Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-One: Lowest-Ranking Wife 3
“Yes! Exactly! What Mr. Julius would hate having done to him, I also hate! What I would hate having done to me, Mr. Julius also hates!”
When Karen jumped out from the shadows and nodded, the young ladies surrounding Ottilie looked shocked. Even Ottilie herself widened her eyes slightly at the sight of Karen. Either she was unaware that she was doing something wrong, or perhaps such behavior—such as flirting or having affairs—was not actually considered wrong in noble society; in any case, Ottilie remained composed.
Julius looked at Karen and smiled.
“No matter what the actual substance might be, I cannot bear the existence of anyone other than myself bearing the name of Karen’s husband—do you feel the same way, Karen?”
“Of course!”
“I’m glad. If you wanted to have a lowest-ranking husband, I wouldn’t be able to stay calm.”
Julius approached Karen, touched her cheek, and made a pained expression. Julius’s long fingers reached toward Karen’s ear, and when she thought they touched the earring on her earlobe, he tilted Karen’s face up and brought his face close to hers, saying:
“I don’t want to obstruct your path, so if you wished for it, I couldn’t refuse.”
“Huh?”
“That’s why, let me plead with you.”
Julius wore a somewhat painful smile. Though it was the sweet smile Karen loved, she felt somewhere that Julius was forcing himself.
“Karen. Please, please—don’t have any husband other than me. Don’t wish for one. But… would even this plea become something that obstructs you?”
At the words Julius spoke while his golden eyes wavered, Karen’s eyes widened.
“No, I wouldn’t wish for that in the first place! If I said I wanted one, feel free to refuse and obstruct me!? I mean, this doesn’t even count as obstruction!”
“It doesn’t count as obstruction?”
Peering into Julius’s eyes, wavering with anxiety, Karen placed her hand over Julius’s hand, covering her cheek.
“We’re going to get married. That means we’ll pledge to the goddess that we’ll love only each other and spend our lives together, and promise that. If I try to break this promise, it’s my fault, so please stop me properly. Though I won’t break it!”
Karen tightly grasped the index finger of Julius’s overly large hand.
“I’m sure noble marriages have different values, but do you dislike that, Mr. Julius?”
“No… I like that too.”
“I’m glad. We really are compatible, right?”
If anything, Karen’s view of marriage was subtly misaligned even with commoners in this world. Even so, since it was Karen and Julius’s marriage, they could decide what to make of that marriage.
As they gazed at each other, the anxiety wavering in Julius’s golden eyes faded. The stiffness in his smile eased, turning into something warm and tender.
Karen naturally closed her eyelids and was feeling Julius’s breath approaching when—ahem ahem—an exaggerated clearing of the throat shattered the atmosphere of a kiss.
“Don’t forget our existence and enter your own little world!?”
The one who cleared her throat was Rosine, and the one who raised a protest first was Petra.
“We understand very well how passionately in love you two are, so please come back.”
Rosine looked exasperated. She wasn’t just good at managing her expressions—she apparently truly had no emotions like jealousy. This was clear because the young ladies on Ottilie’s side were directing gazes filled with hostility that they couldn’t suppress, no matter how hard they tried to control their expressions with smiles.
“I’d heard it was nothing more than winning her over for the Ehlertt territory… but that looked like they truly have feelings for each other.”
“I’m sure it’s just an act!”
“It didn’t look that way to me, though…”
It seemed that Karen and Julius’s relationship had been leniently tolerated in Ehlertt because people assumed it was a means of drawing Karen, a highly capable alchemist, into the Earl’s family and thus into the territory itself. In other words, they had overlooked Karen because they thought Julius was just toying with her.
…Ottilie, trying to insert herself as a lowest-ranking wife into that—wasn’t she looking down on Karen after all?
Just as Karen’s thoughts were about to enter a dark labyrinth again, Ottilie closed her fan with a sharp snap as if striking it against her palm.
At that instant, the murmuring young ladies all fell silent at once. Witnessing Ottilie’s high level of leadership, Karen steeled herself.
“You two are very close, aren’t you?”
“We’re mutually in love!”
When Karen declared proudly with her chest out, Julius smiled as if melting.
Ottilie looked between the two and nodded.
“Even among nobles, those who marry for love sometimes don’t want any wives or husbands other than each other. Come to think of it, the Ehlertt family was like that… I thought the Earl didn’t take other wives for Master Sieg’s sake, but…”
It seemed that it wasn’t the case that Helfried had a second wife or a lowest-ranking wife that Karen simply didn’t know about. If Helfried had other wives, Karen’s view of him would have changed. She secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
“It seems I made a mistake in my approach.”
Saying that, Ottilie glided smoothly over to stand before Karen. Not toward Julius at Karen’s side, but directly in front of Karen, Ottilie bent her knees deeply.
It was the highest form of courtesy for noble women that Alise had once taught her.
“Lady Karen, please make me your indentured servant. In exchange for that, I would like you to protect my family and territory.”
Ottilie said this without even glancing at Julius.
With the young ladies beginning to murmur again in the background, Ottilie smiled broadly.
From up close, Karen could see the stiffness in Ottilie’s cheeks, her smiling lips trembling slightly, and tension flickering in her red eyes.
Ottilie had her own reasons for trying to become Julius’s low-ranking wife, and now that it was no longer possible, she was turning to becoming Karen’s indentured servant as her next-best option.
Karen finally understood that Ottilie’s objective was not Julius.
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