Lord Baby Runs A Romance Fantasy With Cash [EN]: Chapter 228

I don’t know if you can even call this a meeting, but it went on way longer than I expected.

My dad and brothers were crossing names off the list like they were looking for criminals, not potential fiancées.

“Um, Your Majesty. You can skip this whole section here. Their family status isn’t high enough anyway…”

“We can’t leave even one of them.”

“We need to eliminate even the slightest possibility.”

“We need to nip them in the bud.”

“Bud? We need to pull them up by the roots and burn them.”

“Yes…”

The vassals nodded with reluctant faces.

*You’re just going to say no to all of them because they’re ugly anyway.*

That was the look on their faces, right before the words reached their throats.

The Empire was vast, and there were so many nobles, even including those with the lowest rank of Baron [a minor noble title].

‘It feels like this won’t end even tomorrow…’

“I’ll follow Dad’s decision, so let me know when the candidates are decided!”

I left those words behind and quickly slipped out of the main conference room.

The tearful gazes of the vassals followed me, but I easily ignored them.

As I walked down the hallway, Ares and Ixion came up beside me.

“It’ll be hard to find a man who meets your standards among those good-for-nothings.”

“Yeah, why don’t you just live happily with me forever?”

“Get lost. Cotton ball likes me, remember?”

“You still can’t distinguish between pity and affection. My sister likes me the most.”

—The youngest will marry me.

—Pet me.

As always, I shook my head, listening to my brothers bickering.

“Seriously, don’t you guys ever get tired?”

I raised my hand and then flinched.

‘Ah…’

Zeon isn’t here.

What I heard was a phantom sound created by habit.

I lowered my hand again.

Even though I confirmed that Zeon wasn’t there, I could still feel his soft hair brushing against my fingers.

“…”

“Lulu?”

“What’s wrong?”

Ares and Ixion stopped bickering and asked me with serious faces.

“No, it’s nothing.”

I shook my head with a smile, but Ares and Ixion’s expressions only darkened.

“It’s definitely not nothing.”

“Who’s bothering you? Should I beat them up?”

Is Ixion a gangster?

Of course, I’m also the type to beat someone up if they bother me.

Ah, is that why we’re siblings?

“…It’s just. I feel empty because Zeon isn’t here.”

Ixion made a what-the-heck face, interlaced his fingers, and put them behind his head.

“It’s better that he’s not here. He kept clinging to Cotton ball, which was annoying.”

“…Empty? With me by your side?”

“Huh?”

Ares’s quietly muttered words were hard to hear.

As I asked him again, Ares smiled brightly at me.

“I’ll make sure you don’t feel empty.”

Ares suddenly picked me up.

My feet floated into the air, and my hair fluttered around him.

“Ah, Ares! Put me down!”

“This reminds me of when we were little.”

“I’m all grown up now!”

Ares smiled and bent his arm.

The distance closed, and our foreheads touched.

“You’re still my little peanut of a sister in my eyes.”

The softly curving eyes were really handsome.

The red eyes melted like sweet jam.

A smile that could steal anyone’s heart in an instant.

“…”

Ares, everything’s great, but.

I’ve never been a peanut.

“Hey, are you not letting go?!”

Ixion shot a wave of mana [magical energy] at Ares’s side.

Ares dodged it with ease and launched a counterattack.

I laughed out loud as I was put back on the floor.

‘What a mess, what a mess.’

It’s literally a dogfight.

* * *

My legs and feet were swollen. My shoes were squeezing my feet tightly, crushing my toes.

Schueler bent her legs slightly and then straightened them.

She wanted to take off her shoes, but she couldn’t.

‘How many hours have I been waiting for that damn bitch?’

Even if she had been kept waiting in the drawing-room, she would have been furious.

But to be kept waiting in front of the door!

Her feet, ankles, legs, and waist. There wasn’t a place that didn’t hurt.

‘Just you wait. I’ll tell Lord Zeon about this, and it will never be overlooked—’

“Welcome, Miss Prussian.”

At the voice from above, Schueler snapped her head up.

She opened her mouth to protest immediately, but no sound came out.

Luatisha was perfectly dressed, unlike her usual self.

