Inadvertently, my eyes dipped toward the renowned blade slung at his hip. And naturally, my mind conjured the gruesome memory of how many severed heads that icy, ruthless steel had sent flying in a single stroke.
“Th-that… is true. That is certainly true. However, what I mean is—”
“As you said, if not you, someone else would come as Grand Duchess. If this process is to occur without any deeper meaning anyway, I intend to put all my focus into the beginning. It suits my nature to settle things on the first attempt.”
“…”
That doesn’t mean you have to fondle your sword while you say it.
Thoroughly subdued, I folded my hands politely over each other. I truly, desperately wanted to live. The sheer will to survive dragged out every scrap of courtesy and etiquette buried in the depths of my soul.
“I see. But human relationships—especially that of husband and wife—aren’t something that simply fall into place just because you decide to focus on them…”
“Having trampled across every continent there is, I believe I have fulfilled my principal duties as a warmonger well enough.”
“…Pardon?”
“I intend to shoulder a measure of responsibility as the head of a household as well.”
“…I see.”
A very commendable notion, but why on earth are you telling me?
As I glanced up in bewilderment, the lines of Kiers’s expression softened ever so slightly. The realization that I was actually beginning to read the face beneath that mask made me dizzy—surely something was wrong with me. And Kiers was not the sort of man to bite his tongue just because a lady looked lightheaded.
“And as for the bedchamber, you can see for yourself soon enough.”
“What?”
“I cannot say I lack confidence.”
…He isn’t even smiling.
It felt as though my eyes and ears had been cleanly sliced away while I stood staring wide-eyed. I squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them again. I had officially reached the point where I couldn’t tell what I was hearing or what was spilling out of my own mouth.
“Your Grace, I understand your intentions, but applying such profound dedication to just anyone… w-well, it feels rather wasted on someone like me—”
“Of course, before embarking on any of that,”
“…”
“I happen to find you quite suitable.”
Elijah Mayfield.
Kiers gave a faint nod and began to turn away, only to pause and glance back toward me. Surely he only meant ‘suitable as an arranged marriage partner,’ yet my soul had already drifted far past the point of return.
“So, as long as we are doing this…”
Drawing near like a prowling beast, he seemed intent on playing the devoted husband from day one. After all, he was dutifully informing his dazed bride-to-be of what was to come.
“I hope you find me quite suitable as well.”
* * *
“Ah…”
I have no memory of how I made it back to the tea table. Slumping into the chair, I dragged both hands down my dry face. At least Kiers had departed first due to his schedule, though whether he was there or not, my stomach would have churned just the same.
“Lady Elijah, please drink.”
“…Philip.”
With a soft splash, he filled my cup with tea, and I downed it all in one gulp. Now was hardly the time to worry about propriety or keeping up appearances.
…What about my wasteland? Where did my alimony go?
Far from bringing up what I needed to say, I had returned strapped with a massive bomb instead. Even when Father announced that one of his daughters had to be sent as the beast’s bride, I hadn’t been this rattled. I longed to close my eyes, but the moment I did, an auditory hallucination of a ticking timer buzzed in my ears, counting down my burning lifeline.
“My lady, are you all right? Your complexion looks terrible…”
“Well, you see… no, it’s nothing.”
My parted lips closed dryly before another word slipped out.
Well, you see, my husband claims he intends to be thoroughly dutiful in his role.
If I aired this out as a grievance, I’d be lucky not to get pelted with a thousand spiteful comments and banned for humblebragging. On top of that, Philip was the Grand Duke’s lawyer.
…Wait, he’s a lawyer, isn’t he?
I snapped my face up from my hands.
“Excuse me, Philip. May I ask you something?”
“Go right ahead.”
“Well, this is just out of personal curiosity. Of course, it has nothing to do with me.”
“…Is that so?”
Philip played along with an expression of thinly veiled pity. I knew perfectly well how suspicious I must look right now, but there was no one else I could ask.
“If someone fails to perform their obligations under a marriage contract, is there… a f-fine or something?”
“…”
“Again, this is purely hypothetical.”
“Naturally. It wouldn’t concern you, my lady.”
Philip offered a smooth, professional smile. The practiced motion with which he gathered his documents exuded the air of a true expert.
“Unless an alimony amount is agreed upon in advance, the standard principle is that the at-fault spouse must repay tenfold the value of whatever dowry or wedding gifts exchanged hands.”
