“What would Edith want to make?”
She was startled by the Duchess’s voice and looked up to see that everyone’s eyes were on her.
“Oh, well, I’m going to embroider a handkerchief.”
The plain handkerchief she lifted looked too small. As expected, they were looking at it with pitiful eyes.
“I wondered how many copies I would make and put out…”
She timidly appealed that she would make several copies, but nothing changed. Only the Duchess responded kindly, saying, ‘It must be pretty.’
‘Isn’t this really not going to sell a single copy?’
She had hoped that the Duchess would secretly purchase it for the sake of the family’s face, but if it didn’t work out, she’d have to ask Anna to buy it for her. At the end she didn’t get involved in the conversations of the other wives, and she just flipped through the embroidery design book.
‘Hmm? This must be pretty.’
A new design caught her eye among all the fancy patterns. It didn’t seem difficult, and it didn’t look too childish. She decided to embroider a little bird with a bay leaf in its beak, and painstakingly painted a design on a handkerchief. It was a little embarrassing to do just that one, so she went around the handkerchief and added a laurel pattern. While she was working so hard on the design, one of the wives, who had been giving her a particularly cold look from a while ago, came up to her and started talking to her.
“Oh! The design is similar to the one my daughter made the year before last. It will be very pretty when finished.”
“Yes? I think this design is cute too…”
At that time, the wife who sat next to her pretended not to know anything.
“I remember the handkerchief Miss Larissa made the year before last. By the way, how old is Miss Larissa this year?”
“She is seventeen years old. She already has a mother womb.”
“Then she made the handkerchief when she was fifteen. She was just like a little girl, but she is already a lady, time flies.”
“Yes? Ho-ho-ho!”
Everyone laughed happily and moved on to other topics of conversation, but she understood very well what they had to say.
‘It’s true that you put it on the same level as a 15-year-old, yes?’
It was also used when the Duchess was busy looking at other people’s work.
‘Wasn’t that lady secretly friendly with the Countess of Sinclair? Why is she criticizing me and not Lise?’
Well, at this point, the Duchess would definitely hate the woman for approaching Lise, whom she cherished like her daughter.
‘It will be very eventful in the future.’
She was kind of annoyed, but she didn’t need the attention of people who didn’t matter anyway. She made up her mind and focused all her attention on her embroidery. However, despite the consideration of the Duchess, whenever there was an embroidery meeting, she became more and more isolated. In particular, the lady who was close to the Countess of Sinclair secretly compared her to Lise and led her bullying.
‘In a way, it’s only natural that Edith became jealous of Lise in the original story.’
It’s because she knew the original story that she could be bored with such provocations, otherwise she might have hated Lise too. Even today, Lise was embroidered with all sorts of flowers and grasses on her shawl with a spirited skill, receiving plenty of cuteness from her other wives. That shawl would probably end up in the hands of Cliff among the two men who were fighting over each other.
‘Yes or no.’
She looked down at the handkerchief with only laurels embroidered around it, contemplating what color to paint the bird’s body. Originally, she was going to fill it with yellow, but she thought it would look too much like a chick. After thinking about it, she took out a thread and tried it on, thinking of making the body light gray and the wings silver and black. Then, a hand appeared in front of her eyes.
“How about doing it in this color?”
Lise handed her a pink thread and asked. Maybe it was sad to see her being bullied.
“I think it would be really cute if the leaves on the beak were this light green.”
Of course it would. The combination of pink and light green almost never fails. She appreciated her consideration, but unfortunately she had no intention of making it look girlish like that. However, if she refused Lise’s proposal here, they would call her arrogant and say that she had no skills or that she might not be able to listen to the advice of others, so she had to be careful.
“Thanks for the advice, Lise. But this… It’s because I’m making it while thinking of Killian.”
“Yes? Killian… What?”
It just happened to remind her of Killian, who had gray eyes, and said it around, but well, it didn’t seem like a bad excuse to use.
“Yes. Because Killian’s eyes are this color…”
“Come to think of it, I see.”
“Don’t tell him because it’s embarrassing. OK?”
