Married Couple’s Qualifications

“……..You say you want to work?” (Bake)

“I’d like to make some moves, if that’s okay with you.” (Riv)

“I respect your opinion too, but do you have to do that?” (Bake)

Rivianna folded her hands at Bake’s question.

Then she gently parted her lips, avoiding his gaze for a moment.

“That’s….” (Riv)

“Is it hard to say?” (Bake)

“…… I hate to say this, but I can’t bring myself to do it.” (Riv)

“…”

Bake stopped in his tracks as he approached.

Rivianna knew how he could not refuse her offer.

“I’m not trying to change what I said. I just need a little more time.” (Riv)

“….”

“Can I?” (Riv)

“Of course. I support you unconditionally. If you want it, why should I oppose it? But on the other hand, I am worried about you. You’re too frail.” (Bake)

“I won’t push myself too hard. Frankly speaking, there is no amount of work I can do. I don’t have any business skills, and I’m not well educated, so the most I can do is charity work.” (Bake)

When the conversation got this far, it was hard for Bake to say no, so he silently held his breath.

As expected, he wasn’t happy about Rivianna working. 

But then again, he didn’t have a good reason to say no.

She stared up at Bake, who was looking for an excuse to reject her proposal.

There was no rush.

Finally Bake said the reason that Rivianna had already decided.

“Is it about Mariel?” (Bake)

Finally, Bake said what Rivianna wanted.

She took a quick deep breath and started talking about what she already thought.

“Still, I wanted to talk to you about it.” (Riv)

“What did you want to discuss?”  (Bake)

“I’m thinking of sending Mariel to the academy.” (Riv)

“Are you serious?” (Bake)

Bake raised both eyebrows as if he couldn’t believe it.

It was no wonder, he was always against sending Mariel to the Academy.

“It’s a later admission than other children anyway. There’s nothing bad about preparing now.” (Riv)

“….”

“Why?” (Riv)

“No, it’s not like you.” (Bake)

“What is unlike me?” (Riv)

Rivianna asked, but Bake couldn’t give a proper answer.

“That’s because you’re so protective of Mariel ………….” (Bake)

“Because she’s my beautiful daughter. I have to protect her.” (Riv)

“….”

“She’s also a child I had a hard time conceiving.” (Riv)

“That’s right.” (Bake)

Bake stared at her.

Rivianna silently beckoned.

“To be honest, I’m not sure. I still think Mariel is too young to go to the academy.” (Riv)

“Then don’t. I’ll always follow your wishes.” (Bake)

Bake, who had hugged Rivianna from behind, whispered in her ears.

She leaned into Bake, endured the ticklish breathing.

“But it was too much between us for that.” (Riv)

“….”

‘I thought I was okay, but I guess I wasn’t. I didn’t realize how hard it would be for me to have to hide my emotions. Especially since I have to be with Mariel all the time.” (Riv)

Rivianna mumbled helplessly and felt Bake’s arms tighten around her as he hugged her.

She didn’t urge him to answer this time as well. There were only so many answers a man who was so busy trying to please her could give. All she had to do was wait.

****

“Do I have to go?”

“You’ve always said you wanted to go to the Academy.” 

“I didn’t know that mother won’t be at the Academy.” 

Mariel gripped Rivianna’s hand tightly.

Seeing her daughter with her mouth agape made her feel weak inside, but she had no choice.

She needed time to sort through everything and get back to the way things were before.

She didn’t want to get Mariel involved in all this.

“Ten nights of sleep and we’ll see each other again.”

“Ten nights?”

“Yes, that’s right. 10 nights.”

It was a lie.

Mariel still couldn’t count to ten.

She would give up on one night and count another, and then count again and again. By the time Mariel had more numbers to count, Rivianna would have it all sorted out.

“It’s okay, we’ll be able to see each other soon.”

“…”

“I’m serious. Don’t you trust your mother?”

“No, I believe mother. But…”

“But?”

“I like mother better than the Academy.”

Mariel’s small shoulders drooped sadly.

Rivianna couldn’t look any further and hugged the child.

Considering that children of noble families usually registered for the academy at the age of five, Mariel’s enrollment was on the late side.

However, that didn’t mean that she would feel comfortable letting the child go.

She knew that she would have to send Mariel to the academy at some point, but she thought it would be later.

Everyone insisted that the child should grow up quickly, but Rivianna’s thoughts were a little different.

Children had to grow up to be children. The systematic education at the academy was good, but she thought there was more to learn from a mother.

“Mother will visit Mariel often.”

“….”

“I’ll buy a lot of cakes from the Bakery.”

“…Are you sure?”

“Isn’t Mariel’s birthday coming soon? Of course mother will be there.”

Mariel’s gloomy face softened.

The honest emotional child could change her expression quickly.

“… Then you’ll also teach me the magic of cutting the cake pretty, right?”

“Magic?”

“That’s what mother said. You said you’ll teach Mariel when I’m eight years old.”

There was no such thing as magic in the world, but Mariel liked stories that seemed to come out of fairy tales, just like all children her age did.

Rivianna nodded at the child, who somehow never forgot her words and had both her eyes sparkling.

“Of course, of course.”

“Then pinky promise!”

Mariel stuck out her tiny hand.

