Here, I meet you all, Your Highness. It’s been a long time.

Now even the Marquis of Heihar approaches. What a sight to behold.

Kaella looked up at the gentleman greeting her. This was exactly the fourth time. Gentlemen who used to just leave Kaella standing by the wall, lacking in beauty and eloquence for socializing, suddenly started talking to her.

While Peon briefly left his seat, one person came to speak to her, and when she sent him away, the next person came. It seems that if she sends this man away, another will come. What is this all about?

Kaella was well aware of the mocking words circulating about her in society.

Stiff Kaella, the flower leaning against the wall that men don’t even look at. She rides horses alone because she’s never ridden with a man.

Those were the words Beatrice Lavalle spread, and her followers repeated. They were all true. There were hardly any men who spoke to her.

Even those who did only observed proper etiquette, simply dancing once and moving on. Hence, Kaella found the gentlemen who kept talking to her and volunteering to be her escort very suspicious.

‘What is it? Why are they acting like this?’

Kaella had no way of knowing.

“Congratulations on your marriage.”

“Thank you.”

“But you came alone?”

It’s always like this. These people approach, point out that she’s alone, and volunteer to escort her. Even when Kaella says she came with her husband, they’re persistent. By now, shouldn’t one of them have revealed what their real purpose is?

“The Duke of Lucenford is really too much. Leaving his newlywed bride alone. Well, he only has eyes for one person anyway.”

The Marquis of Heihar who came this time was more blatant. If he was bold enough to bring up Beatrice Lavalle right away, he might give a hint about this awkward situation. So Kaella didn’t answer and just stared at him. The Marquis of Heihar would take that as tacit agreement.

“Your Highness, why don’t you turn your gaze elsewhere? The world is wide and there are many people.”

I roughly understand what he means. But here’s the thing.

“Why didn’t you say this before I got married, and only now?”

What’s the reason for suddenly approaching Kaella after she got married? Kaella didn’t know the sophisticated way of twirling a man’s heart like Beatrice, speaking indirectly to ask the question she wanted. She just knew she wasn’t capable of that. So she just asked bluntly. Rustic and blunt, like Kaella.

“You don’t know? Oh my, so that’s why the three men before all failed.”

The Marquis of Heihar seemed to think this was quite advantageous to him, so he grinned. Of course, it wasn’t advantageous at all. Kaella knew very well that the Marquis of Heihar was a married man.

“Let’s just say it was too difficult to even approach you when you were single.”

“Now that I’m married, do I look easier?”

She said jokingly with a smile.

“Easier? It just means we’re in the same situation now, and can understand each other better.”

But the Marquis of Heihar shook his head, not wanting to be misunderstood. The same situation, huh.

“Don’t you understand the essence of political marriage now? It’s wise to fulfill your duties, and seek pleasures you can’t obtain elsewhere. Isn’t this already something His Grace the Duke knows?”

Ah. So that’s what it was. That was it. Kaella smiled slightly at what was, in a way, too obvious.

“We’ll talk about that later if the opportunity arises, My Lord.”

The Duchess of Austein smiled softly, but her attitude of cutting it off was still the same. The Marquis of Heihar realized why the three men before him hadn’t even recovered their investment. Her heart that only looked at her husband was pure to the point of being naive, but her attitude of rejection was firm and cold. Many men couldn’t give up because of that attitude.

“Is that so? Then I’ll wait for the next opportunity, Your Highness.”

It seems he achieved today’s goal of speaking bluntly to Kaella, one of the noblest people even among the high society gathered in Cline. The Marquis of Heihar retreated cleanly. That was the wise thing to do. If he had hesitated a bit more, he would have run into the Duke of Lucenford who had heard this entire conversation.

“Kaella.”

“You’re back?”

Peon handed Kaella a basket full of sherbet and various desserts, which she brightened up at seeing.

The shopkeepers near the riverside where nobles come to escape the heat were clever, making and selling all kinds of high-class desserts.

He picked a variety of drinks, sherbets, aromatic coffees and edible desserts, hoping Kaella might regain her appetite if she tried them. While picking, he heard everything about how many people approached her and what nonsense they spouted.

“Eat this first. It’s melting.”

