TVDWL - Chapter 183

A heavy air hung in the room. Karina stared blankly at the standoff between Jeremiah and the knights.

'From what I hear, it sounds like the situation in the North right before Jeremiah and I married.'

She heard that there was a great internal backlash when the Emperor ordered the marriage of Jeremiah, the head of the Colesberg family, and the daughter of the Marquis of Millainer. She couldn't help but know. After the marriage, she had heard the servants' gossip behind her back, looking at her with disdain as she came to the North. It was natural that the knights of the North would get angry and make a fuss. 

Marquis Millainer, who flattered the Emperor and played around like a tongue in his mouth, would harass them by picking on them every little thing. It was such a situation.

"Don't talk badly about her."

Jeremiah warned them sternly.

'Uh?'

Karina looked surprised at Jeremiah's reaction. She was surprised that he seemed to be defending her. It seemed that she was not the only one who was surprised. The northern knights also looked around with puzzled expressions. Jeremiah continued speaking with a stern expression.

"You don't even know her well, yet you say such baseless things. You should be ashamed of yourself."

Ron rubbed his forehead as if in pain at his blow, then removed it.

"Your Highness. The person you are dealing with is the daughter of the Marquis of Millainer. Do you still say such things knowing that?"

The surrounding knights chimed in.

"If things continue like this, you may really have to marry the Marquis' daughter!"

"But you really don't mind?"

In contrast to their impatient appearance, Jeremiah, the person involved, was rather calm.

"Isn't there any reason why I can't marry her?"

"Huh?!"

One of the knights who had raised his voice in opposition the most looked dumbfounded when he heard that.

"Your Highness? You are not interested in the daughter of the Marquis of Millainer, are you?"

Even as he spoke, his tone was strong as if he was saying something nonsensical. In response, the other reporters began to criticize him instead.

"What kind of nonsense are you talking about?"

"Your Highness is interested in the Marquis's daughter!"

But Jeremiah continued speaking silently, not caring at all about what the knights were talking about among themselves.

"I heard she's going to be my wife soon. Shouldn't I be interested in her?"

"...!"

The knights' eyes widened as if they had heard something they should not have heard.

"She is different from the Marquis. So, from now on, refrain from making baseless remarks about her. If you do so again, you will be severely punished."

"...!"

The knights gasped in shock. Their faces were blank and speechless from shock. Karina, who was watching the situation, was also confused.

'What the heck is going on?'

Of course, Jeremiah would have agreed with them and refused to marry her. But now, he was defending her and fiercely urging the knights who opposed her.

'Why is he protecting me?'

Karina didn't understand.

'It's too strange to just dismiss it as a dog dream.'

The situation was too strange to be a dream she had unconsciously hoped for. She had never once thought that he would be willing to marry her since he had abandoned her.

'If this is a dream that I have because I still have regrets about my past wishes that I couldn't fulfill.'

It's unpleasant to even have a dream like this, but what if it really happened?

'I would rather have a dream of living happily with Jeremiah.'

Karina sneered coldly. In the meantime, Jeremiah had kicked out the knights. Only he, Ron, and Karina were left in the office, watching them. In the office where only the rustling sound of a pen could be heard, Ron pondered for a while before finally being unable to hold back and asking.

"Your Highness. What you said in front of the knights earlier. Did you really mean it?"

Jeremiah answered Ron's question Indifferently, looking over the papers.

"Did what I said seem like a joke?"

"No..."

Ron's mouth snapped shut as he answered a beat slower. Rather, his expression was clearly more embarrassed because it didn't feel like a joke.

"Please reconsider. You don't even know the Marquis' daughter."

Ron let out a long sigh, almost a groan.

"I know better than you guys, don't I?"

"At best, you've only seen each other a few times at banquet halls. It's hard to know everything about someone just from that."

Jeremiah snickered at Ron's worried words. Karina felt for a moment that his smile was very meaningful. As expected.

"You don't remember her?"

"Yes?"

Ron scratched his chin, bewildered by the sudden words. Karina, who had been listening to their conversation, also became curious.

'You don't remember?'

What that meant was that Jeremiah and Ron had met her before...

'When?'

Karina tried to recall her memories. However, she had first seen Jeremiah at the banquet hall. She couldn't remember anything else besides that.

"What are you talking about?"

Rondo asked sheepishly as if nothing in particular came to mind.

"Yes. I have a lot of work to do, so don't bother me and just go."

"Yes..."

Jeremiah didn't seem to have any intention of answering. Ron was eventually kicked out of the office without getting an answer to his repeated barrage of questions. After Ron left, Jeremiah got up and walked over to the window.

"Karina."

"..."

A pleasant, low-pitched voice softly called her name. Karina was startled for a moment, thinking it was him calling her. But she was mistaken. He seemed lost in thought, looking out the window.

"I guess we'll meet again soon."

His figure, bathed in warm sunlight, looked bright. A soft smile appeared on his lips as he looked outside. Karina's mind became complicated after seeing that smile.

