It was something she would have never said out loud under normal circumstances.
Whether it was because her mind was hazy from the fever, or because she had come back from the dead, or because she didn’t know if this situation was reality – regardless, her tongue moved extremely freely and honestly.
She told Peon, [I know you don’t see me as a woman.]
In addition, it was as if she declared, ‘No one thinks of me that way, and I know that fact.’ It was something the proud Princess of Ostein would never have said, but she said it.
‘It’s no big deal.’
After saying it, she felt indifferent. Above all, it was the truth. She alone knew it, she just never said it out loud.
“Is that so.”
Peon also seemed to nod calmly.
“I made an uncalled for mistake. I’m sorry.”
“Why did you save my father’s life?”
Kaela asked directly, as she was very curious, but it was a question she could never ask in the royal palace full of the emperor’s eyes and ears.
“It has nothing to do with Your Highness, right?”
That’s what their relationship was. Nothing to do with each other. No blood relation, and not bound as family either.
Logically she knew it was for the best, but with her heart feeling hollow, Kaela was flustered, unsure how to deal with this emptiness.
“Rather, you could have gotten into trouble with His Majesty.”
Even if the empress hadn’t collapsed, he definitely would have. Forgetting the bullets, the emperor would have scolded him as an ignorant and unrefined fool. However, Peon answered simply and nonchalantly.
“I’m already in trouble, so it’s fine.”
How could he say that he did it because he didn’t want to commit more crimes against her, because he wanted her to be happy? How could he dare say such a thing? A criminal has no right to speak. He had to stay silent.
“Support for Lusenford could have been reduced.”
Whether to reduce support for the frontlines facing the evil dragon over such a trivial matter–the emperor was definitely a great enough man to do so and more. It was already a well-known fact within and outside the empire that he was especially unreasonable when it came to Peon.
“Then Lusenford wouldn’t have been able to endure, why did you do that?”
The Grand Duke of Lusenford was a knight and soldier. He knew well that his subordinate soldiers must fight without freezing from the cold or going hungry.
That’s why, even while enduring humiliation before the emperor, he always tried his best to receive support somehow. Wasn’t his greatest goal, wish, and dream to defeat the evil dragon Gusalante and return to reunite with his mother and marry Beatrice?
Kaela thought that if Peon had taken down the evil dragon Gusalante faster than the emperor could kill him, she might have been secretly assassinated in Lusenford.
There were many loyal subordinates in Lusenford who would eliminate anyone hindering their lord’s reunification on their own, and he too would not have left his wife, whom he suspected of being the emperor’s spy, alone. One way or another, Kaela was fated to die.
“It can endure.”
Peon answered simply. His reply even seemed to exude confidence. It was not the Grand Duke of Lusenford struggling against the cold to face the evil dragon.
“Thank you for your concern, but Lusenford can endure. And don’t we have to help each other before His Majesty the Emperor?”
With feverish, hazy eyes, Kaela looked at Peon with a fresh perspective. He was saying something completely different from the grand duke she knew.
She deliberately spoke to him respectfully as when she was the Grand Duchess, and he used the same speech as her husband, but it felt unfamiliar. The speech was the same but the content differed. Why was it different?
“Yes, I suppose so.”
Why had it changed? Would Peon regret saving her father since Kaela had confronted him angrily this time? Had she fallen out of Peon’s favor now?
“Kaela? Your Highness?”
Her head hurt too much. Every jolt of the carriage made the blood vessels in her head constrict tightly.
“We’re here.”
Let it be as it will be. She had already died once, so she couldn’t die twice, could she? There was nothing to be afraid of even if things fell apart with Peon.
While Kaela was being irritable, the four-wheeled carriage had passed through the dim stone path and arrived at the brightly lit townhouse of the Ostein Duchy.
Escorted by numerous knights, the carriage clattered to a stop in front of the entrance where butlers and servants were waiting, its hooves ringing out.
A tall, sturdy-framed man quickly got out of the carriage and extended his hand inside.
“You’ve had a long day. Rest well and recuperate.”
It was the perfect demeanor of a gentleman towards a lady. Even if they had just met today, his courteous manner was impeccable, but there was no sense of any accumulated memories or friendship between the two.
The hand that descended onto his was burning hot from fever. Extending both hands to the swaying, enervated Kaela, Peon supported her to help her out of the carriage.
“Thank you for the ride, Your Highness.”
Even in her dazed state, Kaela did not forget her manners, and also returned the cloak she had been wearing of his.
“Have a good night.”
Concealing all he wanted to say and do, Peon left her side. A familiar void was wearing him down.
Leaving the Ostein Duchy’s townhouse, he rode his horse back towards the royal palace. The streets were too dark, with only the brilliantly shining royal palace in the distance serving as a landmark.
The duke silently spurred his horse onward, his expression and thoughts unreadable even to the knights beside him.
“Your Highness.”
No one knew whether Sir Renard had been by his side all along or had just joined him, as his whispered words were drowned out by the clattering of hooves on the cobblestones.
“Lady Ravalley has secretly entered Soleil Palace.”
Sir Renard spoke with utmost discretion, but the facts that ‘Beatrice’ had ‘secretly’ entered ‘Soleil Palace’ where the emperor resided were all suspicious. Yet Peon nodded without even batting an eye.
“She has not emerged yet.”
“Keep watching her.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The loyal Sir Renard bowed without asking a single question, then melted back into the darkness.
Peon only remembered and moved in secret those subordinates who had never betrayed him to the end. He could only trust those who had barred the path and died first saying the grand duke must survive against the encroaching royal forces.
So by his orders, Kaela, who had been confined in the northern Keurmerie Tower of Lusenford, could only be the most important exception.
From the moment he saw her again in front of the Monster Garden, Peon could only follow Kaela’s every move as if entranced. Before her, he was utterly powerless.
As soon as she disembarked from the carriage and discarded his cloak, he wished he could have told her to just keep it. He had done so little for her that he wanted to give her at least that, but a butler hastily offered her a shawl for her bare shoulders, rendering it impossible.
Once this brief spring ended, he would return to Lusenford again, and Kaela would become a complete stranger to him.
Was that sufficient? Was it the end if Kaela’s life became peaceful?
‘Of course not.’
Of course not. Atonement and repentance were not so simple.
The meeting with Keruzhan, the fallen empress, the deranged emperor, Beatrice secretly coming and going from Soleil Palace, the evil dragon…there were not just one or two matters demanding his attention, but they had all already been accounted for in Peon’s calculations.
He was not surprised even by his mother’s collapse, as he knew the cause. Rather, it was advantageous for him, albeit regrettable. He just had to proceed as planned.
However, everything Kaela said and did today was completely unanticipated. Kaela was the one who should have been within his calculations. Only then could he protect her safely and perfectly.
[Who would dare spread rumors linking someone like me to Your Highness?]
For a nobly raised princess with immense pride to voice those words, referring to herself as ‘someone like me’, was inconceivable.
The eyes that had sparkled towards him had gone cold, and she did not just clearly draw a line, but pushed him away by disparaging herself.
