"Are you trying to tempt me now? It hasn’t even been five minutes since the carriage left.”
I looked at him with a bewildered expression.
Kaian habitually raised his eyebrows and waited for me to answer.
‘What on earth am I saying here? If I hate him while doing this, Kaian will push me to the point that he was the one who seduced me, right?'
He said he never teased me, but he was definitely teasing me.
'If you say that with a straight face and talk about the Duke's dignity.'
Still, he will blame me for trying to get my attention first by talking about my heart.
In the past, I was so scared of Kaian that no matter what he said, there were times when I would shrink or my mind would turn blank, but I just had to take out the cold tone of voice or facial expression and understand it for what it is.
...If I think about it that way, it wasn't even five minutes since the carriage left, and he must have decided to make fun of me.
I sighed softly and looked at him with my eyes tightened.
"That's right. I tempted you.”
If I was going to be ridiculed no matter what I said, I decided to tackle it head-on.
So what to do?
Kaian got up from the seat he was sitting across from and moved to sit next to me.
“Why are you making that face? I can’t even tell a joke.”
"Yes?"
“Are you sad?”
His red eyes darted here and there over my small, palm-sized face as he studied my expression.
"No. It’s not like that.”
“Are you sad about leaving Rowen?”
I nodded at what came closest to his ambiguous feelings.
"Right.”
“You were trying to make fun of me, right?”
“I was just trying to make you feel better.”
I ended up laughing at Kayan's hand, which tried to raise the drooping corners of my eyes by gently pressing them with his thumbs.
'You care about my feelings.'
Because somehow it made me happy to annoy him.
“You said you felt tight in your chest, but it doesn’t mean you’re motion sick.”
"Yes. It was okay when I came from Valmonde to here.”
“If you don’t get enough sleep, you can easily become depressed. You didn’t seem to sleep well last night.”
Kaian put his hands under my hair and caressed my delicate ears and the thin nape of my neck as if gently kneading them.
“Why don’t you just lean in and close your eyes for a moment?”
“Then you’re bored.”
"I'm okay."
I leaned my head against him as Kaian wrapped his arms around my waist as if holding me close to his side.
As Kaian held her hand on his lap and gently touched her neat fingers, the woman yawned softly and quickly fell asleep.
“Even insomnia can be tamed.”
She was a woman who could not sleep alone and was sensitive to the presence of people.
As if she were a baby riding on his hand, if he held her head or even her hand to get her body heat and gently touched her, she would easily fall asleep.
“Are you treating me like someone who is determined to make fun of me?”
Kaian wasn't trying to tease her.
It was my first time riding a carriage with Claudel since they visited the Market Place.
She didn't think anything while riding.
The two-headed carriage was made wide and sturdy for convenience so that there would be no inconvenience even when traveling long distances. The interior was quite spacious.
On the day they went to the marketplace, didn't Claudel even say 'Wow' and lie down on the soft seat?
So he leaned back in his seat and even if he stretched out his hand, it was so far away that he couldn't reach Claudel.
As soon as Kaian's carriage started moving, he thought.
If they had to face each other like this and go all the way to the capital, wouldn't the enjoyment of the trip be reduced by half?
“You’re making fun of me. You just wanted to change places.”
His naive wife would never have known that he had achieved his desired goal.
“How can I be bored?”
Kaian bowed his head and kissed his wife's forehead.
***
In the downtown area of the capital, cafes, and restaurants were lined up around a large square.
Fashionably dressed people filled the streets, walking bustlingly, but their expressions were bright and lively.
Looking around it from inside the carriage, Irena was amazed.
'It's definitely cold in Valmonde.'
The Valmonde Castle was a very unique structure that you would not find anywhere like even if you searched the entire continent.
Usually, castles existed near central cities or villages, including royal castles in the capital and Rowen Castle.
The castle itself was no different from a huge city.
In other words, it was like building a castle wall and covering the roof by stacking the buildings spread out across the entire capital like blocks.
Some merchants or nobles could have their own private living space in the outer castle, which was seven or eight stories high.
It was like a castle built in layers to block the heavy snowfall and harsh snowstorms that fell mercilessly on a land that was frozen for half of the year.
In the inner space, as if protected, there was an inner castle built like a gigantic tower, about ten stories taller than the outer castle.
It was Vermont's enormous wealth that made it possible to build a castle that may seem rough and lacking in elegance on the outside, but it is hard to believe that it was built by human power.
In contrast, the inside of the castle was decorated extravagantly with gold and precious stones.
'The capital alone will be enough to build a commercial district outside.'
However, the huge space of Castle Valmonde was constantly being saturated, and an underground passage was recently being dug.
Since it was difficult to expand from inside the castle, it was an attempt to connect nearby villages to the castle. Unless it is an underpass, when snow piles up in winter and the road freezes, there is no way to get around.
This was the first time in her life that Irena had left Castle Valmonde in this way, and she absorbed into knowledge everything she saw and heard with her own eyes.
She seemed to know why her freedom would not be granted until she was married off to in Vermont.
If the daughters, who were born and raised in the frozen soil of the harsh ice valley, taste the outside of Valmonde even once, they will never want to return to that castle again.
'Like me now.'
As she muttered to herself, the carriage stopped.
When the door opened, a middle-aged woman with graying brown hair in places greeted Irena with a bright smile.
