CH 42.1

The ominous foreboding she felt hit the mark, indeed.

“Why? Why did you call me again?” Isabella asked irritatingly as she brought her mouth to the shining blue-green jewel.

“Are you annoyed with me right now?”

Isabella sighed inwardly.

Her voice came out as a growl through the communication stone without meaning to.

“Haha, that’s impossible, Your Highness?”

Isabella tried not to offend him.

She knew that this madman would use the teleport tower to come and visit her there, even if it was late at night.

Three hours after she arrived at Arpeon using the teleport tower, Duke Kyar had already exhausted Isabella for calling her through the bracelet every thirty minutes.

She was already worried that this might happen when she received the bracelet from him, and her hunch was correct.

Isabella stopped the urge to throw her bracelet into the blue sea on which she was currently resting her gaze.

Marc told her the actual price of the expensive bracelet, and she was still reeling from the shock.

The huge amount had equaled the cost of the research facilities he had provided at Rubella Castle.

She didn’t expect that at all.

Isabella glanced down at the expensive shackles on her arm.

Ignice and Ria approached the white sandy beach with excitement while Marc sat on a parasol next to her, enjoying wine.

Everyone looked happy.

Yet, she wasn’t happy at all because of Duke Kyar’s insistent communication attempts.

“Is everything all right?”

“Nothing is going on for the past half an hour, Your Highness,” Isabella replied with gritted teeth.

“Aren’t you supposed to build an ice barrier over there? Do you have time to keep in touch with me like this?”

“I’m still working on it, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

She couldn’t believe Duke Kyar was able to talk to her in a steady voice despite building that huge ice barrier.

This was all the author’s fault in the first place.

The main hero in the novel could be too intense, but Archduke Kyar was on another level entirely.

She couldn’t believe that the author turned Duke Kyar into a monster.

If the author were standing in front of her right now, Isabella would grab him by the collar and shake him until he got a hold of his senses.

“Yes, I suppose so…but a normal person like me should have been worried.”

“Why do you say that you are normal?”

“What?”

“You aren’t normal at all. You are so pretty that I find it annoying. Your shiny silver hair, beautiful blue eyes, and rose petal pink lips are so gorgeous that it irritates me.”

His excessive praise made Marc spit out the wine he was drinking.

Their conversation had no privacy since Marc could hear everything he said.

If she could just reach out through the communication stone and cover his mouth so that he would shut up…

“That’s enough, Your Highness,” Isabella muttered with clenched teeth.

“I said it because you aren’t making any sense. You aren’t just an ordinary woman to me.”

“Yes, I was wrong. Please stop talking now.”

“All right. I’ll be all right. I’ll get back to you later.”

Isabella was scared when he asked her to contact him as a parting shot.

Glancing down at the faded blue-green jewel, Isabella let out a heavy sigh.

“Would you like some wine?”

Marc asked, and Isabella nodded.

She thought she could have at least one drink to calm down her fluttery stomach.

Isabella took the wine cup from Marc and thought about taking this shackle off at once when she returned to Rubella Castle.

“Your Highness is a little too much, isn’t he?”

He was not a little, but just too much.

A lot.

Isabella smiled as she swallowed the words her heart longed to say.

“He was lonely. That is why he was acting like that. Young master Kyle was still able to express his loneliness and the difficulty he experienced in his life. Unfortunately, Duke Kyar was not in a position where he could freely express his heart. Your Highness might look cold on the outside, but he is a person who shows his affection deeper than anyone else if he considers you as his own. What do you think about Duke Kyar’s experience with his family?”

She pondered about Kyle losing his family when he was young, but she had never thought about Archduke Kyar’s feelings.

How did he feel when he lost his beloved brother and sister-in-law overnight and sent his father–whom he trusted and relied on— off several years later?

Duke Kyar was eleven years old when he lost his brother and sister-in-law in that horrible misfortune.

He was only fifteen years old when his father died.

Isabell’s heart felt a little heavy at him taking charge of Kyar Household when he was Kyle’s age now.

“He used to be a cheerful man. He was just like his mother who shone as bright as the sun.”

Oh, come to think of it.

His Highness’ mother was also ill a year before his brother and sister-in-law died. And then she also followed them unto the next life. Archduke Kyar had lost so many loved ones at such a young age.