I’m An Uncouth Lady, But I Helped The Villainous Young Lord But He Ended Up Liking Me - Chapter 12 – The Not-So-Potato Lady (Nazelbert’s Point of View)

Nazelbert was alone in his study on the ground floor of a remote house, pondering.

How had it come to this?

“If only I had been able to stop Her Royal Highness….”

It was Nazelbert’s fault for not noticing. He never thought that she would have a child with another man. It was completely unexpected.

Nazelbert, the second son of the Duke of Florescence, has been raised from an early age to stand above the others. He has always tried to live up to the expectations of those around him. However…

―― his only shackles were this engagement.

Princess Mia, who became his fiancée when he was ten years old, was an incredibly selfish and haughty girl.

“Hmmm, so this is my fiancée. Well, the only thing that’s not up to snuff is the face.”

Nazelbert still vividly remembers being absolutely stunned by her first words.

To be honest, the princess was not Nazelbert’s type, but this was a royal engagement. He had to put his own feelings aside and in order to be a suitable companion for the royal family, he had to undergo a rigorous royal education.

The king has a first prince who is frail and almost bedridden. The second prince has a mother who is a commoner and has no backing, so there is a trend to promote the biological daughter of the queen, who has a strong backing, to be the next monarch. The second prince himself has no desire to fight with his mother-in-law.

The princess played around with her good friends and cronies and made fun of Nazelbert, who was working hard with his royal education. She has no awareness of being the next queen.

Even if Princess Mia was unreliable, as long as she was strong and did not destabilize the country, it would be fine. Nazelbert began to study more and more seriously, and due to that, the opportunities to meet the princess decreased.

Perhaps she used the opportunity to strengthen her bond with Robin, the baron’s bastard son.

When he realized it, it was too late…

“I was naive. But what was the right thing to do with that selfish princess?”

It was his fault for underestimating Princess Mia’s eccentricity.

“……To begin with, it was too much for me to take on.”

Agnes said something like, “His Majesty will do something about it,” but that hope seems slim. The princess is already pregnant with Robin’s child.

And everyone at the party knows it. Surely, Princess Mia is going to have a baby, and there is no place for Nazelbert there.

Nazelbert himself had put up with everything up to now because it was an obligatory engagement, but he did not want to end up as Princess Mia’s marriage partner after all that had happened.

He was rather relieved that a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

The only thing Nazelbert was worried about was the fact that he had involved Agnes, who had nothing to do with it.

Agnes, the eldest daughter of the Marquise of Evantail, was a lady who was ridiculed in social circles as the “Potato Lady”. Nazelbert had never heard of this rumor, but it was apparently well known among the young aristocracy.

The first time he saw her, she was dressed in a heavy dress, with a hairstyle and heavy makeup that he had only seen in paintings, which were popular a few generations ago.

Nazelbert felt sorry for her as she walked dragging her dress, and ended up helping her when she was tripping over the hem of her dress that got stuck. The nobles nearby only sneered at her and no one lent a hand.

But he shouldn’t have lent a hand just because he couldn’t bear to watch.

The righteous Agnes defended Nazelbert, who had been overpowered by a soldier, and was noticed by Princess Mia.

Because of this, she was ordered to marry Nazelbert in public. It was a disgraceful thing to be betrothed to a criminal.

She would never be able to find anyone to marry in the future after what she had been through.

Her future was doomed because of Nazelbert.

Moreover, Agnes has been disowned by her parents.

He felt regretful when he thought about her feelings. He truly felt terrible about it.

Nazelbert had made the right decision to go to Agnes at that time, and because of that, he was protected by her.

He apologized for getting her involved, but Agnes told him she didn’t care.

She then went on to say that she was more sorry that he was forced to marry her.

She is a wonderful lady to be able to think of the other person more than herself despite her condition.

Agnes despises herself as a “Potato Lady”, but her face after having its thick makeup removed belongs to a beautiful seventeen-year-old girl.

Now he left her in the hands of his trusted maid, Kelly.

“…… haa, what should we do now? For now, we’ll just have to wait for the news.”

The Dukedom of Florescence’s opinion on the matter was split down the middle.

The father and eldest brother accuse Nazelbert of being “unworthy” and are ready to quickly remove him to the frontier. His mother and younger brother defended Nazelbert and were angry at the disloyal royal family.

Nazelbert, for his part, has taken up residence in his own detached house as a gesture of good faith.

Although he honestly did not expect Agnes to be there, he has extra room and intends to protect her as much as possible.

He could not leave her, being only seventeen years old, out in the night in the royal capital.

Agnes seemed intent on going to a monastery, but Nazelbert did not want to send her to such a place because of him.

The monastery was funded by donations from royalty and nobility, and there were also unmarried children of noble families who had been temporarily sent there to wait for political marriages.

If Agnes, who was surrounded by scandal, went there, he had no idea how she would be treated.

Nazelbert let out a loud sigh as he brushed back his bright red hair.

Then Kelly, the maid who had finished taking care of Agnes, returned.

She has been watching Agnes since yesterday. She was worried that Agnes might be pushing herself, even though she was acting tough in front of Nazelbert.

“Lady Agnes is resting well today, Lord Nazelbert.”

“Thank you. How was she?”

“She must be anxious, but she is surprisingly calm. She is a kind and gentle young lady who is very attentive to me and others.”

Just as he thought, Agnes seems to have a heart overflowing with compassion.

“And I’m a little concerned about something. Lady Agnes took off her makeup, and there were traces of internal bleeding on her face. It was hidden by the heavy makeup when she came to the villa, and today we tried to hide it by adjusting the color of the makeup to see how it would look, but the bruise did not disappear in the end….”

“Was she hurt?!”

“It’s not only her face but also the scuffs on her shoes that Lord Nazelbert treated. As you probably already know, Lady Agnes’s toes are twisted from wearing tight shoes regularly.”

“I was curious too. I wonder how many times she had worn out those shoes, given how her skin was discolored.. Any other mark?”

“I was also concerned about the deformation of her ribs since she was wearing an old-fashioned costume that required a tight corset, but this one seemed to be fine. However, if she continued to live the way she did now, she would eventually…”

Kelly is more talkative than one would normally expect from her.

“Regarding the clothes and shoes, those were very harsh on the body. Was that the reason why Miss Agnes was so interested in dresses and shoes this morning?”

Nazelbert covered his face in pity for Agnes’s situation.

In social circles, the Evantail family was derided as “operating with values from a century ago”, but they had never been involved in any problematic behavior and were a trusted aristocrat for their “clumsy but serious and honest work ethic”.

However, they may be a more problematic family than one might think.

“I’d better look into Miss Agnes’ facial injuries as well.”

“She had two large bruises on her cheeks. It would be unnatural to say that she had hit something by accident.”

“All right, I’ll look into it. I may have to reconsider persuading the Evantails to retract her disowned position to send her home.”

“Yes…… I’m of the same opinion.”

Because of how she was fired from her job at the royal castle and her magical properties, Kelly is not very friendly to anyone, but she seems to like Agnes.

“Kelly, can you take care of Miss Agnes again tomorrow?”

“Of course I can, Lord Nazelbert, please go to sleep now.”

It was getting late at night, so he followed Kelly’s words honestly. Nazelbert went out into the hallway and looked up at the floor above where Agnes was, and moved with weary steps to his bedroom.

“……I wish I could save at least Miss Agnes somehow.”

Whatever the king’s orders, Nazelbert is determined to protect Agnes.

But if he was being honest to himself, he felt like giving up already.