Chapter 17
In the noble society of the Kranian Empire, where complex etiquette for greetings had already been established based on age and status, ignoring a greeting was a major issue.
The Duchess of Monde had clearly expressed her displeasure and disgust by ignoring Kaella’s greeting. Honestly, it was an emotionally driven action.
‘If only someone had seen it…… No, what does it matter?’
What was the point of it now? Kaella had already come to a conclusion during her grueling days as the Duchess of Lüsenford.
No one would take her side even if she complained about the injustice. It was better to just swallow it quietly and let it go. After all, that kept things peaceful. Nothing would happen. Or if she protested, she would only end up looking worse and more villainous.
‘Or it would all just fizzle out. In that case, they’d tell me to understand and move on.’
The Duchess of Monde had lost her prospective son-in-law, and poor Lady Lavalle had been robbed of the lover she had cherished for so long.
If Kaella brought it up, she would be accused of being a spoiled rich heiress throwing a tantrum on top of stealing another woman’s man and getting married.
Moreover, this was the Imperial Palace. With the Emperor on edge because of the Empress, Kaella—who walked on thin ice, never knowing when death might come—did not want to be the center of any commotion or gossip. She sincerely wanted to stay quiet.
“Miss. A guest has come to see you.”
So after finishing her business at the Imperial Palace and confirming that her father would not be having a private audience with the Emperor today, Kaella looked at the butler upon returning straight home.
“It is the Lüsenford Duke.”
The name made her feel even more exhausted just hearing it.
‘Why is he here? Did I need to go apologize to the Duchess of Monde? He must have come to blame me for not doing so.’
Obvious, right? He had always unconditionally taken Beatrice’s side. That’s why time spent with her husband always felt suffocating.
Those unreadable violet eyes would silently accuse her every time, and Kaella had always struggled desperately to endure that gaze and appear perfect. A perfect wife? There was no way Kaella could be that.
But because of her foolish, unbroken hope, she kept wearing herself down quietly. So upon hearing that the Lüsenford Duke had come, the first thing that came to mind was the silence and the wordless blame that would pour forth.
“Why did he come?”
“He said he has something to give you…… If you’re tired, he said he can come back in three hours.”
The Duke had clearly conveyed his firm intention to meet.
“Ask him to wait a bit.”
“Yes, Miss.”
Kaella eventually rose from her seat and straightened her attire. Well, it couldn’t hurt. Let’s think positively.
She had already exploded in anger, run away from home, and shown all her ugly sides, so if he picked a fight over this, she had no reason to stay quiet. Better to live angrily and die than pretend to be a good person half-heartedly. At least she could vent her anger now.
Sitting in front of the mirror, she paused while brushing her hair down. The scene flashed back—the Duchess of Monde turning her head away without responding to the greeting.
‘I didn’t do anything wrong.’
If she was going to get angry, she should go yell at the Emperor or the Lüsenford Duke. Kaella had just been the easiest target because she was always polite with her greetings and manners.
If Beatrice came and got mad at Kaella, that would make some sense, but it was ridiculous that her mother was the one causing the scene.
If they were matching statuses properly, shouldn’t the Duchess of Monde go to the Ostein Duke and demand why he stole their prospective son-in-law?
Everything related to that family or the Lüsenford Duke was always like this. Much later, she’d sit alone at the vanity letting her hair down, or sip tea alone and suddenly remember, stroking her aching heart by herself.
Kaella set the brush down with a clack and quickly headed to the drawing room.
The Duchess of Monde had vented her anger on an absurd and easy target, and there was no rule saying Kaella couldn’t do the same. Of course, that didn’t mean the man pacing in the drawing room was an easy target.
“……I’m sorry to come so suddenly.”
He wielded the sword too proficiently, but when standing still, he gave off the air of a well-learned scholar.
She had seen him several times return from war-torn battles, light a lamp, and quietly record his journal. Kaella hated that she remembered and occasionally recalled such trivial scenes one by one.
“I should have contacted you in advance before visiting…….”
“It’s fine. What brings you here?”
The space between the two, overly formal people, felt awkward and distant. One was extremely cautious, the other burning with resolve.
If he had come to scold her because of the Duchess of Monde, Kaella truly wouldn’t stay quiet. Yeah. Bring it on. She was going to marry again into a doomed marriage anyway—the difference between dying after saying what she wanted and dying without saying it was huge.
The problem was that she kept forgetting it was okay to get angry after enduring for so long.
‘It’s okay to get angry. It’s okay to act out. I’m going to die anyway. It’s fine.’
