Chapter Twenty-One and a Half: My Benefactor ~(Mario/Marietta’s POV)

William was my benefactor.

I had to abandon my career as a knight, but I got to keep my life because William carried me on his back and fled from the battlefield.

As a third son of a middle-ranking earl family, I had to either get married, or make a name for myself. Unlike the eldest brother, I wasn’t given an education to succeed the family, nor was I cared for like my second brother, who was a substitute for my eldest brother in case of emergency. Basically, it didn’t matter whether or not he was there—such was the life of a man named Mario.

It’s fun to live as Marietta.

While staying at my half-brother’s—Ralph’s—house, the beautiful fabrics and threads piqued my interest, and I began to spend my pocket money and earnings on clothes. Before I knew it, it had become a career.

In the beginning, it was difficult to get customers, but with Ralph’s help, William, Alphonse, and other knights began to invite Marietta to their mansions as a rising designer. Eventually, Marietta became famous—well, partly due to my skill.

Tell you what, cross-dressing is merely a hobby of mine, and I’m still a man inside.

In addition, Marietta’s occupation led her to encounter many aristocrats and wealthy familiars. Naturally, I amassed various information, intentional or not.

Upon realizing that, I approached William, who’d been promoted to the rank of division commander, and began to provide him with information. When William tried to pay for my service, I declined him. Since he’d saved my life, it’d take me a lifetime’s worth of information to fully repay him. No, considering that he’d been kind to me since my academy days, I’d probably still be indebted to him in my next life.

Actually, I wished I could serve my benefactor like Caddock. While being a designer was my passion, being a knight was also my pride and joy.

However, I could no longer hold a sword properly, so I was just a hindrance. Thus, I decided to utilize information—which was invisible yet powerful—as a weapon to protect my benefactor and those who were important to me.

William and Alphonse had been friends since their academy days, so of course I was aware of the incident with William’s ex-fiancée. Apparently, Alphonse was about to make her entire family pay with their lives, but William stopped him. Alphonse had a ruthless side to him—especially to anyone who threatened his close friends. Even if the opposite party was a woman or a child, he’d show no mercy. In a way, it was probably a necessary quality for a ruler. At the same time, William wasn’t so heartless as to allow that.

After that incident, William developed an aversion towards women. At a glance, it may seem as if he was smiling at them, but his blue eyes would remain frigid. I remembered arguing with Alphonse that William might remain single for the rest of his life.

—Hence why, a year ago, when I heard from Alphonse that William had suddenly gotten married, I was in shock.

I was only informed after the wedding was over. I was shocked that I wasn’t invited, but Alphonse told me that he wasn’t, either. Apparently, William didn’t invite anyone on purpose. Neither William nor his house made any public announcements, so I couldn’t gather any information.

Then, a year after that, William neglected his wife in favor of his work.

During that time, his surroundings tried to dissuade him, but William paid no heed to any of them. He continued to busy himself with work. One day, tired from overwork, he fell down and hit his head. When he regained consciousness, he had amnesia.

It was so foolish; I couldn’t even say a word.

However, it seemed to be a turning point for the couple.

Out of the blue, William mentioned that he wanted a dress, so I went to visit him. There, Frederick told me that, “He’s so stupid, after he forgot everything, he fell in love with his wife at the first sight.”

I didn’t get to see her then, but today, when I finally saw Liliana in person, I finally understood.

Liliana was precisely William’s type.

If I may be blunt, his ex-fiancée, who was arranged by his parents, wasn’t his type. She wasn’t an ill-natured girl, and she seemed to have a good personality, so they got along well. She was a picture-perfect lady—lively and assertive.

…But Alphonse, Frederick, and I knew.

William was into modest, graceful, quiet, petite, and big breasted girl.

Liliana was exactly that. On top of that, she had this solemn and graceful atmosphere to her, akin to that of a moon goddess. Her smile alone was enough to steal any man’s heart.

When I told her about my relationship with Ralph, she smiled and said that we seemed to be on good terms.

Usually, people would either pity or sympathize with me—either that, or they’d straight up ridicule me for working alongside a commoner. Liliana was probably the first person who’d ever said, “The two of you seem to get along very well.” And genuinely meant it.

“You got hell to pay for neglecting such a lovely wife for a year.”

