“Have you been waiting for me?”

In the dark room where the candles had already been extinguished before bedtime, a low male voice resonated deeply.

‘Waiting, he asks?’

It wasn’t so.

But Claudel nodded reflexively.

“My, if I had known you were so eagerly anticipating the night, I would have come earlier.”

Of course, that wasn’t the case either.

She had been suffering from insomnia since her father passed away.

Every night, longing for his mother who had gone to heaven first, he would sing lullabies to Claudel. It was a song her mother often sang to put her to sleep when she was alive.

But from the day her father passed away, she couldn’t sleep at all.

Every night she would lie awake, and when dawn broke, Hannah, who had been sleeping in the maid’s room, would come. When Hannah came and hugged her, patting her back, she could finally fall asleep in that warmth, in that touch.

Rumors spread within Valmond Castle that the late young master’s daughter was suffering from mental illness due to shock.

When Duke Vermonte, who had intended to register the Vermonte bloodline in the family registry because there were witnesses, became greatly angered, those who openly gossiped disappeared, but the rumors didn’t completely vanish.

In the end, Duke Vermonte turned a blind eye, and it was settled that a commoner maid child would sleep together in the young lady’s room.

Even that couldn’t be overlooked, so he eventually paid the Pebble family, who were minor barons, to adopt Hannah, which was indeed befitting of Duke Vermonte who cared so much about family honor.

A wife always had to be ready to receive her husband.

It was different from when she was just a young lady of the nobility.

It was Kaian’s right as the head of the household to enter her room.

It was something that could happen unexpectedly, like just now, without prior notice or permission, so it was absolutely forbidden for the lady and her maid to lie together in the master’s place.

‘But I was able to sleep yesterday, wasn’t I?’

Hannah had worried about that too, but thinking about it, it seemed she had fallen asleep relying on his body heat last night.

Even the warmth of an enemy was better than nothing. At least for Claudel.

Kaian led her to the bed and sat her down.

“No need to stand by the door waiting. It’s enough to lie down first or sit on the bed waiting.”

“Yes.”

As Claudel answered, he reached out his hand and caressed her soft skin, tracing from her cheek to her ear, under her chin, and down her neck.

She tensed up reflexively, pressing her lips tightly and hunching her shoulders.

“Come to think of it, you didn’t answer properly.”

Did he always speak in such abrupt and unkind phrases?

Or would a man who looks cold and slightly angry even in bed be different with a beautiful lady he cares for?

As she wondered inwardly, Kaian asked again.

“I asked if I was unsatisfactory.”

Claudel’s eyes widened.

“Let’s say the gift wasn’t to your liking, then did you like me?”

“How could I dare to… Your Grace…”

As she fumbled for an answer, Kaian raised an eyebrow.

“Cut that out.”

Claudel was startled by his words that paid no heed to propriety.

‘What on earth am I supposed to say?’

Earlier, it had naturally led to talk about the gift, so she had managed to brush it off. The fact that he was bringing it up again and asking directly made her wonder if there was an answer he wanted to hear.

However, her tensed mind went blank again.

“It… it was good.”

Claudel hurriedly added to the words she had barely managed to choose.

“Though I don’t know much about it.”

Should she go as far as to say ‘You did well’?

Is that what he wanted – praise?

It was confusing, but Claudel managed to answer anyway.

“Hmm.”

Perhaps it was close enough to the right answer, as Kaian lay down on the bed and reached out his hand.

“Come here.”

When Claudel didn’t move readily, he sat up again and pulled her into his arms, laying her down on the bed.

“Let’s see if you’ve improved since yesterday.”

It seems it wasn’t the right answer after all.

Apparently, it was Claudel herself who needed to strive for praise.

Claudel’s body was honest.

As Kaian embraced her, he could instinctively tell that Claudel was meeting her first night with him in a pure state.

He knew well that not every man was given the fortune of welcoming such a wife.

If everyone only spent their nights in marital bonds like this, there should be no virgins fluttering into his bedroom like moths to a flame.

Though he had sneered at Vermonte, asking if Claudel had any outstanding talents while harboring his hatred.

She seemed to not properly know about the affairs between men and women.

It was quite interesting how this innocent woman who didn’t know how to act coquettishly responded to his every touch, making Kaian restless since sunset.

‘Should I go to the bedroom now? No. I can’t look like I’ve been just waiting for the sun to set. Surely every move will be reported to that despicable Duke Vermonte.’

After enduring and enduring among his drunken vassals like that, when true night came and darkness deepened, he finally headed for the Duchess’s bedroom, only to be disappointed to see the lights in the room and corridor turned off.

‘Is it alright to wake a sleeping woman?’

There was no one by his side he could ask such things.

Claudel was a quiet wife.

If she had bustled about here and there, words might have slipped out, daring to throw her weight around at Rowen Castle despite being a vulgar redhead.

But as she only repeated yes and no with an indifferent attitude, there was nothing to nitpick or scold. Stories about her fiery maid were more of a topic in the castle.

At first, it seemed good that she was docile, but on the other hand, it was also irritating.

‘Irritating?’

Kaian questioned the thought that suddenly occurred to him.

There were no set rules about what time a noble lady should go to bed, or how long a wife should wait for her husband.

