I Reincarnated as the Daughter of a Runaway Sub Heroine - Chapter 65
As I was folding Lucas’s letter, Bell entered the room carrying a box full of gifts.
“Milady, we received a gift again today. What should we do with it?”
“I’ll open it later. Just leave it there.”
“Okay.”
As Bell placed the box on the table and was about to leave, she approached me again.
“Actually, I heard something strange a little while ago. Can I ask you something?”
“What is it?”
Bell cautiously asked, as if whispering a secret.
“Did you perhaps meet with the young master here last night in private?”
“Yeah.”
“Whaat?!”
“Ah, you startled me!”
Bell suddenly screamed, causing me to drop the letter.
“W-What did you do meeting alone at night?!”
I quickly realized what Bell was misunderstanding and snapped in anger.
“What do you mean, what did we do? I was hungry, so I had a snack. And it wasn’t just the two of us; Rose was with us too!”
I pointed to Rose, who was sleeping at my feet. Upon hearing her name, Rose lifted her head, perked up her ears, and then went back to sleep.
“And what do you mean by meeting secretly? It wasn’t like that at all! Where did you hear such a thing?”
“Yesterday, a maid happened to see the two of you together. She was whispering that your relationship with the young duke seemed unusual and then got caught by me.”
I sighed.
“It was nothing special. I just said I was hungry, and Hyperion brought me something to eat.”
“How long were you together yesterday?”
“About 2 hours? We ended up talking longer than I expected.”
“So you talked for the entire 2 hours that night?”
“Yeah, we even ended up discussing childhood stories.”
Suddenly, Bell stared at me intently.
“Milady, do you know something?”
“What is it?”
“The only man you’ve ever allowed to be so close to you is the young duke.”
“What do you mean? What about Derek? What about Lucas?”
“They are family to you, not just men.”
With that, Bell pointed to a pile of gift packages stacked in one corner of the room.
“Look at those. Do you have any plans to open them someday? You don’t seem to have any interest in other men at all!”
Among those packages, including the one Bell had just placed, were numerous letters left unopened.
Since my debut, I have been inundated with marriage proposals. From second sons with no prospects of inheriting titles to those who already held titles but wanted greater power.
One of the reasons I came here was to find a marriage partner, so I initially opened the letters they sent seriously. However, after reading a few, I tossed them aside. They were all boring and uninteresting.
Moreover, the expressions were overly exaggerated and clichéd. Saying things like being blinded by my beauty or that they had already fallen for me.
I groaned and buried my head in my hands.
“I’ll read them. I will read them someday, so stop rushing me.”
Everything felt bothersome. With so much to do, couldn’t I just pick a husband randomly? Or how about drawing lots?
As I muttered this, Bell spoke up.
“And do you know this too? You’re surprisingly awkward when it comes to human relationships.”
I looked up at Bell.
“Awkward in relationships? Me?”
“You might be excellent at reading other people’s thoughts, but that doesn’t mean you’re good with emotions. Anyway, I’m in favor of it.”
I tilted my head at her sudden and unexpected statement.
“In favor of what?”
“It’s not that my opinion matters much, but I just wanted to let you know.”
With that, Bell spoke her piece and quickly left the room.
☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓
“Alright, what are you going to do today?”
After my puzzling conversation with Bell, I had an early lunch with the Duchess. Since the Duke and Hyun left early in the morning for work, the Duchess had always eaten lunch alone, so she greatly enjoyed the time spent with me.
“I’m planning to go to the royal library to find some materials.”
“The royal library? Only direct royal family members can enter there.”
“Oh, the prince specifically granted me permission.”
The duchess’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Prince Persis?”
“Yes.”
After looking at me for a moment, the duchess cautiously asked, “Aren’t you two on bad terms?”
“Of course, we are. I can’t stand that kind of man.”
“Then why did he grant you special permission?”
I briefly explained what happened during my last visit to the palace and shrugged my shoulders.
“And that’s how it happened.”
The Duchess looked at me for a moment and said in a soft voice, “Ar, do you know? There’s always a reason behind a man’s kindness towards a woman. I think the prince sees you as someone special.”
“That can’t be true. The prince has really disliked me since we were young.”
Then I suddenly recalled what Baroness Kaz had said to Persis at the debutante ball: to approach me no matter what for the sake of the throne.
