Since morning, the Grand Duchess’s maids had been uncharacteristically frantic.
“How about this one?”
To the question, Kaella smiled listlessly.
“Anything is fine.”
It truly didn’t matter to her, but the maids seemed determined not to let the day pass easily. Their focus was more cautious than the Lyussenford scouts patrolling the border, and sharper than the knights guarding the Soleil Palace where the Emperor resided.
“What do you mean ‘it doesn’t matter’! This is where you’ll face those wicked nobles again! You must show them the dignity of a Lady Ostain!”
This was the first gathering of Northern noblewomen since the Grand Duchess had recovered from her near-death experience at the welcome banquet. The maids had been deeply shocked by the frivolous, overbearing behavior the Northern nobles had displayed back then.
That first impression had been so deeply ingrained that the maids, assuming all Northern nobles were alike, poured all their effort into adorning the Grand Duchess. It was the most basic rule of high society: the more enemies you have, the more splendidly you must dress and arm yourself.
“This sky blue matches Your Highness’s eye color perfectly.”
“This vibrant blue is also quite lovely.”
It was the first time Kaella had possessed such a wealth of jewels as the Grand Duchess of Lyussenford. There were pieces she had received as gifts from foreign envoys at the time of her marriage, and in addition to her own jewelry from her time as Lady Ostain, she had brought every piece that belonged to her mother, the Duchess Monde.
These were the things that had been stripped away when her father died in vain during her previous marriage. When her father had told her to take everything, she had promptly packed them up. As long as they remained in her hands, even if she were to be stripped of her title later, the jewels would remain.
The bride who had been so poor and wretched that she drew scorn had become immensely wealthy. Should she be thankful, given that on top of the jewels, there was also the ample property her father had set aside for her?
*Not a chance.*
Kaella had begun her life as the Grand Duchess of Lyussenford by collapsing after eating the Perenko. In a place where being frail was a sin and failing to consume what everyone else ate was incomprehensible, she was a stranger who would never blend in.
Before she died, she had tried fiercely to be recognized, but she only realized when she was imprisoned that no matter how much she tried, it was futile. This time, she didn’t even have the motivation to try; perhaps she would be remembered in history simply as ‘the Grand Duchess who failed to adapt to Lyussenford.’ No, everything would end before she could even be remembered.
“What is the matter, Your Highness? Your complexion is not good.”
The gazes of the Lyussenford nobles were full of contempt and reproach. Just remembering that peculiar look—which would soften only when Kaella constantly proved herself, only to return to its original state soon after—made her feel suffocated.
“Are you feeling unwell?”
The maids had just dropped everything to crowd around Kaella when there was a knock at the door. A maid who had been waiting outside opened it.
“Excuse me. Your Highness, the time is up. You must leave now.”
With the head maid absent, the butler had appeared.
“What are you talking about? There is still plenty of time. She hasn’t even finished getting ready yet.”
“Punctuality is of the utmost importance in Lyussenford. Since this is an event hosted by Your Highness, you must go out early and greet the arriving guests.”
“What? Where is such a rule written? The people coming now are the ones who have come to pay their respects to Your Highness!”
“Those who are arriving are at least of higher status than you, so it would be best to watch your tongue. Your Highness, please hurry. You are far too late.”
See. Nothing had changed. There were more than a few people who looked askance at Kaella, who was taking the place of Beatrice Lavalle while styling herself as the parent or guardian of Peon.
“Your Highness is not in good health. The doctor told her to be careful, so she must move slowly.”
Cecil, having held her tongue once, spoke clearly.
“Even so, you must not ignore the customs of Lyussenford. The host must greet the arriving guests in advance.”
“Since when did such a custom exist in Lyussenford?”
A low voice echoed through the corridor built of cold stone. Kaella, who had been motionless, flinched for the first time. The Grand Duke, walking with heavy strides, passed the butler and entered the room.
“It’s cold. Close the door.”
As he entered, wearing a cloak trimmed with black fur around the collar, the large room felt suddenly filled.
Kaella reluctantly rose from her seat. Peon immediately stopped her.
“No, Your Highness, please sit. I did not come to disturb you.”
Not ‘sit down,’ but ‘please sit.’ The butler was visibly surprised to hear the Grand Duke using honorifics toward the Grand Duchess.
“A host greets guests when the host feels like it; since when did that become a custom of Lyussenford, Rolf?”
Peon turned toward the butler, motioning for the maids to continue tending to the Grand Duchess.
“I have been here for about 20 years, yet I have never heard of such a custom.”
“That is, among the noblewomen…”
“Even if such a thing existed, local customs do not supersede Imperial law.”
