Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-Nine: Lowest-Ranking Wife
“Karen, your eyes look scary.”
Just as Karen was about to make excuses after Petra’s observation, Rosine, noticing something, stopped her.
“Both of you, please be quiet—it seems young ladies from the Horst faction are gathering over there.”
Petra moved nimbly like a cat, pulling Karen’s hand and hiding her in the shadow of a tent.
That agile movement was incomparable to her movements last year when she had been afflicted by the poisoned powder. Last year, Petra had not looked particularly unhealthy to Karen and could even have passed as an ordinary, healthy young lady, but if this was Petra’s true agility, then she must have been in unusually poor condition back then. Petra at that time, who couldn’t get close to Julius just because Karen had blocked her, had truly been unwell. It was natural that her brother Frank had been worried about Petra then.
“So—mmph.”
“Shh, please be quiet.”
“Ms. Karen, those people are young ladies from families that sided with the criminal Horst.”
Rosine stared with cold eyes at the dozen or so young ladies gathered there.
With her mouth covered by Petra, Karen nodded.
Their appearance looked no different from Petra and Rosine—they looked like perfectly ordinary young ladies. Horst had disappeared, but the crimes he and his companions committed would apparently be prosecuted as treason. Though there was no official announcement yet, as it was still under investigation, Waltride had said that the king would likely make an announcement next year.
Since it was an incident caused by people with little magical power from multiple territories conspiring together, no single territory would be especially punished, so the Ehlertt Earldom would not be particularly blamed—Karen had immediately realized when it was explained in that context.
Naturally, within each territory, the families and supporters of those who had taken part in the treason would be met with cold stares. That’s why Karen could take in children with little magical power so easily.
The young ladies gathering in a secluded place, as if avoiding attention, were likely daughters of families currently regarded as supporters of the traitors.
Because Karen had walked toward a deserted direction to avoid attention—or rather, to avoid Julius—she seemed to have encountered a group similarly trying to avoid people’s eyes.
“Lady Karen, the reason I purchased that poisoned face powder from a foreign merchant was because those girls were boasting about cosmetics they had proudly imported from abroad. I have long had an interest in trade and the merchants who conduct it, so I consider myself reasonably knowledgeable in such matters. —And yet, those girls, who should have been less familiar with commerce than I, didn’t fall victim to the poisoned powder.”
Rosine wore a dark smile.
“They deny involvement in Horst’s plan, but I think that’s impossible. Those girls cooperated with Horst and used us as test subjects for some evil scheme.”
“It’s better not to get involved, Karen. Who knows what they’ll slip you next time?”
Rosine and Petra whispered coldly.
Karen keenly felt the reason why Gottfried had proposed a deal to her. He wanted to help the relatives in the former earl’s faction, but if Gottfried moved, he himself might be suspected of complicity in the treason. Unless Karen, who had actually resolved the dungeon anomaly, moved directly, there was no way to save them. But even wanting to help them, how could she save them from the cold gazes of people like Petra and Rosine? In the first place, they might not be innocent as Rosine said.
—Still, when Karen’s heart was struck seeing the dark expressions of the young ladies huddling together, looking constrained, one of the girls said:
“I think I’ll plead with Master Julius after all and have him make me his lowest-ranking wife.”
With those words alone, Karen’s sympathy for her vanished completely and cleanly.
“What resolve you have.”
“Even if it is to overcome this situation, to become the lowest-ranking wife of a man who won’t even inherit a title—how pitiful. If it were the Earl or Master Sieg, that would be another matter…”
For some reason, the other young ladies were showing sympathy for the woman who was arbitrarily trying to become Julius’s wife.
Karen’s sympathy for them completely disappeared.
“Given our current situation, having the head of House Ehlertt or his successor as a partner would be difficult even as a lowest-ranking wife, I believe. There is also the matter of the age difference. But if it’s the lowest-ranking wife of Master Julius, who will eventually leave the family, it should be possible.”
At that point, Karen couldn’t stand it and tried to jump out, but Petra held her in a bear hug, and she couldn’t.
“Please let me go, Lady Petra!”
“Karen, calm down a bit.”
“But saying it’s possible if she becomes Mr. Julius’ wife—what is that person even saying…!?”
Looking down at Karen’s fury, Petra made a horrified face.
“I could tell you were infatuated with Master Julius last year too, but you weren’t this blind… to sweet-talk someone this far, what a frightening man.”
“You go too far, Lady Petra. However, Lady Karen, please calm down, as Lady Petra says. Lady Ottilie is merely trying to become a lowest-ranking wife, is she not?”
Not understanding at all what "merely" meant, Karen glared at the young lady who had made the problematic statement. Her name seemed to be Ottilie. She was a beautiful girl with black hair and sleepy-looking red eyes. Petra was also a beautiful girl, but Ottilie was a young lady with a different atmosphere from Petra—a mature, sensual quality.
“For someone of Lady Ottilie’s caliber to be a lowest-ranking wife—Master Julius is so fortunate.”
“To have such resolve. House Ehlertt will surely save Lady Ottilie’s house.”
Karen frowned.
Anyone would want to become Julius’s wife.
Yet while trying to become that, they spoke as if it would be a punishment for Ottilie.
“Once I become Master Julius’s lowest-ranking wife, I will never abandon you all. I will surely help you, so please endure no matter how poorly you’re treated until then.”
“You are so kind…!”
“If only the ages matched, you could well have been the first wife of the future earl of Ehlertt…!”
“Please, everyone, support me.”
Among the young ladies, it seemed already decided that Ottilie would become Julius’s lowest-ranking wife. Moreover, the surrounding young ladies pitied Ottilie for trying to become Julius’s lowest-ranking wife.
“Even as a B-rank alchemist, to serve under a commoner first wife as a sign of atonement—how admirable you are, Lady Ottilie.”
If things continued as they were, Karen and Julius would likely marry. When that happened, a commoner would become Julius’s wife.
So, becoming the lowest-ranking wife would be a treatment severe enough to count as punishment for Ottilie and her family, who were suspected of supporting traitors—and that’s why she was confident she wouldn’t be refused?
Even after raising her alchemist rank all the way to B-rank, even if they appeared respectful on the surface, they looked down on her this much simply because she was a commoner.
That was how unfit Karen was considered as Julius’s wife.
That’s probably why both Petra and Rosine spoke of it as if it were nothing serious.
Her excited feelings about the engagement announcement at the New Year’s Festival cooled, and Karen trembled. Whether due to being away from the hunting festival’s heat or because the cold wind blowing down from the mountains threaded through the tents, she realized her body had grown completely cold.
At that moment, Karen’s ear softly became warm.
The Translator’s Note
In chapter 33, the term “末席の妻” was translated as “lesser wife”, but “lowest-ranking wife” is more accurate.
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