Chapter 5 – Strange Guests at the Funeral (4)
Alicia almost screamed aloud at that moment.
She was so blindsided by such a remark that her voice rose an octave unknowingly.
Pezak raised his eyebrows at an angle as if he didn’t care about how she’d react, then said sarcastically.
“It means that you’ll share a room with me, share a bed, and stay in my house like that. Of course, we’re not going to get married. There’s no benefit to that. However, isn’t it so generous of me that you won’t get kicked out without any clothes on your back?”
He added casually.
“In return, all you have to do is warm my bed.”
At these absurd words, her mouth opened and closed without a sound. A slimy smirk floated on everyone’s face that was looking at her as if they were watching something entertaining.
Through his lascivious gaze, Pezak must be really thinking of stripping her naked at any moment, not just imagining it.
“Yes, considering your situation, it’s not a bad offer.”
Moreover, her grand uncle, Baronet Tomman, seemed to agree with his son’s words, nodding his head slightly as if it was natural.
In an instant, she felt the blood rushing in her veins. As her mind wandered, blood drained from her pale white face.
“Th-that’s ridiculous!”
When Alicia shouted in shock, Pezak pulled his lips softly and smiled.
“What’s ridiculous?”
“U-Uncle is over forty years old and I’m barely…!”
Oho, Pezak cut her words off as if they were pathetic.
“Barely? You’ll be coming of age after this month. That’s a great age for a woman. You’re just starting to bloom, so you’ll probably perform well.”
And he silently added the rest of his words with just the shape of his mouth.
‘Down there.’
His serpent-like evil and gloomy eyes roved her body, and Alicia bit her lip with a furious expression on her face.
Her fingertips trembled in shock as she heard the outlandish sexual remarks.
“Kehehe.”
The lustful eyes that flashed in amusement ran down Alicia’s body. The gaze, which licked from her chest to her waist, stopped on the apex of her thigh.
“…!”
Pezak glanced at the stiff little Alicia and licked his lips with the tip of his tongue. As Alicia opened her eyes in disgust, he pulled his tongue out and flitted it mockingly, then he smacked his lips.
Even as she was enraged, she was still engulfed in sorrow. Her eyes, which had no energy, seemed far away as if she were experiencing motion sickness.
“Th-that…”
It must have been because of her physical condition, that her tongue was hardened like a stone due to the embarrassment and shock, and her words could not come out properly.
She was being sexually harassed by her relatives and not by just any stranger. And it was a man as old as her father.
Her face, which had been drained of blood just now, was instantly red with anger, and blood rushed to her ears.
‘Now, what did he say will happen?! What is he saying now! What a terrible presumption!’
Her nose felt bad with the unbearable discomfort. She had never experienced such disrespect before.
‘You must be belittling me because grandfather isn’t here!’
Her thoughts kept getting laced with anger. Unable to keep it all inside, she began to express her unfiltered anger outwardly.
The heat on her cheeks and eyelids roared like waves, rising and falling, her face flushing red.
Her whole body trembled with the rage that was boiling inside her.
‘How ridiculous of you to look at me like, and even talk like that!’
Alicia closed her eyes tightly and shook her head. She wished it was a dream. Before the soil covering her grandfather’s coffin had even dried, these audacious, uncivilized relatives came and mumbled nonsense.
‘What? Warm the bed?’
Just imagining it was terrifying.
Taking a deep breath to fill her lungs, Alicia raised her eyes and opened her mouth, gripping her trembling heart.
“Isn’t that too much to say? I’m sure you didn’t mean to say that since you’re an old man, but it’s offensive no matter how you say it.”
Alicia deliberately referred to him as an “old man” rather than an uncle.
It was intended to awaken their kinship and confirm her social position, but unfortunately, it didn’t work.
“Too much? And not serious? I wasn’t joking.”
Pezak smirked and then he opened his eyes and continued his words.
“And what if you’re offended? If we don’t accept you, you’ll be kicked out to the streets right now?”
“Th-the streets…”
While pretending to be calm and staring straight at Pezak’s disgusting face, she was terrified at the thought of being on the streets. Fear was rushing in.
Alicia lacked proper education, so her knowledge was limited. Moreover, she lived her whole life at the closed-off Barony of Pordbent, so she knew nothing about the world.
