Don’t Ask For Mercy From The Villainess - Chapter 17. Stepping Stone

She had been acting like a child who pretended to be childish. Jessica quickly left Marquis Viterne’s office out of shame.

Alter, who had been left on his own in front of the Marquis’ office and who had to endure the constant teasing of his seniors, quickly jumped up on his feet when he saw Jessica run away from the office door as if she wanted to flee from that place as fast as she could.

“Oh my, the young lady is leaving, aren’t you supposed to follow her?”

“I’m leaving!”

As soon as the senior knight, who had criticized him ever since earlier, finished saying that, Alter immediately dashed away to follow Jessica. However, Alter had no choice but to stand in front of the study room, as Jessica was just entering the room where the old books, owned by the Marquis, were kept without even giving him a chance to escort her there.

Strangely, every time he stood alone in the corridor, many senior knights passed by in front of him. It wasn’t a secret that they would occasionally give him a penalty and disappear quickly afterward.

“I acted like a child.”

He could hear a faint murmur coming out of Jessica’s red lips who remained alone in the study room.

“But I was happy when Father said he would give that to me.”

She thought that it wasn’t a bad idea to give the land to her ahead of time since she must inherit the land later on, anyways. The wasteland requested by Jessica was really an empty land with nothing on it.

Although it was because Planaton existed and was buried deep underneath it. The cold energy of the ore prevented any living things from growing on it.

Oddly enough, unlike ordinary minerals, Planaton wasn’t buried beneath the mountains but on flat land. The ore was lighter yet stronger than Mithril, so it was worth the price.

Actually, in her previous life, Darten said that he accidentally discovered Planaton in this land. However now, as she thought about it, she guessed that it wasn’t merely a coincidence.

“I was so stupid.”

Marianne Russel, Jessica’s stepmother, dug up the Planaton and sold it to other nobles, and it happened that the person who bought the Planaton was a supporter of the Third Prince, Darten.

‘But… how did he know that Planaton was hidden here?’

The Marquis of Viterne had been managing this land from generation to generation. After all, how would Darten, the Third Prince, could have known such a fact that even the owner itself didn’t know?

Jessica was curious about how that could be, so she went to the study room. Marquis Viterne’s study room was where all of the records from the first Marquis to the current one were stored and kept.

‘If there are references about it, I should be able to find it here.’

She came to realize that there were so many things she didn’t know. She was born and raised as part of the family of the Marquis of Viterne, yet she actually didn’t know much about the Marquisate itself. What kind of irony is this? If anything, she knew more about the duke she had been married to in her previous life.

‘I didn’t know much about the place I was born in.’

It was the most important thing before everything to nobles. Knowing their own parentage and taking pride in their family. But what about Jessica in her previous life?

“I heard that the Duchess originally came from the Marquis of Viterne’s family, may I know what the Marquisate is famous for?”

A young lady, who argued with her in the past, asked when she had already become a duchess.

“We are capable of producing many outstanding knights. They’re the pride of the Marquis of Viterne.”

“No, I’m not talking about that. Are there any unique spots in the territory or any specialties?”

There was nothing special in particular about the territory managed by the Marquis of Viterne. It was just that the Knights barely survived with the loot gathered from the border and the occasional Imperial gifts granted by the Emperor. It was the first time for Jessica to socialize as the duchess among high society, and when she just blushed without giving a proper answer, the young lady spoke up again.

“What kind of Duchess who doesn’t know about herself very well?”

After that, sneer and laughter followed suit. Their laughter was so loud that it resonated throughout the entire banquet hall.

‘I was so stupid.’

No one had the right to give her, a duchess, that kind of treatment. She wouldn’t have had to be confronted like that if only she had known properly about high society, and at the very least she should’ve learned about the fact that only the Imperial Family was above her, so she wouldn’t have to experience that.

Jessica kept thinking about that while reading each book in the study room. The reason why she became the target of all of those nobles was because she suddenly became a duchess, although she didn’t hang out in high society often.

Moreover, the duke, who was with his lover and about to enjoy their first wedding night, suddenly died without an heir and she had taken all of the property owned by the duke.

There were many people who begrudged her sudden success which she achieved in just one night. Jessica actually had never thought of it as a success, but other nobles seemed to think differently.

“…….”

After pondering for a while, she gave up. If she kept thinking about it, it seemed to make her even more depressed. Jessica, who had previously focused on the letters, soon became immersed in the content of the books and slowly forgot about her trivial thoughts.

