IHMEB - Chapter 8 < Baptism of Ice >
Having An Enemy's Baby
“There’s no way I would give something like that as a gift.”
All of a sudden, negative words flew out.
At that moment, his eyes met Claudel.
The eyes that looked at him, asking him to do something or help her with an indifferent, doll-like expression on her face, became dim and filled with disappointment.
As soon as he saw it, he felt sorry, but his word was law in this castle.
If Kaian is right, then so be it. If he is wrong, then so be it.
If he calls blue red, his vassals will say it is red, and if he says white is black, the workers in the castle will say it is black.
The power of the castle Lord was so absolute that he could not retract what he had just said with so many eyes watching.
And that too for trivial reasons, such as whether or not they were given insignificant button decorations!
“As expected, that’s true. That’s what Vermont things do.”
“I guess the story about Vermont’s castle being surrounded by gold frames was a rumor.”
"Haha. I can't believe you like trivial things like that. I don’t think she's ever seen jewelry before in her life.”
Laughs poured out at Claudel and her maid.
Kaian shouted.
"Stop. Don’t make a fuss and everyone go away.”
The glances and taunts at the two women from Valmonde did not end until the hallway was clear. Even at the bottom of the stairs, “You’re a thief!” A shout was heard, and boisterous laughter rang out from afar.
After that, Kaian was embarrassed.
Claudel shut her mouth and lowered her head, and her maid, who had been torn and beaten by several of his maids, was sitting on the floor.
He had never given or extended a hand to anyone.
That was not what was expected from the head of the family.
Kaian just had to be as hard as a shield and as strong and sharp as a sword.
Can you imagine a shield and a sword offering a comforting hand?
What he said was absolutely correct, so he never even apologized.
But now, for the first time in his life, an unfamiliar sensation spread across his chest.
He feels sorry for his weak feelings.
However, Kaian did not fully realize or understand this.
Because he was raised that way.
He blamed his awkward and uncomfortable feelings on Claudel, who had asked for trivial things and even boasted about them.
“Don’t make a fuss.”
Claudel shrugged her shoulders at Kaian's words.
“It means to live like a rat. No one in Rowan Castle will take your side.”
He spat out harsh words and turned around, relieved that it was all over.
'Why do you ask for something like that?'
Kaian left the place with long strides.
“No, there are people like that?”
While applying medicine to the bruised and bleeding area, Hannah couldn't help but feel angry.
"Really low quality. Of all the people I’ve seen in this castle, they are the worst!”
"Stop, Hannah."
“Why should I stop? I haven’t even started yet.”
At that moment, his eyes met Claudel.
The eyes that looked at him, asking him to do something or help her with an indifferent, doll-like expression on her face, became dim and filled with disappointment.
As soon as he saw it, he felt sorry, but his word was law in this castle.
If Kaian is right, then so be it. If he is wrong, then so be it.
If he calls blue red, his vassals will say it is red, and if he says white is black, the workers in the castle will say it is black.
The power of the castle Lord was so absolute that he could not retract what he had just said with so many eyes watching.
And that too for trivial reasons, such as whether or not they were given insignificant button decorations!
“As expected, that’s true. That’s what Vermont things do.”
“I guess the story about Vermont’s castle being surrounded by gold frames was a rumor.”
"Haha. I can't believe you like trivial things like that. I don’t think she's ever seen jewelry before in her life.”
Laughs poured out at Claudel and her maid.
Kaian shouted.
"Stop. Don’t make a fuss and everyone go away.”
The glances and taunts at the two women from Valmonde did not end until the hallway was clear. Even at the bottom of the stairs, “You’re a thief!” A shout was heard, and boisterous laughter rang out from afar.
After that, Kaian was embarrassed.
Claudel shut her mouth and lowered her head, and her maid, who had been torn and beaten by several of his maids, was sitting on the floor.
He had never given or extended a hand to anyone.
That was not what was expected from the head of the family.
Kaian just had to be as hard as a shield and as strong and sharp as a sword.
Can you imagine a shield and a sword offering a comforting hand?
What he said was absolutely correct, so he never even apologized.
