Kaela. Kaela. Kaela.
He wanted to keep calling that name. Without any hesitation, he wanted to call her name as comfortably as a husband would call his wife after spending a long time together.
He wanted to call her name preciously with affection, not by titles like Her Highness or Grand Duchess. And her name happened to be Kaela. It suited her perfectly – she who was so fragile, sorrowful, and heartbreakingly beautiful.
Couldn’t she get just a little healthier?
Peon looked down at Kaela, who had fallen asleep exhausted, and adjusted his hold on her. He couldn’t torment his wife all night, who had vomited all the food she had eaten so deliciously at just one word from Beatrice.
He could only hold her to ensure she didn’t have bad dreams and slept soundly, licking her wounds and sucking out the venom of harsh words from her ears. Kaela, who didn’t have the stamina to handle all the affection he poured out, had groaned and moaned in pleasure before dozing off.
“…Kaela.”
Once light entered the bedroom again, he wouldn’t be able to call this name anymore. Outside, he had to maintain strict etiquette so that even the arrogant nobles wouldn’t treat Kaela too carelessly. Of course, he didn’t intend to let that situation continue for long.
There wasn’t much time left. So Peon didn’t let go of Kaela. Even this was shameless. He knew. He was ultimately just a brazen mongrel, a bastard without a father.
With no proper upbringing, he would cling to today forever. Postponing atonement and repentance, he savored every moment of lying here with Kaela, etching it deeply in his memory.
‘Did you regressed as well?’
He wanted to ask but was too afraid to do so. For Peon, regression was an opportunity. A chance to live properly, correctly this time. A chance not to repeat the sins he had committed. But would such an opportunity come so easily to a sinner?
He wasn’t sure. Or perhaps he was cowardly avoiding opening the foul-smelling box he had created, lacking the courage to face the sins piled inside.
Just a little more, just a little longer. Kaela had smiled last night, so maybe this time would be different – he nurtured hope arbitrarily. This moment felt so dreamlike, so happy, so good that he wanted to ignore everything else.
At the same time, he was filled with disgust, remembering how he had desperately ignored and dismissed his wife, seven years his junior, while being so in love with her. He held Kaela desperately.
I’ll do better. This time I’ll do better. I’ll look at you properly, listen carefully to everything you say, not miss a single expression or breath. This time, please.
Please.
Peon closed his eyes, unable to even ask for forgiveness.
****
The name Beatrice Ravalley was gradually diluted in Lusenford.
As soon as Lady Ravalley appeared, His Highness the Grand Duke immediately started going to Her Highness’s bedroom every night.
He loved her so passionately each night that the maids who attended to Her Highness’s bath would quickly turn their heads away upon seeing the red marks blooming on her fair skin, but they couldn’t help feeling satisfied.
They had worried about their miss being pushed around by the flower of high society throughout her marriage, but who would have thought? Beatrice Ravalley was treated thoroughly as an uninvited guest, and the taciturn Grand Duke didn’t even create opportunities to face her.
Today too, he had just left after staying in the bedroom until very late. As a result, the Grand Duchess started her day much later.
‘Let’s just do it.’
Both the maids and Peon had made a fuss about her being a bit under the weather. Thus Peon didn’t go all the way last night either.
As if her satisfaction was more important than his pleasure, he had embraced her incessantly in an embarrassing manner. When she cried out of sheer embarrassment, he licked away all her tears, muttering like a madman about how pretty she was.
What was so pretty? He should just fulfill his duty as a husband and be done with it.
“Oh my, at this rate, it’s no use wrapping up your neck so tightly,” Denise murmured, looking at the red marks on the inside of her wrist. Neck, shoulders, inner arms, thighs, calves, behind the ears – he had sucked and bitten every bit of soft, white skin. Denise’s smile widened, noticing it was even worse than before.
“You’ll have to dress as you usually do, Your Highness. It’s spring now, and if you wrap up everything tightly, you’ll be very hot during the day.”
“Even so, I have an interview with the inspector today. How can I show all of this?”
“Oh, Your Highness. If you’re hot during the day, you’ll get cold at night when the sweat cools. Then you’ll catch a cold again. And if we pull the collar like this and put on a shawl, it’s perfect, isn’t it? See? It’s perfectly hidden and nice.”
