‘Will she misunderstand that I’m angry?’

Frost let out a deep sigh.

He hadn’t meant to get angry.

Anger?

Towards the one he had already given his heart to.

To the woman whose heart drops and mind goes blank at the mere sight of bloodstains, which she may have spilled.

To the person he doesn’t know what to do with for joy just by breathing, blinking, and speaking in front of him again.

Anger? How could that be possible?

Frost sat blankly, not even feeling the wine glass shards deeply embedded in his hand being carefully removed with tweezers by Herveo, the ducal physician who had followed for the wedding procession.

Even seeing blood flow from the open wound, he couldn’t feel if it was his own palm.

Rather, recalling the small wounds left on his wife’s neck and hands after suddenly disappearing and returning, his heart felt freshly cut, stinging and painful.

Seeing his wife’s wounds, it was certain that the blood spattered on the bedroom windowsill and pooled on the floor was not Yuriella’s.

So he was relieved, but he was going crazy with curiosity about who this ‘someone’ was who had caused his wife to suffer new wounds on her hands.

It clearly wasn’t an assassin targeting his wife’s life.

[… I’ll correct myself. I won’t say.]

Yuriella was clearly hiding his identity. Who on earth could it be?

‘Could it be the culprit who was going to make me a cuckold, as mentioned in the butler’s report? If it’s an unforgettable first love, why did he hurt her? Love… a fight?’

When worries run deep, does even a sigh not come out?

He was just blank.

“Herveo. Did you say there are four chambers in a human heart?”

“Yes, Your Highness. That’s what I learned from my mentor skilled in anatomy. The heart is like a pump that circulates blood in our body. There are two chambers on the left and right that receive blood entering the heart, and two chambers on the left and right that contract to send blood out of the heart.”

“Only four?”

Frost felt like there were not just four chambers in his heart right now, but ten… no, even more.

And in each of those chambers, different emotions and thoughts were seated, each saying different things and thinking different thoughts.

At the end of that overwhelming tumult. It was a realization he came to the moment he found his wife sitting on the bedroom windowsill, staring off at the distant southern sky as if nothing had happened.

There was a heart overjoyed that she had returned safely.

And a heart dazzled by the strawberry blonde hair fluttering in the night breeze.

There was a heart that found the transparent red eyes looking at him tearfully beautiful.

And a heart hurt like a child, wondering why she wouldn’t say anything.

He also felt his heart about to burst with frustration at his wife’s composure as she swallowed her words despite her face full of things to say.

There was also a heart that felt sorry for her, looking as if she had lived without a single place to lean on, like a weary old person.

A heart shaken with shame for not being a husband she could lean on.

When the painful realization hit that he was actually just a contract marriage partner, not a real husband, he felt sorry for getting angry inappropriately and embarrassed, his face flushing hot, wondering if he had shown an overly excited appearance.

What lay beyond the southern sky that she couldn’t take her eyes off? Jealousy burned fiercely, wondering if that was where the man she couldn’t forget even in her dreams had been spirited away to.

Thinking that she had no affection for her family, the Grande house, and wasn’t attached to the position of Grand Duchess at all, so she would leave whenever this contract marriage withered…

He became terrified that she might disappear from his side at any moment.

“Am I… broken too?”

Frost murmured as if in a daze.

[I think I’m broken. Pathetically, why do I keep… I’ve never been like this before.]

Frost had asked his wife, who said she had never cried before, to praise him.

[Then I did well. Praise me.]

And what did he say?

[I’m glad you can cry now. It means you’ve become comfortable. The fact that you can cry now means the tightly closed lock on your heart is opening.]

Then what is this maddening whirlpool of emotions?

What Frost had carefully hoped for with Yuriella was the image of a couple like his parents.

A relationship where they became friends to each other, became affectionate lovers, relied on each other without hiding anything and shared everything.

Grand Duke Gideon Ielheim and Imperial Princess Adelia Della Ponti met as a high noble and princess. But they became lovers because they sincerely wanted each other, and naturally became husband and wife as a matter of course.

