“Edith. What on earth are you saying now…”
Sophia asked with a forced smile.
Amid the confusion, her question was sincere, devoid of pretense or falsehood.
Things are going well, so what is she talking about?
Now she feels guilty? Even when she asked how much she would get paid.
Sophia wanted to ask Edith by squeezing her shoulders tightly and shaking her with force. She felt like she had to push Edith against the wall and slap her in the face to relieve her anger until she got an answer.
But if she did that now, she would lose even the chance to correct Edith’s statement.
Sophia tried to maintain a calm expression and asked Edith again.
“Edith, is it difficult to have a child, isn’t it? Moreover, the Viscount has just passed away…”
Seeing Sophia trying to dismiss Edith’s words as just pregnancy difficulties, Elizabeth quickly interrupted her.
“Isn’t it still early in the pregnancy? The baby hasn’t even started to show, so it doesn’t seem like the right time to talk about giving up the Viscount’s child.”
“What would you know if you have never been pregnant, Elizabeth?”
Sophia interjected, but Elizabeth did not withdraw her suspicious gaze.
What did Edith mean by saying that everyone would know the truth in exactly ten months?
“Hey, go and fetch a doctor.”
The servant who received Elizabeth’s orders immediately brought Eugene, who was nearby.
Upon seeing his face, Sophia let out a sigh of relief.
Eugene was the closest doctor to her, and she was confident he would handle things well, even if Elizabeth found fault with him.
『 Whether Edith is carrying the Viscount’s child or not, that’s something we can only determine by having the child. We have time for that.』
Sophia had no intention of keeping Edith alive until then, anyway.
Even if Edith survived and gave birth to the child, it would be a matter of revealing that the child didn’t carry the Fortrion bloodline and kicking her out.
『 I can also accuse her of having another man’s child and passing the child off as the viscount’s heir.』
Sophia thought Edith was annoying, but she wasn’t very smart.
As she had said, everything would be revealed in ten months anyway.
However, the situation took a completely different turn from what she had expected.
“Doctor, check Edith’s pulse.”
Following Elizabeth’s command, Eugene, without much thought, checked Edith’s pulse and then frowned.
『 Did I examine it wrong?』
He continued to check Edith’s pulse, trying not to show his confusion, but no matter how many times he repeated it, the result remained the same.
He no longer felt the pulse that was typically found in pregnant women.
“What’s going on…?”
Eugene looked at Sophia with a sense of frustration.
The last time he checked her pulse, it was definitely a pregnant woman’s pulse.
“What’s happening?”
“That’s…”
Eugene couldn’t truthfully answer Elizabeth’s question.
As he continued to hesitate, Elizabeth, annoyed, ordered another doctor to come and check the pulse.
The reactions of all the young doctors who had not been tarnished by Sophia were the same.
“Forgive me, but I don’t feel any signs of pregnancy.”
“What?!”
Elizabeth, Isabelle, and Sophia looked at the doctor in surprise.
Not feeling any signs of pregnancy meant, quite literally, that she wasn’t pregnant.
Sophia looked at Eugene with a puzzled expression, but Eugene couldn’t say that he felt a pulse that wasn’t there either.
Edith looked at a confused Sophia with tears streaming down her big eyes.
『 It must be embarrassing. Back then, it was clear he felt my pulse was undoubtedly that of a pregnant woman.』
However, Edith hadn’t actually become pregnant. Instead, she had taken advantage of the side effects of ellickberries and manipulated the pulse results.
This morning, she had brewed and consumed branches from the Cedric tree she had picked yesterday, so the effects of the ellickberries had disappeared completely.
『 My physical condition might deteriorate for a while, but there’s no other choice.』
Edith told Sophia, who had no idea that she had faked a pregnancy.
“Sophia, please. I can’t pretend to be pregnant anymore.”
Her voice trembled, her face was filled with fear, and her pale skin and puffy eyes from crying for Walter made Edith appear even more pitiful.
Isabelle was shocked and questioned Sophia.
“You…! Was your quick protection of Edith actually a scheme to use her to seize the inheritance that was supposed to go to the heir?”
“…”
“It was you who called the doctor to say that Edith was pregnant with the Viscount’s child, and it was you who announced the results to the public.”
Among the Viscount’s wives, Isabelle was the quickest to arrive at conclusions.
『 Now I understand why Edith gave up her share of the inheritance and tried to bring Sophia down.』
Now that it has been revealed that Sophia was in an affair with the butler who committed embezzlement, it was certain that Sophia was also the main culprit of the embezzlement.
Greedy as she is, she must have been very interested in the inheritance after the Viscountess was attacked.
Isabelle felt deep disgust for Sophia, who treated people like tools, from one human being to another.
