'Why is this happening?'
Erdene stared at Arkan with a mixture of bewilderment and slight annoyance. Although he had a cold expression on his face, his eyes were sparkling excessively.
He looked like a fisherman who had been killing time with an empty fishing rod all day long, and when the float finally shook, his eyes looked even more confused because he was trying to be careful while not being able to hide his excitement.
Yes. Erdene thought.
He had no idea what it was, but he was determined to accept it for now.
Arkan said.
"Why aren't you answering? I asked you why."
Erdene's body tilted, and her upper body slightly rested on the back of the sofa.
The thick book on her lap was pushed outward, and the wrinkles in her dress became slightly taut.
"You're angry now. No, you're not just angry. You’re angry with me, aren’t you? That’s why I asked. What on earth made you angry?”
Her white fingers tapped the open bookcase.
Arkan briefly stared at her wrists, which were exposed outside her airy sleeves, and then quickly came to his senses.
Arkan said,
“You’ve become much more delicate without me noticing. It seems that your dead emotions have suddenly come back to life after meeting the people you miss.”
Tap, tap... The fingers that had been tapping the bookcase faster and faster stopped moving.
The faint noise had disappeared, but the silence that had swelled up in the meantime felt even heavier and more immense.
Erdene stared at Arkan for a while before quietly speaking.
“Your Majesty.”
“Why did you call me?”
“Do you really want to get hit?”
Arkan’s mouth fell open in shock.
“What?”
“If that’s not the case, I just can’t understand why you can’t get on people’s nerves.”
Erdene, who had been hanging down, straightened her upper body and made a short tongue-tapping sound.
“If you have something to say, shouldn’t you just say it out loud? You son of a bitch... Why are you beating around the bush like this when you’re a man?”
“You said it well. Then let me ask you, did you listen to me because I asked you to? Or did you come because you thought it would be a bother if you didn’t?”
I should have just bit his finger, Erdene thought.
“Your Majesty told me to come, so I listened to Your Majesty’s words because I thought it would be a bother if I didn’t come. Although Your Majesty broke our promise and didn’t show up at the restaurant.”
Arkhan closed his lips for a moment, feeling stung. However, he still had something to say.
“Don’t joke around. In the end, you’re saying that you came even though you didn’t want to because you didn’t want to be a bother.”
Erdene stared at Arkan with a mixture of bewilderment and slight annoyance. Although he had a cold expression on his face, his eyes were sparkling excessively.
He looked like a fisherman who had been killing time with an empty fishing rod all day long, and when the float finally shook, his eyes looked even more confused because he was trying to be careful while not being able to hide his excitement.
Yes. Erdene thought.
He had no idea what it was, but he was determined to accept it for now.
Arkan said.
"Why aren't you answering? I asked you why."
Erdene's body tilted, and her upper body slightly rested on the back of the sofa.
The thick book on her lap was pushed outward, and the wrinkles in her dress became slightly taut.
"You're angry now. No, you're not just angry. You’re angry with me, aren’t you? That’s why I asked. What on earth made you angry?”
Her white fingers tapped the open bookcase.
Arkan briefly stared at her wrists, which were exposed outside her airy sleeves, and then quickly came to his senses.
Arkan said,
“You’ve become much more delicate without me noticing. It seems that your dead emotions have suddenly come back to life after meeting the people you miss.”
Tap, tap... The fingers that had been tapping the bookcase faster and faster stopped moving.
The faint noise had disappeared, but the silence that had swelled up in the meantime felt even heavier and more immense.
Erdene stared at Arkan for a while before quietly speaking.
“Your Majesty.”
“Why did you call me?”
“Do you really want to get hit?”
Arkan’s mouth fell open in shock.
“What?”
“If that’s not the case, I just can’t understand why you can’t get on people’s nerves.”
Erdene, who had been hanging down, straightened her upper body and made a short tongue-tapping sound.
“If you have something to say, shouldn’t you just say it out loud? You son of a bitch... Why are you beating around the bush like this when you’re a man?”
