Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The morning of Nadia’s departure to the North came.

The sight of numerous carriages lining up in a row under the morning sun was truly spectacular.

Most of them were carriages carrying the bride’s dowry, and the people of Winterfell had no choice but clicked their tongue at the Balazit family and their enormous dowry.

Fabian, the youngest member of the escorting knights, admired the endless line of carriages.

“Wow… I know this family is loaded, but this is amazing.”

“Tsk, I bet that’s the money that they extorted from their own people.”

“But I thought they wouldn’t pay a penny to the enemy family.”

“Are you saying you don’t have a face to save and marry your daughter off empty-handed? Moreover, dowry is traditionally the property of the wife. So how do you know if she would spend all of this money for our people or to spend it on something else?”

It was when the two knights were talking about dowry.

Marquis Winterfell, Glenn Winterfell, dressed in his traveling outfit, appeared with his favorite horse.

It was Fabian who noticed and greeted him first.

“Oh! Good afternoon, Marquis!”

“Where is she?”

“It looks like she hasn’t arrived yet… Ah, there she is. Even tiger will come if I say that it will.”

Through the north gate of the castle wall, a carriage engraved with the Balazit family crest appeared.

As if to show the status of a powerful Duke, the carriage was as fancy as the one that belonged to the royal family.

Soon the carriage stopped.

First, the Duke of Balazit came out from the carriage, which made Glenn’s expression instantly crumpled, and followed by the bride, Nadia.

Fortunately, she didn’t have any features similar to her father, which meant that anyone would find her pretty.

She resembled her mother, who was said to be a commoner. As soon as the prospective bride of Marquis Winterfell stepped out of the carriage, she began to look around.

It looked like she was looking for her groom. But, once she found Glenn, her face had an unexpectedly bright smile.

“Glenn!”

After shouting like that, she ran like a puppy and hugged him.

Nadia looked up and asked, still hugging Glenn.

“Did you wait long?”

“No, I just got here. I would appreciate it if you keep your distance a little.”

“Ah…”

Nadia took two steps back at the cold push.

Stepping away from Glenn, Nadia opened her eyes wide and looked up. Eyes filled with sadness, like she was shocked at his cold response.

“……”

This woman… why was she looking at him like that? A strange sense of guilt crept up inside Glenn when he looked at her disappointed face.

How should he say it? It felt like he just pushed away a cat away for acting cute.

It was like the small brown cat was looking up at him with a shocked face.

It wasn’t just Glenn who thought so. Even the two knights standing next to him looked flustered.

Amid the awkward atmosphere, the voice of the Duke of Balazit broke the silence.

“Nadia, you can’t even see this father of yours anymore? My my.”

“No way, father.”

The Duke approached and tapped his daughter on her shoulder.

Meanwhile, his gaze was fixed on Glenn. He looked straight at Glenn and said.

“Take good care of my daughter.”

“Sure.”

“………”

In this situation, shouldn’t he make a statement that he wouldn’t make her suffer for the rest of her life?

The sight of Glenn speaking casually to his father-in-law slightly twitched the Duke of Balazit’s eyebrows.

However, as an experienced nobleman, he immediately hid his annoyance and spoke to Nadia.

“Make sure to visit at least once. You can always visit this father whenever you stay in the capital.”

“I’m going to miss you a lot.”

“It feels like yesterday when you were a child, and now you’re getting married. When did you grow this big?”

Uh… Nadia gagged in her heart.

Only psychopath who could say that shamelessly and acted like a genuinely concerned father.

It was hard to control her facial expression because she was holding back her nausea.

Fortunately, in other people’s eyes, Nadia seemed sad because she had to be apart from her family.

Good God helped her who was trying her best to endure the disgust she could feel inside.

“You should hurry up and leave. The North is far away. You need to hurry.”

Nadia almost said thank you.

She bid her father farewell, trying not to look too happy.

“Then… I’m going to go now, father.”

“I believe you’ll do well.”

“Of course.”

Nadia looked back several times, pretending like she had lingering feelings as she got on the carriage.

She waved at Duke Balazit from the carriage. On the surface, they were a father and a daughter who seemed to have a good relationship.

Glenn didn’t know why he was upset at the affectionate scene before him. Then, he hopped on his horse and clicked his tongue.

When their leader got on his horse, the knights began to move.

The servants got into the carriage, and the knights went to their respective saddle.

After all the preparations were over, the soldier at the forefront shouted.

“Let’s move!”

Finally, the convoy started to move their way back to the Winterfell estate.

Unlike when they were coming to the capital, the groups returned with their leader’s bride and dowry.

* * *

“Marquis, Marquis! I have a question.”

“Go back to your place, Fabian.”

“Allow me to ask you one thing, and I will go back.”

“………”

Glenn let him off the hook because he was the youngest. He squinted and looked sideways.

Fabian, with a smile on his face, was pushing his face closer.

“What is it now?”

“About the new Madam… Don’t you think she really loves you?”

