37. The Duke Is Married.
“I’m really sorry, my Lady.”
There was a reason for Hailey’s rejection.
“The magic circle cannot be activated due to the continued heavy snowfall, so the travel of people outside will be difficult for the time being.”
These were circumstances beyond her abilities.
Whoosh.
No sooner had Hailey finished speaking than the sound of the cold wind blowing fiercely rang out.
The weather had been like this ever since Jillian left.
Although it was discouraging enough, Bianca did not give in.
“How long will it snow?”
“That’s, I personally think…….”
“No, I’m not asking when this blizzard will stop. I’m asking to know until when travel will be stopped. How many months will it take for the extreme cold to pass?”
Bianca didn’t know how to explain, so she ended up rambling a little.
Hailey, who was listening to Bianca’s words, nodded as if she understood.
“If you are talking about when Baloch’s ‘winter’ ends, it ends in at least April.”
Oh my god.
According to what Hailey said, she would have to wait for over half a year.
Although she felt a little down, Bianca tried to think positively.
“Then we can prepare calmly in the meantime without rushing. But doesn’t that mean that the wave will end only then?”
“No, my Lady. The wave ends a couple of months earlier than that.”
“Oh, I see.”
Bianca, who was nodding her head, suddenly felt something wrong in Hayley’s words.
Didn’t she say that Jillian would get rid of the wave and return home by the time the blizzard stopped?
“Didn’t you say that the Duke will return after the blizzard is over?”
“Usually waves occur several times over a period of time.”
Not once?
“Okay. How many times does it usually occur?”
“Three times.”
The thought of this terrible thing repeating itself over and over again throughout the winter sent shivers down my spine.
In an instant, my palms became cold and wet.
“Thank you for letting me know.”
Bianca showed no signs of expression as she scrubbed her palms, which were soaked with cold sweat.
There were people who handle waves on site, so it made no sense to be afraid.
Bianca, who was able to control her nerves after thinking about that, immediately remembered what she had to do.
“First of all, I have to finish the work on the internal transfer documents before the Duke comes.”
So that here can be a place where he rests, rather than another place to go through his other ‘work’, when he returns home exhausted.
Even if she didn’t dare to carry his burden, she could help a little.
“If you need any more documents, please let me know.”
“Sure.”
After Hailey left, Bianca took up her familiar pen and began to separately record the total income and expenses on a document.
How much time had passed?
Just as her hand holding the pen felt tingly, the last page of the endless documents was finished.
“I’m done.”
Finally, all receipts and payments for three years’ worth of expenses had been confirmed.
All she had to do was to add up each item and compare the total, but it was no easy task as it was for the last three years.
My eyes were sore from staring at the documents the entire time, and my shoulders were so tense that it was quite painful.
Bianca, who made a groaning sound and rolled her sore shoulders, looked at the documents in front of her with a new sense of admiration.
“……..”
Creta Barhan was a truly amazing person.
She didn’t make any mistakes during the last three years of paperwork.
There was only one document that Bianca didn’t find right.
The one about the cost of maintaining dignity.
“Ugh…”
Bianca squeezed her throbbing shoulder and made a groaning sound.
This all started for Jillian.
I wanted to make sure that the main Castle could become a ‘home’ for him and a space where he could rest, and that his lieutenant could focus solely on his master.
Because I wanted to be of some help to the person who accepted me after being abandoned.
There was no reason to overdo anything.
However, at some point, I became obsessed with it because, contrary to my initial expectations, I couldn’t believe that no matter how many times I flipped through the documents, I couldn’t find any mistakes.
She handled this massive amount of work alone, and the only thing that was incorrectly listed was the cost of maintaining dignity? With that thought in mind, I kept looking through the documents.
How bad of me.
Bianca, who was wiping her middle finger, which was stained black with ink, made a puzzled expression.
In my defense, I didn’t mean to find fault with her.
I just couldn’t believe it, so I started looking for mistakes, and it turned into a bit of an obsession.
Anyway, what I gained from the hardships of the past few days was the realization that Jillian had an amazing person as his lieutenant.
Creta did it alone.
However, in Bianca’s opinion, this was absolutely not an amount of work that an individual could do alone.
Never.
The amount was vast and extremely detailed.
Before Jillian arrived, Bianca had planned to consolidate and streamline Creta’s work to make it more manageable.
Of course it would have been difficult and exhausting.
Still, Bianca didn’t feel as distressed as when she was taking care of the affairs of Rosvena Palace.
No, she was actually happy.
Now she felt like she had become a real member of Baloch.
If others heard that, they would be shocked, but she was sincere.
Did people know?
How thrilling and sweet the sense of ‘belonging’ was to Bianca, who had been denied by everyone her entire life.
Suddenly, Bianca felt her heart pounding so hard that she took a moment to catch her breath.
After taking a deep breath and calming down after a while, Bianca sat back down and picked up the documents.
She was planning to hurry because she didn’t know when the snowstorm would end.
***
The timing was not good.
The snow showed no signs of stopping, and the sun was setting.
Visibility was double blocked and the temperature was dropping alarmingly.
But a swarm of monsters came right in front of them.
It was an earlier approach than expected.
It was rare for something this heinous to happen.
Elizabeth, who was scanning the darkened distance with a telescope, let out a long breath that was between a sigh and a moan.
“Whew…….”
“Why? Is the herde bigger than you thought?”