“Enough with that crude tone, please.”

William frowned and leaned back on his desk. After laughing so much, Alphonse asked for refreshment from Frederick to quell his parched throat.

…I purposely disguised myself as a woman, too. But I got dragged by this fella, and my wig fell down the hallway.

“Even though we all know you’ll never beat Elsa, Will keeps challenging her anyway.” Alphonse shrugged while adjusting his breath.

That charming maid had always been formidable. Somehow, there was something irresistible about her.

“Let’s conclude this conversation right away. I have to go to a walk in the garden with Liliana and Cedric. Tell me everything you know.”

“Hey, women dislike impatient men, y’know?”

To my chagrin, William frowned. I took a cigarette out of my pocket and put it in my mouth. But in the next second, it was gone.

“Didn’t I mention that Liliana and I are going to take a walk in the garden? What if I smell? Even worse, what if Liliana despises the smell of cigarettes? What are you going to do?”

William threw the unlit cigarette into the trash can presented by Frederick.

“…I get it, already. Sorry about that.”

“Hey, isn’t this funny?” Alphonse spoke amidst his laughter. “I’d have never guessed that Will, who hates women, would fall in love. Life sure is unpredictable.”

“Like I said, I get it, c’mon, let’s get down to business. Caddock, give me that.”

Caddock, who stood like a shadow, took out a bundle of paper and handed it to Alphonse.

“I kept my eyes open on that old bastard, but I still couldn’t find anything useful. But recently, there’s been some suspicious activity in his territory.”

“Suspicious activity?” William frowned.

“They’re desperately stocking up on wheat. In the Fuchsberger Duchy, be it this year or the last, there was no crop failure due to drought or long rains. There’s also no disease breakout. Therefore, they should’ve secured enough. Why are they stockpiling on wheat?”

“…If I remember correctly, one of the countries the duke is in charge of, Destruicao, suffered from last year’s drought. The year before the last, they also had a poor harvest, preventing them from stockpiling wheat. That country must’ve been in crisis.”

William furrowed his eyebrows.

“Before Destrucao came to be under our rule, there was no restriction to the production of weapons and gunpowder. A long time ago, there were wars all over the place, so Destruicao exported them as a source of income for the country. These days, everything related to weapon production has to go through me. Destruicao is also in the process of shifting their source of income to jewelry processing and iron production, but it isn’t that simple, isn’t it?”

Alphonse laid the stack of papers on the desk, and I peered from the side. A more detailed report of the current topic was written there. The article delves further into Destruicao’s illegal production of weapons and gunpowder.

Seven years had passed since the war ended. Although the king of Cression hadn’t exploited his vassals or enslaved his people, each still retained the pride of an once independent nation. Therefore, there were certainly some countries who were aiming for independence from Cression.

—The Empire of Fortis was the most likely to rebel.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that country despised William the most. After all, he was the one who turned the tide of war and became known as a national hero.

If William had listened to his superior and didn’t participate in the war, the Kingdom of Cression would’ve been put under the control of the Empire of Fortis. At the time, the war situation was in the favor of the latter.

“We can’t arrest the duke without conclusive evidence.”

“The guy’s experienced. He covered his track.” Alphonse sighed.

“That’s all for the duke. There are still many uncertainties, so that’s as far as the report goes.”

“I understand… How about you?”

William’s blue eyes were directed at me.

“…Lady Sandra has a tryst with the man who was secretly entrusted with the estate management by her ex-husband, Count Eighton. There’s a suspicion that he misrepresented the tax payment and embezzled the funds.”

“Wow, I’ve had my suspicions for a while now. After all, the income is too small for a territory of that size.” Alphonse chuckled, yet his sky-blue gaze was as sharp as a blade.

No wonder. To embezzle the tax payment from the territory was synonymous to neglecting the people. At the same time, it was also an act of deceiving the royal family, where everyone was said to be the beloved children of King Cression.

“—There’s also an underlying suspicion about Lady Margaret’s birth.”

William and Alphonse stared at each other, before turning to me.

