Mess 169
by Cristae169.
‘What in the world is this feeling…?’
It wasn’t simply the confusion of having a would-be stepfather who was the same age as her lover.
She had already vented most of that awkwardness when she pulled at that guy’s hair.
What was age, after all? If anything, her mother deserved praise for her boldness.
Yet Seraphie still found herself ill at ease. She wanted to graciously accept her mother’s romance, but this vague unease would not disappear.
“Sir Felikia, your father-in-law is the same age as you.”
“May I be allowed a moment to faint….”
“I know I shouldn’t laugh, but it’s just too funny.”
Their banter only troubled her further.
Lou and Karl were enjoying the spectacle as bystanders, and even Orchis, who felt much the same as Seraphie, wore a similarly complicated expression.
“At any rate…”
Seraphie pressed on with the conversation.
“How did this happen, anyway? How did you fall for her?”
Now that things had come to this, Seraphie decided to ask everything she wanted to know. Maybe that would lay her unease to rest.
“Well…”
Raven’s face grew redder with every thought. Seraphie forced herself to quell the murderous impulse rising inside.
“She’s just so kind and gentle…”
At first, he had focused only on his given duty—safely escorting the lady to her destination and standing by her side.
But as time passed, they ended up speaking more and spending more time together.
The Countess was a caring person, and she was so young and beautiful that the title of “Countess Dowager” hardly seemed to suit her.
Her expression, once clouded with trouble, had grown steadily brighter, and her more frequent smiles made his heart beat faster.
“I know, truly I do…”
Raven clenched his fists atop his knees.
“The Countess is far too good for the likes of me.”
Knowing she still suffered from a difficult marriage, he didn’t dare press his feelings on her.
“…Wait a second.”
Seraphie narrowed one eye.
“Then… who confessed first?”
“W-well, that is…”
“Don’t tell me—it was my mother?”
Raven gave a small, shamefaced nod. His bright-red ears showed clearly through his hair.
“Wow…”
Lou marveled quietly, genuinely impressed. Karl, too, stared wide-eyed in disbelief.
“Of course, the Countess Dowager sought her daughter’s—that is, Count Validus’s—permission…”
Raven hastily clarified.
“……”
Wordless, Seraphie rubbed her face with both hands.
“…Good grief.”
She let out a long, heavy sigh.
“For heaven’s sake, what was I worried about?”
She lowered her hands; her face was as radiant as a spring morning.
“…Pardon?”
Raven, braced for opposition, as well as Orchis, Lou, and Karl, all stared wide-eyed at her transformation.
“W-won’t you object?”
“Why on earth would I do that?”
Seraphie tilted her head.
“Sir Dula—no, Father!”
“Oh, no, please! I could never be your father, Count!”
Raven flinched, frantically waving his hands.
“Father, I’ve waited a long time for a dad like you.”
Seraphie, having quite closed the distance, clasped her new stepfather’s hands.
Raven very nearly fainted.
“…What’s gotten into her?” Lou, slightly alarmed, whispered, hiding behind Karl.
“Has she lost her mind at last?”
“Perhaps it’s relief,” Karl replied, hugging Lou more securely.
He seemed to have a fair idea of why Seraphie had changed her tune so suddenly.
“Because Sir Dula wasn’t the one who confessed?”
Lou found the logic hard to accept.
“Why would the order of confession matter…!”
Ah.
Lou looked up at Karl, who smiled a knowing smile.
“Because her former husband was just such a man.”
Orchis, having understood as well, offered the explanation.
“If Sir Dula had confessed first, it could easily have felt like a form of violence against the Countess Dowager.”
Physical blows were not the only violence.
Forcing a choice was violence, too.
No matter Raven’s good nature or pure heart, he was, in the end, a man of strength.
For the Countess Dowager, who had experienced only bad things, even his confession could have been a burden.
That was why Seraphie had been unusually sensitive toward Raven. And when she learned her mother had made the first move, her relief was profound.
‘He endured well.’
The fact that her would-be stepfather was her age was vexing, but Orchis truly respected Raven for his restraint.
“Congratulations, Mother!”
Now that her misgivings had vanished, Seraphie could sincerely celebrate her mother’s new beginning.
“Sera…!”
At her daughter’s blessings, the Countess Dowager’s eyes glistened with emotion.
“Thank you for being so happy for me—really…”
“When will you have the wedding? Where would you like to go for your honeymoon? The Kingdom of Apocita? Then we’ll have to prepare your new bedroom at the mansion for when you return…”
The problem was, her excitement raced far ahead of any plans the actual couple had made.
Seraphie’s muttering was detailed and specific, leaving both Countess Dowager and Raven utterly bashful.
