Ch#66
In all twenty-nine years of her life, nothing like this had ever happened.
Her body reacting first when facing someone, lowering her head because meeting their eyes was too difficult, and feeling like a fool for acting that way.
None of those things had ever occurred in Igret’s life before.
“Did you call for me?”
the soft, calm voice trickled into her ears.
The sensation made it feel as though all other noise had been erased.
“Ye-es…”
Igret produced the most girlish voice she had ever made in her living days.
Then, she panicked.
‘Wh-what the fuck…’
Why is my voice like this?
Why is it coming out so thin and small?
Igret suddenly recalled her usual self—boldly spitting out curses—and shuddered at the staggering sense of disconnect.
However, doing so changed nothing.
“Um, are you a mage?”
“Ye-es…”
“Do you have business in our territory?”
How could her observation skills be so sharp?
The comment about the mistress of Portman, and her own robe.
There were only two clues, yet in that short time, she had woven the cause and effect together to derive an answer.
That brilliance made Igret’s heart skip even more erratically.
“Th-that is…”
She felt lightheaded, as if the world were spinning.
It was so hot for some reason that she wanted to throw off her robe right then and there, but she couldn’t.
Because this was the East.
And because she was a celebrity.
If she were to reveal her face and an article titled ‘Flame Demon Igret is in the East!’ was published, Kalbaran would be instantly exposed to invasion.
Even amidst her confusion, Igret worried about such things and pulled her robe down further.
“I… I know someone at… that mansion.”
For some reason, she felt like she had to use formal speech.
Igret curled her body inward.
The woman gracefully clasped her hands in front of her and gave a short, polite nod.
“As this is an unexpected meeting, I haven’t been able to show proper courtesy. I am Tiria of the Portman family, which rules over Wibin.”
Tiria Portman. Tiria Portman. Tiria Portman.
Igret repeated the name over and over in her mind.
The thought that she must never forget it surged within her like madness.
“I… Ig.”
“Ig?”
“My name… is.”
Tiria let out a soft “Ah” and offered her courtesy once more.
“Mage Ig, I see. Would you like to board the carriage for now? I have just finished my errands.”
Mages were a rare resource.
Among them, a mage draped in a gold-trimmed robe was high-level personnel welcomed anywhere on the continent.
Even if their utility had decreased with industrial development, a high-ranking mage was still practically equivalent to nobility.
For Tiria, it was only natural to show her proper respect.
Of course, Igret couldn’t take it that way.
She had been a mage of the gold-trimmed robe since before she reached adulthood, and she was someone who had been treated with deference her entire life.
In a situation where such treatment wasn’t even novel, her nerves were frayed by the person in front of her for reasons she couldn’t fathom.
‘Is… is she interested in me?’
Beyond the issue of being two women or the other being a married woman, the thought arose from the realm of pure instinct.
Perhaps it was a wish.
“Th-thank… you.”
Igret barely managed to squeeze those words out through her confusion.
While she couldn’t find the reason why her heart was acting this way, Tiria nodded and guided Igret toward the carriage.
Igret didn’t know.
‘Mages truly are peculiar, just as the Lord said.’
That Tiria found her behavior strange.
And that the cause of that warning was Kasha, the very person she was looking for today.
‘Mages generally lack social skills. Among all the mages I’ve met over the past ten years, not a single one was sane.’
It was a secret that would remain forever unrevealed.
Clatter, clatter.
As the carriage rolled slowly along the road, Igret constantly stole glances at Tiria sitting beside her.
Thanks to the woman’s lack of talkativeness, she was finding a bit of room to organize her thoughts.
‘What on earth is this?’
Igret placed a hand over her chest and felt the rapid thumping.
Why did she feel so small in front of this woman?
‘Do… do I like her? I like women?’
Was the reason she had never found a man to her liking until now because of this?
Had she become an old maid because her sexual identity was so skewed?
‘…No.’
That wasn’t it.
Without going far, she could derive the answer just by exercising a bit of imagination.
Think about it.
Usually, when one thinks of romance or marriage, there’s an impulse to do this and that with the other person.
But Igret didn’t feel those kinds of emotions.
On the contrary, she felt like she didn’t want to lay a finger on her.
A feeling that touching her would be a mortal sin that should never be committed under the heavens.
She wanted her to maintain her current state.
Noble, beautiful, and elegant—she wanted her to remain frozen forever just as she was.
To put it another way.
‘Admiration?’
Perhaps that was the emotion.
Even a genius archmage’s brain, though a bit scrambled, was sharp enough to find the answer to her own feelings quickly.
Surprisingly, it was idolization.
Igret, who had always been everyone else’s idol, was experiencing serving someone else as an idol for the first time in her life.
It was a moment that brought a hollow laugh to her lips.
“However, may I ask who it is you are looking for?”
“Hu-huh…?”
“If you have an acquaintance at the mansion, it must be someone among the servants, but there is no one among our household staff who seems likely to have a connection with a mage.”
Naturally.
Considering the meticulousness of Kasha, who had hidden all the way out here, he wouldn’t have done anything to risk his identity being discovered so easily.
“That’s…”
Then, a sudden thought occurred to her.
‘What if Kasha is targeting this woman?’
Thump. Her heart felt like it was sinking.
The thought of this woman being defiled by that wicked ghost sent shivers down her spine like never before.
Igret stole a glance upward.
Looking at Tiria, who was staring right back at her, she made a vow to herself.
‘I will protect you…!’
Fate must have led her here.
With that thought in mind, Igret continued her answer.
“Ma-marriage…! Is!”
