Chapter 55

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 55

Chapter Title: The Husband's Deep Intent

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"It's true! He said I was prettier!"

Antyone was so furious she didn't know what to do.

She had been not far from where Clodel was bitten by the crocodile.

At that moment, the sight was so brutal and horrific that she couldn't even think whether the crocodile was attacking Clodel or anyone else—she was frozen in place, feet stuck to the ground, screaming but unable to flee.

Thanks to that, she clearly saw Clodel being dragged away by the crocodile like a mangled shuttlecock, the maid chasing after it and kicking at the beast only to fall flat on her face, and Kaiyan finally plunging his sword into the crocodile's head.

And when Kaiyan pried open the crocodile's locked jaws.

The woman's leg pulled from between its blood-drenched teeth dangled limply, mangled and formless like chicken spit out after being chewed.

At first, it was horrifying and terrifying, but soon the immature young lady calculated in her mind that Kaiyan would never keep such a ruined woman by his side.

She believed that in time, he'd ignore his limping wife whether she withered away or not, shoving her into some back room, or perhaps, since it concerned the honor of House Temneth, he'd gradually send her off to a convent or somewhere similar.

After all, that woman was the duke's family ward, married by royal decree.

Publicly casting aside an injured wife wouldn't look good to others.

Antyone had never once thought that Kaiyan treated her leniently because of House Berang's lady, who was his distant aunt.

She saw the coldly rational, sword-sharp lord as equally cold to everyone else but just a little different with her, which she took as extraordinary special treatment.

"I saw her. She looked like a skeleton, like she could drop dead any moment."

"Really? That bad?"

"Herzol is such a scary disease. Gives me chills. She wouldn't try to harm the duke, would she?"

For stealing the lord's possession, Antyone was tied with ropes and beaten twenty times with a club.

In the territory, it was an enormous scandal that would block the marriage path of a girl who had been fresh and outstandingly beautiful since her youth, captivating men's hearts.

And the stolen item just had to be the blue diamond ring cherished by Lady Elise.

Unable to accept her daughter's misdeed, the lady of House Berang had collapsed upon hearing of the public trial and still hadn't recovered her health.

"Even breathing was creepy."

"Heh. Our lord is too kind-hearted. Why bother getting medicine for some wench from House Vermonte or posting a reward?"

"Right? A lame girl can't even dance properly, let alone walk."

"Antyone is way prettier. I wish he'd kick that woman out quick and make Antyone the duchess already."

Even though her position had deteriorated that badly, things turned around after Clodel contracted Herzol.

Curious young ladies of the castle began gathering around Antyone again, one by one.

It was hardly true friendship supporting her, but to the brazen eighteen-year-old Antyone, fresh from her coming-of-age ceremony, it bolstered her courage to flap her mouth shamelessly.

"You really didn't steal that ring?"

"Of course not. Do you think I'd do something like that?"

"Didn't a castle maid bring it to you?"

A few who had seen her receiving a box from under the maid's apron tilted their heads.

"Lord Kaiyan said he was giving it to me!"

Watching Antyone flare up, they all murmured, "Oh, so that's how it was," and "I see."

"Just watch at the festival this time. See how ugly that limping woman is."

"Yeah. You must have been so upset, Antyone."

"Hang in there, Antyone."

She had been gleefully disparaging Clodel's looks, aiming to reclaim her position as the territory's queen bee like before.

But at the festival square today, Antyone, pacing anxiously at the entrance, doubted her own eyes.

The moment she saw the woman introduced as the lord's wife, it felt like lightning struck her crown.

So all ordinary words of praise like "pretty" or "beautiful" vanished from her mind in that instant.

With the butler escorting her slowly, the thin chiffon skirt below the waist of her dress—which teasingly revealed just a hint of cleavage—rippled like sea foam said to have shaped the goddess of beauty in legends, swaying gently in clusters.

No footsteps could be heard from the woman walking in dainty, small steps.

As if a goddess had descended, or the fairy queen had sneaked into the human world to enjoy the festival.

Her surroundings felt detached, like a separate world cropped out.

Her face wasn't slathered in makeup either.

A petite face that could fit in an adult man's hand, golden eyes shimmering even more mysteriously under the sunlight, a straight nose, and red lips lightly touched with rouge.

The hand resting on the butler's was small too, and even layered with festival skirts, she couldn't hide her slender, nipped-in waist.

Whenever Clodel passed, onlookers fell silent on their own.

Even Antyone there bowed her head as if entranced, but snapping back to reality, she saw the other girls' gazes toward her had changed.

Liar.

Thunderbolt-headed Antyone.

It was Kaiyan's first time dancing at the festival.

Usually danced with the lord's wife, but since becoming lord and heading straight to war upon return, there had been no lord's wife for these two years, so the festival had always opened with just the lord's address, no dance.

As Clodel finished a splendid dance embraced by Kaiyan, and he lightly kissed her, the square nearly burst with cheers.

Watching that, Antyone shed tears alone.

"Lord Kaiyan is being deceived."