Rivianna stifled her frustration and grabbed the little pinky finger.

The young child was firmly convinced that as long as they touched the little fingers, the promise would always be kept.

“You too, father!” 

“Father, too?”

“Yes! promise! You’re coming with mother to see Mariel! With strawberry whipped cream cake, of course!”

Mariel stuck her pinky finger out at Bake as well.

Bake rolled his eyes and immediately laughed and held out his hand to Mariel.

Fortunately for Mariel, Bake was a good father.

——-

“Don’t worry too much. I’ll take good care of her.”

“I’m sorry, but please.”

“You don’t have to be sorry. I’ve gotten more from sister than that. Honestly, this doesn’t even count as someone who returns the favor.”

Rose smiled merrily and gave Mariela hug.

The role of nursemaid was not something that Rose, a mercenary, would do, but she had taken it on at Rivianna’s request.

It was because this was the first time Rivianna had sent Mariel alone far away, no matter how safe the academy supported by the imperial family was, and she had to worry.

Rivianna looked at Mariel, whose mouth was agape as she was held in Rose’s arms. For the time being, it was regrettable not to see the child growing up day by day. Naturally, she wasn’t confident of getting used to the vacancy of the child who was always following her around.

But even so, she had to let her go.

Even a child who didn’t know anything could read the air, and more importantly, she couldn’t stand by and watch Mariel be at the mercy of the adults’ dirty lies, just like last time.

“Mariel.”

“Yes? What’s wrong?”

“I love you.”

In the end, that was all she could say for the young daughter who was leaving her.

“Me too! Me too! Me too! I love my mother!”

Rivianna kissed Mariel’s forehead, smiling brightly.

She will endure everything, and her daughter will forever know nothing.

Just live a brilliant life, seeing and hearing only the good things.

It was a secret that she could never say.

——

*I think Mariel is a special child because she is 8 years old but can’t count to 10, and has emotions and acts like a 3 years old. That’s why Rivianna had been keeping her at home.

****

“What do you think?”

“It’s not the original ledger. It looks well assembled, but it is somewhat different from what I have actually checked.”

“I knew he wouldn’t show it to me straightforwardly.”

There were no results at all for what Rivianna had researched over the past few days, but she wasn’t disappointed, especially since she hadn’t expected any.

She roughly stacked the materials Bake had given her under the guise of charity and gasped for a moment at the red string visible between the pages.

Pulling on a string revealed a bookmark made of dried flowers.

It was something she and Mariel had made together.

“You miss her a lot, don’t you?”

“…..”

“Get some rest. You’ve been pushing yourself too hard for too long.”

“No, I’m fine. I rest enough at home.” (Riv)

Rivianna knew that Cheshire saw through her lies, but she pretended not to know.

She had to end this fight quickly if she was to bring Mariel back as soon as possible.

She pushed the bookmark back into the book and got up from her seat. Among Clayton’s many ventures, she dared to embark on a charitable venture, not just because the job was easy.

Some of the charity work being done by the wealthy was purely intentional, but more often than not. Charity was unquestionably a way to invest large sums of money, and Bake knew this well.

If Bake had funded the emperor’s half-brother, he would have moved the money with charity in between.

So the first thing she had to do was cut off Bake’s connections, find the traces and turn him over to the Emperor.

Whatever the true circumstances, the emperor’s half-brother was recorded as a deceased person, and even if he was alive, he was a traitor.

If she could prove that Bake was related to him, she would be able to pull his ankles.

The question was…

As if in deepening thought, the noise outside was getting louder.

Rivianna stared at Cheshire in a reflex of surprise.

Instead of a separate guard for the building of Rivianna’s new charity, Cheshire’s mercenaries were acting as guards.

“I’ll go out and check, sister stays here…”

“But…..”

“Don’t worry. I’m sure it’s no big deal.”

That was the moment when Cheshire smiled to reassure her.

Scream.

When she heard a loud scream outside, Rivianna startled and and jerked away, causing the objects on her desk to fall to the floor.

She frowned as she looked at the bookmark that was torn out of her book.

It left a black stain between the pages where the ink had fallen. She clicked her tongue and tried to bend over to pick up the bookmark, but stopped again at the roughly opened sliding door. The uninvited guest who had driven away the guards and entered the room was a man she knew.

“I’m sorry, Commander!”

“I tried to hold him off as much as I could!”

Duke Pierre roughly removed the mercenary hanging on his arm.

Even though there were 3 men holding him off, Duke Pierre did not falter.

He just kept staring at Rivianna and frowned.

The fact made her mouth dry.

“What are you doing?”

“….”

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a Duke, you can’t just rush in like this.”

Rivianna slowly passed past Cheshire, which blocked her, as if possessed.

She knew that she should condemn Duke Pierre for attacking her office without warning and without permission, but she couldn’t speak.

Something similar had happened before.

A servant with a distorted face came to visit her, and then…………..

Rivianna covered her face with her hands.

She wished she hadn’t, but her bad premonitions always came true, even in times like this.

It was the same when she heard the news of her father’s death, and also when she heard the news of the death of one brother after another.

But there was no time to dwell on the tragedies of the past.

“There’s been a fire at the Academy.” (Duke Pierre)

The moment Rivianna heard those words, she was already running.