ICSM 05

Chapter 05

“Ruby! I don’t know what that woman told you, but it’s all lies! You know that the person I love is you, right?”

So, couldn’t she let this one time go?

For Pedro, it was almost like bowing his head and begging her to spare his life. He thought Seiana, who desperately wanted his love, would naturally struggle with this and eventually take his side.

But……

“Pedro Sachsen. Are you really going to act this shamelessly?”

“Ruby……”

“Fine. If you really think this is unfair, then. Good. Shall we properly find out who is right and who is wrong?”

“Call a mage.”

Seiana coldly ordered one of the servants who had been watching.

Pedro’s face became even paler.

How could she be this cruel to him?

Pedro called her name as if screaming.

“Seiana!”

“If you’re confident, then go ahead. If the mage comes and checks, and it turns out you’re not the father, I’ll simply give you the property I promised to give you as my dowry after our marriage. What will you bet? Your life?”

“……”

“This house is mine. The position in the Knights Order was given to you by my family. And that sword at your waist? I gave that to you too, didn’t I? The Sachsen estate isn’t yours either. You have practically nothing of your own, so what gave you the confidence to do something like this?”

“Seiana, how can you, how can you do this to me……!”

“……”

“You shouldn’t do this to me!”

“Why? Is there any reason I can’t?”

“……Huh? Grrk!”

Seiana lifted her foot and stepped on Pedro’s thigh as he knelt on the floor.

The sharp heel of her high heel dug deeply into his thigh. Pedro struggled from the pain, but Seiana’s escort knights held him down, so he could not move at all.

It looked like he would have a big bruise.

Seiana smiled as she felt a little better after seeing his face twisted in pain.

“You feel betrayed because I’m acting like this after being blindly devoted to you?”

“……”

“Don’t misunderstand. You’re the one who betrayed me. Did you think that because I kept forgiving you, you could get away with everything? That was your mistake.”

“Men! Men naturally look at other women sometimes! After getting married, everyone keeps mistresses in one way or another!”

“That may be true for an ordinary noble marriage. But you’re not in an ordinary marriage, are you? You’re a man who is selling his body to marry into my family’s wealth. And you’re talking about having a mistress?”

“……”

Seiana twisted her lips into a smile as Pedro became speechless.

“You ruined the most valuable thing you had. Your worthless body, which no one else would want. I was planning to buy it at the highest possible price. But you went around using it here and there until it became damaged, didn’t you? Why would I want to take something like that?”

Only then did Pedro realize how serious the situation was.

He finally understood that he could not talk his way out of this like he usually did.

His mind went blank.

If the existence of his illegitimate child was officially confirmed, then aside from his honor, everything he had been enjoying would certainly disappear like a bubble.

Pedro had never lived a wealthy life.

But after meeting Seiana, his life had completely changed.

He was able to live in the capital and even became a knight belonging to the Imperial Palace, even if he was only a low-ranking one.

And now she wanted him to lose everything and return to his old life?

I can’t let that happen.

The Sachsen family and the Estarote family had done business together and made a decent profit, but there was no way his family had saved that money.

If Pedro had received that kind of money, he would have spent it all on luxury and pleasure too.

Even if he went back, his younger brother had already become the heir.

If Seiana abandoned him, there was nowhere for him to go.

“Ruby, please……”

Pedro finally regretted everything and began to sob.

He regretted his past, when he had acted arrogantly because he believed he had her heart.

But it was already too late.

Perhaps the servant had already kept a mage nearby, because they soon returned with a mage.

“The paternity test shows a match.”

It was like a death sentence had been announced.

Pedro struggled, but the escort knight pressed him firmly against the floor.

But he could not let things end like this.

“Lies! It’s a lie!”

“That is what the result says.”

Seiana turned toward the mage.

The mage looked offended.

Such tests were performed while putting the mage’s own name and honor on the line. Denying the result was practically an insult to the mage.

The mage glared at Pedro with an angry expression.

“I will write a certificate confirming the result with my signature. If you decide to take this to court, I will also testify.”

“Oh my. Thank you.”

“No!”

Although Pedro had not meant to insult the mage, he had now made a powerful enemy.

Seiana gave the mage a heavy pouch as payment for the magic and sent him away.

Then she clapped twice to get everyone’s attention.

“Well, now that everything has been settled, we should clean this place up, shouldn’t we?”

“……What?”

“I’m telling you to leave my house. Everyone, please throw out all the trash here.”

Seiana waved her hand.

The servants began carrying Pedro’s belongings out of the room.

Some of them were expensive items, but the servants handled them roughly.

Perhaps things would have been different if Pedro had been a good master.

The things they carried outside were not only Pedro’s belongings.

