Sleeping Beauty Wants The Throne
9. Marchioness Changed her Mind

"Lady Athene asked permission to see you, milady."

The Marchioness released her gaze from outside the window. The weather outside is so perfect, there is no reason to stay languishing inside the manor house all day without activity. Maybe it's good to take Athene all to a tea banquet at Duke Lionel's mansion.

"Just get in."

Before long Athene entered with a disheveled face. He sat right across from the Marchioness but the girl was still silent.

The Marchioness took her favorite green tea and sipped it in half. "Something happened, my dear?"

"Odyssey act again" he replied annoyedly. Ugh, just saying that name makes Athene want to vomit.

"What's he doing?"

"His drastic behavior is now the lips of other nobles," said Athene fretting, "I'm sure Baron Lanscouth said something to his gossipy wife about his visit here the other day. The Odyssey's different attitude certainly appalled shallow-minded people!"

"We can't prevent the water from flowing" the Marchioness said, glancing at her eldest daughter, who has the exact same physical features as her. "If the water is already cloudy, it is not impossible for us to restore the color as before."

Athene frowned confusedly.

"Make the nobles bestow their love on you again just like they used to. That way they slowly forget the Odyssey that always does the unexpected. That child ...there is nothing special about him compared to you. Remember my words well, for another month he will be no better than the trash out there."

Hearing the insults on Odyssey slide from her own mother's mouth certainly makes Athene feel much better. Whatever Athene did, whether it was good or not, the Marchioness always supported him.

He nodded quickly, "Making them fall in love is my specialty. Mom just calm down. A diamond will never lose a mountain of trash!"

"Good, maintain your position in society. As of now another noble princess there is not even one who can defeat your charm, my daughter."

Deep down, the Marchioness did not feel well after saying that the Odyssey was just a piece of trash. Sometimes fret and fear accompany it at all times. Afraid that the Odyssey would get special attention from the nobility and his beloved daughter was forced to renounce the title of Crystal Lady simply by agreement.

The title agreement was incorporated into the stamped parchment the Marchioness gave the Odyssey last night. The Marchioness changed her mind. The parchment .. must be destroyed immediately. He did not want the special title of his beloved daughter to fall into the hands of the Odyssey.

"Duchess Lionel wants to have a tea banquet. Do you want to come with mom?"

"Of course, there are many senior Lady there. I have to come!"

Senior lady must have at least a son. This is definitely a good opportunity to build the image of the dream girl.

"The perfect move. Now change your clothes and get ready to be a princess. We'll be gone in an hour."

Athene nodded enthusiastically and then moved on. "I'm back in the room first, ma'am."

"Yes, be careful."

The Marchioness' sweet smile vanished as Athene left her room. His brain thinks fast, lest his actions be preceded by the Odyssey.

"Servant!"

A young servant came in. "Me, milady."

"Search Odyssey rooms and find parchment with yellow paper immediately." He added, "Make sure none of his servants know when you're looking."

His gray bead trembled. If the subtle way of obtaining the parchment did not work, the Marchioness resorted to using violent means if at any time the situation became more urgent and pressured her.

...----------------...

"You have arrived, your grace," said Jackson, the butler of the west mansion kindly right on the top steps with the other servants.

Alastair Ephraim la Empyrean, Grand Duke of Brighton who has another title as Rex of Royale has a high cynicism towards women. All servants in the mansion as well as in the manor of men, since the beginning of power he has implemented such a system by firing all female workers owned by his father and replaced by more competent male servants.

Maybe forever it will stay like this.

"Rugal's legs look different, something seems wrong" Alastair said, noting something under the legs of his horse covered in iron frame.

"Do I need to check it?"

"Let me just." Alastair got off his horse and checked down.

He opened an iron frame that encircled the body of Rugal, an Andalusian horse from the Iberian peninsula. It has a height above the average of other ordinary horses and has dense black fur beloved of the Grand Duke who is almost a dozen years old. Alastair frowned as he looked at a thick paper with a rope tied to the origin on the upper leg of his horse. Taking the yellow paper, Jackson again said.

"Is there a problem, your grace?"

"Nothing." Alastair answered briefly then put the scroll into his pocket before leaving Rugal with the stewards of the stables. His broad steps led Alastair deeper into the mansion followed by Jackson carrying his war vest.

It has not been three years Alastair did not visit here. The cold and gloomy atmosphere was still there, and he hated it.

"You don't want to have lunch first?" jackson asked again when he realized Alastair was passing through a different hallway.

"I'll take a break for a while. Tonight there is an event in the palace, please prepare clothes for me "

"Okay, your grace."

Alastair nodded then turned around and went inside his room which had been uninhabited for a long time. Cleanliness and neatness are still awake, but silence always comes along with those two things.

Recalling the events a few hours ago made Alastair again chuckle. The man he met was strange, clearly he knew that the person who stepped on his precious treasure had just returned from the battlefield. But he unconcernedly said that 'What you do now, it's your responsibility' implicitly.

Alastair did not want to pay. If it only compensates the jewelry, the money will not decrease at all. It was just that bad luck accompanied the amethyst man he met.

Honestly back then the money left on the Grand Duke was only about a few silver coins. The plan was to give the money to the begging girl down the road but fate said something else.

It turns out there is a man who needs it more to be willing to make a drama. Very amusing.

But if the amethyst man was willing to be patient and wait for the Grand Duke to arrive at his mansion, maybe he would earn a lot more money.

Alastair sat at the end of his bed, reached into his pocket and opened the yellow parchment he had found at the foot of his horse.

He was sure that the Ochonner-like man had done it. Not that Alastair does not know his movements when tying something at Rugal's feet, but Alastair's intention to pretend off guard was to find out what it meant to throw precious jewels in the middle of the road as the troops passed by.

Does he intend to intercept?

But when he opened the parchment, Alastair was stunned. In addition to some agreements of not so clear origin, the, at the end of the paper is also a neatly stamped Marchioness Of Thompsville red stamp that says the parchment has just been made and put up attracting Alastair's attention to find out more.

At some points of the agreement, a name seems always to be mentioned which means that he is directly involved in this agreement. Brietta Odyssey de Cera, the second daughter of Marquis Thompsville who is said to have a much uglier face than the rest of her family so the Marquis has often been unfair to her.

Justice is obtained only by beautiful people? Not wrong. Here's proof.

Then the man who asked him for some money this afternoon, what was his relationship with the twin sister Ochonner. And most importantly; what was the purpose of giving the parchment a covenant as important as this and letting it fall into the hands of the Grand Duke just like that?