Kaela, who had been looking at Denise with an incredulous expression as she insisted and laughed to herself, eventually laughed along. Cecile was already smiling contentedly while tidying up around them.
“You’re so beautiful, Your Highness,” Denise murmured with great satisfaction.
“Really, really so beautiful. His Highness the Grand Duke should see this, oh, what a shame!”
Peon was very busy again today. He was already someone who moved from dawn, but he had lingered to see if Kaela, who had indigestion, could digest thin porridge well in the morning, making his day even busier.
“His Highness has already seen how beautiful Your Highness is before he left. Let’s hurry and get you ready.”
The Grand Duke had personally fed Kaela porridge throughout breakfast, insisting on having her sit on his lap after barely waking her up. He kept kissing Kaela, hardly eating his own meal.
“Your Highness shouldn’t be late for the interview.”
That’s right. The inspector was now thoroughly investigating what had happened during the process when the Grand Duchess had nearly died from eating something bad. The victim also needed to be interviewed in the investigation that had been going on for days, and today was that day.
The maids busily prepared Kaela and barely managed to send her out on time.
****
The guests who suddenly came to Lusenford gained nothing from the banquet.
Isidore had already read the detailed incident report recorded by Peon’s secretary several times but was reading it again.
Is the Grand Duke really not responsible for this incident? Of course, the Grand Duke had taken responsibility by exiling the head maid and executing five nobles who had cooperated, including the chef.
‘His Majesty the Emperor won’t be satisfied with just this.’
The reason he instinctively thought this was because he was from the Dakiten family.
They were the Empress’s family, an ordinary count’s family who had suddenly produced an Empress, became dukes, then were demoted to marquises, and had to constantly be wary of the Emperor’s mood.
Watching his father constantly prostrate himself before the Emperor, Isidore had learned firsthand that imperial power held their lives.
“I wonder if that Hyperion is properly fulfilling his role as a husband.”
The Emperor, who had unexpectedly appointed Isidore as the inspector to be sent to Lusenford, muttered with a haggard face from constantly nursing the Empress.
“My precious niece nearly died, surely he must have been negligent.”
To Isidore, it sounded as if it had to be so. And then to suddenly send Beatrice Ravalley to Lusenford, the Emperor was truly a terrifyingly frightening person.
He felt pity for his aunt who was caught by such a person, but also disliked her. After all, wasn’t it because of his aunt’s misconduct that the Dakiten family had become so diminished?
Despite being the first noble family to produce an Empress without any royal blood, they couldn’t enjoy that honor and were just stuck there with only the title of Marquis of Alemich.
‘What exactly does he want?’
His instincts and senses were directed towards his cousin, the Grand Duke, but Isidore had regrettably never been able to catch up to him.
From the start, there was no way to find any flaws in the backyard of such a monstrous man who had never lost in the struggle for hierarchy.
But the Emperor’s intention in sending even Beatrice Ravalley was clear. If Beatrice were to cause any trouble, he had to find evidence that Peon had been negligent in keeping Kaela safe.
“Are you feeling better?”
Isidore sat down, examining Kaela’s complexion.
“I’m fine. Thank you for worrying, oppa.”
“Still, I’ll make this quick. Actually, I don’t have much to ask you.”
The incident report was written too objectively, and the Grand Duke had also apologized to the Grand Duchess several times, saying he had been negligent in his management.
“That’s true,” Kaela, her face half-swollen, nodded in agreement during the interview.
“I don’t understand. How could there be such reckless underlings and local nobles?”
“There are such places, it seems.”
“It’s not your fault, Kaela.”
“I know.”
But there were many things that couldn’t be helped. She stared out the window. Things like fate, or death, were unavoidable. No matter how much you shouted until your throat was raw or struggled to escape, some things just couldn’t be changed.
“Was there really nothing else? People who weren’t punished, or events not recorded in the incident report?”
Kaela looked at Isidore again.
“There probably were. But it was my first day in Lusenford, so I didn’t know who was who. Only those with witnesses were punished, right?”
There were several who avoided execution but were banned from entering the castle and dismissed from their positions. It was natural. If the Grand Duchess had died, hardly anyone in Lusenford Castle would have survived. Even that was considering the fact that they had just gotten married.
However, there were certainly many people at the banquet. There were many voices Kaela had heard. There wasn’t enough evidence to punish all the fleeting voices. Surely some people had escaped punishment.
