“Ma, a telegram from the madam.”
Kaian asked in a threatening tone.
“What does that mean? From Claudel?”
A telegram? How could Claudel send a telegram?
To send a telegram, you needed identification.
So if it was from Claudel, only the person who wrote her identification could send it under that name.
That meant that Claudel really did send the telegram.
If you traced back where the telegram was sent from, you could find out where she was now.
‘She definitely fell into the lake.’
He circled around and came back to his original conclusion. The sound of a thick branch being cut off resounded.
“This is a message from the butler to bring you to the castle quickly.”
Before the errand boy could finish speaking, Kaian mounted his horse and started galloping.
He couldn’t hear anything while he was galloping.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The only sound was the beating of his heart, like the beating of a large drum, so loud that it hurt his ears.
'Claudel.'
How much he had wished for her survival.
All his nerves were focused on the desk in his office where the telegram would have been.
Kaian jumped up the stairs as soon as he got off his horse.
"Your Highness."
"A telegram?"
He was so nervous that he couldn't even say whether 'Claudel' or 'Madam' had sent it. The butler, who understood what he was about to say, answered immediately.
"It was the Madame who sent it."
"Damn it."
She was alive.
'Did she drift away?'
Today was the hundredth day since she had gone missing.
In fact, his heart was pounding because it was not long before Claudel and Kaian's wedding. He had Madame Marcel make her bride's dress before he found out that Claudel was pregnant.
So when Kaian first started to insist on seeing her in her bridal attire, he decided that he would make Claudel wear that dress on their first wedding anniversary.
Claudel remembered that he had gone to the wedding without a wedding dress.
She had asked him if he had been wearing something. But eventually, when he thought back on that memory, he realized that what he was wearing was not appropriate for a wedding. He could just overwrite unpleasant memories with new ones.
Instead of having a wedding in the dreary and shabby Castle de Valmonde, which was like a prison without any sense of style, he wanted to take Claudel as his wife once again under the splendid sunlight of Rowen.
If that was the case, even if she realized later that she had no intention of getting married and had stood next to him in a half-hearted manner, he would just give her a kind look and forgive her.
However, when June came, he felt very strange.
It wasn’t a problem whether he had worn a groom’s dress or not at the wedding.
Every little thing came back to him clearly, one by one.
He had done so many things wrong to her.
Up until now, Kaian had thought that he had not done anything so bad to Claudel.
Even though she was the daughter of the enemy family of Vermont, he had risked a great deal of risk to get her medicine and even saved her life. He had thought that he had done his duty by doing such a big thing.
But when he started to think back, all sorts of trivial things came to mind.
The time he had been enraged by Valquiterre and had ridden his horse toward Valmonde.
Baron Colon, who had followed him in a hurry, had hurriedly prepared the necessary items for the wedding ceremony in the capital.
Since he had no financial regrets, he hurriedly paid a large sum of money and obtained enough items to avoid the Duke of Vermont, who would have been upset even if he had burned them.
'Damn it.'
Usually, even if the marriage was decided in advance, a separate marriage proposal was sent before the wedding to ask for permission, which was like a formality, and then the engagement, wedding, and farewell party were scheduled, and it was common to show sincerity with appropriate gifts for each.
But the thought of the bride of Vermont and the Duke of Vermont made him furious, and whenever the butler brought him a gift, he would swear openly. He didn’t say a word to her at the wedding hall, and even though he knew it was no different from blatantly leaving her alone, he deliberately left her there, telling her to come or not.
No, at that time, he had sincerely hoped that the bride, whose pride had been hurt, would cry and say that she would not go to Rowen. But when she finally arrived at Rowen, he deliberately did not send out his servants because he wanted to step on the woman who had stood up to be greeted, even though the rain was pouring down so loudly that the moat was splashing with murky water.
Those things came to mind so clearly.
The feelings he felt at that time, the choice he made because he was dissatisfied.
Later, he gave her everything he had without any regrets, so he thought that was enough.
For some reason, when that exact time came back, the memories from a year ago became vivid again and he regretted it.
No matter how well he did, he couldn’t wipe away the rainwater that had gotten on the woman who had walked through the rain, soaking her wedding dress.
