Chapter 10

With that, I told the story of Pojeta, which suffered from a pirate attack, and what I had done to meet His Majesty. The permission finally fell from her mouth, which had been sipping tea silently throughout while listening.

“Do as you please. Don’t worry about travel expenses.”

“I knew you’d let me! I’ll make sure to fix your right leg, too. Please wait a little longer!”

She smiled to the fullest with a benevolent face as if she was watching a child’s tricks. At that moment, Leopold’s face overlapped over Mother’s smiling face. Then I was followed by a strange sense of incompatibility that occasionally came.

Why doesn’t Mother bring up her son even as a joke? We’re even newlyweds. I knew they weren’t friendly, but I didn’t think there wouldn’t be any word about him like this…….

Does she still hate her son?

It was a famous story in society.

A noble mother who risked her life to give birth, and gossip that such a great motherhood resulted into paralysis.

In fact, I heard that her bleeding was very severe when Leopold was born. The treatment was delayed, and as time passed, her two legs were completely unusable, but people pretended to praise them and sympathized with them.

“Mother, if you can turn back time…… When do you want to go back to?”

She did not explain exactly what caused the leg injury or what happened at the time. I’ve been pretending not to know because it’s not necessary for treatment, just guessing that it must be painful to think about memories.

Therefore, the reason why questions that I had never even thought about were thrown out was purely because of my situation, since I returned in time, and Leopold’s face, which seemed to be empty from time to time, alternately came to mind.

“I hope it’s before I had a baby.”

It was an answer that didn’t have any hesitation. When I became embarrassed because I couldn’t find anything to answer, Mother smiled lightly and added a backstory.

“You don’t have to make that expression because I’m not talking about Leopold. Around that time, my husband also passed away. It’s been a tough time.”

The story of the previous duke was a subject avoided by all the duke’s people. When the content that I only vaguely knew came out of my mother’s mouth first, I naturally wondered.

“How did you…”

“I don’t want to talk about it. Will you understand? Anyway, Hazel, have a safe trip. I look forward to it.”

But with a clear refusal, I quietly shut up and finished my meal.

When I returned to my room after dinner, Leopold rose very naturally from the sofa to greet me.

He’s never shown, even his hair, when I was desperate to see him.

I was upset by him for being mean, but this man didn’t even have an idea of what he had done.

“Do you mean to come every evening?”

I asked, trying to calm myself as much as I could. Although the choice of my words was not very good.

“Of course. We’re newlyweds, and I’m your husband. Don’t be like this, we’ll have to prepare a couple’s bedroom soon.”

With a brazen answer, he came right up to me. I was amazed by his mischievous mouth, the curved corners of his eyes, and the slickness of him trying to hold my waist without hesitation.

It was so different from before that it was embarrassing to push him away, so I couldn’t take him off harshly and barely avoided looking at him in an awkward position.

“……I’m tired.”

“I know. I’m just going to see your face.”

The touch on my waist felt as hard as a stone even though there was no force. I muttered as if I had given up on the weight of not being pushed out.

“You seem like a different person.”

“You sound like you’ve been with me.”

He whispered, his upper body slightly bent. His hot breath settled on the back of my neck. Their distance was narrowing in an unwanted direction.

It was only just before his fingertips stiffened that I grabbed his hand around my waist and dropped it, then turned my back.

“Don’t do this. Because it’s burdensome.”

I moved my feet to the window pretending to be okay because I was afraid he’ll feel my pounding heart.

Apart from my heart and determination, this kind of touch was difficult to handle. Leopold was the only man I’d ever treated as a man, and even he was a shell.

I brought up another topic with a firm voice while turning my back on the sound of footsteps following me.

“I’m leaving for Pojeta tomorrow. I got an identification card from His Majesty, and Mother said she would help me with my travel expenses.”

Originally, I planned to leave a short note while I entered the palace, but I couldn’t think of anything to say right away.

I was choosing a few words in my head in preparation for opposition, and I heard an unexpected answer.

“Take Jayden.”

He doesn’t ask me anything, but he pushes me back like this? I turned around in a panic. Leopold had a pretty relaxed face.

“I told you, what His Majesty is like. He compliments you a lot.”

