IHMEB - Chapter 11 < Crocodile Hunting >
Having An Enemy's Baby
“It would be good for Claudel to see it right now."
"Yes. You say so.”
The butler placed the list and sample invitations on his desk and took a step back.
Kaian, uncharacteristically hurried, headed to Claudel’s room. The maids who were mopping the floor looked surprised as they walked busily as if they had some very urgent work to do, but he didn't care.
'How long has it been since I last saw her?'
After Claudel had told him that she was unwell and could not come to the banquet, she had been sick for several days.
So she never came out of her room to eat.
If she had a chance to come across something naturally, she would try to talk it out, but she never took that opportunity.
'It seems like a week has passed.'
The front of Claudel's door was empty and quiet.
Temnes and Vermont were both on edge. Isn’t it true that the sound of applause can only be heard when hands are touching?
Claudel was a Vermonter who would not raise a hand to meet.
There was no way that the employees would not have known that Kaian himself felt within a day that he did not feel uncomfortable because ‘Claudel is not like Vermont for some reason.’
If they persecute and treat Claudel coldly, they hope she will get angry and raise her claws as if she is going to kill them, so that they can feel the pain of hitting her, but they must have felt that it was no fun when only her maid, the fighting cock, ran wild and Claudel did not respond calmly.
The butler placed the list and sample invitations on his desk and took a step back.
Kaian, uncharacteristically hurried, headed to Claudel’s room. The maids who were mopping the floor looked surprised as they walked busily as if they had some very urgent work to do, but he didn't care.
'How long has it been since I last saw her?'
After Claudel had told him that she was unwell and could not come to the banquet, she had been sick for several days.
So she never came out of her room to eat.
If she had a chance to come across something naturally, she would try to talk it out, but she never took that opportunity.
'It seems like a week has passed.'
The front of Claudel's door was empty and quiet.
Temnes and Vermont were both on edge. Isn’t it true that the sound of applause can only be heard when hands are touching?
Claudel was a Vermonter who would not raise a hand to meet.
There was no way that the employees would not have known that Kaian himself felt within a day that he did not feel uncomfortable because ‘Claudel is not like Vermont for some reason.’
If they persecute and treat Claudel coldly, they hope she will get angry and raise her claws as if she is going to kill them, so that they can feel the pain of hitting her, but they must have felt that it was no fun when only her maid, the fighting cock, ran wild and Claudel did not respond calmly.
'But shouldn't there have been an escort?'
Isn't this how anyone who breaks into the Lord's wife's room will not know?
Thinking that he would have to call the castle's guard captain later and have a word with him, Kaoan knocked on the door of Claudel's room.
The room was quiet.
'Where did she go?'
Kaian questioned and opened the door silently.
Even though it was the middle of summer, the interior, which was surrounded by thick stone walls and had smooth walls, was pleasantly cool.
However, he felt quiet because there were no people around.
“It looks like she went for a walk.”
The hand holding the list and invitation letter seemed to have lost all strength.
The thought that Kaian had in his mind was that he couldn't see Claudel, so he tried to talk about the hunting competition and have a natural conversation while he was making excuses.
Since he couldn't find a woman to date, the next step was another difficult task.
Will she just go?
Or should he wait for her to come back?
His eyes widened as he turned his head to sit on the sofa.
Claudel was in a room where he thought no one was.
Her small and slender body was lying down on a large, soft bed, covered with a blanket.
'There was someone there and I couldn't even see it.'
Normally, when people lie down in bed, the blanket would have to be puffy.
Claudel was lying down between thick, fluffy goose-down blankets and cushions, covering herself with blankets, so much so that it was hard to tell who was lying there or whether it was just a rich bed.
Kaian approached the bed, killing his presence so as not to wake her.
'Was she originally this small?'
Kaian once again stretched his hand over her face.
The person seemed so small that her entire face could fit in the palm of his hand.
He observed her closely because her body seemed to have become thinner than the Claudel he remembered.
The woman was sleeping soundly, and her breath was so feeble that he could barely hear her breathing.
The eyelashes on her closed eyelids on her pure white skin without any blemishes, and the eyebrows that curved over them were all red, like her hair.