At the same time, she felt very sorry for Edith, who was caught up in Sophia’s pregnancy scheme.
『 Sophia’s authority was so strong that she couldn’t reveal the truth, so she sought help from me and my father.』
Isabelle had already liked Edith, and now she liked her even more. She couldn’t help but side with her, given her conscience.
“No matter how much money you wanted, telling a perfectly healthy woman to pretend to be pregnant…”
“Oh, no. It couldn’t have been a fake pregnancy… You definitely confirmed it, Eugene.”
Sophia, who was half out of her mind, nudged Eugene, but he was just as dumbfounded.
If she had a miscarriage and lost the child, there is no way her pulse could be so clean.
『 What on earth did she do?』
Eugene looked at Edith, who was just slowly wiping away her teary eyelashes.
Elizabeth glared at the lawyers who were secretly taking Sophia’s side.
“If you all were also involved in the heir’s pregnancy scheme, we should cut you all off.”
“We’re n-not. We…”
“Surely you won’t still claim that Sophia is a diligent and faithful wife who worked hard for Fortrion, will you?”
As Elizabeth aggressively confronted them, the lawyers fell silent.
『 It’s clear that Lady Sophia informed us that Lady Edith was pregnant.』
When it was revealed that the information Sophia had given them, which was very important, was false, the lawyers were quick to hold their tongues.
They knew that, being close to her, she might have intended to use them and then dismiss them as needed.
『 She might have deliberately deceived us.』
『 And to think, she was already in a difficult situation due to the scandal with the butler…』
With these thoughts in mind, the lawyers cautiously, but firmly, spoke.
“Since there is still no concrete evidence, we cannot consider it as a fact, but we must certainly proceed with the execution of the will. We will request an investigation by the Temple Authorities for now.”
“The Temple…?”
Sophia asked with a pallid expression.
The Temple often dispatched Paladins to resolve unholy incidents that went against divine order.
If they were to call the sheriffs, she could easily manipulate the investigation in her favor using authority and money, but it was the Temple.
Paladins were individuals who didn’t even accept bribes, let alone lavish feasts, and if they were to take action themselves, they might even uncover the fact that Sophia had continuously pushed Hans onto Edith.
Sophia looked at Edith with eyes full of hatred.
『 I hope you pay for your sins, Sophia.』
Edith’s eye smiled for a split second and seemed to convey exactly that.
──────────✿◦•
Meanwhile, Cassius was having an untimely hard time taking care of two houses that he did not even own.
“Walter, you said you wanted to go outside so badly, and now you’re just going to stand here?”
“…”
Walter was leaning against a tree right next to the manor’s wall, staring inside with eyes that could be described as occasionally wistful or filled with resentment.
Cassius was even more confused because Walter looked like a large puppy that had made a big mistake and had been kicked out by its owner.
『 What on earth happened at dawn…?』
Cassius, sleepless, was moving towards the dimly lit part of the manor to conduct his usual early morning training.
At that time, Edith, whose eyes were reddened, noticed him and suddenly handed him a handful of jewelry.
⋙“Follow Walter.”⋘
⋙“Yes…?”⋘
At first, Cassius didn’t think much of it, assuming it was nothing important.
But when he pushed open the cabin door with his foot and found Walter missing, he finally realized that Edith’s request had some significance.
But, Edith knew that Walter couldn’t leave the manor anyway, so he couldn’t believe she had asked him to follow him.
Besides, no one in this manor could suppress him by force.
So, around the time the funeral was concluding, Cassius intended to share the situation that was happening inside the manor with Helen when he witnessed a shocking scene.
He saw Walter on the other side of the barrier that had confined him for seven years.
『 Seeing as he keeps looking at the inside of the manor with that expression, it seems like he has something to do with Lady Edith…』
Cassius wanted to ask what had happened between the two of them, but he was certain that if he brought up the topic incorrectly, he would receive Walter’s cold gaze.
So he chose to take measures to prevent Walter from being captured again.
“Let’s go to the Militia Force with Helen for now. This older brother has some jewelry with him.”
When Cassius pretended to be enthusiastic, Walter took out some magnificent gold jewelry from his pocket. It was enough to shock Cassius.
“What’s all this gold jewelry for?”
Cassius asked, but Walter couldn’t answer that question.
While Edith was driving him away, saying that there was someone else who could help her, she chose only the gold jewelry that was perfect for selling and hid them in his pocket.
While he wondered if this was a reward for the satisfactory night they spent together, something hot seemed to surge from within.
If you were so satisfied to the point of giving me these jewels, you shouldn’t have driven me away, Edith.
『 … What on earth happened?』
Cassius remained silent once again as he watched Walter’s eyes darken once more.
❀.°• ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ •°.❀
