She looked alternately at the peach offering and Peon with a childlike expression. Once again, he was matching his speech to hers. Kaela answered with a face that looked like she might burst into tears at the slightest touch.
“I want to eat them.”
Still treating her like a young sister, Peon approached with a slight smile and sat down. The bowl piled high with peaches was quite large, and inside it lay a fruit knife.
“Shall I cut them and add them for you?”
“Yes.”
Kaela held out the bowl she had been hugging. Instead of the princess who had never used a knife, Peon took the fruit knife and began cutting the juicy peaches into small pieces.
Unable to wait, Kaela picked up and ate a freshly cut peach. It was very sweet and melted in her mouth. A fantastic taste.
The peaches he cut fell onto the wooden spoon. After eating a few spoonfuls, Kaela mumbled.
“I don’t intend to interfere between the two of you.”
“There’s no relationship to interfere with.”
Peon, who was strangely accommodating to the capricious Kaela, replied.
“I don’t mind if you have an heir with Beatrice.”
At those words, Peon’s hand, which had been cutting the peaches into bite-sized pieces, stopped. Kaela belatedly raised her eyes. He was staring at her intently.
“No. That won’t happen.”
Unexpectedly, he spoke firmly, his expression serious. For the Princess of Ostein to say such a thing, she must have swallowed all her pride, yet he was being so serious. How embarrassing. Kaela lowered her gaze again.
“I just want you two to be happy.”
Though it was a mischievous thought, knowing Beatrice would never allow it.
“That’s not the happiness I want, Kaela.”
Kaela didn’t respond and instead ate a spoonful of fragrant fruit pieces mixed with cream. With her cheeks stuffed full, she mumbled another sentence while chewing.
“Anyway, it’s a marriage you don’t want either. I know that.”
“It’s a marriage you don’t want either.”
“Yes.”
Kaela nodded, watching the chopped peaches fall into the bowl with the spoon in her mouth.
“And I’m just a bastard who only looks at Beatrice, whom I kicked out today?”
“Yes.”
Kaela, who had been nodding diligently, belatedly raised her head.
“You kicked her out?”
“You’re not denying the ‘bastard’ part, I see.”
She even took out the spoon she was holding in her mouth and asked.
“You kicked her out?”
Peon didn’t answer, just stared at her for a moment before neatly cutting more peaches.
“Why?”
Faced with her look of utter incomprehension, he had nothing to say. To her, he had always been just that kind of guy. A bastard fixated only on Beatrice, unable to see anything else, making a big fuss.
“Why make such a scene when we’re getting married?”
“I don’t mind making a scene.”
“Then why were you crying?”
Peon pointed with his eyes to Kaela’s red and swollen eyes.
“Because I became a woman fighting with her husband’s mistress.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. We can’t help how things turned out.”
Inevitably, he would ignore her, and she would quietly die in the cold of Lusenford. Quietly, without anyone knowing.
“It’s not your fault, oppa.”
The marriage itself wasn’t his fault.
“It’s not my fault either.”
What happened after the marriage wasn’t Kaela’s fault.
“Can’t be helped. Let’s just live carelessly.”
Regardless of what Peon did, Kaela intended to live carelessly until she died.
“How carelessly?”
“Well, you know… His Highness the Grand Duke will do what Grand Dukes do…”
“And Her Highness the Grand Duchess will do what Grand Duchesses do?”
No. I’ll just die.
Kaela swallowed the words she wanted to say. She could never be honest with Peon again.
Pretending to be a good little sister with no power and no threat to him might at least ensure she wouldn’t die painfully. She was already cowering and prostrating herself before him, but she didn’t feel her pride was hurt. She had no pride left in front of Peon.
“What do you think a Grand Duchess should do?”
His voice was surprisingly gentle. It was as if he was humoring a much younger sister, but beneath the surface, there was no real interest in her at all. He was merely gauging whether she could be a useful card or not. She knew this.
“Nothing different from now. I just stay quiet and don’t pay attention to you.”
I won’t do anything, so please just don’t let me die painfully. Starving to death was terribly painful.
Kaela was like a herbivore lying down and exposing its belly in front of a carnivore. A trembling herbivore begging to have its life ended quickly.
“So you mean I shouldn’t pay attention to you either.”
“You never paid attention to me anyway.”
How long had that gaze full of moisture, excitement, affection, and interest followed? Peon quietly gazed into her blue eyes that had dried up.
Those eyes no longer met his gaze. Even making eye contact had been a privilege. A privilege given to Peon that would never be given again.
“Kaela.”
His coolly gentle voice called to her as if to tempt her. No matter how much Kaela tried to escape, she was completely caught by the attention he tossed her way as if doing her a favor.
“You seem to know so well that I’m a bastard, so why do you jump to conclusions so easily?”
Kaela held her breath and only moved her eyes upward. His hand, wet with sticky juice, held out a somewhat large piece of peach flesh to her. The sweet scent was strong up close. It would be very sweet if swallowed.
“If I were to pay attention to you. Now that would be a truly bastard-like thing to do, wouldn’t it?”
Clank. The wooden spoon hit the bowl.
This guy is deliberately trying to mess with her now – feth right off into the sun, you fatherless son of a b****