“You know what? Do you know about our lady?”

“What about the lady?”

“She has a really nice scent? Like a woman’s fragrance.”

The servant who babbled about ‘a woman’s fragrance’ even had a wistful look in his eyes.

“Ah, yes. It does seem like there’s a scent when she passes by.”

“It’s like the smell of flowers. Or maybe fruits. But it’s not a scent I’ve smelled before.”

“Could it be the smell of balmonde?”

“Hehe. Northern women seem a bit different. White and slender. Her waist is just a handful.”

Kaian unknowingly clenched his fist at the sound of the servants chattering idly.

In Lowen Castle, Kaian was the one who knew best that Claudel had a nice scent.

But to think that other men in the castle would be talking about it like this.

Kaian didn’t realize it was a withdrawal symptom, but he was in the midst of a difficult fight with himself every night.

Every night when she asked him to come.

When he visited her bedroom at night, Claudel would burrow into his arms as if she had been waiting.

That was all.

‘Insomnia, she says?’

The woman fell asleep unbelievably quickly.

Normally, if you share a bed, shouldn’t you talk about something or do other nice things?

But for several nights, even when he visited every night, Claudel only slept, and without even a chance to speak, as soon as her head touched some part of his body, she would yawn once and immediately fall into a deep sleep.

‘Could it be that this woman is doing this on purpose to tease me?’

Could she be pretending to sleep while secretly hoping for his touch?

Normally, he would have thought ‘Isn’t that the kind of thinking only pathetic men who are hung up on women do?’ and made a cutting remark, but he gently shook Claudel, yet she remained in a deep sleep without even stirring.

Feeling annoyed, he once deliberately made an excuse about being busy and didn’t go to Claudel’s bedroom at night.

Although Kaian was busy with various matters, he made time to have meals with Claudel, so sometimes he would leave his office late, but on such days, she would stay awake until he came due to her insomnia.

Since he was truly busy, and he was making an effort to have meals with Claudel in the midst of it all, he felt no guilt about telling this lie.

However, the next day, when he visited her for lunch and saw the woman with faint shadows under her eyes, sighing briefly, unable to eat properly and looking tired, he felt as if he had committed a great wrong.

A small lie, a big guilt.

In the end, except for that one day, he went to Claudel’s bedroom every day, and his feelings of dissatisfaction grew. As he caressed her arms that had become soft with a bit of weight gain, last night, for the first time, he secretly pressed his lips to her forehead.

As if tickled by his breath on her cheek, the woman frowned and flinched, then sighed and opened her mouth. The wind carrying Claudel’s body scent and warmth swirled under his chin, causing Kaian to be unable to sleep properly all night due to the heat.

‘But what? A woman’s fragrance?’

Kaian was furious.

How dare these rascals giggle about the flower scent that even he couldn’t properly smell?

‘Don’t they realize that woman is my wife?’

Thinking about it, it seemed possible.

Since Claudel was injured during the crocodile hunt and then suffered from herzol, she had been recuperating until now, so the men in Lowen Castle might only think that he had made a woman who had just arrived at the castle walk in the rain and scolded her in front of people for merely stealing a button decoration.

‘The butler was right.’

When he complained that Claudel, who wasn’t properly served by the subordinates, couldn’t raise an heir, it was unpleasant to hear.

But after just a short time, the elder’s insight proved to be absolutely correct.

These men, whose lives could be lost with just a word from Kaian, who should revere his words like divine prophecy or heavenly law.

How dare they carelessly talk about the lord’s wife having a nice scent or being a northern woman?

He couldn’t blame anyone since this happened because of what he did, blinded by his grudge against Vermonte.

However, there was no reason to overlook the servants talking as if to say ‘smell it if you don’t know’ that ‘the lady has a nice fragrance’.

“Are you talking about my wife like that?”

At his cold rebuke, the servants jumped as if struck by lightning, their eyes wide.

“M-My Lord.”

“W-We were just…”

Kaian exuded a fierce aura as if he could kill someone with just his gaze.

“I must have heard wrong. If I hear one more suspicious word that makes me wonder if you’re looking at the lord’s wife with different eyes, I can’t guarantee your heads will remain attached.”

“Eek!”

The servants disappeared, pushing each other in a fluster without regard for order.

“Hoo.”

Heat rose to his forehead.

“Duke.”

As he entered the room, Claudel rose from her seat and curtsied to greet him.

But when she saw Kaian’s expression wasn’t good, she hesitated and watched his mood.

“Did something happen?”

It wasn’t her fault at all. There was nothing to blame her for.

Seeing the woman whose mood changed easily, brightening or darkening with just one expression from him, he felt it was his fault for not managing his expression.

“No. It was nothing.”

“Really?”

“Sit down.”

Seated, Kaian tried to focus on the meal placed before him.

“Excuse me, Duke.”

Claudel’s question was sudden.

“Why do you always look angry?”

“Me?”

When he asked back, Claudel opened her eyes wide as if to say ‘don’t you know?’

“Don’t you know? You’re always frowning.”

“Well.”

Kaian was taken aback by Claudel’s words.

