“I heard that Kaian spends time with a woman from the capital several times a day.”
Claudel parted her small, pretty lips and opened her eyes wide as if she had never imagined that he would say it out loud like that.
“Why are you so surprised?”
"No. It's not like that...”
“I’m a human too, so I can’t say I didn’t hear people talking freely inside the castle.”
“...”
Valquiterre approached the woman who was standing there with her face caught off guard by the sudden words.
“Would you like to walk with me for a moment?”
The hem of Valquiterre's dress lightly brushed the grass as he took his steps. The footsteps that had been hitting the grass with each other's beats soon became the same.
“Aren’t you disappointed?”
“What am I disappointed about?”
Claudel hesitated as if she was worried.
“It means that the Duke and I cannot get along smoothly.”
"Haha. It’s not possible to achieve perfection.”
Valquiterre laughed sincerely.
“You are mistaken.”
"Yes?"
“We are doing very well now. If you think about it between Vermont and Temnes.”
He narrowed his eyes and smiled.
“In the capital, gamblers were betting that they would see blood on the first night.”
Claudel shrugged her shoulders at the cruel expression heard without a filter.
“They say the bride won’t make it out of the bedroom alive. They say that the Duke’s sword that he was sharpening couldn’t hit Valmonde, but it would at least hit the bride’s head.”
Valquiterre showed his poisonous concern for such a woman.
“Didn’t the Duke of Vermont send you to Temnes on purpose? Even if Temnes had pushed the priest from Vermont into the moat so that he could not even set foot in the castle, the fact would have been covered up.”
The woman turned pale and unconsciously covered her stomach with her hands. Her attitude towards something that wasn't even noticeable yet was quite desperate.
“But a successor has been born. Why should I be disappointed?”
He spoke gently.
“Thanks to your great courage in marrying into an enemy family, I can hear the praise of a successful person who has reconciled two families, so I am just grateful.”
“Thank you for saying that.”
However, Valquiterre knew that each and every word he said would cloud Claudel's inner thoughts like muddy water hit by strong raindrops. Because it was what he did best.
“If it bothers you, how about you get that woman out of the castle?”
"Yes?"
“Madame Marcel. Ah, of course, this proposal contains a bit of selfishness.”
Valquiterre added playfully.
“I would like her to return it to my capital before my sister, who is very fond of her tailor’s dresses, grows resentful.”
“The Princess likes her.”
Claudel sighed softly.
“I already told him.”
“To Kaian?”
“The Duke said he liked that seamstress.”
Her face darkened.
“He made excuses that it suited me well and that it was difficult to find people to work at Rowen.”
“Oh my.”
“Please don’t tell him that I said this.”
Claudel smiled weakly as if she was empty.
“I keep asking Your Majesty for this.”
“I am a very loud-mouthed person.”
Valquiterre picked a jacaranda flower with abundant scarlet petals and placed it in Claudel's ear.
“If you call me Bark instead of Your Majesty, I will be your faithful friend at any time.”
"Yes. Your...”
She was trying to say 'Your Majesty' without even realizing it, but her words were blurred.
“Bark.”
Valquiterr lightly kissed her on the back of her hand.
***
The butler looked at Kaian with a stern expression.
“It is said that Madame Cronach has been away from her post for two days.”
“She is that woman.”
Kaian was shocked and smiled, showing her fangs.
“It’s amazing.”
It was not a laugh, but a habit of expression when one was intimidated and looked like the growl of a wild beast that wanted to bite.
“She was a woman in our intelligence network. It’s not like I didn’t think that she might have planted someone of her own in the castle.”
“She said she would go out for a few hours because she had some business to run.”
“What about the escorts at Salon Arvo?”
“She often called for a hired carriage and rode around.”
“Why a hired wagon?”
“I think she let her guard down like that on purpose.”
“She was planning something with bated breath at Salon Arvo.”
“It is said that Madame said she would only take one maid to do secretarial work, so she did not suspect otherwise.”
Madame Cronach diligently won Kaian's favor. He wasn't going to blame her for wasting his time like a crumpled piece of trash with massive burns and mangled skin, but she offered to be useful to him as if she wanted to prove that she was worth saving.
“When I see things like this, I too have come a long way.”
“Isn’t there a way to beat a determined conman?”
“It is comforting to hear the butler say that.”
However, Kaian's eyes shined sinisterly.
“But we can’t just ignore the crime of deceiving Temnes.”
“We are looking for those who left the capital during that time. We have sent a chase team.”
“What did she want?”
“Wouldn’t it have been revenge?”
"Yes. I can’t think of anything else.”
The only person found alive in the village was Madame Cronach. Kaian personally confirmed that everyone had stopped breathing.