The Sachsen family also used her townhouse whenever they came to the capital, so they had quite a lot of belongings there.

Seeing that Seiana truly intended to throw him out completely, Pedro became desperate.

If he had at least been given some time, he could have sold those things himself.

But how could she throw everything outside as if it were trash?

“You’re throwing me out now? At this late hour? Where am I supposed to go with all those things?”

He could spend the night at the Knights Order’s quarters, but he had nowhere to put all those belongings.

Pedro put down his pride and begged her, but Seiana remained firm.

“Why should I care?”

As she said that, she took the sword hanging from Pedro’s waist.

Pedro’s face turned bright red as he shouted that it belonged to him, but Seiana only snorted.

“I bought this, didn’t I? Then it’s mine. How could it be yours?”

“But you!”

“I gave it to you as a gift, but why would I let you take it with you when I don’t think you deserve it? If you really want it, buy it from me.”

Seiana generously gave him a choice.

But Pedro had no money to buy the sword.

His only personal income was his salary from the Knights Order, and he had spent all of that on luxury and pleasure, leaving him completely broke.

After all, he would gain a huge fortune once he married Seiana, so saving his tiny salary was meaningless compared to that……

Of course, even if he had saved every single coin of his salary, he still could not have afforded that sword.

“So, do you want to end this cleanly, or do you want to make it ugly and drag it out?”

“…What?”

“Decide whether you’ll sign peacefully or whether you want to go all the way to court.”

Seiana held out a broken engagement agreement.

Pedro’s eyes trembled when he saw it.

Was it really going to end like this?

Without even one more chance?

Seiana looked at Pedro, who glared at her with resentment, and snorted.

“You still don’t seem to understand the situation. Hey.”

“……Yes?”

“What are you going to do?”

“Me? What do you mean……?”

“You could probably be charged with seduction by marriage fraud or fraud. What are you going to do? If you want to file a lawsuit, we’ll help you. You’ll need money to raise the child alone, won’t you?”

“Seiana!”

Pedro felt like he was going to faint at the sight of his fiancée encouraging his mistress to sue him.

If this was a dream, he wanted to wake up.

The mistress hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

Only a few hours ago, she had been someone Pedro thought he had to protect as the woman he loved.

But after being betrayed, the only thing she had left was her child.

Seiana smiled at her decision and clapped her hands.

Then, after every belonging of the Sachsen family had been thrown outside, she threw out the biggest piece of trash too.

“Seiana! Ruby! Please! Forgive me just once!”

Pedro knelt and begged for forgiveness, but the firmly closed gates of the townhouse never opened.

After standing outside for a long time and begging, he eventually called a merchant so that he could at least sell his belongings quickly.

Even then, there was no one to guard the things.

People took most of the valuable-looking items, and because he had to sell everything in a hurry, he ended up with almost nothing in his hands.

Perhaps they had heard from Pedro.

The next day, the Sachsen family hurriedly came to find me.

Of course, I refused to meet them.

Maybe I would have met them if that bastard Pedro had still been someone I loved.

But now I could not even stand the sight of him. Meeting his family would only ruin my mood.

After asking several more times and seeing that I remained firm, they started shouting and demanding to know how I could do this to them.

They really were that bastard Pedro’s family.

“We will not let this go!”

In the end, the Sachsen side refused to sign the broken engagement agreement.

Even though they were clearly the ones at fault for breaking the engagement, they probably intended to keep coming and begging until my anger cooled down.

“Yeah. That won’t work.”

I immediately filed a lawsuit.

I also sent a petition to the Knights Order where that bastard worked.

Can a knight who is supposed to protect the Imperial Family really behave so disgracefully and toy with two women? Did you people know about this?

That was roughly what the petition said.

As soon as the petition reached the Imperial Palace, everything exploded.

Despite treating me like I was nothing, it seemed they had made very good use of the Estarote family’s name.

The higher-ups appeared to be absolutely furious with him.

“What did this guy really think he had going for him?”

Honestly, I wanted to tear out my own eyes for ever falling for someone like him.

What had I ever seen in a man like that?

It was proof that my eyes had practically been planted on the soles of my feet.

As soon as I sent the petition, Pedro was apparently dismissed, because he came looking for me and went completely wild.

But after losing everything, there was no way someone with abilities as worthless as his could do anything.

Just like before, he was restrained by the knights of my family and could only squirm helplessly on the ground like a bug while blaming me.

“How could you do this to me!”

“Is there any reason I can’t?”

I wanted to kill him.

But I was keeping him alive only because I wanted to give him an even greater despair.

In the end, Pedro could do nothing and left while crying.

When they realized that my resolve would not change, the Sachsen family also seemed to understand that they had lost.

They tried to settle everything peacefully.

But there was no reason for me to do that anymore.