spotting me, the corner of my mouth slanted upward in contrast.

"Aren't things a bit tough for you these days?"

Bellieta loved hearing words like that.

Concerned remarks tossed her way by those interested in her.

It was like a spell that solidified the image she had built up over time.

"It seems like all sorts of bad things keep happening around you lately, Lady Duke's Daughter. Others might make a fuss over baseless rumors, but you look truly worn out to me. Rumors involving a close friend are headache enough, and then a sudden fiancé out of nowhere."

Bellieta gazed silently at the Cherni Count Lady, who spoke in a pitying tone with a sorrowful face, then flashed a gentle smile.

She turned her body toward the Cherni Count Lady, who had her hands neatly clasped at her chest as she voiced her worry.

"Thank you for your concern. But it's just a rumor, after all."

"But..."

"Besides, if such rumors spread, it only benefits me. I'm the one who feels sorry for that gentleman getting tangled up with someone as lacking as I am."

At Bellieta's calm voice and smile, the Cherni Count Lady and everyone else listening shot her sympathetic looks.

In noble society, the Riplton Archduke family was a freak mutation.

They possessed military might rivaling the imperial family yet stayed holed up in those monster-infested mountains, never emerging.

The reason the imperial family didn't pressure the archduke's house was precisely because they had been rooted in those mountains for ages without descending.

Vassals periodically claimed the archduke's house was gathering troops for rebellion, but it was all nonsense.

A house with power and authority that never wielded it.

No one thought of them as ordinary nobles.

Thus, it was a common sentiment that Bellieta, entangled with them, was pitiable and unfortunate.

"It's such a shame. You could have been linked with someone far better, yet to end up in rumors with him of all people..."

"Please don't think that way. As you said, it's just a rumor. I'm not bothered by it."

Bellieta's lips curved smoothly into a bright, pure smile.

That only made the people watching her feel even more sorry for her.

The brown-haired lady next to the Cherni Count Lady—who had first voiced her concern and had her hair forcibly pinned up—furrowed her brow in frustration.

"But it really makes me mad! With all these absurd rumors flying around, the Brilloxen Lady isn't even offering any help. I can't understand how she could act like that, even as a close friend."

"Oh, that rumor? I've heard bits and pieces before, but I didn't pay much mind. Still, seeing it blow up like this, there must be something to it."

"You should have been at the Zaksion Marquis's banquet. She was so brazen then too. She showed up in a dress that looked just like the one you wore, Lady Duke's Daughter. Everyone was badmouthing her behind her back, and when I said something that day, she came charging at me, yelling..."

"Oh my, Richel Lady, really? Did the Brilloxen Lady actually do that?"

"Of course!"

Richel, who had been caught badmouthing Sierra at the Zaksion Marquis's banquet and now nodded with a flushed, indignant face, dredged up the humiliation and shame of that day, spewing even more nonsense.

Claims like she had hurled vulgar curses, raised her hand to strike, or even threatened her.

Absurd lies that would leave any bystander stunned, yet the listeners all gasped in admiration.

Everyone except Bellieta.

Stepping back a pace, Bellieta watched the pack of young jackals gleefully tearing into her "friend," a faint smile on her lips.

They raged that Bellieta was pitiable and unfortunate, but that wasn't the point.

As long as they could badmouth someone and vent their own grudges, it was enough.

"By the way, has the Brilloxen Lady not come today? I haven't seen her around."

One of the ladies, midway through venting her complaints and curses about Sierra, broached the topic.

Six pairs of eyes swept the hall before tilting their heads.

"She's gone. She was here earlier, though. Lady Duke's Daughter, do you know where the Brilloxen Lady went?"

"No idea. She vanished while I looked away for a moment..."

Bellieta tilted her head with an innocent expression.

Where did she go? It would be so entertaining if she showed up now and joined the conversation.

Bellieta thought this was a chance to crush the slightly changed Sierra once and for all.

Yet here she was, stuck chitchatting with these fools, and Sierra still hadn't appeared.

"Maybe she's off resting somewhere? Or perhaps she got tired and left early. She mentioned feeling fatigued earlier."

