Translator: Nox

50 - The Bride of the Great Lord is a Warrior from Hell

Before the gate of the mansion, painted in the color of lilac petals, stood a middle-aged woman with a stern expression.

She merely gave Reikart, who was stepping out of the carriage, a light nod.

It was not the kind of behavior one would show to royalty.

However, Reikart did not punish her or make an issue of it.

"Let's go in."

"She is waiting."

The woman with dark brown hair and a rigid look opened the door and greeted Reikart.

Reikart followed her into the mansion.

Although it could not compare to the noble residences in the Imperial Capital, the land of the mansion, built as a villa, was not small.

The two had to walk more than a hundred steps.

They did not exchange a single word from the mansion gate to the entrance.

Camille, the woman with the stern expression, opened the front door.

"Greetings to His Highness, the Grand Duke."

As the front door opened, the servants of the mansion bowed in unison.

In the mansion, there were women wearing stiff bonnets, not maids with headscarves.

They were scribes belonging to the Great Temple.

Reikart paid no attention to the purple bonnets greeting him and ascended the stone stairs on one side of the hall.

The mansion consisted of three floors.

The spiral staircase and the railings on the second and third floors were decorated with gentle curves, just like the exterior of the mansion.

Reikart, who quickly reached the third floor, headed to the room at the end of the hallway.

Camille, who had been following him, carefully opened the door.

The room, decorated in bright colors, was warm and elegant.

The bed, which occupied most of the room, had fluttering lace curtains hanging down.

The wind blew in through the slightly open window, swaying the beautiful curtains.

A slender woman's hand emerged from between the gently moving curtains.

"Your Highness?"

Reikart approached the bed and firmly grasped the hand that sought him.

"Yes, I have come."

His large hands covered the woman's hand as if embracing it.

Reikart knelt beside the curtains and leaned towards the bed.

The frail woman's hand embraced Reikart's neck.

"Your Highness, I missed you."

At the woman's whisper, Reikart smiled as he looked at her face buried in the pillow.

He kissed the woman's hand he was holding.

"I missed you too."

At Reikart's whisper, the woman chuckled.

It was a laugh filled with joy.

"You haven't come in so long. I know you're busy, but I'm sad. Reikart hasn't been looking for me lately either. I guess that means he's becoming a young man. It's annoying, but I'll forgive him because he's lovely."

The face resting on the pillow wore a warm smile.

"Has Reikart been like that?"

Reikart's face, as he looked at her, remained unwavering.

However, he cast a glance at Camille, who was standing beside him, for a very brief moment.

"……."

Camille only gave the Grand Duke a sorrowful expression in response to his gaze.

"Your Highness."

The woman lying beyond the fluttering curtains.

The traces of long years remained as wrinkles on the face of the Countess of Lua.

Hair that had turned completely white.

A thin, emaciated body rose and fell weakly.

Only the green eyes within the fine wrinkles sparkled with life.

"Yes, Madam."

Reikart's voice, as he answered, was full of compassion.

"Please cherish Reikart with love. He is taciturn but a good child."

"I will……."

"I feel myself growing weaker day by day. I worry because he isolates himself and makes loneliness his friend. Your Highness must become Reikart's friend."

At the Countess of Lua's words, Reikart simply nodded.

The Countess patted his shoulder with her wrinkled hand as if praising Reikart's nod.

The Countess, who coughed lightly, soon fell asleep.

"……."

Reikart watched the sleeping Countess of Lua for a long time.

He stared silently at the countless wrinkles before leaving the room without a sound.

"Your Highness."

Camille called out to Reikart, who was silently descending the stairs.

"Since when?"

Reikart, who had been walking ahead, stopped.

His face, as he turned to look at Camille, was overlaid with devastation.

"We, the servants, do not know when the symptoms appeared. We noticed it about two years ago."

"Why to me……!"

As Reikart raised his voice, Camille shook her head while looking behind her.

"Because the Madam has never failed to recognize Your Highness."

"When did it get worse?"

"Her condition has deteriorated in the last six months. But I never thought she would fail to recognize even Your Highness. Until just before you came to get the Marguerite Ruby, she confused the past and present, but as soon as she saw Your Highness, she immediately recognized the passage of time."

Camille's face was filled with unspeakable frustration.

The stern expression had disappeared, leaving only sorrow.

"You all are suffering."

"Do not visit too often. On the rare days when the Madam is lucid, she realizes your mistake and grieves."

"I will be careful. I will be going now."

Reikart spoke briefly and continued walking.

Before Camille could react, he quickly left the mansion.

Camille's eyes, as she watched his retreating back, were filled with complexity.

Reikart's face, as he headed towards the mansion gate, was twisted in agony.

He stopped and looked back as he strode towards those waiting for him.

The scenery of the villa, simple yet with a charming beauty, came into view.

"Those bound by Tessen and the oath are destined to be unhappy."

He let out a sigh-like word and resumed walking.

Whenever the face that came to mind from the moment he entered the mansion threatened to fill his mind, Reikart focused on the unpleasant pain.

A brilliant, yet cursed bloodline.

The image he had of himself was that of a monstrosity itself.

---

Four days had passed since Alisha returned to Rubern.

