I already knew her intention to manipulate me at her will.

However, it would be a mistake to think that it would go as she wished.

“I’ve been thinking. And I realized. It’s not the answer to delay. It’s better to try anything than to be careful as before and have the same thing repeat.”

“But.”

“My husband desires me.”

“……”

“As a woman.”

For a moment, the look in Margaret’s eyes, who had been hiding her expression well, wavered.

I drooped my shoulders and deliberately touched my neck with my fingertips.

As if to unconsciously recall what had happened a while ago.

“Isn’t it ridiculous? Desiring the woman he tried to kill with his own hands.”

“……”

“But it’s not bad. No. I rather think it turned out well.”

“……Turned out well?”

“Because I can gain his favor in any way, and seize the opportunity.”

A breath leaked out from Margaret’s slightly open lips. She had no energy to hide it, and her flustered look was on full display.

It was natural. The past me that Margaret knew was not the kind of person to say such things.

But the me that Margaret is facing now is not the past me.

“Are you sure you know what you mean by ‘I’ll do anything’?”

“We were a couple anyway. I don’t remember, but we’ve lived together for nearly ten years, so it’s more ridiculous to avoid it now.”

As I spoke firmly with a strong tone, my body was shaking, and the expression on Margaret’s face became more strange.

I didn’t wait for her to calm down, and continued to speak.

Margaret had to continue to be anxious and impatient.

“Let’s move in together soon, I’m thinking of suggesting.”

“Isn’t that too fast? If you move in together unnecessarily.”

“I told you. I can do anything.”

Only then will she bring me the opportunity herself.

Hadn’t Margaret tried to bring Duke Pieren closer to me as soon as she became anxious? It wouldn’t be much different this time.

Margaret would use Duke Pieren to mediate between me and Beak, and all I had to do was play along with her scheme without knowing.

Looking at Margaret anxiously rubbing her thumb, I slightly raised the corners of my mouth.

We have been watching each other for a long time since we first met. She knew me very well, and she was confident that she could use me more easily.

But so was I. Just as Margaret knew me, I knew her.

The use was mutual.

Kalix was quietly standing and looking at the gushing fountain.

The vividly decorated fountain spewing onto the pure white stone, as if it were about to spring up at any moment, was as splendid and huge as befitting Creighton, which boasted all the wealth of the empire. It was not an exaggeration to call it a symbol of Creighton.

However, Kalix was thinking about something else while looking at the fountain of Creighton that everyone admires. He remembered another symbol that was in that place long ago.

Originally, there was a tree planted by the first lord of Creighton in that place.

The huge camphor tree, which was so large that it could not be completely encircled with two arms, was the most beautiful part of the Creighton’s proud garden landscape, and it was the guardian spirit of Creighton that firmly took root along with the long history of the family.

Everyone believed that the majestic tree, which did not change even as time passed, was a sign of Creighton’s eternal power.

Like the staring eyes of a horse.

“……”

What is the meaning of recalling old memories?

Kalix laughed bitterly and shoved his hand into his pocket. He didn’t want to be immersed in the past, but his feet didn’t move.

He thought he had forgotten everything, but it wasn’t. The monastery, where a lot of things had changed, but also a lot of things hadn’t, naturally reminded him of old memories.

“Look, you still call her not your wife, but her Highness.”

“……”

“Like someone who doesn’t want to admit that she is someone’s wife.”

Kalix let out a slow breath.

Yes, in fact, he hadn’t forgotten. He had never forgotten. Not even once.

In the first place, it was something I could never forget.

The loving eyes that gazed at me, the lips whispering love, and even the moment of betrayal by her, I could forget none of it.

Despite bearing the false accusation of treason, even as I was barely alive and dragged along like a dog, all I did was worry about her safety.

But the woman herself was looking after her own safety in the wedding ceremony with another man.

Calyx pulled at his lips as he looked at the statue of the fountain.

The statue of a woman holding a child was commonly used to depict a saint, but the man thought it resembled the woman he knew.

He remembered it vividly.

The day when he was driven to the countryside and returned to the capital for the first time. The woman he saw from afar was smiling with a child in her arms.

Only then could the man admit to himself that the woman had betrayed me.

There was nothing everlasting in the first place. The tree of Crete, which everyone said would never change, and the love of the lovers whispering beneath it, all vanished into thin air.

All that was left was a terrible resentment. That was certainly the case.

Until I saw her eyes again.

Calyx, with a short laugh, took his hand out of his pocket and turned around.

It was quite ridiculous that I was here, simply obeying the word I heard from a brat who suddenly came to confess, nothing else.

“I know you’re hiding. Come out.”

Calyx twisted his mouth as he looked behind the pillar. The one hiding behind the pillar was utterly talentless at hiding their presence.