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Chapter 80 Part 5 – The women take a step forward with pride in their hearts. To protect, to fight, to compromise.

「…… Scarlet, you’re planning to run away at night, aren’t you?」

Margaret immediately saw through my thoughts.

「You don’t need to worry. Because we are now preparing to change the heads of the nobles of both the queen’s faction and the prince’s faction. They are so engrossed with flattery and ass-kissing that they neglected the security of their territory, which makes it easy for me to investigate their weaknesses. Once I tear off the followers that are her hands and feet, my mother, who is incompetent to begin with, will be unable to do anything. We can also get rid of the festering wound, so it’s a great opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.」

Margaret covered her mouth with a folding fan and laughed 「Hohoho」.

How resolute. She’ll turn anything to her profit ……

「…… So, soon it will be checkmate for them.」

Margaret closed her fan and pointed at the desk right next to her.

Then she sighed a little exaggeratedly.

「Compared to that, the investigation on the Wilhelm territory was a lot harder. The people on this territory have a high degree of favorability towards Duke Wilhelm’s family and they are very tight-lipped. The important stuff was kept strictly under wraps. It was really troublesome.」

…… As expected, you have been investigating our territory as well.

Margaret shrugged her shoulders and winked. It didn’t seem sly at all and looked natural. Her ever-changing facial expressions are fascinating. It’s pleasant and charming. Of course, that’s only as long as you don’t realize that a 10-year-old girl mastered that technique in order to increase her allies in the political world ……

「Since the royal intelligence department couldn’t make any progress, I did some investigation every time I came to visit the duke’s mansion.」

That’s scary!! Margaret, you’ve been doing things like that!?

During the food crisis caused by locusts, I’m glad I was able to make the people of the territory feel indebted to us. When all of Hydrangea was suffering from famine, only the Wilhelm territory was like a different world. We continued to release the food supply we had bought and stored for free of charge. As a result, the relationship with the people of the territory, which had deteriorated to the point where it would not be strange for a riot to occur at any time, suddenly improved to an all-time high. In addition to the fact that we saved them from starvation, we also gave them a sense of security, trust, and a little bit of superiority, knowing that no matter what happened to the other territories, the people of Wilhelm territory would always be protected.

Well, it’s partly because I kept sending out the message that Marquis Vygod and his wife, the previous lord of this territory, was the main culprits of the devastation of the territory, and that we, the present Duke’s family, are also victims just like the people of the territory and my efforts has finally bear fruit. …… Father is really bad at manipulating information. He is too excellent and doesn’t quite understand the resentment and inferiority complex of others. Maybe all he can think about is his relationship with mother. It doesn’t have to be at Margaret’s over-the-top level, but I would like to see him pay a little more attention here and there.

Anyway, I really can’t let down my guard when dealing with Margaret.

「…… It’s a secret, but my father and I have an objective of co-existence and co-prosperity rather than making the Wilhelm territory just a vassal. I would never say this in front of the other nobles, but we think of this territory as a partly-independent state. Because, including you, it is not something that we can control. Unlike my mother and her faction, we know our place. I wonder if there is any other monarch in the foreign kingdoms who would properly evaluate your abilities and give you such favorable terms.」

I stayed quiet and listened.

That’s certainly true. Margaret would be troublesome when she is your enemy, but extremely reliable when she is your ally. The same goes for the king. In the previous 「108 times」, he was known as a foolish king who impoverished the kingdom and drove Hydrangea to the brink of destruction, but when I actually met him in this life, he was quite sharp and capable.

Perhaps in the previous 「108 times」, the king deliberately abdicated and took responsibility for the turmoil in Hydrangea that began with the locust plague, the dissatisfaction of the nobility and the citizens, and the notoriety of the weakening of the royal family, and abdicated. He was trying to enthrone the star of hope, Princess Margaret, unscathed. In other words, he tried to act as a human sacrifice.

In the previous 「108 times」, he was so despondent from Margaret’s sudden death that he became a real foolish king, but he was quite cunning. And Margaret has inherited his sharpness even more strongly. It’s about time she sees that her persuasion had swayed my mind and would deliver the finishing blow.

「Your father, the Crimson Duke, that man is an unaware bomb. His strength is out of the ordinary, but he also attracts women way too much. His charisma is almost like a curse. It’s a good thing he’s so indifferent, if he took actions while being aware of his own charms, he’d probably become the ruler of the high society behind the scenes.」

The finishing blow came from an unexpected direction.

That father of mine who shouldn’t be called the Crimson Duke, but the Good-for-Nothing Duke? That’s hard to believe. From my point of view as his daughter, he is a disappointment in every way except for his face and strength. Any woman who would be attracted to such a man must have clouded eyes. I even thought that Margaret was teasing me.

But she kept talking seriously.

「When the Crimson Duke was single, there were more than one woman who threatened to commit suicide if she couldn’t marry him. But the Crimson Duke never paid attention to anyone other than your mother. However, it hurt the ladies’ pride to be rejected in public in a cold and indifferent manner. Love turned into resentment. Even though if he had been a little more considerate of women, there would have been no problems. Shall I tell you how many young women and ladies had their feelings hurt by him, including my elder sister?」

Margaret gave the names of influential noblewomen one after another, and I trembled.

It’s not a joke. I knew my father had rejected a marriage with a royal princess, but I didn’t think that the other party was in a madly-in-love mode!? It turns out that that annoying and troublesome Love Warrior has remains of fire scattering from the past. And at the same time I realized something. Margaret had been going around introducing Rufus …… in other words, me, to most of the ladies and noblewomen she just named.

「…… You have a good reputation among the ladies and noblewomen. You’re polite, you’re good with people, and you’re a good talker. Your father could not have done that. The possessor of the Ruby of the True Emperor, a child prodigy that surpasses the Crimson Duke and has earned the title of Viscount through his own efforts at an early age, that child treats them respectfully with a smile. It was like a hundred years of resentment had been blown away.」

Come to think of it, all of them were grimacing at first, but after the conversation was over, they were all smiling. Did I dismantle the bomb that my father had caused without me realizing it? Which meant that Margaret had given me that chance.

But I never thought that crazy-in-love-with-his-wife, good-for-nothing Duke had been so terrifyingly popular in the past. After all, he mostly talked about his memories of my young mother when it came to women in his past. Other than that, he only hesitantly mentioned a girl named Rona whom he got along with.

He said absurd stuff like that he couldn’t save her from being burned at the stake during a witch hunt, that there was a riot in the town, and that the river surface was engulfed in flames, but what kind of end of the century is that? On top of that, he even had tears welling up in his eyes, saying that he had never met such a kind-natured girl. Anyway, he probably made up such a story in order to get the sympathy of my mother, who was listening next to him with tears in her eyes. Or he must be beautifying that child with memory correction.

She has brunette hair and hazel eyes, just like Countess Rosenthal, who was the main culprit of my mother’s bullying. I was nearly killed by her many times when I was a young lady in the previous 「108 times」, so I do harbor a bit of a grudge against her. If I hate someone, I hate everything related to him or her. I’m sure that Rona was someone who only kept appearances on the outside but is an aloof, nasty woman on the inside. I prefer the type like Margaret, who is extremely intelligent and looks coldhearted, but is actually really kind. I’m grateful to you, Margaret.

「There’s no need to be grateful to me. Since it also served as a test to see whether Scarlet would be suitable as my partner or not. If you can’t even please the ladies, you won’t be much use to me in the future. Fufufu, but you should properly repay the favor, okay.」

…… I take back what I just said. Children who are too smart are scary.