ITIF Chapter 42

Jealousy Strategy

“Count Frederick has come to visit.”

“……Count Frederick? Why would he want to see me?”

The butler shook his head and answered the puzzled Duke Amaterasu.

“Count Frederick has come to see the young lady.”

Mikhail raised his eyebrows and asked.

“Count Frederick came to see our Giselle? ……Why?”

“I’m not quite sure what reason he has for visiting the young lady.”

Duke Amaterasu, who had been blinking silently for a moment, soon pointed toward the garden.

“Then is that man currently with Giselle Count Frederick?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

The butler looked back and forth between the two men who seemed lost in thought, then carefully spoke up.

“I understand both of your feelings, but perhaps you could calm yourselves a bit and then……”

Only then did Mikhail and Duke Amaterasu realize why the butler had just stopped them.

As the butler suspected, it was true that they had momentarily lost their composure upon seeing Giselle Grante alone with an unfamiliar man.

But what if the two of them were dating?

“…….”

“…….”

Mikhail’s eyes widened.

Duke Amaterasu, apparently having the same thought, opened his eyes wide and glared at the back of Count Frederick’s head as he stood before Giselle Grante.

Just as the two men were about to turn back toward the garden, fully prepared to storm over there.

Someone placed a hand on Mikhail’s shoulder. A heavy, low voice followed.

“Why are you here?”

Mikhail and Duke Amaterasu turned around simultaneously.

They found themselves facing Kavelaseth, who was looking at them with a puzzled expression.

“……Kavel?”

“Duke Cardia? ……You’re early.”

“I had something urgent to discuss before the meeting, so I came a little early.”

Kavelaseth directed his gaze toward Giselle Grante, visible between Duke Amaterasu and Mikhail’s faces.

Then, seeing the unfamiliar man in front of her, he furrowed his brow.

The butler, who had been observing the three men’s reactions, quietly interjected.

“……I’ll go prepare some tea.”

****

Duke Amaterasu, Mikhail, and Kavelaseth moved to the reception room and had an in-depth discussion about the situation following the drop in Semper bulb prices.

When the discussion ended, there was still some time left before the meeting began.

So the three men were taking a brief rest while drinking tea.

Though they were in the same space, each of the three men was lost in their own thoughts.

‘What on earth could be the reason…… that Count Frederick came to see Giselle?’

Mikhail, sitting across from Duke Amaterasu who was deep in thought with his chin in his hand, was also thinking about the earlier situation.

Why Count Frederick had come all the way to the mansion, what kind of relationship the two had. As Mikhail continued mulling over these various thoughts, he eventually slapped his knee.

‘A jealousy provocation plan…… something like that?’

It seemed like a plausible theory.

Of course, he hadn’t confirmed whether Giselle Grante knew in advance that Kavelaseth was scheduled to visit Duke Amaterasu’s mansion today, but Mikhail was caught up in confirmation bias.

Perhaps it was because he couldn’t find any other connection between Count Frederick and Giselle Grante.

‘Father.’

Mikhail stared intently at Duke Amaterasu.

Soon, sensing the gaze, Duke Amaterasu looked at Mikhail.

Mikhail secretly gestured toward the door with his eyes, keeping it hidden from Kavelaseth. It meant they should go out and talk for a moment.

Then Duke Amaterasu, keeping his head still but rolling his eyes slightly to glance at Kavelaseth, nodded slightly toward Mikhail.

Mikhail, who gave a small, inconspicuous nod, left the reception room first.

Fortunately, Duke Amaterasu, who understood his intention, followed Mikhail out of the reception room.

The two men who had left the reception room immediately moved to another nearby reception room.

“It seems like it might be a jealousy provocation strategy.”

“……Jealousy?”

Duke Amaterasu raised one eyebrow. However, soon understanding what it meant, he opened his mouth slightly.

“To show Duke Cardia?”

“There’s no other reason, is there?”

“Well……”

Duke Amaterasu sighed heavily with his brow deeply furrowed.

He too had been frustrated, unable to find a reason why Count Frederick would be alone with Giselle Grante.

The easiest way would have been to directly ask Giselle Grante for the reason, but he had decided against it because of the butler’s strong dissuasion.

The butler had warned him, asking what he would do if he got on the young lady’s bad side by interfering unnecessarily.

Of course, the butler hadn’t actually said it that way, but that’s how it sounded to Duke Amaterasu’s ears.

Don’t interfere with your daughter’s love life without tact.

