“There’s always something interesting happening in the world.”
After carefully reading even the uninteresting articles, Kisa closed the newspaper as there was nothing left to read.
The nanny, who had been anxiously watching her, brightened up.
“Now you’ll go meet Young Master Daniel, won’t you?”
“No, I’m going to read this now.”
Smiling brightly, Kisa held up a magazine with provocative text and flashy illustrations on its cover.
It was the same magazine that had featured an article about Daniel a few days ago. When Kisa asked to take it with her to read in more detail, the Count handed it over without comment.
“Oh, Miss……”
Leaving the nanny whose expression instantly deflated, Kisa turned the pages of the magazine. She had only skimmed through everything except Daniel’s article before, but now she intended to read it properly.
Since it was her first time reading such a lowbrow magazine directly, she felt somewhat excited.
Soon after, Kisa could feel a gentle shock from experiencing this new culture. My goodness, she couldn’t believe such a world existed.
It was far more detailed and sensually stimulating than the behind-the-scenes social news she occasionally heard through Melissa.
Of course, while there were many articles written in a “believe it or not” style and purely for entertainment, so they shouldn’t be blindly trusted, it was honestly entertaining.
Kisa eagerly read through all the gossip after setting aside the articles that seemed completely unreliable.
Among them, the most interesting article was about the king of the distant Chamal Kingdom searching for a new queen. She remembered seeing related articles in the newspaper.
The announcement of remarriage plans less than two weeks after the previous queen’s death seemed excessive even for a king, but the story in the magazine was even more outrageous.
According to the article, His Majesty the King of Chamal, who was plagued by suspicions of banishing his first wife for not bearing a son and causing the death of his second wife due to her endless infidelity, hopes for a young and beautiful third wife.
Moreover, according to information obtained by this magazine through a reliable source, he reportedly lamented in private that his marriages repeatedly failed because Chamal women were strong-willed and didn’t know how to serve their husbands…
Anyway, as he declared his intention to take a foreigner as his third wife, expectations are rising that the new Queen of Chamal might come from our Sorbi Kingdom.
“What garbage.” Kisa inadvertently voiced her thoughts out loud. Yes, no matter how you look at it, the King of Chamal is garbage.
His womanizing and personality issues were well-known facts, frequently discussed even here in a foreign country.
“I hope his remarriage fails.”
Otherwise, the woman who marries him would be too pitiful. Even if she bears children, they would have no chance at succession since the princes and princesses from the previous queen were already grown. Being a foreign queen, she would likely be isolated as neither the ministers nor the people would welcome her.
Above all, her husband would be a woman-obsessed scoundrel.
Although Chamal Kingdom’s national power was weaker than Sorbi’s, the royal family, including the king, was wealthy thanks to several gold mines owned by the royal family.
While material compensation would be generously provided to both the bride and her family, it didn’t seem likely that the new queen’s life would be happy. It was just the bride’s family striking it rich. This was practically human sacrifice.
“Um, Miss.”
At that moment, Kisa snapped out of her thoughts at the nanny’s cautious voice. The nanny had apparently checked the reception room’s situation again while Kisa was absorbed in the gossip magazine.
“Young Master Daniel is still here. It’s been almost four hours now.”
“Four hours? Oh my, it’s already dinner time.”
“Miss!”
“Okay, okay. I’m joking.”
Although the Count had permitted the broken engagement, he wasn’t the type to deny Daniel even a single meal.
However, Kisa wasn’t particularly happy about dining at the same table as Daniel. After all, meals should be eaten comfortably.
“I’ll go to the reception room now. Satisfied?”
“Oh! You’ve made the right decision!”
“But before that, there’s something I need you to do.”
“What is it?”
“Well…”
After sending the nanny on an errand, Kisa headed to the reception room on the first floor.
As the face of the mansion, the reception room was elegantly decorated under the Count’s meticulous management. Currently, however, it was filled with acrid smoke.
Cough, cough. Kisa rushed to the window and threw it wide open. Daniel, who had been practically lying on the chair, chuckled.
“Finally here?”
He put down his still-burning cigar in an ashtray already full of smoked ones.
