Chapter 2: The Lady Had a Fiancé Part 3
When Lucifela looked at the count, he closed his mouth tightly as if he was hiding something. Could it be that the owner of this body had something to do with the Crown Prince, no, the First Prince of Jansgar?
Such a troublesome woman. Lucifela let out a sigh. She had been sighing a lot lately. Duke Heint’s visit took place at noon two days later. There was no need to dress up as it was just a courtesy visit, but for some reason, the maids put in great effort to dress her up.
First, she had to bathe in warm water with flower petals sprinkled in it. The bath powder made her cough so much that her lips slightly turned pale, so they dabbed flower water on them to revive the color.
As for her hair, it seemed shiny enough to her, but the maids spread oil and kept brushing it. She hadn’t even gotten out of bed yet, but if they were doing this much, how much would her head hurt if she participated in a banquet? And how do women endure such strenuous tasks?
Lucifela felt distant. Her stamina was wearing thin.
If her stamina was going to wear thin anyway, she might have been better off swinging a sword. At least she would have felt refreshed. Besides, her stamina would have actually improved!
Training in swordsmanship, how wonderful it is. Of course, she knew very well that it was too much for her right now. Her body was not suitable for wielding a sword, not having any muscles, let alone fat. Moreover, her recovery ability was terrible, and the aftereffects of being soaked in water and fasting had not disappeared.
She had to wait for Duke Heint on her sick bed with makeup on, and the thought of it made her feel humiliated. If Liam, one of her comrades, had seen this, he would have knelt down and laughed.
She thought of the names of her knights. Liam, Valder, Anika, Olgen… What are they doing now? Did they sacrifice their lives as the price for her own?
Lucifela hugged her knees and buried her head in sorrowful thoughts. The maid, who had been waiting nervously next to her, spoke up.
“My lady, your hair is getting disheveled!”
“Do I have to worry about my hair as a patient?”
At that moment, a polite knock on the door was heard. The maid who had been standing by her side, listening attentively, gave her a slight nod.
It seemed like the awaited Duke Heint had arrived. However, he was punctual in keeping the time of his arrival.
The sound of his heavy footsteps echoed in the room as he approached.
The door opened, and the eyes of the man and the woman met. It was certainly a breach of etiquette for a man to enter a woman’s bedroom, but as he was her fiancé and she was ill, it was allowed.
The tall man met her gaze and walked towards her with a steady, military-like gait. Though his footsteps were neat and precise like that of a soldier, each step he took had a sluggish, predatory feel to it, and with each step came an overwhelming sense of intimidation.
Zedekiah Heint was taller than Khalid.
His hair was bronze, and his eyes were a strong reddish-brown.
The firm jawline and masculine features belonged to a fairly handsome category. It was a different appearance from Khalid, who had delicate features.
Well, it’s undeniable that he was a pretty good-looking man, but as Lucifela, he was just an unlucky enemy general.
She frowned slightly.
She didn’t like facing the enemy commander’s face so calmly on the bed. Wasn’t it a face that needed to be choked right away?
In other words, her psychology was similar to a kind of occupational disease where a bakery worker who went to another bakery to buy bread saw disorganized displays and wanted to rearrange them.
The maids bowed and left.
The maids bowed their heads and left.
And now, there were only Lucifela and Zed in the room, rather than dealing with the fiancés, they exchanged unfriendly glances that seemed more like facing enemies.
“I apologize for giving you such a late greeting, my Lady.”
As an aristocratic man in front of his fiancée, or rather, a Lady, he should have shown his respect by kissing her hand, but he didn’t. Moreover, he stood there instead of sitting on the prepared chair or kneeling next to the bed, so she had to look up at Heint, her fiancé.
“I’m sorry for your loss, Your Excellency.”
Lucifela finally decided to throw a ceremonial remark. She wanted to say something like, “What do I care about a nobleman like Duke Heint?” but instead chose to say the minimum and optimal words she could say right now.
There was silence for a moment. She raised her head, thinking she might have said something wrong, only to find the Duke’s stern expression.
She hoped he would leave soon, now that he had seen she was fine. It was already hard enough for her to bear the situation she had been put in, and seeing the face of her enemy was too cruel.
She was already struggling just to keep herself from killing this enemy who was once close to her. Then the Duke spoke in a growling voice,
“It’s a forced engagement, but it still feels disgusting.”
Lucifela tried hard to hold back from saying, “I feel the same way.” She finally looked up at him with hostile eyes.
