Noah and I were taking a leisurely stroll around Tempshire Palace and its gardens during the day.
I walked through a corner of the garden, which was called a rose garden, but lacked any roses. Frost settled on the dry grass, turning the ground a pale gray. The crimson winter berries, barely hanging on to the bare branches, stood out as if they held their own distinct color.
I was wearing a dress and a garden coat, not a corset. Noah spoke, gently stroking my back.
"Diana, I know this might be uncomfortable, but please keep what I said a while ago a secret."
"All right."
Noah reiterated his warning to never let anyone see what was on my back. It didn't matter if I wore a corset or something with laces in the front or not. I tended to do most things myself.
But I became curious.
“Noah, can you tell me why?”
Noah stopped in his tracks when he saw my curious gaze.
“You’re going to marry me, right?”
I tilted my head involuntarily at the unexpected question. Does this birthmark have anything to do with marriage?
"Yes, yes."
“We might never get married. Maybe you’ll marry another man... No, that won’t happen.”
Noah continued speaking smoothly and in a gentle tone.
“I will kill that man.”
"Because of this one scar-like spot, I can't even get married, and bloodshed breaks out?" I frowned, rubbing the back of my neck.
Alas, we still live in an age where differences in social status are the driving force. In fact, even today, social status is defined by differences in capital, so social disparities will always exist in any era.
“A situation where you can’t get married if your status difference is discovered?”
Noah's silver eyelashes, I guessed, lowered melancholy. He looked down at me with a pitying look, and I felt a certain certainty, so I covered my mouth.
Was that why the Admiral treated me like a dog? Was that really why Noah couldn't bring himself to speak? I swallowed hard, feeling as if the hidden secret of my birth was about to be revealed.
“...Am I a slave?”
"No. I'd rather it were that way. Then I could buy you."
Noah, humming softly, watched a gray squirrel scamper across the road. A fat tabby cat, chasing it, stared blankly at the squirrel, which had quickly fled up a tall tree.
"In this day and age, titles don't matter. High positions, power, and money that influence national governance are all that matter. But being different is hard to break."
“It’s different?”
“That difference has been firmly established through long-standing social perceptions.”
“Because I’m a Medea and you’re a Frogen? But I’m mixed race.”
I'd heard that, due to the social customs here, the Medeans value bloodlines and prefer to marry within the same family. I cautiously traced the birthmark on my back, wondering if it might be a unique Medean mark, and took Noah's hand.
“I don’t care about that. If something like that happens, I can just run away to another country, right?”
"Really?"
“At that time, running away wasn’t so bad because it felt like a romantic trip.”
"Yeah. But you won't run away. I'll create a place where we can live comfortably together, where no one will bother us or bother you."
“Will you build me a house? And a swing in the yard?”
I slowly shook Noah's hand, excited. At the time, I didn't know what Noah meant.
Clouds covered the sky, casting a sinister hue, and eventually brought rain. Raindrops fell, one by one, soaking the winter grass, trees, and soil in the garden, releasing a fragrant scent like a spring shower.
Noah took off his coat and threw it over my head.
“It’s raining.”
“It seems like it rains a lot in this neighborhood.”
As we entered the hallway together to escape the rain, Noah revealed the reason why he had not wanted to come to Tempshire Palace and the reason for his dissatisfaction.
"There are so many annoying and disturbing things here. Look over there. Something annoying is already coming."
At the end of the long, porcelain-tiled hallway, a woman who looked unmistakably like Princess Erita approached. Her heels clacked loudly against the porcelain floor. Her sharp blue eyes fixed on me, the innocent one. I bowed politely.
“You came along without any notice.”
The Princess, consumed by delusion, tried to pass by, muttering to herself. I caught her delusion and calmly, yet firmly, corrected her.
"Her Majesty the Queen had commanded us to come together. She was delighted by the news of our engagement and offered her heartfelt congratulations. She even offered us a room to share."
The Princess's shoe clattering ceased as if it were a dead ring. I brushed my hair back and deliberately revealed the ring I'd placed on my hand. Princess Erita's eyes widened.
