“Has it always been like this?”

Frost placed the teacup he had just sipped from on the tea table he had prepared in the glass greenhouse of the Marquis, scrutinizing Yuriella from head to toe.

There didn’t seem to be any bruises or broken bones visible, but the thought that there might be unseen injuries under her dress made Frost feel a hot fire rising in his stomach. He closed his eyes tightly, then opened them slowly.

His vivid blue eyes sparkled like jewels, catching the bright light filtering through the glass walls of the greenhouse.

“So you liked gentle men because of your brother.”

I should smash his head in. And break both his legs so he can never kick his sister again.

Looking at Dolman Grande, one thing became clear. Lady Yuriella’s preference for small, modest men seemed to be influenced by that brute of a brother.

“No. Not just my brother. After experiencing it, they’re all the same. A gentle man is like a unicorn.”

Yuriella answered disinterestedly as she sweetly dipped her finger in the chocolate cake and ate it.

Frost’s eyes trembled slightly at the unexpected response. A crack also appeared in his relaxed brow.

“What?”

“A unicorn. Something that’s rumored to exist but no one has ever seen. Meeting such a man is just wishful thinking, I don’t expect it.”

“No, not that.”

“Pardon?”

The statement that they’re all the same after experiencing it. Who is ‘this guy’ and who is ‘that guy’, and who made her think they’re all the same?

Frost quietly swallowed the question that had almost burst from his throat along with the tea, without showing any sign.

“What else, Your Grace?”

Yuriella asked as she licked the chocolate off her upper lip with her small pink tongue. Seemingly satisfied with the sweet chocolate, her round eyes with red irises curved gently.

Frost suddenly felt thirsty and reached for the glass with ice.

Bored waiting for the Duke’s response, Yuriella scooped up a cake topped with plenty of strawberry syrup with her finger and put it in her mouth, sucking the cream off her fingers.

“…Do you have to eat like that?”

Frost, who had been watching Yuriella’s lips intently and anxiously, couldn’t stand it anymore and placed the silver fork that had been plated next to the plate in her hand.

“It’s unhygienic. And unsightly.”

“Ah. I’m sorry. It’s become a habit.”

Yuriella smiled faintly as the image of her former adjutant from her past life overlapped with Frost’s disgusted expression, and she stabbed a piece of cake with the fork and put it whole in her mouth.

The adjutant had given up on offering expensive silver forks at some point, as the desserts carefully prepared by the cook often ended up stuck in the eyes or vital points of barbarians instead.

Yuriella chewed with her cheeks puffed up like a squirrel and gave an embarrassed smile.

“But you know, I find it much sweeter and more delicious to dip with my fingers than to eat with a fork for some reason. Don’t you feel the same, Your Grace?”

“Solas Moretti.”

“…!”

Yuriella stopped breathing for a moment and looked at Frost at the sudden mention of her name.

“Even Lord Moretti ate the cake served as dessert with his hands, just like Lady Yuriella is doing now, in front of His Majesty the Emperor. Seeing his subordinate who didn’t know etiquette, the Emperor smiled foolishly, as soft as a rotten oyster.”

The sweetness wasn’t the cake, I suppose.

Remembering the intimate tea time between the Emperor and the Captain of the Imperial Knights that he had seen from afar when he had stopped by the Imperial Palace to discuss something before the barbarian subjugation, Frost made an expression as if he had chewed a hundred sour persimmons.

Yuriella also put down her fork with a face that had lost its appetite.

The cake she was chewing now tasted bitter, and even after swallowing it with tea and rinsing her mouth several times with water, it didn’t feel refreshed. What needed to be washed was not her mouth, but her heart.

“What business brings you here? Is there something you didn’t finish saying?”

Frost stared intently at the red eyes that were slowly revealed as her delicate and lush eyelashes, which had been lowered, lifted.

Eyes that were as clear as a young girl’s when sweetly eating cake, now cold and guarded. A woman impossible to grasp.

Is she the only one difficult to grasp?

‘Why did I come here…’

He had thought about it all the way to the Marquis’s estate, but even he couldn’t find the reason for his visit. Just that he couldn’t bear not coming because he felt uneasy inside.

