“I wonder if I’ll be able to see a good spectacle next month. I hope it’ll be interesting.”

Kaian and Princess Bianca’s marriage, what an absurd notion.

It was an impossible thing.

If Kaian, a duke and royal relative, marries the princess, his place in the line of succession would rise as well.

Even now he’s second in line after Bianca, bypassing the late Lady Elise, but if he marries the princess wouldn’t he become next in line?

At least until Valkyther has children.

The thought that this thorn in his side could become the next king depending on Valkyther’s wellbeing made his blood boil.

Marriage is the grave of life.

Valkyther quite liked that saying.

He thought of shoving that bastard into a swampy, miry marriage he couldn’t escape from, while Valkyther himself held out without marrying.

He couldn’t marry off Kaian who was on the battlefield for 5 years.

But then an unexpected proposal arrived from the scheming Duke Vermonte.

“It’s not like Temnes can split his body and deploy to multiple places anyway. It would be better to leave a mouth for the kingdom.”

This matter was profitable in many ways.

No matter how outstanding Kaian is, he can’t split his body and deploy east and west.

On the other hand, Duke Vermonte’s diplomatic skills were organically intertwined with his entire household. Not just the duke, but anyone bearing that family name could conduct negotiations, which was useful.

What if Temnes and Vermonte clashed and Vermonte lost despite him taking their side?

Putting aside the fighting, they were both his subjects anyway. Valkyther wouldn’t be held responsible.

“It was a game worthy of the cunning Vermonte.”

The curtain had already risen on this fight.

Valkyther was simply elated at the prospect of watching it unfold from the very top.

[This is the timeline separator]

A group of knights barged into the Berang house, loyal among loyals of the Lowen territory.

“What is the meaning of this!”

The elderly mistress of the Berang house was a collateral branch of the Temnes family.

Though her surname changed to Berang when she married into a vassal family, her glossy black hair spoke of her bloodline.

When the lord’s castle guards suddenly burst in she was flustered, but in times like these it was more likely for things to be resolved smoothly if a Temnes stepped forward rather than a Berang, so she raised her voice confidently.

“You’ve been harboring a thief.”

But when Kaian entered through the knights, her expression changed completely.

“My lord.”

She immediately bowed her head deeply.

“What brings you all the way here?”

“There’s an item I need to retrieve.”

Harboring a thief? She knew her daughter Antione admired Kaian and frequented the lord’s castle, throwing her weight around with the young ladies there, but she had considered that to be nothing more than the charms of her pretty daughter.

“I’ll go get it myself, pardon the intrusion.”

Antione’s room was decorated daintily.

The walls were covered in soft-colored wallpaper with floral patterns, and dried flower bouquets tied with pretty ribbons hung on the walls. It still had more of a girlish feel than a young lady’s room.

“Hmm hmm hmm.”

Antione sat at her vanity, admiring her reflection in the mirror with the blue diamond ring on her finger.

When she struck a pose similar to the angle in Lady Elise’s portrait hanging in the lord’s castle, she looked incomparably beautiful and elegant. Even the negligee she wore casually at home looked like a party dress, didn’t it?

“Duchess Antione.”

As she lifted her chin, the beauty sitting in the mirror smiled along with her.

Clunk.

At the sound of the door opening, Antione snapped irritably.

“I told you not to open my door without permission!”

“What a spectacle.”

At the cold and arrogant male voice, she froze in place.

“To become a duchess, one must be free of issues with their status. Theft is a crime that leaves evidence, so you can’t even dream of it now.”

Shocked, Antione could only gape with her mouth open.

When Kaian moved to take the blue diamond ring from her finger, Antione instinctively tried to curl her fingers.

“Aack!”

But the hand forcibly removing the ring was faster, causing Antione to momentarily sprain her finger.

The pretty, statuesque hand that had beautifully sparkled with the ring just moments ago quickly swelled up red and puffy.

“Ah…”

As Antione stared blankly at that finger, her body was forcibly lifted up.

“Take her away.”

Antione was dragged off, held on both sides by the knights.

Kaian said to the mistress, who was his cousin aunt:

“The charge is theft.”

He disappeared without even explaining properly whose item was stolen, but she couldn’t stop Kaian.

“Ah, Antione. What have you…”

Shocked at the sight of her daughter being dragged from the house without a chance to intervene, she collapsed right there.

[This is the timeline separator]

“Aack!”

From far outside the window came the screams of a woman being flogged.

“Kyaaack!”

Antione was tied up with ropes and beaten with clubs for the crime of stealing the lord’s possession.

Theft was already a major crime just for stealing valuables.

Kaian looked at the blue diamond placed on the desk.

It was a keepsake left by his mother.

She must have known the special meaning behind such an item.

Even for an ignorant whelp, how could she fail to distinguish right from wrong to this extent?

Kaian was dumbfounded.

The blue diamond belonged to Kaian.

He had given it to Claudel as a wedding night gift, but she had never seen or received it.

So it was Kaian’s ring.

‘I-I didn’t know it was… the lord’s possession.’

