Chapter 47

* * *

“Is Marquis Kalen still staying in his room?”

“Yes, Madam. He’s been skipping meals for days.”

Marquis Kalen’s mother, Pamela Caruso, looked ten years older in a few days.

After the high priest’s visit, she worried about her son who kept himself locked in the room.

He was a precious son.

Her expectations for him were high enough to force her husband, who was still alive, to pass the title early.

Kalen had a naive side, but still had a great appearance and a good disposition.

He was a person who couldn’t be left alone.

When the right time came, he would marry a good young lady……

Pamela, who remembered her son asking a married woman for her love on the day of the high priest’s visit, let out a low sigh and knocked on the door.

“Marquis Kalen.”

There were no words inside.

“Marquis Kalen, come out and eat.”

Tak, tak, tak. She knocked on the door again.

“Are you really going to be like this?”

“……Madam.”

The maid in charge of Marquis Kalen approached Pamela and quietly shook her head.

Yes, it meant it was counterproductive.

Pamela also knew.

Her son was naive and innocent, but his stubbornness was no joke.

The more you light a fire to urge him to come out, the deeper he would go, like digging a rabbit hole.

Eventually, Pamela burst into anger.

“Then you’re going to die! Are you going to die right there? What’s so good about an old married woman!”

Just then, a faint voice came from inside the door.

“…Please don’t curse. To me, she’s my everything.”

“Hey, you idiot!”

Pamela turned red and grabbed the back of her neck.

Then she turned around and left the mansion as if she didn’t want to see him anymore.

20 minutes after that–

Deborah’s carriage arrived at the front door of Marquis Caruso’s mansion.

There, she said she was looking for Kalen. 

She just asked the maid to tell him just like that.

And the doors of Kalen’s room, which were closed for a few days as if there would be a siege, suddenly opened.

It felt like a legendary cave was opened by chanting ‘Open Sesame!’

“… Madam Deborah is here?”

Marquis Kalen was in such a hurry that he was not even properly dressed.

His shirt was not fully buttoned, and his light blond hair was messed up.

Within a few days, the underside of his eyes became shriveled, but he looked rather pitiful because of his flower-like beauty.

His blue eyes were swollen from crying.

“I can’t believe… she.”

He hurriedly went down the stairs barefoot.

And there stood Madam Deborah, who had only appeared in his dreams. Also with a smile.

“Madam Deborah!”

Marquis Kalen hugged her tightly.

Deborah only caressed his blond hair, with no expression on her face.

The maid turned her gaze away, as if she had seen something she shouldn’t see.

“What are you doing, not making refreshments right away!”

“…Yes, Marquis.”

After giving instructions to the maid, Marquis Kalen took Deborah into the drawing room.

He kept looking back at her, whimpering like a desperate puppy.

It was no wonder, because didn’t he get in trouble for sending letters and heard a warning that she would never meet him again?

At that time, Marquis Karen thought his life was over.

So Deborah, who appeared now, was very precious.

“Duchess Deborah, I was wrong. Everything. My thoughts were short.”

In front of Deborah who was sitting on the sofa, Marquis Kalen went down on his knees and looked up pitifully, his hands clasped in front of his chest.

Deborah ran her thumb down his reddish ear and said,

“I am no longer a duchess, because I am divorced from my husband.”

“!”

For a moment, a shock passed through Marquis Kalen’s eyes.

Deborah took the ring out of her arms.

“Marquis Kalen Caruso. Marry me.”

Marquis Kalen closed his eyes for a moment, not understanding what she was saying.

It took a while for his blue eyes, that were as beautiful as sapphires, to tremble…… Then he turned his head to the side as if to hide his face. Tears filled the corners of his eyes.

“Look at me.”

Deborah called out to him tenderly, grabbed his chin and made him look at her.

Suddenly, beautiful tears fell from the blue eyes of Marquis Kalen.

A soft voice that matched the flower-like appearance was trembling.

“Deborah… Last time, you said you would definitely never see me again…”

“It was out of anger. I wasn’t serious.”

She meant it. Back then, she said it without thinking as she was pissed off at Marquis Kalen.

But wasn’t it far better to be a young marquis’ wife than a divorcee from a baron family?

“It is you that I love.”

“…Deborah.”

Deborah lifted Marquis Kalen’s left hand and put the ring in it.

Marquis Kalen accepted the sapphire ring that Deborah had given him and held it dearly in his hands. 

Then he cried and rubbed his cheek against her leg.

“I’ve always dreamed of this moment. I’m the happiest man in the world… I will cherish this wedding ring like my life.”

Deborah stroked his hair with an affectionless hand, as if touching a broomstick.

She was eagerly anticipating his consent.

It was so easy for Marquis Kalen’s consent… The real problem was something else.

Marquis Kalen’s mother. Pamela Caruso.

Unlike her son, she was a formidable woman.

