Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-Four: Unfathomable Fixation
However, immediately after, Ottilie abruptly lifted her face. A strangely cheerful smile floated on that face. It wasn’t the expression of someone who had just placed their last hope in Karen and begged for help, and Karen furrowed her brow.
“Thanks to you, I’ve deepened my understanding of you in several ways, Lady Karen.”
“…Pardon?”
“Next time, I’ll prepare the compensation you seek and come to ask again.”
“Huh? Wait a moment, please! I’ll be troubled if you come again!”
As Karen called out to stop Ottilie, who was about to leave the tent without hesitation, Ottilie turned back and grinned broadly.
“If your heart still isn’t moved by what I offer next time, Lady Karen, you can simply refuse me then.”
“No, but still…!”
To the flustered Karen, Ottilie laughed with a giggle.
“Lady Karen, you’re a kind person.”
“I just refused your request, though!?”
That was hardly an impression one would have of Karen, who had just refused such a desperate plea.
As Karen stared in shock, Ottilie narrowed her eyes.
“The compensation I offered all seemed to be off the mark and troublesome for you, Lady Karen. But you listened to my story, didn’t you? Rather than hearing me out from curiosity, it seems you worried about me to no small degree, doesn’t it?”
“Not particularly, that’s not…”
“If we had fallen into such dire straits that we would meet our end immediately without your assistance, Lady Karen, you wouldn’t have been able to refuse, would you? You’re a kind person.”
To Karen, who fell silent, Petra’s eyes widened.
“Huh? No way, you were thinking that?”
“If someone is innocent and yet caught up in something terrible, isn’t that pitiful…!”
If it had been a matter of someone about to die immediately, even Karen wouldn’t have been able to abandon them. However, judging from Ottilie’s story, it sounded like there was still time. If measures were taken during this winter, it seemed possible that things could be resolved even without Karen’s involvement.
“It’s true that we’re not currently exposed to such an imminent threat. …Though I don’t know what will happen after the palace announces the matter.”
According to Waltride, Horst was a traitor. If the Bell family, including Ottilie, were currently regarded as Horst’s allies, they might find themselves in dire straits after the spring announcement.
As Karen’s expression grew serious, Ottilie smiled.
“Lady Karen, you need not concern yourself with my efforts going to waste out of your kindness. Simply accept my proposal if it pleases you, and refuse it if it does not.”
“Even so…”
“Or is it that any woman who has approached Master Julius even once is unbearably offensive to you? However, it seems there are cases like Lady Petra who are forgiven, so I wish to follow after her.”
“I don’t think you need to fixate on me so much…? Surely there are others who would help you!?”
If she used that overflowing, bewitching charm, seduction would be easy. Karen had no objection whatsoever to her using seduction on anyone other than Julius. Rather, if seduction was a method that could only be used on Julius, the problem would be back to square one again.
“I want you, Lady Karen.”
“…Because you can get close to Mr. Julius?”
“My, how deeply rooted.”
To Karen, who spoke with suspicion plain on her face, Ottilie laughed merrily, apparently finding something amusing.
“Discovering that you, Lady Karen, hold the authority between the two of you was quite enlightening. I naturally thought Master Julius held the decision-making power.”
That was apparently why her opening move had been the offer to become a lowest-ranking wife. Noble men would probably jump at the offer with delight if a noble woman proposed to become a lowest-ranking wife.
Just before Karen was about to turn a cold gaze toward Julius, he pulled her close by the shoulder.
“Even if I held the decision-making power, I wouldn’t have accepted your proposal.”
Julius took Karen’s hand and brought his lips close. With a gasp, Karen’s face turned red.
Letting his lips hover just shy of touching Karen’s hand, Julius directed a sharp gaze at Ottilie.
Ottilie met Julius’s gaze and lifted the corners of her lips.
“I thought you were someone who upheld the code of nobility and knighthood, Master Julius, so those are also unexpected words.”
“I’ve been able to meet a woman who doesn’t care in the slightest whether I’m un-noble-like or un-knight-like.”
“Mr. Julius, you’re too close!”
As Julius brought his cheek close to Karen’s cheek, Karen inadvertently interrupted. Julius looked down at Karen, whose face had turned red, and showed a smile with what seemed like relief.
“Would you not like to make it so that anyone who sees us understands that no one can come between us?”
“Certainly, if you’re this close, no one could get between us, but…!”
Normally, shouldn’t this be something where Karen, trying to prevent Julius from being stolen by Ottilie, was the one closing the distance?
Faced with Julius’s relentless advance, leaving Karen no time to counter, Ottilie merely shrugged.
“It was fortunate for me that Lady Karen holds the decision-making power.”
“Just why do you fixate on Karen so much?”
“A person who became a B-rank alchemist at a young age. A creator who developed one new potion after another and ultimately even produced a panacea, and moreover, a rare educator who taught alchemy to one with less than F-rank magical power and raised him into an alchemist.”
The excessive flattery made Karen writhe.
While writhing, what surprised her was about Harald.
It turned out that Karen taking Harald, a disciple with very low magical power, was not well known. Although information about Karen, who became a B-rank alchemist, was restricted, there were no restrictions on information about her disciple Harald, so it wasn’t strange that it was known, but it didn’t come up in conversation.
When negotiating with nobles to take in the children, Karen had thought it would be the first topic to come up. She had the track record of once making Harald into an alchemist. If it were known that Harald could also make potions from non-magical materials that other alchemists couldn’t make, she thought there was a possibility that, from there, her early talent scouting would be exposed. Yet not a single noble recalled Harald’s existence.
“Finally, she’s also a person of mercy who pities all children with little magical power and tries to take them in and raise them. How could I possibly think of serving anyone other than someone like her?”
Before she knew it, for some reason, Julius and Ottilie were smiling while glaring at each other, leaving Karen aside.
However, when she made eye contact with the flustered Karen caught between them, Ottilie stopped the smiling glare-off with Julius and smiled brightly.
“Since it’s not my intention to trouble you, Lady Karen, I’ll come again another time.”
Ottilie smiled brightly and alluringly, then departed from the tent with graceful steps.
As Karen stood dazed, watching her back, she furrowed her brow, noticing that she didn’t hold as much negative feeling toward Ottilie as she had at first.
“…Could it be that Lady Ottilie is quite shrewd?”
“She’s the top genius in the Ehlertt territory, and she was even called a prodigy when she was young.”
“Well, after Master Julius appeared in high society, it became all about him, so before anyone knew it, she stopped being called that.”
At Rosine and Petra’s words, Karen held her head.
“What should I do… if my heart wavers at the next offer…!”
“If you’re attracted, wouldn’t it be fine to accept?”
“If that was all an act and she is actually a cunning vixen trying to get close to Mr. Julius, then it would be even worse if she is truly capable…!?”
To Karen, who said this with eyes wide open, Rosine smiled wryly.
“So it is not that you do not wish to accept her because she may carry troublesome circumstances?”
“As long as she didn’t assist Horst in the dungeon anomaly incident.”
If she had been involved in that, even Karen could do nothing about it.
Remembering the fluffy pegasus foal born from the blackened egg, Karen sighed.
When she looked up, Julius was staring at the tent entrance where Ottilie had departed with somewhat dark eyes.
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