Bridget and Julian were walking together along the road north of the palace.
It was a beautiful road lined with two long rows of plane trees.
Bridget kept opening and closing her palms as if trying to catch the sunlight streaming through the dense leaves.
The sound of the wind rustling leaves brushed past her ears.
"Julian, are you making any progress with your work?"
"Thanks. The people you gave me are keeping a close eye on the Duke of Linchester."
The two were talking about the newly replaced officials and secretaries.
"There are people who work day and night with their eyes wide open as if they are biting their enemies."
Bridget laughed faintly, making a thin, faint sound.
"That's understandable. They were mostly chosen from people who had lost their families, been demoted, or Iost their property due to the Duke of Linchester."
The emphasis here was on the feeling of 'unfairness'.
Bridget considered resentment to be the second most painful emotion humans have difficulty enduring, next to anxiety.
Under Josephine, the Duke of Linchester's sky-high arrogance and greed created countless innocent victims.
That presented an opportunity for Bridget and Julian today.
"Grudges are simple and certain. They clearly divide enemies and friends. Groups with a common enemy form stronger cooperative relationships than any other force. They will do anything if they have a leader they can trust."
To do that, work had to be done first to raise Julian's reputation.
Because no one wants to cooperate with a tyrant.
Bridget helped Julian to improve his reputation somewhat by encouraging him to pursue welfare policies and stopping his oppressive political course.
But it was still not enough. He had to become a King with even more popularity in the future.
The neo-royalists who had gathered to capture the Duke of Linchester were likely to fall apart once their political enemies were gone.
Maintaining that and drawing continued loyalty would depend on whether or not Julian would grow into a 'leader they wanted to serve.
Bridget was already considering a future beyond the Duke of Linchester.
Julian looked at Bridget blankly.
"Why didn't I know before that you had a talent for politics? You're like a fish in water."
Bridget answered calmly.
"Maybe it's because I never had a chance, and I never thought I would ever have a chance."
The 'before' that Julian spoke of was probably the young Bridget, but the 'before' that Bridget thought of was her past life.
All that was required of Bridget was to be a good supporter of her husband and keep the house clean and beautiful.
She was not even allowed to interfere with family affairs.
She had no power to stop Josh from doing stupid things like gambling to make money and pay off her family's debts.
She also had to make painful sacrifices to protect her family.
She never thought that such things were unreasonable powers, and that complying with them meant deprivation and oppression.
But now that she have endured the world's criticism and have laid aside the honor and duty that society demands of women, ironically, only then have she been able to see the vast world that has spread out before her.
Bridget's abilities didn't come out of nowhere.
It was there originally, but it was just suppressed.
Furthermore.
"I didn't have you back then. If the fish is me in the story "fish in water," then the water is you."
"Then you should have been born again as a bird that doesn't need water."
"Like Queen Beatrice?"
"Yeah. Like that guy."
The two walked leisurely.
Julian was amazed that he could find such a brief moment of peace amid the turbulent circumstances and the death that hovered around him.
He thought he was meant to be cowering in misery every moment.
Aren't he enjoying the present as if he have no worries?
From a distance, from across the street, the two of them would look just like an ordinary couple.
Julian chuckled.
They were so close that their hands seemed to brush against each other,
The back of his hand felt ticklish.
Julian took Bridget's hand lightly.
Bridget looked up at Julian and smiled bashfully.
The reason the two of them went to the Bukgung was to collect the old magi.
Bridget attempted to destroy the Shadow Knight several more times after that by pouring her purifying powers on Julian.
But she gave up on that early on because it always ended in bed before she could produce any results.
It was decided that the Shadow Knights could not be destroyed in that manner unless Julian was knocked unconscious, and even if that were to be effective, Julian would have to be knocked unconscious countless times.
So this time, instead of starving the Shadow Knight, she decided to try an experiment where she fed it so much magi that its stomach would burst.
She didn't know that this would be the kind of date that would turn out like this.
As Bridget threw the magi she had collected into Julian's shadow, she also threw magi into her own shadow.
“Kami, eat.”
A new black knight, a successor to the Black Knight lineage, was sitting in Bridget's shadow.
Now that the technique of taming a black knight has been developed, it can be tamed more quickly than a black knight.
“Tsk.”
Julian clicked his tongue.
Even though he had confirmed that the curse was not contagious, Julian was not too happy about Bridget dealing with the dark knight who was eating away at his life.
"Don't get hung up on that kind of stuff. I told you, he's a dirty guy."
"Of course. Of course. All my feelings are yours. There is not a single thing that is not yours. If I am not satisfied with pouring everything on you, how could I pour my feelings on something else?"
Julian kept his mouth shut.
Bridget quickly followed him as he suddenly strode ahead and stuck her face in.
"Are you laughing?"
"It's a hollow laugh."
"You can laugh sincerely. It doesn't matter. I like it when you laugh like t hat."
"Ha."
Julian turned his head to the side and snorted. His steps were a little quicker.
Bridget followed Julian diligently, her hand still firmly held.
At the end of the plane tree road, a fork in the road appeared.
Just then the knights of the guard passed by, marching in a circle not far away.
In the hot weather, everyone had their upper bodies exposed.
"...Men run naked like that."
Bridget stopped in her tracks, looking at the sight, and imagined what it would be like to run half-naked.
She had never experienced group living or running naked, so she couldn't even guess.
'Would it be cool? Would it feel free?'
Then Julian grabbed Bridget and pulled her towards him.
"Stop looking. Why are you looking like that?"
Bridget blinked.
"The knights were naked..."
Then, without thinking much, she turned her gaze back to the march disappearing into the distance, and Julian hit Bridget's forehead with his fore head.
"The gaze."
"Yes?"
"Aren't your eyes mine? Don't look at those messy men."
Bridget's eyes widened for a moment as some kind of realization dawned on her, then curled into crescent moons.
"Greedy."
Julian snorted, turned around, and walked in the opposite direction from where the knights had disappeared.
Bridget followed him like before.
"Greedy."
"Don't make me laugh."
"Greedy."
"..."
There was no weight to the sweetly flowing time.
Hunger and fatigue both avoid a happy lover.
It was after dark that the two returned to the precipitation.
Bridget returned to the bed with a heart full of joy, wondering if it was okay for something to be this good.
But there was heart-wrenching news waiting there.
"It is said that Baroness Beaumont and Countess Weatherby filed a lawsuit claiming that they had miscarried after being purified by Bridget."
It was bad news, delivered by Millea. in a serious voice.
"Starting with Penelope Hudson. She claims that Bridget caused her to have a premature birth."
"...Ha."
Bridget laughed in disbelief.
'So this is why I planned to have a premature birth.'
Penelope kicked away her last chance.
"It's time to end things with Penelope."
Bridget declared.
***
At that time, the story of the ladies' inheritances and lawsuits reached the Highbury estate.
The Count and Countess of Highbury, Charlotte, and Liam, were silent for a while after hearing the news.
Charlotte managed to squeeze out her voice in a thin, whispering voice.
"Is it really Mrs. Winston's doing, Liam?"
Liam clenched his teeth.
The man standing by the window had a face that seemed both angry and sad.
But when he turned to his wife, he tried to put on a gentle expression.
"The Earl of Weatherby wants to see me about this case. I need to talk to him in person."
Charlotte grabbed Liam's hand.
"I will go with you. I want to comfort poor Countess Weatherby who has lost her precious babies."
As she said that, Charlotte ended up shedding tears.
"I wish such sad things would never happen again in the world."
The couple's despair, which had truly wanted a baby but ended up embracing nothing, hung gloomily in every corner of the mansion.
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greedy hehe
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