Chapter 363: The Troublesome Young Lady
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 363: The Troublesome Young Lady
Her golden eyes, sparkling with an almost burdensome intensity, were fixed on me.
I sighed inwardly and looked at the young lady sitting across from me and Duke Winchester.
She certainly had a promising future, just as the Duke had said.
She was so cute and striking that I couldn't help but think she would have swept all the commercials if she'd debuted as a child actress.
But 11 years old?
To me, who'd spent his high school years looking after girls her age, she seemed like nothing more than a child.
I used to wipe their tears and runny noses when they came home crying after fighting with boys at school. And now I'm supposed to be in a marriage meeting with a girl their age?
In that moment, an indescribable feeling began to tighten around my throat.
It was guilt.
‘...Should I break the window and run for it?’
I shook my head.
There were hundreds of protective barriers cast on the Winchester estate.
If an outsider tried to escape the mansion through unauthorized means, there was no telling what would happen.
Feeling trapped, I lifted my teacup with a heavy heart.
The aroma was wasted on me.
“What do you think, Hyun-woo? It's black tea I brewed with leaves I prepared myself.”
The moment I brought the tea to my lips, the young lady looked at me with shining eyes.
I felt so much pressure from her expectant gaze that I thought I might choke on my tea.
“Of course, I received a lot of help from the maids, but I worked hard to help with everything from drying to sorting.”
“...I see. The aroma is indeed wonderful.”
I nodded, putting on my most good-natured smile.
The situation was awkward, but that aside, the girl before me was the one and only daughter of the House of Winchester.
And not just any daughter, but the Duke's own granddaughter, whom he doted on.
Even setting aside the matter of the Vermilion Bird's True Blood, staying on the young lady's good side was crucial to maintaining a smooth relationship with the Duke.
I could barely tell if I was drinking the tea or snorting it, but I could endure that much with a smile.
After all, it's only natural for awkward encounters to increase as one's social status rises.
Thinking of this meeting as a sort of dress rehearsal actually made me feel a bit more at ease.
In the first place, there was no way the sole daughter of the great House of Winchester would take a liking to an Asian man who'd flown in from the Far East.
She probably only came to save her grandfather's face.
So all I had to do was play along with whatever she said until this meeting was over.
“Um, Hyun-woo? If it's not too rude, may I ask you something?”
“Yes?”
But an entirely unexpected ambush was waiting for me.
The moment I saw the young lady's flushed red cheeks, an unknown sense of dread ran down my spine.
“Hyun-woo, what is your ideal type of woman?”
“...”
Silence fell over the room.
I frantically looked for Duke Winchester, but he was already gone.
Only the faint traces of his magic remained where he had been sitting.
‘That rotten old man...’
I cursed Duke Winchester inwardly and swallowed a sigh.
If she had been an ordinary noble lady, I would have been delighted, but the person before me was a girl of only eleven.
No matter how much of a womanizer I was, hearing something like that from a legal minor wasn't delightful, just deeply troubling.
Setting aside the crack forming in my carefully built morality, I could already feel the sharp glares of the other women piercing my entire body.
—...Now you're even going after minors?
Choi Hyena's sharp voice, in particular, kept ringing in my ears.
“...If I had to choose, I prefer older women.”
“Does that mean you dislike younger women?”
“That's righ—”
In that moment, the faces of Cheon Yeo-hwa, Noel, and Yoo Sowol flashed through my mind.
All three of them were twenty, younger than me.
At a loss for words, I quietly set down my teacup and rubbed my stiff neck.
“...It's not that I dislike younger women. I just believe a large age gap makes it difficult to maintain a smooth relationship.”
Thankfully, the young lady nodded at my gentle refusal.
“I understand.”
Seeing that, I let out a sigh of relief.
Finally, we're getting somewhere—
“Since I'm still young, even if we were to marry, you would have a hard time satisfying your lust, wouldn't you, Hyun-woo?”
“...”
Without a word, I glanced at the maid standing behind her.
Despite her young mistress's shocking remark, the maid just stood there without the slightest change in expression.
Only then did I realize.
In a place where the abnormal is the norm, trying to apply outside common sense would only make me the abnormal one.
“...Forgive my presumption, my lady. I have already politely declined the engagement the Duke offered.”
I began to speak, looking at the young lady with a slightly more serious expression.
Now that I knew there was no one in this vast ducal estate to teach the young lady even the most basic common sense, I couldn't just let it slide.
“Of course, I am well aware that you have offered me a position far beyond my station. However, I have many women I am responsible for, so I hope you can graciously understand that I cannot accept your offer. Above all, as a non-noble, I am not a suitable match for the House of Winchester.”
It was no longer a gentle refusal, but a blunt one.
“You don't have to worry about your status. Once I speak to Grandfather and you receive your citizenship, you will immediately be granted the title of Viscount.”
But Lady Ophelia just kept looking at me with the innocent smile unique to a child.
Was she clueless because she'd been spoiled as the Duke's only granddaughter, or was she just pretending not to understand?
“I'm sorry, but I have no intention of naturalizing as a British citizen, nor do I intend to marry you, my lady. You are too young for me, and I am not so irresponsible as to abandon the women I have in Korea just to gain a title.”