She got off the bed and stood in front of him. Despite the height difference, she didn’t want to look up so she kept her head down. Duke Heint shuddered at the sight.
“You even put on makeup. Were you just pretending to be sick?”
“Are you speaking informally now?”
The man’s hazel eyes slightly widened and then curved into a smile at the words that Lucifela spat out with a raised lip. He looked at her with an expression of interest and then chuckled.
“If it was up to me, I would never have agree wo this marriage. I can forgive your past dalliance with the Crown Prince, but if you can’t forget the past and continue to behave in such an unpleasant way, either by committing such acts at the palace lake or by showing such displeasing behavior in front of me, the future may not be very pleasant. I don’t find you particularly endearing either.”
A cold smile formed on Lucifela’s lips. She folded her arms together and let out a sigh. Her bangs slightly lifted and fell. In fact, she wanted to jump out of shame right now.
So this woman has a “past” with the prince? And it seems like she jumped into the palace lake because of the prince.
It was unbelievable. Her defiant attitude, in her own way, seemed appropriate for Duke Heint, as if he had expected such behavior. Even if it led to misunderstandings, why did she have to endure such dirty misunderstandings like this?
To make matters worse, the fact that Lucifela had jumped into the water herself was all because of the prince made her feel disgusted with her own flesh and bones.
And if that wasn’t enough, Duke Heint had mistakenly thought that the reason she hadn’t received him with a good attitude was because she couldn’t forget the prince. But Lucifela didn’t want to lose, so she looked at him and said,
“If it’s not that pleasant, can’t we just maintain this situation without getting married or find a way to divorce immediately after marriage?”
The Duke smirked at her words. But at Lucifella’s words, he certainly seemed offended. His eyes were sharp and predictable.
“Unfortunately, I have a goddamn obligation to follow the family and have offspring.”
“……”
“Still, I like the idea of delaying the marriage. Let’s get married and then divorce right away. I don’t want to be with someone like you, my lady.”
He was twisting his lips into a crooked smile.
Lucifela knew that this person thought very poorly of her. Ah, that made sense. If the reason she fell into the water was because of the Crown Prince, it was understandable.
He never had any favor toward Lucifela from the beginning. It was better off that way. Since they received the seal from the priest as a betrothed couple, they couldn’t cancel it. But they could postpone it if they wanted to.
She hadn’t even adjusted yet, and they were telling her to marry this man and mix bodies with him? She would rather die again than do that.
“That’s a good thing, thank you.”
She laughed heartily, wanting to bite her own tongue at the lady-like tone. Heint also smirked as he looked at her face. He lifted his hand and stroked her fallen black hair, then placed his hand on her shoulder just below it. At first glance, it seemed like affectionate physical contact between an engaged couple.
“If you do another foolish act of jumping into the lake again, you should be prepared for the consequences.”
He warned her in a low, grave voice. Lucifela glared at him in response.
“Then I guess next time I should just jump off the spire of the Imperial Palace.”
As she spoke so confidently, Duke Heint’s eyes gleamed with a truly dangerous light. So what, was he going to hit her or something? She was not afraid.
However, it was terrible that this man had placed his hand on her shoulder, and she hit his arm with her other arm, trying to knock it off with all her might. However, her light strength wasn’t enough to properly push off his arm. She was amazed to realize that her strength was even worse than she had thought.
She raised her hand again to push his arm away, but it wouldn’t budge. Even she knew that Duke Heint wasn’t gripping her shoulder tightly on purpose. It was simply because she was inherently weak, and had been sick lately, so she had no strength. As she felt ashamed, she looked up at Duke Heint, who was looking at her with a mocking expression on his face. It was a contemptuous look.
“Take your hand off me.”
Despite clenching her teeth, she knew she had already shown weakness. Duke Heint calmly removed his hand from her shoulder.
“Well, it seems like you don’t have the strength to climb up to the spire.”
In response to his mockery, she was enraged to the point of her hair standing on end. Duke Heint’s smile grew even wider as he looked at her face, which was the same then as it is now. She wished she could just slap that face. However, it was clear that her feeble hand would only make things worse.
“Get out.”
She could only spit out the words instead.
“Alright, I’ve done all the formalities I needed to. No need to waste any more time.”
He’s a man who makes her feel bad until the end.
He turned his back without even saying goodbye and left the room. As he left, the maids crowded around and scrutinized her face.
She continued to stand tall and brave. This is how Lucifela was able to overcome her first crisis.
At first, even though it wasn’t their first meeting, the impression she had of him wasn’t good, and it ended up being the worst.
***
Thank you for reading!