He realized it too late and that fact tore at Kaiaan’s mind all along.
At that time, a telegram from Claudel suddenly arrived. He felt like his head was spinning, having lost his senses for the past few months.
“Where did the telegram come from?”
He had to go and get her right away.
‘What have you been doing so far that you haven’t contacted me?’
If she had mentioned the Duchess of Temnes’ name, she could have easily gotten a favor from anyone and sent him the news.
‘She must have gotten seriously hurt.’
He thought it wouldn’t be like that since he saw her fall into the water, but it wouldn’t be strange if something happened to the woman he couldn’t find even after searching for so long.
However, a strange sense of difficulty appeared on the butler’s face as he couldn’t readily respond to Kaian’s urging.
“It’s the King.”
“...What?”
“It arrived with a telegram from His Majesty the King.”
Kaian roughly opened the office door as if he were going to break it open and ran in to see the telegram the butler had placed on the desk. The telegram with the familiar gold mark was next to the ordinary one.
Kaian opened the telegram from Claudel with trembling hands.
She hadn’t written it herself but had simply received it from the telegram office and sent it, and it was crazy just looking at the name on the outside.
However, Kaian’s mind went blank when he saw what was written inside.
It was just one line.
[We get a divorce.]
Divorce? Divorce?
“What the hell.”
Kaian gritted his teeth and roughly tore open the one Valquiterre had sent.
[The royal order to marry the two families for the sake of reconciliation between Vermont and Temnes is revoked.]
Kaian cursed as soon as he saw it.
"What kind of bullshit is this?"
This was the second time he could remember receiving such a short telegram from Valquiterre.
The first was a telegram telling him to marry Vermont's daughter.
After Claudel disappeared, he lived irregularly and drank too much, so his hands would sometimes tremble.
But now, his whole body was shaking uncontrollably, and it was hard to tell whether it was because of the drinking and lack of sleep or the endless anger and distrust.
"Send a telegram to Madame Cronach. Claudel is staying in the castle."
"Yes, my lord."
"We will leave for the castle immediately."
"Then the matter of the lake..."
"Stop it."
"Claudel sent a telegram? What on earth does that mean?"
Irena, who was holding onto the door of the office, asked with a puzzled face.
"She's alive. She's staying in the castle right now."
In this situation, Kaian, who did not want to tell Irena, “She is asking for a divorce,” folded the telegram and put it in his bosom.
“I will go with you.”
“The Princess, come as you please.”
“Just a moment!”
Kaian quickly grabbed a few things from the desk in the office, put on the hat and cloak that the butler hurriedly put on, and rode the horse he had just ridden from the lake and started to run.
Ten days by carriage. Seven days by horseback.
Five days if you ride a very good fine horse and run hard.
Kaian had once raced to the palace in anger when Valquiterre ordered her to marry Vermont.
However, it was not like that now.
His soul had already left his body and seemed to be circling around the palace that was clearly visible in his eyes, so he decided not to rest at the intermediate town at all.
Thanks to the butler who had quickly prepared according to his master’s wishes, Kaian rode his horse as fast as he could and then changed to a carriage at the gateway city.
He ate the food that had been loaded in advance in the carriage and took a short nap before getting on his horse again when he arrived at the next city.
In a way that no one had ever tried before, he ran day and night, and arrived at the palace on the fourth day, exactly three and a half days after receiving the telegram.
“Take me to where the Duchess is.”
‘What have you been doing so far that you haven’t contacted me?’
If she had mentioned the Duchess of Temnes’ name, she could have easily gotten a favor from anyone and sent him the news.
‘She must have gotten seriously hurt.’
He thought it wouldn’t be like that since he saw her fall into the water, but it wouldn’t be strange if something happened to the woman he couldn’t find even after searching for so long.
However, a strange sense of difficulty appeared on the butler’s face as he couldn’t readily respond to Kaian’s urging.
“It’s the King.”
“...What?”
“It arrived with a telegram from His Majesty the King.”
Kaian roughly opened the office door as if he were going to break it open and ran in to see the telegram the butler had placed on the desk. The telegram with the familiar gold mark was next to the ordinary one.
Kaian opened the telegram from Claudel with trembling hands.
