The news of Kisa and Seyard’s engagement stirred the capital, or rather the entire kingdom, from the very next day after the charity banquet.
Kisa couldn’t hide her inner surprise when she saw her own article splashed across the front page of the newspaper. Although she had prepared herself thoroughly, the scale of the impact far exceeded her expectations.
It was incomparable to her recent broken engagement with Daniel.
If the broken engagement with Daniel was merely common gossip that attracted people’s interest for about three days before subsiding, the engagement with Seyard was a bomb that would inflame public opinion for well over a month.
This was partly because of the great prestige that the grand noble Hillan ducal family held in the Sorbi Kingdom, and partly because Seyard’s very existence was so dramatic.
Born as the younger of twins, he was the unfortunate one who had to surrender everything to his brother who came into the world just a moment earlier, and was forced into virtual confinement at a monastery.
Of course, to maintain the family’s dignity, they had transferred assets so he could live comfortably in the monastery and provided various conveniences, but compared to the total wealth owned by the Hillan family, it was practically nothing.
Moreover, the story that the family’s generosity was conditional on Seyard staying at the designated monastery was quite openly circulated in social circles.
‘Should this be called heartless or meticulously thorough?’
In any case, from Seyard’s position, if he wanted to leave the monastery, he would have had to give up even what little he possessed.
Was that all? Would the people who so coldly excluded him from the family really have lost interest if he had given up what he had and left the monastery?
Moreover, since he was the sole brother of the next head of the family, the moment he refused the fate given to him, he was in a position easily misunderstood as targeting the family.
It was truly a desperate situation. In such circumstances, what could a young man who had been sent to a monastery before puberty and raised in isolation from society do?
The unfortunate one of the Hillan ducal family, who had been the subject of occasional gossip from the time of his birth until the moment he was driven out, was gradually forgotten.
Most people expected that Seyard Hillan would stay in the monastery until his death, and even after death, would be buried in the common cemetery next to the monastery.
Until four months ago, when, as if by a twist of fate, Vischer Hillan died in a fire accident.
The family’s fortunate and unfortunate sons switched places overnight.
Since Vischer was only engaged to the princess, unmarried with no children, Seyard was his primary heir.
The royal family must have been deeply upset. Vischer and the princess were predicted to marry within a year or two.
If Vischer’s life had been just a little longer, if he had died after marrying the princess, his property would have been inherited by the princess and any children they might have had, and the Hillan family would have had a high possibility of falling completely into the hands of the royal family.
In that sense, time had sided with Seyard. The era did as well.
From what I heard, several of Seyard’s collateral relatives opposed him succeeding as the head of the family, and some even filed lawsuits.
Of course, there was no way the trial would result in their victory.
In the old days when the influence of the twin legend meant no rights were guaranteed to the younger of twins, it might have been different, but the current inheritance law didn’t discriminate between twins or anything else.
The problem was just that people’s perceptions couldn’t keep up; the outdated system bound by superstition had been abolished long ago.
It was incredibly fortunate that Seyard wasn’t born decades earlier.
Anyway, after settling the controversies related to inheritance, he succeeded to the title.
It was only natural that public attention would focus on the new Duke Hillan, who had an unusual background and made a dramatic start.
Moreover, he chose the opera house as the public place to make his first appearance or exhibited eccentric behavior such as spending money like water.
While many were secretly expecting what surprising move he would show next, yesterday’s event broke—the announcement of the engagement with Kisa.
‘It’s no wonder the reaction is explosive…’
According to what the Vansfelt servants conveyed, for the past few days, wherever you went—be it streets, markets, or restaurants—you could see people enthusiastically discussing the engagement of the two.
Even commoners, who were relatively less interested in social affairs due to their busy lives, were like this, so how much more would the nobility be?
It was then. Knock, knock, knock, a cheerful knocking sound echoed through Kisa’s room.
“Come in.”
With permission granted, her nanny entered the room with a basket in her arms.
“Miss! More letters have arrived, this many!”
When she poured the contents of the basket onto the desk, new letters tumbled down on top of those already piled up.
“Ah, I don’t want to know.”
Kisa turned away from the mountain of letters with a weary face.
“Does everyone just eat and write letters?”
When Kisa muttered this complaint to herself, her nanny patted her back as if to comfort her.
“Don’t be too displeased. It’s evidence that you’re engaged to someone extraordinary.”
The nanny had been in an extremely good mood lately, often humming from time to time. The cause, of course, was Kisa’s engagement.