Kaella eagerly took the sherbet first, and even her earnest eating was quite cute. That’s why all the men around were stealing glances.

Gazes turned this way. Yes. They all have eyes, so they must all know what’s pretty and cute and lovely. They all know. They all know everything.

Only Peon didn’t know.

‘Damn it.’

Where the hell did he put his eyes? Crazy bastard. All sorts of curses colorfully sprang up inside him.

As if Kaella was only pretty today. She was pretty yesterday, the day before, at the wedding, and thinking back, she had always been cute and pretty since childhood.

Her smile was as beautiful as a bright light shining, and when she cried, ah, that was beautiful enough to feel guilty, sorrowful and painful.

Her resolute look with tightly closed lips, her mournful look enduring pain, her quiet look attending to affairs, even her eager look eating deliciously, all of it. All of it was pretty enough to entrance any man.

The one Peon desperately wanted to hit on the head right now was himself. He had 4 years. He had 4 whole years to monopolize Kaella, but the fool who didn’t even know he was born a dragon was bound by trivial magic and not only failed to monopolize, but drove several nails into his young wife’s heart.

Men kept approaching, but since Kaella seemed to really want to eat the delicious desserts, he had to endure and be faithful to his role.

The level of snacks prepared by the skilled and profit-minded people doing business here for the nobles was truly exceptional.

He picked a lot more, hoping that Kaella, who had a small appetite and felt compelled to eat little, might eat even a bit more.

Fortunately the pastry chef at the place he ordered from was quick, otherwise more guys would have approached Kaella if he hadn’t returned quickly.

“Try this too.”

“Why did you bring so much? How can I eat all this?”

She went back to formal speech again. The habit thoroughly ingrained for 4 years wouldn’t disappear just from living together for a few months.

“Just taste it.”

The traces he left on Kaella were densely packed. The dragon’s twisted mind was sometimes glad even for that.

Because without even that, he would truly be nothing but a stranger to Kaella. But he knew best that those traces were scars left after letting deep wounds bleed profusely without treating them.

He should have known. If the one who left scars all over didn’t know that, he really should have gone and died.

So, he couldn’t ask about each gentleman approaching her. He had no right to. At least those guys had much better judgment and knew how to act properly than him.

“Sorry for leaving you alone. If I’d known, I should have brought Renard.”

“It’s nothing. These are just things that will appear briefly and soon disappear.”

At those words, Peon looked at her. Kaella, who was eating sherbet while looking at the light scattering on the gently flowing river, met his gaze in response to the felt gaze.

“That’s not likely.”

Peon smiled bitterly.

“This is just the beginning, and it will last a very long time.”

It started with their marriage, and will last as long as the time he wasn’t aware. So it wouldn’t be wrong to call this his karmic retribution.

Kaella tried to say no with her expression first. So he responded to that expression.

“No, it will last long. I’m not interested in high society so I don’t know well, but I know men’s base nature well.”

He gently gestured for her to eat quickly while pushing other desserts that nobles were buying armfuls of.

The experience of remembering each man approaching Kaella one by one, fearing that Kaella might show even a little interest in those guys, while quickly picking desserts that Kaella might eat even a bite of, was quite novel and something he never wanted to experience again.

It was fortunate that she was at least eating.

“I’m the same kind, so how could I not know?”

Peon himself was just such a base human right now. Kaella swallowed while eating the tangy sherbet and asked.

“Did you hear everything?”

No way.

“I don’t leave you alone in danger.”

Peon, who mentioned exactly what all the men who stood before her pointed out, added gloomily.

“It must be creepy for you, but yes. I heard everything.”

Kaella listened calmly to what should have been creepy talk.

It wasn’t that surprising.

He’s a dragon, isn’t he? Should she be creeped out when he’s already responsible for her every move and always by her side? No, is it strange to think this way? I don’t know. Peon had become a forced familiar daily life for Kaella.

He was a completely different person from before the regression, quickly procuring even a hastily prepared dessert basket from an expensive restaurant that nobles would surely frequent often.

No, I’m not sure if he was always this meticulous, but in any case he had become a different person to Kaella. Of course, he was still as taciturn as ever, so he closed his mouth after saying just that. Since she felt awkward eating alone, he just ate the sweet sherbet together.