She didn’t know the details, but as soon as the funeral of her grandfather was over, the Lawson family and the court administrators came together with confidence.
A deep wrinkle crept into Alicia’s fine brows, engulfed in ominous foreboding.
When her complexion suddenly darkened, Pezak revealed yellow-tinted teeth and said with a languid smile hanging on the corner of his lips.
“Then, are there any other alternatives? Do you have a fiancé who secretly promised a future to you? If that’s not the case, then it’ll be a problem.”
Tsk, Tsk, Pezak added, clicking his tongue.
“It seems that the person who will become your husband has horrible taste. As a lady, you didn’t receive a modest education, you’re not cultured and you don’t have any proper social skills, so you can’t make money anywhere, let alone educate your children. If you promise to get married in a hurry, I wonder if it’s worth taking care of if you’re just going to play as a baby in bed. There doesn’t seem to be any use other than your hole.”
“This, this…!”
The moment she opened her mouth to speak, holding her breath trembling with unbearable contempt and disgust,
Kiikk.
A certain dissonance split the atmosphere. The parlor door creaked open with the shrill scream of its rusty hinges.
“Everyone is here!”
An elderly gentleman appeared through the open door. In an instant, the sharp tension in the room suddenly shifted forward.
“I said I was in a hurry, but it’s already afternoon.”
A gentle smile that can go anywhere. A visage that inspires trust. It was neither too overbearing nor too loose, and he wore a formal yet neat attire.
He was Baron Pordbent’s advisor.
As soon as she caught sight of a familiar face, Alicia forgot what she was about to say and blinked.
“I feel like I’m late, but I hope you don’t wait too long.”
The posse of Baronet Lawson Pezak, who had swarmed around Alicia like bloodthirsty sharks, immediately straightened their postures and took a couple of steps away from her at the arrival of the lawyer.
“You’re here.”
They greeted the lawyer with a casual and sociable expression as if nothing was out of place.
“We waited a long time. But it was tolerable.”
“I heard the news of Viscount Brohum this morning. My condolences.”
Baron Lawson and Pezak were polite and decent, giving off the impression that they had listened to their neighbor’s obituary.
Alicia was stunned by their sudden change in attitude.
The lawyer responded with a friendly tone, as if he truly did not see their dark side.
“Yes. It was so sudden, I was surprised too. He was without a will, so I hurriedly ran to visit, but the situation was not organized and it was cluttered.”
Among the long and lengthy funeral proceedings after death, the time when a lawyer was needed was when the inheritance was finalized and confirmed, not when it was necessary to coordinate the inheritance.
Viscount Brohum, adjacent to Barony Fordbent’s estate, had many children because of his wealth. The sudden death of the master would have raised the question of inheritance for the children, and the situation would have been complicated. Due to the sudden death of the neighbor, the lawyer arrived later than expected.
“I apologize for being late. I’ve already been to the court, and now we just need to open the will.”
When the advisory lawyer meant to deliver the deceased’s will appeared, the court administrators chatting outside the parlor halted their conversation and began to gather in the center.
Cough, the lawyer who coughed in vain stood on the prepared podium in front of the drawing room with a luxurious briefcase in his right hand.
“Once again, I sincerely apologize for the delay.”
He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose slightly, then opened the bag and took out some thick envelopes. Then, he looked around and shook his head with a light smile.
“I shall start. Please take a seat.”
All of them sat quietly in the chairs prepared according to his words. The final proceedings of a funeral, the inheritance, was about to begin.
“Well then, here it is.”
He had a sealed envelope in his hand. The round, red seal was marked with the intricately engraved initials of Baron Leschel.
And below it, the words ‘The will, to be disclosed after death’ could be seen as an elegantly written stern warning.
“As you can see, this is a will that the deceased sealed with his own hands. The date is…”
The lawyer adjusted his nose glasses with his fingers and narrowed his eyes.
“Let’s see… Five days ago. After the will was made, I was not able to attend the funeral because I was on a business trip to Bran. So I would like to take his opportunity to express my deepest condolences and respect for the late Baron Leschel Pordbent.”
After closing his eyes for a moment, the lawyer turned his head and looked towards Alicia. After seeing Alicia’s pale face, he bowed slightly, and then handed the will to the court magistrates to confirm the seal.
Only after hearing from them that there were no problems with the seal did he carefully remove the red wax and open the envelope.