The Broken Ring: This Marriage Will Fail Anyway Chapter 57

Chapter 57

Then she continued speaking.

“Yolanda has an assistant.”

“Even so, I don't want to burden them too much.”

“Are you planning to invite the Captain's superiors….”

“No.”

“Do you plan to change the garden?”

“It's perfect the way it is.”

“I've made a mess of the furniture arrangement, so do you plan to have the servants change it again?”

“Arondra, you did your best, right? So it’s okay.”

“....”

Inés, who had been eating cookies and answering Arondra's questions without thinking, finally realized what Arondra meant when she met her salty gaze.

No matter how satisfied Inés was, to other people it just looked like she had nothing to do.

It was understandable. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] Every time they saw her, she was either eating, sleeping, or just sitting still.

“I'm fine, Arondra.”

“...I was just thinking that you might be depressed because you're in a strange place and you don't have any visitors….”

Arondra changed her approach. Inés was speechless for a moment at the sudden display of pity.

“Arondra, I'm feeling great right now.”

“That's only because you're so considerate of your inferiors—.”

“—No, I really am feeling good.”

“It may be presumptuous of me, but the servants are worried about their mistress.”

“.….”

“You've always lived in Mendoza, and you grew up in the magnificent castle of the Perez’s, so it must be stifling to suddenly live in a backwater like this….”

“It's an open area, so how can it be stifling?”

“That's what I'm saying. You must be so depressed that you've become so lethargic.”

“Lethargic... I'm full of energy, Arondra.”

Arondra nodded as if she had already come to a conclusion, ignoring Inés's answer. Her eyes were filled with pity.

She sometimes blatantly ignored the words of the real master of the house, Cárcel, so why would she treat Inés any differently?

“It's not like you could be pregnant already—.”

“I'm not. I'm not.”

“But look at you, eating and sleeping all day. It's so pathetic….”

“…How is eating and sleeping all day pathetic?”

People who worked all day long pitied people who played and ate all day long. However, Arondra seemed to be surprisingly sincere, and the opinions of the servants she represented seemed to be sincere as well.

“I heard that the Captain suddenly asked for your hand in marriage. Of course, it feels like it was quite late... But you got married and your life changed overnight... Some ladies like this place because the scenery is beautiful, but I heard from a maid in one of the lieutenants' houses down there that it's hard for people born in Mendoza to adapt at first.”

It was surprising that she was so worried about her that she had done external research... However, Inés, who had adapted not only quickly but even too quickly, was embarrassed by this sympathy.

Even so, the maid's white hair, strong and large body, and resolute eyes had the power to prevent anyone from ignoring her, no matter how terrible their personality was.

Ortega's tiring culture of respecting the elderly while living recklessly as they pleased...

“I wasn't born in Mendoza. I'm fine.”

“This place is definitely more uncomfortable than Mendoza, there's nothing to do, nothing to see except for that vast ocean, and nowhere to spend money….”

“That's why I don't need those things. Arondra. I'm originally—.”

“—How stifling it must be for you?”

The stifling thing was Arondra's sympathetic gaze. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] It was better than being ridiculed behind her back as ‘an incredibly lazy person’, but still….

It was only then that Inés suddenly dimly recalled her original goal.

What if the simpleminded people of Cárcel found out that she was only living this way because she was lazy and had no other thoughts, even though they pitied her because she had a good life?

‘And Cárcel is unnecessarily diligent, so they can compare me to him right away....’

Inés felt a deep sense of regret as she recalled the back of Cárcel as he diligently left the official residence this morning. How pathetic would her daily routine seem after that?

In the Valztena household, she had always lived quietly on her own terms, not doing anything annoying and not dealing with annoying people. In a society where living quietly was the ultimate rebellion, it was out of the question to care about the opinions of servants when she was ignoring even the opinions of the nobles.

In her first life, when she had lived a busy life, the thoughts and opinions of the servants had been too trivial to consider. Her second life had been too short and poor to even have servants to order around.

But from now on, it was a different story. She had to prepare for the beautiful failure of this marriage someday.

For that, it was important to have the testimony of those around her that she was a sane person.

