The Girl He Dumped Becomes a Billionaire.

Chapter 31

Marianne always woke up in the middle of the night, because in the high-pressure environment of the court, fancy clothes and soft fabrics were hardly the answer to physical pain, let alone to the fragile nerves that were a million times more delicate than the body.

Just as the tribes of Orcs artificially screened out crippled and physically unfit children, so in Marianne's society there were invisible hands that strangled aristocrats who collapsed under pressure, or temptation.

Especially the potential heirs who rush their ducks into the arena.

Marianne rubbed her stiff neck, imagining that if it had been pressed down onto the padded wood, it would have been so slender against the dark wood that it would have been difficult for the executioners to lay their hands on it.

"Perhaps I should pray for Richard's mercy." Marianne was able to easily feel part of the outline of the cervical vertebrae through the thin back of the neck muscles.

"Maybe the gods that don't exist will accept my soul." Marianne washed her face as she got up and decided to go for a walk in the garden.

"You still haven't gotten out of the habit of waking up in the middle of the night?"

When Marianne arrived in the garden, there was already a guest occupying the best seat in the house.

Lucius wasn't going to be walking around the gardens in his pajamas and cloak like Marianne was, but he wasn't exactly what one would call demure and proper in his current appearance. At least the female Grand Duke of the Grand Duchy of Norsca would have thrown her eldest son in the dungeon to cool off if she had watched Lucius appear in public with his hair draped over his head and his collar open.

Marianne sat across from Lucius and watched as the other party slowly tore apart a not-so-delicate flower: "What's the difference between what you're doing now and those little schoolgirls in the throes of love?"

Using her cloak to cushion the cold seat of her chair Marianne didn't forget to cover her knees either, after all she didn't want to suffer from joint problems at a young age.

"What are you divining?" Marianne looked at Lucius who was leaning forward with his forearms pressed against his thighs.

The latter raised a pair of untamed golden eyes under his sister's gaze, his face cut out as a veiled demon by the metallic flowers that wrapped above the gazebo's dome.

"Those witches who roam the dark forests always use flowers for divination." Marianne leaned back in her uncomfortable chair, displaying the opposite of Lucius' cavalier attitude, "It's not because they're so romantic, it's because man-made products of divination are never as good as the heavenly gifts that are at their fingertips."

Marianne tried not to feel cold, "What do you think of this?"

"What is there to see in this matter?" Lucius dropped the flowers in his hand and let the blood red juice burrow into his fingers, "I'm not a witch, so I don't care about their divination methods, only that they give prophecies with a high accuracy rate."

"That's what the men in our family should answer for." Marianne seemed to see something in Lucius's face and said meaningfully at the other man's slightly surprised expression, "No one cares about your self-hatred."

With that said, Marianne also followed Lucius' example of leaning her body forward, almost nose to nose with her half-brother, so that both could feel the other's breath.

"You can cry your heart out here." Marianne said softly, "But when the sun rises tomorrow, you'll still be the Knight Commander of the Grand Duchy of Qui, and the future head of the Templars."

"And will you care if I complain?" Lucius' hair fell down one side, gently sweeping over his superior to the core collarbone.

"Perhaps!" Marianne propped her hands on her knees and leaned back against the back of the gazebo chair once more, resuming her previous languid stance, "Complaining isn't the answer though."

"Especially when it comes to prospects." Marianne knew what Lucius was agonizing over, and knew better how she should solve the problem for Lucius, "Lucius of the Grand Duchy of Norsca is not a weak and inferior man."

Marianne's voice could be more firm than Lucius, and at the same time, it also relieved the gloomy color on Lucius' face.

"Do you think those cardinals in the south are really willing to support me as the head of the Templars?" After a slight hesitation, Lucius still spat out the crux of his heart, "They don't like deviants."

"So what?" Marianne felt that Lucius was still quite similar to Henry in a certain aspect, both were the kind of people who had low self-esteem to the point of extreme pride, as for Marianne ......

Thinking back to her own underdog physique and the lucky value of being in the middle of quantum mechanics, Marianne no longer wanted to count on such emotions as low self-esteem.

Of course, she didn't have the capital to be extremely proud of herself.

"If the Cardinal does not support you as the head of the Templars, then I will have him step down immediately." Marianne was startled by her own voice.

Even Lucius hadn't expected his sister to shelve such harsh words for herself.

"Can you get the Cardinal to step down?" Lucius was suddenly a little weepy, and not even that nervous.

"Who knows!" Marianne, who was preparing to go back to her room, remembered what Midelyn had revealed, and felt that the object of cooperation couldn't be limited to the Cardinal either.

It's just like Midelin who cast a wide net.

Lucius sat for a while longer after Marianne left and went to his room to catch up on his sleep.

