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“I married you off because I was miserable that I couldn't participate in a single urban development project just because I'm a Boltonian, but now you're telling me that your illustrious Minister son-in-law is blocking me? This is absurd.”
“What on earth more do you want? You already have plenty.”
At Rose's words, Elliot leaned forward aggressively and began pointing his finger.
“What kind of stupid question is that? If you lined people up by wealth, do you think I'd even make the top twenty in this Orturan land?”
It wasn't a race, so why did he feel the need to be in the top twenty?
Rose stared expressionlessly at her father, who was fuming until his face turned red.
“What do I want? I want some recognition in Orturan!”
Elliot thumped his chest.
“I've established so many trading companies and factories, yet I can't hire a single Boltonian employee. Every single staff member is an Orturan. Do you know why?”
“I wouldn't.”
She didn't particularly want to know, either.
“The Orturan people already think I'm stealing their money; if I don't even hire them as employees, how much more will they hate me? Do you have any idea how many of these damn Orturan people I'm supporting? And yet, these people only curse me. Trash, all of them.”
Elliot gasped for air after his outburst.
Though Rose felt no affection for her father, she felt she understood what he found so unfair.
Had she not been shocked by how the Orturan people treated Boltonians during her first month here?
“The Boltonians of Dunsville? Even seeing them live like beggars, I can't give them a single position. So, how much of a despicable traitor do those people see me as?”
It was surprising that he actually cared about such things.
“I married you into this house because I was sick of being treated like this! And yet, there's absolutely nothing to gain from it.”
Rose eventually thought that this marriage might have been a failed transaction.
Ray Crawford had reportedly suffered a loss, and now her father was claiming he had gained nothing.
Then, who exactly was this all for?
She gazed down at the ring on her ring finger, which felt like a shackle.
“If I just had Crawford, no one would be able to say anything to me anymore, but that Crawford is blocking me! Do you know how much money I've spent? Dammit. In that case, I have no choice but to carve out a new path myself.”
Rose quietly watched the old man as he spat out his grievances in a fit of rage.
Her father had been like this even when he left his wife and children in the prosperous Bolton to head toward Antakaro. He had said this wasn't enough.
He wanted better things, bigger things. He vowed he would definitely obtain them.
What had consumed her father?
Could he ever escape it? It seemed unlikely unless he died.
Had he always been this way, or had life made him like this?
“So, you cooperate. You only agreed to this marriage in the end because you had the same thoughts, didn't you?”
“I did it because my mother left such a will before she died.”
And because she had been in a state of having given up on life.
“I never considered you. You're a stranger to me. I only call you 'Father' because I have no other title to address you by.”
“Look at the way you talk... How on earth did your mother educate you? You aren't speaking like this at Crawford's, are you?”
“It's thanks to my mother's education that I can deal with a father who abandoned his wife and children to maintain two households.”
“How long are you going to dwell on those old stories? You act like this because you can't forget that petty grudge, but your mother never liked me anyway. That's just how marriage is.”
Elliot let out a loud snort.
“But in the end, she forgave me. No, wait. It wasn't forgiveness. She was even grateful.”
There wasn't a shred of guilt on his face.
“Do you think I'm lying? No! While she was bedridden, she thanked me several times for fulfilling my responsibilities.”
Rose knew better than anyone that he wasn't lying.
After her father returned, Rose had asked her changed mother if it was really okay to live just the two of them, if she was truly happy.
At that time, her mother had screamed at Rose through tears.
“That was when I believed there were no other options for you but a life like this! That's how I thought when your father didn't come back!”
She had sobbed, wiping the ceaseless flow of tears with a handkerchief.
“What other options were there? You were wasting your youth teaching something like the piano without a decent suitor; do you think I actually liked that? Did you think I was such a complacent fool? I cried every night, thinking that because I lacked ability, I was living off the money my daughter earned.”
No matter how hard she tried to forget, that sobbing voice would not fade.
The days that were happy for her had been days of nothing but tears for her mother.
“Since you lived such a carefree life, do you even know what responsibility means? Responsibility means bringing you a perfect groom who is beyond reproach.”
Unwanted memories surfaced, her father delivered a long lecture, and Rose grew exhausted.
She really shouldn't have met her father.
Whenever her father suddenly appeared and made her life tedious, Rose thought it would have been better if he had simply died in a ditch somewhere.
He had never fulfilled his duties as a father, yet he always claimed his rights over his daughter.
“You're the one judging a parent's qualifications? No matter how much you view me as scum, the world will rate me highly as a father. A parent proves their qualification by what they give their children. Do you think any parent could give you the things I've given you?”
Elliot began to click his tongue.
“Are you really so naive as to think love is everything?”
“Anyone listening would think you gave me a lot. If you're going to say money is better than love, shouldn't you have given it to me more consistently?”
Rose replied, rubbing her temples against the oncoming headache.
It seemed she had to get her father out of her sight as quickly as possible.
“That's why I'm trying to do it now.”
The tone of her father, who had been brazenly lecturing her, became soft and soothing.
“Think carefully. Do you want poor Ben to live like I do? If you can just persuade your husband, we can all be perfectly integrated into Orturan.”
“I understand.”
Rose replied half-heartedly, but perhaps her voice was too low, or perhaps he had shifted direction too abruptly, for her father didn't hear her and continued speaking, spittle flying.
“No matter how much you hate me, you're in the same boat as I am. You need to realize that.”
“I said I understand. I'll try talking to him.”
“No matter how pretty your face is, if you carry your head around just as a decoration... Huh? What did you say?”
Elliot, who had been criticizing Rose out of habit, abruptly stopped.
“You'll try talking to him?”
“I'll just bring it up. I'll just ask him to give you a push.”
“...Really?”
It was, of course, a lie.
Why on earth would she do such a thing?
Setting aside whether she intended to or not, there was no way Ray Crawford would grant such a request.
“Yes. You said we're in the same boat. It's not because I like you, but I'm also sick of being treated that way.”
However, there was no need for her father to know her true feelings. She just had to nod, pretend to understand, kick him out, and then avoid him for a while.
Rose stood up from the sofa and gestured for her father to leave.
“Yes, that's it. The name Crawford will protect you, but in the end, who else but I, a fellow Boltonian, would understand your sorrows?”
With a satisfied look on his face, Elliot stood up.
“We must now look out for one another.”
He didn't stop talking until he reached the door of the drawing room. It was almost deafening.
“Then please consider my position. The Matriarch dislikes it when you visit so suddenly.”
“Good grief. I'm just meeting my daughter... That's all because you don't have a child yet. You need to get pregnant soon, honestly.”
“...You aren't going around saying things like that outside, are you?”
Just before leaving the drawing room, Rose checked one last time.
“What do you take me for? Do you think a Boltonian can just run around with a loose tongue in this country? You can consider half of what's in the articles about me as exaggeration and lies.”
After answering grumpily, Elliot put on a soft smile the moment the drawing room door opened.
The transition was so natural that Rose stared at her father as if possessed.
It felt as though he could be called an Orturan now.
Despite having blurted out everything without filter in the drawing room, he maintained a consistently polite demeanor, exchanging light greetings with Agatha and the servants until he left the Crawford estate.
It was a relief that he at least pretended to be dignified in public, but Rose sighed, looking at her father's retreating back with a troubled mind.
That kind of greed, that kind of resentment, did not vanish easily.
She worried about what kind of accident he might cause.
* * *
The letter from Marcel Garnier arrived a few days later, late in the afternoon.
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