“Ilse, you must seduce the Prime Minister Schwarzen, at the next ball.”
“…Huh?”
It was a certain afternoon, and the words spoken by her elder half-brother, Count Kallenberg, without even a greeting. It made Ilse immediately doubt her physical condition, wondering Are my ears okay? Are they working properly?
The sunlight pouring into the Count’s living room was so soft and warm that it made you want to just lean into it. A step outside, and the trees in sight were sprouting tender green leaves, while squirrels that woken up from hibernation and played around merrily.
Perhaps she had been affected by the warmth of spring, which had finally arrived after surviving the cold winter.
Before she could dwell on that, her half-brother narrowed his eyes sharply.
“Oi. Are you listening to me?”
“Uh, y-yes…”
“Tch. Are you getting senile from the spring warmth, girl?”
That was an incredibly rude way to speak.
(That’s my line, though.)
Suppressing that honest thought deep in her heart, Ilse stepped forward with the force of rubbing her hands.
“…I apologize, Brother. Could you please repeat that?”
““I told you to seduce and win over The Prime Minister Schwarzen at the next ball hosted by the royal family. You’re a young woman, so you should be able to manage that much.”
“?!!”
It wasn’t a mistake. Her ears were working properly! Ilse’s eyes widened in surprise who expressing that realization.
While it was good news that her ears were functioning normally, this was no time for relief.
She couldn’t comprehend her half-brother’s reasoning.
“…Why did you arrive at such a peculiar—no, such a innovative idea?”
“Tch. What a stupid girl.”
Count Kallenberg clicked his tongue, making no effort to hide his displeasure, and lit a cigar.
He called her an incompetent failure, but how was she supposed to decipher the meaning of his sudden with ridiculous statement?
Although they were siblings, with a 27-year age gap between them, and their interaction was minimal due the fact that they had different mother. Furthermore, he clearly disliked Ilse, who was born of his stepmother.
Since her father’s death at the age of fourteen, the countless abuses Ilse had suffered from her half-brother had cemented her negative impression of him so deep it was buried beneath the earth.
They don’t held a good impressions of each other. In fact, Ilse wished to have no connection with her half-brother whatsoever. That’s the kind of person he was.
Nevertheless, Count Kallenberg was technically Ilse’s guardian since their father’s passing, which is why she grudgingly returned to the family home today at his request.
“I’ve been dragged into this mess because of Josea’s screw-up!!”
“…Ah. Josea.”
“That Josea! To cause such a scandal—what a disgrace! What kind of upbringing did that wife, Adele, provide? And what was the tutor even doing? Such, such—”
Overwhelmed by his anger, Count Kallenberg crushed his newly lit cigar into the bottom of the ashtray.
Josea was his daughter, meaning Ilse’s niece. She was 20 years old, one year older than Ilse, at twenty. Every time they met, she would call Ilse “Aunty” with a subtly malicious tone.
As Ilse looked slightly distant, Count Kallenberg continued to rage.
“Not only was she caught having an affair with a Duke’s heir and she sued by her creditors, which landed her in a debtors’ prison, but she was also kicked out of her marital home (Viscount Bureau’s family)!?”
It seemed his anger wouldn’t subside.
It wasn’t surprising.
The scandal her niece caused in the past two weeks was so sensational that it became a hot topic at the palace where Ilse’s workplace. It even people who didn’t normally have anything to do with her were asking her questions with obvious curiosity, wanting to hear the inside story.
“I won’t let that girl out of the convent for the rest of her life. Because of that idiot girl, I was billed for the money! And that Viscount Bureau is a real piece of work. How dare he say she tricked his precious son? We sent her off as a bride because they asked for it! His son is no better—squandering Josea’s dowry—”
Perhaps unable to stop speak once he started remembering, Count Kallenberg continued his rant, crushing another cigar into the ashtray.
Apparently Josea was fairly beautiful woman when she kept quiet, and had admired been popular in high society.
I say “Apparently” because Ilse had only heard her boast about it, and had never actually seen it with her own eyes.
If she had managed to snag the heir of a higher-ranking Duke’s family, her boasts would be incredible. But given her marriage to a Viscount’s son, Ilse suspected she was merely deemed good enough for a casual partner, not a main choice as true love.
Instead think that she had settled down after getting married, but it seems that Josea couldn’t forget her lifestyle of pleasure and she allegedly racked up debts to finance her flings with men and gambling.
Furthermore, she was said to have heavily pressured her lover into gifting her a considerable amount of money.
The one who got angry about this was the wife was having an affair with men.
It was highly unheard of for a woman of the noble class, especially a Viscount’s heir’s wife, would be imprisoned. This country was a class society, and the aristocracy enjoyed various privileges simply by their rank.
It was likely that the lover’s wife and her family had done extensive groundwork before launched a counterattack.
As a result, Josea was sued by her creditors and the lover’s wife. After a negotiation involving both her marital home, Viscount Bureau’s family, and her parental home, Count Kallenberg’s family, she was to spend a certain period in a debtors’ prison before being sent to a monastery.
(Well, it would be better for her to leave the secular world for a while…)
Ilse could only muster a dry thought.
About a month ago, Josea, apparently unable to manage her debts, had ambushed Ilse. She came to the palace where Ilse worked, asking for money.
By the way, most of the salary Ilse earned working at the palace was confiscated by her half-brother sitting in front of her. While it was the height of unfairness and at the time, Ilse refused with saying, “Josea, Go ask my brother, and if he gives his permission, come back to me again.”
Not wanting her father, Count Kallenberg, to know, Josea visibly flinched and saying, “Ugh…”. but a few seconds later, her face brightened as if she’d had a good idea, and she came out with this:
“You’re Princess Heidmarie’s maid, so you must get hand-me-down items, right? Give them to me.”
She was right. Ilse served as a maid to Heidmarie, the Second Princess of this country, and had been working for about two years.
She was originally sent there as part of her half-brother’s political performance, but she realized this was a chance to build her own career. She worked diligently and conscientiously, and recently, she had been fortunate enough to receive compliments recognizing her efforts.
It was true she had been given gifts as a token of appreciation, but she hadn’t worked for the purpose of passing them off to Josea. Besides, if she showed kindness once, Josea would keep coming back again, treating her like a source of easy money.
Knowing exactly what was going to happen, so Ilse refused.
Perhaps because her hinting that she might tell Count Kallenberg, Josea fell silent, but it makes bringing momentary relief.
However, Josea was a person whose thought process was completely different from what she had imagined.