“Supposedly, Margaret was born three months before Liliana. In actuality, Liliana was a month older than her. His mistress bribed the midwife and the doctor to falsify Margaret’s birth certificate. At that time, Count Eighton was being supervised by his family because of Liliana’s mother, so he couldn’t freely meet his mistress, who also refused to meet him. The former didn’t have a clue about Lady Margaret, while the latter was falsifying the date of birth. Why would she go that far? There’s only one explanation. Left as it was, the count would find out that Margaret wasn’t his. A month after his mistress gave birth to Margaret, the count visited his father to arrange for a marriage proposal.”

“…Then, whose child?” Alphonse tilted his head.

“Who knows? His mistress is a promiscuous woman, so I have no clue.”

“Is it the duke?”

Alphonse immediately denied it.

“I don’t think so. As you can see, the duke cherished the late duchess. Do you recall that there were no children between them? Apparently, his surroundings kept telling him to get a divorce, but the duke refused. He loved her to the point he abandoned his aristocratic duty. After the duchess passed away from an epidemic, the duke fell into a deep depression. Perhaps, that was when the old hag sunk her claws into him.”

Alphonse seemed downcast.

“Liliana is the daughter of Lady Catherine, the count’s ex-wife. She’s the daughter of Viscount Everett—a true noble. Cedric is also the child of the count, there’s no doubt about it. His mistress wasn’t foolish enough to pull off the same trick, so she stayed quiet until the successor was born.”

“No wonder the mistress doesn’t resemble Liliana in the slightest.”

William snorted, picked up the stack of papers on the desk and began to look through them.

“I heard Margaret, who isn’t even your sister-in-law, is trying to meet Liliana.”

“Yes, I received a bunch of pretentious letters from her. She was asking to be invited here, to see Cedric, to apologize to Liliana, yadda yadda...”

“—The other day, she even visited us with a carriage. Don’t worry, Arthur and I dealt with her appropriately.”

At the sudden appearance of Elsa, I instinctively withdrew.

“Lord Mario, I came to deliver something that Lady Marietta forgot.”

Other than to deliver the wig I dropped, Elsa didn’t seem to care about me. I gratefully accepted it.

“Lord Cedric picked it up in the hallway. He was so confused, it was really cute. By the way, Lord Mario—”

“Do you need something?”

I reflexively fixed my posture. I wasn’t good at dealing with Elsa.

“Please relay everything about Lady Margaret to me. We can exchange information. I’ll tell you everything I know.”

“Wait, what are you going to do to Margaret?” William asked Elsa, his expression tense. Elsa smiled softly.

“By laying a hand on the lady I serve, that bitch is basically asking to rot in the pit of hell. Which is why, as I lay a path for her to Hell, I want to send her off with flowers.”

“Wow, that’s brilliant! I’ll give you a hand!” Alphonse gave a crackling round of applause, supportive of the idea. William didn’t seem to object, and merely nodded. Perhaps, he was afraid of Elsa, hence he said nothing.

“Wow, so His Highness Alphonse will be lending me a hand? How reassuring.”

“Thanks to the duke, it’s no longer a secret, but fortunately, Sir Boniface is enthusiastic~ Despite his peculiar taste, he’s an excellent businessman. I want to offer Lady Margaret to him~”

“Oh my, you even discussed it with Sir Boniface? Why, he’s perfect for that tramp!”

“Right~? I’ll benefit from it, Elsa will be happy, and Lady Margaret will get her just desserts, it’s fantastic!”

“—As expected of the future king of the Kingdom of Cression! For this citizen, there’s nothing more reassuring than your broad perspective and benevolent heart!”

Alphonse casually waved his hand, saying that Elsa was exaggerating.

I sympathized with Caddock, who averted his gaze with a somewhat distraught look on his face.

“Then, I shall attend to my lady, so please excuse me.”

After bowing her head, Elsa left the study.

“Alright, I have to work even harder. What will Mario do from now on? Will.”

“Keep investigating Sandra and Margaret. If they show signs of wanting to harm Liliana or Cedric, please report it immediately.”

“Roger that.”

I nodded, and William tapped me on the shoulder, asking for my help.

I was genuinely glad to be relied on by my benefactor.

“—Mario, there’s one more thing I’d like you to do.”

“What is it?”

“…I want you to look into an incident which occurred nine years ago. Back then, Liliana, who was still 7-years-old, was attacked during her outing with Count Eighton.”

His blue eyes narrowed fiercely, piercing me with killing intent.

—I gasped.

It was the same gaze he’d often show on the battlefield.

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