She would personally take on a filthy man like Kasha and protect this woman in her beautiful state!
“Marriage… Ah, are you promised to be wed?”
“Roughly…?”
“That is surprising. For someone of your age, Mage, would it be Ron? Dane? Or perhaps… one of the knights.”
The longest sentence yet came out of her mouth.
Was she interested in other people’s love lives?
Her tone had become a bit brighter too.
It was nice because she seemed somewhat girlish.
“He’s… probably using… a fake name.”
As she answered shyly, trying to pull down the corners of her mouth that were threatening to grin, Tiria’s fingertips flinched.
Ah, if she said a servant of the family was using a fake name, it might sound suspicious.
“I’ll… take him away.”
I’ll clear away the nuisance from before your eyes.
When she spoke with that meaning, Tiria fell into thought for a moment before nodding her head.
“It is an embarrassing situation for a humble rural estate. I must inform the Lord to pay more attention to security.”
“If you mean the Lord…”
“Ah, my hus…band.”
For some reason, the moment she uttered the word ‘husband,’ Tiria’s cheeks seemed to redden.
Her expression didn’t change much, so it was hard to tell for sure, but even so, it was clear that her feelings for the Lord were not small.
It was a fact Igret knew because she was an outsider, and because she was focusing all her nerves on the woman’s slightest reactions.
‘Should I kill him?’
Should she kill the man called her husband?
If he was an impudent wretch who had laid hands on the beautiful Tiria, wouldn’t it be the right path to tear him to pieces?
‘Yes, let’s kill him.’
It was the moment she thought that.
“Ah, we have arrived.”
The carriage stopped.
Through the window, she saw a small, quiet mansion.
To Igret, it was a mansion that looked like a villa in the boondocks.
‘To live in such a small place…’
Her heart felt like it was breaking.
Decision made: kill the Lord and take Tiria and Kasha with her.
Igret stepped down from the carriage.
And Tiria followed her out.
“Wait.”
Tiria reached out and gently caught hold of Igret.
In that instant, from where the heat met, it whispered and spread through her entire body.
A strange pleasure that made her spine tingle surged up.
The sense of transgression was a bonus.
“Ugh…”
It was the moment she let a sound slip.
“…Wife.”
A terrifyingly cold voice rang out.
Bloodlust pressed down on Igret’s entire body.
Tiria, seemingly unaware, answered in her calm voice.
“Ah, My Lord. She is a guest of the mansion.”
“A guest, you say…”
“The Lord?”
It was a familiar voice.
The man’s voice was all too familiar to Igret.
But the titles they used to call each other were so strange.
And this bloodlust was strange.
‘Eh…?’
Lifting her head, Igret could see him.
The man standing before the door leaning on a cane, with the exact features from her memory.
Yet, dressed neatly, he looked different from how she remembered him.
Thump-!
Her heart pounded loudly.
Kasha. Kasha was right before her eyes.
In an unexpected form, sitting in an unexpected position.
“Mage, this is the master of our family.”
Which meant that man, Kasha, was Tiria’s husband.
Her mind went blank.
Even amidst that, Kasha approached.
Leaning on his cane.
At a pace neither slow nor fast.
Crushing her entire body with suffocating bloodlust.
He came right up to her face and then…
“Come here.”
He roughly snatched Tiria and pulled her into his embrace.
Igret looked up.
There stood Kasha, looking down at her as if he were about to tear her to death at any moment.
“…What brings you all the way here?”
The sensation of something invisible tightening around her throat.
It must be his bloodlust.
He was trying to kill her.
It was a strange thing.
The first thing she should have felt was doubt about why he was being hostile toward her.
No, she should have been questioning the fact that the two of them were a married couple.
And she should have been struggling to shake off this bloodlust.
But all of that felt like nothing, and only one thought, one scene, filled Igret’s insides.
“Uh…”
Kasha, emitting bloodlust while distorting his handsome face as if to protect Tiria.
Tiria, held in his arms with a flushed face and eyes wide like a rabbit’s.
And the quiet mansion behind them.
The more she looked, the more it seemed like a scene from a painting, an ideal sight like someone’s delusion.
Only now did Igret realize.
‘Ah, I actually like this kind of thing.’
That she was a hopeless sucker for good looks.
That as long as they were pretty and handsome, she liked everything about it.
She let the words slip as if possessed.
“It’s been a long time…”
And,
“…!”
At those words, Tiria’s face turned pale.
She remembered that Igret’s purpose for coming here was to take away her fiancé.
‘Why is that bitch here?’
Danal felt like his breath was being cut off.
While passing by, he saw Kasha heading out with a murderous expression, so he had followed out of curiosity.
But good heavens, how could this be?
Wasn’t the brat who came with the mistress, who had gone out this morning, none other than the Flame Demon Igret?
‘…We’re fucked.’
Something extraordinary had happened.
Surely, by the end of the day, someone’s head would be rolling on the floor.
Danal quickly left the spot and headed toward the knights’ barracks.
“All knights, asseeeeembleeeee!!!”
As he shouted thunderously, five people, including the page Beron, lined up before him.
Danal spoke with a pale face.
“There is a drill. Maintain the Knight Order’s stealth technique for the entire day! You must not be caught by anyone!”
Snap!
As Danal formed a hand seal, his form blurred.
The four quick-witted knights realized something had happened and similarly formed hand seals to hide themselves.
As for Beron…
‘Being undaunted even in such sudden situations is what makes a knight!’
Smiling brightly, he began to exercise the stealth techniques he had been diligently learning.
Beron was steadily being perfected into an assassin today as well.
The Wife Waited in the Wheat Field (Serial)