Chapter : 4
1. How Much Am I Worth?
It had been a week since the carriage began its journey.
“Your Grace, we’ll be entering Gonette territory shortly.”
One of the Gonette knights who had been escorting the carriage the entire time gave me a quiet warning.
I opened the window and looked outside.
The first thing I thought was that the territory was enormous.
‘Well, it is the only Grand Duchy on the continent.’
Although the Grand Ducal family’s circumstances were far from good.
‘It’s all because of the previous Grand Duke and Grand Duchess.’
The previous Grand Duke and Grand Duchess, who had both passed away one after another six months ago, had been extremely extravagant.
Thanks to them, Shurkan had inherited not only the title but also an enormous amount of debt.
However, he didn’t seem particularly bothered by the enormous debt he had inherited.
The continent was at war, and as long as he could win, there were countless ways to make money.
‘Of course, that confidence is possible because Shurkan is ridiculously strong…’
For such a powerful and frightening male lead, Shurkan’s genuine inferiority complex came from something else.
“Your jaw is going to fall off. If the idea of marrying a wild mixed-blood disgusts you, say so now.”
It was his bloodline.
Shurkan’s mother was a wildling.
The most despised race on the continent.
Wildlings were said to be cursed hybrids born from humans and monsters.
However, unlike other wildlings, Shurkan’s mother supposedly had an appearance that was very similar to a human’s while also being extraordinarily beautiful.
That was why the previous Grand Duke had spent a night with Shurkan’s mother.
Naturally, the previous Grand Duchess didn’t simply let that go.
When Shurkan’s mother became pregnant, she continuously forced abortion medicine down her throat.
But wildlings were naturally strong and physically robust.
A bastard child born from a wildling.
That was why, even in the original story, Shurkan wanted to marry a woman with the most prestigious bloodline possible.
That woman was Ayu, the Saintess’s daughter.
Shurkan believed that if he married the Saintess’s daughter, he could make up for the legitimacy his own bloodline lacked.
There was probably also some calculation regarding bloodline behind the reason Shurkan had ignored even Duke Baetan and forced through his marriage to me.
‘Laureltianna’s mother was also the legitimate daughter of an extremely prestigious family.’
If the Saintess had never appeared in this world, wouldn’t Shurkan have simply abducted my mother and made her his bride?
‘The age difference?’
Shurkan probably would have been willing to marry a woman who was practically on her deathbed.
That was how intense this bastard male lead’s obsession with bloodline was.
“Your Grace?”
I had been smiling faintly while thinking about Shurkan, but I immediately straightened my expression and opened the carriage window.
“Yes?”
“Um… Please feel free to speak comfortably with us. We’ll be arriving at Gonette Castle soon, so please prepare yourself.”
“Okay.”
I answered stiffly because I didn’t know how I was supposed to treat them.
The two knights who had driven the carriage desperately for an entire week were just as awkward.
‘Well, I suppose it must be quite shocking to suddenly have a Grand Duchess appear out of nowhere…’
But I’m pretty shocked too, you know?
A little while later.
“Please get down, Your Grace.”
“Thank you.”
With the knight’s assistance, I stepped down from the carriage and looked up with an excited heart.
The male lead’s castle!
The very castle where Ayu also eventually began living from the middle of the original story!
I wonder what it looks li—
“……”
I was speechless.
Because a castle that looked like it belonged to a ghost was sitting right in front of me.
‘Wow, how barren…’
Even calling it barren was being generous.
It looked like an abandoned castle.
‘It’s enormous, but it’s so old.’
Parts of the stone walls had collapsed, and the empty area that was supposed to be a garden was overgrown with weeds reaching up to my knees.
The towers that were supposed to display the grandeur of the family were numerous, but every single one of them had peeling paint.
Even though I knew that Shurkan would eventually revive the Grand Duchy through his incredible male-lead abilities, seeing this still felt depressing.
‘It hasn’t even gone bankrupt yet, and it’s already this bad?’
I wondered whether there were even people living inside.
Surprisingly, quite a number of servants came rushing out.
“Who…”
The knight who had escorted me quickly approached them and explained everything that had happened.
Everyone’s eyes widened.
I smiled calmly and looked at each of them one by one.
There didn’t seem to be a head maid or a butler, and there wasn’t a single male servant either.
Strangely enough, there were only young or relatively young maids.
Their clothes were worn out, but the embroidered emblem on their collars was neat, without a single loose thread.
They also recovered from their surprise very quickly.
The maids quickly straightened their clothes and approached me with warm smiles.
“Hello, Your Grace, Grand Duchess Laureltianna!”
“You have such a beautiful name, just like Your Grace.”
“Thank you.”
There wasn’t even the slightest hint of hostility or jealousy from the maids.
They even looked at me with great respect.
‘As expected, things are different in a great family.’
The head of the household’s word was law…
The moment those vivid red eyes flashed through my mind, I changed my mind.
‘No. Anyone would be unable to disobey that terrifying Shurkan.’
“Your Grace, would you like to take a bath first?”
I quickly nodded.
No fewer than five maids followed me into the bathroom.
This time, they were finally going to show me the dignity of a great family…
‘No. Nope.’
The moment I entered the bathroom, I changed my mind again.
There was nothing but a strangely narrow and old wooden bathtub sitting there.
The place was so shabby that my head began to spin.
How could they be this poor?
How could they be this pitiful?
The reason five maids had come in with me was because they had to constantly add hot water and remove cold water…
‘I could cry. I’m seriously going to cry.’
“Hmm… It seems you used a unique fragrance. There’s a faint smell of well-aged grapes. What kind of fragrance is it?”
“The…”
The maids hesitated.
There was something awkward about their smiles.
“It isn’t a fragrance…”
“It’s a bathtub made by modifying an oak barrel that was in the wine cellar… So I think some of the smell probably remained…”
“We are truly sorry, Your Grace…”
“……”
By the time she finished speaking, she looked like she was on the verge of tears.
I didn’t even know what to say anymore, so I quietly let my body sink into the bubbles.
‘When Ayu met Shurkan, he had already managed to reclaim the bankrupt Gonette territory.’
Shurkan was so unafraid of war that he even called himself a mercenary, and he had no hesitation about making money through warfare.
It was hard to believe that he was the head of a noble family when he recklessly threw himself into all kinds of battlefields, risking his life.
He eventually managed to pay off that enormous debt.
But right now, he really was at the absolute peak of poverty.
I suddenly became worried.
‘Before I even get around to preventing the bankruptcy and all that, I’m not going to starve to death first, am I…?’
I was worried, but fortunately, I was able to have dinner.
Judging from the bread, roasted chicken, and the solid ingredients floating in the soup, I probably didn’t have to worry about actually starving to death yet.
Of course, that was all.
When it came to food, clothing, and shelter, the ‘food’ part was more or less guaranteed.
But the ‘shelter’ part was a little questionable.
That’s right.
Right now, I was lying down in the same room as fifty maids.
