꒷꒦︶꒷꒦︶ ๋ ࣭ ⭑꒷꒦THERE IS NO WAY YOU LOVE ME꒷꒦︶꒷꒦︶ ๋ ࣭ ⭑꒷꒦
Kieran was neither surprised by the sudden arrival of Alyssa nor by the news she brought.
“So that’s how it turned out…”
He replied quietly, as if lost in thought, his expression calm. In contrast, Alyssa was visibly unsettled.
She looked down like a chastened child, clearly timid as she gauged Kieran’s reaction.
Noticing how she gripped her still-bandaged hand tightly, Kieran reached out and lightly patted her hand.
Startled by the gesture, Alyssa lifted her head. She didn’t seem embarrassed by the touch but genuinely surprised.
“Your hand is cold, my lord. Are you unwell…?”
Kieran flexed his fingers a couple of times before answering nonchalantly.
“Ah, I see. Perhaps it’s because I went for a brief walk earlier.”
Despite his composed response, Alyssa couldn’t shake her unease. The chill of his skin, though fleeting, felt oddly familiar.
“But let’s return to the matter at hand. How long do the Pendulums wish to stay?”
Alyssa, trying to dispel her ominous feelings, focused on Kieran’s usual calm demeanor.
“About ten years… I think.”
Even though it wasn’t her suggestion, she felt inexplicably guilty as she conveyed the message.
“That’s unexpected. I thought they would leave immediately after acquiring the monster carcasses.”
“They said it’s because of the forest. Apparently, the forest is so enraged after being disturbed that it will take at least ten years for its fury to subside.”
As she spoke, Alyssa recalled Alma’s tearful rant from earlier.
“We can’t leave right now! We lack the artifacts, and more importantly, the forest is furious. Unless it falls back into slumber like in the distant past…”
Thinking about those final words, Alyssa grew puzzled once again.
The notion of the forest “falling into slumber” felt foreign in itself.
There were no records of such an expression in any chronicles of the Benoit duchy—neither of the forest “falling asleep” nor “waking up.”
The forest was always perceived as an ever-present, wakeful entity. There had never been a need to describe it otherwise.
“The forest falling into slumber?”
“Sniff, didn’t you know? The forest used to be asleep. It was a long, long time ago, and once it awakened, it never fell back into slumber again…”
“When was that?”
“Who knows? A thousand years? Ten thousand years ago?”
Replaying the conversation in her mind, Alyssa let out a soft sigh. There didn’t seem to be any reason to delve too deeply into it.
What mattered more now was Kieran’s response. She scrutinized her face nervously.
“That’s a relief.”
He smiled and spoke warmly, putting her at ease. Alyssa exhaled a small sigh of relief.
“Their stay will be beneficial to the duchy, both in terms of the knight order’s strength and the wealth it will bring.”
Alyssa slowly nodded at Kieran’s words. Certainly, the Pendulums’ knowledge had immense potential.
Using the carcasses of fire-wielding plant monsters, they could create torches or braziers that burned without fuel. Conversely, the carcasses of ice-vined monsters could produce ice even in the peak of summer.
Beyond such simple applications, the possibilities extended to creating translation stones that disrupted language barriers or other ingenious artifacts.
“If anything, I’m tempted to ask them to stay even longer. It’s a welcome offer that they’re choosing to remain voluntarily.”
Alyssa found herself staring blankly at Kieran’s satisfied smile.
She, too, had considered utilizing the Pendulums’ knowledge but only for crafting weapons or strengthening the castle’s security.
She had never thought of it as a means to amass wealth or power. She neither wanted nor sought such things before, nor did she desire them now.
But Kieran was different.
‘We are short on funds.’
While they weren’t impoverished, neither were they in a position to indulge in luxury. The Benoit duchy’s financial strength could barely sustain the current state of affairs.
Though Alyssa’s life was far more comfortable than before, perhaps it wasn’t so for Kieran.
‘The same goes for power…’
Their marriage had been a union of two powerless individuals, but the outcome was starkly different. For Alyssa, it was a stroke of fortune; for Kieran, perhaps, the misfortune of a lifetime.
Could he be preparing to escape this life?
If the duchy became prosperous because of this development, it might provide the opportunity to annul the imperial-arranged marriage without incident.
‘That must be it.’
Alyssa silently acknowledged the possibility. If that’s what Kieran desired, she resolved to support him in every way.
‘If there’s anything I can do to help…’
As her thoughts reached that point, Alyssa grew a little despondent. Kieran, always capable and seemingly blessed with good fortune, rarely seemed to face difficulties.
Even now, it was the same. Alyssa couldn’t fathom what she could possibly do to assist him.
If only she could go out and hunt monsters to provide materials, but it was spring, and the storage was already overflowing…
‘…Huh?’
A sudden thought made her lift her head. Kieran met her gaze calmly.
Though still unaccustomed to his unmasked visage, her curiosity overrode her discomfort. She clenched her fists and cautiously asked, “My lord, you told us not to dispose of the monster carcasses last time and even had them moved closer to the castle.”
At the time, she hadn’t understood the order. Monster carcasses were practically worthless garbage.
But now the story had changed. If the potential to craft artifacts was revealed, their value would skyrocket.
“Did you foresee this happening?”
Alyssa’s eyes gleamed as she asked, as though she already knew the answer.
Kieran, faced with her starlit silver-gray gaze, gave a faint, ambiguous smile.
For some reason, Alyssa often looked at him that way—with an awe-filled gaze, as if she were looking at someone extraordinary.
Both then and now, Kieran found that gaze burdensome. He knew he wasn’t as exceptional as she seemed to think.
“No, I didn’t. I just heard they could be used to make equipment and decided to keep them. I didn’t expect they’d be used like this.”
Kieran’s reply was half-truth, half-lie.
He had known that monster carcasses would eventually become valuable materials for artifacts.
In his previous life, after a sudden monster invasion, people from the capital had come and hauled away all the carcasses that had piled up like junk.
Rumors had spread afterward about artifacts infused with monster power being invented, causing the value of monster carcasses to skyrocket.
The Benoit duchy had been forced to offer the carcasses as tributes.
Kieran had anticipated the invention of artifacts but hadn’t known the details. He had assumed someone in the empire had developed the technology.
The unexpected arrival of outsiders beyond the monster forest had caught him off guard—but it was a fortunate turn of events.
His initial plan had been to monopolize the materials and sell them at exorbitant prices, but with the artifact-making technology on their side, the situation had changed.
Not only the materials but also the artifacts themselves could be monopolized.
“Things are turning out well.”
Had Alyssa not provided her explanation, Kieran might have continued to expect inventors from the capital to show up.
He smirked bitterly at his own ignorance. Having been too reclusive in his past life, he had little useful knowledge aside from this—and even that wasn’t entirely correct.
“…Still, you’re amazing.”
A small voice broke Kieran’s train of thought.
Though Alyssa appeared slightly subdued, her eyes still sparkled as they fixed on him.
“If you hadn’t told us to preserve them back then, we would have disposed of as much as possible.”
It was stubborn praise. Kieran found himself oddly reluctant to meet her gaze directly.
Her uncovered face wasn’t significantly different from when her bangs had concealed it or when she wore a mask, yet now her eyes were entirely visible.
Back then, he had thought her expressions were subdued, but now he realized she was rather transparent, her feelings always subtly evident.
When Alyssa looked at him, her dawn-like eyes shone with such clarity that meeting her gaze felt strangely unsettling.
“Since you put it that way…”
Kieran sighed softly, his lips curving into a faint, crumbling smile.
“I suppose I’ll have to do my best.”
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