/
Selena’s guess with good sense was correct. The only person who was not in a good mood was Johannes.
Johannes was literally exuding a cold, frozen atmosphere, but Heloise was unaffected and smiling in front of him.
“So.”
Her golden hair that fell down to her chest was beautiful, and her docile blue eyes looked like an unpretentious herbivore.
In a way, it was a harmless impression of a surge of protective instinct, but Johannes’ eyes were cold.
“What do you want to say?”
“Well
 I said it all.”
Of course, Heloise was just cheerful, as if she was not at all daunted by Johannes’ cold eyes.
“Should I repeat it again? But haven’t you heard it all? Although, I can still say it all over again.”
She laughed sloppily and spoke her words.
“Hello, Duke. Please marry me.”
Johannes unknowingly felt his head hurting, so he touched his forehead.
Even Fagan and Selena would flinch.
But this little woman, as if she didn’t feel that she was going to live at all, just smiled.
“If you don’t know the Renault family well
 Well, I’m just an ordinary Southern noble who seems to exist and doesn’t exist at the same time. I have some money.”
To be honest, it was the first time he had ever heard of a family called Renault. Johannes had no interest in the South, where they hid among themselves in peace.
If you are a southern human being, isn’t the pride of living in the chosen land just because no evil spirits appear?
Without the help of the Empire, the army is weak and cannot even protect itself, and the land is not rich due to the lack of resources. Nevertheless, it is a place that has made the immigration law difficult, telling them not to come to the blessed southern land recklessly.
According to their immigration laws, those who wanted to move to the South had to pay huge sums of money. If they paid enough money, they were given a title. In other words, it meant that it was a place where identity was laundered as long as there was money.
It was the opposite of the north, which had strong military power and a lot of money, but everyone was reluctant to live there due to the presence of evil spirits. Northerners used to laugh at Southerners for that reason.
They say that they are weak without the strength to protect themselves, and when they bring money, even those who do not know their identity are given titles and welcome them with good looks, and they only feel proud of themselves.
While he was reminiscing about the South, which he had not been interested in for a while, Heloise continued with a bright smile.
“I said everything I had to say, but if the Duke has something to say, say it. If you don’t want to marry me, you can tell me why. If I can fix it, I will fix it.”
There were only a couple of things that were suspicious. Johannes asked coldly, not even trying to hide his cold doubt.
“Before that, why did the young lady want to marry me?”
Heloise answered without hesitation.
“I told you. I met you on the street a few years ago and fell in love at first sight. But when I heard that you were looking for a marriage partner, I came straight up from the South.”
Johannes showed an indifferent expression to the bold confession and asked dryly.
“Is that the reason?”
“And I have to get married. I’m twenty-four now, so I’m not in a situation where I can relax like that.”
In fact, if you are twenty-four, you may feel it is a little late to enter the marriage market in earnest. This was because they usually discuss marriage as soon as they reach the age of 20.
“And isn’t it great to be a Duchess?”
That statement was correct. Except for the peculiarities of the circumstances, it was a rather poor condition to become a duchess.
“However, I don’t want to do the troublesome management of the estate or anything like that. I don’t have any greed, so I just want to relax and read books and play with the people around me.”
“You want to hang out with people around you?”
Johannes smirked with cold eyes.
“It sounds like you don’t know at all about the situation in the northern part of the country, where you say every day is far from life and death because of evil spirits.”
When the word “evil spirit” came up, he thought she would shut her mouth on her own, but Heloise asked again with her eyes wide open.
“Then do northerners not laugh at all? If you don’t smile just because the environment is bleak, you’d be even more depressed. Since that happens, you have to live each day more positively and happily. Evil is evil and laughter is laughter.”
Suddenly, Johannes realized that he was speechless. Heloise added.
“Right now, the lieutenants couldn’t hold back their laughter.”
“
Young lady.”
“Of course, this is not wrong. I can’t understand why people make jokes about the impotence of others
”
“You don’t have to understand it, so I don’t want to talk about that topic in the future.”
“Well, yes. If you wish.”
Heloise shrugged her shoulders and nodded her head as if in great consideration. But she also took his words seriously.
“But everyone in the capital was talking about it. Isn’t that what you expected? I thought that was what you were aiming for. Because people only remember those kinds of provocative words.”
It was also a sharp point that did not match her innocent expression. Johannes let out a light sigh once, and stared at her still.
She was silent for a moment. It was a silence that intentionally made the other person uncomfortable.
So, after she didn’t talk for quite some time, Heloise said with her eyes wide open again.
“Do you really need to think that deep?”
Her eyes, which seemed to be bright and clear, deepened seriously. Her blonde hair shimmered in the sunlight that shone through her window.
“It’s just that a woman who fell in love with the Duke at first sight and is willing to accept all the conditions the Duke needs has appeared. If you don’t trust me, please use me.”