He had been inwardly agonizing over his daughter, who had been acting more distant than before ever since she recovered from her serious illness.

He had even felt secretly envious when he recently heard that Giselle Grante had personally made honey tea for Mikhail when he was suffering from a hangover.

Wondering why he hadn’t drunk that day.

But since he didn’t want to get drunk and cause a scene, he had held back.

Moreover, as the butler said, he was cautious about interfering carelessly, worried that it might further distance him from his daughter.

‘I’m not even mentally prepared yet……’

This reality felt too harsh for Duke Amaterasu.

When she told him she loved Duke Cardia and asked for permission to marry, his heart sank.

Fortunately, Duke Cardia’s rejection prevented Giselle Grante’s early marriage, but the fact that someday he would have to send away his carefully raised daughter to some stranger felt sorrowful.

And if he had to give his daughter away, Duke Cardia seemed slightly better than Count Frederick, whom he didn’t know well.

“So, from your perspective, Mikhail, do you think there’s a possibility that Giselle and Duke Cardia could work out well?”

Duke Amaterasu, emerging from his brief reverie, spoke up.

“Well……. I was thinking of subtly testing Kavel later, but what do you think, Father?”

At Mikhail’s question, Duke Amaterasu sadly lowered his gaze and simply nodded.

Meanwhile, Kavelaseth, left alone in the reception room, stared at the door with furrowed brows.

‘Just now…… what was that?’

Mikhail had signaled that he wanted to go out first, and Duke Amaterasu, understanding this, had soon followed him out.

‘What are they trying to discuss?’

As Kavelaseth pondered the two men’s puzzling behavior, he recalled Giselle Grante and the man who had been in front of her in the garden earlier.

‘Since she invited him to the mansion…… that man must be Count Frederick?’

Kavelaseth furrowed his straight brows and crossed his arms firmly.

‘It’s not like they’re meeting secretly from Duke Amaterasu and Mikhail.’

That meant he was a family-approved boyfriend.

‘Mikhail and Duke Amaterasu already knew but were keeping it secret from me?’

Then Duke Amaterasu entered the reception room and said.

Since everyone was gathered, let’s go to the meeting room.

Kavelaseth, who stood up from his seat, twisted up one corner of his mouth as he walked.

Having decided to interrogate Mikhail after the meeting ended.

****

Since it was a sudden meeting, it was difficult for all alliance members to attend.

So they had no choice but to proceed with the meeting quickly, excluding those who were away in their territories.

The alliance was secretly gathering skilled individuals, and they required significant investment.

War horses, armor, weapons, and even the costs involved in general living expenses.

Just raising a single knight required considerable gold coins, and a worsening financial situation for alliance member families meant corresponding difficulties in training combat personnel.

For this reason, they needed to verify whether there were any alliance nobles who had suffered losses from excessive investment in Semper bulbs.

Fortunately, among the alliance nobles, there was no one like Count Minster’s family who had invested so heavily in Semper bulbs as to face bankruptcy, and the hastily convened meeting was also quickly concluded.

“Then let’s meet again depending on future circumstances.”

When Kavelaseth announced the end of the meeting, the alliance nobles quickly left the meeting room.

Mikhail smoothly approached Kavelaseth, who was likewise about to leave.

“Kavel. Do you have a moment?”

Kavelaseth glared at Mikhail without saying anything.

‘Is he trying to make excuses about Giselle Grante and Count Frederick being together earlier?’

If so, he was willing to listen.

“Speak.”

But after glancing around the nearly empty meeting room once, what Mikhail brought up was a completely different topic.

“How are you planning to attend this imperial palace ball?”

It was a problem Kavelaseth had been contemplating as well.

Events like imperial palace balls required each person to bring a male and female partner, and unmarried young ladies or gentlemen without fiancés would often attend with family members.

But unfortunately, Kavelaseth had no other family.

So unless it was an important occasion, he had declined to attend gatherings that required pairing with a woman.

However, since there were limits to this as well, Kavelaseth had once found a temporary partner to attend an important event.

His partner was the daughter of Marquis Berilston, who had returned to her family home after her husband died shortly after their marriage. She still couldn’t forget her departed husband, but after being escorted as a partner, strange rumors began circulating that there were marriage talks between Kavelaseth and Marquis Berilston’s daughter.

So he was thinking it would be difficult to propose being partners again with Marquis Berilston’s daughter this time.

As Kavelaseth kept his mouth tightly shut, Mikhail began persuading him.

“Given the current situation, wouldn’t it be better to attend this time?”