She hadn’t written it herself but had simply received it from the telegram office and sent it, and it was crazy just looking at the name on the outside.
However, Kaian’s mind went blank when he saw what was written inside.
It was just one line.
[We get a divorce.]
Divorce? Divorce?
“What the hell.”
Kaian gritted his teeth and roughly tore open the one Valquiterre had sent.
[The royal order to marry the two families for the sake of reconciliation between Vermont and Temnes is revoked.]
Kaian cursed as soon as he saw it.
"What kind of bullshit is this?"
This was the second time he could remember receiving such a short telegram from Valquiterre.
The first was a telegram telling him to marry Vermont's daughter.
After Claudel disappeared, he lived irregularly and drank too much, so his hands would sometimes tremble.
But now, his whole body was shaking uncontrollably, and it was hard to tell whether it was because of the drinking and lack of sleep or the endless anger and distrust.
"Send a telegram to Madame Cronach. Claudel is staying in the castle."
"Yes, my lord."
"We will leave for the castle immediately."
"Then the matter of the lake..."
"Stop it."
"Claudel sent a telegram? What on earth does that mean?"
Irena, who was holding onto the door of the office, asked with a puzzled face.
"She's alive. She's staying in the castle right now."
In this situation, Kaian, who did not want to tell Irena, “She is asking for a divorce,” folded the telegram and put it in his bosom.
“I will go with you.”
“The Princess, come as you please.”
“Just a moment!”
Kaian quickly grabbed a few things from the desk in the office, put on the hat and cloak that the butler hurriedly put on, and rode the horse he had just ridden from the lake and started to run.
Ten days by carriage. Seven days by horseback.
Five days if you ride a very good fine horse and run hard.
Kaian had once raced to the palace in anger when Valquiterre ordered her to marry Vermont.
However, it was not like that now.
His soul had already left his body and seemed to be circling around the palace that was clearly visible in his eyes, so he decided not to rest at the intermediate town at all.
Thanks to the butler who had quickly prepared according to his master’s wishes, Kaian rode his horse as fast as he could and then changed to a carriage at the gateway city.
He ate the food that had been loaded in advance in the carriage and took a short nap before getting on his horse again when he arrived at the next city.
In a way that no one had ever tried before, he ran day and night, and arrived at the palace on the fourth day, exactly three and a half days after receiving the telegram.
“Take me to where the Duchess is.”
The Duke of Temnes, bloodshot in his eyes and growling, appeared, and the guards at the gate trembled in fear, overwhelmed by his momentum.
Kaian's heart pounded like crazy as he headed to the familiar place where he had stayed when he visited the palace with her.
Then, when he entered the reception room and saw Claudel sitting on the sofa as pretty as a doll, he felt dizzy for a moment and staggered without realizing it.
“Claudel.”
He kept thinking about it the whole way.
Why didn’t she contact him?
When he saw a woman who had sent him a mere note saying she wanted a divorce, not even a message saying she was alive or a request to come pick her up, he would be even angrier than when he had been told to marry his enemy’s daughter. He was worried that he would swear at her until she burst into tears.
However, when he saw Claudel, his seething insides calmed down.
Everything was fine.
He was just grateful that his wife, whom he had thought might need a funeral, was alive and well.
Kaian paused as he looked at the woman who had been sitting there motionless even after he arrived.
“What about our baby?”
Kaian's heart pounded like crazy as he headed to the familiar place where he had stayed when he visited the palace with her.
Then, when he entered the reception room and saw Claudel sitting on the sofa as pretty as a doll, he felt dizzy for a moment and staggered without realizing it.
“Claudel.”
He kept thinking about it the whole way.
Why didn’t she contact him?
When he saw a woman who had sent him a mere note saying she wanted a divorce, not even a message saying she was alive or a request to come pick her up, he would be even angrier than when he had been told to marry his enemy’s daughter. He was worried that he would swear at her until she burst into tears.
However, when he saw Claudel, his seething insides calmed down.
Everything was fine.
He was just grateful that his wife, whom he had thought might need a funeral, was alive and well.
Kaian paused as he looked at the woman who had been sitting there motionless even after he arrived.
“What about our baby?”
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