Kaella muttered inwardly as she stood facing Pheon. He was so tall that she had to stand a little back and look up to avoid straining her neck. He held a rather large box with a dark expression.
“Um…… I…….”
Pheon started to say something but gave up and spoke honestly.
“I came to apologize. I heard that the Duchess of Monde ignored the Duke’s Daughter’s greeting today.”
He came to apologize? Kaella stared at the Lüsenford Duke in bewilderment. He had lowered his handsome brows and hung his head. Was this man actually at a loss?
“Because of me, you suffered humiliation, Duke’s Daughter. I’m sorry.”
Was he teasing her? Or was this a dream? Until now, she had felt like reality had returned for some magical or cursed reason, but seeing this man act this way made her wonder if she was still dreaming while dying in the North Tower of Lüsenford.
Kaella blankly stared at Pheon, who apologized with sincere politeness and respect, then sat down.
“Sit down first. So the rumor has spread?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t realize there were eyes watching.”
If this heartless, stone-like man had come to apologize with his pitch-black, deadpan face, it was safe to assume the rumor had spread throughout the streets of Kline.
And to think Pheon had come just three hours after the incident—rumors sure spread fast. There must have been more than one or two witnesses. It was fortunate, but Kaella hid that she thought so.
“The Duchess of Monde acting that way is my fault. I’m truly sorry, Duke’s Daughter.”
The words ‘no, it’s okay’ nearly slipped out reflexively, so Kaella clamped her mouth shut. No, it wasn’t okay. It was largely Pheon’s fault.
“The Duchess of Monde visited me this morning, but it seems she couldn’t accept my explanation and position. You, who are innocent, bore the brunt of her anger. I’m sorry.”
The man repeating ‘I’m sorry’ at the end of every sentence felt extremely unfamiliar to Kaella. It wouldn’t be easy for him to say sorry even to a young little sister, yet he apologized with natural politeness.
Well, she had heard Pheon was highly respected and very kind to his own people. She had seen it firsthand from watching nearby.
It was just that Kaella wasn’t one of Pheon’s people, so she was excluded from that kindness. Hearing the declaration ‘you’re not one of them’ and being pushed into the shadows, she had to watch that kindness that wasn’t hers, feeling bitterly cold.
“I see.”
Seeing Kaella nod without any emotional expression, Pheon felt his blood run cold. He didn’t want to provoke her at all—the fragile woman who got fiercely angry regardless of her frail health, who had even run away because she hated the marriage so much.
But incidents kept happening. If it was this bad now, how much had the Duchess of Monde bullied Kaella before the regression? The thought made his vision go dark.
A woman who knew how to get angry hadn’t once done so back then, keeping her mouth firmly shut. There must have been so many things leading up to that. Plenty of terribly difficult things happening behind his back that he had deliberately ignored.
“I have no face. I’m sorry, Duke’s Daughter.”
“So you’re saying the Duchess of Monde ignored my greeting because of Your Highness?”
“I have no intention of making excuses. As you know, the Duchess had plenty of reasons to see me as her son-in-law. But with the marriage announcement, she came to me to find out what happened.”
“And the reason Your Highness explained wasn’t sufficient for her to accept?”
“She couldn’t…… accept it.”
Kaella looked at the man sitting taller than her. What did that mean?
“The Duchess probably didn’t want to hear that Lady Lavalle and I are no longer anything to each other.”
Wait. What? Kaella doubted her own ears. What? That Hyperion and Beatrice, the famous pair, were nothing to each other? And the Duke himself was saying it? He was the last person who would ever say that?
But outwardly, she didn’t show even a hint of surprise.
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
Pheon didn’t add any lengthy excuses. No matter what he said, the fact remained that he was a bastard who abandoned an old lover—or childhood friend, it was unclear—and chose the Ostein Duke’s Daughter.
“I will ensure nothing like this happens again.”
As he spoke, Pheon observed the weary-looking Kaella. Her cheeks were gaunt without a trace of color, and dark shadows bruised under her eyes.
Her neck and shoulders peeking from between her shawl and collar looked even thinner. At that point, Pheon knew well that he should leave.
“You must be tired, and I’m sorry for suddenly taking your time. This is a modest gift I’ve prepared, so I hope you’ll accept it.”
“You didn’t need to bring a gift too, Your Highness.”
Kaella shook her head, but Pheon didn’t withdraw the hand offering the box.
“Please take it, Duke’s Daughter. It was prepared for you anyway. I’m not saying it will heal your hurt feelings, but I hope it offers some comfort.”
Had she ever received anything from Pheon? Kaella hesitated, finding the situation of accepting something from him extremely awkward.
