Gilrod smiled with satisfaction as he saw the carriage with the royal family crest entering the castle. His daughter, who was lured with sweet words by the queen, returned to him with just one whip. It was proof that a single strike was better than a hundred days of gentle coaxing.

Next to his daughter getting out of the carriage stood a tall knight with red hair. Gilrod recognized the knight at first glance. The second sword of the royal family.

The knight who commanded the king’s army along with the northern sword was from Chesa, and was given to the queen by the king.

As if knowing he would not return, the king had left part of the army to the queen before departing. They say new conscriptions were made to fill that void, but those new recruits couldn’t possibly be as capable as the previous ones. The newly recruited army would only become a proper force by the time they returned from the mountains.

Of course, the king would never return from the mountains. Gilrod thought news of the king’s death would be heard before long. As it was almost time for dispatches to arrive from the mountains, the news he awaited might be just around the corner.

“Ah, hello, Father.”

His daughter bowed her head deeply upon seeing him approach with an air of importance. Gilrod smiled at Siana, who now seemed to have grasped her position somewhat. However, that satisfaction quickly faded when he saw the tall knight standing beside his daughter.

Hazel Chesa, despite coming as his daughter’s escort, only gave him a slight nod. It was in complete contrast to Siana, who was trembling and almost prostrating herself beside her.

Gilrod cleared his throat at her stiff attitude, but the woman didn’t even twitch an eyebrow.

Though exasperated by her ill-mannered behavior, he couldn’t directly demand a greeting from the knight. While he was the king’s financial advisor and belonged to the administrative branch, thus outranking Salode Chesa, this knight was one of the two heads of the military.

The days of that arrogance wouldn’t last much longer. Gilrod glared at the haughty knight and turned his back. Anyway, someone like her who wasn’t even an heir to her family would become like a bird with clipped wings once the king died.

In any case, as it was an occasion to introduce his daughter to Rocheden, a banquet was prepared for that evening. Gilrod deliberately seated Rocheden and Siana side by side.

Rocheden seemed to quite like Siana. He even used honorifics, humbly for a man of high status.

“You seem very shy. It’s alright. A woman should have a quiet charm.”

“Is, is that so.”

“I heard you stutter. Don’t worry, if you marry me, you won’t have to speak much.”

When a man shows such interest, the other party should respond to some extent for the conversation to flow smoothly, but his hopeless daughter sat like a wooden block, only repeating the same words. Still, the young man was busy praising his future wife.

“I also like that you have a plain appearance. A wife who stands out too much makes her husband uneasy.”

“I, I see.”

Really now, instead of just poking at her plate, she should show a more gentle attitude. Just like her mother. Blaming the woman whose face he could barely remember now, Gilrod put a piece of roast duck in his mouth. The meat, seasoned exactly to his taste, was quite savory.

After finishing the satisfying meal, Gilrod went to his room and opened a bottle of wine. The court physician had said that given his age, he should reduce his drinking for the sake of his heart, but on a day like this, one had to have a drink.

Moreover, he was still relatively young. Gilrod knew that for men like him, youth didn’t depart so easily.

It was when he had emptied about half the wine bottle. There was a knock on the door outside. He gestured to open the door, and there stood Siana.

“What brings you here?”

Siana, who had been anxiously clasping her hands together, answered.

“Just, thinking about the upcoming marriage makes me uneasy.”

Gilrod frowned at the strange words.

While he didn’t think his daughter possessed such a noble soul as to discern people’s goodwill and hostility well, Gilrod also knew that his parenting style wasn’t affectionate towards his child. It was only natural, as giving birth was enough, and being overly affectionate would only make her ill-mannered.

Anyway, the important thing was that there was no reason for Siana to seek him out just because she felt uneasy. She might as well have looked for the blanket she used as a child, which had been burned long ago.

Just as he was about to wave his hand to send away his daughter who was talking nonsense.

“I’m, I’m also grateful that you found me such a good groom.”

That was quite interesting. Gilrod raised an eyebrow.

“Didn’t you say you didn’t want to get married before?”

“I, I did then… but after actually meeting him, he seems not bad, no, like a good person.”

And Siana bowed her head a little more and added.

“You, you’ve been saying since I was young, Father. That a woman’s hap, happiness is in finding a good husband…”

He certainly remembered saying such things. Gilrod quietly stroked his chin.

It wasn’t that he had forgotten how Siana had sided with the queen to hit him from behind. The price of one seat was quite expensive as punishment for miseducating his daughter.

But unless Siana was still disobedient, now his daughter seemed to have returned to being as submissive as before.