The Vansfelt servants learned about their young mistress’s engagement the day after Count Habertz’s charity banquet.
[Oh, oh, oh, Miss! This article in the newspaper! Is this true? Are you really engaged to Duke Hillan?]
The nanny, who came running with the morning newspaper with her mouth wide open, pressed Kisa. And when Kisa answered yes, she jumped with joy.
[Oh my! Why did you only tell me this important news now? Anyway, this is wonderful news! Congratulations, Miss!]
The nanny, who until just the day before had lamented with a tearful face about where else one could find a groom like Daniel, flipped her stance and sang Seyard’s praises.
[It says here that he fell for you when he first saw you at the Opera House. Well, how pretty is our Miss? Oh my, did he really personally come to the Count and earnestly ask to marry you? How romantic!]
[Yes, something like that.]
[Wait a minute. That means he came to our mansion… My goodness! Was the handsome gentleman who came several times actually the Duke?]
The nanny, who had only heard about it from other servants and hadn’t seen Seyard directly, couldn’t hide her disappointment and kept flipping through the newspaper for a long time.
After the engagement announcement, newspapers were decorated day after day with tidbits of information that Seyard gradually released.
Naturally, these were not the unvarnished truth but information that had been modified by his hand or even newly created.
Seyard, who fell in love at first sight with Kisa when he happened to see her at the Opera House, received permission to marry after an enthusiastic courtship.
This fictitious story, which had also been previously presented to Count Vansfelt, was transmitted to many people through newspapers and, as it was discussed countless times, gradually became the truth.
Oh, needless to say, Seyard had changed the time when he first visited the Vansfelt mansion. After Daniel and Kisa broke their engagement, that is.
To a reporter’s sharp question about whether it was related to the two people’s broken engagement, Seyard reportedly answered glibly:
That when he first saw Kisa, although he felt an intense love, he tried to give up because she already had a fiancé. So when she happened to break off her engagement, he felt like cheering.
Frankly speaking, almost no one seemed to believe those words at face value. Especially those who had questioned Kisa’s broken engagement from the beginning, knowing Count Vansfelt’s tendencies.
Without evidence they couldn’t say it openly, but it appeared everyone thought Duke Hillan was the culprit behind the broken engagement.
Paradoxically, as the perception that he had stolen someone else’s fiancée grew, the public’s response toward Kisa became more favorable.
In fact, in the early stages when only the fact that the two would soon be engaged was known, there were quite a few people who subtly criticized Kisa.
The reason was that she had dared to snatch the person who was supposed to be the fiancé of the precious youngest princess.
Whether fortunate or unfortunate, such responses quickly subsided as more information was released.
After all, if the mighty Duke Hillan wanted it and it was beneficial to the family, how could a mere count’s daughter resist?
In some quarters, there were quibbles that Kisa had bewitched him first, but because Seyard had shown such wild behavior so far, suspicion fell more on him than on Kisa, who had lived quietly.
Perhaps he had been showing an incongruous appearance with this situation in mind? Kisa suspected.
If that were true, it was grateful but not entirely easy to be just grateful.
She found herself feeling concerned that Seyard was being criticized by people who didn’t even know him well.
He was truly a good person.
But it was then. With a knock, Richard, the count’s secretary, came to Kisa’s room.
“Excuse me. Someone has come wanting to meet you, Miss.”
Seeing his subtle expression, Kisa tilted her head.
“Is it Duke Hillan?”
“It’s not the Duke.”
If not, then there shouldn’t be anyone special to come? Because so many people wanted to visit with the aim of digging up information about the two people’s engagement, Vansfelt had decided not to receive most guests for the time being.
Richard, who sighed deeply, scratched his head.
“I too actually had a lot of concerns about whether I should inform you about this person’s visit. But since the Count is away from the mansion on other business, it’s a bit difficult to handle on my own…”
“What kind of guest is it that you’re like this?”
“Well, who it is…”
After hearing his subsequent words, Kisa couldn’t help but stiffen her expression.
Then, after being lost in thought for a moment, she answered that she would meet this surprising visitor.
Shortly after, Kisa faced a woman in the mansion’s reception room.
“What business do you have coming here? Your name is….Hazel, correct?”
In response to Kisa’s question, Hazel Turdy, the owner of the Willow Tree teahouse and Daniel’s woman, opened her mouth.
“Please, Lady Vansfelt.”
With an extremely desperate face.
“Please reconcile with Daniel.”
