At the same moment Edel succumbed to deep sleep, an oil lamp still burned in Laslo’s chambers.
‘This has become troublesome.’
His chest was exposed through the loosely tied robe, but he was so engrossed in thought about the burdensome prisoner suddenly thrust upon him that he didn’t even feel the chill.
“Edel Lancaster…”
It had been two years since he first saw her, the daughter of the Count of Canyon, whose reputation was less than stellar, and who was soon to become the second wife of the Duke of Lancaster.
Laslo remembered that day vividly.
* * *
“What do you think, Count Krissus? Isn’t this imperial banquet quite a sight?”
It was a victory banquet celebrating the confirmation of the empire’s borders after the final war of conquest.
That day, the grand banquet hall of the imperial palace was dazzling to the point of hurting the eyes and bustling to the point of being overwhelming.
And Demarcus, the Emperor who had deliberately made him the center of attention at such an event, called him ‘Count Krissus’ as if to tease him, and scoffed.
“Well…”
Laslo suppressed a sigh that was about to escape and replied indifferently.
He found the sight of the fields, where the stars carpeted the sky above him, far more beautiful than the glittering and noisy imperial palace.
Besides, the people here were not friendly towards him.
“Is that person the mercenary who became a count this time?”
“So they say. It already makes my stomach churn to think that guy might try to be on par with us.”
“What on earth is His Majesty thinking?”
People looked down on him without much attempt to hide it. However, Laslo also looked down on them.
‘These humans are as vulgar as ever.’
He couldn’t tell if it was the mixed scent of various perfumes that made him sick, or the ill will of the nobles.
And Demarcus, who had predicted this situation precisely, was shameless.
“It’s not difficult to endure, is it? They aren’t particularly important people to you, are they?”
“Nothing here is important to me.”
“Hmm. That’s something we’ll have to see.”
He had no desire to become a noble, but the cunning and shrewd Emperor Demarcus persuaded him in a way he couldn’t refuse and took him under his wing.
He shouldn’t have made a deal with such a sinister human in the first place.
‘I shouldn’t have been so greedy for money.’
Of course, even that greed for money wasn’t for Laslo himself.
It was only to marry his sister Lynnia into a slightly better place, to be a strong backing for her.
While others envied Laslo, who had suddenly become a great noble and a rich man, he was not pleased. He knew all too well how a commoner and a mercenary turned noble would be treated.
And he knew all too well how his own sister would be treated in the marriage market for nobles.
“Tsk…”
Thinking about it only made him annoyed.
Laslo, who deliberately clicked his tongue loudly so Demarcus could hear, still sharply scanned his surroundings to fulfill his duty as the Emperor’s bodyguard.
What conversations were going on behind those distractingly fluttering fans? The guards are all in their positions. Those people look suspicious…
As such thoughts quickly flashed through his mind, his gaze, which was scanning a corner of the banquet hall, stopped unintentionally.
‘What was that woman’s name again?’
She wasn’t as much of a ‘sudden noble’ as he was, but she had been the subject of much talk recently.
‘They said she was the Duke of Lancaster’s second wife. She’s much younger than I expected. I know the rules of marriage peddling in this world.’
The young lady of the Count of Canyon, who was to become the wife of Duke Lancaster, who was over sixty, looked no older than her early twenties, no matter how he looked at her.
The Count of Canyon, who was desperate to forge marital ties with the four great families, was a snob, so he could be excused. But it was unforgivable that Duke Lancaster, who already had grown children and a long-term mistress, and who represented the old noble faction, would accept such a marriage.
‘Even if he likes young and pretty, marrying a woman who looks like his daughter. Has he lost his mind already?’
On one hand, he thought they were a match. If she disliked marrying an old man, she would have run away. The fact that she was smiling there meant that she, like her father, had traded her beauty and youth for power.
It was a bit surprising that she was praised as a candidate to become a ‘perfect noblewoman’ in terms of personality and upbringing, not just appearance, but that was also likely a rumor spread by her father.
