"Do you like me that much?"
"Yes!"
"Then please promote this stationery store later."
The child nodded vigorously, his plump cheeks swaying. "Yes! I understand! It's not a lung, it's definitely like a war zone, it doesn't look completely dangerous, and I don't think it's going to be haunted!"
He seemed to be emphasizing it completely, as if to convince himself. However, I'm infinitely weak when it comes to children, so I just nodded awkwardly. "It will take about a week for 'Mel's Stationery Store' to open."
"Then I must!" The child's eyes widened as he declared, "...I'm going to dress up nicely and show up here in front of Mel's stationery store!" He hugged the music box he had placed on the floor tightly and finished speaking. "I need to go to my brother first and give him a gift and talk about you."
'Is he saying he's promoting the stationery store to his brother?' If this is his older brother, he'll be about fifteen? Fortunately, our stationery store could cater to that age group.
"Take this and give it to your brother." The boy's eyes twinkled as he accepted the tightly sealed slushie bottle.
The meeting with our first prospective customer ended neatly. I asked him, as I sent the mysterious noble boy, whose name I didn't know, off in the rental carriage, "Where are you going?"
"Home!"
I heard the boy in the rental carriage whisper something to the coachman, but I ignored it. A long day went by like that.
As I walked into the stationery store, I thought about what had happened today. After cleaning the garden, I'd brainwashed Lennox's and Hildegard's spies who were hovering around, and sent them a letter of excommunication.
'I was lucky enough to meet a devil and make a slushie!' I even promoted the stationery store to the academy boys. Even before the stationery store officially opened, a lot had happened today.
'How much more will happen in the future?'
"Dominic."
"Huh?"
"The annulment and excommunication letters should have arrived by now, right?"
The mail collection service was fast. As it was a public service, they changed manpower to work quickly and accurately, so the annulment and excommunication letters I sent must have arrived at each family by now. What happened? Did the atmosphere turn upside down? Or will they try to correct my opinion quickly? I was really curious, but it was a pity I couldn't see it in person.
The two letters from Meldenik arrived at each of the dukes' estates that night. True to her expectations, the two ducal houses of the Empire were turned upside down.
The first to react, even before the Duke of Babelloa, was Duke Hesman. When he arrived at the mansion, he looked at the ducal house's old butler, who blocked him, and said with a disapproving and indifferent face, "What's going on?"
"That's it... The annulment papers have arrived at your home, sir."
He didn't believe Meldenik when she said that. She was a woman whose words and actions often fluctuated.
'The three spies didn't say anything, but suddenly?' They were hand-selected and competent. They hadn't posted any reports, yet Meldenik had actually written and sent a letter?
"Where is Meldenik now?"
"That... She sent it by mail. She didn't come in person."
Lennox, who had been suppressing his unease, glared and said stiffly, "Ignore it." He gritted his teeth as he remembered his father's will. "I can't break up this marriage, because she is absolutely necessary for my family." To be precise, he needed her blood.
"You must marry Meldenik Babelloa."
"But, Father, she is of cursed blood! I won't be with that woman."
His father, who was dying from a fall from the carriage, shook his head firmly. "Kinnoah is not a cursed bloodline. That's a false rumor."
"Yes?"
"Kinnoah received the power of a dragon. But there was no one with the physique to make that power bloom."
"..."
"Meldenik inherited Kinnoah's blood, and she has great power." The previous Duke Hesman struggled to speak. "Watch her and marry her. And suppress any power from manifesting. When a child is born, the power hidden in her will be passed down from generation to generation."
The dying middle-aged man lying on the bed had greed in his eyes. "A child empowered by a dragon will become the most powerful human being on the continent, and good things will follow wherever he goes."
The most powerful man on the continent? The great revival of the Duke Hesman seemed to be in sight.
"I understand, Father." He closed his father's eyes with trembling hands.
After that, Lennox faithfully carried out everything his father commanded. He deliberately approached Meldenik and deceived her. And for several years, he painstakingly tamed her well and tied her up so that she wouldn't go anywhere.
'Where is she going to go? This rebellion period is long.' He twisted one corner of his mouth and continued, "She'll be back anyway."
The butler, who was watching his master standing still and collecting his thoughts, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "Well, sir, there was a warning written on the envelope."
"Warning Statement?" This is the first time he'd heard of it.
"If you ignore the annulment papers, it will... He said she would make it into a 'public spectacle.'"
"What?" The old butler seemed to be looking at him with a disdainful look. He was a butler who had been a member of the Duke of Hesman's household for a long time, so he couldn't ignore his master.
"It says, 'If you ignore the annulment papers, I will make you a national adulterer.'"
Lennox's face distorted terribly. The butler quickly changed his expression and handed him Meldenik's letter. He tore open the envelope and checked the letter of destruction, and several sentences began to blur in his vision.
I have all the evidence that Sheria and you had an affair, so I hope you will break up the marriage obediently. You have an image, right? - Meldenik
"Meldenik Babelloa..." He muttered grimly and crumpled the envelope in his hand so no one could see it. He needed time to figure out what Meldenik was going to do.
"What about the annulment papers? Leave them alone." It hurt his pride very much, but he couldn't help it. Strangely, it seemed that he had been dragged by Meldenik on a leash for some time. He had to use Meldenik himself.
Lennox roughly tore through the tie around his neck to get rid of the feeling of suffocation. "This matter is unquestionable."
The butler was about to open his mouth. As if hiding herself on the landing, a girl staggered down with a shocked face.
"...Brother."
Mirissa, a fragile sister who was over fifteen years old. Mirissa was a half-sister born from an affair between his father and a young lady from a minor family. Of course, it was considered a shame and did not leak out of the family, let alone spread as a rumor. But did she know about her birth? The child was sickly, young, and shy. If there was only one thing Mirissa had a firm set of values, it was that she thought that men and women who had an affair should die.
Lennox, who looked at his sister who looked quite distressed, frowned as if he had become annoyed, and then straightened his face again. He immediately managed his expression and said quietly, "Yes, Mirissa. Your brother is here."
Did Mirissa know that it was a word that didn't contain soul? The girl blinked her purple eyes and didn't get close to him. Instead, she backed away and muttered one after another, "Could it be that you have committed an affair?"
Lennox, who was looking at Mirissa, shook his head sharply. An affair with Sheria. It wasn't like they were mixed up, but there was no more ridiculous word to say about an affair. He didn't think of his current state as an affair, so he smiled softly and tried to reassure Mirissa.
"No, Mirissa. It's a misunderstanding. I just have a good relationship with her."
"People call it an affair." He frowned. Mirissa muttered in protest in front of him, speechless. "Cheating is a bad thing. It's really, really disappointing."
Lennox shouted nervously, as if to intimidate a girl half his size, "That's not true!"
Then the girl's eyes filled with tears. It wasn't because she was scared.
"Meldenik is so pitiful..."
Mirissa often heard the whispers of the vassals in the family that she was not conceived by an affair. For such a child, even if they were in a bad relationship, it must have come as a great shock to hear about their brother's affair rumors. With tears in her eyes, Mirissa turned her head and climbed the stairs endlessly.
Boom, thump.
The sound of stomping feet faded away.
'...'
He felt good until he came up with the idea. Strangely enough, he felt like everything was being ruined. By Meldenik Babelloa. He gnashed his teeth as he roughly ran a hand through his hair.
No. All he had to do was get married. He'd definitely pay her back somehow. He recalled his father's will. He told him to marry Meldenik, who was not fully capable, and have children.
"...You only need to have a child, only a child who will be the heir of the family's blood."
Unfortunately for Lennox, however, things were not developing in his favor.