“Would you like to look in a mirror?”

Before he could say ‘let’s eat first’, Claudel stood up and lightly pattered to one side of the room to bring a small round mirror.

“Let’s eat…”

He was about to say ‘first’, but as Claudel gently placed her hand on his shoulder to show him the mirror, Kaian stiffened.

It was because the fragrance that the servants were just talking about stimulated his nose, carried by the red hair that almost touched his cheek.

And because the curves of the woman who lowered her body softly touched his back.

Kaian unconsciously straightened his back and sat upright, obediently looking into the mirror.

“…”

However, caught off guard and looking into the mirror, he was at a loss for words.

‘Is this how I usually look?’

Even when he looked in the mirror to check his appearance, he had a strict and firm manly face.

At this age, would there be a reason to smile and look in the mirror?

He was the head of Temnes.

But he hadn’t thought he was raising his eyebrows and frowning so coldly like this, so it was an unexpected discovery.

“You didn’t know? You’re always like this, with your eyes upturned and wrinkles between your brows, like someone who’s angry.”

“That’s…”

When did this start? Thinking back, was it after his parents passed away?

When a green boy became the head of a traditional ducal family, the lord of a vast and enormous territory.

To prevent anyone from looking down on him.

As soon as he became the head of the family, Kaian left for the battlefield without even naming a successor.

It was five years later when the young man, who had been like an immature blade, returned as a hard, sharply honed sword.

“I’ve never seen the Duke smile.”

No one dared to say such things to Kaian, so he hadn’t been aware of it until now.

“At first, I thought you were upset because of me. But now I know that’s not it.”

Kaian was embarrassed to have shown only this face all along.

But when he tried to force a smile, his facial muscles seemed to have hardened and wouldn’t move in that direction. The very act of trying to smile felt extremely awkward.

“Hmm. A lord’s work is busy and tiring.”

Kaian brushed it off. Fortunately, Claudel seemed to accept that.

“Let’s eat now. The afternoon will be busy.”

“Yes.”

The conversation ended blandly.

But Claudel’s words kept floating around in Kaian’s mind.

On a day when the sunlight falling through the tree shadows was pleasant.

Claudel was busy preparing for a rare picnic, spreading out a blanket in the castle’s back garden.

Lowen had no cold winters, with a mild climate close to summer year-round.

Even so, there must have been subtle seasonal differences, as colorful begonias had sprouted in the place where modest daisies had bloomed profusely on the day she collapsed.

“My lady. I’ve picked some flowers.”

“Oh. Give them here.”

Claudel was busy weaving a flower crown, sitting under the shade of a tree.

“Shall I pick more flowers?”

“No, it’s fine. You can go now.”

When Claudel gestured as if to say go quickly, Hannah hesitated.

“But if you need anything, I could wait and run errands.”

“We’ve brought everything, what could we need?”

Indeed, there were three large wooden baskets full of food alone.

“Then I’m going, my lady. I’m going. I’m really going!”

Even as she moved away, Hannah couldn’t seem to let go of her attachment, repeatedly calling out to her in a loud voice.

“…Is she gone?”

Claudel looked in the direction Hannah had gone, then quickly picked more flowers to make another flower crown.

Earlier, with Hannah watching, she couldn’t make one for Kaian.

“I wonder if he’ll dislike it for being childish.”

Not long ago, she had shown Kaian a mirror, saying he always looked angry.

But she was taken aback when he seemed unaware that he usually wore such an expression.

‘With that handsome face, always making that expression.’

Claudel had spoken lightly, with her own feelings.

She wanted to make Kaian happy, to do something that would make him smile, something that would please him.

In truth, Claudel, who hadn’t yet properly fulfilled her role as a duchess, couldn’t do much.

Still, the man who was said to be so busy made time to eat lunch with her every day, so she racked her brains and came up with the idea of a short picnic.

She thought eating outside might be a change of pace, different from eating in her room.

“I hope he likes it.”

For reasons she couldn’t understand, although he wasn’t angry, Kaian often glared at her lately, which worried Claudel.

But he wasn’t getting angry or pointing out that she had done something wrong, so she had no idea why he was acting like that.

“You said we’d eat lunch outside.”

“Duke!”

When Claudel looked up, she saw a man leaning against a tree with his arm.

‘Wow. He’s handsome.’

He had said he had training with the knights in the morning, and Kaian’s appearance in a training shirt with light pauldrons was extremely impressive. It was as if he had a slightly more masculine aura than usual.

“Sit here.”

“It’s hot.”

As she handed her handkerchief to Kaian who sat next to her, he slightly furrowed his brow.

“It’s too dirty to wipe with this.”

“It’s fine. Please use it.”

“No. It would be better to wash.”

Wash? Here?

As Claudel was wondering.

Kaian took off the armor he was wearing and his shirt, then jumped straight into the lake.

“Ah!”

It happened in an instant, before she could stop him.

The sound of splashing water was heard, and soon the muscular arms, head, and shoulders of a man emerged one after another above the disturbed water surface.

Kaian brushed his wet hair to one side, seeming refreshed.

“Now I feel alive.”