“Were you just going to call me a ‘son of a bitch’?”
“Stop obsessing over such trivial things.”
“Trivial? Is it trivial for a married person to call me a ‘son of a bitch’? That’s how the empire is.”
Erdene’s fist split the air.
Arkan wiggled his fingertips at the sound of “bang!” and then opened his eyes wide.
Erdene calmly said, accurately hitting the center of a thick book with her fist.
“It was this guy who got hit instead of Your Majesty.”
Arkan took a deep breath and put down the novel he was reading.
“All the books in this study are like my flesh.”
“Oh, really? That’s good.”
Erdene hit the book faster this time, at a speed that Arkan couldn’t even see her fist.
It was thick and the cover was strong, but if it hadn’t been, it would no longer have been able to function as a book.
It felt like the pages were screaming under her hard fists.
Erdene’s eyes narrowed as she hit the book until Arkan’s face turned red.
“If you don’t want to get hit anymore, tell me the truth quickly.”
“This is incredible.”
“When on earth will it stop?”
“Who is it that you are talking to me about?”
Erdene finally frowned.
“I came as you were told, and I read the book as you were told, so what on earth are you complaining about?”
Arkan slightly lowered his chin and pointed at her with his finger. Erdene wanted to bite it off, but... she held herself back. She wasn’t sure how well the doctors at Vetor would perform the suture surgery.
“Trivial? Is it trivial for a married person to call me a ‘son of a bitch’? That’s how the empire is.”
Erdene’s fist split the air.
Arkan wiggled his fingertips at the sound of “bang!” and then opened his eyes wide.
Erdene calmly said, accurately hitting the center of a thick book with her fist.
“It was this guy who got hit instead of Your Majesty.”
Arkan took a deep breath and put down the novel he was reading.
“All the books in this study are like my flesh.”
“Oh, really? That’s good.”
Erdene hit the book faster this time, at a speed that Arkan couldn’t even see her fist.
It was thick and the cover was strong, but if it hadn’t been, it would no longer have been able to function as a book.
It felt like the pages were screaming under her hard fists.
Erdene’s eyes narrowed as she hit the book until Arkan’s face turned red.
“If you don’t want to get hit anymore, tell me the truth quickly.”
“This is incredible.”
“When on earth will it stop?”
“Who is it that you are talking to me about?”
Erdene finally frowned.
“I came as you were told, and I read the book as you were told, so what on earth are you complaining about?”
Arkan slightly lowered his chin and pointed at her with his finger. Erdene wanted to bite it off, but... she held herself back. She wasn’t sure how well the doctors at Vetor would perform the suture surgery.
“You said it well. Then let me ask you, did you listen to me because I asked you to? Or did you come because you thought it would be a bother if you didn’t?”
I should have just bit his finger, Erdene thought.
“Your Majesty told me to come, so I listened to Your Majesty’s words because I thought it would be a bother if I didn’t come. Although Your Majesty broke our promise and didn’t show up at the restaurant.”
Arkhan closed his lips for a moment, feeling stung. However, he still had something to say.
“Don’t joke around. In the end, you’re saying that you came even though you didn’t want to because you didn’t want to be a bother.”
He slyly left out the lunch topic.
Erdene noticed it but didn’t point it out.
She had a feeling that the reason he skipped the meal or was upset here was the same.
“Whether it was or not, what does it matter? I came after all. Are you saying that you can’t be satisfied with that? What, I have to wear flowers on my head, tie a ribbon around my neck, and shed tears of happiness to you be satisfied?”
Arkan’s lips trembled like a fish.
He had never cursed his imagination so much in his life.
Erdene, wearing flowers and ribbons, humming a song and shedding tears of happiness.
It was probably a scene that would only fit if there were a hundred or so enemy leaders piled up at her feet.
“Don’t exaggerate. Who wanted that? Isn’t the important thing that you came? I think you want to say that, but I said it before. It’s not just the results that are important, but the process as well.”
“Yes, yes. I understand. Your Majesty has called me, and as a Queen, I must obey, so I have come. Now, may I finish reading the book I was reading?”
