Chapter 15.4 - ch11

At Rafael’s call, Gerard reluctantly opened his mouth and answered.

“Yes, Your Excellency.”

“Considering your blatant rudeness, the reputation of the Bavarian family is questionable. This time I’ll forgive you because of my wife, but I will not give the same mercy twice.”

Rafael glowered at Gerard as a warning. Noticing Rafael’s warning, a cold sweat broke out on Gerard’s forehead. Rafael was still able to breathe fire, even after just being woken up from his sleep. The fear of the beast of a man, standing in front of him, made him feel dizzy.

Only then did Gerard realise the sheer danger that Rafael posed. It seemed that the rumours that he was an outstanding swordsman, enough to reach the level of Sword Master soon were indeed true. Until a few years ago, he was a brutal butcher who was called the ‘demon of the battlefield’.

Gerard’s spine soon became cold as ice. He realised that Rafael’s warning of ‘I will not give the same mercy twice’ was true. Even now his fiery eyes were shining brightly and were focusing on Gerard’s hands and legs, as if wondering which side he should first cut. The moment Gerard realized this, his jaw briefly twitched.

“Tha…thank you for your generosity, Your Excellency, Marquis of Carnesis.”

This time, Gerard, who gave a polite and cordial greeting from his heart, hurriedly left as if he was running away. ‘If I go back like this, I’ll be in trouble with my master, but at this moment… that’s quite acceptable.’ Feeling the sinister gaze on his back, Gerard quickly dragged his limbs that weren’t moving and hurried to escape from the mansion.

“……”

Now the only people left in the foyer were Annette and Rafael. Annette felt Rafael’s scorching gaze on her. She nervously swallowed her saliva, raised her trembling eyes and then looked up at him.

“I’m sorry, Rafael. You felt bad, didn’t you?”

Annette was deeply depressed by what just happened, so she frankly apologized to Rafael. She pretended to be bold, but in fact, she was so surprised that her heart was pounding wildly. In her previous life, she was sick because of the first night, so she didn’t know something like this had happened. Her own family had ignored and disrespected Rafael so badly.

Annette now finally realised why Rafael was so cold to her when she woke up in her previous life. He had been terribly insulted by her family while she was sick. She was sorry for hating him and calling him cold-blooded without knowing what had happened.

Fortunately, Rafael’s eyes, which looked down on Annette, were no longer blazing with fire. He accepted Annette’s apology without being sarcastic or angry at her.

“I don’t really care.”

Rafael calmly lied about it even though he was just planning to dismember Gerard. When he recalled Annette’s small body lashing out at her loyal, hard-working butler, he felt his anger cool down. Actually, he thought it was a bit fun.

However, he didn’t have any intention to let this go. Although Annette sided with him, he had no idea how she would have acted behind his back. Rafael’s hatred and distrust towards the people of Bavaria were that deep. He spat out harsh words at Annette who was looking up at him.

“It seems the people of Bavaria should really pay attention to educate their servants in proper manners. What happened just now was unacceptable.”

Rafael thought maybe Annette would get angry after hearing what he said. The people of the Bavarian family were arrogant to their bones and their pride was as high as the sky. But Annette’s reaction was very unexpected.

“I know. Well, they’ll take care of it themselves. Now I’m a part of the House of Carnesis.”

Annette replied, recalling her father who abandoned her. In her previous life, she couldn’t get out of the shadow of being his good daughter, but this time she had no intention of doing that again. Rafael, who complained and cared for her until the end, was more family to her than her father, who never showed his face until the day she died.

However Rafael seemed rather surprised to hear Annette’s answer. His cold expression in front of her crumbled for the first time, revealing his honest feelings to her. Annette, on seeing this, somehow felt a little closer to him. As she was in the mood, she looked up at Rafael and asked him with a pitiful expression.

“You’re not thinking of getting rid of me now, right? I just fought with my family and now I have nowhere to go.”

“You’re talking nonsense.”

Rafael held a straight face at her joke. It was clear that he still had no intention of accepting Annette as his family. But Annette wasn’t particularly hurt. In a way, this could have become a serious family conflict, but she was grateful that Rafael had let go of his anger.

“So why did Gerard come here? I thought he was running errands earlier.”

Annette tilted her head, recalling the purpose of Gerard’s visit that she had forgotten for a while. Then Rafael raised his hand with an expressionless face and pointed somewhere. It was where Gerard had been standing before. There were a lot of luxurious boxes piled up there.