Still, Johannes did not answer. He just stared at Heloise. She even put Fagan in a difficult mood, but Heloise kept her upright posture without trembling.
As if from the South, she looked weak and drowsy, but she was not afraid to live in any way. There was something that definitely enchanted people with what she said, and there was nothing wrong with hearing it.
She was such a strange woman who seemed to live in a beautiful and easy world by herself
 Johannes’ eyes narrowed as he counted the number of cases.
If everything this woman said was true, she was a handful to throw away, and she was worth taking advantage of, even if it was a trap.
In the end, it was Johannes who spoke first this time.
“The North is different from the South. Aside from being cold, evil spirits come and go all the time. Can you still live in the North?”
There was not even the slightest hesitation in Heloise’s answer.
“Evil spirits? It’s okay! It’s a place where everyone lives, right?”
She spoke her words cheerfully.
“Please just marry me. I will live well.”
“That’s something you can say because you’ve never seen one. The black smoke of evil spirits is intangible and difficult to avoid, and even touching it is a serious injury.”
Johannes continued speaking in a low voice, without any change in expression, despite her cheerful words.
“I don’t usually go to the North. At this point, I have no plans to go for the next year or so. If you are going to trust me, you should change your mind.”
To that, she replied with a smirk as she looked at him with the eyes of looking at a really strange person.
Pls read only at pinkmuffintl.
“Why should I believe in the Duke? No matter how much I fell in love at first sight, I have never actually experienced it. You’re more naive than I thought.”
“
”
She was the one who had been saying strangely naive things all the time, but she suddenly made him sound ridiculous and useless from those words.
Instead of interrogating her further or stifling the conversation, Johannes cleared it up in a cold voice.
“Okay, then let’s get married.”
Heloise’s eyes widened, not knowing that his permission would fall so easily. Johannes continued.
“Because it’s not the northern part who would be swayed by even one openly suspicious spy.”
It clearly meant that she was suspicious. Heloise shrugged her shoulders.
“I am not really a spy.”
“Then, are you saying that I should trust that vain confession that you spit out without being nervous at all?”
Johannes laughed sarcastically.
“People usually give emotional reasons when they can’t come up with a logical reason. I’m not that naive to immediately believe in the absurd excuses of love at first sight.”
“Well, I understand your doubts. Anyway, I’m not a spy. I will prove that over time.”
Johannes stared at her as she answered him bluntly. And he spit out in a tone of ‘let’s see how far you really go’.
“And in addition to the things that were originally proposed, there is one more condition that you must accept.”
“What?”
“You know, I’m busy chasing after ‘Blue Ruby’. I want to hold the wedding ceremony in a formal way tomorrow and then have you go to the north right afterwards.”
Her circumstances were not considered at all. But Heloise nodded her head willingly.
“Yes. Instead, I have a condition.”
“What?”
“Please let me choose my room in the duchy.”
He expected that more difficult conditions would be attached, but it was nonsensical. Johannes frowned unexpectedly at her words, but Heloise quickly added.
“Are you sure you want to share the same room with me? You don’t even have biological fertility
”
“Pick. Choose.”
Johannes cut her off quickly in a tired voice.
“Choose freely. Two or three is fine too”
Heloise smiled and lowered her head slightly, showing her gratitude quite seriously.
“Thank you for your consideration, but I only need one room. Thank you.”
Heloise’s eyes closed again. Johannes was engrossed in his thoughts as he saw that gentle smirk in her subtle eyes.
Although it was obviously a feast of unreasonable demands, she said that he only needed to marry her, and she was irrationally beating him.
The word “love at first sight” was so primitive that he couldn’t even interrogate her. It was quite a good excuse to use when asking for a motive for proposing. Of course, it was very suspicious.
Nevertheless, Johannes had no reason not to marry her.
‘It would be better to pretend to fall for the expected move than to wait for the next unexpected situation, as a reasonable number of cards appeared.’
Anyway, even if he avoids marriage like this now, the Crown Prince Diego will press the North in a different way, for Diego was afraid that Johannes might form a marriage alliance with another kingdom.
“Well, we’ll have a simple wedding tomorrow in front of the statue near noon. Are you okay? Aren’t your family all in the south right now?”
“It’s alright.”
Said Heloise with a natural tone.
“If they can’t come, I’ll invite them to the North later. Everyone said they wanted to visit the North at least once.”
“They’re strange southerners, aren’t they? You must be famous for being a freak in that area.”
“Oh, how did you know?”
Looking at her round eyes, she seemed not to be joking.
“Everybody’s worries are just a matter of fact. Why does everyone think we’re a little strange? We’re trying to live a normal life in our own way.”
Johannes laughed once again at the expression of sincere concern on Heloise’s face.
It was great to act with some kind of goal, and even greater if it was real.