But now, for the first time in his life, an unfamiliar sensation spread across his chest.
He feels sorry for his weak feelings.
However, Kaian did not fully realize or understand this.
Because he was raised that way.
He blamed his awkward and uncomfortable feelings on Claudel, who had asked for trivial things and even boasted about them.
“Don’t make a fuss.”
Claudel shrugged her shoulders at Kaian's words.
“It means to live like a rat. No one in Rowan Castle will take your side.”
He spat out harsh words and turned around, relieved that it was all over.
'Why do you ask for something like that?'
Kaian left the place with long strides.
***
“No, there are people like that?”
While applying medicine to the bruised and bleeding area, Hannah couldn't help but feel angry.
"Really low quality. Of all the people I’ve seen in this castle, they are the worst!”
"Stop, Hannah."
“Why should I stop? I haven’t even started yet.”
When I quietly tried to dissuade her, Hannah complained.
“He harasses people very intelligently. It happened once but twice is unlikely. I really won’t let him go.”
“He’s not that kind of person. It's a misunderstanding...”
“Are you saying that your husband is siding with this Young Lady even after being treated like this?”
Seeing Hannah squealing as if she was astonished, I pursed my lips.
When her eyes fell on something unclear whether it was the ring in question or the button decoration that I had been wearing on my finger all this time, she noticed it and Hannah opened her eyes.
“Give it to me! I’ll take it to the kitchen and turn it into kindling.”
"Do not do that."
Still, she tried to take it from me, who was looking thin and listless these days, but fearing that her beloved girl's fingers might be sprained, Hanna withdrew her strength from my hand.
“I don’t want to see this. Really."
"Sorry, Hannah."
“Not the Lady. That..."
I hesitated and covered my left hand with my right hand.
“I just started hating you.”
"Sorry."
"Ugh. Take that shit out and throw it out the window. Didn’t you see what the Duke did earlier? Even after seeing that, I still can’t believe it.”
I covered my mouth with my hand and coughed softly.
“Cough."
I felt sorry for Hannah, but I didn't think I could make her understand everything I felt.
I found out I got sick about two months ago.
Valmonde Castle was quite far north in the northern part of Oberon's kingdom, so it was a frozen land that remained frozen for half of the year.
In that cold land, there was a coughing disease called Herzole, a disease that caused people to cough for 100 days and then vomit blood and die.
In addition, it was highly contagious, so it was such a scary disease that if someone caught it, 80 percent of the villagers would die.
But someone found a way to overcome the disease.
I learned that if you have a mild case of Herzole, you won't get it again.
In particular, it was a disease so strong that even babies would die from fever, so hundreds of years ago the Duke of Vermont took the initiative and built a small village to control the disease.
If a child was taken to a village near Castle Valmonde before their first birthday, they would be given a 'baptism of ice'.
When a patient with mild fever and cough was rubbed with a towel near the nose, the child also suffered mildly from Herzole.
Before the Baptism of Ice, Herzole was a disease that would only end when an entire village died.
When the unprecedented condition was set that if a child was baptized with ice, a year's worth of taxes paid by the family to the estate would be forgiven, everyone went there when they had a child, and the number of people dying from the disease gradually disappeared.
The reason I contracted this disease for which there was no cure was because my father, Evan, was the younger brother of the Duke of Vermont.
My father had been driven out by the Duke of Vermont to the southern end of the estate, the furthest place from the Castle of Valmonde.
I found out later that my father was under surveillance and reported to the Duke of Vermont even if he left the town of Plogne.
Although I had Vermont blood more than anyone else, I did not receive the baptism of ice.
This is the baptism that even Hannah, who was born in Plogne, a mountain village far from Valmonde, received.
It is a disease that warm Southerners do not get.
When the cunning Duke of Vermont found out that I was suffering from a coughing disease that only affects those who were born and raised in frozen soil for a long time, the cunning Duke of Vermont relented.
Herzole is a disease that has no cure and cannot be cured.
I nodded my head to his persuasion that it wouldn't be good to help save the people who were going to die anyway.
The nobles and the vassals who came in and out of the castle were probably distant from me.
