I remembered Cavebrandt Green as a cold and frigid man.
Excluding his final moments, which were filled with rage and despair, the Cavebrandt from my previous life—the one Rishi knew—was like a wind blowing across the northern ice fields.
But at this very moment, the Kay in front of Rishi was hotter than the summer sun.
Kay suddenly scooped Rishi up into his arms.
“Ah!”
Held bridal-style, Rishi let out a short, involuntary cry and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. It was her first time being held this way, and the sudden height made her nervous.
“You’re proactive, Rishi.”
“You’re quite playful, Kay. Put me down.”
“I don’t want to.”
Kay kept walking toward the main building with Rishi in his arms.
“What if someone sees us?”
“Rest assured, Rishi; there is no one who would find it suspicious regardless of what I do in my own mansion.”
“That’s not what I meant……”
“Are you embarrassed?”
Rishi kept her lips tightly sealed, feeling that admitting her embarrassment would be a sign of defeat.
“If you say you’re embarrassed, I’ll put you down, Rishi.”
“Why would I feel embarrassed about anything you do in my mansion?”
Kay laughed aloud, clearly delighted.
“You’re right, Rishi.”
Kay didn’t point out that Rishi had referred to the place as “my mansion.” Only then did the tension leave her body. Although the height was intimidating, Kay’s chest was broad and his arms were solid. There was no chance he would drop her.
Kay carried her into the bedroom and placed her carefully onto the sofa, which was still piled high with Nathan’s clothes.
“Change into my robe, Rishi. I’ll call for a tailor, but it would be best if you stayed in this room wearing my robe until tomorrow.”
“Kay, I……!”
“I will do the same.”
*I am not a flower in a greenhouse. Don’t think you can handle me however you please.*
The words she intended to say were cut short by Kay’s voice.
“I’ll wear a robe and stay in this room all day today, too. That would be fair, wouldn’t it?”
Rishi closed her mouth and looked up at him silently.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because it’s unexpected.”
“What is?”
“I thought we had an arranged marriage for the sake of our respective positions.”
“Regardless of what precedes it, a marriage is a marriage, and the fact that you have become my wife does not change. If you wanted a purely professional relationship, put that wish away, Rishi. Because this is the kind of person I am.”
In truth, Kay was not this kind of person. He was the one most surprised by his own attitude toward her.
*The only mate for a lifetime; I must leave only my scent on her.*
To be thinking such nonsense. If his subordinates heard this, they would be clutching their stomachs with laughter and teasing him for at least five years.
‘However…….’
Kay looked down at Rishi, who sat with a strange expression—partly dissatisfied, partly amused. Her long, silver hair, reaching down to her waist, was lovely. Her demeanor—being a flower of the House Witlow yet wearing men’s clothes without a care—amused him.
Though it would have amused him even more if those clothes were his.
‘An interesting woman.’
Kay liked things that were interesting. Rishi was the first interesting person he had met in a long time, and he didn’t dislike the way he changed when he was in front of her.
“I will…… change.”
Eventually, Rishi conceded.
“Go ahead.”
“Don’t look.”
“We’re a married couple, aren’t we?”
Rishi glared at him intensely. Kay found even that look cute.
“I understand. I won’t look.”
As Kay turned away, the rustling sound of clothes being removed pricked at his hearing, which was several times sharper than an ordinary person’s. A strangely hot sensation gathered in his lower abdomen. He cleared his throat—*ahem, ahem*—to shake off the sound of her undressing.
“I’m done changing.”
“I see.”
“You should change, too.”
“I will. Ah, you may watch me as I change.”
“I won’t look.”
A laugh escaped him at the sight of Rishi stubbornly turning away.
“I need a personal maid,” Rishi said while Kay was changing. “Someone from a good family who has received quality education and is tight-lipped.”
“I’ll tell Jamie.”
“And in a few days, Viscount Alford Hutchis will likely come looking for me.”
*Viscount Alford Hutchis? Who is that?*
He belatedly remembered the man who was supposed to marry Rishi.
“That man is looking for me?”
“Or looking for me.”
When Kay turned around, having finished changing into his robe, Rishi still had her back turned to him.
“I’m all changed, Rishi.”
Rishi, perhaps thinking Kay had lied, turned her head slightly to verify he was properly dressed before turning her whole body around. She kept her hands neatly folded over her thighs, and curiously, that polite posture looked arrogant when Rishi did it.
“Why would Alford Hutchis come looking for me, or you?”
“He will probably say he cannot acknowledge our marriage and demand that you hand me over. He might even act rudely, refusing to leave until I am surrendered.”
“Hmm. You seem to know him well, even though you’ve never seen him.”
“I happen to know many things.”