A moan-like sound escaped Arkan’s lips through his clenched molars.
When Erdene made a gesture of opening the book again, Arkan suddenly said,
“Don’t read that.”
Erdene’s head slowly moved.
It was like the movements of a crazy puppet from a terrifying nightmare.
“Why?”
“Anything related to war is prohibited here.”
“Since when?”
“From now on!”
Arkan shouted, and Erdene closed the book as if she had been waiting.
Then, without even looking at him, she began to pound the book’s cover with both fists. It sounded like a huge horse galloping at full speed.
“Please continue.”
Erdene glared.
She said that, but if Arkan really spoke, she was going to beat him up this time.
In fact, if his face was as big as Thelma’s, she would have hit him a long time ago.
Arkan, who had no way of knowing what was in her mind, pressed his knees with both hands to calm himself down.
He couldn’t help but breathe raggedly, but he was able to at least pretend to be calm.
“You... don’t have to worry about war anymore. You should read a book about socializing. Or a book about philosophy. If you don’t like either, a novel would be fine.”
Erdene laughed.
“You don’t have to worry about war? Are you serious, Your Majesty?”
Arkan stared at her blankly. As if to say, “No,” as if to say, “What kind of danger could there be ?”
Erdene made a mocking expression in front of him.
“Do you think there will be no war in the future?”
No, Arkan thought. He didn’t expect this peace to last long.
In anticipation of that, he had married the Princess of the empire, Erdene, and formed an alliance, but judging from the attitude of the messenger who had arrived this time, even a fool could have guessed that.
The empire, Emperor Tenek, would definitely target the inland.
Whether it would be a year later or a month later, no one knew.
However, Arkan did not want to tell Erdene his thoughts. That there would really be a war... He did not want to tell Erdene that she would have to face her homeland, the homeland she had left behind and still loved, in that way.
‘Wouldn’t she be hurt? No matter how much of a heroine she is.'
Arkan said.
“Even if your brother decides to attack the inland alliance, do you think I would just watch?”
“Then what are you going to do? Are you going to persuade him with words?”
Erdene frowned and smiled bitterly. Her expression was one of pity for his naivety, but also concern.
“If you think you can communicate with him, Your Majesty, you are very mistaken,”
Arkan replied.
“The key to diplomacy is communication.”
“Do you know that you can’t even communicate with me right now? You can’t even have a proper conversation with me, so how can you expect Tenek to communicate with you? I guarantee you that he will be three thousand times more incompetent than I am.”
“That’s your opinion.”
Erdene’s eyes narrowed again.
“You don’t know him as well as I do, Your Majesty.”
“But he has more political experience.”
“Even though I lived right next to him for twenty years?”
Arkan made a grumpy expression.
“Can the relationship between siblings be the same as that between foreign relations?”
Erdene’s head tilted slightly. This time, she neither smiled nor frowned.
But it seemed as if the words, ‘What should I do with this pitiful thing?’ were firmly engraved on her forehead.
“Trust me, Your Majesty. Sibling relationships and foreign relations? Tenek is not the kind of person to care about such things. He will never diminish them, he will only increase them. That is why I am reorganizing the knights.”
Arkan, who had suddenly become silent, stared blankly at her.
It was okay to curse at Tenek now.
It was a well-known fact that he was the world’s worst dog. More importantly, Arkan was speechless because he did not immediately understand what Erdene added.
“What are you talking about? Reorganizing the knights... What knights? Who?”
This time, Erdene’s expression became bewildered.
“Didn’t the Duke tell Your Majesty?”
Erdene noticed it but didn’t point it out.
She had a feeling that the reason he skipped the meal or was upset here was the same.
“Whether it was or not, what does it matter? I came after all. Are you saying that you can’t be satisfied with that? What, I have to wear flowers on my head, tie a ribbon around my neck, and shed tears of happiness to you be satisfied?”
Arkan’s lips trembled like a fish.
He had never cursed his imagination so much in his life.
