Chapter 7
Episode 7. Responsibility and Duty (2)
[My beloved daughter Tiria, your father sends you yet another letter.]
The letter began with that opening.
It started with routine greetings, asking after her well-being and sharing recent news, before subtly adding its true purpose at the end.
Perhaps this was simply how nobles wrote; the letter was plastered with all sorts of flowery rhetoric and metaphors, beating around the bush instead of saying what needed to be said in one go. However, the destination of those words was crystal clear.
Elric read the letter over and over with wide eyes.
Was it a blessing or a curse to have the talent for reading the context of a situation?
‘This is…’
[Ten years is enough. Come back now and join me. If you wish, I can even find you a new match. Stop waiting for a man who will not return, and take what is yours to take. You’ve suffered enough, haven’t you?]
The letter was telling her.
To take the inheritance bequeathed to her and return home.
His hand dropped.
His gaze remained fixed on the letter.
‘Right, why didn’t I think of this?’
His father had liquidated all those vast assets and placed them in his name.
There was no share in there for her.
Wouldn’t it be natural for her to feel wronged?
Any ordinary person would covet that inheritance.
Elric recalled Tiria’s face.
She was a beautiful woman of few words.
A woman whose innate dignity naturally made others feel intimidated.
She was that kind of woman, and…
‘…She must have suffered a great deal.’
She was a woman who had endured a long time alone.
Indeed, had she not lived for nine years under that desolate father of his without even a husband by her side?
To be honest, he would have nothing to say even if she did take the inheritance.
In Elric’s mind, it was her rightful due.
If he assumed she was still here because of the inheritance, the answer came easily.
His mind cleared.
And yet,
‘Why…’
Why did his chest feel so heavy and stifled, as if filled with dark clouds?
He wondered if the peaceful time in Wibin was the problem, or if it was just his childish heart not wanting his bittersweet first love to be tarnished.
A somewhat escapist thought began to surface.
What fueled such thoughts was a certain behavior of hers that he still couldn’t understand.
‘…If it was for the inheritance, why did she work so hard?’
Elric remembered her diligently checking the wheat fields every day.
He remembered how she made sure to have breakfast with him every morning, and the fact that she had been receiving letters like this every day until late at night.
In truth, if she wanted to take the inheritance, she was someone who could have taken it a year ago.
If she were merely walking on eggshells because of his return, she didn’t seem to have been idle during that one year in between, either.
There was a part of it that pricked a corner of his heart unpleasantly, so Elric stood up.
He scanned the office where sunlight was pouring in through the window.
Since the space was no different from his father’s time, he could roughly guess what was where.
Elric opened a drawer in one of the bookshelves.
‘As I thought, it’s here.’
There was a pile of letters stacked inside.
Upon inspection, they were all letters from the Wibin family.
He took them out and read them one by one.
The letters had all started coming a year ago, and their purpose was consistently the inheritance that had returned to his share.
Whether she had never replied even once, some letters even contained phrases begging for a response.
Elric let out a hollow laugh.
The answer all of this pointed to was so clear that it made him feel ashamed for having doubted her.
‘She was protecting it.’
She was protecting an inheritance for which she couldn’t even be certain the owner would return.
Seeing as even Aldio didn’t know this, it meant she had hidden the fact thoroughly. Aldio wouldn’t have tried to know something his master didn’t permit, after all.
Thinking about how she had been fighting alone all year, Elric cast his gaze out the window for no reason.
‘Why did you do that?’
The wheat fields stretched out. Within them, Tiria was working among the people.
The sight of her wearing a straw hat caught his eye.
Elric wanted to know the reason.
Moreover, he was the type who could hardly suppress such curiosity.
Leaving the office, Elric spoke.
“Aldio.”
“Yes.”
“Please call for the Young Lady.”
He chose the direct approach.
Tiria tidied her appearance in front of the mirror.
She was in the best mood she had been in lately.
…No, come to think of it, her mood had generally been quite good recently.
It was because Elric, whom she thought would push her away forever as if she didn’t exist, was at least dealing with her now.
Not only that, although it was artificial enough to be obvious at a glance, there were times when he showed her a smile.