If the Grand Duchess went out first to greet the Northern noblewomen, that was exactly where she would be looked down upon. Was Kaella in a position to receive greetings, or to give them? The reason the butler was insisting that the young Grand Duchess show deference to the noblewomen was obvious.
“You are very well aware of the hierarchy of status yourself.”
Isn’t that why you taught the maid, ‘Watch your tongue regarding noblewomen of higher status than you’?
“It would be unnecessary for me to recite what the Grand Duchess’s status is here.”
The maids kept glancing at the Grand Duke while they fixed Kaella’s hair. The atmosphere emanating from his entire being overwhelmed everyone in the room. Even the butler, with his tall, sturdy build, was completely suppressed and could not say a word.
“If you truly want to express that we are welcoming guests to Lyussenford castle, it would be best if you went out to greet them yourself.”
Peon looked down at the butler. He said nothing more about the need to show courtesy to the Grand Duchess; that did not need to be said. If a moment came when it *did* have to be said, the butler would have to step down from his position.
“Y-yes, yes!”
The butler answered with a trembling voice, turned, and hurried out.
While everyone held their breath, reading the Grand Duke’s mood, only Kaella’s expression did not change. She was very familiar with this heavy, suffocating atmosphere. She knew exactly how the butler felt. If Peon put his mind to it, he could be devastatingly sharp, leaving the listener feeling utterly humiliated. Still, by his standards, he had been quite lenient.
*…Wait, could it be that the butler is already out of favor? That shouldn’t be the case, should it?*
Peon spoke more to people he valued and, aside from necessary words, said absolutely nothing to people he didn’t care about. Surely, the butler, Rolf, was someone who prided himself on having raised Peon, and he should have been coaxed and mollified more gently. Yet, even now, Peon had cast him aside without mercy.
Just as Kaella was lost in thought, finding it all very strange, Peon spoke.
“…I apologize. I have nothing but apologies to offer you, Your Highness. I must ask you to reorganize the internal staff.”
‘Reorganize the internal staff.’ That meant he would even dismiss Rolf. The fact that he was telling Kaella to personally ‘organize’ it made her eyelashes flutter.
“How could I meddle in a place that you govern, Your Highness? I cannot do that.”
“It is in this state precisely because I have managed it, to my shame.”
Peon replied through gritted teeth. Then, noticing Kaella watching him, he quickly masked his expression.
“Please change it as you see fit. From now on, this is a place for you to tend to.”
By then, the dressing was finished, and the maids hurriedly stepped back. Peon approached Kaella before she could stand. Kaella looked at the mirror that held his reflection. The glass was polished until it shone, without a single speck of dust.
Unlike the Grand Duchess’s bedroom before she died, which always showed spots that were poorly cleaned, this place was pristine. With the head maid gone, the maids were overly cautious of the Grand Duchess.
“Of course, please do so slowly, so as not to harm your health.”
He gestured behind him. At the flick of his finger, Sir Wilberg, who had approached silently, opened a box and held it out respectfully.
“Oh!”
“My goodness!”
Good heavens. Even the maids from Ostain, where gold was said to flow like a river, were taken aback by the incredible sparkle inside the box.
“I prepared this because I thought it would match the ring. I am glad it was crafted in time.”
The necklace, lifted by Peon’s gloved hands, was incredibly heavy. It draped over Kaella’s neck and collarbone, which had been bare moments before. It was so flamboyant that every time it caught the light, it reflected in a dazzling array that was nearly blinding.
Kaella’s lips parted in surprise at the size of the diamond embedded in the center. Before she could speak, Peon clasped the necklace around her neck.
“I have heard that a husband establishes the dignity of his wife.”
Usually, it was known to be the opposite, but no one in the room dared to step forward and say that the Grand Duke’s words were wrong.
“I worry that I may bring disgrace, as I am clumsy and have never done this before.”
It was an excessively humble remark. One might wonder if the Grand Duke of Lyussenford should have to bow his head so much to his wife, but in truth, he had to. Peon knew better than anyone that he, a mere Grand Duke of Lyussenford, a corrupt illegitimate child of the Empress, someone less than a mongrel, could not have dared to marry Kaella, Lady Ostain.
If the Emperor, who had coveted the wealthy Ostain, had not murdered his brother by faking a hunting accident, cunningly stripped away his lands and titles, and then sold Kaella off to the North like a piece of merchandise to keep Peon in check, she would have been a noble lady he could not have dared to even look upon. To him, who had struggled every day to survive, a puppet who had lost everything had fallen into his lap. The puppet had been deeply miserable.
