Chapter 53

“Sister.”

Mariel walked up to her and hugged her tightly.

“I love you more than anything in the world, Sister.”

The child’s warmth traveled to Asella, and the warm, fuzzy feeling made her eyes flush slightly.

“I love you, Sister.”

For some reason, the tip of her nose was cold, and she felt her throat tighten, and she couldn’t answer right away.

“I love you too.”

Only after a few minutes did the words finally come out of her lips.

However, for Mariel, it was a good enough answer. The child giggled and dug deeper into her arms.

Yawn.

After a moment, she covered her mouth with the palm of her hand and let out a long yawn.

It was pretty late. Although it was relatively bright, thanks to the lights lit here and there in the garden, Mariel usually would have already been asleep a few hours ago.

“You look tired.”

Even though the party didn’t start until a later time of the day, the family had a lot of work to do. Mariel must have been preparing since dawn to receive the guests. She was probably exhausted, even if she didn’t show it to Asella.

“You must be sleepy, Mariel.”

“No! I’m not sleepy!”

“By the look in your eyes, you have fallen asleep a long time ago.”

She shook her head in denial and turned away so that Asella wouldn’t be able to see her face. Asella patted her sister’s head and soothed her.

“You should go to bed early, so you can wake up early tomorrow.”

“But I want to talk to Sister more.”

A trickle of disappointment drifted out of Mariel’s voice. At the same time, she yawned several times and rubbed her sleepy eyes.

Asella pulled a large blanket from one of the shelves and draped it over Mariel, tapping on the sofa beside her, gesturing for her to lay down.

“You can talk to your sister every day now.”

“Really?”

“Of course. We’ll eat together, take walks together, sleep together….”

“You can’t do that!”

Mariel’s sleepy eyes were fluttering, but suddenly her eyes widened, and she exclaimed.

“You can’t sleep with me! Sister needs to sleep with His Highness!”

In an instant, Asella’s face turned bright red. She stammered and asked.

“Wha- Who told you that?”

“Viscountess Etman! She said that when a man and a woman get married, they sleep in the same bed, and if they sleep together holding hands, they can have babies. She said Mother and Father did it every day. That’s how my sister and I were born…”

“That’s enough, Mariel.”

Asella hurriedly interrupted Mariel’s words.

Now, she was really fortunate that she was able to hide her hot face behind a veil. Her face was so hot that it was almost steaming.

“Ah, I get it. Go to sleep now, okay?”

“Okay.”

Mariel could no longer stand how heavy her head felt; her eyelids slowly went up and down before her eyes closed completely.

Within a few minutes, the sound of her steady breathing spread silently through the carriage.

She gently stroked her sleeping sister’s forehead, and after a moment, she got up and sat down on the seat across from her. When she turned her head to the side, she could see through the wide window.

‘I couldn’t see the inside of the carriage earlier.’

Looking closer, she realized that the window had no hidden layer to conceal the inside of the carriage.

‘I suppose the windows were also made of magic stones.’

She had no idea how many magic stones had been used for this one carriage.

Giving up on the thought, she averted her gaze.

She turned her attention to what was going on outside the carriage; what she faced was the back of that man, Calix Benvito.

When did he change his clothes? Instead of the formal white wear he had worn earlier, he was wearing a black uniform.

While the white ceremonial dress contrasted with his black hair and created a luxurious and bright aura around him, the black uniform absorbed his atmosphere and created a sense of intimidation that made him hard to approach.

He was a man who looked good in black.

‘…Pathetic.’

In a situation where she might lose her life at any moment, how could she be leisurely inspecting and evaluating the appearance of that man?

It was a passing thought, but Asella judged herself over it.

Then, she saw Philip approaching the Grand Duke with a hesitant look on his face. As soon as the dialogue between the Grand Duke and Ryzen was over, he called out to him.

‘What are they talking about?’

Philip had a smile on his face; he was used to hiding his emotions well, just like a snake.

After a while, Philip’s face, which at first had a demeaning air around it, brightened beyond recognition. It was the look he got when he got what he wanted.

‘Why on earth…’

Phillip was looking this happy, but his smile didn’t mean anything good for her no matter how she thought of it.

Asella watched them as the corner of her heart was filling up with anxiety.

It was then that Calix Benvito turned around.

“…!”

At that moment, Asella flinched back, trembling like a fish out of water.

His bright red eyes were staring at the window of the carriage exactly where she was sitting.

The window was made of magic stone, which made it impossible to be seen from the outside. Even so, she was surprised by the way he looked at her as if he could see every inch of her. Her body naturally curled up, and she froze.

When she saw Ryzen saying something to the Grand Duke, the man nodded his head indifferently and gave a short command. A moment later, a soldier came out leading a large black horse.

‘He isn’t riding this carriage with us?’

She couldn’t see any other carriages, so she assumed that they would use the carriages along with the Grand Duke since the carriage had so much space. However, he seemed to be riding a horse.

Regardless, she felt fortunate.

The man mounted his horse without a moment’s delay and grabbed the reins tightly. Several knights followed him and mounted their horses.

‘I suppose we’ll be leaving soon.’

However, he turned his horse in the opposite direction of the carriage. Asella’s eyes blinked quickly.

‘Weren’t we leaving together?’

Before she could find an answer, the horses began to gallop off, leaving a cloud of dust in their path. Their figures quickly became smaller as they moved further and further along the road.

Soon they disappeared entirely from view.

Asella couldn’t take her eyes off of Calix’s back until he was completely out of sight.