Even if it was a false smile, wasn’t she secretly happy that she was the one it was directed at?
Call her foolish if you must, but what could she do when her heart had left her on its own to hover around him?
Today, he had even requested to see her first.
It was the first time.
She couldn’t help but feel expectant.
‘Will this do?’
She wasn’t quite satisfied because she had come out in a hurry while checking the fields.
Even though she had changed her clothes, she worried that she might smell of earth, and her hair felt unkempt.
She thought she might need just a little more grooming… but there wasn’t much time.
“Madam, are you ready?”
Aldio spoke from outside the door.
Tiria swallowed her regret and replied.
“Yes, I’m coming out.”
What could be the matter?
Delusional guesses flashed through her mind.
If he wanted to ask her to have dinner together, or if he wanted to talk about some other personal business, how should she respond? Such thoughts would not go away.
Preparing answers for every possible reason one by one, she arrived at the drawing room on the first floor.
And his business, once again, was in a form very different from Tiria’s wishes.
“I saw a letter like this. First, I am sorry. For opening it without permission.”
It felt as if her heart had dropped.
She couldn’t possibly not recognize it.
It was because it was a letter from her parents’ home that had tormented her so terribly for the past year.
As she wondered why it was here, Elric answered.
“It was tucked between the letters Aldio was moving.”
What a coincidence.
A sense of unease washed over her.
What if he misunderstood her intentions? What if he regarded her as a shameless woman staying here with an eye on the inheritance?
All sorts of ominous imaginings scrambled through her head, but fortunately, that wasn’t the case.
“…Actually, I looked for more. I’ve come to roughly learn that you, Young Lady, have ignored these letters for the past year.”
She couldn’t be happy.
Even while relieved there was no misunderstanding, there were words that gouged her heart.
‘Young Lady…’
To him, she was still just a “Young Lady.”
“I called you simply because I wanted to ask. Why did you protect my share of the inheritance, when you couldn’t even be sure I would return? You could have taken it.”
To him, she was a stranger.
A stranger so distant that the act of protecting the inheritance became a question.
Her eyes stung for no reason.
Her heart, which had been relieved just that the coldness from their first meeting had vanished, had grown greedy before she knew it and was being wounded anew by such a thing.
“Can you tell me? Why didn’t you return to Wibin, Young Lady?”
He asked something so obvious.
He gouged her heart with a question so indifferent it was cruel.
His face was calm.
Should she be glad there was no anger or contempt?
‘No.’
She would rather he did; then she could have resigned herself, reminded that she was someone he hated.
His face, which made her harbor useless expectations, was truly heartless.
And so, she spoke.
It was close to a complaint.
Tiria made the best struggle she could.
“Portman.”
“Hmm…?”
“I am Tiria Portman.”
I am the mistress of Portman, not the young lady of Wibin.
I am your wife.
She couldn’t bring herself to utter those following words.
For fear that contempt would return in response to those words, for fear that they would become worse than strangers.
It was a cowardly heart that would rather remain a stranger.
Fortunately, his expression didn’t crumple.
Her voice also came out clearly.
The etiquette she had perfected through grueling discipline as a child was masking her sadness.
The harsh punishment she had hated so much felt fortunate for the first time.
He asked with a bewildered face.
“Is that all?”
“Is there a need for any other reason?”
Ah, she had spat those words out properly this time, too.
But how much longer could she keep this up?
Under the table, her hands gathered over her knees were clenched tight.
It felt like the blood wasn’t circulating.
If she stayed long, she would only end up showing a pathetic side of herself.
“May I leave now? I still have work remaining.”
“That, well…”
Elric, who had been parting his lips, soon nodded slowly.
Tiria stood up from her seat.
She feigned composure.
After straightening her back, she placed her right hand over her chest and gave a short bow.
“Then, I shall take my leave.”
Raising her head again, she minded her pace as she exited the drawing room.
Walking down the hallway alone, she calmed her breathing.
Her insides ached with a sharp sting, but fortunately, it was a familiar feeling.
By tomorrow, she would be able to look at him just as she always did.
