IHMEB - Chapter 4 < Was I Not Good? >
I Have My Enemy's Baby
“How is your health?”
When Claudel did not answer, he urged her to ask.
“Aren’t you asking me if I’m ready to die?”
She spoke with an indifferent face like a doll.
“It’s going well.”
The Duke of Vermont's brow furrowed as if he didn't like the answer.
“Answer properly.”
“It means that it is steadily getting worse.”
Claudel ignored the feeling of something uncomfortable being stuck in her throat.
“As the Duke wishes.”
Only then did he lean back on the sofa with a satisfied look on his face, as if he was satisfied with her answer.
"Right. Yes. After all, heaven will not stand by and watch Vermont be humiliated by those Temnes bastards who would not be happy even if they were torn limb from limb to death.”
The Duke of Vermont's eyes toward Claudel sparkled like a madman's.
“This is how you repay the favor of losing your parents and leaving you with nowhere to go. Don't worry about the future. Your death will be revered far and wide under the glory of Vermont as a holy martyrdom on the day when vengeance on Temnes is completed.”
The Duke of Vermont spoke in a passionate tone, almost like a madman, saying things to Claudel that Claudel did not respond to.
“You seem to be thinner.”
“It’s hard to swallow anything these days.”
“You must have had a good night, right?”
The Duke of Vermont put his shameful words into his mouth to his niece.
"Yes."
"Good thing he changes women every night. If I had refined tastes, I wouldn’t have spent the night with a skinny, unremarkable person like you.”
It was Claudel's responsibility to bear the shame.
Rowen Castle's cold treatment and Kaian's insults were not unfamiliar to her.
From her birth as a commoner mother, to the mockery of her father who passed away after her mother.
Nevertheless, after Claudel, who was born with a burning eye for Vermont and was gifted with gold, became the adoptive daughter of her uncle, she did not tire for ten years and did not differ much from what she had heard.
If his sharp words struck her heart like a dagger, it would hurt just as much whether it had been stabbed by Temnes or Vermont.
She was good at enduring pain.
No one who could sympathize with Claudel's pain or feel sorry for her had passed away.
“Still, I’m glad you got married before the condition got worse. Now that I have sent you to the bastard Duke, I can stab him in the back.”
He smiled wryly, clasping and unclenching his hands as if he was excited just thinking about it.
“If you die, I will hold the Duke of Temnes responsible for your death. Taking precious Vermont blood and putting it to death. King Oberon will unconditionally take my side. It’s already happening.”
“What if the King doesn’t keep his promise to the Duke?”
“You don’t know King Oberon.”
The Duke of Vermont laughed her words off with the bridge of his nose.
“He is truly a great ruler. He is fundamentally different from Temnes, a fledgling kid who only wields a sword ignorantly. He is incredibly skilled and mature, even though he is the same age.”
He lifted his chin.
“Be thankful until the day you die that King Oberon himself put his heart into planning this event.”
The stories she had listened to so hard as they arranged her marriage entered Claudel's left ear and then flowed out of her right ear.
“Do you understand?”
“...Yes, Duke.”
Her uncle and adoptive father, the Duke of Vermont, fortunately, did not resemble his father.
Claudel loved her red hair and golden eyes, which looked just like her dead father...
She would have been very sad if the heartless Duke of Vermont had even the slightest resemblance to her father in his appearance or personality, except for his color.
She was fortunate that, aside from the color symbolizing her family, there was nothing on his toenails that reminded her of her father.
If he had said this to her with a face similar to her father, who left this world before her, Claudel would have had an even harder time enduring it.
“The Duke will be here soon.”
The Duke of Vermont got up from the sofa and went to the mirror, humming to her happily.
“Even the previous Duke will be laughing in his grave when he thinks of someone like you as his bride, not knowing that he was selling his place to die.”
Claudel, unable to share in his joy, remained quiet.
***
Kaian walked down the hallway with wide strides.
He was like a shaggy old fox, and the thought of seeing the Duke of Vermont made him very unpleasant.
“Should I at least deal with that old man?”
He could feel his subordinates flinching behind his back as they clearly understood what he muttered.
Today, as he imagined throwing the Duke of Vermont, who had taken his father-in-law's place, into the previously dug mound that Claudel was looking at, his irritated mood got better.
As he walked in a much more relaxed state, a woman blocked his path with her arms stretched out as if she was about to jump in.
“Your Highness Kaian!”
She was a beautiful woman with long black hair and blue eyes. However, not long after her coming-of-age ceremony, her young face showed the stubbornness and pride of a girl.
“Antyone. What are you doing all of a sudden?”
She was distantly related to Kaian and was a collateral blood relative. Although her mother was from the Temnes family and took the surname Berang, Antyone Berang was proud that she had half Temnes blood flowing through her body.
From her very childhood, Antyone openly boasted that when she grew up she would marry Kaian.
