CH 27

Nuova4-5 minutes 12.04.2022

Even though he knew he couldn’t waste any more time, he still couldn’t move from his position. Finally, he forced himself to move and reached the door knob, but even then, he simply stood there.

His head was just too filled with various thoughts to move.

“I would never request anything from you anyway, Your Excellency.”

The moment he heard those words, Kalix felt his heart fall into chaos.

‘Does she really find me so unreliable?’ As soon as Kalix put strength into his grip, the doorknob made of wood with a lacquer finish creaked and strained as it was crushed.

Realizing himself, Kalix hurriedly pulled his hand away.

Looking down at the broken doorknob, a clear image of Amber’s face came into his mind.

He had never been so surprised to see her there, standing with her back straight in the cold midnight fog, still wearing her dirtied, white dress. Not even his fifteenth battle at Jeit where he was met with a giant monster was he so surprised.

‘It felt like my heart was going to fall out of my chest.’ Kalix lifted his hand up to his chest to check whether his heart was still in place. Thankfully, he felt his heart beating into his hand. His heart was still in place.

“I would never request anything from you anyway, Your Excellency.”

But his rapidly beating heart quickly slowed down as soon as he remembered Amber’s icy voice.

As he thought about it, his wife was cold to him from the very first moment he saw her. Even when they conversed in the drill hall, she only spoke the bare minimum as she simply stated what she wanted like she wasn’t expecting anything from him.

He deeply regretted canceling his plans. ‘I should have gone with them.’

Kalix put strength into a tightened fist.

‘I have yet to receive any distinguished service in battle… that must be why she doesn’t believe in my capabilities.’ Kalix dropped his head low.

Kalix had thought the emperor was lying when he first heard the news that his wife was to be Viscount Liart’s second daughter of the West.

And what convinced him was his conviction that even if the emperor was the one to plan the marriage, there was no way she could be his wife.

Kalix had truly thought that way.

When Kalix received the royal decree, he had immediately recalled the image of Amber smiling brightly from a few years ago, smiling brightly and adorned with flowers and jewels.

At that time, Kalix had just arrived at the capital to request relief supplies for the East that had been battered by the waves of monsters.

Though it was officially called a request, it was more accurate to say that Kalix begged the emperor for relief. The emperor detested the Eastern Lands with all his might, and Kalix was forced to lower himself and kneel like a powerless servant.

The emperor’s hatred for the Eastern Lands was deeply rooted in history.

The Eastern Lands were originally fertile with a granary owned by the Thales that stretched as endlessly as fields of grapes. The fame of Duke Thales and his supreme swordsmanship also attracted an endless amount of people to the lands who wished to learn from him.

And though the people of the East held no interest in his position, the emperor started to see the prosperity of the Eastern Lands as a threat to his reign.

“There are people in this world who feel threatened at the very thought that another has power in their hands.”

Jeit’s bitter words of the land’s history were still clear in Kalix’s memory.

For the emperor, the Eastern Lands was nothing but an annoyance. Even after it became a desolate and barren land from a wave of monsters, the emperor was still reluctant to send relief. Sir Jeit believed that the emperor was worried that sending support to the East would restore the lands to their former glory.

In the end, the Eastern Lands only received just enough support and relief every year to prevent complete annihilation, only barely surviving to meet each new year. And for that petty support, Kalix would lower his head to the emperor every year.