"That woman. She really intended to die.”
It was Kaian himself who put Claudel in a corner.
A woman who was gentle and infatuated with him was completely in his hands. There was no reason for him to release it.
Her marriage to him was the result of his patience for Valquiterre.
Even if someone else had been the King of Oberon, would the Duke of Temnes ever have entered the wedding hall with Vermont, his arch-nemesis?
The people who had settled down in the land of Rowen for a long time spoke up and raised an uproar.
Rather than accept a humiliating and insulting marriage, he would rather become independent from Oberon's kingdom.
Let's start a prepared war with Vermont rather than make a superficial and superficial peace with the enemy.
The reason Kaian followed the King's orders was only because of Valquiterre.
The King's position was originally difficult.
Kaian understood that even though he and his half-cousin were very close blood brothers if he became King, he would not be able to favor Temnes favorably.
When he chased after the royal castle, what he really wanted to hear was a request or whether there was another reason why he ordered the marriage at that time, even though he knew that the preparations for the territory war were nearing completion.
Valquiterre practically congratulated him by telling him not to climb up and follow his orders.
Kaian believed that after a twisted and bad relationship, a true relationship became his.
“There’s no way Claudel wanted to die.”
She was very attached to her life.
There were many times when Claudel almost died, but the reason he overcame being bitten by a crocodile and the serious illness called Herzol was because of her strong will to live on her own.
She silently followed what Kaian did to save her. He said that the doctor would help her recover, so she diligently did what she was told even though she was sick.
Her legs must have hurt just by taking each step, but Claudel rarely complained that practicing walking was difficult or painful.
To survive, she focused on getting better, as if it was natural to take risks because she lived.
There was no way she wanted Claudel to die.
“...She made me want to die, that kind of woman.”
An eerie chill ran up through him.
In the room originally used by Claudel, the floor carpet had only been replaced with a new one because of Burbrook's blood stains, but the room that lost its owner felt like a completely different space.
Kaian forced his stiff head to turn and saw a bed with familiar bedding.
One night, when he and Claudel were gathering up his work, not wanting to be separated from her, his eyes met hers as he woke up from a sound sleep.
The day he realized she was hungry, he took her to the kitchen and fed her this and that, the moment he remembered his wife's face smiling brightly all the time.
Pop.
Kaian felt something inside her was broken.
A part of him as a person had collapsed, the pillars that supported his character had cracked.
His pride in having reached the sublime emotions was twisted on its axis and the memories of him who had mistakenly thought he had her all were scattered like ash.
"No. Claudel can’t do that.”
He was an upright and strong person.
Those who could sacrifice their lives for others had a wide distribution. A narrow-minded and selfish personality makes it difficult to make altruistic choices for others.
The woman who knelt in front of him to ask him to feed the starving children of the Valmonde estate said that he had misunderstood and that she would not have carried the child she conceived into the envoy's arms.
As soon as that thought occurred to him, Kaian unconsciously headed to Claudel's dressing room.
Claudel always tried to dissuade him, saying it was too much, but Kaian didn't think so.
It seemed like she thought he was just meaninglessly collecting and bringing things she didn't need and couldn't touch, but she had personally selected each and every one of them.
It's just that there are so many to choose from.
Some dresses were made of shiny silk that seemed to go well with Claudel's white skin, others were colored like a yellow flower dyed just like her unique golden eyes, and other dresses were surprisingly the same color as her red hair. It was chosen because it was decorated with red jewels.
It was true that at first, she had asked for everything from the jewelry store where he had taken her to supplement her meager personal belongings, but after that, she had looked at each and every item in person.
Moreover, he was so busy making Claudel do one thing every night that he never forgot to buy it for her.
“If you were trying to run away.”
One of these may have disappeared.
Claudel's cash wasn't that much money.
She still didn't have the money she had taken to give to the butler, and if she had the amount of cash she spent on sending a telegram, she wouldn't have been able to get help or kill anyone to escape the territory with that.
“Because you would need money.”
Kaian examined each dress.
However, the expensive dresses that could easily hide her for a year if she sold just one were still hanging in their places.
Feeling his pulse racing, he began to examine the jewels.
“Is there anything missing?”
A small, red gemstone-set ring was missing from the set.
However, he soon noticed that the gaps between the jewel boxes were wide open, and when he cleared the boxes, the ring he thought she might have taken rolled out from a crevice in the velvet-covered case.
“Ha.”
His pulse suddenly dropped.
“You didn’t take anything.”
People need things to live.
If she was going to disappear, she should have at least taken a few rows of large gemstones and sold them one by one.
“Nothing.”
Where did the woman who took nothing go?
Where...
“...To the lake.”
He felt his breath suffocate as if it was being strangled, and a sadness that seemed to be driving him crazy came over him.
“No. Claudel. No.”
Kaian hurriedly ran out of her room.
“My Lord.”
The butler called after him as he hurriedly ran down the hallway without a moment to catch up.
“My Lord! Where are you going?”
“Claudel is there. We have to find her.”
“My Lord!”
The butler stopped in his tracks, panting, and shouted at the guards who were standing blankly at the entrance, watching Kaian running down the stairs with bewildered eyes.
“Bring the Lord inside!”
