“……How strange.”

On the wedding day at Valmont Castle, Claudel was adorned with glittering jewels from head to toe, down to the hem of her bridal gown.

The wedding night gift he had given her – of course, now he knew that Claudel hadn’t even seen it because Antione had stolen it – was it not to her liking? Thinking about it, he had considered her taste to be flashy enough to understand.

“I’ve never seen her decorate herself.”

However, Claudel at Rowen Castle never wore accessories.

Frustratingly, it was also because he had only seen her in the bedroom, as the butler had said, but even when that wasn’t the case, there were no jewels or gold ornaments visible on her earlobes, neck, or fingers.

Ah, there was one exception.

Claudel still wore the button bezel he had given her like a thread ring.

Sometimes when he noticed it, he wanted to secretly take it off, but he couldn’t find the opportunity, and Claudel always kept it on her person.

‘If you have something that suits you among your possessions, try it on.’

‘I’ll try it later. I’m tired from looking at clothes for so long.’

Claudel seemed troubled by Kaian’s words.

His keen intuition was on the verge of reaching some conclusion.

That night.

At a time when everyone was asleep, Kaian silently made his way to Claudel’s bedroom.

There was no one in this castle who could stop him from entering Claudel’s room.

Nevertheless, the reason he slipped into the room under the cover of darkness, as if melting into the shadows, was different.

Kaian’s eyes fell on the bed, which still showed no signs of someone having lain in it.

Claudel was sleeping comfortably nestled among large pillows and cushions.

After briefly scanning her form with his eyes, he quietly headed for the dressing room.

The man, whose night vision was sharper than others, surveyed the spacious room relying on the moonlight streaming through the window.

‘This is ridiculous.’

Usually, noble ladies were obsessed with greedily acquiring jewels.

This was true regardless of age, and he didn’t have to look far – his cousin sister and the kingdom’s only princess, Bianca, wore jewelry on her ears, neck, fingers, wrists, and even ankles, leaving no space bare.

Moreover, it was common to have various dresses for each season, categorized by purpose, color, and fabric, along with matching accessories.

However, Claudel’s dressing room was not just empty, it was desolate.

Anyone who saw it might think it was an unused room.

Kaian frowned in disbelief as his eyes caught sight of a familiar dress.

Upon closer inspection, there were a few dresses hanging in the smallest section of the vast dressing room, not even an arm’s length wide.

Only three dresses in total, including the Valmont-style dress that reached up to the neck, which he had told her to throw away today.

And just two nightgowns that he recognized were neatly hung up, that was all.

Moreover, one of them had its chest tie torn when he had roughly ripped it in excitement, but he could see that it had been mended by hand.

Kaian’s eyes turned to the jewelry cabinet.

Click.

With a faint metallic sound, he opened it, and the state inside was even more bewildering.

The torsos inside the cabinet, which had enjoyed more luxury than living people when the previous Duchess, Kaian’s mother, used this room, were all empty, not adorned with a single thing.

There was nothing.

Claudel possessed nothing.

Kaian quietly slipped out of her bedroom.

As if cold water had been poured on his heated head, his reason sharply reached the conclusion he had been seeking.

“She lied.”

When he was enraged upon learning that she had contracted Herzol, Claudel had clearly said so.

‘How dare they send a flawed bride to the lord of Rowen? That old Vermonte must have gone senile.’

‘I’ll raze the Valmont territory to the ground, leaving nothing alive……’

‘No!’

‘I, I did it myself. Duke Vermonte… Father knows nothing about it.’

She said she had deceived them alone.

That Duke Vermonte knew nothing about it.

“How could he not know?”

There was only one reason why not a single bridal gift, including the dress, was sent for a marriage between ducal families ordained by royal decree.

Duke Vermonte knew Claudel would die.

Kaian roughly ran his hand through his hair.

He wasn’t sure if he was irritated because Claudel had lied to him, or if he was seething with anger at Duke Vermonte for making a fool of him.

Rowen Castle was bustling from early morning.

Claudel, who had just finished her meal, poked her head out the window wondering what was happening, but couldn’t figure out what was going on.

At that moment, the butler came looking for her.

“My lady. The lord has ordered you to prepare for an outing.”

“What? An outing?”

“Yes. Though it won’t be a very long trip, I think it would be good for you to wear a new dress.”

“I will.”

As soon as the butler left, Hanna’s eyes lit up.

“Hurry and change into a new dress.”

“What should I wear?”

She needed to know the destination to prepare properly, but the butler had already left.

“This one. Wear this.”

The dress Hanna chose was one that exposed both shoulders and had a V-shaped neckline at the chest.

“Isn’t that for parties or balls?”

“No way. It’s not even that flared out.”

“We don’t even know where we’re going. The chiffon is so thin, what if it gets caught and tears?”

“What do you mean what if? Then you beg the lord to buy you a new dress.”

After much back and forth, Claudel put on a dress with puffed sleeves on both sides, a square neckline, and a ribbon tied just below the chest.

She thought it wasn’t excessive and this would be fine, but once she put it on, the dress seemed quite thin, revealing her figure.

“Isn’t this a bit much?”

“You need to get used to the Rowen style, my lady. Everyone wears dresses like this just fine.”

