“I object.”
“...Duke of Vermont.”
Kaian heard the sound of an invisible trap snapping shut.
Until a moment ago, he had thought it was unpleasant because it was not his turn to lead the way, which made him uncomfortable.
“Are you treating the precious daughter of Vermont like this?”
A middle-aged man with red hair suddenly appeared with an angry face as if he had made up his mind and glared at Kaian. Only he could clearly see the reptilian-like yellow eyes blazing with selfish desire.
‘Could this be a set-up?’
Up until this point, Kaian had been accepting the information rationally. Even if his emotions surged because of Claudel’s matter and his heart was twisted, he would not completely abandon the lord’s business, as it would destroy his human and private realm. This was because what he saw, heard, and judged was something he had naturally learned before he could think.
He was the head of the family who was raised and groomed to make the right choice for Temnes and to continue the prosperity of the family without leaving a stain on the long history, so he knew that people around him were worried and anxious after his wife disappeared, but he never did anything wrong or pushed for something too unreasonable.
He ordered people to search for her and to drain the lake because he could do it.
However, the suspicion he encountered at a point where he had told them to trust him and not even suspect him made him very uneasy.
'Valquiterre, me? That can't be.'
However, the suspicion he encountered at a point where he had told them to trust him and not even suspect him made him very uneasy.
'Valquiterre, me? That can't be.'
Even if everyone in the world turned their backs on me, you alone would trust me. Even if I lost everything, if I had one last card left, it would be you.
Valquiterre was the last bastion that Kaian trusted and relied on.
However, when he began to suspect that Valquiterre was the one who had taken the initiative in this game by targeting him and driving him into a trap, his heart wavered.
"I thought you were treating her like a proper mistress and caring for her!"
When he had to beg for food, he would tuck his tail under his belly and act like a fox that had starved for three months, but he raised his voice with arrogance.
'That's not what you should say when you bring a sick woman into the family of your enemy!'
Kaian held back the thought of lashing out without hesitation.
He couldn't act like the Duke of Vermont here.
The family of your enemy would only feel satisfied if they saw the blood of the head of the family while holding the title of the same Duke.
He had only seen the Duke of Vermont in person three times: at his wedding at the Castle of Valmonde, when he sent food from Rowen, and at the royal ball.
Kaian had not been particularly polite to him at those times. Even when he was sitting in the father-in-law's seat, he had deliberately fought with Claudel over the jewels he had presented to the former King.
However, he couldn't do that now.
'The Duke of Vermont was the one who started the divorce talk.'
Could it be that the very short telegram he had sent was not what Claudel had meant? In the meantime, Kaian unconsciously moved his head in a hopeful direction.
'Anyway, I should talk to Claudel.'
As his purpose became clear, the positions of Valquiterre and Duke Vermont, who had blocked his path, became clear. He could just bypass or push away anything that interfered with what he wanted.
Only then was Kaian finally able to calm down.
"I need to talk to Claudel."
"Let's leave for today."
When Duke Vermont spoke coldly, he felt a surge of murderous intent, but he held back.
"How can a woman who has lost her child be in her right mind?"
Kaian also felt pain in his own defenseless place, even though he thought that he had deliberately calculated what he had said.
"...I understand."
Kaian looked at Valquiterre again.
He looked at him and Duke Vermont without saying a word while they were talking, and it seemed that he was just trying to mediate.
'Am I being overly sensitive?'
He nodded, sighing inwardly.
"Let's talk again soon."
It was fortunate that he had avoided the open talk of divorce and decided it here.
The Duke and Duchess of the previous generation had repeatedly told him not to even start a risky game, but this was the first time he had decided to step into a game that was unfavorable to him.
However, there was no way to avoid it since it was his wife who was at stake.
As soon as Kaian left the living room, the King’s servant hurriedly ran to him.
“I will show you where you will be staying.”
She looked familiar. Kaian looked at her face carefully and soon remembered where he had seen her.
The first day he arrived at the palace with Claudel, she was the one who had said she would show him and her to separate rooms.
'Here's where you'll be staying. And I'll show her to different rooms.'
It felt bitter to think that to others, he and Claudel always seemed so distant that they had to share separate rooms.
"I'll go to the capital mansion."
Kaian turned around as soon as he answered.
He was in a terrible mood, but there was no point in holding on any longer.
'Claudel is alive.'
Confirming her safety was incomparably important.
...If he didn't think that way, he wouldn't be able to control his urges.
Thinking of Claudel turning away coldly and turning away from him, he wondered if a door that would break with a single, determined punch was a big deal.
He wanted to grab Claudel right away, tell her not to act like that, and then carry her on his shoulder so she couldn't escape, dragging her out of the palace.
A closed door.
That was very symbolic.
It was just a thin wooden plank that Kaian could easily break if he wanted to, but Claudel’s heart felt as if it was tightly shut. He couldn’t open the door forcibly, fearing that she would turn away even more coldly if she hid inside.