“Lady Irena. Welcome to the capital.”
Madame Arnanti was a famous etiquette teacher whom the Duchess of Vermont had considered inviting to Valmonde.
Although Vermont's daughter was not active in the capital's social circles, there was a world of difference between not knowing the etiquette and knowing it but having no use for it.
Madame Arnanti, who had headed to the North, created an album of small portraits of the capital's leading figures. After completing the education of the Princesses, she returned to the capital.
Irena happened to want to meet her again, who was her teacher, so she decided to have a long-awaited tea time at a cafe today.
"Come over here."
Madame Arnanti led Irena to a private room inside the café.
Everyone looked at Irena with her red hair and golden eyes as she entered, their eyes widening.
“Red hair. Perhaps Vermont?”
“Wow. It’s my first time seeing hair color like that.”
“I think Vermont is right. Golden eye.”
Irena could clearly hear the whispering.
Most of the ordinary people in the Kingdom of Oberon did not have this striking color.
The most common was brown hair and brown eyes.
Approximately seven to eight-half of the total population has an ordinary brown color with no physical features.
The blond hair and blue eyes of the Oberon royal family, the black hair and red eyes of Temnes, or the red hair and golden eyes of Vermont were very striking symbols.
It was the sign of a ruler who would stand above everyone, something that everyone admired but was not born with.
Irena had been met with this reaction for several days wherever she went since she arrived in the capital.
As she sat down and sighed softly, Madame Arnanti, who also had brown hair and brown eyes, covered her mouth with her hand and laughed.
“Because Vermonters don’t socialize in the capital. Everyone will be amazed.”
“I understand, but I don’t feel good.”
“It is an honor to see you again. Lady Irena.”
After the tea and desserts were brought in and the door to the private room was closed, Madam Arnanti asked impatiently.
“How are you doing with His Majesty the King?”
“What do you think?”
“The capital’s social circles are abuzz with rumors of a Young Lady lady.”
“What do they say?”
“The young King, who has no interest in women and has high eyes, fell in love with a beautiful woman from the north.”
"No way."
Irena raised her teacup.
“Otherwise, there is no reason for him to invite the Young Lady to the castle for a meal.”
Madame Arnanti fretted at her relaxed attitude in a tone unbecoming of the etiquette teacher.
“Besides, it’s a hanging garden. It indicated that His Majesty meant that it was a special place and that he had invited you for a meaningful meeting.”
“He must have invited us since we traveled a long way.”
Oberon's young King, Valquiterre, was definitely a notable figure.
Could the King, who is only three years older than her, hide his true feelings like that?
'But... The Duke of Temnes seemed to be no less.'
Does a place really make a person?
If only Kaian and Valquiterre could conceal their intentions as well as her father, the Duke of Vermont.
Throughout the dinner, Valquiterre welcomed the father and daughter with pleasant words and a gentle, faint smile, but Irena had a suspicion that the beautiful smiling face that seemed to captivate the woman's heart was like a smoke screen to hide something.
Even though they are being treated favorably, should she say that there is no substance or truth to it?
The reason she dares to think like this in front of the King is because Irena also received a formidable education as the owner of a huge land called Valmonde and as the person responsible for giving birth to and raising the heirs of that land.
“It would be a shame for you to live in the far northern land. It would be nice for you to be Oberon’s queen.”
"Well. Wouldn't you know that until you go? Is it good or bad?”
“It’s the Queen’s seat! Oberon's Queen! Say it so indifferently.”
“I am the Princess of Valmonde, so why would I be so coveted to be Oberon’s Queen? Even now, everything I want to do and have is in my hands.”
She was a body without freedom, but to others, that was also true.
Madame Arnanti, who had been unable to contain her excitement and said that it was a waste as if she had confirmed that she would become Queen as long as the King liked Irena, finally calmed down, took a sip of the tea, and this time she asked how Claudel was doing.
“How is Lady Claudel doing? How did she end up like that among her enemies? Gamblers in the capital were betting money on whether there would be a stabbing in the early hours of the night.”
Irena, who thought of her younger sister and her husband at Madame Arnanti's words, raised her tea cup and covered the corners of her mouth where a smile was coming out.
“You’ll know when you see them at the royal ball.”
Irena spared her words.
She enjoyed chatting, and there was no reason for her to entertain the capital's wealthy people through Madame Arnanti.
***
As the sun was setting, the place where the carriage stopped was a quaint and small mansion.
I looked around and looked around.
I wiped my eyes and looked for no human beings, and everything was very quiet.
It's like a villa.
“Where am I? I don’t think it’s an inn.”
When I asked, Kaian asked back.
“Did you want to stay at the inn?”
“If it’s a normal trip, wouldn’t we sleep at an inn?”
While traveling from Valmonde to Rowen, I stayed in lodgings suitable for commoners, using the small expenses set by the Duke of Vermont.
However, for me, who had never left Valmonde, those memories had become quite glorified, and after living there, it was regretful that I had missed out on the famous food and sights of the city at some of the inns I passed by due to my illness.
“The last time I went to Rowen, I wasn’t able to see it properly, so I was waiting.”
I did, but the accommodation was a little strange.
Kaian said softly as he looked at his wife, who had slept well in the carriage and was in good spirits.
“I’m sorry to disappoint you. We are staying in one of my mansions.”
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