Chapter 41

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 41

Chapter Title: How to Survive as the Wife of the Monster Duke

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Verdi wasn't the type of person to settle down in one place.

She was someone who wandered far and wide across the continent, far beyond what her age might suggest.

She went where she pleased, stayed wherever she wanted, and did whatever she liked.

And whenever a dream told her there was something she needed to do, she would set off.

"Like this time."

Verdi burst into hearty laughter.

"So before this, you were just wandering around wherever?"

"Pretty much."

She nodded at Ilrin's words.

"Did you think I left Arlen because I hated you?"

Ilrin couldn't deny it.

Her face flushed.

Occasionally, very occasionally.

It would be a lie to say it never crossed her mind.

Back at the mansion, mostly when bad things happened.

When Viscount Arlen hurled harsh words at her, or when her mother failed to recognize her.

Those were the times she felt the need for someone to confide in.

And the one who came to mind was her grandmother, who popped up just when Ilrin was starting to forget her.

But her grandmother never shared where she lived, so there was no way to track her down.

As a child, Ilrin had even wondered if her grandmother disliked her too.

If it weren't for the incident around age seven when her grandmother slapped the viscount's cheek clean off, she might have kept thinking that forever.

As it often went, Viscount Arlen had been relentlessly grilling and tormenting her day after day about whether she'd dreamed of him.

Her grandmother, who happened to be visiting the mansion, suddenly smacked the viscount across the face.

That day, a wave of relief washed over Ilrin inside.

Someone does care about me, she had thought.

But just as suddenly, her grandmother vanished again.

"If it weren't for that viscount bastard, I'd have stayed right here in this territory!"

Verdi snapped in anger.

She swung her hand as if clutching something, then stared blankly at her empty palm.

The staff she always carried leaned neatly against the wall.

Ilrin, listening to her, asked with a troubled look.

"Did Father really... issue a ban keeping Grandmother away from the territory?"

"He got slapped on his precious cheek, that's what."

Verdi spat irritably.

"Anyway, does the young lady still see that man as her father?"

"......"

Ilrin gave an awkward smile.

She didn't want to acknowledge Viscount Arlen as her father either.

But the habits ingrained over twenty years in that mansion didn't fade easily.

"You don't have to live so purely, dear."

Verdi gazed at Ilrin with pity.

"It's fine to live a little more wickedly."

Ilrin's eyes went wide at Verdi's words.

You can be as bad as you like.

No, it's not even bad.

The same as what Den had said.

Verdi chuckled.

"In my dreams, I only ever saw you looking happy."

She reached a hand across the table between them.

On the table sat the mobile the viscountess had left for Ilrin.

Verdi shook the mobile slowly.

Its ten ornaments reflected the light in distinct sheens.

"Will you... come with us?"

Ilrin asked, staring quietly at the mobile.

She swallowed back the words "Winter Lands," wary of any eavesdroppers.

"To where you are?"

Her dream-seeing grandmother had to know exactly where that was.

Ilrin nodded cautiously.

Her heart gave a little thud.

If she went back to winter, who knew when she might see Grandmother again.

If Grandmother couldn't stay in Arlen territory, maybe she could ask Den to bring her to Biplten.

Was that too greedy?

"You trying to freeze me solid, dear?"

Verdi put on a mock scowl.

Of course, mischief danced at the corners of her mouth.

Only then did Ilrin let out an "Ah" of realization.

The Winter Lands were brutally cold, hard for anyone to adapt to.

Ilrin had no choice after marrying Aden, but Verdi did.

Besides, for all Verdi's spryness, she still had her age.

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

Verdi boomed with laughter.

"Call me when it warms up a touch."

"That place..."

Ilrin shut her mouth before asking if it really would.

Aden's vow to bring back summer came to mind.

"And if I show up, won't I cramp your happy newlywed bliss?"

"......"

Verdi's teasing grin seemed to know it all.

Ilrin's face burned scarlet as she forced her gaze to the mobile.

Blue, white, red, yellow, green, black, purple, orange, gray, brown.

The mobile, adorned with ten colors of fabric, was vibrant enough to catch the eye from afar.

Ilrin peered quietly at the familiar mobile swaying in Verdi's hand.

"Take this with you."

Verdi thrust the mobile into Ilrin's hands.

"I should've given it to you much sooner..."

Ilrin reached out and took it.

She'd planned to anyway.

She couldn't bear to toss aside something her mother had gone out of her way to deliver, even in a dream.

It brought back thoughts of her mother, but she didn't want to turn away from it either.

"I had it as a child."

Ilrin shook the mobile in her hand.

The ten colors wove unique patterns through the air.

"It hung in my room back then, but one day it was gone."

This mobile felt familiar not just from her precognitive dreams.

Pondering when it vanished, it was right after Syd's incident.

She recalled as a child asking a maid to fetch any old mobile.

The maid, with an exasperated look, brought her a worn one.

That was the one now hanging in Ilrin's room.

The emptiness from its absence must have prompted it.

