I Won’t Accept Your Regrets

The pocket watch shattered with a resounding clink.

"You, yes you, yes right now…!"

Marquis Sios stuttered, startled by Lisa's trick.

The latter only smiled softly in return.

"Father, you better worry about crawling in front of the Emperor."

Lisa spoke, gently taking the Marquis by the palm, which was trembling with anger.

"You have already decided to give me full control over our enterprise. Your Excellency, don't bother with this. And if you twitch again, I will become an orphan."

The green eyes of Marquis Sios shone with anger and surprise. Betrayed by his own child, he was confused.

"You can't put your feelings in your pocket! Think better of the family that survived only from your sacrifice. If you hadn’t sailed to the western kingdom, you would have been thrown out the door in disgrace."

The Marquis used it from start to finish.

Lisa simply paid him in the same coin.

"Now you dare?!"

At this moment, the Marquis couldn’t resist and raised his hand for a slap, but Lily grabbed Sios by the wrist.

"Lily, take my father to the room. Looks like he's tired."

"Yes, Milady."

"Let go of me, you trash!"

"If you make fuss, I'll have to calm you down."

Although he was stupid, he quickly caught the hint. The Marquis stopped shouting, knowing that these words were sincere.

Because his guilt for their pressing problem was as clear as day.

Out of last pride, the Marquis shook off Lily's hand and left the office alone.

Sitting at the Marquis's table, Lisa threw a newspaper with the most provocative statements to Lily.

"Invest money here."

"Right here? They don't look like reliable partners," Lily asked again.

After all, there was no point in sending money to the newspaper, which published the most evil article about Marquis Sios?

"This newspaper is the best-selling newspaper today."

People were most attracted to bile.

"Tomorrow let them publish newspapers with this article."

A meeting between Duke Drua and Marquis Sios was held to clarify the contract for the use of the mines.

They had a good reason.

In fact, before Duke Drua fell into disgrace, he was in close business contact with the Sios family.

"Pay them what they demand. And we will remove Duke Drua from the scene."

"As you order."

She decided to hand over this figure to be devoured.

Raymond was a smart man.

No matter how much Marquis Sios poured honey speeches, the Emperor's doubts only intensified.

It was necessary to lower the ends into the water.

The snake-like Duke Drua may have compromising evidence on Sios.

Everything must be organized neatly.

When Lily was about to get down to business, suddenly the front page of the newspaper caught Lisa's attention.

[The appearance of Drua’s heir, believed to be dead.]

Lisa remembered Jeremy, whom she met at the party.

He was a much more mysterious man than even Duke Drua himself.

And he’s probably the biggest obstacle to destroying the Drua family.

How can you remove it without too much fuss?

First of all, you will need to find out what his weaknesses are. And then Lisa remembered the scene she saw at the party.

The Duke's successor stared at Ellie with an odd look.

It was also odd that he had to sneak out into the evening.

The entrance was guarded, but how did you get inside?

Duke Croft didn't even have a back door to the mansion.

Maybe he did get an invitation to the party?

Her suspicions worsened.

Lisa called Lily.

"A minute…"

"Yes, is there more instructions?"

"Find out where and what Lady Croft has been up to for the past six years. Also find out if she could have encountered the heir of Drua somewhere."

If she finds out, maybe they can tie Croft and Drua Families together and get rid of them in one fell swoop.

"Yes."

* * *

Two days have passed since the party at the Croft estate.

After spending the day with Carlisle and getting back to reality, I inspected a new facility with Lumont.

All kinds of herbs were planted in the flower garden to start a full-fledged perfume business.

A large glass dome stood on a level ground.

It took only about 15 days to create the flower garden, so I thought it would be quite small.

But the size of the flower garden was amazing.

"It turned out more than I thought," I said to Lumont, opening the glass door.

"Isn't it better to have enough room in the future? Let's go inside."

As soon as I entered the flower garden, the scent of flowers hit my nose.

The place was full of aroma, so much so that even my head was spinning, but it was a pleasant smell.

Rather, the smell calmed me down.

I headed towards flowers and herbs.

"Hasn't Celine been notified that the greenhouse has already been rebuilt?"

"She came already several times. She was thrilled to see the new flowers and even took a few with her," Lumont said triumphantly.

Looking around the flower beds, I could understand why Rosaleen was excited.

There were also flowers that weren’t found in the Agrita Empire. And where did so many plants come from in just 15 days?

Walking slowly through the flower garden, I asked Lumont:

"How did the aristocrats react to the news about our enterprise?"

"The official announcement hasn’t yet been released, but the reaction is already very stormy. It seems that all thanks to His Majesty’s words at the party."

"There are enough of them that we don't need any other advertising at all."

Lumont added in an agitated voice.

Unsurprisingly, Raymond's words had a greater impact than advertisements devouring hundreds of gold coins.

Because that was the word of the Emperor.

And at that moment I remembered him, and his strange gaze that evening.

He was so alone in the world who could look as if straight into the soul.

He didn’t tell me everything, but I could guess what feelings were under those eerie eyes.

How can I not know?

Even if he denied it, Raymond always looked at me with an obsessive look.

On top of that, his gestures, which were so kind that one would think Raymond had parted wisely.

The final blow was the purple necklace he sent.

It's hard to believe in it now, but he probably got me…

But I would rather live happily with Carlisle, and he would be great to get along with Lisa and their son.

"Ellie?"

When Lumont saw my frowning face, he called out to me in surprise.

I pushed my thoughts away and told Lumont.

"I’m glad that the nobility liked our proposal."

If the Emperor himself was interested in our product, there wouldn’t be a nobleman who wouldn’t want to either.

"It’s better for us not to advertise at all, but simply to sell perfumes. Because of the words of His Majesty, the demand for perfume naturally rise. We need to squeeze everything out of this."

"So we will. Oh yes, have you seen today's newspapers?"

"Yes."

"Public opinion about Marquis Sios has turned sharply."

Immediately after the party, there was a lot of criticism that he betrayed the Emperor, made a stupid choice and crossed the line.

But during the day, the content of the newspapers changed back.

In particular, a favorable article was written about Marquis Sios in the same newspaper, where the most malicious one had previously been written.

They probably received money from the Marquis.

Well, that was expected.

Although I didn’t think that they would choose the newspaper in which the most poisonous article was published.

In the end, it turned out to be a pretty wise decision.

The newspaper has gained great confidence after harsh criticism.

"They say they met to solve the problem with the mining contract. It turns out that this mine was abandoned five years ago."

"However, it is true that they have a contract."

"It looks like there are still quite a few nobles left who are suspicious of Marquis Sios."

"We must clean up the nobles who have turned their backs on Sios and send them to Duke Croft."

"Yes. Good. But, Ellie, I have one question."

I waited for Lumont's words, but for some reason he didn't say anything.

He just sat on pins and needles. I turned and looked at him.

"Why are you so excited?"

"Drua's successor. This is the one you told me to look for?"

"Right".

"I don’t understand something. Have you invited him to the party?"

"Exactly".

"Was it such a big combination to annoy Sios?"

Looks like Lumont thought that this was my plan: to bring Jeremy out into the light and thereby defame Marquis Sios.