“T-tenfold?”
“Of course, that applies to ordinary cases. His Grace the Grand Duke is imperial royalty, so matters are handled differently. Money holds no meaning for him.”
“Right? I figured as much…”
“Yes. He usually settles such matters with his sword.”
From his calm explanations down to his patient instruction for a legal novice, Philip was clearly an excellent lawyer. But before any of that, he was also the Grand Duke’s lawyer. The lawyer of Kiers Valencia—the ruler of the North and a terrifying beast.
“Ah, that reminds me of an old incident. When His Grace first arrived in the North, you should have seen how he dealt with the local administrators who failed to fulfill their contract. Well, not that I witnessed it firsthand, of course.”
“Ah… well, rumors are prone to exaggeration, after all.”
“They have to be. None of the people who saw it with their own eyes survived.”
“…”
“Phew, when I went to clean up afterward, the blood came up to my ankles, and getting rid of the stench took quite an effort. Not to mention, bits of flesh had splattered everywhere—”
“I’ll take my leave now! Thank you so much!”
Stop with the gory details, please! Don’t go taking a stroll down memory lane with that sort of thing!
Stifling my churning stomach, I kicked back my chair and fled on the spot. Staying alive came first—I had to survive.
I sprinted wildly through the gardens, panting for breath.
“Haaah…”
‘I hope you find me quite suitable as well.’
Are you kidding me? No, please tell me it was a joke.
Waaah. Should I head to a temple somewhere and beg, banging my head against the altar? All I had to do was fill the seat for a while and take my alimony—what is this nonsense about a real husband? Sure, I might be pretty, and sure, he might have been starved for years, but this is absurd.
I had clung to that modest hope only because I was a worthless extra who didn’t even qualify as a supporting character. But getting tangled up with Kiers in the wrong way would become a recipe for disaster on its own.
Have I read only one or two romance novels in my life? If you mingle flesh or feelings with the male lead when a proper female lead already exists, you become a loose end marked for disposal.
Of course, that was largely because most of those women were villainesses screeching, ‘You can’t have my man!’ Still, novels generally make a point of clearing away a lead’s past lovers as a form of fan service. Why? Because a woman who has slept with your man cannot be allowed to exist. A heroine claiming, ‘Though you shared a flirtation in the past, I can forgive it with an ocean of benevolence,’ isn’t kind—she’s an idiot.
“…Please be an idiot, Cecil.”
There was only one tiny hope left to cling to. Only then could I send our Rose to an academy in Hessen, set her up as the head of the Platinum Guild, and head off to an overseas branch to enjoy life with a younger male employee…
“Rose!”
That’s right! Our Rose!
“Rose! Where are you!”
Chills broke out across my skin as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over my head. My husband claiming he’d fulfill his husbandly duties, telling me to do the same, his unspeakable cruelty—even if all those nightmares were combined, none of it mattered compared to losing Rose.
“Rose!”
Scanning the deserted surroundings, my vision went completely black.
* * *
‘W-well, it feels rather wasted on someone like me…’
The way bewilderment had rippled through those deep violet eyes was still vivid in his mind.
She really is fascinating. Chuckling softly, Kiers swept his hair back. The mask snagged against his fingers as it always did, cumbersome as ever, though living like this for several years meant it no longer suffocated him as it once had. And taking the mask off carried a different kind of suffocation altogether.
“…Mmh.”
Even so, moments came when he felt the urge to take it off. Like when standing before a woman lifting her chin at him with her chest heaving. Or standing behind her as she turned away with an obvious pretense of composure, wearing a smile.
“…”
It was both strange and unfamiliar that impulses and expectations still lingered within him. Frowning as he turned on his heel, the most uncharacteristic sound in his turbulent life drifted into his ears.
“Hmm-mm. Wild berries, one, two, four…”
“…”
The only noises that ever belonged in the Grand Duke’s Castle were the shouts of knights, the whinnies of horses, or the desperate final struggles of condemned men. In such a place, a child’s thin humming was so out of the ordinary it could have been dismissed as an illusion—except he already knew precisely who it was.
“…The little bunny gave Rose candy, hmm, hm-mm.”
Standing along a path in the rear garden, Rose hummed to herself. Heaven knew how she had made it this far, dragging a basket nearly the size of her own body.
“…”
Nor did he have any idea why his knights were crouching behind the trees.
“…”
Just where had they been following her from?