So even if a woman who had traveled a long way in the rain and stayed up all night for her wedding night fell asleep early, it wasn’t as if she had done something wrong, so why should he feel this way?

Over a mere Vermonte woman!

Just as all sorts of malicious thoughts were about to burst forth, thinking he would wake the sleeping woman and torment her, Kaian opened the bedroom door and met Claudel’s eyes standing right there.

Her golden eyes seemed even more distinct than ordinary people’s, as if the moon had risen in the black night sky as darkness fell. Though she was only backlit by the moonlight shining into the room, her white skin seemed to glow softly.

He was pleased by the situation of a woman in nightclothes standing barefoot to greet him.

The woman who had suffered in the rain yesterday seemed even prettier than yesterday, perhaps because she had rested for the day.

He couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was, but if Kaian felt that way, then that’s how it was.

As he faced his second night, he felt he could understand why such an ascetic yoke had been placed on the heads of households throughout history.

He could feel the same sense of achievement and catharsis he had felt on the battlefield – when he cut through the chaos of shields and spears tearing and piercing flesh, shattering and splintering as they clashed, galloping his horse fiercely until he was out of breath, and plunged his sword into the enemy general’s heart amidst the shouts of knights – several times on top of Claudel.

That moment when it felt like lightning had struck from head to toe, distancing him from this world.

Claudel’s body, intoxicated with heat, did not cool down easily, so Kaian contentedly held her close as he caught his breath.

As the panting and heavy breathing between them subsided, silence fell.

Yesterday, there was no such moment because Claudel had fallen asleep right away.

She too seemed quite alert without any drowsiness, as if she had become accustomed to receiving him and matching her body in just a day.

Unable to bear the awkwardness, Claudel quietly rose from the bed.

She picked up and put on a thin undergarment, then started to gather and tidy his formal wear that had been carelessly thrown off.

In the dark bedroom, Kaian thought Claudel looked like a fairy as she walked lightly in her white undergarments that exposed her shoulders. He was languidly watching what she was doing.

Ting, ting, clang.

The sound of a small metal object rolling on the floor rang out, and Claudel looked at him with a startled face.

Hastily picking up something, she showed her palm to Kaian like a child who had committed a grave mistake.

“This fell from your clothes.”

It was the bezel that roundly encircled a gold button decorating the formal wear. Kaian, feeling generous like a well-fed lion, replied nonchalantly.

“It fell off the decoration. It’s happened a few times before. The seamstress will fix it, so don’t worry about it.”

But Claudel examined it closely.

“Why?”

She seemed lost in thought, like when she had looked at the grave site in the underground crypt earlier.

What could make her eyes so full of longing over such a small piece of gold?

Claudel suddenly slipped it onto her finger.

“Can I keep this?”

“What?”

“It fits perfectly.”

Surprisingly, the ring-shaped bezel fit perfectly on the ring finger of her left hand, as if it had been made for her.

Though they had just seen it fall off the clothes, it looked just like a simple band.

‘Why would she want such a thing?’

Kaian replied while lying down comfortably.

“Do as you like.”

At that, Claudel’s face brightened.

‘Has the rumor of Rowen’s wealth not reached Valmond?’

The drought in Valmond had continued for a full ten years.

It was about five years ago that the territory’s people, who had been enduring and hanging on, started to flee, as the saying goes that there are no filial children in long illnesses.

In the meantime, Kaian had blocked the outflow of food to the north, and Vermonte’s diamonds became worth less than a sack of beans.

However, if those diamonds left Oberon Kingdom, they would be worth enough to buy a ship full of beans in foreign countries, so in reality, Temnes’s assets had long surpassed Vermonte’s.

He had planned to use that money to burn Vermonte to the ground.

Kaian had sufficient funds prepared to wage a territory war. It was an enormous sum equivalent to several years of the Oberon Kingdom’s royal budget, but nothing was too precious to punish his family’s enemy.

Just imagining having “The Lord who ended Vermonte” engraved on his tombstone was enough to make his blood boil.

Yet Claudel, who didn’t even wear the blue diamond he had given her and instead coveted a thin piece of gold that had fallen off his clothes, was truly a peculiar woman.

Then Kaian came to a realization on his own.

‘That, well… it doesn’t seem to suit me very well.’

Red hair, yellow eyes, and on top of that, if she had worn the large blue diamond, wouldn’t it have looked too tacky?

Even to him, who didn’t know much about noble ladies’ adornments, it seemed a bit odd to flaunt such strongly individual primary colors all together.

‘But is she happy to receive something like that?’

Originally, Valmond was the main source of precious metals and jewels. Just as Rowen land restricted the output of food, Valmond also controlled the value of things that came from the mines within its territory.

She should have developed quite discerning tastes while growing up in the Vermonte ducal family.

‘Well, maybe she feels a sense of achievement in obtaining something of Temnes.’

Having drawn his own conclusion, Kaian closed his eyes.

At this point, Kaian couldn’t even imagine in his dreams.

“Oh my. Did the Duke really give you this?”

“Yes. Isn’t it pretty?”

The next day, that Claudel would proudly show such a trifling thing to her maid with a joyful face early in the morning.

Moreover, that rumors would spread throughout the castle saying the ostracized Vermonte woman had secretly taken a decoration from the Duke’s formal wear and lied about receiving it.