Although he and Yuriella had a bad start, he had been optimistic about the outcome.

It wasn’t for nothing that he was called the ‘Undefeated Knight’.

Frost Ielheim was not only undefeated on the battlefield.

When he wanted something, he won. When he wanted something, he got it.

There were no exceptions. Not even once.

He’d rather be angry.

When he got angry, there was always a clear reason. And he meted out punishment befitting the crime to the object of his anger.

The process was always concise, efficient, and there was no wavering of the heart. Because he didn’t use his heart at all.

But Yuriella could not be the object of his anger.

[I’ll train hard to gain skills worthy of this great sword. I’ll protect Frost with this sword. I’ll work hard not to disappoint you.]

She’s a woman who says she will protect him, that she will work hard to gain the skills to do so.

[As a healer, as a fake Grand Duchess, I’ll dedicate my life for Your Highness. If this life is not enough, I’ll beg for the next life to fulfill your wishes.]

No oath that any knight had ever sworn to him was as heavy and heart-wrenching as the promise Yuriella made that day.

So how could he get angry?

There was clearly sincerity he had felt, and that sincerity had already unlocked the lock on his heart.

Frost stood up abruptly.

“Your Highness…!”

Herveo, who had just started wrapping bandages on the wound, hurriedly stood up.

Frost roughly wrapped bandages around the wound and pushed open the door of the temporary meeting room, taking urgent steps towards the second floor bedroom.

Among the fragmented chambers of his seemingly broken heart, what was leading Frost Ielheim now was the ‘desire to know’.

Among the many questions and curiosities that had arisen since he got to know her, one question stood out particularly sharply.

“What is it that you truly want?”

Yuriella, who had been sitting leaning on the windowsill staring at the distant sky, turned to look at Frost with surprised eyes as he burst in through the door.

“I’ll give you whatever you want. So tell me. What is it that you want from me?”

In the end, he wanted to know. What kind of existence he was to her.

If there was even a thread of hope he could hang onto.

He didn’t want to burden her with unnecessary expectations.

And perhaps it was his last pride, no, his struggle, not wanting to expose his ridiculous and embarrassing appearance to her anymore.

“Although it’s not a relationship that started because we wanted each other. Between you and me, there’s something different… I mean, I think things have changed…”

Frost clenched his fist nervously. His neck to his jaw flushed bright red.

“What I want is.”

The lush strawberry blonde eyelashes fluttered down. Frost was impatient, unable to see the red, transparent eyes hidden beneath the lowered lashes.

“I want to completely heal Your Highness, and I want to be used in paving the way you intend. And,”

In the red eyes that were slowly revealed, there was no wavering or shaking at all.

Just a calm and composed gaze looking up at Frost straight on.

“When my usefulness is done, I want to leave. Without leaving a single trace that I was here, by Your Highness’s side.”

“…You, will get what you want. As promised from the beginning. I will keep the line you have drawn.”

Yuriella’s chest ached at the feeling that there seemed to be moisture in the calm blue eyes.

“Frost…”

“The name,”

A low voice stopped her words.

“It’s alright. It’s better to call me by title like before. That seems more comfortable for you too.”

He didn’t say that he was afraid he would foolishly cross the line he had carefully drawn if she sweetly called him ‘Frost’. Even that much, for fear it would burden Yuriella.

“Herveo.”

Frost opened the closed door and called in the family physician.

The door opened and Herveo, who had been waiting, entered carrying a tray with bandages and medicine.

Herveo did not know why the Grand Duke insisted on entrusting the treatment to him instead of the Grand Duchess’s dedicated physician, but the Grand Duke’s expression was so fierce that he approached the Grand Duchess without a word.

“Get treated and rest. You must be very tired.”

Avoiding Yuriella’s blank stare, Frost left the room.

Even after Herveo finished the treatment and left, Yuriella sat blankly for a long time before suddenly standing up and running to the door.