Kaian paused in front of the bedroom door connected to the hallway and then quickly moved on. An ominous thought came to him as he walked further away from the woman he longed for.
Could it be that the place where he had been wandering around, unable to eat or lie down while searching for Claudel, had simply changed from the lakeside to the front of a bedroom in the palace?
Kaian tried to pull himself together, thinking that the feeling of being lost was because he had overworked himself.
Crack.
I staggered as I was suddenly slapped in the face by a hand that had suddenly flown in.
“Useless thing.”
The Duke of Vermont grabbed my hair with a furious expression.
“You lost the child you had conceived? We could have planted our Vermont bloodline in the lineage of Temnes for generations!”
“...”
I gasped. I was too weak to let the verbal abuse that had been continuously hitting me go unheeded.
“Oh, how could you say that?”
The Duke of Vermont saw the Duchess pregnant, so he could have been Irena’s father. The words “ shedding a child” coming from someone who knew nothing about carrying someone else’s life and giving birth were so low and horrible that my teeth chattered.
“Don’t talk carelessly about a child.”
Valquiterre was the last bastion that Kaian trusted and relied on.
However, when he began to suspect that Valquiterre was the one who had taken the initiative in this game by targeting him and driving him into a trap, his heart wavered.
"I thought you were treating her like a proper mistress and caring for her!"
When he had to beg for food, he would tuck his tail under his belly and act like a fox that had starved for three months, but he raised his voice with arrogance.
'That's not what you should say when you bring a sick woman into the family of your enemy!'
Kaian held back the thought of lashing out without hesitation.
He couldn't act like the Duke of Vermont here.
The family of your enemy would only feel satisfied if they saw the blood of the head of the family while holding the title of the same Duke.
He had only seen the Duke of Vermont in person three times: at his wedding at the Castle of Valmonde, when he sent food from Rowen, and at the royal ball.
Kaian had not been particularly polite to him at those times. Even when he was sitting in the father-in-law's seat, he had deliberately fought with Claudel over the jewels he had presented to the former King.
However, he couldn't do that now.
'The Duke of Vermont was the one who started the divorce talk.'
Could it be that the very short telegram he had sent was not what Claudel had meant? In the meantime, Kaian unconsciously moved his head in a hopeful direction.
'Anyway, I should talk to Claudel.'
As his purpose became clear, the positions of Valquiterre and Duke Vermont, who had blocked his path, became clear. He could just bypass or push away anything that interfered with what he wanted.
Only then was Kaian finally able to calm down.
"I need to talk to Claudel."
"Let's leave for today."
When Duke Vermont spoke coldly, he felt a surge of murderous intent, but he held back.
"How can a woman who has lost her child be in her right mind?"
Kaian also felt pain in his own defenseless place, even though he thought that he had deliberately calculated what he had said.
"...I understand."
Kaian looked at Valquiterre again.
He looked at him and Duke Vermont without saying a word while they were talking, and it seemed that he was just trying to mediate.
'Am I being overly sensitive?'
He nodded, sighing inwardly.
"Let's talk again soon."
It was fortunate that he had avoided the open talk of divorce and decided it here.
The Duke and Duchess of the previous generation had repeatedly told him not to even start a risky game, but this was the first time he had decided to step into a game that was unfavorable to him.
However, there was no way to avoid it since it was his wife who was at stake.
As soon as Kaian left the living room, the King’s servant hurriedly ran to him.
“I will show you where you will be staying.”
She looked familiar. Kaian looked at her face carefully and soon remembered where he had seen her.
The first day he arrived at the palace with Claudel, she was the one who had said she would show him and her to separate rooms.
'Here's where you'll be staying. And I'll show her to different rooms.'
It felt bitter to think that to others, he and Claudel always seemed so distant that they had to share separate rooms.
"I'll go to the capital mansion."
Kaian turned around as soon as he answered.
He was in a terrible mood, but there was no point in holding on any longer.
'Claudel is alive.'
Confirming her safety was incomparably important.
...If he didn't think that way, he wouldn't be able to control his urges.
Thinking of Claudel turning away coldly and turning away from him, he wondered if a door that would break with a single, determined punch was a big deal.
He wanted to grab Claudel right away, tell her not to act like that, and then carry her on his shoulder so she couldn't escape, dragging her out of the palace.
A closed door.
That was very symbolic.
It was just a thin wooden plank that Kaian could easily break if he wanted to, but Claudel’s heart felt as if it was tightly shut. He couldn’t open the door forcibly, fearing that she would turn away even more coldly if she hid inside.
Kaian paused in front of the bedroom door connected to the hallway and then quickly moved on. An ominous thought came to him as he walked further away from the woman he longed for.
Could it be that the place where he had been wandering around, unable to eat or lie down while searching for Claudel, had simply changed from the lakeside to the front of a bedroom in the palace?