Even though I pretended to be a complete disaster during our last meeting, the Baroness still hadn’t given up on me. She kept sending me gifts, returning every one I sent back.
Perhaps Persis had changed his mind because of the Baroness’s persistence, deciding to endure a marriage with me for the throne.
Yeah, I had temporarily forgotten that. No matter how much I disliked getting close to the prince, he wouldn’t just show me kindness without a reason, given how much he hated me. He even tried to ruin that important debutante event.
“I think that…”
“I understand what you mean, Madam.”
I spoke seriously to the Duchess. “You’re right. The prince wouldn’t show me kindness for no reason. He probably wants the throne and is considering a forced marriage with me.”
“That’s not what I meant…”
For some reason, the Duchess suddenly fell silent. Then she chuckled softly.
“It’s nothing. By the way, the royal family is quite a troublesome bunch.”
“Why? Is something going on?”
“It’s about the princess.”
The Duchess sighed quietly. “The queen has wanted a marriage between the princess and Hyun for a long time. I can pretend to laugh it off a few times, but I don’t think I can keep doing that anymore; it’s been weighing on my mind lately.”
The Duke’s family must have their own struggles. If they push for a marriage proposal outright, it would be awkward to refuse. As I was thinking this, the duchess stared at me intently.
“By the way, you went all the way to the palace last time and didn’t even meet Hyun?”
“Well, Hyun must have been busy with work, right?”
“No? Not at all. What could he possibly be busy with? He just has to boss around the underlings.”
The Duchess suddenly belittled her son’s work and then winked at me.
“Next time, make sure to meet with Hyperion and at least take a walk together. I mean, meet during the day so you don’t get caught at night.”
I couldn’t understand why the conversation was veering in this direction.
☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓
That day, I went to the royal library to look for materials related to the information guild. Since the master wasn’t very old, I decided to prioritize the past five years of documents.
First, I skimmed through the newspaper articles. What I needed was to find any trace of that man.
However, it was unlikely that there would be readily available information on someone who wasn’t a noble. Just as I was about to give up after searching diligently, I stumbled upon a short article.
“Salon Exhibition?”
It was an article about a salon exhibition that had taken place six months ago.
The salon exhibition is an event where paintings that have passed strict reviews are displayed, and the article mentioned that a person named Jakar had purchased a significant number of works that didn’t make the cut at high prices.
Did the painting in the guild come from here?
However, it seemed too many for a mere hobby purchase. He had bought as many as 20 pieces at once.
Could it be that he anticipated the value of the paintings rising and made an investment? But how could he know unless he came from the future?
Or was it tax evasion? Money laundering?
While I was pondering these thoughts, a name caught my eye: ‘Rene Banar.’ More than half of the paintings Jakar purchased were by this artist.
I realized that the initials written at the bottom of a shepherd painting were the abbreviation for Rene Banar. If that’s the case, I needed to find out what this artist’s relationship with Jakar was.
Next, I searched for materials related to the Republicans. Looking through the book list, I found that most of the relevant materials were in the underground archives.
There was no choice. I could only start with the books that were available for viewing.
I handed a note with the book titles to a nearby librarian.
“Could you bring me the books on this list?”
Not long after I sat down at the desk, the librarian returned with the books. I began reading the one on top.
According to what I learned in history class, unlike empires, the kingdom had a history of republicanism in the past.
About 500 years ago, after the fall of the ancient kingdom, a republic was established in this country. It was a system where nobles, commoners, and term-limited magistrates checked each other’s powers.
However, this period was not very long. Many issues arose from what was thought to be an ideal system, and above all, the Ram Empire, feeling threatened by the birth of the republic, did not simply sit back and watch.
Ultimately, the republic quickly collapsed, leading to the establishment of a new dynasty. That was the Castoria Kingdom. Since then, books containing republican ideas were banned and ended up buried underground like this.
As I read through the content of the book, which did not stray far from what I already knew, I discovered an illustration.
It was a design drawn on a metal badge.
The shape was that of two overlapping triangles inside a circle.
The book stated that each triangle represented the nobles and commoners, while the circle represented the magistrate. All these shapes combined formed a single shield that protected the nation.
Unless I went to the underground archives, this was all the knowledge I could gain. So, it was no wonder that both my father and I were unaware of this symbol. It was quite peculiar for Hyperion to know about it.
Having found nothing more to gain, I closed the book and left the library. As I exited through the main door, I ran into Persis.
