“……Insomnia?”

“It’s not that I wasn’t healthy or anything. I just couldn’t sleep well.”

When Kaian raised his eyebrows, Claude shrugged and looked at him cautiously.

“I’m very healthy as long as I can sleep well. That’s how it was before I got Herzol.”

Claude explained as if making an excuse.

Her attitude seemed as if she was worried that Kaian might find some flaw in her.

Seeing such a woman, the heat that had been about to burst just a moment ago slowly subsided within him.

“Why can’t you sleep? Can’t sleep alone?”

“Well……”

The expression disappeared from Claude’s face.

“It’s been like that since I first came to Valmond Castle.”

“Weren’t you raised in Valmond Castle all along?”

“Huh?”

When she opened her eyes wide as if surprised, Kaian realized his mistake.

From Kaian’s perspective, it was a forced marriage, and moreover, Valqueter had already forcibly issued a royal decree.

Since nothing resonated with him except that she was a Vermonte to be burned, he had married without properly looking into Claude’s background.

He couldn’t even remember her name on their wedding night, to that extent.

He wasn’t completely unaware that she had been adopted, but he didn’t consider it important either.

He had only registered in his mind that the king’s intention of sending the adopted niece, not the beloved daughter of Duke Vermonte, as the bride included turning a blind eye even if there was a divorce or broken engagement.

Because he remembered it half-heartedly, an inappropriate response slipped out.

“Ah. Since you became the duke’s adopted daughter due to your parents’ situation, you must have lived somewhere else until then.”

“……Yes.”

When Kaian hurriedly covered up, Claude didn’t seem to be upset by it.

‘Her mother died in an accident, and her father left a suicide note saying he would go to his wife’s side.’

The image of a small girl left alone at a young age was superimposed over the dejected-looking woman.

“So you couldn’t sleep well after your parents passed away, is that it?”

“That’s right.”

Claude affirmed his words.

“Come here.”

She looked up at him.

“You need to sleep, don’t you?”

As Kaian lay down on the bed first, Claude approached hesitantly.

That appearance seemed a bit cute to him.

When did she ever ask if she could come every night?

How awkward she was about lying down with him.

When Kaian reached out his hand while lying down, she carefully took his hand and lay down on the bed.

“Let’s sleep now.”

As he tried to pull his hand away, Claude grabbed Kaian’s arm with both hands.

“Can’t we sleep holding hands?”

“What?”

“I sleep well when I can feel body heat.”

“Then how did you sleep in Valmond Castle?”

“At that time, Hannah slept with me. Holding hands.”

Kaian sighed through his nose.

Thinking he meant it negatively, Claude suddenly let go of the arm she had been holding.

“Ah, no. Please sleep.”

“Come here.”

As he turned his body sideways and reached out his arm, his golden eyes flickered clearly like those of a wild animal even in the darkness, illuminated by moonlight.

“I’ll hold you.”

Then Claude hesitated as if curling up, then slowly snuggled into his arms and lay down using his arm as a pillow.

At that moment, Kaian felt a tickle near his heart.

It felt as if the heart inside his body had been gently brushed with an ostrich feather fan.

The woman who had rested her forehead on his chest had fallen asleep in an instant.

Looking at the dark shadows under her closed eyes that weren’t there even when she was sick, Kaian sighed.

“You say you can’t sleep?”

Holding hands with Hannah, she said.

Still, he was her husband, so he couldn’t be on the same level as a maid who had become a faithful servant of Temnes, could he?

With such childish thoughts, he offered to hold her, but holding her in his arms, it wasn’t bad for him either.

‘Things will change if she keeps coming every day.’

Anyway, it was Claude who first suggested sleeping together every night.

Kaian closed his eyes, inhaling the woman’s scent rising from his arms.

[This is the timeline separator]

The morning after sleeping soundly seemed even more bright and beautiful than usual.

When she opened her eyes, Kaian wasn’t beside her, but Claude lazily lingered in bed.

“He really came.”

The fact that the man with a cold face who usually acted coldly with an angry expression didn’t ignore her words and listened made her happy.

Kaian was truly Claude’s benefactor.

The days she was living and breathing now were a life she could enjoy thanks to him obtaining the medicine.

Just for that fact alone, Claude thought to herself that even if he treated her coldly or scolded her, she couldn’t help but secretly like him or feel grateful inside.

Now that she realized that might just be Kaian’s natural way of expressing himself, he didn’t seem so scary.

At first, she used to feel tense as if her liver was shriveling up even when he just raised his eyebrows towards his forehead as if displeased.

“……He held me.”

She would have been grateful even if he had just held her hand.

If he hadn’t offered his hand, Claude would have waited for him to fall asleep and then quietly slept with their arms touching.

Anyway, she needed to feel someone’s body heat beside her to sleep well.

But she had no thought at all that he would hold her like that, so she was surprised, but fell asleep right away in the warmth of the man’s embrace and the sense of security given by the firm arms wrapping around her body.

After sleeping soundly for the first time in days, her body and mind felt light as if she had been lifted from hell to heaven with a net.

“What should I do? I think I’m starting to like him.”

Claude blushed as she thought of Kaian.

After contracting an incurable disease, she had prepared for death for several months.

The act of organizing and reorganizing her surroundings, which had nothing to organize, was an attachment to life.

