“……Kaian.”

As she uttered his name, Claudel was overcome with emotion.

She knew that after marriage, couples sometimes called each other by name rather than title, regardless of their previous status.

But she never expected to receive permission to use his name from the man who had frowned in disgust upon seeing Vermonte’s red hair when entering the room for their wedding night.

Hadn’t he not even known the name of the bride he married?

‘Don’t make me repeat myself. I asked what your name is.’

‘Claudel Quinn… Vermonte.’

‘Whether you can become Claudel Quinn Temnes depends on your efforts tonight. I hope you try hard.’

Since then, Kaian had never spoken her name.

He mostly called her ‘you’ or addressed her as ‘Duchess’ in a detached manner when scolding, mocking, or embarrassing her.

What’s wrong with secretly liking the man who became her husband a little?

It was only recently that she had convinced herself there was no problem with it.

“Kaian.”

Even when she called his name softly again, he didn’t seem upset or angry.

Each time she called his name, as if it were some kind of signal, he would suck on what was in his mouth once.

The first kiss was more sensual than Claudel could handle.

For her, who had never even held hands with a man other than Kaian, all revelations about intimacy between men and women came as he taught her.

As their lips met, something invisible and heated seemed to knead her brain, heart, and internal organs.

“Ah…”

She kept twisting her body and making strange sounds from the pleasure bursting throughout her body.

She felt trapped by Kaian, by the joy he was giving her.

The act of holding hands isn’t called ‘hand-holding’.

She understood why the act of pressing lips together was specifically called a ‘kiss’.

Because it’s special.

Small teardrops welled up in Claudel’s eyes.

She didn’t mind if it was an illusion.

She liked that he looked at her so passionately, as if he desired her.

It was only when he separated from her and tried to remove her damp undergarments that her dazed mind finally cleared.

“Kaian. Let’s go to the castle… to the bedroom.”

They hadn’t been intimate since her health improved.

Every night, at Claudel’s request, he came to the bedroom but only slept.

She couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed that he only held her like a doll after she had desperately clung to him, begging for relief from her terrible insomnia.

More accurately, she felt upset with herself.

Originally, she wasn’t that thin.

She used to have a body with all the right curves to look womanly.

The thought of showing him her unsightly, emaciated body after months of illness and inability to eat properly only occurred to her belatedly.

Now, she was gradually regaining the flesh she had lost, slowly returning to her former appealing shape.

He had seemed uninterested in her.

Or so she thought, but seeing Kaian’s determined gaze now, as if he would take her right here in this flower bed, made her heart race.

It felt as if she had become someone special and beautiful to him.

“Anywhere but here. Please?”

As long as it wasn’t here, it was fine.

When she spoke as if trying to persuade him, Kaian opened his mouth.

“Can’t make it to the castle.”

Why not? The castle was just a stone’s throw away!

“Can’t wait.”

Claudel’s defenses crumbled at his voice, which sounded as if he was grinding something down.

‘I guess I’m weak to handsome men.’

She wanted to grant his every wish.

But what wasn’t possible simply wasn’t possible.

Kaian had said no one would come to the back garden, but if that were true, why would rumors spread?

Those stories about what some lord of some castle supposedly did.

“Please. I don’t want to do this outside.”

At that, Kaian picked her up and walked into a narrow forest path.

Among the dense trees, a small building came into view. It seemed too large and well-built to be called a tree house, yet too small to be a regular dwelling.

“This is…”

“It used to be my study. Before I became the head of the family.”

The cozy space, elegantly constructed with dark wood, seemed to be a separate quarters for the heir.

The built-in bookshelves, similar in tone to the head’s quarters in the castle, were packed with books in every slot, and there was a desk, chair, and some weapons decoratively mounted on the wall.

Past that space was a simple bedroom.

Their wet clothes came off in an instant.

“Claudel.”

The moment Kaian called her name with a heated voice.

Claudel thought she would never forget it.

The royal palace of the Oberon Kingdom, being situated on high ground, boasted an excellent view.

Valkyrie quite enjoyed the terrace that overlooked the entire capital spread out below.

Sitting on the terrace drinking tea, he looked like a painting or sculpture straight out of myth or legend.

The most perfect king in the history of the Oberon royal family.

The voices of concern when he inherited the throne at such a young age had completely disappeared.

Now, people were on the verge of idolizing Valkyrie’s very existence for his youth and outstanding governance.

His lemon-yellow hair, vivid blue eyes, and fair skin were exactly like those of Queen Sylvia, who had died a violent death, as if she had been reborn as a man.

The old nobles loyal to the royal faction would tear up, saying “It’s as if the late Queen has come back to life” when they saw him.

However, as a truly diligent king, Valkyrie was always busy reviewing reports and matters to be dealt with, even during his leisure time enjoying tea.

“Your Majesty.”

“What is it?”

Without taking his eyes off the document he was reading, he asked, and Count Mackie placed the letter he had brought on the table and took a step back.

“A report from Rowen. And a message from Belmond.”

“Ah. It’s about time.”

Valkyrie put down what he was reading, brightening up.

“Well. Let’s see if any interesting news has come.”

He opened the envelope with sparkling eyes, as if in anticipation.

However, after reading the contents, he immediately frowned with one eye.

“What is this? The Duchess has recovered from her illness?”

Herzol was not a curable disease.

It was a disease that shouldn’t have been contracted in the first place.