Otherwise, he wouldn't do this to me.

That woman must have used some trick.

Or maybe even Lord Kaiyan caught that vile Herzol and his mind went wrong.

Antyone wiped the tears pooling in her eyes with the back of her hand.

Then came the boisterous voices of thoroughly drunk men.

"No matter how pretty, our lord wouldn't keep a House Vermonte woman!"

"Come on. After seeing those two dance earlier, how can you say that?"

"You don't know. Didn't the lord say it clearly after the wedding night at the banquet? Once the marriage period is up, he'll kick out that Vermonte woman."

"Is that true?"

"Of course!"

The drunken babbler was Burbrook.

"Spouting nonsense like that. If the lord treated his wife so coldly, wouldn't she still be sitting by the beer barrel in the festival square?"

The tide had turned toward the lady whose House Vermonte origins were all but forgotten, so no one sided with Burbrook.

Instead, they eyed each other warily, worried about fueling rumors that might displease the lord later.

"We'll head out now. Ahem."

"Let's grab another plate of cake at the square."

"Yeah, let's go!"

Leaving the drunk Burbrook behind, they quietly rose from their seats.

"I'm telling you, it's true! The lord promised me!"

"Excuse me."

Antyone sat across from the now-empty spot opposite Burbrook, eyes gleaming.

"Can I hear that story too?"

"Huh? A young lady?"

"The lord isn't the type to make empty promises, right?"

"Exactly! That's just what I was saying!"

Burbrook burst into hearty laughter.

"Finally, someone who gets it!"

"Tell me the story. I'm curious."

As Antyone smiled brightly and refilled his glass, Burbrook gladly opened his mouth.

"Well, actually, on the second day of the banquet..."

Gazing at the deeply sleeping Clodel, Kaiyan slipped out of bed.

He haphazardly threw on clothes, barely buttoning them, and headed to the castle kitchen.

The castle at midnight was so quiet not even an ant could be seen.

Right now, every servant and the one maid who attended minimally had left—no one remained.

Only Kaiyan and Clodel stayed in the castle.

The autumn festival, held once a year in the territory, was the biggest event of the year.

It was a day when all territory folk attended without exception, enjoying Rowen's bounty regardless of status.

Thus, even resident castle staff usually joined the festival, leaving only the minimal guards for the gates and drawbridge, chosen by lot—that was the custom.

Normally, Kaiyan would mingle with vassals and kin drinking heavily all night, returning to the castle only at dawn.

Bringing Clodel to the empty castle was fine,

but having no one to attend them was a hassle—though thinking of it as a chance to tend to her himself lifted his mood.

In the castle kitchen, Kaiyan passed the spacious cooking area and headed to the adjacent machine room.

There had been an eccentric Temneth a few generations back obsessed with science and gadgets; he'd installed all sorts of bizarre contraptions, remodeling the castle.

Like the retractable ceiling in Kaiyan's bedroom for stargazing at night, or hot water from the kitchen boiler piping straight to the bedroom bath.

Convenient in daily life, but

"Even this means trekking down to the kitchen to check."

Kaiyan muttered to himself as he inspected the wood-burning stove boiling water from the underground reservoir in the tank below.

As expected, the fire was out.

Skillfully using the nearby flint to light the wood, he stuffed so much firewood into the stove that he wouldn't need to come back down tonight, then brushed off his hands and stood.

Glancing around the kitchen, he grabbed a basket with sizable apples—three of them—bread, cheese, and a hunk of ham from the pantry stacked with ingredients, and returned to the bedroom.

Whoosh.

Confirming hot water pouring into the tub, Kaiyan went back to the bed.

"Clodel."

"Mm?"

"Wake up."

Kaiyan deliberately shook the soundly sleeping woman awake.

"...Can't get up."

"You're hungry. You need to eat something."

"...Can't eat."

He kissed her, as she mumbled responses without even opening her eyes.

"No. You'll collapse if you starve like that."

Clodel was the type who needed regular meals on time rather than just eating a little.

Once, she was slightly late for lunch and looked so sullen from hunger that afterward, Kaiyan made sure to go ten minutes early for lunch.

"Get up."

Propping herself up on her arms from under the blankets, her tousled hair a mess, Clodel lifted her head and grinned sleepily.

"Want an apple."

"Apple?"

He'd deliberately picked them up because she'd enjoyed the freshly harvested apples at the village square.

They were tart since not ripened, but she ate them deliciously, which was a pleasant sight.

Kaiyan picked up a knife and began peeling an apple.

Watching the skin coil into a long strip with a soft scraping sound, Clodel's sleepy expression cleared.

"So cool."

"It's nothing."

"I wanna try."

As Clodel reached out, Kaiyan moved his hand away.

"Dangerous."

Clodel, who had tried to grab it, instead caught the slipping blanket and pulled it up.

"I'll try after putting on clothes."

"Don't put on clothes. Don't try it."

Her husband had woken her from sleep just to feed her, but his wife was still too oblivious to grasp the depth of his intentions.