“Take back your words about not accepting the engagement gift.”

Frost hastily fabricated a reason for his visit.

“Didn’t you say you’d leave the Marquis’s household after divorcing me? Then you’ll need a place to live, and money to hire servants. As it happens, I have a suitable mansion. I’ll also give you my ruby mine as alimony.”

“No, I don’t need-”

“Then tell me what you need.”

Yuriella let out a shallow sigh. There was something she needed.

To meet Cassandra Cabeza, whom the Duke had imprisoned in a cave.

As she’s known as the Empire’s greatest black magician, she might know how the holy sword Flamma could have become a demon sword. If lucky, she might even find a way to turn it back into a holy sword.

But since she couldn’t reveal the reason, it was impossible to ask. She would have to find a way to solve that problem on her own.

“I don’t need a house or a ruby mine. Rather, they’re bothersome and worrying. I really don’t need anything.”

One of Frost’s eyebrows twitched up fiercely. Why does every word this woman says make people’s minds twist?

“I don’t want to see the woman who was once my wife living in squalor.”

“Oh, wasn’t it agreed that it would be an annulment rather than a divorce? And you won’t have to see my state. I’m planning to go somewhere far from the Empire once I finish what I need to do.”

Huh. You don’t like anything? You don’t want to be the Duchess, you don’t want alimony, and you don’t even want to see me?

The Duke’s expression became extremely fierce as he loosened his cravat and unbuttoned his shirt, tilting his neck.

“Do you find your marriage to me so humiliating that you want to erase it completely? What’s your basis for judging that you’ll find me so detestable that you won’t even want to see me, when you haven’t even lived with me yet?”

“What? No, why is the conversation suddenly-”

Frost stood up abruptly, glancing at Yuriella who was gaping in bewilderment.

“I’m not a gentle man, so I can’t understand what exactly Lady Yuriella is dissatisfied with. Perhaps because I’m a war demon with the smell of barbarian and monster blood that won’t fade instead of rabbit or deer blood, I don’t have the skill to ‘gently’ resolve your dissatisfaction.”

“What? What do you mean-”

“It’s not just barbarian and monster blood that’s stained me. The blood of my own people – though I hate to call them that – the blood of the Emperor’s subjugation army that trampled my North, is also deeply embedded in my sword and my body.”

Yuriella’s expression turned sad at the mention of the subjugation army.

She couldn’t help but remember. Her subordinates who had fallen to Frost’s sword…

The futile sacrifices made for the country, believing that a real rebellion had broken out in the North. Those regrettable deaths. The sorrowfully red blood spilled in foreign lands…

Until they advanced, cutting down the monsters lurking at the rugged northern border, Solas and his subordinates had burned with a sense of mission to suppress the rebellious groups threatening the peace of the Empire.

But it was not rebel factions that were trampled under thousands of war horses, but the innocent people of the North, and Duke Frost Ielheim, the rebel leader whose head the Emperor had ordered to be brought, was a benevolent guardian of the North, beloved by the people.

It was only when the holy sword Flamma transformed into a demonic sword spewing black magical poison that she realized everything had been a lie fabricated by the Emperor.

No, did I really not know…? Or did I just close my eyes and turn away, pretending not to know…?

The foolish knight, tamed by the Emperor’s sweet lies, wanted to believe in her beautiful lord with dazzling blonde hair until the very last moment.

The result was… devastating.

Innocent northern civilians were sacrificed, and loyal subordinates who valued their superior’s orders more than the imperial command lost their lives or became fugitives scattered everywhere.

And Duke Frost Ielheim…

The owner of the holy sword Ielro that protected the Empire and the valiant warrior ended up poisoned by demonic toxin that could kill him at any moment. Because of me. Because of my foolishness…

“…Why are you crying?”

At Frost’s words, Yuriella wiped her cheek with her hand. Her face was already wet with tears that had flowed without her realizing.

“Ah…”

Frost took out a handkerchief and placed it in Yuriella’s hand, then fidgeted anxiously, clenching and unclenching his fists, not knowing what to do.

“…I didn’t know you hated blood that much.”