After discovering the same thing in Noah's hand, her face contorted into a vicious grimace, and she snapped at him.
“You're quite talented, aren't you? In Belford, you seduced the second son of a Duke; in Frogen, you seduced a Duke. How is it that you manage to choose only men from Duke families to seduce?”
I walked through a corner of the garden, which was called a rose garden, but lacked any roses. Frost settled on the dry grass, turning the ground a pale gray. The crimson winter berries, barely hanging on to the bare branches, stood out as if they held their own distinct color.
I was wearing a dress and a garden coat, not a corset. Noah spoke, gently stroking my back.
"Diana, I know this might be uncomfortable, but please keep what I said a while ago a secret."
"All right."
Noah reiterated his warning to never let anyone see what was on my back. It didn't matter if I wore a corset or something with laces in the front or not. I tended to do most things myself.
But I became curious.
“Noah, can you tell me why?”
Noah stopped in his tracks when he saw my curious gaze.
“You’re going to marry me, right?”
I tilted my head involuntarily at the unexpected question. Does this birthmark have anything to do with marriage?
"Yes, yes."
“We might never get married. Maybe you’ll marry another man... No, that won’t happen.”
Noah continued speaking smoothly and in a gentle tone.
“I will kill that man.”
"Because of this one scar-like spot, I can't even get married, and bloodshed breaks out?" I frowned, rubbing the back of my neck.
Alas, we still live in an age where differences in social status are the driving force. In fact, even today, social status is defined by differences in capital, so social disparities will always exist in any era.
“A situation where you can’t get married if your status difference is discovered?”
Noah's silver eyelashes, I guessed, lowered melancholy. He looked down at me with a pitying look, and I felt a certain certainty, so I covered my mouth.
Was that why the Admiral treated me like a dog? Was that really why Noah couldn't bring himself to speak? I swallowed hard, feeling as if the hidden secret of my birth was about to be revealed.
“...Am I a slave?”
"No. I'd rather it were that way. Then I could buy you."
Noah, humming softly, watched a gray squirrel scamper across the road. A fat tabby cat, chasing it, stared blankly at the squirrel, which had quickly fled up a tall tree.
"In this day and age, titles don't matter. High positions, power, and money that influence national governance are all that matter. But being different is hard to break."
“It’s different?”
“That difference has been firmly established through long-standing social perceptions.”
“Because I’m a Medea and you’re a Frogen? But I’m mixed race.”
I'd heard that, due to the social customs here, the Medeans value bloodlines and prefer to marry within the same family. I cautiously traced the birthmark on my back, wondering if it might be a unique Medean mark, and took Noah's hand.
“I don’t care about that. If something like that happens, I can just run away to another country, right?”
"Really?"
“At that time, running away wasn’t so bad because it felt like a romantic trip.”
"Yeah. But you won't run away. I'll create a place where we can live comfortably together, where no one will bother us or bother you."
“Will you build me a house? And a swing in the yard?”
I slowly shook Noah's hand, excited. At the time, I didn't know what Noah meant.
Clouds covered the sky, casting a sinister hue, and eventually brought rain. Raindrops fell, one by one, soaking the winter grass, trees, and soil in the garden, releasing a fragrant scent like a spring shower.
Noah took off his coat and threw it over my head.
“It’s raining.”
“It seems like it rains a lot in this neighborhood.”
As we entered the hallway together to escape the rain, Noah revealed the reason why he had not wanted to come to Tempshire Palace and the reason for his dissatisfaction.
"There are so many annoying and disturbing things here. Look over there. Something annoying is already coming."
At the end of the long, porcelain-tiled hallway, a woman who looked unmistakably like Princess Erita approached. Her heels clacked loudly against the porcelain floor. Her sharp blue eyes fixed on me, the innocent one. I bowed politely.
“You came along without any notice.”
The Princess, consumed by delusion, tried to pass by, muttering to herself. I caught her delusion and calmly, yet firmly, corrected her.