The local residents who waved and smiled at me when I went out to do service at my territory were much closer to my old neighbors in the village of Plogne in my memories.
What if those children are starving and are going to die anyway?
Even if I get humiliated for a while, if it's going to end in a month or two.
It seemed like I could do that much in my life where I had not done or achieved much.
I could feel the ring that was hot from pressing it so hard under my right hand.
I was Claudel Vermont. I didn't ask for this item because I didn't know it was worthless.
Valmonde Castle was quite far north in the northern part of Oberon's kingdom, so it was a frozen land that remained frozen for half of the year.
In that cold land, there was a coughing disease called Herzole, a disease that caused people to cough for 100 days and then vomit blood and die.
In addition, it was highly contagious, so it was such a scary disease that if someone caught it, 80 percent of the villagers would die.
But someone found a way to overcome the disease.
I learned that if you have a mild case of Herzole, you won't get it again.
In particular, it was a disease so strong that even babies would die from fever, so hundreds of years ago the Duke of Vermont took the initiative and built a small village to control the disease.
If a child was taken to a village near Castle Valmonde before their first birthday, they would be given a 'baptism of ice'.
When a patient with mild fever and cough was rubbed with a towel near the nose, the child also suffered mildly from Herzole.
Before the Baptism of Ice, Herzole was a disease that would only end when an entire village died.
When the unprecedented condition was set that if a child was baptized with ice, a year's worth of taxes paid by the family to the estate would be forgiven, everyone went there when they had a child, and the number of people dying from the disease gradually disappeared.
The reason I contracted this disease for which there was no cure was because my father, Evan, was the younger brother of the Duke of Vermont.
My father had been driven out by the Duke of Vermont to the southern end of the estate, the furthest place from the Castle of Valmonde.
I found out later that my father was under surveillance and reported to the Duke of Vermont even if he left the town of Plogne.
Although I had Vermont blood more than anyone else, I did not receive the baptism of ice.
This is the baptism that even Hannah, who was born in Plogne, a mountain village far from Valmonde, received.
It is a disease that warm Southerners do not get.
When the cunning Duke of Vermont found out that I was suffering from a coughing disease that only affects those who were born and raised in frozen soil for a long time, the cunning Duke of Vermont relented.
Herzole is a disease that has no cure and cannot be cured.
I nodded my head to his persuasion that it wouldn't be good to help save the people who were going to die anyway.
The nobles and the vassals who came in and out of the castle were probably distant from me.
The local residents who waved and smiled at me when I went out to do service at my territory were much closer to my old neighbors in the village of Plogne in my memories.
What if those children are starving and are going to die anyway?
Even if I get humiliated for a while, if it's going to end in a month or two.
It seemed like I could do that much in my life where I had not done or achieved much.
I could feel the ring that was hot from pressing it so hard under my right hand.
I was Claudel Vermont. I didn't ask for this item because I didn't know it was worthless.
I begged to be different because I was such a thing.
What I can keep for myself is because after a month or so, it will become a valuable keepsake and be burned.
So, wouldn't I be able to take a small piece like this to the afterlife even after I die?
Funny enough, I thought that way.
“Cough.”
My coughing got worse the longer I went, so I tried to hold back.
“I won’t tell you to give it up. Please rest comfortably.”
Hannah released my hands, which were still giving strength, and gently massaged them.
“Anyway, your cold isn’t getting better. I will somehow bring the doctor tomorrow.”
"Thank you, Hannah."
Perhaps if Hannah had found out that I had Herzole, she might have punched the Duke of Vermont with her fist. Hannah was thought to be capable of that.
It was a famous thing in the castle of Valmonde that Hannah would punish the maids with her fists if they behaved rudely.
It was a good thing that no one would be there to help Hannah when she sought the doctor at Rowan Castle.
It was the last day of the wedding celebration.
It was also the day when the newly crowned Lady Madame appeared in front of people.
However, rumors were already spreading within the Temnes family and the Rowan estate that Claudel looked like a ‘withered flower crushed by the rain.’
