CHAPTER 4: EACH TRUTH AND EACH HAPPINESS (XVI)
Part 082
They had dinner a little late. After staying together all evening, they returned to their respective rooms to get ready for bed, but she didn’t think she would be able to sleep. As she looked out the darkened window, a sigh escaped her even though she tried to swallow it. Adrian would leave early tomorrow morning. She lingered in front of her door and thought about it for a while. Jenny said it was a bad thing, and she didn’t like Adrian being criticized, but what did that matter? What’s more important was that she wouldn’t be able to see him for a long time after tomorrow. So she opened the door and went in. Adrian was sitting back at his desk, looking at papers. When she walked in, he looked surprised for a moment, then smiled brightly.
She knew it would be like this. There’s another person at work who has to leave tomorrow morning. She heard that the march to the Jezero Plain takes 3 days and 2 nights. I’m not going to be able to sleep well for the next few days, so I’m going to sleep early.
“Damian, you’re not sleeping. What’s wrong?”
She thought about taking that neat document out of Adrian’s smiling hand, but she couldn’t do it if it was something important that she had to check. She didn’t answer anything and quickly went into Adrian’s bed. Adrian, who was watching her crawl into the blanket, asked in a panicked voice.
“Damian? What are you doing now…?”
“I came to bed. Let’s sleep together.”
Adrian dropped the documents he was holding. Three or four documents were scattered on the floor. It was the first time she saw Adrian make a face with his jaw dropped and his mouth wide open. He was handsome, so he looked handsome even with that stupid face.
She knew she said a line that was perfect for misunderstanding. But what else could she say? Was she saying she was here to take over his bed for a while and ask for your cooperation? She sat down under the blanket and pointed at the pillow on his left side.
“My place.”
Then she pointed to the pillow on the right and spoke again.
“Adrian, are you okay? I just want to sleep next to you. Don’t kick me out.”
Adrian put his fallen chin back in place and bent down to pick up the papers that had fallen on the floor. When he didn’t answer, she felt embarrassed and added sullenly:
“You can do whatever you have to do. You can’t stay up too late, but I’ll sleep here quietly. It’s true. I have no sleeping habit.”
Adrian put down the documents he had picked up on the desk, lowered his head and sighed slightly, then raised his head again and looked at me and said.
“I already know that Damian is sleeping peacefully.”
Oh, that’s right. They had already slept together once. Oh my, they slept together. That’s true, but why did it feel like this? Adrian covered the nightstand to block the light. In a room where not a single candle was lit, there was only the dusky moonlight streaming in through the window. In that darkness, Adrian came to the bed. She said with her own mouth that she had just come to sleep, and Adrian must have come to sleep as well, so her heart pounded. Adrian came and lay down behind her. When she turned her head and looked at him, fortunately, he was smiling and his eyes were normal. She smiled and put her head on the pillow. She asked, looking towards Adrian.
“Do you mind if I don’t even look at the documents?”
“They were unimportant things.”
“Are you going straight to the Jezero Plains?”
“Yes, we will arrive on Tuesday. We will be leaving for the West before next weekend. I am sorry for leaving you alone.”
“It’s not like I’m alone in an empty mansion.”
“I heard that you are going to Duke Nodovan’s house tomorrow.”
“Yes, I would like to meet Ailene.”
“Starting Monday, you will be working with the princess.”
“Yeah, I’m a little nervous.”
“You’ll do great. Would you like to use an arm pillow?”
“Yes-yes?”
Adrian grinned and stretched out his left arm. She slid her arm under his pillow and grabbed his left shoulder, pulling him to turn around to face Adrian. After his body rolled over, he raised his head and his eyes met Adrian, who was lying back towards me. I burst out laughing at his brightly smiling face. She giggled, and she stretched out her left arm and hugged Adrian’s waist. This time Adrian was embarrassed.
“D-Damian, just like that…”
“Yes?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
After wiggling back and forth with a serious face for a moment, Adrian seemed to have settled into a comfortable position, smiling and kissing my forehead.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“I can wait, so come back without getting hurt anywhere.”
“I will.”
“Lol.”
Adrian has a higher body temperature than her. She fell asleep easily because she was right next to the warm Adrian. She fell asleep feeling his breathing on her forehead. And on the 44th day of fall, Sunday morning dawned. When she left the entrance with Adrian, who was wearing silver armor and a dark blue cape instead of the usual commander’s uniform, a hundred knights, waving the cloaks of the Bigor Knights, lined up with horses from the entrance to the main gate. She was a little taken aback by the way they lowered their heads in unison. It was an intimidating sight, impossible to find, like the sprawling sight she saw yesterday.
Adrian, who kissed the back of her hand one last time, mounted his horse. The other knights also got on their horses, and Adrian, who was looking at me, turned his horse’s head and ran away, kicking up dust after him. In an instant, only blank silence remained in front of the mansion. She felt like he would cry if he opened his mouth, so she couldn’t tell him to have a nice trip. As she was just staring at the empty garden, Jenny patted her on the shoulder.
When she barely managed to hold back her tears and turned around, all the employees remaining in the mansion bowed their heads towards her. Along with Franz and Lord Hegel, dozens of servants who had not received formal knighthood also bowed their heads. She couldn’t just excuse herself and say she was a guest. Until Adrian returned, she had to pack up this mansion with them. He said that being a duchess is not something that could be done without any preparation, but the bridal lessons were rigorous.