"Her Majesty the Queen had commanded us to come together. She was delighted by the news of our engagement and offered her heartfelt congratulations. She even offered us a room to share."
The Princess's shoe clattering ceased as if it were a dead ring. I brushed my hair back and deliberately revealed the ring I'd placed on my hand. Princess Erita's eyes widened.
After discovering the same thing in Noah's hand, her face contorted into a vicious grimace, and she snapped at him.
“You're quite talented, aren't you? In Belford, you seduced the second son of a Duke; in Frogen, you seduced a Duke. How is it that you manage to choose only men from Duke families to seduce?”
“The second son of a Duke?”
"Was it Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Groenendaal? I heard their relationship in Belford was already famous. They dated every week, didn't they?"
Noah, who had been standing still, listening to the Princess, suddenly turned fierce. His chilling gaze was not directed at me, but at Princess Erita.
She glanced at Noah with a sharp gaze, and as if she thought he was agitated, she put strength into her voice with a relaxed expression.
"I heard you spent the night with Lieutenant Colonel Groenendaal at a certain Count's hunting grounds. You were quite the wild woman, weren't you?"
A chilling air drifted through the hallway as Princess Erita's voice rang out. Noah's lips were pressed shut.
His cool, white gaze brushed past me, lingering somewhere in the air, lost in thought. Even though I had done nothing wrong, the place where his gaze had passed stung.
I, too, found myself pondering when I had last spent the night with the lieutenant colonel.
I was bewildered by the completely unfamiliar sound, then I remembered getting lost in the deep forest of the Count's vast estate while on a fox hunt. How on earth did she know such things? The Princess's eyes lit up with triumph as she saw my anguished expression.
It's incredibly easy and enjoyable to denigrate someone you hate and spread unsubstantiated rumors.
“You’re crazy?”
Despite Noah's displeasure, she raised her chin.
"Noah, that woman followed the lieutenant colonel on her own accord. She was having a blast with another man while she was in Belford."
Noah, with his cold expression, spoke informally from the beginning, unlike when he usually spoke to the Princess in a formal, semi-formal, and then informal manner.
“How do you know that?”
“You’re so casual with me now, it’s really rude. You’re not even a Duke anymore.”
“I asked how you knew.”
“Ha, are you curious about that?”
Princess Erita put her hands on her hips, her expression smug as if she had succeeded in sowing discord.
“Everyone in Belford knows.”
Noah let out a cynical laugh as he watched the Princess getting angry.
“You know so much about the private life of Lieutenant Colonel Belford, an enemy officer?”
“It’s not that strange, is it?”
“Erita.”
Noah called her name in a cool voice.
Not even a Princess, not even a title like "Her Highness." Even though she'd never been called "Princess." Princess Erita's face flushed bright red. It wasn't out of anger, but out of surprise and embarrassment.
“Did you call my name?”
“When did you ask me to call your name?”
“That’s true, but why all of a sudden...”
It was strange to see her covering her mouth and avoiding eye contact. I, too, am a jealous person, so I raised one eyebrow and just stared.
“I thought you were a spy for Belford.”
Noah's voice dissipated coldly. The Princess's face twisted into a grimace.
“What are you talking about? I wouldn’t do that.”
“If exchanging news with an enemy country isn’t collusion, then what is?”
Princess Erita crossed her arms with a shameless expression that showed no acknowledgment at all.
"That never happened. Since I'm a Princess, it's easy to investigate. It's all true, so you'll know when you check."
“It doesn’t matter even if it’s true.”
Noah closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again and gave a short, sigh-like reply. I was feeling a terrible thirst. My throat was parched, and my mouth felt parched. I almost wanted to drink the rainwater collected in the long corridor's canal.
"Since we're just using each other, of course, it doesn't matter. But I thought you should know, so I'm telling you."
The Princess, who thought that Noah had abandoned everything and left his country because of her, continued to talk nonsense.
"I'll handle it myself, so please don't interfere with other people's love affairs. And don't insult my fiancée. If it were anyone else, I'd shoot her dead right away."