On the first day of the banquet where the Temne's blood relatives gathered, many people saw her walking in the rain in a mess, and each of them went home and talked about the incident.
At the same time, Kaian wondered if it would make a difference if he decorated her, but Claudel could not attend the banquet that day.
"What? She won’t attend?”
"Yes, Duke. She said she couldn’t attend because she was sick.”
Kaian's brow furrowed.
She seemed determined to embarrass him by causing a fuss over something trivial.
“Tell her that she will never be invited to a banquet again.”
"Your Excellency. That kind of thing...”
What I can keep for myself is because after a month or so, it will become a valuable keepsake and be burned.
So, wouldn't I be able to take a small piece like this to the afterlife even after I die?
Funny enough, I thought that way.
“Cough.”
My coughing got worse the longer I went, so I tried to hold back.
“I won’t tell you to give it up. Please rest comfortably.”
Hannah released my hands, which were still giving strength, and gently massaged them.
“Anyway, your cold isn’t getting better. I will somehow bring the doctor tomorrow.”
"Thank you, Hannah."
Perhaps if Hannah had found out that I had Herzole, she might have punched the Duke of Vermont with her fist. Hannah was thought to be capable of that.
It was a famous thing in the castle of Valmonde that Hannah would punish the maids with her fists if they behaved rudely.
It was a good thing that no one would be there to help Hannah when she sought the doctor at Rowan Castle.
***
It was the last day of the wedding celebration.
It was also the day when the newly crowned Lady Madame appeared in front of people.
However, rumors were already spreading within the Temnes family and the Rowan estate that Claudel looked like a ‘withered flower crushed by the rain.’
On the first day of the banquet where the Temne's blood relatives gathered, many people saw her walking in the rain in a mess, and each of them went home and talked about the incident.
At the same time, Kaian wondered if it would make a difference if he decorated her, but Claudel could not attend the banquet that day.
"What? She won’t attend?”
"Yes, Duke. She said she couldn’t attend because she was sick.”
Kaian's brow furrowed.
She seemed determined to embarrass him by causing a fuss over something trivial.
“Tell her that she will never be invited to a banquet again.”
"Your Excellency. That kind of thing...”
When the butler tried to say something, Kaian silenced him.
“Go back.”
The loyal butler who had been working since the previous Duke's reign had been nagging him over since King Oberon ordered him to get married.
'No matter how much you force your marriage, if you neglect your wife, your reputation will fall.'
The butler was also a blood relative of Temnes. The difference from other Temnes was that the anger toward Vermont was usually greater, and the prestige of the Temnes family was more important to the special butler.
Kaian ignored the butler's words, but didn't he end up preparing a first knight gift as he said?
The butler, who must have known about today's commotion in the castle and had not said a word about it to Kaian until now, suddenly became curious about what he meant to say later, but since the end of his consciousness had reached Claudel, Kaian deliberately tried not to think about it.
She must have been disappointed in him.
But she was also a bit absurd. It was only two days after meeting face to face that the family of enemies thought that he might help them.
Her disappointment also meant that she had expectations.
After abandoning that, Kaian kept feeling useless and self-blame.
That's okay for Vermont.
That's how he's lived so far.
Kaian was even planning to exterminate the family, and if all went according to plan, there was a high possibility that Claudel's head would also fall directly on his sword within the next month.
Even if King Oberon hadn't forced him to marry.
However, because he felt like he was the one who had done something wrong to Claudel, it became uncomfortable to face her.
That night, Kaian wandered around in front of Claudel’s bedroom.
Perhaps because of the events of the day, or because she said she was sick, the hallway, even with the lights off, was deserted and quiet.
'She's sick, so the maid will be holding on.'
Remembering Hannah who was looking at him like she was going to kill him, Kaian couldn't even go into the room. He stood in the hallway and glared at Claudel's door.
But at that time, Hanna, who thought Kaian was taking care of Claudel, was glaring at another visit.
It was Kaian's bedroom door.
“Just come out. I won’t leave you alone.”
Finally, in the early morning, the bedroom door opened and a person came out from inside.
Hannah clenched her fists and her eyes grew wide and irritated.
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