Erdene, wearing flowers and ribbons, humming a song and shedding tears of happiness.
It was probably a scene that would only fit if there were a hundred or so enemy leaders piled up at her feet.
“Don’t exaggerate. Who wanted that? Isn’t the important thing that you came? I think you want to say that, but I said it before. It’s not just the results that are important, but the process as well.”
“Yes, yes. I understand. Your Majesty has called me, and as a Queen, I must obey, so I have come. Now, may I finish reading the book I was reading?”
A moan-like sound escaped Arkan’s lips through his clenched molars.
When Erdene made a gesture of opening the book again, Arkan suddenly said,
“Don’t read that.”
Erdene’s head slowly moved.
It was like the movements of a crazy puppet from a terrifying nightmare.
“Why?”
“Anything related to war is prohibited here.”
“Since when?”
“From now on!”
Arkan shouted, and Erdene closed the book as if she had been waiting.
Then, without even looking at him, she began to pound the book’s cover with both fists. It sounded like a huge horse galloping at full speed.
“Please continue.”
Erdene glared.
She said that, but if Arkan really spoke, she was going to beat him up this time.
In fact, if his face was as big as Thelma’s, she would have hit him a long time ago.
Arkan, who had no way of knowing what was in her mind, pressed his knees with both hands to calm himself down.
He couldn’t help but breathe raggedly, but he was able to at least pretend to be calm.
“You... don’t have to worry about war anymore. You should read a book about socializing. Or a book about philosophy. If you don’t like either, a novel would be fine.”
Erdene laughed.
“You don’t have to worry about war? Are you serious, Your Majesty?”
Arkan stared at her blankly. As if to say, “No,” as if to say, “What kind of danger could there be ?”
Erdene made a mocking expression in front of him.
“Do you think there will be no war in the future?”
No, Arkan thought. He didn’t expect this peace to last long.
In anticipation of that, he had married the Princess of the empire, Erdene, and formed an alliance, but judging from the attitude of the messenger who had arrived this time, even a fool could have guessed that.
The empire, Emperor Tenek, would definitely target the inland.
Whether it would be a year later or a month later, no one knew.
However, Arkan did not want to tell Erdene his thoughts. That there would really be a war... He did not want to tell Erdene that she would have to face her homeland, the homeland she had left behind and still loved, in that way.
‘Wouldn’t she be hurt? No matter how much of a heroine she is.'
Arkan said.
“Even if your brother decides to attack the inland alliance, do you think I would just watch?”
“Then what are you going to do? Are you going to persuade him with words?”
Erdene frowned and smiled bitterly. Her expression was one of pity for his naivety, but also concern.
“If you think you can communicate with him, Your Majesty, you are very mistaken,”
Arkan replied.
“The key to diplomacy is communication.”
“Do you know that you can’t even communicate with me right now? You can’t even have a proper conversation with me, so how can you expect Tenek to communicate with you? I guarantee you that he will be three thousand times more incompetent than I am.”
“That’s your opinion.”
Erdene’s eyes narrowed again.
“You don’t know him as well as I do, Your Majesty.”
“But he has more political experience.”
“Even though I lived right next to him for twenty years?”
Arkan made a grumpy expression.
“Can the relationship between siblings be the same as that between foreign relations?”
Erdene’s head tilted slightly. This time, she neither smiled nor frowned.
But it seemed as if the words, ‘What should I do with this pitiful thing?’ were firmly engraved on her forehead.
“Trust me, Your Majesty. Sibling relationships and foreign relations? Tenek is not the kind of person to care about such things. He will never diminish them, he will only increase them. That is why I am reorganizing the knights.”
Arkan, who had suddenly become silent, stared blankly at her.
It was okay to curse at Tenek now.
It was a well-known fact that he was the world’s worst dog. More importantly, Arkan was speechless because he did not immediately understand what Erdene added.
“What are you talking about? Reorganizing the knights... What knights? Who?”
This time, Erdene’s expression became bewildered.
“Didn’t the Duke tell Your Majesty?”
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