Rishi gestured toward the sofa, and Kay subconsciously pushed the heap of Nathan’s clothes aside to make a spot for her. She sat down in the empty space without saying thank you, as if it were natural for Kay to do such things for her.
“What shall I do about that man, Rishi? Shall I slit his throat so he never appears before your eyes again?”
Rishi smiled calmly.
“There’s no need for that. Just have the Lavent gold mine transferred from him. And give me that gold mine as a wedding gift.”
Rishi knew Alford well. Even if she married Kay, Alford would not give up easily. Perhaps by now, he was already staying at the Duchy, acting rudely and demanding she be brought out.
Furthermore, Rishi knew Britney well. Britney would not accept that Rishi had secured the Count of Green. By now, she was likely unable to sleep from jealousy, racking her brain to devise schemes to drive a wedge between Rishi and Kay.
Because Rishi knew them both so well, she knew their limitations. Alford would definitely come here.
“A wedding gift, you say……”
Kay’s voice was cold. Rishi looked up at him without wavering.
“You seem to be under a misunderstanding, Rishi. I have no obligation to give you a wedding gift. You agreed not to reveal that I am a beastman, and I agreed to take you from the Witlow family and make you the Countess of Green. I believe our accounts are settled.”
“The Count of Green is not very accurate with his calculations. Since what I hold is your lifeline, don’t you think this marriage of ours is heavily tilted in one direction?”
“I don’t think so, Rishi.”
Kay strode across, lifted Rishi’s chin with his index finger, and a somber bloodlust rose in his ash-blue eyes.
“Because what I hold is your lifeline as well.”
Once again, Rishi’s eyes did not waver. She allowed his bloodlust—which felt like it might rip her throat out at any moment—to wash over her without the slightest hint of fear. Kay liked her attitude, but he did not withdraw his bloodlust. He wanted to know how far she could go while being choked by it.
“What a petty man……”
Because these unexpected words slipped out between her full lips, Kay’s bloodlust crumbled. The corners of Rishi’s lips curled up slightly.
“I didn’t know the great Count of Green was a man who couldn’t even gift a single Lavent gold mine to his stubborn and greedy wife.”
Rishi muttered indifferently. Kay ended up bursting into laughter.
“Don’t make me out to be such an incompetent man, Rishi.”
“I’ll see how you perform.”
“You are not only stubborn and greedy, but you are also difficult.”
“You’ll have to get used to it.”
Kay’s eyes curved into crescent moons. He stared intently at Rishi for a moment before asking, “What do you want to do with the Lavent gold mine?”
“Having lived for a while, I’ve realized that one needs a lot of money in this world.”
“How much could you have possibly lived?”
“I’ve lived enough to surprise you.”
Rishi stood up and walked toward the window. Her silver hair shone brilliantly in the sunlight pouring through the glass. Kay stared, mesmerized, at the hem of her gown that swayed gracefully with every step.
It was just a small woman walking, yet he couldn’t understand why he felt so drawn to her, as if the gravity of the world were concentrated on her.
“The House Green is a family of such high honor that they receive respect from everyone, even without money. But respect alone is not enough.”
Rishi said, keeping her gaze fixed outside the window. Surrounded by sunlight, she looked as if she might disappear to a place Kay could never reach. He stepped closer to her side.
“Rishi, what exactly are you trying to do?”
“First the sweltering South. Then the treacherous West, the cold North, and finally, the prosperous East.”
Rishi turned her head toward Kay.
“I will place them all beneath my feet.”
Kay furrowed his brows slightly.
“Your dreams are grand, Rishi. Even the emperors of the Gavizar Empire could not fulfill that aspiration.”
The Gavizar Empire was the most prosperous nation on the Elerond continent. The successive emperors had tried various ways to place the continent beneath their feet, but none had succeeded. Kay thought that Rishi, who had lived quietly in the Witlow estate, was merely dreaming of something absurd because she did not know the world.
“Well, we shall see whether the gold mines of Lavent become a wallet to fill my own greed, or a stepping stone to place this continent beneath my feet.”
Rishi’s index finger poked Kay’s chest. Her light purple eyes, looking up at him, glinted with a hint of playfulness.
“If you are a man with the nerve for it, try investing in me.”
In truth, Kay could have given her the gold mines of Lavent as a gift as many times as she wanted. Whether she bought dresses or necklaces with the profits, he didn’t mind at all. He simply enjoyed exchanging these idle conversations with her.
Kay did not believe in Rishi’s ambition to place the continent beneath her feet. If she were to enjoy luxury with the gold mines, he would just tease her a little by bringing up today’s conversation, and then smile and tell her it was alright anyway.
Thinking this, Kay nodded.
“Understood, Countess Green. I shall gift you the gold mines of Lavent.”