After a preventive method was discovered three hundred years ago, no one got the disease anymore, and now there wasn’t even medicine for it.

“That bastard really did it.”

Valkyrie crumpled the letter in his hand.

He had purposely arranged the marriage with Vermonte because he didn’t want to see that sight.

On the other hand, Valkyrie had to admit.

That he had underestimated Kaian’s stubbornness and determination.

“I didn’t expect that stubborn fool who can’t stand losing would try to save the crippled daughter of his enemy’s family just because she’s his wife.”

It was an unexpected variable. The letter ended with news that the Duchess was recovering from her illness, and that Princess Irena from Belmond would soon be visiting Rowen.

“Then that letter…”

It was no coincidence that this report from Rowen and the letter sent by Duke Vermonte from Belmond arrived simultaneously.

Valkyrie reached out and opened the letter from Duke Vermonte.

“The condition of his daughter married off to Rowen has improved, so there’s no reason for a territorial war with Temnes? Ha. Look at this. The old fox is scheming.”

It was he who had leaked information to Duke Vermonte that Kaian was preparing for a territorial war.

At those words, Duke Vermonte had predictably flared up like oil poured on fire.

Outwardly, he claimed to have conducted the marriage by royal decree to promote reconciliation between the two families, but he had vowed to attack Temnes with Valkyrie’s backing as soon as his sick daughter sent to Rowen breathed her last.

However, in reality, Belmond lacked the capacity to engage in military conflict with Temnes due to a prolonged drought.

Duke Vermonte must have known this too, but his wounded pride probably made him unwilling to admit it, and it was thought he would do everything in his power to crush Temnes, whether by hiring mercenaries or borrowing soldiers from other countries through connections.

But now he says he won’t fight Temnes?

And he’s sending Princess Irena, who is rumored to be his cherished daughter, all the way from the northern end to Rowen at the southern end?

“It seems he intends to replace the Duchess of Temnes with his own daughter.”

Thinking about it carefully, the biggest variable was Kaian himself.

“He made such a fuss about not letting a single red-haired Vermonte live and breathe on this earth. It’s unexpected, I must say.”

Even if it was a royal decree, still.

He didn’t expect Kaian to take this marriage so seriously.

“What do you think?”

The white-haired man standing silently beside him had a good build and a decent appearance despite being middle-aged. Count Mackie, who had naturally sworn allegiance to the new king after serving the queen, was one of those Valkyrie trusted the most.

Count Mackie answered the king’s question.

“I hear Princess Irena is an exceptionally talented and dazzlingly beautiful woman.”

“Is that so? I think I’ve heard something like that.”

“If he’s going to maintain the marriage anyway, wouldn’t a woman who is pleasing to others and outstanding be better than a crippled wife who was ill and recovered?”

“That’s right.”

That must be exactly what Duke Vermonte was aiming for.

“I arranged the marriage with Vermonte because I didn’t want to see that sight.”

That is, Kaian taking a wife who was undeniably proper and excellent in everyone’s eyes.

He insisted that he himself should have the best bride in the kingdom, no matter what.

“Is Princess Irena such a beauty?”

“My daughter-in-law once said that if Princess Irena had come to the capital’s debutante ball, she herself wouldn’t have been able to marry into our family, and it’s only because there was a northern debutante.”

“To that extent?”

“Women are very proud among themselves and don’t often praise other women like that. It must mean that anyone would acknowledge her.”

“Hmm.”

Is such a talented woman going to seduce her sister’s husband at her father’s sinister intentions?

Valkyrie’s interest was piqued.

“Prepare to go to Rowen. I should write a letter to Kaian.”

The game that had been too easy and boring was becoming a little more interesting.

Valkyrie intended to go and watch in person the game unfolding due to the dice he had thrown.

Kaian was excited.

It was because the necklace set he had specially ordered from the jeweler had arrived.

The item he received in his office was made quite elegantly, satisfying his taste.

“I wonder if she’ll like this.”

He was a bit worried because Claudel had some odd aspects.

When he took her to the jeweler’s, she casually said everything was pretty, but then she spent an hour reading every single word on a café menu.

It made him wonder if setting up a private garden café by the lake in the castle’s back garden might be better than buying her such jewelry.

With as many words as possible on the menu, that is.

Knock knock.

Kaian cleared his throat as he knocked on her door.

‘I must be crazy.’

He used to just open the door and enter Claudel’s room before.

But the reason he had developed this habit of knocking was none other than…

“Kaian.”

When he knocked and made his presence known, Claudel would open the door herself, and he liked the feeling that she seemed to welcome him.

“Come sit here.”

As he led her to the dressing table with a mirror, the woman in a light purple dress, as delicate as freshly picked acacia blossoms, followed him lightly.

“What’s this?”

Claudel looked back and forth between his face and the jewelry box he had placed on the dressing table, then opened the box and her eyes widened.

“Wow. It’s beautiful.”

Although he was too busy looking at the woman’s face as she admired it to notice the necklace, Kaian agreed.

“It’s a gift.”

“All of a sudden?”

“You should try it on.”

Claudel carefully lifted the necklace and held it to her neck, then looked up at him.

“Put it on for me.”

“Alright.”

Claudel, who had been wearing her hair down, quickly twisted it up loosely.

Seeing the white, slender neckline revealed, Kaian lifted the necklace and fastened it.

“How is it?”

“It looks good.”

You look good, not the necklace.