Because trouble should not be left behind.
However, he also thought that a woman with severe burns would not pose much of a threat.
The Queen issued a silent order and followed the orders of his father, the head of the Temnes family. He believed that one person from the exterminated village was not a problem and that it could even become a trump card in diplomatic issues related to that village in the future.
The woman was much smarter than he thought, so she hid her teeth, pulled out her claws, and obeyed him like an idiot, gradually catching Kaian off guard.
Entrusting something to her became an efficient thing to do, and gradually, Kaian found himself using Madame Cronac more and more comfortably.
Since his estate was quite far from the capital, it was a convenient means for him to maintain access to social circles and information through the salon.
Over the past ten years, she has become one of the few confidants that Kaian can trust and entrust with tasks without influencing the outcome.
“Anyway, if you want to get revenge, won’t you end up coming to Rowen with a sword?”
Kaian leaned back in his chair and lifted his chin arrogantly as if he had come to a conclusion.
“Let’s lift the strengthened censorship.”
"Yes?"
“It would be better to drag her here.”
He spoke calmly as if he had reached a clear conclusion.
“Wouldn’t it be too dangerous?”
“My body is not fragile enough to be stabbed by a woman whose body is not in perfect condition.”
The butler eventually lowered his head with a very stern look on his face.
“I will do as you command.”
As the office became quiet, he sighed.
"Ha."
Kaian was always busy, and after Valquiterre came to Rowen, he became even more hectic.
On top of that, he had a lot of work to do, so he wasn't usually tired.
'I want to go somewhere with Claudel and spend a few days alone.'
The sense of security given by a wife who obeyed him as if she would give him everything was irreplaceable.
But these days, their relationship isn't as good as it used to be.
'It's my father's.'
It seemed like days were going well until Claudel found on his desk an item that had been taken away as a remnant of the village of Plogne.
“You asked me if I was a survivor there.”
This was indisputable proof that Kaian knew what happened in Plonne Village.
“If only she hadn’t said that, I wouldn’t have mentioned Your Majesty’s matter.”
He hated anything getting out of control. He didn't like it, it was closer to disgust.
He wasn't without that side even from a young age, but it wasn't until he went to war that he realized that he was suffocating his subordinates.
Because uncertainty sometimes costs him his life.
Neither the man who was his sword nor the man who was his shield had any chance of returning to Rowen in the war that would never end, so he had to be buried in the cold ground.
As he collected the bodies of his men one by one, Kaian became more and more persistent.
If his decision-making judgment was wrong, the probability of someone losing his life increased.
The war was over, but his heightened senses could not easily regain peace.
No matter how much Baron Colon tried to manage it meticulously, the land was bound to become lax when the owner was away.
Now, he has to shoulder the burden of feeding not only the soldiers who follow him but also all his dependents on this land.
Some in the capital were dissatisfied with Kaian's emancipation of the serfs, but Kaian had other intentions.
For him, giving them freedom meant taking less responsibility for them.
Although he believed that taking responsibility for them would lead to more active development of the fiefdom, he tried to gradually reduce the fiefdom's responsibilities.
Is it because these things feel burdensome and it is incompetent to try to ease them?
He doesn't think his father, the previous Duke of Temnes, had these concerns.
He was extremely sharp every day and was at the peak of his sensitivity as he prepared for the battle of his territory. It was as if Valquiterre had taken the wind out of it all at once.
“I didn’t know it would be like this when I met a bride from an enemy family.”
It was in Claudel's arms that he truly came to rest. There is no way that Valquiterre would have said he would marry her if he had asked in advance, but there was a time when he thought it was a stroke of luck that he found a wife of his choice.
However, it has been difficult to take advantage of his wife these days.
“It’s not easy to please my wife.”
It seemed like things got more complicated because he didn't pay much attention to things like her origins.
“I don’t know when she’ll bring up the matter of Plogne Village again.”
Feeling frustrated, Kaian quickly headed to the castle's back garden.
He planned to cool his heated head by walking along the shady forest path and pondering all kinds of information all morning.
“...”
Until he saw Valquiterre putting a flower in his wife's ear with an expression like a courting peacock, with his flashy tail spread out.
“She said she would go out for a few hours because she had some business to run.”
“What about the escorts at Salon Arvo?”
“She often called for a hired carriage and rode around.”
“Why a hired wagon?”
“I think she let her guard down like that on purpose.”
“She was planning something with bated breath at Salon Arvo.”
“It is said that Madame said she would only take one maid to do secretarial work, so she did not suspect otherwise.”
Madame Cronach diligently won Kaian's favor. He wasn't going to blame her for wasting his time like a crumpled piece of trash with massive burns and mangled skin, but she offered to be useful to him as if she wanted to prove that she was worth saving.
