Chapter 32 - 20: The Ball (5)
"I've already asked about Miss Shelley in detail."
"How did it go?" Yilin listened to Abi Robbs' report while holding a wine glass, greeting the other nobles from a distance with a smile. Simultaneously, she noticed Gray and Shelley in the center of the dance floor, paying attention to their every move.
"Miss Shelley is not engaged at the moment, nor does she have a lover. However, I've heard that several heirs of city families are her suitors. It's not surprising; she's the beloved granddaughter of Count Gruglu. Marrying her would mean forming an unbreakable alliance with the Gruglu family. For most nobles, this would be perfect. However, Count Gruglu doesn't seem to be in a hurry to marry off this granddaughter. Moreover... her own behavior is indeed rather inappropriate."
"Has she done something particularly outrageous?"
"Not exactly. But there's evidence suggesting that she's deliberately stirring up conflicts among several families."
"Stirring up conflicts? For what purpose?"
"Perhaps... as a hobby," Abi Robbs stammered, "She doesn't benefit from it, but she seems to enjoy causing others to have conflicts because of her."
"Oh? Really? I wouldn't mind if Gray marries her, but is it possible that she wants Gray to become just another one of her many suitors?"
In times of peace, nobles like Yilin, whose families faced great crises, were few and far between. And someone like Gray, who earned a title of nobility by his own efforts, was even rarer in the entire White City.
For the vast majority of nobles, their lives consisted of two things—marriage alliances and raising children.
Having heirs meant having successors. Without them, even the greatest families would be in vain. Marriage alliances were unquestionable—this was the only way for nobles to climb up. Almost every noble family had a thick genealogy book marked with various blood relations. Through continuous marriages and inheritances, day after day, year after year, they expanded their family's domain. Meanwhile, they entangled the entire nation's blood relationships into a tangled web.