She asked with a smile like a shy new bride. The wives who tried to punish her for rejecting Lise’s proposal couldn’t refute the excuse she gave. What would they say if the new bride said she would embroider while thinking of her new groom, especially the second son of the Duke of Ludwig? Rather, she was busy watching the happy Duchess.
“You are so lovely, Edith! Killian’s eyes are a very pretty color.”
“Don’t you think it looks like His Excellency’s pupils?”
“Oh my, he is too!”
When she even exchanged jokes with the Duchess, the ladies next to her laughed and matched the rhythm.
“Newlyweds are nice. It’s so sweet…”
“I know, right? By the way, is Killian doing well?”
Lise tried to answer their question, but Edith quickly intercepted her words.
“Sure! Now, with the Duke, he went down to look around the estate that Killian will receive. When he get back, I’ll tell him that you asked how he was doing.”
After she answered, Lise closed her mouth and smiled. To be honest, whenever she did this, she deeply understood the Edih of the original story. She knew that Lise had no ill will toward her, but she was seriously lacking in her common sense.
‘It’s a question for me, and it’s a question about my husband, so why are you trying to answer it?’
Of course, the original author of this world said, ‘Lise tried to answer, but Edith intercepted her words with a ferocious face. She replied that Killian was doing well, but in fact, Lise knew that Killian seemed distressed lately.’
It’s like a damn world that’s only narrated from the main character’s point of view.
* * *
“How are you, Killian?”
Blowing a cool breeze, Duke Ludwig asked Killian. They stood on the hillside of Philiac Mountain, overlooking Ryzen, the territory that Killian would receive with the title of count.
“Fairly… I’m fine.”
Killian tried to answer nonchalantly, but Duke Ludwig noticed that his son was quite pleased. Well, if he hadn’t, he’d have been a little sad. Because Ryzen was the territory he chose after careful consideration for Killian.
“It’s a bit far from the capital, but it’s rare to find a territory with such great potential for development. In fact, ten days by carriage is not that far.”
“Sure. If you run by horse, it will take less than a week, so it’s not very far. There are places that take a month.”
Killian was very satisfied with Ryzen. In fact, he was even a little worried about which estate his father and his older brother would give away. He used to think that it didn’t matter anywhere, but if he wanted to bring Edith with her high nose to live with him, he wouldn’t be able to match her eye level with an intolerable estate.
‘But if it’s this kind of territory, that woman won’t even talk. It seems that my father felt sorry for me for giving away such a valuable land.’
At one time, Killian had no intention of continuing his marriage to Edith, but now he was thinking of taking her down to his estate. It was because Edith was more tolerant than he expected, and he already knew that Lise’s heart had left him.
After she ate his heart like that, he felt rather comfortable.
‘Yeah, that’s how it turned out.’
The wind of early summer that hit me halfway up the mountain was refreshing, as if it would wipe away the lingering crumbs left inside. Ryzen in the north was cooler than the capital in all four seasons, so it was more comfortable than the capital, which gradually gets hotter.
“How cold does it get in winter?”
“It is a little colder than the capital. More snow than temperature is a bit of a problem. Snow clouds can’t get over Mount Philiac, so I sprinkle a lot of snow on Ryzen. However, there has never been an avalanche or an isolated territory.”
“That’s great.”
Except for the snow problem in the winter, Ryzen was pretty good.
‘Edit, as long as she doesn’t insist that she’s cold, then it will be fine.’
If she complained about being cold, it’d be fine with giving her a fur coat. It would have been foolish to miss this estate just because it was a little cold. Ryzen’s area was not very large, but the production of agricultural products compared to the area was very large. The land was fertile and the rainfall was just right. In addition, the working population was quite large thanks to the lack of large cities around to absorb the youth.
“There are a lot of young people, so it would be good to develop industries other than agriculture. If we pave the way across Mount Philiac, it could become a midway point for merchants roaming across the empire.”
“That’s a good idea. But before that, it would be better to solidify Ryzen’s security capabilities. Because when outsiders flock to it, crime tends to increase.”
Killian nodded his head with a pounding heart. When he saw the territory he would rule in front of him, he wanted to try this and that, and he even felt impatient.
How do you feel?