“If you want to say nonsense, go to your place right away.”

“No, no, it really seemed like that!”

Instead of going back to his place, Fabian kept talking more closely.

“I thought it was a scheme planned by Duke Balazit. But today, I think it may be true that she fell in love with you at first sight.”

“I didn’t know you had the talent to be a novelist. Do you want me to revoke your knighthood now? I think you should change your job.”

“Haha, you’re good at saying things that you don’t mean to say. Anyway, Marquis, I’m talking about your wife-to-be. Did both of you have any relationship in the past?”

“If we have such a thing, there’s no way I wouldn’t remember. I swear I have never met her as far as I remember.”

In fact, Glenn once thought about whether he had a relationship that he didn’t remember with her.

However, no matter how much he thought about it, it was unlikely that he, who spent most of his life on the Winterfell estate and battlefield, and the young daughter of Duke Balazit, who grew up in the capital, met.

Nevertheless, he could vaguely guess why Fabian asked such a question.

It was because Nadia’s acting skills, pretending to be a woman in love, were excellent.

Things like shy glances that she threw at him whenever their eyes met or the smiles like she didn’t know what to do just because she was too happy.

If he had been a little younger and a little more immature, he might have believed her.

If all of her actions were performed after calculating the other’s reaction, then…..

‘She is an incredible fox.’

A fox with nine tails, perhaps more dangerous than the Duke Balazit.

It wasn’t strange for an immature young man like Fabian to be fooled.

Glenn warned his youngest knight in a serious tone.

“Fabian, don’t trust her.”

“What?”

“She is the daughter of Duke Balazit. It means that she is the child of the sly snake. No matter what she says or does, you shouldn’t believe that she is being genuine. She doesn’t come as a bride but a bomb planted by the Duke in the heart of our territory. You could never know when she suddenly stabs you in the back.”

“Ah… I guess she is?”.

“If you don’t believe me, observe how she spend her dowry. She will never leave her money bag to us. Even if the dowry is used for our territory, she will stop after she showed off enough.”

It was true that the dowry was the property of the wife. But the moment she got married, she would become unified economically with her husband.

The husband’s hardship was the wife’s hardship. Most wives would readily offer their dowry when their family had difficulties.

If the Winterfell family ever got hit with an economic crisis and she kept her money for herself, it would show that Nadia’s love confession was fake and that she didn’t consider Glenn as a family member.

“Um….”

Fabian mumbled. Glenn’s argument sounded quite plausible.

The attitude of their enemy’s quiet daughter, whom he just met a while ago, and the words of his lord. It would be given that his faith inclined toward the latter.

Glenn gave his troubled knight order.

“If you got your answer, hurry back to your place. As far as I remember, you are escorting Nadia Balazit.”

“Oh, that’s right. It’s me.”

“There is a risk of a sudden attack as the main road will end soon. If she gets hurt or dies on our way, it’s like giving the Duke reason. Focus on your mission so that she doesn’t get hurt.”

“Yes.”

Fabian pulled the reins and turned his horse’s head.

When he returned to his original assigned place, he could see the Marquis’s soon-to-be wife through the open window.

It was impossible to ignore her gaze because the carriage was next to him.

Sure enough, Nadia, who made eye contact, greeted him with a bright smile.

“I opened the window to talk with you. I was surprised that you weren’t there.”

“Ah… That’s… I had to do something else for a moment.”

“I heard you are in charge of being my escort temporarily. Would you mind introducing yourself? Of course, you might already know my name.”

Nadia’s way of talking without hesitation looked naive enough to make him forget her last name.

Fabian tried to answer brightly as usual, but when he recalled his lord’s warning, he made a stern face.

“Fabian Knox.”

“Um… You have a nice name.”

Nadia replied with a puzzled look. She could feel that Fabian was drawing a line.

On top of that, alertness emanated from his whole body. No matter from which angle she looked at it, he didn’t want to get closer to her.

‘A-Aren’t you making it too obvious?’

Whether she was the daughter of Duke Balazit or Marquis Winterfell’s wife, she held a higher status than a knight.

Hence, it shouldn’t be strange to admonish him for his rude attitude.

She smiled awkwardly at the article with an oops face.

“I get it. My father and Winterfell family are known for their bad blood after all.”

“N-No, that’s not what ….”

If she put herself in Fabian’s position, it would be difficult to trust the daughter of a man suspected of harming her predecessor lord.

“But you’ll find out soon. That I’m an ally of the Winterfell family.”

“Oh, that just now… I am covering for someone else…”

Nadia’s sad look ignited Fabian’s guilt to the fullest.

In front of her sad smile, Fabian had no choice but to feel nervous in his saddle.

Perhaps this Winterfell’s youngest knight had a lower hurdle than her husband.

Nadia noticed that Fabian got nervous from her acting.

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Pretending to laugh forcibly, Nadia nodded at Fabian with her mouth smiling sadly.

“I look forward to your kind cooperation.”