"Your Highness... Your Highness. Your Royal Highness!"

"..."

Karina woke up to Jen's voice calling her.

"Huh?"

"Your Highness, you must get up and prepare to leave now."

"What?"

When Karina woke up, it was already dawn.

'It's morning already?'

Then again.

'What I saw was a dream.'

It doesn't make sense that it wasn't a dream, but for some reason, it was so vivid.

Even after she woke up from the dream, the situation she saw in it remained vivid in her memory.

'Is it really just a dream?'

Really? The image of him smiling as he looked out the window continued to linger in Karina's mind.

'Did Jeremiah really know me from before?'

No way. Karina shook her head, shaking off the remaining thoughts. Then she slowly got up.

"You seem so tired, I'd like to let you sleep a little longer, but everyone else seems to be in a hurry."

Jen pouted, saying that if this were the Grand Duke's private residence, she would have let her sleep comfortably until the afternoon, but the schedule seemed too tight.

"You've worked hard. Just hold on a little longer until we reach the temple."

"Oh my! Of course. It's my job to make the Grand Duchess comfortable!"

Karina smiled brightly as she watched Jen answer cheerfully. It was getting to the point where it would be a bit difficult without Jen, who had followed her on her journey, and taken care of everything without her even asking.

'When did I become so familiar with this?'

If Jen said it was okay, Karina was thinking about taking her with her when she left after the divorce.

"I prepared some water here for you to wash in."

Jen brought the washcloth and fluffy towels that she had prepared in advance. Karina quickly finished preparing to hit the road again with Jen's help. Meanwhile, Mikhail was having a hectic day.

"What happened?"

In the video room, Max looked very tired, with sunken eyes from working all night for days.

"I have taken care of that part as you said."

"Well done."

Mikhail smiled with satisfaction at his answer. Max, on the other hand, seemed to have a lot of accumulated complaints.

"But do we really have to take on this kind of work?"

"Why? You don't like it?"

"It's not that I don't like it, but I just feel like it's too much of a tie-up with the Grand Duke."

"Why is that?"

Max just sighed deeply in response to Mikhail's question of what was wrong.

"The Flame Stone from last time was a Magic Stone, so you might think it's related to the Magic Tower. But diamond processing? Asking a magician to do the work of a jeweler seems a bit..."

"It's something that the Master has also permitted. It's something that we do for the benefit of both of us."

Mikhail had Karina handle the processing of the large quantity of diamonds mined in the Weln region. They were transparent and as strong as magic stones, so it was easy to infuse them with magic and make them Into artifacts. If magic was added to the diamonds, which were already valuable, the price would skyrocket.

'You have to do this much.'

Mikhail shrugged and chuckled. He was already looking forward to how surprised Karina would be if he told her.

"I guess so."

Max responded a little sheepishly.

"However, the magicians gathered at the Magic Tower are originally independent, pursuing the truth and not belonging to anyone..."

Mikhail cut off his continued nagging.

"I'm telling you to do something because it's necessary, so just do it."

"... Yes."

It was obvious that he was reluctant to answer. However, Max was the type of person who would faithfully carry out a task even if he didn't feel like it. There were almost no problems.

"Then I'm busy so I'll hang up now."

Mikhail, as usual, disconnected before he could continue.

"Oh, wait a minute. Regarding that matter, the Lord of the Tower will be visiting you soon...!"

Snap. 

Max frowned as he looked at the dimly lit video screen, which was already disconnected.

"Haa. This time again, you cut me off before I could finish speaking."

He sighed deeply and fell down on the narrow cot next to the desk filled with papers.

"I don't know. I'm sure you heard me when I told you."

He had not slept properly for a week after staying up all night and fell asleep.

***

"Put your luggage here!"

"Just put it in this box!"

The servants and attendants were busy loading the luggage and hurriedly preparing to leave. When it was almost finished, Karina came out to board the carriage. The suffocatingly awkward memory of riding in the carriage with Jeremiah yesterday came to mind.

'Oh, I guess I have to pretend to sleep again today.'

While she was thinking about it, she happened to see Jeremiah standing in front of the carriage.

"...!"

Karina's eyes met his. However, contrary to her expectations that he would stare at her as persistently as yesterday, his condition was a little strange.

'Hmm? It seems to have sunk a lot.'

It looked like something was wrong. His face was frozen so hard that he couldn't even look at her properly.

'What happened overnight?'

Suddenly, Karina remembered Lucia coming out of his room yesterday.

'What did you hear from the Saintess?'

Or maybe he had a deep conversation with her and he had already changed his mind.

'It's natural.'

Then suddenly she remembered the dream she had last night.

'Is it because I saw a strange scene in my dream?'

Karina wondered how long he had known her.

'Only Jeremiah can answer this.'

Karina opened her mouth to ask him, but David's voice came out faster than her own.

"Grand Duchess!"

David was walking towards her, smiling brightly.

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