She looked peaceful, so he sat down on the chair next to the bed with his arms crossed and began to look at Claudel.
He also wondered what she would say when she opened her eyes.
Kaian had never bowed down to anyone.
Given their twisted situation, it was obvious that he was the one who had to hold out her hand and get her to unwind.
However, the difficulty was that he was stopped because he couldn't put those words out of his mouth.
The matriarch's prestige comes from not bending.
It was really difficult for him to face something he had never done before.
"Yes."
Suddenly Claudel turned over to where he was sitting.
Kaian thought she was awake and jumped up at her, but it seemed it was just her sleeping habit.
He quietly sat down in his seat again, resting his chin and watching her sleep again.
Then something caught his eye.
The button decoration that was the culprit of this situation was still on her finger.
It's been a while since that happened, why?
However, looking at it again, it just looks like a thin ring, so if not for that incident, it would have looked good on Claudel.
'Do you like rings?'
Looking at it this way, his mother's blue diamond was not suitable for Claudel's slender fingers, so it seemed like it would spin around even if she put it on her thumb.
It's natural that each person's finger thickness is different.
Since he had never thought of giving someone a ring or something like that as a gift, Kaian had no way of knowing the basics of changing the size in advance when passing something like that on.
But unlike how excited he had been at the thought of an opportunity to talk to her, his heart sank when he saw what Claudel had with her so far.
'I'll give you another ring, that's okay.'
That was when Kaian reached out to carefully remove her ring from her finger.
Creak.
The door opened, and Hannah, who was bringing in a large bottle with large white freesia flowers, was surprised to see him.
“Duke.”
Claudel opened his eyes at the voice of the maid, who hastily put down the vase and lowered her head.
Claudel, who had just woken up from her sleep, had a clear expression on her face as if her drowsiness had evaporated. Anxiety suddenly appeared in her round golden eyes.
When he saw that, he immediately felt offended. What is it that made her make that face as soon as their eyes met?
Kaian jumped up and shouted.
“You don’t seem to be interested in your master’s physical pain.”
“...Duke.”
Claudel quickly got out of bed and stood with her head down.
Meanwhile, the moment she lifted the blanket, her exposed ankles seemed to be no bigger than Kaian's wrists, and for a moment he frowned.
It seems that touching something in the dark at night is different from seeing it with his own eyes.
He kept feeling like the woman in front of him was much thinner than the woman in his memories.
“What’s going on?”
He didn't think he would be welcomed. Seeing Claudel shrugging her shoulders as if she was scared, the answer that Kaian had been thinking about all week and thinking about how to say this came to nothing.
Isn't this how anyone who breaks into the Lord's wife's room will not know?
Thinking that he would have to call the castle's guard captain later and have a word with him, Kaoan knocked on the door of Claudel's room.
The room was quiet.
'Where did she go?'
Kaian questioned and opened the door silently.
Even though it was the middle of summer, the interior, which was surrounded by thick stone walls and had smooth walls, was pleasantly cool.
However, he felt quiet because there were no people around.
“It looks like she went for a walk.”
The hand holding the list and invitation letter seemed to have lost all strength.
The thought that Kaian had in his mind was that he couldn't see Claudel, so he tried to talk about the hunting competition and have a natural conversation while he was making excuses.
Since he couldn't find a woman to date, the next step was another difficult task.
Will she just go?
Or should he wait for her to come back?
His eyes widened as he turned his head to sit on the sofa.
Claudel was in a room where he thought no one was.
Her small and slender body was lying down on a large, soft bed, covered with a blanket.
'There was someone there and I couldn't even see it.'
Normally, when people lie down in bed, the blanket would have to be puffy.
Claudel was lying down between thick, fluffy goose-down blankets and cushions, covering herself with blankets, so much so that it was hard to tell who was lying there or whether it was just a rich bed.
Kaian approached the bed, killing his presence so as not to wake her.
'Was she originally this small?'
Kaian once again stretched his hand over her face.
The person seemed so small that her entire face could fit in the palm of his hand.
He observed her closely because her body seemed to have become thinner than the Claudel he remembered.