In the meantime, the month had changed to March.

The sunlight had become noticeably warmer.

However, the dawn and night were still as cold as midwinter, and the air that touched the cheeks even in the middle of the day was chilly.

A visitor who had pierced through the cold dawn air stood before Alisha.

"Lady Alisha. This is a gift of gratitude from the Empress to the Lady. Please take a look."

Debi, a lady-in-waiting from the Empress Palace, said with an expressionless face.

Daisy, who was standing next to Debi, presented a jewelry box in her arms.

Debi, with a composed face, helped open the jewelry box.

"……!"

Inside the jewelry box, there were compartments for 12 rings.

The platinum rings depicted the appearance of plants according to the temperature changes of the 12 months.

The rings belonging to winter were simply decorated with dark-colored gemstones, and as they moved towards spring and summer, the leaves were filled with numerous small jewels.

The rings representing autumn each had distinct characteristics: glamorous, elegant, and lovely.

What was puzzling was that there were no rings corresponding to January and February.

"How is it?"

At Debi's question, Alisha spread a polite smile.

"It is an excessive gift."

"The Empress said that Lady Alisha is fully qualified to receive this gift. If you like it, may I request a reply letter?"

Debi did not separately mention the reason why the January and February rings were missing.

"Of course."

Alisha also did not ask the reason.

She diligently maintained only a subtle and polite smile.

"I will be waiting."

Debi took a step back and bowed her head.

"Daisy."

Alisha rose from the chair in the reception room and went to the desk prepared on one side.

Daisy carefully put away the jewelry box sent by the Empress and put a black writing apron on Alisha.

"……."

Alisha sat down at the desk and unknowingly let out a sigh of relief.

The hand that wrote on the pre-cut paper was unhesitating.

Daisy's face, as she watched from the side, was filled with a bewildered expression.

Daisy could not hide her expression, but she did not express her doubts to the young lady she served in front of others.

Alisha sealed the letter and handed it to Daisy.

"Shall I deliver it?"

Daisy asked pointedly, glancing sideways at the Empress's lady-in-waiting.

"Just a moment."

Daisy was quickly relieved at Alisha's words.

'She must have made a mistake because she didn't get enough sleep last night,' she thought, when Alisha got up from her chair and left the reception room without even taking off her apron.

Daisy could not follow Alisha because there was an outsider in the room.

"……."

Alisha, who had briefly left the reception room, soon returned.

In Alisha's hand was a rolled-up piece of paper tied with a checkered pattern ribbon.

"Give this with it."

"Yes."

What Alisha had brought was a musical score.

Daisy did not know what kind of song it was, but she knew that it was an item of enormous price.

Almost all of the musical scores that Alisha possessed required the highest quality seawater pearls of the same weight as the paper.

Daisy happily watched the young lady who had become good at expressing what she wanted to say.

However, she felt sick every time she saw her buying musical scores or books with clear traces of tea stains and a musty smell.

A stuffy chest and a blocked head.

In particular, the items that Daisy was dissatisfied with purchasing were musical scores.

She was dumbfounded that a musical score with a few lines and a few dots was more expensive than a book with hundreds of pages.

Alisha, a young lady from a noble family, played the piano and the violin.

However, she did not particularly enjoy music.

If she was collecting them because she liked them so much, she could understand it a little.

But she didn't even look at them after buying them.

When a sale came up, Alisha immediately found out where she got the information and stepped up to the front line of purchasing.

At such times, Alisha looked not like she was buying something, but like a hunter snatching prey.

She was beaming when she acquired the item, but Daisy felt her mysterious illness growing whenever she roughly put the purchased item anywhere.

And her hands trembled when she gave away such an enormous price of an item to others like now.

Speaking of the musical score in her hand now, she had bought it for 50 of the highest quality seawater pearls.

Daisy, as an excellent lady-in-waiting, hid her trembling and sighs and delivered the musical score and letter.

Debi, who received the items, bowed to Alisha.

"I will deliver the Lady's letter to Her Majesty the Empress. I will be leaving now."

"Take care on your way. Daisy, see her off."

Daisy was distracted by the musical score that Debi was holding carelessly.

She was anxious that the musical score might get crumpled.

Alisha had no idea about Daisy's feelings.

"Yes."

Daisy managed to answer and guided Debi outside.

Alisha, who saw the reception room door closing, let out a long sigh.

"Phew, that's a relief."

The fact that the rings representing January and February were missing from the Empress's rings representing the 1 year, 12 months, meant the Empress's pregnancy.

It seemed that the part she was most worried about when she interfered and something changed was following the original flow.

She would be relieved now and anxious when the Empress gave birth.

Anyway, she was happy and relieved at this moment.

Alisha wanted to express her joy by running to the end of the reception room, but she couldn't.

"Young Lady."

Daisy, who had seen Debi off, returned to the reception room.

Daisy was planning to politely express her opinion to Alisha on this occasion.

The Marquis family was wealthy, and Alisha, who had become the prospective Grand Duchess, was even wealthier, but there were places where she should splurge and places where she shouldn't.

She was about to suggest that she buy dresses and jewelry instead of musty, moldy musical scores.