The Girl Who Was Forced by Her Stepsister to Marry the Cursed Duke - CH 12

Chapter 12: 《Bhadra’s POV》A Girl Named Miltia

T/N: Bhadra is actually a man btw.

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー

『Miltia-sama, you seem to be enjoying yourself everyday.』

“Huh? I-Is that so?”

I stared at the girl who was happily stuffing her cheeks full of grilled shellfish. Looking at how her face was beaming with happiness, I accidentally let my thoughts out loud. Incidentally… This shellfish actually… Something that sprung forth from our young master’s curse.

A normal daughter from a count family would definitely run away for her life at the mere mention of it…Or so it should be.

“Bhadra-sama, are you fine even if you don’t eat?”

『An automata doesn’t require food. An automata’s source of power comes from magic power.』

“I see… So when will you need to replenish those magic powers?”

『….Replenish, you said…. That’s… Not a problem.』

For a moment… I stopped speaking.

No, really. The duchal household really had no problem regarding replenishing their automata’s magic power. Young master could replenish it himself.

And yet, when I heard the word ‘replenish’, I was still at a loss for words. The existence of the automata that were dispatched to the royal castle from Duke Lönnrot house came to my mind. The only person who could replenish the magic power of the automata dispatched to the royal castle was none but our young master.

But… Ever since the curse, young master… To put it bluntly, the young master had been running away from his duty to replenish the magic power to the royal castle.

Well… Because of the young master’s…. Appearance… The royal castle had never summoned him either…

But at the very least, in order to prevent our family’s reputation from being tarnished even further… I had started controlling the automata in both the royal palace and Lönnrot Dukedom remotely in a mansion located halfway between both places… And so… One year has passed since then…

Young master had become a recluse. It’d be difficult for me to leave this mansion unless either the royal palace stopped using the automatons that our house had dispatched for their service, or the young master agreed to replenish the automatons’ magic power as often as he did before.

As for the latter… To be honest, I had already given up on that but…. Recently, thanks to Miltia, I could see some changes in the young master’s misanthropy tendency.

I secretly hoped that she’d be able to drag our young master, who had become a complete shut-in, to go out into the sun.

『Ahem! Anyway…』

I tried to change the subject a little too forcefully.

『There’s a letter from your parents.』

“Huh?”

The moment she heard the word ‘parents’, her blissful face suddenly turned dark.

From what I could gather, it seemed she had been living a miserable life at her parents’ house. Maybe because of that… She always looked surprisingly happy at the most trivial things. On the contrary, when she heard someone mentioning ‘Count Lyran’, her expression immediately turned solemn. As if someone had poured a bucket of water on burning flames.

Indeed. When we told her we’d provide her three meals a day, she was so happy that she almost jumped in joy. In her diary (?), she’d write down in detail what she ate that day. From how she cooked it, how it tasted and so on. Instead of a diary(?), it was more like a collection of recipes.

I stared at Miltia, who was reading the letter while inclining her head to the side, looking obviously confused.

『What’s written on that letter?』

“Erm… No… It’s… It’s just that they want me to return home and… They told me to… Not tell Maricle-sama about it because they plan to make this as a surprise for him…”

『They want you to secretly come home without telling the master…?』

“Y-Yes… That…. My family wants to have a dress made for me and… This is the first time they…. Ah… No, I mean, I never had any interest in dress before so… They want me to come home to get my measurements…”

I sensed something ominous from the content of that letter.

『That letter… Do you mind if I take a look at that letter?』

“Y-Yes.”

『……….Hm… It’s exactly like what you’ve just said.』

The stamp on the letter and the sealing wax were definitely from the Count Lyran family.

After their daughter got engaged, her family planned on giving her a new dress even though she was already living in her betrothed house. That kind of thing was not uncommon. In fact, I’d say it actually happened quite often even.

But… In a case like that, the target of surprise usually should be the daughter. Well, technically you could still prepare a surprise for her fiancé by dressing her up in a new dress. That kind of thing was still plausible.

In fact, in the case where a nobleman was in a polygamous relationship, the wife’s family often sent the husband’s favourite things as a present for their daughter. They did this in order for their daughter to win the husband’s favour. For example, there were families that gave their daughters armour or fine horses.

In this particular case, the family wanted to give a new dress to their daughter. But… It was too unnatural for the family to not know their own daughter’s size.

While we were on the dress subject… In the first place, it was already weird enough that the family didn’t even provide a single dress to their daughter when they married off their daughter to someone. Even if the daughter didn’t have any interest in dress, a parent still had to provide their daughter with appropriate attires.

And above all else…

I stared at her necklace through the automata’s eyes.

There’s no doubt about it.

According to my 『appraisal magic』, the item around Miltia’s neck was a cursed magic tool. I had seen this type of magic tool several times already. In the case of this specific curse, even if she were to leave the duchal house on the pretence of surprise without telling our young master, this magic tool would consider her action as 『running away』. If that were to happen, the one who would bear the consequences would be none other than… This girl herself.

Even though the thing around her neck was a cursed magic tool, I had left it alone since it wouldn’t pose any harm to our young master but ….

I think I need to reconsider my actions.

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー

T/N: Told you the author won’t stretch the drama (•̀ᴗ•́)و ̑̑