The woman was sleeping soundly, and her breath was so feeble that he could barely hear her breathing.
The eyelashes on her closed eyelids on her pure white skin without any blemishes, and the eyebrows that curved over them were all red, like her hair.
She looked peaceful, so he sat down on the chair next to the bed with his arms crossed and began to look at Claudel.
He also wondered what she would say when she opened her eyes.
Kaian had never bowed down to anyone.
Given their twisted situation, it was obvious that he was the one who had to hold out her hand and get her to unwind.
However, the difficulty was that he was stopped because he couldn't put those words out of his mouth.
The matriarch's prestige comes from not bending.
It was really difficult for him to face something he had never done before.
"Yes."
Suddenly Claudel turned over to where he was sitting.
Kaian thought she was awake and jumped up at her, but it seemed it was just her sleeping habit.
He quietly sat down in his seat again, resting his chin and watching her sleep again.
Then something caught his eye.
The button decoration that was the culprit of this situation was still on her finger.
It's been a while since that happened, why?
However, looking at it again, it just looks like a thin ring, so if not for that incident, it would have looked good on Claudel.
'Do you like rings?'
Looking at it this way, his mother's blue diamond was not suitable for Claudel's slender fingers, so it seemed like it would spin around even if she put it on her thumb.
It's natural that each person's finger thickness is different.
Since he had never thought of giving someone a ring or something like that as a gift, Kaian had no way of knowing the basics of changing the size in advance when passing something like that on.
But unlike how excited he had been at the thought of an opportunity to talk to her, his heart sank when he saw what Claudel had with her so far.
'I'll give you another ring, that's okay.'
That was when Kaian reached out to carefully remove her ring from her finger.
Creak.
The door opened, and Hannah, who was bringing in a large bottle with large white freesia flowers, was surprised to see him.
“Duke.”
Claudel opened his eyes at the voice of the maid, who hastily put down the vase and lowered her head.
Claudel, who had just woken up from her sleep, had a clear expression on her face as if her drowsiness had evaporated. Anxiety suddenly appeared in her round golden eyes.
When he saw that, he immediately felt offended. What is it that made her make that face as soon as their eyes met?
Kaian jumped up and shouted.
“You don’t seem to be interested in your master’s physical pain.”
“...Duke.”
Claudel quickly got out of bed and stood with her head down.
Meanwhile, the moment she lifted the blanket, her exposed ankles seemed to be no bigger than Kaian's wrists, and for a moment he frowned.
It seems that touching something in the dark at night is different from seeing it with his own eyes.
He kept feeling like the woman in front of him was much thinner than the woman in his memories.
“What’s going on?”
He didn't think he would be welcomed. Seeing Claudel shrugging her shoulders as if she was scared, the answer that Kaian had been thinking about all week and thinking about how to say this came to nothing.
“Were you planning on hanging out at Rowan Castle?”
He threw the list and invitations he had brought down on her bed.
“The butler will have sorted it out, so write a request to come on the invitation and sign it. Organize it by tomorrow and bring it to the office. Please give it to the butler.”
He left her bedroom and slammed the door.
And he immediately regretted it.
“...Am I crazy?”
Vermonters have been like foxes with a fire in their tails for generations. They were cunning and used their three-pointed tongue to taunt and manipulate people to get them into trouble.
They were very good people when they used their tongues in diplomacy for the Kingdom of Oberon, but when they tried to deceive Temnes, who had been making peace with the armed family for generations, they were not very compatible.
If Temnes could kill a man by sticking a knife in his heart and cutting his throat, Vermont could make him die of fever with just a few words.
Claudel had no such venom at all.
But why did he keep talking nonsense?
Kaian was so frustrated that he felt like he was going crazy.
“I didn’t mean to do this.”
His brain, which is rather smart, thought about the situation a little while ago.
He had been out of his mind for a moment when Claudel lifted the covers to get out of her bed and he saw her white, slender, bare legs with her nightgown pulled up and exposed.
He just kept saying nothing and ran out without a soul.
“Why am I like that? Why?"
“I didn’t mean to do this.”
