Side Story 3. Roxenhardt’s Spring (2)2024.04.14.It seems the talk of using separate rooms was a bit too much.

Clade, as if greatly shocked, stood frozen with wide eyes,staring only at Yuan’s face until she scooped up the giant puddingserved by head chef Ralph like it was soup.

“Won’t you take it back?”

“What should I take back?”

Following Hena’s strong advice that to gain weight, one should lie downright after eating, Yuan developed a habit of taking a short walkfor digestion after meals and then napping immediately.

While walking through the garden, looking at the sky,and flicking the vines a few times with her fingers,Clade, who had been loitering nearby the whole way back to the bedroom,got visibly upset when Yuan didn’t even glance at himand finally couldn’t hold back, following her to her bedroom.

“Why are you suddenly saying things you’ve never said before?”

“Then should I only say the same things every day?”

“You say something so harsh so casually,and you won’t even take it back?”

Yuan, who had draped her shawl over the sofa,paused for a moment and turned to face Clade.

Clade stood at the bedroom doorway,as if he wouldn’t leave unless she took back the talk of separate rooms.

“You’re the one who says harsher things.What was it you said before? Something so painfulI can hardly bear to recall it…”

Yuan pretended to think deeply, resting her finger on her chinand rolling her eyes.

Clade’s already upset face turned pale in an instant,and the foot he had propped against the doorway stepped into the bedroom.

As if unwilling to let Yuan recall such awful memories,he knelt before her and tightly hugged her legs.

Caught off guard by his unhesitating action,Yuan, who had been half-joking, pushed at his shoulders in a panic.But his firm shoulders didn’t budge.

His body, rubbing his cheek against her skirt hem,was almost buried in her.

“Don’t remember it. Erase those memories and throw them away.”

“Why, why are you acting like this all of a sudden? Get up!”

“I’m sorry. I was wrong. I was wrong a hundred, a thousand times.”

“That’s not why I brought it up…”

“I’ll do better. I’ll beg if I have to. Just don’t abandon me.”

The tremor in his low voice made Yuan’s playful eyes cloud over instantly.

When did he ever act so spitefully?Whenever Yuan showed even a hint of negative emotion,he’d turn pale and fret, and she couldn’t help but feel pity.

At first, she thought he was doing it to gloss over the situation,but he seemed sincere every moment.

Especially when he said, “Don’t abandon me,”Yuan could no longer hold back and tightly embraced him.

Yuan, her eyes full of pity, stroked his shimmering blonde hair.

Clade, who had buried his face in her skirt for a while,slowly raised his head.

His violet eyes, catching the morning sunlight, were dazzlingly beautiful.

“Don’t kneel so easily. Have you no pride?”

“What’s the point of pride with you?”

Rising with a hurried pull, Clade tightly locked Yuan in his arms.

“It’s a hundred times better than you abandoning me and leaving.”

Why does he keep thinking I might abandon him and leave?Yuan, nestled in Clade’s warm embrace, fell into thought.

“What are you thinking about?”

“About you.”

Sometimes when Yuan was lost in thought like this,Clade would ask anxiously.

When she said she was thinking of him to reassure him,his face showed a subtle expression.His flawless white cheeks flushed red, then paled, in a frenzy.

His expression remained eerily calm,but his complexion was like that of someone who’d forgottenhow to hide their emotions from Yuan.

“…Should I take a nap with you?”

“Isn’t Marquis Rev here?”

Recalling a prior engagement with Eddie, the new Marquis Revafter Mosan Rev, Clade’s face crumpled instantly.

And a heavy voice cut through the space between them as they held each other.

“I came just in case, and sure enough, you’re flirting here.”

It was the voice of Eddie Rev, standing at the wide-open bedroom entrancewith his arms crossed.

Clade, in a strange standoff, quietly dragged Eddie out of the bedroom.

Eddie Rev, giving a short greeting to Yuan’s embarrassed face with a slight nod,remained silent until they reached the study upstairs before speaking.

“You seem to have recovered a lot,so do you still need to personally tend to her every meal?”

Clade, long accustomed to Eddie’s provocations,entered the study without responding.

Eddie Rev glared at the shimmering blonde head.

Ever since he learned that Clade, without discussion,gave the throne to Noel and was merely cleaning the mansion’s outer walls,anger surged within him multiple times a day.