* * *
She spent the whole day looking around the empty Duke’s residence to calm her mind, and in the afternoon, she went to Duke Donovan’s house. She heard that Duke Donovan also went on a campaign, but he looked much calmer than Duke Bigor. The Duchess welcomed her and personally guided her to Ailene’s room. He also received a thank you note for saving Ailene’s life. She told her that she had not done anything and they talked for a while, but she was very impressed by the Duchess’ calm demeanor. When they entered the room, Ailene was lying on the bed, then crossed over to the sofa and sat down. She was worried, but he said it was pretty easy to move now. Her face was still thin, but her complexion was better than last Tuesday, which was reassuring.
“What does the doctor say? Are you feeling better now?”
“Yes. The Duchess is taking a lot of care, so I’ve been lying down all day, and now I’m feeling stuffy.”
“Thank goodness, Ailene.”
“Thank goodness. My heart was so heavy this morning when I saw my father off on his expedition. I thought he said he was taking the lead for no reason because of me. He is the commander, right? I guess you are feeling the same.”
“I see. I wonder what this is going on. It’s a war.”
“Everyone is having a hard time because of this crazy guy. I should have told you sooner.”
“Don’t say that. If it weren’t for you, the royal family would all have died as they wanted. Thanks to you, the princess was safe too.”
“The crown prince was also safe.”
Ailene twisted her lips and smiled with a helpless look on her face.
“First of all, don’t think about anything, just focus on recovering and feeling better before you try anything.”
“That’s right. What about you? How are you? Lillian said you seem to be busy.”
“I’m helping the princess with administrative work. Everyone is away preparing for war, so I’m trying to help the country as well.”
Ailene put down her teacup and looked at me. The lifeless blue eyes sparkled for the first time in a long time.
“You. Are you pushing the princess?”
“Huh?”
“I’ve been thinking about it, and it’s Dorzern and Tyrellius, and they’re so disgusting. Aren’t you thinking of the princess as the next king?”
A woman ascending the throne is something that anyone born and raised in this world would not dare to think about. But Ailene is different. Because we lived in different worlds for 24 years. It is harder to accept that Tyrellius should be king simply because he is a man. She also put down her tea cup and grinned.
“Of course you are better than the two jingling princes, and you are even more wonderful than them. That’s right. I want the princess to ascend to the throne next. So, at this meeting, I will definitely appeal to the people of the Kingdom of Lorentine.”
When Ailene listened to her, she smiled with an amused look on her face.
“If you support it, Duke Bigor already means the same thing, and that’s fine. I’ll convince my father. Leave Duke Donovan to me.”
“Really?”
“I talked a lot with my father after I came back. I’m also resolving any misunderstandings with other family members. I’m sure everyone won’t ignore my opinion. Besides, my father doesn’t like the crown prince at all and says there’s no suitable successor. You’ve been thinking about it. It reminds me of the princess who was with you. It doesn’t matter if it’s a woman or a man. The right person should sit in that seat.”
“Is that so? So this means that the two ducal families will stand behind the princess? Once the war is over, full-fledged discussions on succession to the throne will begin, and if the two ducal families and academia also help, there is a possibility.”
“Academia?”
“My teacher is discussing the principle of primogeniture with several scholars. He said he thinks good results will come out.”
“You’ve already been poking around here and there, right? That’s just you, Damian.”
Ailene smiled, folding her eyes nicely. How long has it been since she last saw her bright smiling face? They laughed and talked for a while. She even got married to Dozern and had a child, which she unfortunately lost, so she was worried, but she was wrong. Ailene seemed to have cut Dozern clean from her heart. She couldn’t imagine how much pain she must have felt before she even said that name out of her mouth, pretending like nothing was wrong, but she talked to her as quietly as she could.
She returned to the Duke’s residence with a lighter heart and spent her first night without Adrian. The next day, she had breakfast alone. There was a lot of sweet food on the table that Jenny had specially prepared for her, but for some reason she had no appetite. After a quick meal, she was getting ready for work, and Jenny brought me documents neatly organized for each department. It looked like he had brought it home to look at it again on Friday and had put it away on his desk. She had no idea that persuading Jenny, who had been working her ass off because she didn’t like it, to learn her common language would help in this way. She looked over the neatly organized documents and asked Jenny, excited by an idea that suddenly occurred to her.
“Jenny, do you mind helping me somewhere other than the mansion?”
“What do you mean, miss? I’ll go anywhere I can be with you.”
She smiled brightly at Jenny, who opened her eyes wide, and went to work enthusiastically. In her office in the main palace, she had a meeting with Laurel, Dorothe, and Tina, and went with Lady Endorote to the docks on the River Lorraine to inspect the Segog warehouse being prepared. The three of them were to arrive in earnest starting today. Thanks to the promotional leaflets that were put out all weekend, commoners could already be seen snooping around the dockside. They decided to start selling three grains in earnest starting tomorrow, and put up a signboard with the date written on it. After instructing the remaining members of the administration to directly guide the illiterate commoners in the outer city area, she turned around and saw something cool about her. She really feel like a second-level administrator.
‘Adrian: When you come back, I will brag about how hard Iworked.’
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Translator Note:
Hello there! This is RJR. I hope you liked it <3
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