“I thought I’d die of boredom waiting.”
Though his tone was playful, his lips were twisted into a fierce expression. The man rose from his seat and slowly approached Kisa.
“Why didn’t you just go home? I wouldn’t have minded.”
“How could I? When the precious Miss Vansfelt would come to meet me.”
“You’re just being stubborn.”
He had stayed in the reception room for four full hours, neither returning home nor coming up to Kisa’s room again, just waiting for her.
For Daniel, giving up and retreating was more damaging to his pride than being treated as an unwelcome guest.
What a sore loser he was. Despite his menacing eyes, he was forcing something resembling a smile – likely for the same reason.
“Anyway, could you just briefly state your business? I need to go eat dinner soon.”
Kisa held out her hand to stop Daniel from coming any closer when he had reached a point several steps away.
“And you smell. How many cigars did you smoke in someone else’s house? Your manners are terrible.”
Daniel stopped in his tracks and raised both arms to shoulder height.
“My, my. You’re being too harsh to your loving fiancé.”
“Good grief. What fiancé? We’ve already exchanged letters of broken engagement.”
At the mention of broken engagement, the smile completely vanished from Daniel’s face.
“No, do you think our family would accept such a thing? I’m still your fiancé. And so are you.”
“What difference does it make if the Lowens don’t accept it? It’s just an engagement, not marriage. It’s a relationship that ends the moment one side breaks it off.”
It was true. The reason noble society avoided broken engagements was due to concerns about deteriorating relationships with the other family and public opinion, not because engagements had any particular binding force.
“As written in the letter accompanying the broken engagement document, I gave you two days’ time because your family needs time to accept it. The news of our broken engagement will be announced to the world the day after tomorrow, and then everyone will know.”
Kisa shrugged her shoulders just as Daniel often did and smiled victoriously.
“The fact that Kisa Vansfelt and Daniel Lowens are no longer anything to each other.”
Daniel showed an unexpectedly calm response of expressionless silence, but judging by the slight twitching of his mouth, his inner state wasn’t as calm.
“…Know your limits, Kisa.”
“I am knowing my limits. I wanted to slap you a few times, but I ended it with just breaking the engagement.”
“I’m not in the mood to play word games with you right now.”
“Neither am I. I just want to eat dinner.”
“Ha,” he sighed while looking at the floor, as if trying to swallow his resentment.
“You need to know that I’m being very lenient with you.”
At that moment, the Count’s face overlapped with his image, making Kisa’s heart stutter.
When his daughter caused problems or disappointed him, the Count would sigh like that and say similar things. He would say, do you know how lenient I’m being with you compared to your brother who will inherit the family?
Because of such memories, Kisa would instinctively shrink before angry or authoritative men. And the current Daniel qualified as both.
‘No. I can’t let him look down on me this time too.’
Kisa took a deep breath and recalled the day she first learned about Hazel’s existence. The anger and misery of that time, and finally the desire to return these feelings, instantly revived.
“What exactly are you being lenient about?”
To hide the fact that she was intimidated, she deliberately glared at Daniel even more.
“Tell me. What are you being lenient about?”
Daniel clicked his tongue at such a Kisa, as if she were the most shameless person in the world.
“Thanks to you leaving me stuck here, I’ve been sitting there thinking. Thank you. As my head cleared, various things came to mind.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“That article in that extremely scandalous third-rate magazine a few days ago. Your father planted it, didn’t he?”
Although it was obvious which article he was referring to, she decided to pretend not to know. There was nothing particularly good about revealing the truth.
“What? What article?”
“Don’t play dumb. I wondered what gutsy person would write such an article. Usually, they come to our family first to demand hush money.”
“I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Fine, you and your father will deny it till the end. But you picked the wrong target. You should have ended it with attacking just me.”
Daniel ground his teeth and glared.
“How dare you drag innocent Hazel into this?”
It was the first time seeing Daniel express such anger since he had matured.
“Do you know how much harm Hazel is suffering because of that article? She can’t even open her tea shop because there are so many people snooping around.”
Hazel, the woman with whom he had sworn eternal friendship. She was clearly Daniel Lowens’ sore spot.