Kaian tried to pull himself together, thinking that the feeling of being lost was because he had overworked himself.
***
Crack.
I staggered as I was suddenly slapped in the face by a hand that had suddenly flown in.
“Useless thing.”
The Duke of Vermont grabbed my hair with a furious expression.
“You lost the child you had conceived? We could have planted our Vermont bloodline in the lineage of Temnes for generations!”
“...”
I gasped. I was too weak to let the verbal abuse that had been continuously hitting me go unheeded.
“Oh, how could you say that?”
The Duke of Vermont saw the Duchess pregnant, so he could have been Irena’s father. The words “ shedding a child” coming from someone who knew nothing about carrying someone else’s life and giving birth were so low and horrible that my teeth chattered.
“Don’t talk carelessly about a child.”
When I glared at him accusingly, my eyes reddening as if I was about to shed tears, the Duke of Vermont raised his hand again.
Clap!
“What did you do right to dare open your eyes like that!”
Clap!
“What did you do right to dare open your eyes like that!”
When he was struck again in the same place as before, unlike the first time, a sharp pain tingled at the corners of my lips and the smell of blood came out. My lips, which had lost their elasticity and had dried up, had burst.
“...What couldn’t I do?”
I was genuinely curious. The Duke of Vermont slapped I again.
Thud.
My body, which had been hit so hard, eventually lost its balance and was pushed back a few steps, then when my legs hit the edge of the bed, I couldn’t even withstand that much recoil and fell to the floor.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
At that moment, I felt a sense of foreboding.
‘You... never again...!’
The Duke of Vermont shouted something with a scary face.
‘Oh, oh...’
I was slapped.
‘I was wrong.’
It was when I was little. The face of the Duke of Vermont, kneeling because our heights weren’t right, slapping my cheek and yelling at me, lingered in my mind like an afterimage.
‘...What is this?’
“...What couldn’t I do?”
I was genuinely curious. The Duke of Vermont slapped I again.
Thud.
My body, which had been hit so hard, eventually lost its balance and was pushed back a few steps, then when my legs hit the edge of the bed, I couldn’t even withstand that much recoil and fell to the floor.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
At that moment, I felt a sense of foreboding.
‘You... never again...!’
The Duke of Vermont shouted something with a scary face.
‘Oh, oh...’
I was slapped.
‘I was wrong.’
It was when I was little. The face of the Duke of Vermont, kneeling because our heights weren’t right, slapping my cheek and yelling at me, lingered in my mind like an afterimage.
‘...What is this?’
I had been slapped before when I was young.
But at the same time, my heart was beating anxiously and I felt very scared. It was a raw fear as if a very sharp knife was standing there, ready to stab me in the back at any moment as if a pit of hell had opened its mouth behind me and swallowed me whole. It was a raw fear, as if on the edge of death.
While I was speechless and absentminded, the Duke of Vermont chattered on.
“If only I could have planted Vermont’s seed in that damned family. Oh, what a waste of an opportunity.”
Then, as if he felt some kind of pleasure, he laughed to himself with satisfaction.
“You should have seen his face. He was so arrogant and stiff, but he couldn’t stand seeing his pride hurt. Je won’t divorce you, you know.”
The Duke of Vermont paid no attention to whether I was lying on the floor or not and went to the sofa and sat down comfortably.
“You can tell what’s in his head. He’s okay with kicking you out, but he thinks getting a divorce is out of the question.”
The dirty words kept coming to my ears.
“What are we going to do now? The beating has come our way.”
The Duke of Vermont chuckled viciously.
“He seems ready to give you anything you ask him to do. What should I get from him?”
Food or something else? The Duke of Vermont was happily enjoying himself, but soon he clapped his hands, got up from his seat, and hurriedly came to me.
“I have a good idea.”
"...What is it?”
I answered listlessly. I didn’t have the strength to express my dislike for him or to get angry.
“You’d better have another child.”
Then, as if he felt some kind of pleasure, he laughed to himself with satisfaction.
“You should have seen his face. He was so arrogant and stiff, but he couldn’t stand seeing his pride hurt. Je won’t divorce you, you know.”
The Duke of Vermont paid no attention to whether I was lying on the floor or not and went to the sofa and sat down comfortably.
“You can tell what’s in his head. He’s okay with kicking you out, but he thinks getting a divorce is out of the question.”
The dirty words kept coming to my ears.
“What are we going to do now? The beating has come our way.”
The Duke of Vermont chuckled viciously.
“He seems ready to give you anything you ask him to do. What should I get from him?”
Food or something else? The Duke of Vermont was happily enjoying himself, but soon he clapped his hands, got up from his seat, and hurriedly came to me.
“I have a good idea.”
"...What is it?”
I answered listlessly. I didn’t have the strength to express my dislike for him or to get angry.
“You’d better have another child.”
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