“Is that all?”

What else? Kaella poked at him for no reason, not even knowing exactly what she was expecting.

“What are you curious about?”

“No, it’s just, you stopped being angry…”

“I’m not angry at you.”

“I know that.”

“It’s something I brought upon myself. What is there to say?”

Since her married partner happened to be Peon, who was close to Beatrice, Kaella automatically became a wealthy heiress married to a husband with an existing partner.

At the same time, since everyone thought there was no way she could have a harmonious married life with her husband, of course men flocked to Kaella. His very existence was the cause of strange men lining up for Kaella. So what was there to say?

Still, Kaella kept looking at him, so he reluctantly asked one thing he was curious about.

“Was it like this before the regression too?”

“Back then, I never came to Cline after getting married. I had no chance to encounter people like this.”

Peon reflexively made a ‘what are you talking about’ expression before realizing, ah. He had always briefly stopped by Cline alone, never bringing Kaella along. He always left her alone in Lucenford, as the Emperor’s nephew might possibly plot something if he met with the Emperor, bringing along his wife.

“…I’m sorry for leaving you alone.”

So he had nothing to say. Unable to be buried in Austein, her father’s grave roughly buried in Cline – she must have wanted to visit, and she must have missed the many people she knew in Cline, but her husband suspected her and just left her in the cold Lucenford.

In the end, the reason for her confinement was because of tending to the Austein Duke’s grave, so what could he add? Even an apology was abhorrent, so Peon kept his mouth shut.

No matter what conversation they had, they couldn’t avoid the past in the end. Human relationships start from the past, and those memories are dissolved into all of daily life.

So Kaella doesn’t say ‘it’s okay’ or even ‘it’s fine’ to his apology. Because it’s not okay and can’t be forgiven. He didn’t seek forgiveness either. It was just an apology. He didn’t hope for anything more.

“Look over there, it’s the Duchess of Austein and the Duke of Lucenford.”

“First the queen of high society, now the golden lily of Austein too, that bastard has ridiculously good luck.”

“How many men lined up to propose to the Duchess of Austein, and that guy took her away, damn it.”

“Could the Duchess have adapted to the barbaric Lucenford? She’s already such a delicate lady, that Duke who only knows the military would hardly…”

Silence fell between the two, but Peon’s ears heard all the sounds he didn’t particularly want to hear.

He also saw an enormous number of glances looking this way, specifically at Kaella. Whenever Peon was mentioned, Beatrice Lavalle, the woman he foolishly held onto for so long without properly knowing what she was, was never left out.

Gazes of envy that Kaella still didn’t know poured out towards her.

The Duke of Lucenford would play around with Lady Lavalle. Then what about the Duchess of Lucenford and future Duchess of Austein who would be alone?

With just this simple premise, guys with proper eyes but ruined moral standards were running in without even grasping the situation.

Peon’s love rivals weren’t just death. Everywhere was a minefield he had laid. He had dragged the precious Kaella, whom such guys didn’t dare look at or speak to, into the mud.

“No matter how I look at it, the Duchess of Austein is too good for him. How lucky is that Duke bastard to have Beatrice Lavalle as a lover and the Duchess as a wife, sheesh. The Duchess doesn’t belong with those two.”

“Is someone like him even worthy of the Duchess of Austein?”

His sharpened ears continuously heard the sounds of men aching with envy around him. If it were me, if I were the husband, if I were by her side – blatant desires and envious glances poured out recklessly.

There were so many men who envied Kaella, including himself. And among those numerous suitors, Peon would probably have the least chance.

Along with the wretchedness, his head felt dizzy, and the habitual pain returned. With the feeling of his heart being gouged out, he lowered his gaze for a moment and swallowed the pain.

Strangely, this issue hurt more. It was so brazen and detestable that disgust and nausea welled up together. How could he not bear other men pursuing his wife when he had neglected her all along and looked at another woman?

No, in fact, these emotions were ones Peon was experiencing for the first time in his life.

What was this feeling of wanting to gouge out all their eyes so they couldn’t see Kaella, and wanting to clear them all away from Kaella’s vicinity?