“Get out of the way!”
The guards, who were intimidated by Kaian running down the stairs like a beast, were frozen in place, unable to move.
“What are you doing?”
However, Kaian had already disappeared outside.
The guards who had hurriedly followed him out the door could be heard scuffling through the slanted door, but soon the noise faded away with the sound of horse hooves.
“Huk. Huk.”
The butler took a deep breath, trying to calm his breathing.
He unconsciously closed his eyes and called out to the former Duke of Temnes, who was sleeping in the catacombs.
“Master...”
He had a very, very ominous feeling.
“Please protect Temnes...”
It was as if a terrible and terrible swamp had begun to swirl, enough to make him want to plead.
***
The winter in the capital was peaceful.
Irena enjoyed her walk along the streets. She wore a stylish round woolen hat, a coat of the same color and material, and a light scarf, and a maid and a bodyguard followed her at a distance.
“A warm winter is nice once in a while.”
Since the young King’s birthday was in November, close to New Year’s Day, there had been no separate New Year’s ball since the current King ascended the throne.
In Valmonde, New Year’s Day was a very special event.
The frozen ice was so thick that even a fire on the lakeside would not melt it easily. Around the wide lake, they lit large, bright bonfires, grilled meat to their heart’s content, and skated, enjoying the northern winter.
The northerners were very eager to dance on the ice.
Isn’t there a limit to how far a person can jump and roll with their feet?
On ice, they could slide their feet freely and experience more than their bodies could normally, so skates made with two long iron lines attached to the bottom of leather boots were a pastime for the Valmondes throughout the continent.
However, according to the Vermont family tradition, Irena was far from seeing the capital.
The daughters of Vermont were usually not allowed to leave the Valmonde Castle until they got married.
Irena, who would soon marry and become the mistress of the castle, would spend the winters of her life curled up in the large castle, or on New Year’s Day, watching the snow on the trees blow like silver dust whenever the wind blew.
“Aren’t you cold, Miss?”
The maid, who had to attend to her as she walked around in the cold wind for two or three hours without a care in the world, was very dissatisfied.
“It’s not cold if I don’t freeze to death. It’s only three hours.”
“We walked for three hours! Achoo. I’m catching a cold.”
“In Valmonde, if you walk outside for three hours in the winter, you’ll freeze to death. Don’t joke around.”
“How can someone freeze to death?”
Irena chuckled at the maid’s audible monologue, puffing out her cheeks.
People could freeze to death.
It was Vermont’s job to look after them and help them survive in the bitter cold that could freeze even a person.
'It's so strange. I miss Valmonde when I'm away.'
However, when she actually thought about going back, she wondered when a woman from Vermont who didn't even socialize in the capital would be able to come out to the outside world like this again, so she accepted her father's offer of a blind date without much soul, but she couldn't easily turn north and wanted to stay here a little longer.
As she headed to the mansion after hearing the nagging of the cold maid, she ran into the postman who was just leaving the front door.
"Do you have a letter for me?"
"Yes, Princess. I've delivered the letter from the Duchess of Temnes."
"Thank you."
Irena hurried up to her room as if she was running.
The letter that would normally take fifteen days to reach Valmonde arrived in just a week, so exchanging letters with Claudel had been particularly fun lately.
Irena's eyes widened as she quickly opened the letter, sitting on a chair with her gloves off and her hat and coat still on.
"Claudel... is having a baby?"
However, according to the Vermont family tradition, Irena was far from seeing the capital.
The daughters of Vermont were usually not allowed to leave the Valmonde Castle until they got married.
Irena, who would soon marry and become the mistress of the castle, would spend the winters of her life curled up in the large castle, or on New Year’s Day, watching the snow on the trees blow like silver dust whenever the wind blew.
“Aren’t you cold, Miss?”
The maid, who had to attend to her as she walked around in the cold wind for two or three hours without a care in the world, was very dissatisfied.
“It’s not cold if I don’t freeze to death. It’s only three hours.”
“We walked for three hours! Achoo. I’m catching a cold.”
“In Valmonde, if you walk outside for three hours in the winter, you’ll freeze to death. Don’t joke around.”
“How can someone freeze to death?”
Irena chuckled at the maid’s audible monologue, puffing out her cheeks.
People could freeze to death.
It was Vermont’s job to look after them and help them survive in the bitter cold that could freeze even a person.
'It's so strange. I miss Valmonde when I'm away.'
However, when she actually thought about going back, she wondered when a woman from Vermont who didn't even socialize in the capital would be able to come out to the outside world like this again, so she accepted her father's offer of a blind date without much soul, but she couldn't easily turn north and wanted to stay here a little longer.
As she headed to the mansion after hearing the nagging of the cold maid, she ran into the postman who was just leaving the front door.
"Do you have a letter for me?"
"Yes, Princess. I've delivered the letter from the Duchess of Temnes."
"Thank you."
Irena hurried up to her room as if she was running.
The letter that would normally take fifteen days to reach Valmonde arrived in just a week, so exchanging letters with Claudel had been particularly fun lately.
Irena's eyes widened as she quickly opened the letter, sitting on a chair with her gloves off and her hat and coat still on.
"Claudel... is having a baby?"
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