“...Maybe it was.”

Inés quietly accepted Arondra's opinion.

Arondra's eyes suddenly lit up and she clapped her hands.

“How about going for an outing with the Captain after mass on Sunday?”

“Just going to mass is enough of an outing.”

“Oh, come on. There's a beautiful lake not too far from here.”

“I see the ocean all day long, so why would I want to see a lake?”

“I hear that there's a road wide enough for a carriage to get there! It's very easy to get to from here.”

“Well... I don't want to tire Cárcel out.”

“Señor Escalante doesn't know what fatigue is. You can tell just by looking at his strong physique.”

“I'd rather let him rest on his day off.”

“He's someone who doesn't need to rest.”

“There's no one who doesn't need to rest.”

“There is! It's your husband, Señorita.”

Inés felt that she had failed to defend herself.

As she reluctantly nodded, Arondra immediately asked her what to pack in the picnic basket, humming to herself. Inés answered without thinking. ‘Anything is fine.’, ‘Just whatever Cárcel likes.’, ‘Yes, fruit too.’, ‘He doesn't like peaches....’

She continued to answer in this way. Behind Arondra, a young maid peeked her head out.

“Señorita! Someone has come from the Valztena household.”

“…From the Valztena household?”

***

“……What is all this?”

“I've never heard of the official residence being this small….”

The young footman from the Perez Castle trailed off.

It was only natural, since when the Valztena household's attendants had passed on information about Cárcel's official residence in Calstera, Cárcel had nothing to do with this small mansion.

Inés, who had no way of knowing that Cárcel had quietly moved his official residence in the meantime, had no idea how to answer.

They were now looking at the two large baggage wagons from the Valztena dukedom and Cárcel's cozy two-story official residence in turn. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] However, it was unlikely that they would get an answer just by looking at them.

“Oh, I should have told you in advance.”

“They're scheduled to arrive in about five shipments....”

He blurted out his words again. Inés gently rubbed her temples.

Perhaps it was because she had been so thoughtless lately. Perhaps it was because her schedule had been so hectic that she had not been able to proceed in an orderly manner… Her belongings, which should have arrived here with her, had been delayed because the ceremony had been so rushed. And then, because there had been no inconvenience, she had simply forgotten about them…

‘…It must be because I simply haven’t been thinking.’

Ines came to another objective conclusion. It had been obvious that she would have to have several cartloads of her things brought from the Valeztena household. She had simply let the thought slip her mind.

The black dresses alone that she had at the Perez Castle and the Mendoza dukedom would have been enough to fill two of those large baggage wagons. Although other people might not have been able to tell the difference, since they were all mourning clothes, for Ines, who had once led fashion in Ortega, they each had their own aesthetic value.

Moreover, in her previous life, she had never really taken up any hobbies, but now that she was staying at home with nothing else to do, she had started collecting books… The books in her personal library alone would have filled four or five of those large wagons.

“For now, I have only brought the things that Lady Ines values most, so please let me put at least these inside.”

“…Raul.”

“Yes?”

“There is nowhere to put them.”

“Sorry?”

“There is no room to put even one of those things inside.”

“That can’t be.”

Raul denied reality. However, the mansion was already overflowing, even with Lord Cárcel’s belongings spewing out of it.

“There really isn’t.”

“Then what shall we do?”

“We will have to send them all back.”

“…Are you going to continue living here?”

It was a straightforward question. Raul had originally been Ines’s loyal retainer, whom she had taken to the palace and used like a dog, but now that she was no longer living the life of a crown princess, he was simply one of the very few people in Ines’s drastically reduced social circle, along with Juana.

It was inevitable that he had become useless… In her first life, she had saved an orphan boy from the streets on a whim when she was a child, and then she had used him until he was worn out and dead. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] But in this life, she had saved him at the right time with the calculating thought that ‘if I save him now, he might be useful later’, but in the end, he had turned out to be useless.

In the first place, there was no reason for her to need anyone, since she hardly ever left her room. So she had left him to his own devices, and he had somehow managed to find his own way around the castle, using his passable face and tall stature to become a footman from a young age.