Chapter 130
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 130
As Charlotte looked around with a sorrowful expression, the Dowager Lady hurriedly led her further inside. The moment they were alone, Charlotte’s eyes welled with tears, as if she had been waiting for this exact moment.
“Oh, Char. What is the matter?” the Dowager Lady soothed, even using Charlotte’s old nickname.
“Dowager Lady, Oscar is…”
“Oscar?”
Charlotte’s lips parted, but she seemed to find it too difficult to speak. After a long moment, she finally leaned in and whispered in the Dowager Lady’s ear.
“He’s keeping some nameless nobody.”
The Dowager Lady’s wrinkled eyes narrowed. “A nameless nobody?”
A surge of genuine anger coursed through Charlotte. When she had returned to the Reinhardt Manor after suffering that humiliation, she hadn’t seen so much as a single hair of that woman. She had searched the entire estate from top to bottom, but Oscar had hidden her away completely.
“Where was it… Danguk? Anyway, he’s keeping a woman who came from somewhere far away. She was entirely alone. What kind of parents would send their daughter all that way by herself? She must be an orphan with no family to speak of, wouldn’t you agree?”
The corner of the Dowager Lady’s mouth twitched. Good heavens, this was the juiciest gossip she’d heard in ages. Suppressing the urge to smile, she did her best to soothe Charlotte calmly.
“Don’t worry too much. He’s likely just toying with her as a mistress. In the end, everything will fall into its proper place.”
“No. There’s such a thing as a mother’s intuition, isn’t there?”
“…”
“I think Oscar is serious about her. He hated the idea of me even briefly meeting her. The reason he’s being so cold to me is…”
Charlotte burst into tears. The Dowager Lady was secretly shocked by her weeping. Until now, Charlotte had always boasted about how close she and Oscar were, never once admitting to any weakness in their relationship. It had reached a point where discussing Oscar’s marriage in front of her was practically taboo.
Yet here she was, suddenly bringing up such matters herself. Carefully controlling her expression, the Dowager Lady patted Charlotte on the back.
“No, surely that can’t be.”
“I’ve never seen Oscar act like this. If he decides to marry that woman, I have no way of stopping him. Marriage is the sole prerogative of the head of the family, isn’t it? How can such a law even exist?”
After crying in the Dowager Lady’s arms for a long while, Charlotte dabbed at her tears with a handkerchief and finally got to the point.
“Please, help me, Dowager Lady.”
“I would love to help if I could, but what can I possibly do in this matter…?”
“I heard Lady Franz is staying here.”
“Abigail?”
“For a long time now, I have wished for someone just like her to become my son’s wife. I even expressed my intentions to her parents once before.”
Charlotte had long since earmarked Abigail von Franz as Oscar’s future wife. Among the young ladies of prestigious families, none were as submissive as she. To properly support the fierce and headstrong Oscar while maintaining a good relationship with Charlotte herself, the bride couldn't be too opinionated.
It was a shame Abigail’s frail constitution made it difficult for her to bear children, but that was a trivial matter. Sabine could simply bear the heir to succeed Oscar.
However, the Dowager Lady looked highly uncomfortable and let her voice trail off. “Ah, but Abigail, that child is…”
Abigail had entered into a marriage her parents did not approve of. Apparently, she had an affair with the son of a servant at their estate. Because of that, her parents had practically exiled her here, keeping her in a state akin to house arrest. Since the matter would bring shame upon the entire Franz name, the Dowager Lady had willingly taken her in.
Charlotte spoke to the Dowager Lady, who had trailed off, unwilling to air her family’s dirty laundry. “If I can stop Oscar from making a foolish choice, I am prepared to do whatever it takes. After all, I am his only blood relative, his mother.”
“…”
“Even if marriage falls under the family head’s authority, it’s the parents who draft the marriage contract, isn’t it? And the dowry is exchanged between the parents as well.”
“Indeed. A portion of this very manor was part of my dowry. It belongs to me now, but back then, it belonged to my father-in-law.”
“It must have been immense.”
“Immense indeed.”
“For the sake of your niece, Dowager Lady, please put forward a dowry.”
As Charlotte tightly grasped her hands, the Dowager Lady wondered if she had misheard.
“…What?”
But the words that followed were enough to make the elegant Dowager Lady’s jaw drop.
“I mean that I wish for you, Dowager Lady, to pay me a dowry on the condition of Oscar’s marriage to Lady Franz. As for the size of the dowry… how does five hundred billion Kerte sound, a sum befitting your grand reputation?”
“F-Five hundred billion?”
There was no way she had such a sum. In fact, she had exactly that amount in debt.