Deborah frowned and gave Kalen a sideway glance.

“But will your family really accept me?”

“Don’t worry about that, my love.”

Marquis Kalen said with firm will.

“If my mother opposes it, I am ready to abandon this family and follow you.”

“Oh… no, no. That’s not it.”

Deborah slowly got off the sofa and wrapped her hands around his cheeks and lifted it up.

“Kalen, I need your family.”

“……”

“Maybe more than you.”

Marquis Kalen seemed to have been shocked for a moment… But soon, his eyes became quite firm and he nodded.

At least he was a man who knew what kind of woman Deborah was.

That’s right. Deborah smiled cleverly.

“Very good.”

“……”

“You will learn step by step from now on. How to live as this Deborah’s husband!”

* * *

‘Are you just playing with love?’

I looked in the mirror and asked myself.

The texture of Rixus’ lip still remained on mine, which I was fiddling with my fingers.

‘Isn’t it a foul that a man’s lips are so soft and hot?’

Facing the coldest eyes in the world, I was stabbed by those eyes and died countless times.

Now, he said he would die if he couldn’t see me… I wondered if it was a foul too.

Actually, after ‘the first night of the engagement’ with Rixus, I thought that I had passed it safely in my own way.

The words ‘one by one’ and ‘slowly’ did not make much sense to me.(TL/N: reference to episode 37 when Rixus told her to ‘do everything with him’.)

Basically, that was what the two of us had to do together.

If I didn’t accept it ‘one by one’, Rixus would have no choice but to stay there.

It was outside the line I had set so far.

Like this… 

‘This is dangerous.’

He was really stepping onto my line little by little.

And I accepted it.

So now was the time to take control of myself.

“My life is in jeopardy… Now is not the time for me to be like this.”

I was just an ordinary, normal person. I also had a selfish mind that was like everyone else’s.

Thus, the most important thing to me was my life.

Then, there was the happiness of the people of Spinel.

My feelings for Rixus were far, far behind for me.

No, actually, when agreeing to marry, Rixus wasn’t even on the list.

But I kept forgetting this priority that I had set in my heart. Because of his actions.

‘It was the same for me, so there was no way that Rixus could keep this line.’

‘Let’s reflect.’

I slapped my cheeks with both hands and closed my eyes.

It seemed that my dazed mind had returned to a little clarity.

But then a voice came with a knock on the door.

“Your Majesty! It’s Seryl, Laura and Maribel!”

It was Seryl’s voice.

“I’m here with the messenger! Can all of us come in?”

She came with a messenger?

“……Come in.”

The door opened and three of my maids and a man entered.

The messenger took the letter out of his arms and held it to me.

“Your Majesty, Lady Lucia has sent you a letter.”

As soon as I received the letter, the messenger went out.

‘A letter from Lucia?’

The letter from the messenger was stamped, indicating that she had used a teleport to have it delivered within three hours.

It was like express service.

“Your Majesty, may we decorate you while you read the letter…?”

After answering Maribel’s words with a ‘yes’, I opened the letter with a paper knife.

I was glad to see such firm handwriting, so my mouth went up.

Lucia said that she first went to get Octavia pardoned with the amnesty I gave her.

Her mother and her younger brother, the three of them hugged each other and cried for a long time and ate a warm dinner.

She also wrote how much Octavia thanked me.

And after paying her brother’s tuition and dormitory fees, it was written that she had immediately entered the Valderi Order.

All of this happened just a day or two ago.

It seemed that she moved quickly, using teleportation.

Lucia shouldn’t be in a hurry… I wondered how desperate she must have been.

“She seems to be doing well.”

“Your Majesty, if you’re going to write a reply to Lucia, do you need some time?”

“No, I’m not going to reply.”

I said somewhat calmly, folding the letter and placing it away neatly.

The three maids who were touching my hair shifted their eyes to each other.

I didn’t mean to send an answer. If I replied to these letters one by one, those replies could become the shackles of Lucia’s heart in the future.

Because my reply would keep reminding her of what she had promised, ‘I will definitely come back’.

I didn’t want that.

If she had real loyalty, she would eventually come back in the future even if I didn’t send her an answer.

“Are you ready?”

I looked in the mirror at Laura’s words. After all the preparations were made, Berylia was so beautiful that my eyes widened.

‘I’ve lived as Berylia for quite some time, but I still can’t get used to it.’

The curled platinum blond hair under the light was just like a golden wave.

The dress, like the petals of a blue rose, was cruelly beautiful.

I looked in the mirror and asked,

“…Tonight’s celebration banquet. By all means, must I go? Do I have to go?”

“Yes.”

“Do I really have to go?”

Laura smiled and lifted me up.

“Well, you can’t miss it!”

“……”

I walked out of the room with eyes that accepted reality.

‘Damn it, I’m being dragged to this sex celebration party……’