Why are you obsessed with your fake wife? - Chapter 25-2

The finance administrators were excited and exclaimed in agreement. One of them asked, looking at Nadia with sparkling eyes.

“Did you come up with this method of bookkeeping?”

“No, that can’t be. I’m not a genius.”

“Then is it the accounting method used in the capital? I can’t believe the North hasn’t known about this method yet. It’s really innovative!”

“That’s not it either…”

Nadia was a little vague at the end of her speech. What should I say about this?

After a moment’s hesitation, she immediately continued.

“Someone from far away taught me. In his hometown, it’s called ‘double bookkeeping’.”

“By far away, do you mean the East Continent across the sea?”

“I’m not sure about that.”

Nadia also thought at first that Lee Jiho came from the East Continent.

After their engagement, she had a chance to have a frank conversation with him, and each time, he would talk about his hometown.

A land farther than the Eastern Continent.

A land that no matter how long one sailed on a ship, one could never reach.

Everything he said was full of incredible things.

He told her that people flew in the sky with a wagon heavier than a house, and that there was an apparatus that could help people to talk with someone far away.

It was like a fairy tale that her nanny told her when she was young.

Nadia’s expression hardened bitterly as she recalled the old memories.

Then Wayne, who was listening to her answer, cut in and said.

“Madam, can I ask one thing about you?”

“As long as I can answer.”

“The one who taught you about double bookkeeping, I was wondering if they were the same person who taught you how to run a business.”

“Yes, it’s the same person.”

“As expected, I see.”

Wayne nodded as if he knew she would affirm his prediction. Then, Nadia asked him back.

“Why are you curious about that?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. I’m just wondering. I was wondering how you knew how to do business. It’s not an everyday sight for us to see a noblewoman running her own business. I thought it might be due to the cultural differences since you came from the South.”

“It seemed like customs were completely different from ours. I haven’t been there myself, so I don’t know what it’s like in the South.”

Lee Jiho’s description of his hometown was incredible. It wasn’t just about strange apparatus.

A world without kings and nobles

Nadia used to look forward to hearing stories even though it was hard to believe such a magical world he told her.

‘In my world, both women and men received the same education. It’s not something to be pointed at, and it’s not weird. It’s just something that… should be a given.’

‘Then, what do you use it for?’

‘So that we can get a job.’

The reason why his story was poison to her even though she thought it was too good to be true.

Because it made Nadia want to live in that world.

‘You’re smart, Miss Nadia. To the point where it just feels like it’s a waste for you to live in the shadow of your father. If it were in my world… No, you could have been more free if you had been born in a different era.’

He told her many stories.

Economy, politics, and war.

It was something that no one had ever taught Nadia, or that Nadia had ever thought of learning herself.

Since those knowledge would be useless for the noble daughter.

The life of an illegitimate child with a Duke as her father was obvious.

When the time came, she would marry into the marriage her father had decided. And she would have a child and die when her time came.

That was the existing rule Nadia knew.

If she hadn’t learned anything from Lee Jiho, she wouldn’t have been able to make good use of the luck of being back in the past.

Nadia may have been complacent that she got to avoid her unjust death simply by marrying the Marquis of Winterfell.

‘If I had done so in the past, I’m sure I would have been only waiting to see if I would still be hated even after I have given all my dowry to pay off their debt.’

As far as Nadia knew, it would have been the only way to survive and to be loved by her husband.

However, using the story Lee Jiho told her, Nadia was able to break away from this world’s common sense.

She could look at the world in a different way than before.

Even a noble daughter could live without the protection of her father, husband, or son.

In that sense, Lee Jiho was no more than her teacher.

Unfortunately, Nadia was not very important to Lee Jiho.

A tool that he could abandon to climb the social ladder higher.

That was all.

Nadia smiled bitterly for a moment and then looked bright again.

There were too many eyes looking at her and it reminded her not to be lost in the bitter old memories.

“Is there anything else you’re curious about?”

“No, that would be all.”

“Then let’s go back to talking about the herbs. As you know, our estate is heavily in debt. The number of herbs we need to gain enough gold by the due date…..”

The office gradually heated up with discussion.