The Substitute Bride is adored by the clumsy Margrave - Chapter 19.1

“Your dress is beautiful too, sister Matilda.”

“Really? Thank you. Gregory likes this color. He says that pink gives you a youthful and fresh appearance, unlike cold colors, which make you look older.”

Gregory was probably the name of her fiancé. Clarisse sighed to herself. To be mentioning her fiancé’s name despite knowing that they have yet to hear the details of the engagement because she was late – was typical behavior of Matilda. And even using her fiancé’s name to attack Clarisse’s blue dress.

“Yes, that color suits you very well, sister.”

Clarisse is used to being treated this way on a regular basis and wasn’t hurt by this kind of attack, so she didn’t bother with it and quickly ended the conversation.

“Which boutique did you get it from?”

Matilda glanced at Jean’s face as if to say, “You can’t help wanting to look at my beautiful face, can you?” However, Jean’s face remains expressionless as ever as he sips the tea in front of him.

‘I wonder if she sat on that side of the table because she thought Jean-sama would be interested in her.’

When Clarisse replied with the dressmaker’s name, Matilda’s face distorted for a moment. She then looked at Clarisse with an intense gaze.

“You’re lying, right! You have to have a reservation to get in there, you know. I’ve always wanted to buy a dress from that dress store, but let alone buying; I’ve never been able to get in…!”

Clarisse was just answering the question asked, but she didn’t realize that she would be criticized as the meaning behind Matilda’s word was, ‘How could someone like you get in there while I can’t! It’s unfair.’ Regardless, Clarisse decided to end this fruitless conversation.

“I guess I was extremely lucky then.”

“And that… ring… and necklace..”

Matilda was about to say more, but the Viscount interrupted her.

“Matilda, enough about Clarisse. We are gathered here today to discuss your engagement.”

Matilda, as expected, held her tongue when her father, who had always shown his affection only for her older sister, said this. The Viscount began discussing the engagement details with Jean and Clarisse.

Gregory McCain, the Marquis’s eldest son, is the other party.  Not having much experience in the social world, Clarisse couldn’t even recall his face, but Jean seemed to know him. However, even Clarisse, who was not familiar with the aristocrats, had heard of the Marquis of McCain, one of the most influential and wealthy families in the capital.

He was ten years older than Matilda, which meant he was 31 years old, making him older than Jean. Her father kept saying that Gregory was a fine-looking young man, paying attention to Jean, so she guessed that he was probably a “weak, dainty, aristocratic young man.”

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“The wedding itself will probably take place next year or the year after, so come back then.”

That’s all that’s been decided at this point, the Viscount said, ending the conversation.

‘For something like this… they invited the busy Jean-sama from the frontier…?’

She felt sorry for causing Jean to have to adjust his busy work schedule.

And to Marius, who took care of the work while they were gone, and to the knights guarding the still tense borders.

She felt incredibly ashamed of her self-centered and ignorant father. He had the audacity to call his younger daughter’s fiancé from a place where it would take several days to get there just to inform him of his lovely daughter’s engagement.

“How about having lunch with us today? What do you say?”

Her father asked, but Clarisse, not wanting to stay in the Farenheit residence any longer, shook her head and declined.

“Father, there are a few things I would like to take from my room before I leave… would you mind if I went to my room?”

“Yes, that’s fine. But I want you to go alone.”

When her father, feigning concern, implicitly told her not to take Jean with her, her fiancé, sitting next to her, nodded to Clarisse that he would wait here with her parents.

When she entered her room, which she hadn’t been to in a long time, she found that it had been cleaned, but it looked somewhat cluttered and disorganized.

When she looked around, she saw that although she didn’t have much of anything luxurious, some of the better quality dresses and accessories she had left behind were gone. It must be Matilda’s doing; Matilda has always had no hesitation in taking things she likes from Clarisse’s room without asking.

However, what Clarisse wanted to take back to the Margrave estate were the rest of the botanical books, herbal books, medical books, and some of her favorite novels, which Matilda was not interested in, so they were completely untouched.

As she stood in front of the bookshelf looking for the book she wanted, she heard the door open behind her.

“Clarisse.”

When Clarisse turned around, she saw Matilda standing there, looking like a demon.