The severity of punishment differed between stealing the master Kaian’s item and snatching an item he had sent as a gift.

Cunningly, Antione made excuses through her tears that she hadn’t stolen the lord’s possession, but had merely picked up something lying on the floor in the hallway and taken it.

So Kaian matched her level.

‘Right. I just happened to drop it there.’

Understanding his implied meaning, Antione was dragged off to be flogged with a terrified face, shaking violently.

Having received public punishment, she likely wouldn’t dare enter the castle in this manner again.

On the other hand, thinking of Claudel left a bitter taste in his mouth.

“What did I do wrong?”

Had she tremblingly said she received and liked a gift she never actually got?

Her image of shrinking back with a start when he asked about the wedding night gift in the underground tomb kept coming to mind.

That night, Kaian had taken a liking to Claudel.

He could have fulfilled his duty just once and withdrawn, but he didn’t.

In contrast to Kaian’s large, sturdy build, Claudel was thin and far too skinny, so he worried she might get hurt or break if he handled her wrong even slightly.

As he slowly and painstakingly took such a woman multiple times, he brushed it off as a form of kindness and favor bestowed on this Vermonte woman from Valmond.

“Why did you lie?”

Even after that, when he said he would fix the ring for her, didn’t she answer as if she had received and kept it?

The doll-like woman who usually gave short answers to most questions and sat still with an indifferent face, would show changes in expression when he spoke to her, and it mostly seemed like tension or fear.

Last night’s incident was the same.

Even the lower staff working in the castle didn’t know that the ceiling of the lord’s bedroom could be opened and closed.

Apparently some eccentric Temnes of the past who was interested in science and astronomy had it made at great expense.

In any case, the method of opening it was one of the secrets passed down only to the head of the family.

Because if that ceiling were opened, the lord’s life could be targeted with arrows from outside.

He had thought to indirectly let Claudel, who hadn’t left the bedroom since injuring her leg, get some outside air.

He hadn’t intended to embrace her.

His intention was truly just to show her something amazing. If he had any expectations, it was only that she might say a word of thanks.

If only the provocative nightgown that revealed her whole figure hadn’t caught on his buttons and come undone.

Claudel was his benefactor, after all.

After that incident, Kaian felt strange.

Because as the lord, he was surrounded by people clamoring for all sorts of favors.

He had the highest status, yet he also had the most work to do.

Too much rain, too little rain, fruits not growing, harvest labor shortages during bumper years.

All sorts of natural disasters and matters going against the laws of nature became Kaian’s work.

But she had saved him without asking for anything in return.

Such a small woman.

Claudel must have been scared too, yet she saved him and got bitten by the crocodile instead.

It was a terrible, cruel moment, but when he recalled the instant their eyes met – her golden eyes – after realizing she had saved him, it made some part of his body feel ticklish.

Anyway, she was his benefactor.

Should he go see her now while he’s at it?

Kaian picked up the blue diamond ring from the desk.

“My, it won’t even fit anyway.”

Moreover, the ring had been badly scratched from whatever Antione had done while wearing it.

Frowning, Kaian called for his butler.

“Take this to the jeweler. Tell him to reduce the size and remove the scratches cleanly.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Kaian headed for Claudel’s room.

[This is the timeline separator]

Hannah was busy regaling Claudel with the tale of Antione as if it were an adventure story.

“That wicked girl acted all innocent, you know. Said she didn’t know it was the wedding night gift.”

The castle was in an uproar with people trying to watch the public trial.

“Then the duke said, ‘Well then, I just happened to drop it there.’ That’s what he said.”

“So she ended up getting flogged.”

“Whew, it’s so satisfying. How dare she speak ill of just anyone.”

In front of Claudel herself, Hannah couldn’t bring herself to say the words ‘crippled legs’.

The wound had healed quite well, but the state of the inner muscles was unknown.

There was a possibility she would end up with a limp even after full recovery, as the torn area hadn’t healed cleanly.

But even when she learned of this fact, Claudel had merely said “I see” and left it at that, so Hannah, the doctor, and Kaian all thought she was internalizing the shock.

“Anyway, to think he gave such a splendid ring as a gift. The duke is so generous. You should get rid of this now.”

Hannah tried to secretly remove the controversial button ornament, but Claudel hid her hands behind her back.

“It’s fine. It probably wouldn’t suit me anyway.”

“What do you mean suit you or not? The important thing is that you received a jewel.”

Claudel smiled faintly.

Now even hearing such stories felt like tales from a world separate from her.

The stories of the living that would continue even after her death.

“Am I interrupting?”

“Oh my. My lord.”

After hearing her report on Antione’s actions, Hannah saw Kaian in a new light.

“Shall I bring some tea?”

When she hinted at leaving, Kaian nodded.

“Do that.”

When Hannah quickly brought the tea, Kaian sat across from Claudel with a small tea table between them and looked at her.

Claudel found these times uncomfortable.

It was as if this man, who had never been part of her daily life, was trying to carve out a place for himself in the quiet interstices of her time.

They didn’t know each other well.

So there was nothing to talk about.

As the silence lengthened:

“Why did you save me?”