At first, she was greatly perplexed as to why he saved her when he had been furious, asking if she had deceived him by marrying.

Then she was glad to be alive when she thought she would die, but that was also bewildering.

Claude was not at all prepared to live in Rowen land of Temnes.

She had been thinking about what to write in her will or on her tombstone in her mind all along, instead of thinking about living here as a duchess, as Kaian’s wife.

Unlike when he confronted Claude asking if she had come to find a place to die, Kaian didn’t seem to mind that part either.

Rather than protesting to Vermonte about Claude not having the awareness of a duchess because she thought she would die, he quietly spent money to maintain her dignity, didn’t he?

“It would be difficult to hope for him to like me.”

He was the one preparing for a territorial war to annihilate Vermonte.

Claude knew well how unfavorable Kaian’s feelings towards Vermonte would be.

Because she too had grown up within Vermonte amid hostility towards Temnes.

It wasn’t too much that everyone in Rowen Castle was cold towards Claude and didn’t hide their hatred for Vermonte, because everyone in Valmond Castle was the same towards Temnes.

She could hear the same curses from both sides, just with the subject changed.

However, having grown up outside for quite a while and even after being adopted into Vermonte, she didn’t have the emotional capacity to cultivate anger towards Temnes.

The matter of her parents itself was too great a trial.

In the meantime, it was very fortunate that Kaian didn’t oppress or treat her harshly anyway.

She was already starting to like him just for saving her life.

Moreover, he was very handsome and a wonderful man.

If such a husband wasn’t particularly cruel to her, wouldn’t there be no problem with secretly liking him inside since they were already married?

Thinking this far, there was a problem.

“It seemed like my uncle was planning to fight him if I died.”

Claude didn’t think much about what would happen after her death.

In a forced marriage by royal decree, even the great lord of Temnes was dragged out, so what could Claude do?

There was nothing she could change with her power.

However, she remembered that Duke Vermonte had said several times, “King Oberon is on my side,” “King Oberon will help me attack Temnes.”

“That can’t be. It doesn’t make sense.”

The current King Oberon, Valqueter, was the legitimate prince born to Queen Silvia.

He was first cousins with Kaian, as his mother, the former Duchess of Temnes, Lady Elise, was sisters with Kaian’s mother.

Why would such a king take Vermonte’s side?

Claude, who had received her death date, didn’t care either way, so whenever Duke Vermonte talked about marriage and what he would do to Temnes after her death, she kept her mouth shut and said nothing.

But what kind of variable would it be that she unexpectedly survived?

Now she was afraid and worried that Duke Vermonte might harm Kaian.

Claude got up from the bed, put on a robe over her nightgown, and sat down at the desk.

She had never properly used the furniture in the duchess’s room as she had only stayed in bed while sick, but sitting at the elegant and antique desk made her feel hopeful about the days she would live here from now on.

Claude took out paper and a pen from the desk drawer and, after much deliberation, began to write a short message to send as a telegram.

Rowen and Valmond were located at opposite ends of the kingdom, taking over fifteen days by horse, but there was a telegraph using signals that could deliver short messages within a day if a large sum was paid.

[Herzol has been cured. Recovering health. Getting along well with husband. Seems we can send more food to Valmond.]

“Is this enough?”

She thought that if she conveyed to Duke Vermonte that things were fine with Kaian, and that she hadn’t died, he would either give up on his plan of “I will question him for causing the death of a precious bloodline after you die” or figure something out on his own.

“My lady. Why are you up so early?”

Hannah entered the room, beaming.

“Did you not sleep well again……”

“No. The duke came yesterday, so I slept well.”

“Oh my. So the lord slept here.”

“Hannah. I have a favor to ask.”

Claude held out a money pouch along with the folded paper with the message written on it.

“Could you go send a telegram to Valmond?”

“Yes. When should I go?”

“Now. Please go now.”

As Hannah left the room, Claude sighed.

She felt much lighter after resolving what had been bothering her.

[This is the timeline separator]

As the season changed from late summer to early autumn, white frost fell in the early mornings around Valmond Castle.

The scenery of ice powder gently dusting the green moss that still held traces of summer was the transitional landscape of the north.

“A telegram? A telegram, you say?”

When he heard that a telegram had arrived for him from Rowen, Duke Vermonte snatched the letter from his subordinate’s hand, thinking the news he had been waiting for had finally come.

‘I wonder if Claude’s condition has worsened.’

Seeing the name “Hannah Pebble” written as the sender, he quickly opened the letter.

However, the sender of the telegram was not Hannah, but Claude.

[Herzol has been cured. Recovering health. Getting along well with husband. Seems we can send more food to Valmond.]

Moreover, unbelievably, it said that Claude had not died and that Herzol had been cured.

“Huh. This is unexpected. Herzol has been cured!”

And she says she’s getting along well with that fearless youngster Kaian of Temnes?

Duke Vermonte frowned deeply and tapped his desk with his index finger, making a tapping sound.

Finally raising his head, he called out towards the door.

“You there.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Go and call Irena.”

A moment later, Irena entered the office, tilting her head at her father’s sudden summons.

“Father. You called for me?”

“Yes.”

“What brings you to call me at this hour?”

At his daughter’s words, Duke Vermonte smiled and said.

“I want you to go to Rowen for a while, Irena. If you like it there, you can stay there for good.”