“When I see things like this, I too have come a long way.”
“Isn’t there a way to beat a determined conman?”
“It is comforting to hear the butler say that.”
However, Kaian's eyes shined sinisterly.
“But we can’t just ignore the crime of deceiving Temnes.”
“We are looking for those who left the capital during that time. We have sent a chase team.”
“What did she want?”
“Wouldn’t it have been revenge?”
"Yes. I can’t think of anything else.”
The only person found alive in the village was Madame Cronach. Kaian personally confirmed that everyone had stopped breathing.
Because trouble should not be left behind.
However, he also thought that a woman with severe burns would not pose much of a threat.
The Queen issued a silent order and followed the orders of his father, the head of the Temnes family. He believed that one person from the exterminated village was not a problem and that it could even become a trump card in diplomatic issues related to that village in the future.
The woman was much smarter than he thought, so she hid her teeth, pulled out her claws, and obeyed him like an idiot, gradually catching Kaian off guard.
Entrusting something to her became an efficient thing to do, and gradually, Kaian found himself using Madame Cronac more and more comfortably.
Since his estate was quite far from the capital, it was a convenient means for him to maintain access to social circles and information through the salon.
Over the past ten years, she has become one of the few confidants that Kaian can trust and entrust with tasks without influencing the outcome.
“Anyway, if you want to get revenge, won’t you end up coming to Rowen with a sword?”
Kaian leaned back in his chair and lifted his chin arrogantly as if he had come to a conclusion.
“Let’s lift the strengthened censorship.”
"Yes?"
“It would be better to drag her here.”
He spoke calmly as if he had reached a clear conclusion.
“Wouldn’t it be too dangerous?”
“My body is not fragile enough to be stabbed by a woman whose body is not in perfect condition.”
The butler eventually lowered his head with a very stern look on his face.
“I will do as you command.”
As the office became quiet, he sighed.
"Ha."
Kaian was always busy, and after Valquiterre came to Rowen, he became even more hectic.
On top of that, he had a lot of work to do, so he wasn't usually tired.
'I want to go somewhere with Claudel and spend a few days alone.'
The sense of security given by a wife who obeyed him as if she would give him everything was irreplaceable.
But these days, their relationship isn't as good as it used to be.
'It's my father's.'
It seemed like days were going well until Claudel found on his desk an item that had been taken away as a remnant of the village of Plogne.
“You asked me if I was a survivor there.”
This was indisputable proof that Kaian knew what happened in Plonne Village.
“If only she hadn’t said that, I wouldn’t have mentioned Your Majesty’s matter.”
He hated anything getting out of control. He didn't like it, it was closer to disgust.
He wasn't without that side even from a young age, but it wasn't until he went to war that he realized that he was suffocating his subordinates.
Because uncertainty sometimes costs him his life.
Neither the man who was his sword nor the man who was his shield had any chance of returning to Rowen in the war that would never end, so he had to be buried in the cold ground.
As he collected the bodies of his men one by one, Kaian became more and more persistent.
If his decision-making judgment was wrong, the probability of someone losing his life increased.
The war was over, but his heightened senses could not easily regain peace.
No matter how much Baron Colon tried to manage it meticulously, the land was bound to become lax when the owner was away.
Now, he has to shoulder the burden of feeding not only the soldiers who follow him but also all his dependents on this land.
Some in the capital were dissatisfied with Kaian's emancipation of the serfs, but Kaian had other intentions.
For him, giving them freedom meant taking less responsibility for them.
Although he believed that taking responsibility for them would lead to more active development of the fiefdom, he tried to gradually reduce the fiefdom's responsibilities.
Is it because these things feel burdensome and it is incompetent to try to ease them?
He doesn't think his father, the previous Duke of Temnes, had these concerns.
He was extremely sharp every day and was at the peak of his sensitivity as he prepared for the battle of his territory. It was as if Valquiterre had taken the wind out of it all at once.
“I didn’t know it would be like this when I met a bride from an enemy family.”
It was in Claudel's arms that he truly came to rest. There is no way that Valquiterre would have said he would marry her if he had asked in advance, but there was a time when he thought it was a stroke of luck that he found a wife of his choice.
However, it has been difficult to take advantage of his wife these days.
“It’s not easy to please my wife.”
It seemed like things got more complicated because he didn't pay much attention to things like her origins.
“I don’t know when she’ll bring up the matter of Plogne Village again.”
Feeling frustrated, Kaian quickly headed to the castle's back garden.
He planned to cool his heated head by walking along the shady forest path and pondering all kinds of information all morning.
“...”
Until he saw Valquiterre putting a flower in his wife's ear with an expression like a courting peacock, with his flashy tail spread out.
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