“Exactly. Balls are one of the few places were men and women in their youth can meet, talk, and fall in love.”

That was the strongest and the most direct among the desires that bloomed during balls. Marriage was, after all, the biggest worry of the parents with children at the right age.

Not only women dreamt of climbing the social ladder through marriage, but bachelors also dreamt about loving a woman with a high rank and huge dowry.

‘It’s a great idea.’

Ann thought Rubica’s totally different perspective made sense.

‘Old ladies are eager about their children’s marriage. They think about how to get unmarried men and women to meet until they get a headache. Even if only one couple ends up getting married through this tea meeting…’

Then everyone would be eager to be invited to the next meeting. There couldn’t be a better idea to make Rubica famous in the society, so Ann decided to help with the plan as much as she could.

“We have some knights and scholars with rank, right?”

“Yes. They are not the so-called ‘big fish’, but many married ladies with daughters will like it.”

Bachelor heirs with a count rank or higher came out to the marriage market less than once a year. And Edgar, who had been the biggest game till only a while ago, was now a caught fish.

“And they should be handsome.”

What the ladies, who would participate in the event, wanted was naturally important, but their daughters’ thoughts mattered that most. Moreover, girls during their youth tended to be drawn to handsome faces.

Of course, any smart lady who knew about the world would try to know if the man about to take her daughter’s hand in marriage had enough money and a good enough rank to ensure their children’s status, but none of that would matter to the girls who were about to fall in love.

Men had to be handsome to make the girls’ heart stir. If the girl didn’t want, pushing her toward an ugly man with enough money and power would only backfire.

“Handsome men?”

“Yes. Oh, right. Sir Stephen is also unmarried, right?”

“Yes, he is a bachelor.”

“Then we should put him on the list as well.”

Stephen, the guard captain, was actually quite handsome, although not as much as Edgar. Plus, as the guard captain of a duke family, he had to have at least the baron rank. All the counts’ daughters couldn’t be married to men of a similar or higher rank, so Stephen would be a good match.

“Are there any more good-looking men?”

Rubica tried to make a list of the handsome men she had seen at the Claymore Mansion, but she couldn’t.

When she thought about the scholar who had shown her around the lab at the west annex, an illusion of Edgar appeared right next to that.

‘Well, although he is handsome, he is too short and too thin compared to Edgar.’

Maybe scholars were not masculine enough. So, she tried to remember the knights training in the garden and choose among them.

‘Yes, that man with red hair and brown eyes. He is tall and fit, but he would look better if his eyes were in the shape of almond… yes, just like…’

Edgar’s eyes…

Again, the image of Edgar was confusing her. It wasn’t good. No matter how handsome the man she tried to think of was, when she put Edgar next to him, he looked like a fish or a squid.

“Uhh, Ann.”

She called Ann, who was making a list of bachelors to invite to the tea meeting, after thinking hard for a long time.

“Do you think Edgar would like to join this tea meeting?”

“Hmm, I think it would be great if he could come, but he is so busy…”

“No, no. I don’t want him to come.”

Rubica shook her head. She really didn’t want Edgar to come. If he came, all the invited girls would not even give a glance to the other men because of him. She wasn’t just saying that because he was her husband. He was just troublingly handsome.

‘Hmm, but Edgar seems to like tea as much as Carl does. He never offered it to me again after I said I didn’t like it, but he drinks it himself every day.’

Maybe Edgar was the reason why Carl loved tea a little too much. He was probably not going to come, but surprises could always happen.

Rubica really wanted to make this tea meeting successful and, for that, she had to make sure Edgar didn’t come.

‘I’ll talk to him about it in the evening.’

However, while she was thinking so, Ann was having a totally different idea as she looked at her.

‘She must be lonely because he is so busy.’

Rubica tried not to interrupt Edgar while he was working. She also hadn’t shown her disappointment when Edgar went to the king’s castle a day after making that shocking announcement about not getting mana quartz.

She even calmly sent back the relatives for him, and Ann had been impressed by that. Moreover, at the same time, she blamed Edgar.

Think of what happened yesterday. Ann had heard Edgar did make Zilehan pay for what he did afterward, but it would have been all over if he just left his office and said a word.

Still, Rubica wasn’t demanding an explanation. Ann didn’t know what was going on between them so, in her eyes, Edgar was being too mean and Rubica was foolishly kind.

‘She is so nice, but if Eddie keeps behaving so foolishly, he will lose her heart.’

Ann had to make them stick together before Rubica had a change of heart, and the best way for that was the ‘baby’. Rubica would be shocked to hear that, but Ann was quite proud of her plan.

‘She’s so shy. I should do it instead’

Ann decided to make Rubica wear the nightdress she had gotten from Khanna tonight no matter what.

***

Edgar had to go to the capital. He had to go there, do the work he had pushed aside, and work on the diplomatic negotiations about the development rights with the southern kingdom. Actually, he shouldn’t have come home so spontaneously.

“Well, just tell him I cannot go for some time.”

However, he said no to the king’s summon so easily and Carl didn’t know what to do.

“But it might anger His Majesty.”

“When that sly old man gets mad, it’s almost always an act. It’s fine.”

He pressed on his forehead as he said that. It was his headache again. Convincing the king was never hard. The person giving him that headache was a woman.

-It appears she cannot eat well alone.

So stupidly, he had just found that out only now. He looked into it and it turned out she hadn’t been able to eat well while he was gone.

The others believed it was because she was pregnant, but Edgar knew the truth. Unlike him, she hated eating alone.

However, it wasn’t like she could eat with just anyone. Edgar had never been sad about having no family member, but now he felt sad. And what tortured him the most was…

-She’s always eaten too little at breakfast. However, I and Elise have been having breakfast with her in the bedroom in secret, using her pregnancy as an excuse.

Rubica would be able to have breakfast with her ladies-in-waiting in her bedroom for some time, but the problem was that her pregnancy wasn’t real. The longer they went on with the act, the more easily it would be known. She could happily have breakfast only for about two months.

‘Shit.’

He was supposed to be with her. That was what married couples usually did. They had breakfast together, asked how each other was while working, had a walk after lunch, talk about matters of the family, and go to bed together.

-Duke Claymore is going to be the best husband in this kingdom.

He even wanted to find those who had said that about him and beat them up? The best husband? He was the worst of the worst. He was just a man who knew how to make money, with a bunch of relatives who bothered her…

He started to hate himself more and more. He frowned even harder, so Carl glanced at him and carefully asked, “Shall I bring tea?”

“No.”

The headache wasn’t going to be defeated by the tea. Edgar then ruffled his hair and asked about what he had ordered to Carl.

“What about finding that Arman? Have you found him?”

“Oh, about that…”

Carl didn’t say more after that for some time. As the butler was normally excellent as his work, he should have reported what he had found immediately.

It had been a few days since Edgar gave him information about Arman that included the lead to easily find him.

That was why Edgar hadn’t forced Rubica to talk about Arman’s appearance. Plus, seeing her eyes sparkle as she described her lover’s appearance hadn’t been that good.

“Oh, it’s… Your Grace, according to Aron’s Academy, there is no blind man named Arman among its graduates and students.”

“What?”

Edgar was surprised to hear that. If his legs had been fine, he would have jumped to his feet.

“That’s, that’s… no, there’s no way she would have lied to me.”

Did that Arman notice Edgar was going to ask him to get out of Rubica’s life forever? Rubica’s eyes had annoyingly sparkled as she explained about Arman, and she believed in Edgar so much that he felt a little guilty.