‘That gentle and dignified face must also be the result of meticulous calculation. Well, her father is Dustin Canyon, so there’s no way his daughter would be normal.’
However, he couldn’t deny that she was beautiful.
Clean blonde hair without mixed colors, smooth white skin, and deep green eyes reminiscent of a dense forest.
She was a typical socialite, but there was something that strangely caught his eye that defied the word ‘typical’.
It was things like her smile, which remained unruffled even though she knew she was being sold off as the second wife of an old duke, her straight back, and her elegant demeanor that was maintained with practiced naturalness.
‘She’s the complete opposite of me.’
He couldn’t immediately recall what was opposite, but at that moment, it just felt that way.
‘Well, we’ll never speak to each other, I suppose.’
So he should look away now. But strangely, he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
Was it because of the Count of Canyon or the Duke of Lancaster standing beside her, or was it the sad aura he felt at first glance?
“……Slo.”
“…….”
“Hmm. Unexpected.”
Laslo, who had been staring at her, belatedly realized that Demarcus was calling him.
“You called, Your Majesty.”
“Edel Canyon. Soon to be Edel Lancaster, isn’t that right?”
Laslo felt a chill run down his spine at Demarcus’s words, which pointed exactly to where he had been looking.
“I was observing the Duke of Lancaster’s family as you instructed me to keep an eye on them.”
“Tsk, tsk. Another fine young lady is sacrificed for her father’s greed.”
Demarcus clicked his tongue as if he hadn’t heard his excuse.
He thought Demarcus would spout more useless words, but surprisingly, he stopped there and brought up another topic.
* * *
Why did something he passed over without much thought back then come to mind two years later?
‘Right, the Emperor wouldn’t have brought her back alive to give to me. Bestowing the surviving women of the Duke of Lancaster’s family as spoils of war must have had another purpose.’
A warning to enemies. That must be it.
However, Laslo felt a lingering unease from Demarcus’s gaze as he looked at him.
“Laslo. Don’t you want a woman?”
Laslo didn’t miss the childlike mischievousness in his tone.
‘Damn it, what is that slippery fellow plotting?’
He couldn’t say no in that situation. It was awkward to hand over the survivors of the Duke of Lancaster’s family to just anyone, and the future she would face if he didn’t accept her was unimaginably disgusting.
No, thinking of her in the carriage on the way to the mansion, she probably would have taken her own life before she ended up in such a situation.
‘Given the pride of having lived as a Duchess, she’d rather die than become a slave.’
Laslo detested such aristocratic pride.
Having grown up witnessing all sorts of deaths and survivals, and having always survived on the battlefield of death, the nobles’ idea of ‘dying rather than living in disgrace’ seemed truly weak and cowardly.
However, there was room for sympathy towards Edel.
‘Contrary to her aspirations, she clearly wasn’t accepted into the ducal family. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been left alone in the ducal castle while everyone else fled.’
Especially considering the place she fled to was just a warehouse on the top floor.
Perhaps she had no idea about the ducal family’s treasonous plot. Even if she did, there might have been no place for her to get involved.
On the other hand, Count Canyon knew about the treasonous plot. Even though he begged that he was merely used, neither the Emperor nor Laslo believed him.
However, they had no choice but to make a deal with him to obtain crucial information to attack the ducal family, and Edel was not included in that deal. Count Canyon severed ties with her as if she were a stranger, rather than begging for her life.
‘It’s the truly filthy ones like them. That woman…’
‘Foolishly, she must have trusted only her father.’
Laslo brought Edel in, despite knowing it would be bothersome, partly for that reason.
It was also true that the household maids kept quitting because of Lynnia’s prickly nature.
‘A woman who was a Duchess will have a hard time working as a maid. There might be friction with the other maids.’
He knew that. But he had no other place to assign the woman. Nor was he obligated to give her special treatment.
If Edel couldn’t let go of her past as a Duchess, she would surely face a worse fate, and if she accepted reality, she would live a life that wasn’t the worst.