Still, the two lovers, glancing with shy smiles at each other, could not entirely hide their pleasure.
“Now, perhaps we can begin in earnest.”
At last, Marquess Kia, who had waited out the commotion in silence, tapped the table. With the excitement over, it was time for business.
“Children, don’t you want to go ride the swan boats?”
“What’s a swan boat?”
“Swan boat?”
Seraphie sent the children off to the nearby lakeshore for an excursion, asking them to try the newly finished swan boats and report back on their impressions.
“Can I go too?” Batisa asked.
“I’ll accompany you as well,” said Ruben.
Bia and Carola’s mother headed for the kitchen, to request snack baskets.
With the children gone, quiet quickly fell over the villa.
“…I heard about the party,” Marquess Kia began.
“They say you humiliated the Crown Prince?”
“It wasn’t me who played that trick.”
Seraphie replied with a hint of wounded pride. The whole thing had scared her half to death.
But Marquess Kia merely snorted derisively, unconvinced.
“Maybe someone else pulled off the trick, but…”
Orchis looked away, as if trying to conceal a guilty conscience.
“…But I can tell who set things up.”
“Grandmother, I’m a pacifist.”
“That’s the worst joke I’ve heard in ages.”
When Marquess Kia sat, everyone else took their seats as well. Seraphie naturally settled at the head of the table.
“……”
She’d sat there countless times before, but today the seat seemed particularly uncomfortable.
‘Look at my hands…’
Glancing at her palm, she found it slick with sweat. Likely it was simply from sharing the room with both Marquess Kia and the Countess Dowager.
‘Calm down.’
You’re the head of Validus, after all, she told herself, steadying her heart as she began the meeting.
“The capital is undergoing a financial audit as we speak.”
Right now, while Seraphie was away, the royal house was conducting a nationwide audit. It was a move targeting Baglosa.
“That won’t be enough, just a simple audit…”
Marquess Kia sounded doubtful, and Seraphie nodded in agreement.
“We’ve already bought up every bond Baglosa issued.”
“I can almost hear Baglosa’s howls from here.”
“We’ve had proxy companies steadily acquiring the bonds. Now, all have been handed over to the Kia Trading Company.”
Baglosa’s financial condition was more precarious than ever.
Declared profits were strangely low compared to their accumulated assets, and there were suspiciously large donations to the temple on record, too.
Lou handed Marquess Kia the documents.
“Bonds… this many?”
It was rare for Marquess Kia to be surprised.
The bonds themselves were not strange, but Baglosa’s behavior—that they had gone so far as to issue such a volume—was more than suspicious.
On top of that, all the bonds were coming due soon.
“Sera.”
Listening closely, the Countess Dowager raised her hand.
“Does owning all these bonds mean we can seize the Baglosa Company?”
“That much we can’t do.”
At Seraphie’s answer, the Countess Dowager nodded, a bit disappointed.
She knew all too well what Baglosa had done to her mother-in-law, and to her own daughter.
“But…”
After a pause, Seraphie smiled slightly.
“We can ruin them.”
The bonds Baglosa had issued were cash bonds. They typically had the shortest terms, but the repayment process was relatively simple.
‘Not that we bought them up just to collect debts.’
Seraphie smiled quietly.
“The company’s main business is tea.”
The one reason they’d bought up all those bonds and conducted the audit, hand in hand with the royal house, was simple.
“It’s time to take it back.”
It was time for the Kia Company to reclaim its former glory.
“What is… all this?”
Count Baglosa wavered unsteadily as he looked about his devastated study.
The shelves were bare, the drawers all open,
and only useless scraps of paper were scattered on the floor.
His head swam, though he hadn’t touched a drop of liquor. His whole body trembled, though he felt like a man plunged into an icy pool.
‘The audit is upon us, sir!’
The merchant house assistant had burst in that very morning, in a panic, announcing that a nationwide audit had begun, and Baglosa was among the targets.
Count Baglosa had rushed to the company headquarters in a flurry.
But the auditors had already swept through.
They had seized every single document from the offices, and in the meanwhile, during his absence, they had raided the mansion, collecting every piece relating to the merchant house.
Now the Count was deeply uneasy.
It all felt like a scheme, a play in which every role had been prepared in advance.
That they had raided his mansion the moment he left, and that the sudden audit had commenced just as the party ended—above all, this timing was most suspicious.
It felt just like a plot to drive him into a corner.
‘Could the royal house…’
His nerves frayed, he slammed a fist down on a sofa arm. The only result was an aching hand.
“Father!”
At that moment, Count Baglosa’s son appeared.