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Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.
When Connie headed towards the parlor after dressing up, she found Neil Bronson already there. After the latter saw her, he slightly opened his eyes wide.
“
I didn’t think you would actually meet me.”
Connie thought the same.
“You are still a sincere Grail, after all.”
Unable to refute his point despite the fact that she had absolutely no intention of meeting him, Connie averted her eyes a little.
Her former fiancĂ©e, who she hadn’t seen in a few days, seemed to be a little thinner. She could even see fatigue on his face.
“I heard that you were under house arrest
”
“I still am. I was only given the permission to leave because I was going to apologize to you.”
“
I see. My apologies for making you wait. I wasn’t expecting your visit.”
After looking at Neil, thinking that this much sarcasm was allowed for her, she noticed that the latter’s face seemed strange, as if he had accidentally drank tea with salt instead of sugar ―――smiling bitterly with a troubled expression.
“I’m well aware that I did something rude, but I was sure that if I sent a notice beforehand, I would definitely be turned down.”
After that, he apologized.
“I’m sorry for what I did to you. I’ve also broken things off with Pamela. She’s already been punished enough, so by now she should be reflecting back at her parent’s house.”
『―――How much of a fool can you be?!』
Scarlet suddenly cut in.
『She’s the type of woman who’s always absolutely convinced that she’s done nothing wrong, so I guarantee you that she hadn’t learned a single thing!』
Her imposingly assertive tone was strangely persuasive. Connie unintentionally looked at Scarlet. Certainly, somebody who never learned a lesson even after being executed was right in front of her.
“My father tried to offer a monetary compensation to help make amends for what happened, but he was driven away by the Viscount.”
Neil’s words surprised Connie. She hadn’t heard even a single word about something like that happening. She heard Scarlet curse besides her.
『Of course, what else did you expect? Those merchants always try to bribe their way out of troubles the moment something goes wrong. To start with, a ‘monetary compensation’? A mere baronet who’s only slightly higher than the commoner dares to treat the established Viscount house like a charity case?! How presumptuous! Learn your place!』
―――She wasn’t sure if that was what her father was thinking, but Connie at the very least understood why he didn’t tell her anything or why he didn’t accept the compensation.\n
\n
It was surely because he didn’t want to make Connie worry more.\n
While she was reflecting on herself and looking own, Neil said with a barely squeezed out voice.
“Can you please
let it go already?”
“
Hm?”
“No, I’m not asking you to forgive me, but let me be the only one to bear your anger. In return, can you please stop involving Bronson Company?”
“
Hmm?”
“I didn’t want to say this, but after that evening party, there has been an organized effort to boycott Bronson Company among the customers. Our main office even had its front window smashed in. Constance, you’re the one behind it all, aren’t you?”
“
Hmmm?”
“I’m not trying to say that you’re in the wrong. You have the right to be angry. The one at fault here is me. But don’t you think that you’re going a little overboard? This matter should be just between me and you. Please, stop having people attack our stores. My grandfather collapsed from shock when it happened.”
――The one who was about to collapse was Connie in front of him.
Shock had rendered her speechless, her heart overflowing with sadness and frustration. Had Neil truly thought that everything he listed was orchestrated by Connie?
Had he really thought of her as somebody capable of doing such deeds?
Connie tightly bit down on her lip as she turned to the front.
“
It wasn’t me.”
It was almost like the encore of Grand Meryl-Anne. She was being unjustly about the crimes she hadn’t committed.
“But-“
However, unlike that time, Connie was fully determined to fight back. She felt sad. She felt frustrated. But, strangely enough, she didn’t feel scared.
“I swear on the name of the first Parcival Grail that I have done no such things.”
Thus, Constance Grail looked into Neil Bronson’s eyes and declared resolutely. Neil gasped.
―――For the members of the Grail family, swearing on the name of the first Parcival Grail was the same as swearing on their lives. It wasn’t something to be uttered lightly and using this swear to hide a lie was unforgivable. Neil, who had a long relationship with the Grail family, was also fully aware of the heavy implications of this oath.
“But, then, why
?”
His befuddled expression instantly twisted in pain before Connie’s eyes.
