CH 86

“Well……where do I start?”

The dark-haired man looked down and seemed to be thinking about something, then raised his beautiful face, with its strong, slightly glazed eyes and long eyelashes, and asked me.

“I think the checkpoints are lax. So let me ask you what you think is wrong with this territory.”

I wondered why he was asking about it now, but it was a good opportunity to air the rumors that Yulis and I had talked about earlier, so I answered honestly.

“It’s probably the monopoly of the market due to the lack of taxes. Nowadays, we rely heavily on certain merchant associations for our food.”

“Yeah. I guess that’s it. Does the Lord of this place have any plans to do something about it?”

“Rumor has it that he is planning to increase the number of farmers by using salt water breeding to increase food production and giving them wages in exchange for their training.”

As I continued to explain the policy in detail, the dark-haired man crossed his arms and looked down again. After a few dozen seconds of this, he looked up. The man’s face was somehow as innocent as a child’s excited heart.

“I see. He’ll be able to solve the problem somehow and produce highly skilled farmers.”

Oh no, I hadn’t intended to raise farmers, but I was misunderstood.

I don’t know what kind of nobleman he is, but it’s obvious that he’s not an ordinary one, seeing as how he’s controlling a private room in this crowded restaurant.

I did my best to avoid being misunderstood.

“No, no, I don’t think the lord meant it either!”

“That’s why I’m here, isn’t it?”

The black-haired man started to say something crazy, not caring about my panic. Let me quickly explain that I have no desire to fight!

My thoughts were not answered, and the black-haired man began to talk with a distant look in his eyes.

“Actually, I have two children. They are my beautiful daughter and son.”

“Really?”

“Yes, but after I had a daughter with the main wife, I couldn’t have any more children. Since I had no heir, I sent my daughter to study martial arts and learn so that she could become the next head of the family.”

“Huh…….”

“When she was twelve, I had a son with my side wife. I was so happy to have an heir.”

…..I wonder when this will end. I can’t wait to excuse myself. I’m not sure why, but I don’t want to hear the rest of the story.

“But my daughter is too good, and some of the people in the family have started to form a faction that wants her to be the head of the family, because she is the daughter of the main wife, and my son is too young.”

“It’s……”

“Yes, it’s very difficult. But the only saving grace is that my daughter has no intention of becoming the head of the family. Normally, if she was raised to be the head of the family, she would want to be the head of the family, but she is a good daughter.”

“She’s a good girl.”

“But I hadn’t decided what to do with her because I felt guilty for not raising her as a girl.”

“Huh.”

“One day, while I was trying to figure out how to deal with my daughter, she asked me to marry her off because she didn’t want chaos in the house. Honestly, I wept over it in two ways.”

The man laughed, and the knights around him also laughed like children.

The double meaning is probably out of concern for his daughter and loneliness as a parent, but it’s not funny to hear it said in such a joking tone, and I really want this conversation to end soon.

Besides, if anything, I want the story to end right now because I have too much of a bad feeling and I want to excuse myself right now.

“But here’s the problem. My daughter was already skilled enough to compete with the leader of the knights by then. The great nobles don’t like women who are stronger than they are.”

It’s kind of similar to Yulis situation.

“I’m the head of a large family, and I can’t afford to marry her to someone who doesn’t have the best interests at heart, so I have no place to marry her.”

I realized that he looked just like someone else with dark hair, but I shook my head.

“After two years of such a situation, she became overly longing for a romance that could overcome her status.”

“……”

“So, my daughter went to this territory for work once and she said some very bad things about the lord of this place, but when she came back after the entrance exam, she was told that maybe he was stronger than her, that he was just hiding his claws and that she was wrong to say bad things about him.”

“……”

“That’s where my interest in the Lord began, but the highlight was when she came back from school.”

“……”

I realized who this man and I were talking about, and I could no longer make any kind of gesture. But the dark-haired man, or rather Claire’s father, the Marquis of Alcala, continued.

“It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just that it makes her happy to talk about Viscount Dreschord. I’ve heard so many times that she memorized every detail of his appearance!”

The Marquis of Alcala laughed as if he was truly enjoying himself. But I couldn’t laugh at all because my stomach ache was too severe.

“So, I did some research and found out that with the rapid development of the city, the geographical advantage, and the lineage of the former royal family’s close relatives, the bloodline is not bad. I came here because I thought I should see Viscount Dreschord with my own eyes and find out if he is suitable for Claire.”

When he said this, the Marquis of Alcala closed his eyelids deeply, and then slowly opened his eyes. Then he turned his strong-willed, passionate gaze to me and opened his mouth.

“And now I’m convinced that……”

“I’m very sorry, but I have to get back to work!”

The words came out of my mouth on their own, according to the alarm bells that my whole body was ringing to prevent him from saying any more.

“Wait.”

I stood up, slipped out of the hands of the knight who tried to stop me, and walked out of the room.

“The way he dodged our knight, it looks like I was right after all.”

I hurried back to the kitchen with such mutterings in my back. When the chef found me, he was frightened by the desperate look on my face.

But I didn’t care, I shouted.

“Take the strongest liquor to that room!”