However, she never really had Kaian deal with her or spend any private time with her.
She had a history of sneaking into Kaian's bedroom a few times, except she was sent back to her house more graciously because she was a relative.
Not even that. She showed off in front of her maidens in her territory, saying it was proof that Kaian was treating her specially, but he left her alone.
This is because after Antyone started talking about things, the number of bedroom attacks that disturbed his sleep decreased compared to before.
Kaian raised his eyebrows at the appearance of Antyone, who was glaring at him harshly.
“What are you doing? Your Highness, what is this?”
“Say it so I can understand.”
Antyone's eyes turned red as if she were angry at Kaian's cold words.
"How? How could you leave me with another woman....”
Kaian spoke coldly as he looked at Antyone, who seemed to have become emotional while talking and started crying.
“What dare you say now?”
"Your Highness. There is no woman who would love you more than me. I have loved you since I was a toddler, but you can’t do this.”
"It seems like there is no es to climbing just to look at it.”
When Kaian glared at her as if he was offended, Antyone's expression worsened. It was not a look the Young Lady could endure, as her heart was filled with the fresh emotions of unrequited love.
“Are you saying you’re dissatisfied with my marriage? Go directly to King Oberon and ask him.”
He ignored Antyone and stepped away from her. After walking a few steps, he turned his body back for a moment.
“Never appear before me again. This is the end of Temnes.”
As Kaian disappeared with his guards, Antyone collapsed on the spot, exhausted.
Then, the girls of her age, who had been hiding behind a pillar and watching Antyone's protest, rushed to her side.
"Good job, Antjone. If you said it right, His Highness Kaian will remember you clearly.”
“We can’t even think about it. As expected, it’s amazing. Antjone.”
As she stood around her, she rubbed the wet corners of her young eyes with the back of her hand.
Antyone crossed her arms with a proud look on her face, different from when she had complained of her uncontrollable emotions to Kaian a moment ago.
“I’m so shocked I’m speechless. I can’t believe that filthy Vermont has crawled into the royal bedroom.”
Strictly speaking, Kaian had walked into the bedroom of a woman from Vermont, but none of the castle maids who overheard the story corrected her.
“She doesn’t. They would have been happy if you had become a Duchess.”
"That's right. She said she would often hold balls at the castle for us.”
“They also said that the handsome knights would invite many knights to the castle.”
The sighs and complaints of young girls who had just reached adulthood filled the hallway.
But right now, the person who was most sighing and dissatisfied was Antyone.
Yesterday's celebration was the event of the Temnes relatives.
Antyone did not stop crying from morning until sunset, so no one in Berang could attend the banquet at Rowen Castle yesterday.
Because of her outstanding beauty, she grew up being filled with beauty from a young age. She was so stubborn that even though it was the vassal's banquet today, she insisted on going to Rowen Castle and ended up staying.
As Antyone glanced at Kaian, who was sitting at the head's table, from afar, bitterness rose inside her.
'Right. My Kaian. Did you spend the night under the spell of the Witch of the Ice Land?'
It was Kaian who had never even touched her fingertips, let alone hugged her. In her one-sided feelings, she believed that such a man was passionately in love with her, but was treating her coldly because she had other people's eyes on him.
“Laey Antyone.”
At that time, one of her maids hesitated and called her.
“Did you bring what I asked for?”
"Yes. Here you go."
What her maid took out from under her apron was a small box the size of her fist.
“You probably cleaned up all the flowers too, right?”
"Sure. I threw everything she had into the incinerator in the kitchen.”
The maid of Rowen Castle looked at Antyone with the black hair of Temnes with longing eyes.
“How dare you, My Lord, have a redhead from Vermont. That will never happen. If it's her business, please call me from now on, Lady Antjone.”
“Thank you. When I become a Duchess, I will definitely remember you.”
"Thank you."
Antyone took out a blue diamond ring with a bluish glow from the box and put it on her finger.
“Let’s call it a day and go back.”
Behind her, Temnes' followers chattered in triumph and disappeared down the hallway.
***
The Duke of Vermont, who had been criticizing Temnes the whole time, smiled generously as if he had never done that before.
“I will not forget the great favor the Duke gave me.”
“Now we, Temnes and Vermont, are no different from one family.”
"Yes. Duke Kaian will be the first Temnes to be renowned as a King in our Valmonde land.”
“It’s an honor.”
In contrast to the heartwarming conversation, their eyes looked as if they were going to bite each other at any moment.
Meanwhile, Claudel stood silently like a decoration.
Thirty wagons filled with grain lined up and left for the north.
Claudel could have bet with all his might that Temnes' assistance to Vermont would not only make him famous but would also spread the praise of the great lord Vermont.
“It was something quite meaningful to me. Did you not like the gift?”
Kaian’s question was unexpected and unexpected.
“Or maybe I wasn’t that good?”
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