Blatt, who was next to her, quickly asked what he thought of that breath.
It seemed as if he was anxious, so Elizabeth found it difficult to hide her smile.
She couldn’t believe that the Black Awar was anxious.
Wasn’t he famous for being the most courageous in this Baloch territory?
Even when the fortress collapsed, his complexion did not change, and no knight died as he took command of the situation ..….
“Ah…”
“Uh?”
He didn’t show it, but he was probably surprised too.
Well, who would have imagined that they would see the thick fortress bursting like a sand castle with a single wave.
Even though she understood Blatt deep down, the only thing that came out was her calm voice.
“Please use my name when speaking to me.”
“Lizzie.”
“It’s Elizabeth.”
“So Ellie?”
“We aren’t close enough to use nicknames, so please call me properly or by my title.”
Although her attitude was so cold and uncompromising, Blatt continued speaking cheerfully without any sign of disappointment.
“I mean, you are being shy for quite a long time. Anyway, what’s wrong? Is it big this time too? Wasn’t it half-finished last time?”
Should they prepare more catapults?
Although his voice was cheerful, there was still concern in his eyes.
Elizabeth put down the telescope she was holding and shook her head.
“I think the scale will be just as expected. However…..I’m worried that the snow won’t stop.”
“What is wrong with the snow?”
“It won’t matter to the monsters, but it will definitely be an obstacle to the Duke.”
At Elizabeth’s subsequent words, Blatt’s tense brows relaxed.
Oh, that face again.
He didn’t forget to grunt.
“Don’t worry, the Duke won’t care whether it rains or snows.”
“……The Duke is also human, right?”
“Who said otherwise?”
“Do you think it makes sense for him to deal with monsters on a blizzard night?”
“Who said otherwise?”
“Don’t play around.”
Elizabeth’s eyes glowed grimly, as if she thought Blatt, who was repeating the same words like a parrot, was joking.
Seeing Elizabeth’s cold glare, Blatt raised his hands in a surrendering posture.
“Lizzy, don’t be angry. I meant that we should work harder to provide cover for him, regardless of the weather. Also we are never leaving him alone.”
“If you use that kind of tone, who would take it that way?”
“Me.”
A soft voice interrupted the conversation.
“Duke?”
It was Jillian.
Jillian greeted Elizabeth, who looked at him in surprise, with a light chin gesture.
“Is it coming soon?”
“Are you afraid that ‘human’ who will deal with monsters on a blizzard night will get tired?”
Jillian did not hide the fact that he had heard the entire conversation.
“That……!”
“If the number of flying stones increases, the number of blind stones1The stones that don’t hit the right target. will also increase. I refuse, it hurts me too to be hit by a flying stone.”
Elizabeth’s blue eyes trembled wildly at the playful yet firm refusal.
“I appreciate your sentiments, but the operation will continue as planned.”
After saying those words, Jillian didn’t look at Elizabeth again.
“Blatt, what about the injured from the 7th Fortress?”
“On the surface, everyone’s condition has greatly improved. However, the wounds were so serious that most of them have not yet opened their eyes, so their current conditions are unclear.”
“Good. Did you send them to the rear?”
“Yes, the blizzard was so severe that we only left them in the 5th fort for now.”
“Killian must have made a fuss.”
The conversation, which continued for a long time, was suddenly cut off by a roar along with mention of the leader of the 5th Fortress’s name.
Roaaar!
“It looks like the guest arrived sooner than expected, so I have to go meet them.”
“But, Duke, it’s not a good idea to go outside the castle walls in this weather.”
“Elizabeth Swann, Blatt Awar. Both of you guard and command the long-distance support.”
“Yes, Duke.”
Despite Elizabeth’s dissuasion, Jillian took long strides and began heading down the castle wall.
“First of all, how about reducing their number with long-distance attacks?”
Even though Jillian ignored her words the whole time, Elizabeth seemed unable to let go of her lingering feelings and raised her voice behind him.
But all that came back was the faint sound of footsteps moving away.
Before long, the door to the Castle opened and Jillian was seen coming out of the Castle walls.
All that was held in the hand of the slender man who bursted out through the snowstorm was a sword.
Elizabeth’s eyes glowed bright blue as they followed Jillian’s movements.
“You, stop it.”
“What are you talking about?”
Elizabeth’s hand was raised high into the air.
At her gesture, the catapults were put in place and began to pull their ropes tauts all at once.
The sound of the wind howling and the sound of the thick ropes being pulled as if they were about to snap were combined, making the area full of horrifying sounds.
In the midst of it all, Elizabeth, whose expression was colder than the raging snowstorm, asked Blatt.
“What are you talking abou?”
Blatt shrugged his shoulders at Elizabeth, who was looking straight at him.
“Don’t you know?”
“Please tell me exactly what you mean.”
“The Duke is married.”
She knew that.
***
TL:
I have two pieces of news for you:
1. Bad news: There was a problem with moondusts calculations due to the variation of the numbers set from a translator to another, so we are to set moondusts for a locked chapter between 15 and 20. It’s obligatory 🙂.
Honestly, I don’t like that, but It’s better than having problems arise frequently, so yeah it will be 15.
2. Good news: As a compansation, I will be focusing on this series for a few days as well as making the max locked chapters per time be no more than 3.
Do make sure that you only buy the chapters if you have enough income and thanks for understanding ♡(ӦｖӦ｡)