『Dear, oh dear~』
At that moment, Scarled softly floated in the air.
『If my memory serves me right, Bronson Compan’s clients are mostly comprised of lower rank nobles, are they not?』
Small giggles escaped from her <b>succulent lips.</b>
『Perhaps you have chosen the wrong way of apologizing? Even if your house stands for the three generations, you still don’t seem to understand how to interact with the nobles.』
Seeing Connie’s quizzical look, Scarlet narrowed her eyes in delight.\n
\n
『That’s simply how they are. It’s not like they’re specifically angry because of ‘Constance Grail”. They simply cannot abide the fact that a mere upstart tried to lead the mighty Nobles by their noses. So they are simply using the guise of justice to vent their displeasure. Perhaps the Bronsons have touched the inferiority complex of those low-ranked nobles along with their nerves? Fufufu, humans sure can be terrifying, can’t they――』
Was that how things really were? Connie couldn’t quite understand that line of thinking. However, she also couldn’t let Neil misunderstand her involvement in the harassment against his family, so she conveyed Scarlet’s words as they were.
“But, that can’t
”
Neil’s face turned pale. But he was instantly convinced, perhaps because he had been thinking the same thing in the depth of his heart. Neil seemed to be unable to hide his shock after finding out that the true culprit behind the harassment against him wasn’t Constance, but his very customers. His face turned as white as a paper and he looked as if he could collapse the next moment.
The only thing Connie could offer in this situation was a single sentence.
“Well, then
is there anything that I can do?”
Then, awkward silence fell――
『What? You’re going to help him?! 』\n
“You would help me?!”
They synchronized so well that Connie was the most surprised. She hadn’t said anything so shocking, after all

“<b>The employees</b> of the Bronson Company are innocent, aren’t they?”
No matter how one thought about it, they were simply caught in the crossfire. She didn’t know how the public thought, but at least in the eyes of Grail family―――no, Connie, this was a fact.
『
I’m speechless. They’re reaping what they sew, so you don’t have to clean after their mess! 』
Scarlet was, of course, right. The only one at fault was Neil Bronson and if Connie was asked to punch him, she’d even do an approach run in this very instant before landing a hit on his face. She’s gladly flatten his stuck-up nose. After all, Constance Grail had the right to do it. And nobody except for Constance Grail had that right.
“
Constance.”
Neil Bronson turned his perplexed gaze towards her. Connie shook her head, as if telling him to not misunderstand.
“I’m not doing this for your sake. I’m doing it for the sake of people who are suffering because of what you did.”
If things had come to this because of the ordeal of that evening party, Connie also had a sliver of responsibility to bear. Surely, Scarlet would lift her eyebrows.
『“Don’t be an idiot! What can a single foolish Constance do
?! Jeez, jeez
! Fine, so be it! Hey, you there! Who was your foremost customer?” 』
Scarlet shouted and pointed at Neil, but of course, the latter didn’t notice it at all. There was no other way around it, so Connie decided to act the interpreter.
“Uhm, who was Bronson Company’s best customer?”
“That would be Countess Custine, but
”
Albeit suspicious of the question that came out of nowhere, Neil still replied. Hearing his answer, Scarlet rattled on.
『So that garish old hag was still alive? This makes things easier. Your family deals in Lucca Silk, right? First, you’ll have to choose the finest silk and ――― well,【Moonlight Fairy】should be good enough ――― order a dress to be tailored there. Make sure to make them add the most dainty and gaudy embroidery imaginable and don’t skip out on gold threads either. Once it’s finished, kneel before her with it as a gift and beg for forgiveness. Try to act as pitiful as possible
Oh yeah, your face is at least passable so you should go in person. Try your hardest to honey her up from below. You might be taken to her bedroom after she’s had her fill of your flattering, so when push comes to shove, just grin and bear with it. According to the rumors, she’s quite skillful so you’ll surely be able to reach the heaven. If you manage to follow every step as I told you, everything else should work out well. That old bat isn’t simply gaining age with each year, her influence is growing too. That’s why goody-two-shoes Constance doesn’t need to do any~thing at all! 』
Countess Custine seemed scary
very scary. Connie braced her face and explained that nobles had this kind of way of apologizing too. By the way, she fully omitted the part about the bedroom.