Even if Siana still acted like a demon-possessed girl, it didn’t matter. What could she do in this situation with the wedding so close?

Moreover, thinking about the upcoming marriage, it was better not to scold Siana too much. She shouldn’t be anxious if she was to flatter her husband well.

After a brief deliberation, Gilrod decided to show mercy to his daughter who, though she had strayed for a while, hadn’t forgotten his teachings. It would have been impossible usually, but the right amount of alcohol made people more generous than their original nature, so he stepped back from the door and said.

“Do you want to come in and have a glass of wine?”

Siana, who had never really enjoyed drinking, only sipped the wine in tiny amounts, unable to drink properly. Gilrod looked disapprovingly at his daughter who was drinking the expensive wine in such an uninteresting way, but then shook his head, realizing that being too skilled with alcohol would look cheap. When you choose one thing, you have to give up another. He muttered inwardly the proverb he often used.

It was then that Siana, who had put down her barely touched glass, turned to look at him.

“You seem drunk, let’s, let’s go for a walk.”

Gilrod frowned at his daughter who was saying things unlike her usual self today.

“A walk?”

“Yes, yes. To help you sober up too. Let’s, let’s go up on the castle walls.”

And Siana elongated her words as if trying to coax him.

“You’ve never gone for a walk with me before. Once, once I’m married, we won’t have chances like this…”

Gilrod found this behavior, somewhat far from his daughter’s usual demeanor, intriguing. He knew how other fathers boasted about their daughters. Didn’t they say daughters had a certain charm that sons lacked?

When his daughter was very young, Gilrod had such expectations too, but that was now a thing of the past. His daughter began to stutter almost as soon as she started speaking, and was timid by nature.

Because of this, Gilrod had almost forgotten that he had ever had such thoughts.

Until now.

Gilrod stared at Siana, who was behaving like the ‘daughter’ other lords boasted about so much. It was still somewhat clumsy, but he was drunk and in a good mood.

He pondered how other fathers acted. Gilrod, who had been staring intently at the seemingly nervous Siana, stood up from his seat.

“Alright.”

Siana led him up onto the castle walls. It was the part of the wall overlooking the deep moat, the pride of his castle.

The cold outdoor breeze certainly sobered him up. Looking down at the moat, which appeared even darker in the late night, Gilrod slowly began to think he had done something foolish. The castle walls at night were not a good place for a walk, and Siana, who had come out with him, only stood there awkwardly, making the atmosphere gloomy.

There was no joy in doing something he hadn’t done before. Rather, as his drunkenness faded, he started to feel annoyed.

Just as he was about to turn around to go back to his room, having changed his attitude as quickly as flipping his palm, Siana, who had been standing at a distance, approached him.

“Fa, Father, I have something to ask you.”

Gilrod frowned sharply at the words he didn’t particularly want to hear. So there was a hidden motive for doing something she hadn’t done before.

To think she would act slyly when she was soon to be married, instead of behaving modestly. His mood, which had already been declining, plummeted.

Gilrod opened his mouth to say a word to his daughter who never seemed to do anything right. But Siana was a step faster.

“I, I don’t want to get married!”

It was the loudest voice he had ever heard from his daughter, so Gilrod was a bit surprised. Siana shouted with her eyes tightly closed, as if she had made some kind of decision.

“Lord Rocheden is too ug, ugly! And he makes noises while eating! Also, he has no manners…”

Gilrod quickly approached his daughter, whose shout was loud enough to echo across the castle walls. While it was unlikely anyone would be on the walls at this hour, it would be incredibly embarrassing if those words reached Rocheden’s ears.

Grabbing his daughter’s wrist tightly, Gilrod growled in a low voice.

“Shut your mouth!”

“No, no!”

“Have you really become so full of yourself?”

“Then, then are you going to marry me off to such a man, Father?”

After shouting like a madwoman, Siana even dared to ask him back with her eyes wide open, as if she had done something right.

Gilrod suppressed the urge to slap his daughter’s cheek, who seemed to have gone completely mad despite supposedly studying at the royal palace. Some men considered it a violation of rights if the bride was physically punished at home so close to the wedding, so he couldn’t rashly raise his hand.

Instead of slapping his daughter’s cheek, Gilrod twisted her wrist hard, a part covered by clothes, and growled.

“What else can’t you do?”

And before he lost control of his impulse and raised his hand, Gilrod shoved his daughter away. He strode towards the edge of the wall. From behind him came a trembling voice.

“You, you really haven’t changed, Father.”