Marianne, on the other hand, slept heavily during the latter part of the night and was not awakened as easily as she had been during the first half of the night.

The Doctor, who had willingly become a social animal, had lacked a sense of rest before he was a human being, and after he had begun to study black magic, he had intensified his path of staying up late and never returning.

At least when Marianne approached him, the Doctor had a thin layer of dust saved on the bed he had set up in his research room, and the floor was so cluttered that there was no way to land on it.

"You'd better get this place cleaned up before I get here." Marianne flicked the clutter out of her way with a contraption that she didn't know if it was a cane or a steel rod, then found a chair with all four legs still in place and sat down.

"Shall I get you a cup of tea?" The Doctor rubbed his disheveled hair and rummaged through his desk, pulling out a beaker with a scale that was almost worn flat.

"Never mind, I don't want to know what's been in the mug you found out for me yet." Marianne knew the man wasn't typically unpretentious and never consumed anything here at the Doctor's.

Getting an answer, the Doctor didn't expect Marianne to take him up on his offer, so he took it upon himself to catch some unknown liquid in a beaker, then grabbed a handful of herbs off the shelf and ground them into a powder before adding them to the beaker.

"You're going to die suddenly if you keep working so hard." Marianne noticed that the Doctor's dosage of herbs had increased again, "Were the elves any different? I hope Odin's little emperor hasn't stuffed something strange in their heads."

"What, are you heartbroken?" The Doctor, who had downed the strange drink, teased, "You can take them away immediately if you're heartbroken."

Marianne played with a small sharp object she had picked up offhand, letting the light of the blade cast a ghastly shadow across her face, "You think I'd be distressed?"

Marianne's face was reflected in the Doctor's violet pupils, which were only human. It seemed that ever since they had met, he couldn't see past the woman who was full of lies, after all, no one in their right mind would ask their uncle for a death row inmate for their birthday.

"The way you were staring at me made me think you were basking in my beauty." Marianne's voice pulled back the Doctor's thoughts, "Don't even think about it, it's impossible for me and you."

The Doctor's prosthetic eye blinked twice as if on the draw after Marianne's comment, followed by a look of contempt, "I'm not interested in ordinary women."

Sweeping Marianne's not-so-powerful face, the Doctor suddenly remembered Snow, who had been bought back by her.

"Give it up! In terms of beauty, you can't win against Snow." The Doctor tossed the beaker into the sink and gestured for Abigail, who had come along, to vacate her seat.

"I remember the entrance to the secret passage should be here right." Crouching down the Doctor felt around the floor for five minutes before finding the entrance to the secret passage.

"You don't even remember where the entrance to the secret passage is?" Abigail no longer wanted to spit on the man who was strange from his appearance to his mannerisms.

The latter looked Abigail up and down with the eyes of a fool, then said nonchalantly, "As a witch, you should retain the virtue of being vigilant to the point of nervousness?"

"Huh?" Abigail c****d her head inexplicably.

The Doctor sighed and patiently explained, "Ever heard of burglary magic and maze magic? Melee rookies like witches and necromancers who like to keep to themselves will always apply anti-theft magic and labyrinth magic that confuses assassins and delays being breached at their home base."

With that said, the Doctor also pointed at Marianne so that Abigail would understand exactly who caused him to do this.

"One of the elves she brought back was a Drow who specialized in assassins." The Doctor was on the Dark Forest's hunting list before he was taken to the brig by Obstar's team of adventurers. And the Drow elves, who were known for their assassinations, were undoubtedly the ones he had dealt with often during that time.

"Although Ost has two layers of seals and a detonation collar on him, I can't let him know where the entrance to the secret passage is just to be on the safe side." Pulling the door to the secret passage open the Doctor gestured for Marianne and Abigail to follow.

The latter, however, did not act immediately, but crouched down with a smirk after the Doctor had half entered the secret passage, "Since you like Snow so much, do an errand for me tomorrow."

"...... What is it?" The Doctor didn't need to think to know that Marianne didn't have good intentions.

"Something to break your heart." After making sure that the elves hadn't been tampered with, Marianne naturally turned her attention to Snow, the only one who hadn't been "tested".

However, she wasn't comfortable letting the Doctor test Snow, so she had to do it herself.

"Go and you'll see." Marianne pressed the Doctor's brain talk way."

"While I'm not one to care about appearances, it's not a good idea to say in front of a woman that she's not as beautiful as another man."

Marianne's smile grew more false, "I'm having a really hard time forgiving you for that! Doctor."

A slender index finger traced the Doctor's throat through thin muscle, making the latter experience the fear of prey being dissected.

The Doctor subconsciously raised his neck in response to Marianne's movements.

His silhouette against the wall was like a dying swan.

"Never mind, I'll forgive you this time."

"But next time, you won't be so lucky."