"Or she heard the rumors and is hiding in shame."

"Oh, that could be."

"Yeah, I'd do the same. A copycat, of all things. So pathetic she'd be too ashamed to show her face."

Richel, still stinging from her encounter with Sierra, kept up the slander to the end.

The other ladies chimed in with their own barbs.

Bellieta watched with a small smile.

"At least it's good she knows to be ashamed. If she'd brazenly shown up today like before, I was planning to give her another piece of my mind. She must have taken my words to heart..."

"Richel Lady, that's unfortunate, but I don't think so."

Piolett Baylor, who had been quietly observing without joining in, cut her off.

The gesture of neatly tucking back her loose brown hair revealed her personality.

"What do you mean?"

Richel scowled, her good mood soured, but Piolett pointed to one side.

The ladies' and Bellieta's gazes all shifted in that direction.

Through the open door to the terrace, a tall man was drawing many stares.

Gray hair, towering height.

Broad shoulders and a sturdy build were unmistakable even from afar.

As the man turned his head, a face all too familiar to Bellieta came into view.

"The Riplton Ghost Archduke..."

But it didn't end there.

Beside Aden, who had turned at an angle, an even more familiar face captured Bellieta's attention.

A woman with hair similar to hers but laced with red-gold hues.

Sensing Bellieta's stare, the woman turned her eyes and met them.

Unlike Bellieta's freezing gaze, Sierra's lips curved into a soft smile.

"Oh my, heavens..."

The ladies' eyes instantly turned to Bellieta.

It was the moment her unmanaged, stiffened expression was laid bare.

"I heard you don't like drawing stares."

"Quite the opposite."

I moved to the music whispering in my ear.

This wasn't dancing—it was a gesture meant to show off.

A gesture to show exactly who I was dancing with right now.

"Opposite?"

"The more eyes on us, the better I can prove the Ripltons aren't just some backwater pretenders to the archduchy."

His unexpected words made me stare straight at Aden.

He didn't seem the type to say something like that.

His face held a faint smile—perhaps he was pleased?—so I gazed at it quietly before lowering my eyes slightly.

My gaze fixed on his prominent collarbone, and I shut my mouth.

What should I do?

Complicated thoughts swirled through my mind for a moment.

I'd waited for this man to come, true, but I hadn't planned to advance things quite so openly.

How do I control a situation veering off from my plan?

As I mulled over past experiences, a voice dropped from above.

"That expression again."

"Pardon?"

In my distraction, we'd drawn so close that my back nearly brushed another dancing couple.

My head was too full to mind my steps.

As my legs tangled in surprise and my step faltered, Aden's arm smoothly encircled my back and guided me the other way.

Our positions swapped; his back took the brush with the other man instead.

Aden gave a slight apologetic nod to the man before lightly pulling away.

I lifted my gaze to meet his eyes, and his lips parted.

"How about smiling now?"

Aden tilted his head slightly to the side, quirking his lips in encouragement as if to say, try it.

I stared at the smile I'd never seen before, and in the corner of my slightly parted vision, Bellieta appeared.

"Looks like there's someone you'd like to smile for."

His voice burrowed into my ear; I pulled my eyes from Bellieta.

Aden chuckled softly at my gaze and tightened his arm around my waist.

I glanced down at the firm arm encircling me, then slowly spoke.

"I didn't think you'd come."

"Why not?"

"No reply. Contracts get ignored and torn up by people who think scraps of paper don't matter. Especially if breaking one nets them something better—plenty would dismiss it without a second thought."

"So you thought I'd break the contract and stay away too?"

"It crossed my mind."

I met his eyes and answered plainly.

Aden let out a small huff and looked down at me steadily.

As if reading my intent, his calm gaze prompted me to smile just as he'd suggested.

A soft chuckle escaped Aden's lips.

"So, what would you have done if I'd broken the contract?"

"The Brilloxens value contracts above all else."

I slowly pulled away from Aden, who wore a puzzled look.

The music had shifted from a gentle major key to a grand minor, filling the hall, but I stopped dancing first.

Our facing hands drifted apart until only our fingertips touched.