The Serpent of Paradise - Chapter 8

The reason the nobles had changed their attitude, and the reason he suddenly had to move to marry, were both because of the regent, Empress Dowager Ilina.

“What can you do? The empress dowager is set on wiping out any noble house that joins hands with you, Mikhail.”

Igor shook his head with a sigh.

It wasn’t as if the empress dowager had been hostile toward Mikhail from the beginning. On the contrary, the two had been closer to business partners. Mikhail wanted to sweep away the nobles who constantly interfered with him, and the empress dowager also wanted to eliminate the existing nobility in order to seize real power.

The enemy of my enemy is my ally. Though they never sent envoys or made a formal agreement, Mikhail used the forces the empress dowager supported from behind, and she used the power she had regained to eliminate the nobles who stood in their way one by one.

Because of that, neither of them had anything to fear. The empress dowager had effectively become the emperor of Novgod as regent. Mikhail, too, after eliminating all the nobles who sought to interfere with his wealth, expanded his business without restraint. Up to that point, everything had been fine.

“They say once the hunt is over, you boil the hunting dogs. But she’s acting rather hastily. To think she’d forget who put the gun in her hands.”

After dealing with the nobles, the empress dowager began to harbor grand ambitions. Ambitions to create a stronger imperial family and empire. To achieve that dream, she needed passion and money. But the imperial treasury was not particularly abundant. In the end, she began to desire money from outside the imperial family. More precisely, Mikhail’s money.

True to her ambitious nature, once she set her target, she moved swiftly. In an instant, several of Mikhail’s businesses were bound hand and foot. Various fabricated charges were attached to them, and they were transferred into the hands of the imperial family.

Perhaps because she had tasted money once, the empress dowager grew even more greedy for Mikhail’s enterprises. Naturally, Mikhail had no intention of sitting still and handing them over. And so he made up his mind. He would bite the owner who did not know the grace owed to her dog.

There was no room for missteps. Mikhail knew it was time for him to step in personally, gather the nobles, and decisively cut off the empress dowager’s arms and legs.

But there was a problem. No matter how much money he had, his status was still that of a commoner. Because of that, there were clear limits to how directly he could mingle among the nobility. From not even being allowed to enter the senate where nobles gathered, to having to kneel when high-ranking nobles were present.

So Mikhail decided he needed to obtain a title.

There were only two ways for him to do that. Either revive the Count Vorontsov title he had extinguished and inherit it, or marry the daughter of a family that no longer had a male heir and inherit their title.

Naturally, the former was impossible. The empress dowager would never allow that title to be restored. Which meant the only option left was for him to marry into a noble family.

As expected, the empress dowager intervened. She dangled both carrot and stick before every family that sought to marry their daughters to Mikhail and pass on their title.

Reject Mikhail’s proposal, and she would grant them a share of imperial assets. But if they joined hands with him, she would make an example of them and crush them with everything she had.

In the end, the nobles chose to wait and see. As a result, the marriage proposals that had been coming to Mikhail from noble families stopped completely. Refusing to give up, Mikhail searched for a family that could grant him the title he wanted.

That was when the Count Lauderdale family contacted him.

Knock knock.

At the sound of knocking, Igor went to the door, asked who it was, and opened it. The person who entered was a subordinate Mikhail had sent to the Lauderdale estate.

“It’s been a while, Mikhail.”

“You’ve done well, Yuri.”

“Well? It was such an easy job, it felt like a vacation.”

“Easy? Looking into a count’s finances?”

At Mikhail’s probing tone, Yuri smiled and shook his head. “How impressive could the finances of a count’s house on the brink of bankruptcy really be?”

Yuri was one of Mikhail’s men, someone who assisted him with accounting. To someone like him, the finances of a count’s house reduced to little more than its estate were not just easy, but boring.

“So, having seen it yourself, what is the Lauderdale household like?”

“It’s a mess. After the count died and the heir was conscripted, it seems the countess managed things herself… but since she’s never properly learned how to run an estate, she simply followed whatever the accountants and lawyers told her. All the important assets were handed over to the empress dowager, and the man she trusted to manage the household lost even the remaining properties through gambling. So now, the only things of value left are the Edenhurst estate and the mansion. But even those are held as collateral for bank loans, so in truth, there’s nothing left. Right before I came back, they were struggling to even provide meals for the servants or buy firewood for winter.”

Yuri went on at length about everything he had done at the estate. After listening for a while, Mikhail picked up the simple meal Igor had brought and asked, “Fine, that’s enough about the finances. What about the people in the household?”

“First, Countess Ariana Lauderdale… she’s the very definition of a noble.”

That was not praise. Yuri let out a long, weary sigh.

“You know how nobles are, always going on about their precious etiquette. Even on the day I went to see her, she found fault with everything about me. If she hadn’t been in such a difficult situation, she made it very clear, in her own elegant way, that she would never have allowed someone like me into her drawing room.”