His brain, which is rather smart, thought about the situation a little while ago.
He had been out of his mind for a moment when Claudel lifted the covers to get out of her bed and he saw her white, slender, bare legs with her nightgown pulled up and exposed.
He just kept saying nothing and ran out without a soul.
“Why am I like that? Why?"
If he had succeeded in making her feel better by saying a few nice words, that leg he saw earlier could have been hanging around his waist tonight.
Kaian roughly brushed his hair and headed to his office.
***
Kayan’s visit was like a thunderbolt.
It was short and intense.
So after he left, Claudel felt dazed for a moment.
"What? He came suddenly and said you just played and ate. What the?"
As soon as Kaiann walked out, Hannah immediately became irreverent in his attitude.
“It’s true that I’ve been lying down, well. Think about how the Duchess is doing on a daily basis. He'll feel pathetic when he sees me.”
Hannah sighed as she made up her bed.
“It’s pathetic. You continued to have trouble sleeping, but for the first time in a few days, you finally got a short nap. It would have been nice if you had slept a little more soundly.”
The Duchess of Vermont, Madame of the Castle de Valmonde, was meticulous in managing her estate.
Her help was significant in helping people live in Valmonde, where more than half of the land was frozen.
In particular, children born around Mog Hill, the ice valley where Valmonde Castle is located, were visited and cared for in person, one by one.
It would have been normal for her to be just as busy as the Duchess of Vermont as the original hostess of Temnes Castle, but Kaian never handed over Claudel to tell her what to do or take care of something.
She had the bitter feeling that her existence was being ignored, but she also felt like a person who would leave, thinking that it would be better for people to not come and go to handle things for no reason.
“But you still gave me a job.”
Claudel picked up the list and invitations that had been thrown on the bed.
"Do not do it. It’s really ugly.”
“He said I had until tomorrow.”
“What do you know? Or should I do it for you? I’ll write it down with my feet.”
Hannah said seriously as if she meant it.
Claudel sat by the window, wrote down the list, and neatly took the invitations out of the envelopes and stacked them.
'...Temnes.'
She had not yet realized that her name had changed from Vermonte to Temnes.
Is that perhaps why he gave her this job?
Realize that she has become Temnes.
From Claudel's fingertips with an ink pen, the letters Temnes fell one after another onto the invitation.
***
It's crocodile hunting day.
Kaian was in a very bad mood.
In any case, Claudel brought the invitation he had asked her to bring herself, without enlisting the help of the butler.
It happened that while he was away, he and Burbrook briefly praised the residents of the territory who had brought fruit to be offered to the castle.
If it had been given to him by a butler, there wouldn't have been so much heat.
When Kaian thought about Claudel, his mind and the words that came out of his mouth kept turning into a mess, so he stopped thinking about the point of his anger.
No matter what he thinks, he'll end up with that woman.
If he just did it like that, it would be less frustrating.
Claudel was wearing light brown deer boots, a white dress that reached below her knees, and a leather vest of the same color.
With her waist-length long red hair braided in a rich braid and a large white hat, she looked somewhat like a girl.
Since she did not appear at the banquet, those who were seeing her for the first time today seemed to be looking at her passionately.
Kaian felt the urge to put the crocodile hunting aside and take her to the tent he had made for her to rest and talk to her about how upset he was.
'Stop thinking about other things.'
Usually, it was impossible to catch one crocodile alone.
Kaian was able to do so, so he got excited about hunting, and when he caught a suitable animal and brought it in, he shook off his hands.
However, the reason why he keeps having different thoughts today is because he feels dizzy because of Claudel.
...That was when the thought occurred to him.
“Watch out!”
Claudel, who was standing next to him, pushed him, and he was pushed aside from the platform overlooking the hunting participants and fell to the level floor.
“What on earth have you done....”
What caught Kaian's eyes as he stood up was a huge crocodile chewing on the spot where he had been standing a moment ago.
The bastard's eyes turned to Claudel, and his ferocious mouth opened cruelly.
"No!"
The hunting ground, which quickly became chaos, was filled with screams.
This Duke is so annoying Hannah is the only one with a brain
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