Soon a certain realization came.

In the past, my husband was close to His Majesty. It couldn’t be different now, and technically, it was weird not to know the contents of my request for audience.

When my question was solved, I was somewhat discouraged.

“It’s all right. I can go anywhere by myself.”

“It’s a place where security is unstable. You could get hurt before you can even treat people.”

Worries were read in his stern warning voice.

I glanced at him. If he had shown this side of himself earlier, would I have been able to endure it a little longer? The embers of resentment and lingering feelings that could not be completely extinguished wriggle in the ashes of my heart.

It’s all right, if I just move away from him, these feelings will fade away.

“I see.”

I repeated my plans to myself, keeping my mind set over and over again. Pojeta is a diversion anyway. It only made the opportunity to leave the mansion externally, and I have a separate real destination.

Jayden’s company bothered me a little, but it’s not something that would make me lose sleep, so as soon as Pojeta’s situation calms down, I can leave without anyone knowing.

Leopold is one step closer. A low voice touched my ears with the smell of the nostalgic forest.

“It doesn’t suit a situation where you go to treat people who are injured, but…… I want you to enjoy whatever you do.”

“…….”

Sometimes his eyes looked like scenery. The sunlight pouring between the flowing river and the trees on both sides, and the leaves sitting on the water in the wind……. I wanted to fall head over heels in that green landscape.

I’m not confident that I won’t be captivated by his attitude even though he was so cruel to me. I’d rather not look.

I managed to avoid his eyes.

“I have to pack my things, so please leave.”

I opened my mouth heavily, hoping he would notice the sigh at the end of my word. Fortunately, Leopold didn’t seem to want to bother me anymore.

“Yes. Take a good rest, Hazel.”

He barely let me go slowly then I leaned my forehead against the closed door.

Why do you sound so sad? You even called me by my name. What the hell? You’re Leopold here, too. It’s the same person…….

I keep choking up at the words I couldn’t bring up.

Ah.

I hate him so much.

***

Late in the evening, Emily busily moved on an errand for me. She was a little embarrassed to leave the mansion suddenly, but anyway, she had to take care of it carefully so that there was no inconvenience.

“Emily.”

Peter called her to the dress room.

“Butler.”

From the time she entered this mansion at eighteen and worked, Peter was the Duke’s hand and foot. He handled everything perfectly, and he was indifferent and did not have many emotional ups and downs because he resembled the sincerity of the Duke and the eldest Madam.

It was also only because of Peter that she had not been able to hear gossip about the Duke for more than a decade. With gray hair overshadowing, he personally touched on his employees who had a lighter mouth than him. That’s how the stifling silence of the mansion was achieved. And the owners loved the silence.

“Your sister replied. Go ahead and check it out.”

“It’s probably something you want to know.”

Emily, who received the letter, quickly checked the contents.

“Is there anything else?”

“Yes, she says she’ll do well.”

“I hope there’s no slip of the tongue.”

“She doesn’t talk much because she’s sick. She’s also a bit shy. Don’t worry about that.”

“Okay, then take care of course.”

He disappeared from sight in an instant when he made a slight bow.

“Phew. What’s all this about?”

Muttering to herself, Emily fixed the clothes she was holding.

On the evening of the wedding a few days ago, the duke visited her personally for the first time in her life.

At first, she trembled because she thought she had made a big mistake without realizing it. It was because the owner, who was generally indifferent to what happened in the mansion, had never called any other employee except Peter.

When she endured her fear and went to the study, surprisingly, everything was extremely businesslike.

‘Report every conversation you have with Hazel from today. So that you don’t miss anything.’

It wasn’t a difficult job.

Since she stayed in the mansion as a guest after graduating from the academy, the little lady has done most of the work herself. As such, it was awkward to act like a subordinate, and Emily herself was not a sociable person, so she thought so. Of course, the total amount of their conversation was not much and it was easy to remember.

The day she asked about her family was also very short, so I thought the meeting with the Duke would be short.

‘Today, madam asked me about my personal information.’

‘Personal information? What exactly did she say?’

‘She asked me where my hometown is and who I live with.’

The change brought about by that one answer, which I thought was nothing, was really huge.