At Yuri’s explanation, Mikhail gave a wry smile. “To think a woman like that is trying to sell her daughters to someone like me. Just how much resentment does she hold toward the empress dowager?”

“Don’t even get me started. The moment I casually brought up her deceased son, she burst into tears, then went on and on about how angelic his appearance was, how noble his character was, how outstanding his talents were, and after that, she didn’t even bother to veil her resentment toward the empress dowager. Well, it does seem likely that the empress dowager set her sights on Edenhurst and removed the heir. If you put a knife in the countess’s hand, she’d probably stab the empress dowager to death right away….”

“Yuri.”

As Igor, who had been listening, called his name as if telling him to lower his voice, Yuri waved his hand as if to say he understood. There was a chance someone sent by the empress dowager might be nearby, so caution was necessary.

“Fine. That’s enough about the countess. What about her daughters?”

“The eldest, Miss Elizabeth, is quite beautiful. From what I heard, when she made her debut in society at the imperial palace, she had quite a number of suitors. But she didn’t like any of them and rejected them all. As for the second, Miss Catherine, she’s said to be lively and warm-hearted. Since she was young, she often visited the village, donating to the poorhouse and helping those in need. Of course, it seems she stopped after the family fell into decline.”

“….”

At Yuri’s words, Mikhail briefly glanced at the shoe lying on the floor. She donates, does she? Then perhaps that shoe had been given to someone else long ago.

“And the third….”

“Wait, third? That family has a third?” Mikhail asked, sounding puzzled. In the documents he had received at first, it had clearly been reported that the family had only two daughters. A third? Had there been an error in the report he received?

“Ah, she’s not the countess’s biological daughter. About ten years ago, the former count brought a girl from somewhere and adopted her. Her name is Anastasia Lauderdale.”

“Anastasia.”

An adopted daughter brought in by the former count, keeping a Novgod name as it is. He didn’t even need to see her to know what kind of treatment she would be receiving.

“Yes. Miss Anastasia is….”

“That’s enough about her.”

Mikhail cut Yuri off. An adopted daughter was not one of the Lauderdale daughters he needed to concern himself with. In any case, he would have to choose between Elizabeth and Catherine. Then it would be better to hear even a little more information about the countess’s daughters rather than waste time on a useless woman.

As Mikhail continued listening to Yuri’s report, he thought about which of the Lauderdale daughters would be more beneficial to him.

***

The next morning, Anastasia quietly scraped the bottom of her bowl with her spoon. Even though the soup had already been scraped clean, she continued pretending to eat. It was because of the servants’ conversation she could hear beside her.

“That new master we talked about yesterday. They say he’s incredibly rich.”

“Of course he’s rich. Otherwise, how could he possibly acquire Edenhurst?”

The story about the new master she had heard yesterday was gradually growing more detailed.

“Then will the madam and the young ladies be going somewhere else?”

“No, it’s not that. The new master is going to marry one of the young ladies and inherit the title of Count Lauderdale.”

At someone’s words, the servants nodded as if they understood. Though they themselves were not Lauderdales, they wore expressions of genuine satisfaction.

Most servants of noble households regarded their master’s honor as their own. It was only natural, since the way they were treated depended on which family they served. The servants had ears as well, so they knew that those with the right to inherit the Lauderdale name had refused succession because they could not bear the family’s debts. And they also knew that if the two Lauderdale daughters married into other families and took those families’ names, the House of Lauderdale would come to an end.

That would be a problem for them. If the family they served disappeared, it meant the careers they had built would disappear as well. But now, the new master was willing to take on all those debts and continue the count’s house. If that was the case, they would be able to maintain the same peaceful life as before.

After talking for a long while, the servants began to clear their dishes one by one and went upstairs. Before long, only Anastasia remained in the kitchen.

Anastasia picked up her bowl and walked toward the sink.

“Ah….”

A groan slipped out as a throbbing pain shot through the sole of her foot. It seemed the wound she had suffered yesterday had opened again. Anastasia lifted her skirt slightly and examined her foot.

Her right foot, wearing the left shoe, came into view. Of all things, it was the leg where the missing shoe had been that was injured. Even the slightest movement caused the wound to split open again and bleed. She had tried binding it with cloth, but as she walked, the blood quickly seeped through and left stains. So Anastasia had no choice but to wear the left shoe on her right foot.

Even in this situation, Anastasia worried more about the shoe that would be stained with blood than about her own foot. I need to go to the forest and take off my shoes quickly.

Just as she hurriedly washed her dish and was about to go upstairs, she heard footsteps. A moment later, Head Maid Sophie entered the kitchen. Seeing Anastasia, she spoke in a curt voice, “The countess is calling for you.”

The dish slipped from Anastasia’s hands and rolled into the sink.