Soft hair flowing in waves, vivid colored jewels contrasting with her snow-white skin.

Every time Luatisha came down the stairs, the layers of her dress rippled.

A diamond hair ornament sparkled like a tiara on top of her pink hair.

Why do emperors historically adorn themselves when they appear before people?

Why do some countries designate colors that only the emperor can wear and prohibit others from wearing them?

Simply to enjoy luxury?

Rather, it was the easiest way to show their authority.

Because people are more dependent on sight than any other sense.

Luatisha’s appearance now showed why she was the Paeraton Duchess and the queen of high society.

“Your Grace.”

Orca and the other employees bowed respectfully to Luatisha.

Schueler couldn’t say what she wanted to say and closed her mouth.

She was involuntarily intimidated by Luatisha’s beautiful, splendid, yet strong and authoritative appearance.

Luatisha didn’t come all the way down the stairs but stood above Schueler’s head, looking down at her.

That was all.

Luatisha didn’t say anything and just stared at Schueler.

A silence like a bed of thorns descended.

But it seemed that only Schueler thought so.

Luatisha looked relaxed and at ease.

Eventually, Schueler, unable to bear the uncomfortable silence, spoke first.

“…Duchess Paeraton.”

Luatisha nodded briefly.

Then, she turned gracefully and began to climb the stairs again.

‘…She’s just leaving?’

Is she ignoring me this much?

Schueler realized that she couldn’t even move a fingertip when she was too dumbfounded.

“Please follow her.”

Orca told her from the side.

Schueler glared at Orca.

‘Are you making fun of me right now?!’

Who doesn’t know to follow her!

There’s a limit to how much you can treat someone like an idiot!

Luatisha had already climbed almost all the way up the stairs in the lobby.

Schueler gritted her teeth and moved her feet.

Her legs trembled as she stepped onto the stairs.

‘Damn it!’

I will definitely repay this humiliation.

Schueler glared at Luatisha with venomous eyes.

* * *

Luatisha headed to the study, not the drawing-room or the tea room.

“Duchess Paeraton! What on earth is the meaning of this!”

Before being overwhelmed by her presence like before, Schueler protested as soon as she arrived at the study.

“Making someone stand and wait for over three hours!”

“Oh my.”

Luatisha widened her eyes as if surprised.

“You waited that long? That must have been hard.”

“What did you say…?”

“I said that must have been hard.”

“…Is that all you have to say?”

“Then what should I do for you?”

“Ha! You call someone over and make them wait like they’re being punished in front of the door for three hours, and that’s all you have to say?”

“Hmm, did I tell you to wait?”

Schueler’s face turned red as she spoke leisurely, leaning against the armrest of the sofa.

“At least you should have guided me to the drawing-room!”

“Then you should have just gone back. Why are you blaming me when you waited because you wanted to?”

“Are you saying you did well?”

“Oh my, then did I do wrong? Should I apologize to you?”

“Huh…”

Seeing Schueler clutching the back of her neck, Luatisha sighed deeply and shook her head.

“Since you’re being so insistent, I understand.”

“Wh-what did you say? Insistent?”

“Orca, from now on, even if I’m in a meeting, let me know immediately when Miss Prussian arrives.”

“But Your Majesty and the vassals…”

“Otherwise, the young lady will get angry like this, so I can’t help it.”

“Understood, Miss.”

Schueler, who was instantly treated like a troublemaker, was speechless.

Why?

Isn’t the person who should be apologizing to her right now Duchess Paeraton?

She had so many things she wanted to argue about that she couldn’t say anything.

‘I’m too low-level.’

Luatisha leaned back on the sofa and thought leisurely.

She thought so even on the day she met Zeon about the marriage proposal, but Schueler was not even worth a bite [not worth her time or effort].

‘There’s definitely someone behind her.’

If someone hadn’t intervened, she would never have been involved with Schueler again after rejecting the marriage proposal to the Empress Dowager.

Luatisha nodded, and Grunde, who had been waiting in the study, placed the documents on the table.

‘…What is it?’

Schueler looked at Luatisha with suspicious eyes.

She thought it was obvious why Luatisha had called her today.

‘She’s going to ask me what I did to her brother.’

Then she was going to answer confidently.