"Are you saying you want to shoot me to death? No matter how much I like you, there's a limit to how much I can forgive you. Do you think you can get away with saying something like that?"
"Do as you please. You'd better watch your mouth first. You don't want to die of old age, locked in a monastery for the rest of your life, accused of colluding with Belford."
Despite Princess Erita's growing anger, Noah delivered a calm warning. Her lips pursed tightly. Noah's cloudy blue eyes swept past her and turned to me.
“Go back.”
“I still have something to say.”
Just as I was about to explain to the Princess that this wasn't true, Noah's hand wrapped coldly around my wrist. He whispered tenderly in my ear.
"That woman only hears what she wants to hear. She probably interprets it in her own way and conjures up another story."
"Is this about not feeding the seeds of interest?" I nodded in agreement. Princess Erita's pale, almost white face stared at me with resentment.
Unlike the Queen, her complexion had a bluish tinge. She appeared to have applied a heavy layer of cosmetics containing lead and mercury. She clutched the hem of her purple satin skirt tightly.
“I’ll be going now, Princess.”
I bowed to the Princess and was led by Noah. He held my wrist tightly, not my hand.
He didn't say anything as he walked to his room.
The height difference was quite significant, making it difficult to keep up with his brisk pace. I was walking frantically, as if being dragged along by him, and before I knew it, I was inside the room. Even so, Noah didn't let go of my wrist. His silver-gray hair swayed as he slowly turned to me.
Noah smiled casually. I stared down at my wrist, expressionless. The slight sting made me think it was bound to leave a bruise.
“Noah, don’t misunderstand. That’s not it.”
“What happened with the black military dog?”
Noah's face suddenly came closer.
His tone was gentle, but the cold, piercing eyes staring down at me were too fierce. I tried to avoid his gaze as I asked.
“What is a black military dog?”
"Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Groenendaal. There's a breed of Frogen called Groenendaal. It's a black shepherd often used as a military dog."
“It’s true that we met every week.”
“Yeah. I know that. I didn’t know anything else.”
He must have heard the news from the nanny at the admiral's mansion. She's definitely a spy. But she didn't hear about what happened at the hunting grounds. Or maybe she knew and was just wondering.
I answered accurately, shrugging my shoulders slightly.
"I think you're talking about the fox hunt at the Count's hunting grounds. I got lost then, and the lieutenant colonel came to my rescue. It was so late at night that I didn't get back until morning."
"I see."
Noah nodded, his lips curved loosely. At first glance, it seemed distorted, a sense of incongruity.
"We didn't spend the night together as a couple. He just came to save me. The reason I asked him to come see me every week was to survive my father."
I did my best to explain. At the part where I said, "He came to save me," Noah's frown seemed to narrow, then slowly relaxed. He sighed softly and rubbed the back of his neck.
“I should have gotten rid of him a long time ago.”
From my perspective, I don't think he did anything wrong enough to deserve death.
"Even if he took me because of his greed for fame, he did try to protect me after he took me. He wasn't a bad person."
“That’s the problem.”
It was my own defense, but it seemed to be counterproductive. The more I spoke, the more angry I felt, so I kept my mouth shut. I didn't want to offend a man who was already angry. Even from the other side of the fence, it felt like a dirty joke.
He heard that the woman whom he risked his life to infiltrate the enemy country and bring back was spending the night with a different man every week.
I thought about the time I followed the lieutenant colonel on the day of the engagement.
I think Noah is still stuck in that memory and anxiety from back then. That's why he's anxious and distrustful of me. I never asked him why, so I never even considered it.
“I followed the Lieutenant Colonel myself because I was worried that you might get hurt by the Belford Army that had infiltrated the garden.”
“Yeah, I understand.”
He still held my wrist tightly. The pressure kept on and off, and it hurt, but I didn't show it.
He brushed his lips against my ear and whispered softly.
"Actually, it doesn't matter if you slept with another man. He'll be the one who dies. Then it's meaningless, not worth caring about. Right?"
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