It could be said that Sophia’s plan was successful in a sense. That’s because after playing in the fountain, Sophia caught a cold as planned.
“Good thing you have a fever, isn’t it.”
“It’s awful…”
While sniffing her stuffy nose, Sophia looked at Orion resentfully. Indeed, she had a fever. However, Sophia, who rarely caught a cold, was not used to having a high fever, and she became so exhausted that she couldn’t even stand up properly.
Lying on her bed, she was breathing heavily.
Isolte had gone downstairs to make some hot honey wine to soothe her throat, and Onyx reluctantly changed the wet towel on Sophia’s forehead.
“But he is so heartless. Randall just said, ‘Serves you right!'”
Yes. The morning after the water play, Sophia developed a fever, but when Randall heard about it, he apparently didn’t return from the castle. It was confirmed by Orion who heard it from his attendant. As a result, Sophia was depressed because she was unable to see Randall’s face, even though she wanted to live the ‘get-well-soon’ scene. It felt she had caught a cold for nothing.
In other words, all Sophia gained by playing in the water was making Randall angry.
“That’s enough. I’ll go to sleep. Tell Isolte I can have the honey wine later.”
“Yes, yes. Do sleep, you’ll heal if you sleep.”
“…Are you really my best friend?”
Sophia glared at Orion with resentment, but she laughed out loud and said, “Good night,” and left the room.
(Jeez!)
Sophia reluctantly closed her eyes. Her head hurted as if it’s going to split open. Her throat hurted, her joints hurt, and she was a mess. She shouldn’t have caught a cold so easily.
(In the end, I couldn’t get along with Randall even a little.)
In a game, events would automatically occur as she progressed through the story, but in reality, things didn’t work that way. First of all, Sophia was not a heroine, so there was no way she was actually prepared for a sweet event was high – and it was quite a hurdle for her, who ended her previous life at the age of 17 without any experience of normal romance.
By the time the game would start two years later, she wanted to somehow become a lovey-dovey couple with Randall and avoid her future as a villainess, but what should she do?
Sophia rolled over. At that moment, the towel fell from her forehead, but she didn’t have the energy to pick it up, and soon Sophia fell asleep.
* * *
(What the hell is that girl thinking?)
Randall was irritated. While he was working at the castle, his uncle, the king, came and asked how Sophia was doing, to which he honestly answered that she had caught a cold, and he was scolded with great anger.
– Sophia has a cold, why are you working in such a place! Why don’t you go home and take care of her?
It seemed that his uncle couldn’t help but find his youngest daughter, who he was unaware of for 14 years, to be cute. Even though there was no way of proving if she was really his child, he refused to listen, saying that Sophia was his child.
As his vassal and nephew, Randall couldn’t let a disturbing element get close to his uncle, but he couldn’t help but worry about his uncle’s future. Although he was annoyed when the king told him to marry Sophia, he thought things through and thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea if he could get rid of Sophia, a troublemaker, from the castle. It would be safer to tie her up in the form of a marriage and watch her in the ducal household than to keep her in the castle.
Randall was never meant to be a real couple with Sophia, nor did he mean to be nice to her. There’s no way he could love someone who made his cousin Keira, who he loved like his own sister, cry. When he heard that his wife Sophia had a fever, he naturally had no intention of visiting her. However, after being chased out of the castle by the king, Randall reluctantly returned to his mansion in a carriage.
“That is?”
When he returned to Duke Voltio’s house, he asked Johannes, the butler who met him, about Sophia’s condition.
“She is resting now.”
Johannes, who has been the butler of this mansion since Randall was a child, wrinkled the corners of his eyes and smiled slightly.
“She’s an interesting lady. She’s kind to us, too. I was surprised at how much she played in the water, though.”
For Johannes, who was almost 60, Sophia was like his grandchild. To Johannes, even the slightest eccentric behavior would be dismissed as being ‘playfulness’. But that’s not the case with Randall.
“If she does whatever she wants, it will be a disgrace to the Duke family!”
“Your wife doesn’t go out of the mansion, and the only time she did anything unusual was play in the water yesterday, and she usually spends her time quietly, you know?”
“She’s just pretending. Sooner or later, her true colors will show.”
“Oh, what kind of true colors does the young master want to find in his wife?”*
“…Stop it, don’t call me young master.”**
When Randall made a face as if he had bitten a bitter insect, Johannes suddenly became serious.
“Well then, sir. The lady is already your wife — the mistress of this mansion. I don’t know what her husband suspects, but now that she has become a duchess, you need to show the respect she deserves. As much as you are her husband, Sophia is your wife.”
“…That’s a fake princess.”
“Even if that’s true, she is already your wife before she is Her Royal Highness. You need to show her the respect she deserves.”
“It’s not worth talking about.”
Randall slipped past Johannes and began to climb the grand staircase.
Johannes quietly called out to Randall.
“If you make arbitrary assumptions before you have faced her properly, you will regret it sooner or later, young master.”
Randall didn’t answer.
—————————————————————
Translator Note:
* “She’s just wearing a cat’s hat. It’ll fall off one day.” (literal translation)
** “Oh, what kind of hat does the young master want to fall off his wife?” (literal translation)
Hello there! This is RJR. I hope you liked it <3
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