What if accepting it led to big trouble later? Vague anxiety crept up. The woman who had been harshly treated feared everything.
“Think of it as a wedding gift. That’s why I prepared it. For you, Duke’s Daughter.”
Pheon placed the box on Kaella’s lap. He hoped she’d at least accept that.
“Open it. Go on.”
Reluctantly, she opened the lid of the pitch-black velvet box. Then she stared puzzled at the twelve stones inside.
Polished transparent stones lay there in various sizes and shapes.
But even the smallest was quite large, and above all, they radiated brilliant light. These were…… diamonds? Her blue eyes widened as she looked at Pheon.
“Y-Your Highness?”
“It’s a state secret, but a diamond mine has been discovered in Lüsenford this time.”
And he told it to Kaella without hesitation, even though it was a secret.
It was a mine Kaella knew about too. How could she not know the Kerban Mine, discovered in the year she died? It was one of the reasons the Emperor decided to attack Lüsenford.
The output had been so enormous that diamonds literally poured out, and Beatrice had wheedled some away. Of course, Kaella had gotten none.
The first raw diamond found in the Kerban Mine had been a whopping 4300 carats, and the twelve diamonds cut from it were called the Kerban Diamonds.
At the time, the three largest had been offered to the Emperor to delay the looming war even a little, and the rest poured into military funds. No, the two smallest had gone to Monde. Kaella hadn’t even gotten to see them.
She remembered all those trivial, unjust details vividly, so she knew these were exactly those ‘Kerban Diamonds.’
“These are from the largest raw stone.”
He hadn’t planned to give them to Kaella over the Duchess of Monde incident. He had wanted to present them in a more settled moment, just for her. Pushing down his irritation at the Duchess, Pheon gazed earnestly at Kaella’s widened eyes.
“I know marrying me is a terrible thing for you, Duke’s Daughter. As I promised the Ostein Duke, if you wish, we can divorce once the situation stabilizes. Until then, I’ll do my utmost, so please accept them.”
Kaella gripped the box tightly. The knuckles stood out on her pale hands.
The Empress had collapsed, her father had survived thanks to the ingenuity of the man before her. And the mine that wouldn’t be discovered for a long time had been found early, with all those diamonds going not to military funds but to her?
This was strange. Terribly strange. So strange it suddenly terrified her.
“Your Highness, this is too much for me…….”
“No, nothing is too much for you, Duke’s Daughter.”
Pheon cut her off firmly.
“There’s no such thing. Is there another gift you’d like?”
“Yes?”
After the insane act of giving all the Kerban Diamonds to Kaella, he was asking about more gifts? Was this man truly mad?
“It’s an unwanted marriage, so there shouldn’t be anything lacking. Do you have no requests of me?”
She had none. Well, one actually. If he was going to kill her later, don’t imprison her in the North Tower—just kill her cleanly in one go. But she couldn’t voice that wish. Kaella shook her head stiffly.
“Nothing for now? Then think it over from now on and tell me later.”
“Your Highness, I appreciate the words, but wouldn’t it be better to add this to the treasury?”
“Lüsenford’s finances are fine. I can certainly afford this much for the Ostein Duke’s Daughter.”
“But this is excessive. His Majesty will be displeased, and it’ll lead to more scandals.”
If the greedy Emperor found out, it would be disastrous. If Beatrice found out? If the Duchess of Monde found out? What was this man thinking? Pheon didn’t seem like the Pheon she knew.
He calmly watched her growing anxious, then nodded.
“I see.”
“Yes, so I’ll return this. I’ll accept your kind intentions. Thank you.”
This wasn’t hers. She had to receive nothing, die quietly without issues. Kaella quickly closed the box and handed it back to Pheon.
“I was short-sighted. I’m sorry. I’m not refined in treating a lady. It’s natural to be startled when given so much at once.”
“No, your intentions alone are…….”
“I’ll have them made into proper individual pieces and give them again.”
“Yes?”
The Lüsenford Duke took back the box and stood.
“That would be better. I rushed here thinking you must be deeply hurt and failed to consider properly. I’m sorry.”
Having said ‘I’m sorry’ several times today, he bowed his head.
“Then I’ll visit again next time. Don’t worry about the Duchess of Monde. As I said earlier, I’ll handle it. Think about the gift separately. Farewell, and be well.”
“Ah, yes? Um?”
For the first time, Kaella watched the Duke’s retreating back with an expression of utter incomprehension.
Why was that man acting like this? She had thought it convenient that he handled everything himself, but her husband kept defying her expectations.
But before the surprise even faded, news arrived that the Duchess of Monde had been banned from entering the Imperial Palace.