Annette wondered what those boxes were, so she looked closely at them. The logo engraved with gold foil on its packaging stood out.

They were all logos of famous workshops in the Deltium. Most of them dealt with wedding gifts as main products.

“No way…Don’t tell me those.”

Annette’s eyes widened. Come to think of it, the shapes of the boxes seemed familiar. Annette’s cheeks paled when she realized something. Those boxes that were piled up on the ground now…were probably wedding presents. They were all precious and rare gifts that Rafael had sent to her family before the marriage.

‘Now… Did you just return the wedding gifts sent by your son-in-law?’ 

At this point, Gerard’s rudeness comparatively felt rather trivial.

Annette gasped at the contempt of her own family that was beyond imagination. ‘How can you return the gifts that Rafael had sent with all his love?’ She had never heard anything about this in her previous life. Rafael, who opened his mouth just in time, confirmed Annette’s suspicions.

“Your father rejected the gifts because they were lacking in his eyes. These things don’t fit the Bavarian Duke’s standards. It seems they’re not useful to him. So he sent them all back.”

Standing with his arms folded, Rafael groaned. Now that she saw him properly, she could see he was dressed in a loose outfit with its front unbuttoned and his deep blue eyes were bloodshot. It seemed he didn’t sleep well last night. In such a state, he experienced such a turmoil so early in the morning, so Annette had nothing to say to him even if he hated and blamed her at this point.

Annette was very upset. It was ridiculous to question the utility of a wedding gift. It was clear that he intended to brutally insult Rafael and break his spirit. Her father, Allamand, was a character who wouldn’t hesitate to do something like this.

‘If I had known it would be like this, I’d rather not have agreed to the marriage.’

The more she thought about it, the more angry and sad she became. Annette’s false accusation prevented her from becoming a Crown Princess. Fortunately, Annette’s family took care of it, but in the process, she had to take care of the royal family. In a word, to bury this matter for once and for all, her father, Allamand married her off to Rafael. So he abandoned his own daughter, in an attempt to satisfy the king.

King Selgratis cared about the illegitimate status of Rafael. So in order to make up for his poor lineage, the king tried to marry him with a lady of a prestigious family. Just in time, Annette, who was ‘framed’, had become the best choice for it.

Her father must have been very displeased with this wedding. But instead of directly turning down the king who proposed this wedding, Allamand chose to insult the easy Rafael. Annette thought this was very cowardly of her father.

“I’m so sorry, Rafael. I don’t have the face to see you. I…I’ll make sure this doesn’t happen again next time.”

Rafael loosened his arms and looked at Annette, who was apologizing. With her head bowed down, he couldn’t see her face, but listening to her voice, he could feel her sincere apology. Her desperate voice and bent neck were enough to soften his wicked self.

Rafael thought he shouldn’t just let it go here. Even though Annette seemed to be reflecting on her family’s behaviour, she was still a member of the Bavarian family. You never know when she would cunningly change her stance and take sides with her father.

Therefore, Rafael opened his mouth to scold Annette. But strangely enough, he couldn’t think of any mean words to say to her.

‘What’s wrong with me?’

Rafael frowned for a moment and looked down at Annette’s small head. In the end, only a perfunctory warning came out of his mouth.

“Make sure that this doesn’t happen in the future again. Do you understand me?”

“Understood.”

Rafael left the room after saying this. Annette turned sadly and looked at Rafael’s back. She thought he was going to get upset with her, but unexpectedly he didn’t say anything. It was a miracle that it ended like this. At least, she hoped that when she had openly sided with him, his heart softened towards her a little.

Annette, who was left alone, blinked her eyes a couple of times and sighed heavily. She had just declared to cut off all her ties with her family, but surprisingly she did not regret it. It was her father who let go off her first anyway.

“It’s all right. It was a good decision.”

Annette comforted herself. She married Rafael and now was his wife. So of course, it was right to side with him. Although Rafael was an illegitimate child, he was still a nobleman and a war hero who was recognized by the royal family. No matter how big and powerful the Duke of Bavaria was, he had no right to insult Rafael like this.

There was only one strange part. Annette blinked and pondered.

“But why bother sending the gifts back?”

Annette felt that somehow, her father might be hiding another intention…..a very insidious intention.