***

It had already been a week since Jessica began frequenting the study room. Marquis Viterne nearly barged into the room after hearing that his daughter, who previously asked him for the wasteland, was spending time in the study without eating properly. Sern, the Knight Commander, stopped him from seeing her almost immediately.

“She’s busy.”

“Now I don’t even have a chance to see my daughter!”

“All the documents which were usually managed by the Marchioness have been handed over to Your Lord. Therefore, obviously, I can’t just let you leave now.”

Sern nudged the documents stacked up on one side of the table. The Marquis, who had a stupefied look on his face while looking at the documents, which seemed to be on the verge of collapsing at any time, raised his eyebrows angrily and spoke up.

“And the Young Lady is more sensible than Your Lord, so I’m sure she’ll do well on her own.”

“What do you mean!? Of course, my Jessica is smart and beautiful and can’t be compared to other women within the Ert Empire……!”

While listening to the Marquis’ bragging, Sern automatically held out the documents to him. The Marquis continued to brag about Jessica without stopping his mouth as he started to sign each document Sern handed out to her.

“Oh, well.”

The document explained the secret agreement between the First Emperor and the First Marquis Viterne. Thinking that it was strange that an envelope was hidden among the books, Jessica quickly unfolded it. After reading the whole thing, her hands trembled.

They discovered the land where Planaton existed and promised to trust each other. The first Marquis Viterne would protect the Planaton and the First Emperor would not betray the Marquis of Viterne.

It must have been decided that the two of them would have kept each secret agreement in their respective residences and regarded it as shackles that bound them to each other. The Imperial Family probably kept it somewhere inside the Imperial Library, while the one kept by the First Marquis was in the study room of the Marquis of Viterne’s house. The document was already in her hands.

“Then, after acknowledging this fact, it means that our family……..”

Darten approached her after Marquis Viterne handed the Marquisate over to Marianne Russel, the daughter of the Baron. She hadn’t yet figured out what he promised to her in return, but one thing was for sure: the woman had used Marquis Viterne as a tool for helping Darten.

Sending out the loyal knights, who chose to stick with each other because of their loyalty toward the Marquisate, into dangerous places would eventually lead them to their own deaths. That would let her remove all of the loyal servants and recruit new people.

“How dare she.”

The seals, which proved that both of them were involved with the agreement, remained on the documents and were still as effulgent as ever. It couldn’t come off until the documents were burned down because of it being processed with magic.

It meant someone in the Imperial Palace had already identified the documents. In her previous life, Darten must have read the document and found out that Planaton was buried beneath the Marquis of Viterne’s territory.

After reading the content of this document, Darten played a role in killing Marquis Viterne and hoarding off Planaton from the land, as if he was robbing it from her. Jessica was in complete shock when she learned about this fact.

“What did I just find?”

Now that she has returned to the past, she decided to not make any mistakes in the future by recalling the things that happened in her past life. But there were still so many things that she didn’t figure out in the past. She didn’t know whether Darten knew about the existence of Planaton or not.

‘If he had already learned about it, he wouldn’t look at me in a favorable light when I cultivate the wasteland later on, so what should I do?’

She couldn’t do much on her own. Jessica was lost in thought while holding the documents in her hands. Planaton was related to the Imperial Family. If she moved on her own, dug it up and sold it, that could’ve led to another problem. She would have been arrested due to attempted contempt towards the Imperial Family.

‘I have to entice a member from the Imperial Family.’

That way, her safety could be guaranteed. It would’ve been much better if that person could protect her from the influence of Darten.

“Who could that be?”

There were currently three Princes in the Empire. The First Prince was the type of person who didn’t have any interest in state affairs because he was just wandering around the border, and the Second Prince was rumored to be a lascivious man and incompetent.

The mother of the Second Prince was only a court maid and wasn’t granted the position of the Queen due to her lowly status. Darten, the Third Prince, was clearly an exception because he was aiming for the Marquis of Viterne.

“After all, there is no one other than the First Prince…….”

She felt uncomfortable. Sitting in front of the person she had killed before consumed more energy than she thought. If it wasn’t for her determination to get revenge, Jessica would have chosen to travel to a place where she wouldn’t have to encounter the people she had killed before.

“Is there no other one than the First Prince?”

Jessica’s voice was weak as she repeated it over and over again. Even though she wasn’t fond of the idea, she didn’t know any other way to get help from others.  If the Imperial Family was related to her, there would be no problem if she wanted to use Planaton as she pleased.

“The problem is how to entice that person.”