However, pride prevented her from admitting she didn’t have the money. Just as she was about to point out that they weren’t close enough for her to pay such a dowry, Charlotte continued.
“You don’t actually need to give me the money. We only need to draw up a few documents.”
“Documents?”
“First, a document stating, ‘The marriage of the two parties has been discussed, and Charlotte von Reinhardt has received the dowry on the condition of this marriage.’ Then, we should include a clause regarding ‘the return of the dowry in the event that the marriage is not consummated or ends in divorce.’ It would be absolutely perfect if His Majesty could notarize it.”
“Wait a moment… So, you’re saying we should pretend you received the money without you actually receiving it?”
Normally, one would wonder what kind of lunatic would suggest such a stunt, but Charlotte was perfectly sane.
“Just as assets are inherited, so are debts. If I cannot return that money, Oscar will have to pay it.”
If she couldn’t persuade Oscar with words, she would threaten him with the one thing he cherished so much: money. No matter how infatuated he was with that woman, he wouldn’t trade such a massive fortune for her. He couldn’t possibly be that mad.
The problem was finding someone who could believably offer such a massive sum—one large enough to make Oscar hesitate—and in that respect, the Dowager Lady was the perfect choice. Although she was currently drowning in debt, all of it was hidden in the shadows. Making her debts public would bring disgrace upon the royal family, so no one would dare bring it up. Therefore, even if it seemed impossible for the Dowager Lady to give Charlotte five hundred billion, no one could openly claim it was impossible. Even suggesting it would send the Dowager Lady into a rage, claiming she was being insulted.
“As long as my son doesn’t stray down the wrong path, what does a mere five hundred billion matter?” Charlotte smiled elegantly. “Either way, you have nothing to lose, Dowager Lady. If the marriage doesn’t happen, you’ll receive five hundred billion from Oscar without spending a single penny. If the marriage does happen, you will become the godmother to the Marchioness of Reinhardt.”
“But isn’t that sum a bit too… Ahem.”
“If it were any less, Oscar wouldn’t even bat an eye.”
With that, Charlotte pulled a palm-sized pouch from her bag. The object inside the black velvet was no ordinary item.
“Wait, is that perhaps…”
“It is my seal.”
Atop the black seal sat a carving of a roaring wolf. On its base, crafted from golden steel, the words ‘Marchioness of Reinhardt’ were clearly engraved.
Even as she fled the ruined Reinhardt estate alone, Charlotte had brought the Marchioness’s jewelry box with her. While the expensive jewels were valuable, inside were also the Marchioness’s Seal, her insignia, and a letter that remained unopened to this day.
How wise she had been. If she had left these behind, she could never have dreamed of pulling off something like this. There had been many opportunities to use this seal over the years, yet she never had.
She didn’t know what Oscar thought, but Charlotte had done her absolute best to act as his mother. Yet he dared to value the debt of giving him life at the mere price of that manor? He expected her to hand over the position of the Marchioness of Reinhardt for the cost of that estate?
I am sorry, Oscar, but I have no intention of doing so.
Charlotte faced the Dowager Lady, her face now completely devoid of tears and worry.
“What do you say, Dowager Lady? Since I’m already here, I’d like to settle this before I leave.”
* * *
Barbara’s mind was in a tangle.
There was still no word from Oscar, who had gone into seclusion with Seo-ah. Just how badly was he injured that he hadn’t contacted her at all? She was just beginning to wonder if she should pay him a visit if she didn't hear anything by next week.
“Senior.”
Barbara pushed her thoughts aside and nodded.
A moment later, a slouching man walked into her office, reeking of the pungent stench of a vagrant who hadn’t washed in months.
“I’d tell you to go wash up,” Barbara said with a frown.
He shrugged. “Do you know how much effort I put into cultivating this smell? I can’t just wash it all off.”
“Report.”
He pulled a thick stack of documents from a large bag and placed them on Barbara’s desk. It was filled with body management records and crematorium usage logs from the Capital Morgue. He was an intelligence agent who had infiltrated the morgue’s crematorium as a laborer.
“It was a pain smuggling these out.”
“Good work.”
“The palace maid was murdered and cremated on that day, just as you suspected. I made copies of the records from the day she disappeared to leave behind and brought the originals. As you can see, the names are all different, but the handwriting is identical.”
“Are the names written there real people?”
“No. It looks like they just wrote down whatever came to mind.”
“Whatever came to mind…”
Usually, when people make things up like that, they unconsciously pull from their own surroundings.
Barbara examined the names Sabine had fabricated one by one. Sure enough, most of the names she had randomly written were slight variations of the names of people around her.