And that wasn’t all, was it?

Leaving perfectly capable maids idle,he holed up in the bedroom, feeding her eight meals a day,putting her to sleep, bathing her, dressing her—Eddie nearly fainted when he heard about it.

No matter that Clade lived with him for over a decade,from the moment he was born until now,Clade, a royal, had never done menial tasks with his own hands.

During his time at the mansion, he refused to be attended tofor things like bathing because he didn’t want to show his cursed body,but to personally tend to someone else’s body with those noble handswas unheard of anywhere.

Giving the throne to Noel? Fine.Let’s say, for argument’s sake, it was a rational choice.

Even if Clade’s supporters grew like wildfire,had he taken the throne, conflict and bloodshed within Euphriswould have been inevitable.

The conflicts and rivalries that would only endby placing someone other than Yuan Pelliese as empresswere layered and inevitable.

Even with the last-minute support of Grand Duke Drietter,completely controlling the west, where people were only watching cautiously,was no easy task.

Moreover, since Clade chose not to kill the empress and Noel,he would have had to spill much blood to deal with the hyenaswaiting for their chance from all sides.

But by clearly stating he had no ambition for the throneand only sought to bring justice to the sinful tyrant Igor Euphris,Clade reduced the chaos by half.

This reassured the forces supporting Bollonico,allowing them to participate stably in governance,and since most of Clade’s supporters, in truth,wanted to stop Igor’s tyranny rather than see Clade as emperor,his renunciation of ambition saved many lives.

Yet now, with the dukedom he received as a reward,instead of using it to build ties with neighboring lords,he spent all day holed up at home,busy whispering and embracing his wife as he did earlier,leaving Eddie’s blood boiling dry.

Confirming that Solen Racha and Federico were not in the study,Eddie resolved to give Clade some proper advice himself.

“No matter how I think about it…”

“No matter how I think about it.”

At the almost simultaneous voices, Eddie raised an eyebrow.

Clade, who had been looking out the window with arms crossed,turned his head toward him.

Under the backlight, his near-perfect face,shimmering with golden hair, exuded a coldness180 degrees different from when he was with his wife.

“I think you owe my wife an apology.”

“What?”

“What do you think?”

Eddie’s face flushed red and blue.

At the sudden knock, Yuan, sitting on the sofa,straightened her slouched back from dozing.

Naturally opening the book she held,Yuan, noticing no presence after the knock, slowly stood up.

Knock, knock—.

As soon as another knock sounded, she opened the door,and what a surprise.

The Rev brothers, so tall she had to tilt her head fully to see their faces,stood right before her.

“Hey, Lady, how’ve you been?”

“We played chess together just yesterday.”

Lancelot, greeting her with playful eyes,quickly pressed his index finger to his lips.

Glancing at Eddie behind him and smiling awkwardly,it seemed his habit of coming early to chat with Yuan was a secret.

“Ahem! The thing is, the head of our family,the proud eldest son of the Marquis Rev house,my brother, has something to say!”

“Lancelot, stop fooling around and get out here.”

The hand pushing Lancelot lightly with the back of it seemed quite practiced.

Lancelot, who had just been wary of Eddie’s gaze,was desperately trying to keep his lips from curling up.

Even with Lancelot’s expression behind him,Eddie’s eyebrow twitched as if he knew everything.

Yuan, at the sudden visit, just stood blinking her large eyes.

Eddie Rev, irritably shoving his thin rimless glasses into his front pocket,pressed his fingers between his eyes as if he had a headache,pursed his lips once, then opened his eyes wide with resolve and said,

“I’m sorry for everything so far.”

Yuan, with a bewildered expression, glanced at Lancelot,who was desperately holding back laughter behind Eddie’s shoulder.

Lancelot pointed at his brother, as if urging her to listen.

“You may not understand, but… I’ve caused a lot of misunderstandings…”

Swallowing dryly as if his throat were tight,he continued with a very serious face.

“I hope you’ll accept my apology.”

Yuan, staring up at his face as he offered an unexplained apologywith a very polite gesture, finally began to grasp the situationand smiled with wide eyes.

“What did you do wrong?”

Eddie Rev must have thought Yuan would, as always,smile faintly and say she understood, even if she didn’t know why.

Seeing the confusion on his face at that smile.