“...If you marry me, you can become the head of the House of Winchester. Grandfather will even teach you magic himself. You, of all people, must know what a precious opportunity that is, don't you?”
She had a point.
But just because something is correct doesn't mean it's always the right answer.
“If one cannot reach their destination simply because they couldn't take a shortcut, doesn't that just mean they lack the necessary talent and effort?”
“...”
The smile vanished from the young lady's face.
Her slightly trembling voice and wavering eyes left a bad taste in my mouth.
What was I even doing, arguing with a child like this?
Clink.
I infused some heat into the slightly cooled teacup.
It was warmed to the perfect temperature, but for some reason, I had no desire to pick it up.
“...You are certainly a charming person, my lady. You are more skilled in etiquette than I, and you are full of grace. It's just that, where I come from, there is a culture that does not look favorably upon taking a minor as a spouse.”
Of course, it's the same in Europe, but that's only a concern for commoners.
For nobles, the age difference wasn't a significant issue.
This was because, thanks to consuming all sorts of elixirs from a young age and undergoing meticulous care, their average lifespan easily exceeded a hundred years.
Moreover, they maintained their youth for a relatively long time.
“If my words have hurt your feelings in any way, I sincerely apologi—”
“...Hic!”
“?”
For a moment, I heard a sound that made me doubt my ears.
An ominous premonition flashed through my mind.
“Hic, sob...!”
Sigh.
Why did it have to go exactly as I'd feared?
I looked up to see the young lady's eyes welling up with huge teardrops.
Thump!
“I-I really hate you, too!!”
Did she not want me to see her cry?
The young lady shot up from her seat and, squeezing her eyes shut, ran out of the room as if fleeing.
In the bewildering atmosphere, the maid who had brought her in hurriedly followed after her.
But just before leaving the room, the maid bowed her head politely to me as a sign of respect.
I thought she'd at least shoot me a murderous glare for insulting her mistress.
“...What a strange household.”
I took a bottle of cold water from my inventory and gulped it down.
I came here as an invited guest, and now I'd suddenly become the scoundrel who made the family's only daughter cry.
‘At this rate, the Vermilion Bird's True Blood is a lost cause.’
I strongly felt that things had gone wrong from the very start, but I had no regrets.
Because for a child of only eleven, she didn't seem normal in many ways.
I wondered just how that duke had raised his granddaughter.
“...So, do you feel better now that you've pushed the villain role onto me?”
Shhh-
With a complex ripple of magic, Duke Winchester appeared on the sofa across from me.
“Of course not.”
He was still smiling.
Even after watching me speak so harshly to his precious granddaughter.
I was dumbfounded to see him casually clinking his teacup as if nothing had happened.
“I'm feeling a bit petty, so I'm afraid you'll have to make your own tea.”
“A young man like you shouldn't be like that already.”
“I know, right? I must have picked it up from the Duke of Rutland.”
Duke Winchester, still wearing the smile of a friendly old man, began to prepare his own tea.
By the way, just how much sugar was he putting in there? At this rate, he'd collapse from diabetes.
“...Thank you for refusing her. With this, that child won't bring up marriage for a while.”
“No matter how cute your granddaughter is, if you keep her cooped up, won't she end up an old maid?”
“Haha, you have a point there.”
Amidst the strange atmosphere, I relaxed, crossed my legs, and started eating a cookie.
After all, the man in front of me wasn't the head of the House of Winchester, but just an old man with a troublesome story.
“That child's parents died five years ago.”
“...”
This was the first I'd heard of it.
The young lady's parents would be the Duke's heir and his wife, but I'd never heard any tragic news about two such important people.
“...It was an accident.”
I was about to ask for more details, but I held my tongue when I saw the Duke's complicated expression.
I felt it was the right thing to do.
“Ever since then, she's been telling everyone that no matter what, she'll marry a man stronger than her grandfather.”
“...Is that even possible?”
“It would be rather difficult, but not entirely impossible, I suppose.”
The Duke looked at me with a meaningful expression.
I've felt this for a while, but this old man's evaluation of me is strangely generous.
“The child takes after me; she has a good eye for people. The reason she was so forward with you was likely because she saw your potential.”
“...Even so, the affection of a young lady ten years my junior is a bit much to handle.”
“Haha, she's still young. Her mind will change in a few days, don't you think?”
As if nothing had happened, Duke Winchester put on his good-natured smile again and sipped his tea.
True, after what just happened, she probably wouldn't bring up the engagement to me again.
Kids that age are especially prideful.
“So, thanks to you, I'm on the young lady's bad side now. What are you going to do about it?”
“...Ahem.”
Duke Winchester stealthily avoided my gaze and left the room.
Damn that old man.
*
Later, as the sun set over Avalon, evening arrived.
The nobles invited to the party began to gather one by one, and I also made my way to the banquet hall.
“Sigh... I lose. So, I'll allow up to five.”
And there, I was reunited with the young lady, who was dressed in a cute dress.
“...?”
“Concubines. I'll turn a blind eye if you see other women after we're married.”
That day, I learned that a noble lady, even at such a young age, could swallow her pride.