‘Gain some independence from your brother! How long do you want to monopolize your brother and play dirty tricks like this behind the scenes?’

—She had practiced several times in front of the mirror.

Luatisha didn’t seem to have any intention of getting angry or yelling at Schueler.

“You said you wanted to work with Paeraton’s internal affairs management even before you married Zeon, right?”

“Yes…”

“So I prepared it today. Start by looking at these documents.”

“L-look at the documents?”

“You said you wanted to?”

Luatisha shrugged and got up from the sofa.

“I’ll be working at my desk, so tell me when you’re done.”

Schueler was speechless at Luatisha’s actions of starting work as she was.

What she thought of as internal affairs was ordering employees on where to give more budget, how to change the interior, and how to hold parties, not looking at documents like this.

‘You think I can’t do this?’

Schueler snorted and picked up the documents.

* * *

“Wrong.”

“Wrong.”

“Again.”

“Again.”

“Do it again.”

Rustle.

The documents crumpled in Schueler’s hands.

She didn’t know how many times this was.

Luatisha, who expressionlessly glanced at the documents and told her to do them again, was annoying, but what was even more annoying was—.

“Your Grace, not everyone can handle work as perfectly as you do. Miss Prussian has done her best, so still…”

Grunde glanced sideways at the documents Schueler was holding and looked surprised.

“Oh my, even so, this is too much. The documents Your Grace wrote when you were five years old are much better. I’ll have to start all over from the beginning.”

Grunde clenched his fist and smiled brightly at Schueler.

“Fighting?” [a Korean Konglish expression that means ‘Good luck!/You can do it!’]

“Eek…!”

Schueler, unable to bear it any longer, threw down the documents.

“I have my own way of handling things! I can do much better than this if I handle it in my own way! Why are you forcing the Duchess’s method on me?”

“Hmm, the business run by the Prussian family, what was it like compared to Paeraton…”

Schueler’s face turned red at Luatisha’s muttering.

“It’s about 27 times different, even roughly.”

Grunde quickly replied.

“Ah. Miss Prussian has her own way.”

Schueler wanted to hide in a rat hole at the words she said, glancing at her.

It was obvious that Luatisha had deliberately given her only difficult things.

“What I assigned to the young lady are especially easy things. I’m not asking you to make decisions, but to mechanically create documents by collecting existing information, and if you say that’s difficult…”

“I-I didn’t say it was difficult!”

“Hmm, but why is the chart here completely different? Is it because you didn’t receive rote learning? It’s really creative.”

Luatisha shook her head.

“Zeon really hates this kind of thing. He hates being bothered and likes things that are error-free when he sees them once.”

“…”

“Zeon doesn’t make mistakes, so all the cases where he has to look at the documents again are because of other people’s mistakes. If the young lady is like this…”

*How dare you, who has no ability, be Zeon’s partner?*

No matter what Luatisha’s intention was, that’s how it sounded to Schueler.

And that accurately stirred up the inferiority and anxiety that had settled within her.

Schueler’s reason snapped.

“Aren’t you talking too much about my husband?!”

Bang, Schueler slammed the desk and shouted.

“It’s unpleasant! You’re just a younger sister!”

Luatisha didn’t say anything.

Seeing that, Schueler smiled with a sense of superiority.

“After all, brothers are like strangers after they get married, right? They each build their own families and take care of their own children, so they only see each other once or twice a year.”

“…”

“On the other hand, I’m the person who will become Lord Zeon’s wife! The person who will build a family with Zeon and become Zeon’s true family!”

Schueler puffed out her chest and looked confidently at Luatisha.

“When you think about it, your rank is lower than mine. Because I’m the wife of Zeon, your brother! It’s wrong from the start for you to tell me what to do, do you understand?”

“…”

“I’ll tell you clearly as your superior. Don’t call Zeon, Zeon, and call your brother’s name carelessly like that. From now on, keep your distance and call him Big Brother!”

Luatisha listened to Schueler’s words in silence and then opened her mouth.

“Hmm, everything’s good, but…”

Luatisha smiled strangely.

“Unlike me, who is just a younger sister, aren’t you not related to Zeon at all?”

“…!”

“Without even an engagement or a marriage.”