Now that her mother had finally given it back, it seemed her mother had been the one who took it from the room.

Ilrin shook the mobile again.

"Mother must have hated me having more precognitive dreams too."

With this mobile in every precognitive dream, it was hard to claim no connection.

"But not having it doesn't stop the dreams."

Verdi sighed, giving the mobile a shake.

"True..."

She'd foreseen her life with Aden without it, after all.

Ilrin glanced at Verdi, her cheeks faintly pink.

"Did Grandmother make this?"

She had to know the item, so what else could it be?

After Mother married? After I was born? Ilrin examined the surprisingly pristine piece.

"No, I got it as a child too."

"What?"

Ilrin whipped her gaze back to Verdi in shock.

If Grandmother received it in childhood, it had to be decades old.

Yet the mobile felt cool and flawless.

The small fabric box ornaments showed zero wear.

Even if gently handled, wasn't this excessive?

"Just pass it to your daughter someday."

"...So it is an old heirloom?"

Ilrin asked, hardly believing it.

Verdi nodded.

"Your mother told me in a dream to pass it on when my daughter saw it in hers."

When seeing the mobile in dreams...

Ilrin's eyes widened round.

"Grandmother saw this mobile in dreams too?"

"Of course."

Verdi looked utterly unsurprised.

"My mother did, I did, and yours probably did too."

Her own mother never breathed a word about precognitive dreams, so Ilrin had never heard.

Ilrin eyed the mobile with fresh wonder.

"...I don't like the dreams."

Verdi let out a sigh.

"But it seems tied to them, and who knows what happens without it? Had to pass it on."

She gazed at the mobile, then added.

"Dear, I hoped you'd never see the mobile..."

This cursed blood of dreamers...

Ilrin recalled her grandmother's words from childhood.

That voice lingered vividly in her memory.

Back then, she'd thought they were aimed at her.

The timeless mobile swayed dramatically at the slightest touch.

How could fabric this thin—almost sheer enough to see through—remain so perfect? Ilrin wondered.

As a noble, she knew her fabrics, but she'd never heard of anything like this.

Decades with no sign of use.

"Even for a mobile..."

She set it on the desk and lifted one ornament for a closer look.

It felt far softer than expected.

Turning the blue one this way and that, she tilted her head.

In the light, it gleamed with a purple sheen—strikingly familiar.

"Huh?"

Understanding dawned, and she reached for the blue fabric nearby.

The cloth of Azure Noz's sacred relic, one she rarely used in milder sunlight.

She held it beside the mobile's blue ornament.

Both reflected the same purple sheen identically.

"This is—"

That was when it happened.

"Ilrin."

Etra and Delroz knights disguised as maids stood guard at Ilrin's door.

Only one person could call to her without going through them.

"Den?"

Startled, Ilrin looked up.

He'd said he'd be late tonight with other business.

"May I intrude for a moment?"

"Of course."

Ilrin started toward the door to open it herself.

The room was cramped, as it had been one she used while at the mansion.

The Delroz maids had frantically tidied it up, insisting Madam couldn't stay in such a place, but it naturally fell short of Biplten's mansion.

"Then, just for a—"

But Aden slipped inside even faster.

No eerie creak sounded as the door opened; the maids must have oiled it recently.

Aden entered and gave Verdi a deep, respectful bow.

Ijis and Milo followed behind him.

Milo wore servant's garb, but Ilrin would know him anywhere.

"Uh, Milo...?"

Why was the Esid Merchant Group's leader here? Was it urgent?

Aden's gaze swept the room once more.

He hadn't been pleased when Ilrin said she'd stay here.

Naturally so.

It was far too small and shabby for her.

But by imperial custom, Ilrin—performing the funeral rites—couldn't lodge outside the mansion.

It was the room I used.

When a hesitant Ilrin had said that, Aden's expression slipped for a split second.

Ilrin ducked her head in embarrassment.

To Aden, who had lived in Biplten's grand mansion as the Winter Duke, how this room must look was obvious.

But the emotion Aden felt was nothing like what she imagined.

...You spent over twenty years in a place like this.

His primary feeling was rage toward Viscount Arlen.

He knew how Ilrin had lived in the Arlen mansion—from Milo's reports and her own words.

Or so he'd thought.

He hadn't realized it was this bad.

He struggled to swallow his fury in front of her.

His eyes scanned the room again.

Every time he entered Ilrin's room, emotions welled up.

"...I just received word,"

Aden said, reining himself in.

He'd chosen his words carefully on the way, knowing it would shock her.

"We may need to move up the return schedule."

"Ah."

Ilrin's mouth fell open slightly.

Something had happened in the Winter Lands, no doubt.

Her heart plummeted.

"Has something happened at the mansion...?"

She picked up on it right away.

Aden gently stroked her surprised shoulder.

"Not the mansion. There's trouble in Luminous Ello."

They had to hurry back to winter.

Was the foreseen future closing in?

In that moment, Ilrin felt a thick wave of unease.