“After that, I was sick continuously. There are some things I’m curious about, but… there’s no evidence.”
“Curious?”
Isidore leaned forward.
“Yes. You know well about household employees too, oppa. If you don’t watch them, they betray you, steal things.”
Isidore immediately sighed and nodded at Kaela’s words. As someone who employed people, he couldn’t help but sympathize.
“Right. Our father suffered from that too. It’s so common that everyone refuses to hire without a letter of recommendation because they can’t find trustworthy people.”
“My husband worked hard to resolve this incident. But we’re a bit uneasy about something. The head maid wasn’t caugh-”
Kaela looked at Isidore.
“…Do you think the butler didn’t know?”
****
This visit from the imperial inspector should have ended, as always, with just giving Peon a wake-up call to be more vigilant.
Peon always hated it when people sent by the Emperor came to stir up Lusenford, considering it surveillance on himself, and was always uncooperative. He always made all sorts of excuses to try to drive them out.
But unlike before, Peon fully cooperated with the inspector this time, instructing them to provide everything and then leaving them be.
He didn’t even seem particularly displeased. He just went about organizing the troops and distributing new seeds to the farmers. While everyone else was tense and uncomfortable, the Grand Duke alone was calm.
“Break it.”
When the inspectors who had burst into the office broke open even the secret drawer that the butler had desperately tried to hide, the butler realized that all of this wasn’t going according to his plan.
“Take it all.”
“No, that’s…!”
No matter how he tried to stop them, he couldn’t stop the inspectors wielding imperial authority. If someone were to be punished, it should be Peon, how could they punish this loyal butler!
Baron Rolf Anderson, the butler, not only had to hand over 20 years’ worth of secrets he had been hiding, but also had to undergo an intense investigation.
He felt truly wronged! What on earth had he done? Even when he denied doing anything, the inspectors didn’t seem to believe him. The butler, suddenly becoming the focus of the investigation, was barely released after two hours.
“Your Highness, Grand Duke!”
The butler hurriedly ran to the only person who could hear his plea of innocence. Forcing strength into his wobbling knees, the only place he could go was to Peon, whom he had personally raised.
‘The expression he had while looking at the inspectors wasn’t good at all. He must have realized it. That’s right. Of course. The Grand Duchess is the Emperor’s niece. She’s not one of us.’
At least that’s what the butler thought as he rushed to Peon and implored him.
“Right now, those inspectors have turned my office upside down…! The people from Crania are saying nonsensical things and have been holding me, an innocent person, for hours under the pretext of investigation. It’s truly unjust.”
The old butler spoke with a straight posture despite his legs trembling from the investigation. He had to speak in a voice that was not too extreme, but sufficiently distressed to make Peon pity him.
That way, even if the inspectors later discovered something he hadn’t managed to hide, he could safely get through it.
Of course, the butler didn’t think at all that the inspectors would look at 20 years’ worth of account books. How could they? It’s all just a shallow trick by those Cranian bastards to flaunt their power and suppress Lusenford. The butler knew this well.
“Isn’t this what they always do? Why are you surprised now?”
But the butler didn’t expect Peon to say this while glancing at him indifferently.
“As you say, if you’re innocent, you don’t need to worry about it. I’m not worried either.”
The son the butler had raised turned his broad back and walked away.
“Don’t waver and focus on your original duties.”
The chilly air was damp. It was showing signs of rain that would briefly thaw the ground before freezing it again. The butler stared blankly at his retreating son before fumbling along the wall and entering the castle as if fleeing.
His son had been blinded by a southern woman and betrayed him. He had exiled his mother, and even said the outrageous thing about raising the southern woman’s illegitimate child. Now, was he going to turn his back on this pitiful father too?
He staggered to a deeper and deeper place, where the inspectors didn’t know and where his grown-up son no longer came, and slumped down.
Was it because he was worn out from the investigation? Or was it because he was shocked anew? It would get better after some rest.
‘The Grand Duke is all grown up now, so he must have said the right thing. That’s right. I raised him well.’
That’s how it is. He raised him well. But why did it feel so chilling?
“It seems something has happened.”
The butler looked up. Beatrice, who used to play with young Peon in this place, was standing in the darkness.
“Did Isidore go too far?”
She asked from the darkness. Her calm tone carried no emotion.
“And Peon didn’t care?”
That was precisely the question the butler had been waiting and longing for.
