Chapter 5

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Upon returning to the residence of Duke Icard, it was dark and dreary.

'I have to eat the Oclasia fruit!'

I had no intention of dying.

As soon as I got back to the residence, I sneaked away, picked an Oclasia fruit and ate it.

'Did he say that if I ate it consistently I'd be cured?'

It was the remedy of the East continent, and it was the only line from the original work.

However, when I started eating Oclasia fruits, my body improved significantly. It was so fast that I wondered if I could really do this.

'But it's going to be shit in this situation. I'm not even completely healed yet.'

This was the best environment for me, an orphan with no foundation.

First, he has a lot of money, so my meals, furniture, and clothes are all the best quality.

'Let's stay here as long as I can.'

Besides, there were so many trees in the patronage.

The patronage was even close to my room. It was the best environment where I didn't have to look for a cure.

'It's easy to secretly sneak off and heal myself.'

A husband who will be completely indifferent to my father-in-law who will eventually kill me.

I only need to be undetected by those two people.

Of course, everyone had to be very careful with the eyes and ears of Duke Icard.

Lisa, the maid attached to me, may be Duke Icard's person rather than mine, so I had to be on the lookout.

'I can do it. I'm a great actor.'

Promising to survive, I made a concrete plan.

Plan A.

I somehow survive here and secretly save a lot of money. It's bad to run away without money.

It was clean and risk-free, but it seemed to be a long journey.

And Plan B.

Stick here somehow.

Become loved by Duke Icard and make him decide 'It would be better to live with Laria than to take control of the imperial family!'

'Wouldn't everyone like me if I did well? I'm confident that I can wash my liver and gallbladder.'

(T/N: saying that means to 'give everything to someone,' so she is basically saying she's willing to give it up to live.')

The work that Duke Icard wanted to do by taking control of the nobility and the imperial family, so if I just knew the dream of the villain…

Wouldn't Plan B be completed if I make it happen?

I want to know what Duke Icard wants, but there's no way to know that for now.

In addition, rather than running away and living in hiding, I wanted to get along well even if it was a family with a purpose in the beginning.

'Honestly… he was like a savior when he offered to pay me back at the funeral.'

In the end, however, the possibility of being killed and not being able to become the daughter-in-law who is more important to Duke Icard than ambition could not be excluded.

'I'll die if I don't make it. I have to be careful to take risks. I'll go straight to Plan A for now.'

I thought it would be better to keep Plan B as a distant dream in my mind. The difficulty level was the lottery winning class.

'I can work on Plan A and Plan B with the feeling of buying a loan from a salary lender who attends a company.'

Therefore, I have concluded that I will do my best with Plan A.

Fortunately, Seymour, the male lead of the original novel "The Great Deal of the Empire," is an extreme capitalist, and he really makes a lot of money.

I thought I could easily make money by using that information.

'Of course, there's a high level condition that I shouldn't be caught by the duke.'

When I went up to my room after eating the fruit, books I had never seen were piled up in my room.

'What is this?'

Originally, there were no books in my room.

'Now that my husband's here, does he want me to study?'

In the meantime, I've only been sucking honey.

Duke Icard hadn't given me the education that I needed for my services.

Of course, he didn't play any role in society. He didn't hold a wedding, and he couldn't have held a reception.

He really just left me alone. Like dying silently would be my only role.

'But it may seem like I'm playing a little too much in people's view…'

With a slight stinging heart, I opened the top book.

'Huh?'

I was startled and bit my lower lip hard. What I opened up was not a book.

[Reading children's books until bed at night, patting my head if there is something to compliment, sharing my favorite foods, going for walks and telling stories, choosing clothes to go to important events.]

It was a diary.

Even the title of the diary was 'If I Had A Mother.'

I hurriedly closed the diary and put it back in its original place.'

'No, why is Evan's diary in my room?'

I felt like I was doing something very wrong, so I rushed to the bed and closed my eyes.

'Yes, no matter how insensitive he may grow up later, Evan is a child.'

Evan, who had been neglected in his father's indifference, had been in the academy since the age of six.

'You weren't insensitive to people in the first place.'

The humidity of standing alone in the midst of the children being celebrated earlier was certainly pitiful.

I might have been more concerned because I was an orphan in my previous life.

'Even though parents' indifference is okay during ordinary times, they usually feel more lonely on special days.'

It would be okay only after I became an adult, but a child who knew that he was not loved was always unlucky.

'He's quite big for his age. It's easy to comfort others because they feel sorry for their young.'

Compared to how I look pitiful even when I still look, I felt a bit of a loss.

'But…'

I thought with a calming heart.

'…. It's the same as what I wanted before.'

A sense of sympathy came along with compassion. Because only one person, who was carelessly kind, knew that feeling of desperation.

Strangely, I was lying still in my bed, and suddenly the door opened.

"Lisa? You should knock."

Lisa was the only one who came to my room, so I said casually.

"And why do I have piles of books in my room?"

My words couldn't go on.

"Do I have to knock to enter my room?"

I opened my eyes.

It was Evan's blunt voice.

"And those books are all mine. I'll arrange them on my own, so don't touch them."

No way, no way, I slowly got up with a very ominous premonition.

"My… Room?"

"You didn't think it was your own room, did you?"

Evan, dressed in his indoor-wear, said casually.

"This is originally my room."

Well, it was too spacious and fancy for me to use alone.

I thought the bed was more spacious than necessary, the wardrobe was half empty, and the bookshelf was empty.

But no one has explained this fact to me.

Well, Duke Icard suddenly said 'I'm his daughter-in-law.' He brought me back and never saw me, so it would have been difficult for him to know how to treat me.

"We're a couple, so we're going to use a room together.'

Well, we're legally married, so there was no reason to not use one room.

'But I'm not ready to share a room with a man yet.'

Evan continued his speech expressionless.

"Oh, there's something I'd like to discuss before that."

"Yes. What is it?"

Peeping a bit in his diary stung me, so I smiled as kindly as I could.

However, as he continued, I couldn't even manage my facial expressions.

"No matter how much we sleep in one bed, I don't want to make a baby."

"…. What, what?"

"Because I don't want to make one yet."

I was not embarrassed at all, but I was completely speechless at the moment.

"I think we should both be adults to take full responsibility for the baby."

Are you crazy? Thirteen?

I was flushed to my ears when I raised my head.

"So don't hold my hand in bed."

"… Huh?"

I blinked.

"Maybe you don't know? I mean… It's been a while since I didn't know."

He raised his chin and said with a slight boast.

"If you sleep holding hands at night after marriage, you will have a baby."

"… Ah."

I blinked as I looked at his pretty mature face.

There's certainly no correlation between external appearance and mental age…

"I was shocked when I first heard it. Still, I can't stay a child forever."

His gaze looking down at me seemed a little sharp.

"You're only 14 years old."

"Oh, yeah…"

I answered in a daze.

Suddenly, Evan and I seemed to be ready to share a room.