The Grand Duke’s face as he calmly said he wouldn’t cross the line kept coming to mind. His large, drooping back that seemed hurt kept weighing on her heart.

But Yuriella only gripped the innocent doorknob tightly. She did not leave the room.

This is for the best.

As originally promised, healing the Grand Duke and removing the obstacles in his path was the meaning of the life she had regained.

Having made the Grand Duke terminally ill and soaked the northern lands with the blood of his people.

In the end, it was obvious she would be used as the shackles of Duke Grande to threaten his safety.

She must not be greedy for more.

She must not try to become more meaningful to him.

Yuriella turned and walked to the window.

“Aery. Cassandra. Stop lurking and come in.”

The curtains fluttered in the wind, and Cassandra, grabbed by the scruff of her neck in Aery’s small hand, floated into the room.

“Aery. Did you take Nikon to the imperial palace safely?”

[Yes. I took him safely to the place Yuriella told me. The wind was so fast that Nikon got motion sickness and threw up though.]

Yuriella had instructed her old subordinate Nikon to stay at the safe house she had used as her secret space when she was Solas. Now Nikon will carry out the tasks she ordered while waiting for her on Jeju Island.

“You worked hard, Aery. I love you.”

[Yuriella… Are you okay?]

“There’s no reason I shouldn’t be.”

Aery’s small lips pouted as she looked at her kindly answering master.

[Yuriella is like a stubborn bear. Life would be easier if you were a little more like a fox.]

She didn’t want her master to become a widowed woman with a broken heart for loving a terminally ill man. But she didn’t want to see her looking miserable with a hole in her heart either.

“You should just honestly tell him everything, Lady. Even spouses who live intimately won’t grow distant like islands separated by a vast sea if they don’t speak their true feelings.”

The black magician who was going to turn her husband into a pig and sell him at the market gave quite plausible advice.

“Cassandra. The Grand Duke and I are not real spouses living intimately.”

“The Grand Duke cares for you very much, Lady Yuriella.”

“That’s why even more. If I cause him even a little harm, I won’t be able to forgive myself. If that happens, I will throw away this new life I’ve gained without hesitation.”

“No one would be able to throw stones even if you said you would stay by the Grand Duke’s side, Lady.”

“Cassandra. What I want is not to be by the Grand Duke’s side. I want to be in front of the Grand Duke, cutting down those who would harm him, clearing away the trash and obstacles. That’s enough for me.”

Aery and Cassandra sniffled and met eyes, aligning their hearts, as their master’s face looked so sad despite her forced smile.

‘A man who makes a woman cry is no good. We should cheer on the Archmage more enthusiastically.’

*

‘Is this really… Colina Rosa?’

I looked around while bending down to let the flower girl put a flower necklace around my neck.

The citizens filling the city square to welcome our party looked bright.

In the square that had been trampled by the hooves of the subjugation force I led, a fountain spurting clear water and pretty flower beds had been newly built.

The houses and shopping streets that had burned down and collapsed from flaming arrows had recovered about half of their original appearance and looked lively.

I had heard that the Grand Duke had even used his private funds to help rebuild Colina Rosa, but I didn’t think it would have been restored this much.

“The Grand Duke is really amazing…!”

An exclamation flowed out without me realizing.

The Grand Duke, who was bending down next to me to let the flower girl put a necklace on him too, glanced at me and smiled freshly.

“Raise your expectations of me a little higher, Bi. I am a much more amazing man than this.”

Seeing him even joking with a smile, I felt relieved.

Indeed. Not running to the Grand Duke last night was the right thing to do.

“Grand Duke! Your Highness!”

A fat snowman rolls over with its back to the fountain. Oh? It’s Chief Priest Grato!

“I greet the Grand Duke.”

Behind Chief Priest Grato, a woman in snow-white priest robes poked her head out, her long hair like ebony swaying.

‘That’s Carina Pioni!’

The holy maiden candidate who made my Flama into a demon sword! The little sister of that traitor Aaron!

But why is that girl here?