The Duke frowned and alternately smelled his hands, tilting his head.

“Do you have a sensitive sense of smell? Do I smell of blood?”

“…What?”

“I’m not a madman thirsting for blood. If I’ve raised my sword to kill someone, it was to save someone else, and to protect their home.”

Frost didn’t know why he was making such a lame excuse, but he couldn’t just pass by Yuriella who was crying.

“I can’t promise I won’t be stained with the smell of blood anymore.”

For he would have to take countless lives and stain his hands with their blood to protect the North, his people, and liberate the Empire from the hands of the tyrant.

“But I can promise you this one thing. Before I take someone’s life, I’ll think about it ten times, no, a hundred times. I’ll be careful to ensure there are no vain sacrifices. And if it can’t be avoided, I’ll find the people who have been harmed because of me, compensate them, and comfort them.”

Frost promised, slowly and carefully, with all his sincerity, one word at a time.

With each word he spoke, transparent tears welled up in Yuriella’s eyes again, wetting her cheeks and flowing down.

‘Ah…!’

Yuriella, no, Solas Moretti, sighed deeply in her heart.

‘What have you been seeing and doing all this time…!’

This was exactly what she had expected from Emperor Justin Della Ponti.

A ruler who thinks that if he raises his sword to kill someone, it’s to save someone else and protect their home.

A warrior who thinks ten times, no, a hundred times before taking someone’s life.

A gentle guardian who carefully ensures there are no vain sacrifices, and if it can’t be avoided, finds the people who have been harmed, compensates them, and comforts them.

Yuriella’s transparent red eyes looked straight up at the ruler of the North who was promising with all his sincerity.

Yes. It’s not too late even now.

Perhaps this new life was arranged to correct what was wrong and protect this reliable ruler.

Even if not, it doesn’t matter. Her lord has now been decided.

Instead of kneeling to swear allegiance like a knight, Yuriella ran over and threw her arms around Frost’s neck, hugging him tightly.

This kind of oath would be appropriate for the shell of a lady with a dancing background.

“Your Grace!”

I, Solas Moretti, swear to serve Duke Frost Ielheim as my lord and devote my loyalty. My lord’s will shall be every step I take.

“Let’s get married quickly!”

Although they would part someday, the desire to work harder for her lord even for one more day blossomed vigorously. She wanted to treat him quickly from up close.

“As soon as possible.”

Frost stiffened as he instinctively hugged Yuriella, who had come at him like a pounce and buried her wet face in his shoulder.

The scent of the violet tea he had just drunk mixed with Yuriella’s sweet body fragrance, tickling Frost’s nose.

Suddenly worried that his shoulder where she had buried her nose might smell bad, he tried to gently remove Yuriella, but…

Yuriella strongly hugged Frost’s thick waist with her slender arms, as if she absolutely didn’t want to be separated.

The Duke, who had been insensitive to the numerous seductions of renowned beauties whenever he visited the imperial capital, stiffened at Yuriella’s surprise attack, clenching and unclenching his fists aimlessly, even forgetting how to breathe.

“I’ll do well, Your Highness.”

Not realizing at all what effect her oath was having on the Duke, Yuriella, disappointed by the lack of immediate response, clung even more tightly, pressing herself against him.

“As a healer, as a fake duchess, I’ll dedicate my life to you. If this life is not enough, I’ll beg for the next life to fulfill your will.”

Even as his ears turned red like a fifteen-year-old boy at a woman’s embrace, Frost was still bothered by the words ‘fake duchess’.

Not knowing that this irritation was a sign of his heart opening for the first time in his life, he understood it in his own way.

‘They say people who grew up in unfortunate circumstances prefer familiar misfortune to unfamiliar fortune.’

He thought he finally understood why she insisted on running away far and living in poverty, refusing the position of duchess and the luxury it would bring.

The reason for visiting the Marquis’s estate, which he hadn’t been able to answer properly earlier, now became clear to Frost.

“I need to meet the Marquis. And your stepbrother and the rest of the family.”

The thought of dealing with the culprits who had made his future duchess accustomed to misfortune seemed to somewhat alleviate the inexplicable turmoil and thirst he felt.