“Really? Is it really okay?”

“Of course. It’s just your imagination, my lady.”

As Hanna pointedly added ‘my lady’ to her words, Claudel felt pressured and ended up nodding.

A moment later, when a servant from the castle came to escort her, there was a large and sturdy-looking carriage parked in front of the castle.

“Wow.”

Claudel was amazed.

Compared to this, the carriage she had ridden from the north seemed so flimsy that it was only natural for water to leak from the ceiling.

As she was staring at the incredibly luxurious and solid-looking carriage in wonder, a familiar cold voice came from behind her.

“What are you doing? Get in.”

“Ah……”

Kaian held out his hand to her.

When Claudel just stood there blankly staring, he impatiently grabbed the hand that was holding her dress skirt.

“We’re in a hurry, so hurry up.”

“Yes.”

As she boarded the carriage with Kaian, the door closed and they immediately set off.

The seats inside the carriage were quite spacious, and the cushions were so soft that sitting down felt good. There was no typical carriage bumping, and the breeze coming through the open window gently brushed against her.

Today was the first day Claudel had gone outside since arriving at Rowen Castle over two months ago.

Was that why? Claudel felt herself getting excited.

It was no wonder, because when she was heading to this castle, she had been a body with a set date for death, but now it seemed miraculous that she had recovered so cleanly without any issues.

The elated Claudel called out to Kaian.

“Duke.”

“What?”

“There’s something I want to try. Is it okay if I do?”

“Go ahead.”

With permission from Kaian sitting across from her, she disregarded decorum and lay down sideways on the carriage seat she had been sitting on.

“Wow. I can lie down.”

Through the window at her head, lush trees shimmering in light green quickly passed by against the backdrop of a blue sky.

Claudel quickly got up again and sat properly in a polite posture.

Kaian was looking at her with an expression of bewilderment, as usual. He generally had little change in expression and always seemed angry, but now she could read a bit of emotion in Kaian’s eyes.

“This is my first time riding such a big carriage. I was curious if I could lie down.”

Seeing him furrowing his brow, Claudel closed her mouth.

“Shouldn’t you be more curious about where we’re going rather than that?”

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see when we get there.”

If you’re not going to answer anyway.

Claudel quietly enjoyed the scenery outside the window.

Rowen was a very beautiful place.

The landscape was different from around Valmont Castle, where the tallest vegetation was waist-high shrubs at best.

‘If it hadn’t rained when I came, I would have seen things like this on the way.’

Sadly, Claudel’s journey to Rowen had to be made with the windows closed for the last three days due to continuous rain. Even if she had opened the window, she would have only seen a gloomy gray sky.

As the butler had said, the carriage soon turned onto a road made of carved stone. Claudel’s eyes sparkled as she saw beautifully constructed buildings on both sides.

Eventually, when the carriage stopped, Kaian got out first and held out his hand to her.

“Get out.”

“W……”

Claudel, who was about to exclaim “Wow,” closed her mouth.

She felt that if she showed an unsophisticated side here, he wouldn’t like it.

People recognized him as the lord and kept bowing from all directions.

‘Wow.’

Claudel was purely amazed at the sight, which felt different from when she saw him at the lord’s castle.

She could perfectly sense that he was the ruler of this land.

“Come here.”

Claudel took his outstretched hand and entered the shop.

It was a jewelry store.

The jeweler who had said he would make her ring and bracelet before greeted them with a bright face.

“My lord. My lady. We’ve been waiting for you. Please, sit here.”

As she sat down next to Kaian on the long sofa, Claudel suddenly became conscious of him.

She had sat across from him at tables before, but never sat beside him like this.

‘What am I thinking? We’ve even spent nights together, and now I’m flustered about sitting next to him.’

As she was trying to push away these stray thoughts, Kaian spoke.

“Recommend some jewelry suitable for my wife.”

Claudel blinked, not understanding what Kaian had said.

“If there’s something you like, you can choose it yourself.”

“Jewelry?”

“Yes.”

He frowned.

“If I see any tacky Valmont-style items, I’ll throw them straight into the moat under the drawbridge, so keep that in mind.”

“Ah……”

In fact, Claudel didn’t have any jewelry at all.

This was because Duke Vermonte hadn’t given her any of the customary bridal gifts that a bride would normally receive when getting married.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t give them because he didn’t have any, but that he deliberately didn’t give them.

This was because after Claudel died, her assets would revert to the Temnes ducal family.

Her uncle and aunt had argued for days because of this.

The Duchess insisted that it would be a disgrace to send their daughter empty-handed from Vermonte, which was overflowing with gold and jewels, saying they would be held accountable. Duke Vermonte, on the other hand, raged that he couldn’t bear to see jewels from Valmont become Temnes property before the dirt covered his eyes.

In the end, they loaded the gifts onto Claudel’s carriage, but only after stopping the carriage outside Valmont Castle, out of the Duchess’s sight, and having everyone get out, were they able to set off again towards Rowen.

‘Maybe… he noticed that I don’t have any jewelry?’

Yesterday, when he had told her to try on anything she had, she had acted awkwardly.

“Is there nothing you like?”

“No. No. They’re all pretty.”

When Claudel hastily replied, Kaian nodded.

“Give her everything.”