Only the deities and Countess would know the truth about Neil’s chastity.
“
I see. I’ll relay it to Father.”
Saying so, Neil Bronson looked at Connie with eyes full of various inexpressible emotions.
Connie caught his gaze and looked straight back.
　―――Neil averted his eyes first.
After that, he bowed deeply.
“I am truly sorry.”
Looking at him, Connie decided to share with him the feelings she didn’t intend to share with anybody.
“
Do you remember the first time we met?”
―――The young man, who had come to come visit the Viscount family together with Damian Bronson was dressed fashionably in a fresh shirt with a stand-up collar and ivory-colored vest. Being in front of somebody so handsome made Connie feel very nervous.
Neil didn’t laugh or made fun of this dull and plain girl who couldn’t even greet him properly. Naturally, she didn’t know what he had been thinking in his mind ――― she didn’t want to know either, so Connie kept her head down.
As she was shrinking back without knowing what to do, she suddenly heard a voice. ‘Me too’, it said.
It was said with a plain tone, as if the one whom the words belonged to ended up saying them unintentionally, without thinking.
When Connie lifted her face up after hearing something unexpected, she saw the young man with the same troubled expression as her.
‘To tell you the truth, I’m really nervous as well
’
Connie blinked in surprise, and then, both smiled at each other. This was probably enough for her to fall in love.
“You see, I couldn’t believe that such a wonderful person was going to be my husband. I was even suspicious that I was merely having a convenient dream. If it actually was reality, I thought that I might have been the luckiest girl alive
But it was probably different for you. I thought whatever happened was unfair, but now I’ve come to terms with it a little bit. Everything that happened, I’m sure, it not just your fault. So, I think, everything is okay. I’m fine now.”
The following words naturally left her mouth.
“Farewell, Neil Bronson.”
Connie was surely in love with him, but not so much as to shed tears when confronted with his infidelity. So, she was fine. Connie smiled gently.
―――Although, the tip of her nose stung a little bit.
“
I missed my chance to rob him of the dresses.”
Connie muttered, while seeing off Neil, who was shooed away by Martha with superficial courtesy. Scarlet narrowed her eyes in indifference.
『It was better to not ask that blind man for anything. I’m sure he would send a tasteless dress anyway. 』
―――Her tone, that had no regard for anybody, was so much like Scarlet Castiel that Connie <b>laughed while crying.</b>
—\n
Notes:\n
Succulent lips was actuallyæžœćźŸăźă‚ˆă†ăȘ攇 in the raw. Basically, like “lips like fruit” but that sounds weird in English.\n
The actual phrase Connie says for <b>the employees of Bronson Company</b> thing is â€œćˆ„ă«ă€ăƒ–ăƒ­ăƒłă‚œăƒłć•†äŒšăźäșșにçœȘはăȘいじゃăȘい”. Now, the thing here is that manga used “the other members of the Bronson family are innocent” and it might be the correct version, but raw actually says “the people at Bronson Company” and ‘Bronson Company’is, at its name would suggest, a firm, a company, storechain, whatever. Basically, it’s a business. So, who are the people connected to this business? Most likely the employees. Well, that was my logic, at least. But then again, it could also be Neil’s father and grandpa but in that case, Connie could’ve used ăƒ–ăƒ­ăƒłă‚œăƒłç§‘, as in Bronson family and that would make more sense.\n
The last part with <b>laughed while crying</b> is actually ă‚łăƒ‹ăƒŒăŻæłŁăçŹ‘ă„ăźă‚ˆă†ăȘèĄšæƒ…ăźăŸăŸéŒ»ă‚’ă™ă™ăŁăŸă€‚The literal tl would be something like “Connie sniffled with a half-crying half-laughing expression.
Wow, this was actually the longest Eris chapter I’ve done. Raw was 4.9k characters while the average is like 2.5k characters. Well, other novels I do are usually much bigger anyway so that wasn’t a problem but some parts require a better wording here so I had to linger at some sentenced for longer.
Anyway, notify me about mistranslation,s typos or awkward grammar so I could fix it asap.<b></b>
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