Betrothed to My Sister's Ex

Marquis Dario Alfonso’s place of escape was soon discovered.

There was no time to run outdoors, and although the mansion was spacious, it was not as vast as a fortress. Naturally, he seemed to have dashed straight into the kitchen, which was right across from the dining hall.

Unfortunately for him, four burly men were in the middle of preparing lunch right there. Each of them was armed with potentially dangerous kitchen utensils—knives and meat tenderizers in hand.

The men all turned around simultaneously at the intruder’s sudden appearance. Marquis Dario, at that moment, apparently lost his strength and collapsed to the floor in a heap.

—And so it went.

Safely surrounded by the men, with a table laid out with food fit for eating, we narrowed our eyes at the marquis with half-lidded stares.

As expected, the marquis couldn’t just ignore us. Dripping with sweat and stumbling over his words, he refused to touch the meal before him and kept babbling excuses over and over.

“I-I-I’m not running away, you know! I just smelled something nice coming from the kitchen, so I went to take a peek, that’s all!”

“Oh? Is that so? But at that time, we were still in the middle of chopping vegetables, so there shouldn’t have been much smell.”

Lord Cyrus whispered from the marquis’s right side. The marquis’s hand trembled as he held his coffee, spilling a considerable amount.

“Well, uh… it was an inspiration… In any case, there’s absolutely no connection between Ella being at the ancient city and my running away, hahaha.”

He basically admitted to fleeing.

His eyes darted around nervously. The coffee had spilled so much that only half remained.

“Why don’t you just confess everything already? It’s not a crime to bring her to the villa. Everyone here can see that you panicked and let her escape when things got unexpected.”

Lord Ruifeng spoke, and I, Lord Cyrus, Thomas, Tunic, Wolfgang, and even baby Lisa all nodded in agreement.

Realizing he couldn’t hide it any longer, the marquis fell silent.

“Really, Lord Dario is not at fault.”

Ella, still sitting on the floor, muttered her own defense.

“I once made a mistake at Granado Castle. Although I was hired as a maid, I couldn’t get along with the others. Even after being promoted to Lisa’s wet nurse, I was disliked by Lady Marie and had my work taken over by Ryuu-Ryuu…”

Her tone sparked some irritation in me. It’s hard to say exactly why, but Ella’s words carried a hint of blaming others.

“In such circumstances, Lord Dario kept me by his side, but I still couldn’t get along with those five women… I was pushed around, had my clothes torn… Seeing this, Lord Dario helped me escape from the mansion.”

It sounded plausible, but did this all happen just when we arrived? And abandoning a woman in the forest without food hardly seemed like kindness.

The excuse was clearly weak.

I was about to press further when Ella suddenly burst into tears.

“I’m sorry. I really am a useless girl. I promise never to upset Lady Marie again. Please, just let me stay somewhere with a roof over my head. I don’t care if it’s the floor or a warehouse…”

“Ella…”

Marquis Dario’s face twisted with sympathy as he embraced the crying girl, patting her back comfortingly.

“It’s alright, Ella. Everyone here is kind at heart, in one way or another. No one would send you out into the Death Forest just because you’re crying.”

“‘In one way or another’?”

“At heart?”

Lord Cyrus and Lord Ruifeng simultaneously showed irritation on their faces. I was distracted, thinking, “But the Death Forest is peaceful and beautiful, though,” which was somewhat off-topic.

Apparently, Marquis Dario didn’t realize his slip-up. With tears in his eyes, he dramatically turned towards Lord Cyrus and the others.

“Is that alright, Lord Cyrus?”

“Well, since this mansion belongs to Marquis Dario and Ella is his retainer, I have no right to interfere.”

Lord Cyrus said bluntly.

Lord Ruifeng also reluctantly fell silent.