That the two had ended up married again after the regression was, as far as Peon was concerned, something so absurd it left him speechless—a humiliation for Lady Ostain. For the granddaughter of a former Emperor, who could have married any foreign prince, to marry a mere bastard. From Kaella’s perspective, she must want to die.
“Why is this…”
“It is the raw stone I showed you before we were married. Are you not pleased with it?”
“I only just received a new one not long ago.”
As she spoke cautiously in a small voice, Peon leaned in closer. As the distance between the Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess closed, the knights and maids stepped back on their own.
“Did I not say that all twelve raw stones I showed you then belonged to you?”
The voice whispering quietly in her ear was so gentle that she could hardly believe it was Peon’s. That was why Kaella remained terrified.
*Why does he keep being good to me? He must hate me because he couldn’t marry Beatrice Lavalle. He should. That’s how it should be.*
“I suppose I will have to keep giving you gifts until you are used to it. If I give them to you until you grow tired of them, will you eventually accept them as a matter of course?”
Kaella looked at the kindly smiling Peon in the mirror with a frozen gaze.
*Why is this man acting this way?*
Everything was straying, little by little, from what Kaella had known. No, it had been straying for quite a while now.
*Is this yet another trap?*
Peon, who had endured the Emperor’s persecution and insults that drained a person’s blood for so long, was no easy opponent. His extraordinary mental strength, bold decisiveness, and his superb martial and leadership skills acquired through desperate survival in a barren environment had made him the master of the North. If he had been given more time, he would have surely defeated the Emperor. The Emperor would have dealt with him all the more quickly because he knew that.
In any case, why was such a great man acting so softly toward the wretched, plain Kaella?
He wouldn’t do it without a reason. He surely had an objective.
“We have only just begun, so why do you keep refusing? It’s not as if the marriage can be undone.”
Peon said calmly, finishing the dressing that the maids hadn’t been able to complete. While Kaella hurriedly grabbed the earrings to put them on herself because he tried to do it for her, he tended to her just as he had occasionally taken care of the tantrum-throwing Beatrice when he was a boy.
“I can do it…”
“It is all done.”
His tone wasn’t one of dismissal, but rather an, “It’s all done, bear with it a little longer,” like an older brother soothing a whining younger sister.
People say that men who adore their wives or those who cater to the whims of their mistresses know how to adjust a lady’s attire, but she hadn’t known Peon could do such things. No, more precisely, she hadn’t known Peon would take care of *Kaella*.
And so, she simply watched, stiff and frozen, as the white fur wrapped softly around her shoulders.
“Surely, our Grand Duchess wouldn’t know how well men can express their love.”
The words Beatrice Lavalle had once whispered to prick at her heart, smiling brightly while peeking out from behind a fluttering fan when Kaella was struggling to hold onto her position as Grand Duchess, still rang clear. That was true. Kaella really knew nothing of such things; she only knew how to be devoted and be the one who gave.
Therefore, she truly did not know why this man was acting this way. There must be an objective; she had to find out what it was…
*…No, it’s fine if I just die. That’s all I know how to do anyway.*
Kaella forcibly erased her useless worries and fears, then took the hand Peon extended and rose from her seat.
“How can I thank you…”
The necklace, which felt incredibly heavy, must have been worth an enormous fortune. One could easily buy a castle with it. As she toyed with it, Kaella began her awkward expression of gratitude.
“That’s enough.”
Peon, who had been checking if the Grand Duchess was well-wrapped in her warm new fur, cut her thanks short.
“That much is sufficient.”
“To thank you?”
At Kaella’s blank question, Peon smiled brightly.
” ‘Thank you.’ ”
It was exactly the same look as the boy before he was dragged away to Lyussenford—the smile of a boy laughing in high spirits. His violet eyes were full of vitality, filled with pure, unadulterated joy. It was impossible to project any deception or ulterior motive onto that face.
“Shall we go? I will escort you today.”
If a husband, who respects his wife from beginning to end, were to appear in the seat of the noblewomen and escort his wife, that wife’s status would pierce the heavens. Before she died, the very thing Kaella had wanted and longed for so much was unfolding into reality.
Walking through the cold, frigid corridor of Lyussenford Castle, where she had always trembled alone, she was now surrounded by maids and knights, with Peon by her side.
She did not cry or rejoice with overwhelming emotion. She knew all too well that all of this was a futile, hollow thing.
Walking while gazing blankly at the stone-vaulted ceiling, she failed to notice the gaze that occasionally reached her from the side. That gaze was flickering, deeply unsettled.