CH 11

Marienne chewed hard on the long jelly stick. It had a chewier texture than normal jelly, so she chewed it with her molars. From beyond the bush where Marienne was squatting, a shy noblewoman’s voice called out.

“If you don’t mind my asking, may I speak with you for a moment? I don’t know if the Duke will remember, but I’m…”

Would this young lady be dismissed in a few words? Marienne slowed her chewing of the jelly.

“Excuse me.”

His voice sounded colder than a blizzard in the northern snowfields. The other person was obviously flustered.

“Yes…?”

“I’d appreciate it if you don’t interrupt my break.”

“Oh, I’m…”

“I’d like to be left alone.”

“Oh…”

She heard the sound of a book slamming shut. One second, two seconds, three seconds. The lady mumbled an apology and turned to leave, almost tripping over the hem of her dress as she hurried.

Marienne watched as she fled, staggering after herself. If anyone ever ran into a ghost in the middle of the night, it would be her.

There was only one reason for her panic: Cain Blackwood, the bastard, had slammed the book shut and was glaring at her like he was going to freeze her to death.

Who wouldn’t run for their lives when a six-foot-two-inch1 man glared at them?

Besides, Cain Blackwood is a man who knows his way around a battlefield. He’s actually sliced and diced people. The flesh on his bones isn’t just for intimidation.

This is the sixth time a young lady has tried to speak to a northerner.

‘Now it’s my turn.’

Marienne’s eyes glowed, then suddenly turned disgusted.

‘It looks like that way of speaking that ends in -kun has rubbed off on me too!’

That northerner is the worst. You don’t deserve to be the leading man, and you should be swept off your feet by the heroine because you’ve fallen for my brash charms.

Marienne took a deep breath and ran out of the bushes. She ran at full speed towards the Northern Duke, who sat at an angle in his chaise longue, reading a book. She was in front of him in an instant, and she spoke with determination.

“I like raisins in my mocha bread!”

“…”

“Do you understand?”

Marienne slammed the brown paper bag down on the tea table. She glared at him for as long as she could, then left the room at a sprint, just as she had entered.

During the ensuing commotion, Cain Blackwood, who hadn’t looked up from his book, glanced at the brown paper bag on the table. He checked the contents. Inside was a loaf of sweet-smelling mocha bread.

‘What am I supposed to do with this?’

Cain had no intention of eating the bread, but he broke it in half anyway. If Marienne had seen it, she would have commented that the way he split the bread looked like he was splitting a human skull.

In any case, the mocha bread, still smeared with yellow butter, was studded with raisins.

‘Poison?’

But even if Marienne Didi was a stupid fool, he didn’t think she’d give him poisoned food like this.

If you’re going to kill someone, you poison them with something they normally eat, you don’t just walk up to them and say, “Here, eat the poison.” Not like that. That’s just common sense.

In fact, if the mad rabbit had any common sense, it wouldn’t have gotten to the point where Cain himself memorised the rabbit’s real name.

Marienne Didi.

The pink-haired mad rabbit had been crouching in the bushes for an hour.

Cain didn’t want to call her a stalker. It would be an insult to the real thing to call her a stalker. When every time a new lady shows up, she was like, “Not again?” or “What’s so great about that?”

Cain glared in the direction of Marienne’s disappearance. Does she still not realise I noticed her, or does she not care?

If the former, she’s stupid; if the latter, her liver has gone out of her body2. In Cain’s mind, the mad rabbit was a bit of both.

As it turns out, he was right. The raisin in the mocha bread declaration was just the beginning. From then on, Marienne would pop out of nowhere and get in the Northern Duke’s face, screaming.

“I know you’re a virgin!”

“…”

“You haven’t even had your first kiss yet!”

“…”

“How did I know?”

“…”

“It’s a secret!”

One day, Marienne boiled a bowl of soup as a gift of reconciliation. It looked like an ordinary cream soup. The potatoes and bacon cut into bite-sized pieces looked plausible.

Cain invited a passing labourer to try the soup. “It smells good.” The labourer scooped up the soup and immediately stuck his tongue out and jumped in place. He didn’t know what was in it, but it was so spicy it was painful.

On another day, an arrow flew out of his back.

Cain hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should reach back and catch the arrow or just let it hit him in the back. It was such a weak arrow that he honestly doubted it would hit him in the back.

Poof.

The arrow hit Cain in the back and fell to the ground. He unfolded the note tied to the arrow, and it read.

Cain looked up to his right and saw Marienne Didi over the grate, holding a child’s practice bow. The mad rabbit didn’t make a sound, just a gaping mouth.

‘I’ll just hit your heart.’

After this happened a few times, Cain Blackwood couldn’t help but wonder.

In this imperial palace, where not even the Emperor was allowed to disrespect him, only a mad rabbit had such a complete disregard for etiquette.

“…Why do you keep talking informally?”

Come to think of it, I think she spoke without any hesitation from the first time we met. Did she only use informal language? The crazy rabbit didn’t hesitate to curse. She even said something about my middle leg getting stuck in a rusty door.

“You look so innocent like you don’t even know what a middle leg3 means.”

Cain swirled his goblet of blood-red wine slowly.

“For swearing to my face.”

He wondered if he had any reason to keep Marienne Didi alive. Cain tilted his goblet and swirled the red wine in his mouth.

The bloodless, tearless Duke Blackwood of the North didn’t care that his opponent was a small woman. It would be a pity if he let Marienne Didi live, for she had no sense of the value of life.

“It’s no fun to kill her with a sword, so I’ll have to think of a way to let her bleed to death… on my end.”

It’s enough to know what the mad rabbit intended to do before she dies.

Cain downed the rest of his wine in one gulp. Something rustled in the darkness beneath the balcony. He stopped himself from turning and looked down in the direction of the movement.

It was a rabbit.

Not a pink-haired mad rabbit, just a regular, real rabbit, hopping out of the bushes. Instead of paying attention to the rabbit, Cain stared at the bush it had jumped out of.

Then, with a rustle from the bushes, the sketchbook came to mind. In the pale moonlight, the writing on the sketchbook was clear to see. The words scrawled on the white paper were impressive.

He flicked the page over.

Pink-haired Marienne poked her head out of the sketchbook. Marienne Didi’s eyes glistened in the moonlight. The mad rabbit cackled.

◇ ◆ ◇

It was night. Marienne wrapped a towel around her wet hair and rolled it up like a turban. Today, she’d managed to finish her shower just before the hot water in the public bath ran out. She was lucky.

“This couldn’t have gone any smoother.”

Marienne was singing a song that had even been in her head for a while, which meant she was in a good mood.

Marienne looked in the dressing room mirror and pulled out her only cosmetics, a cream, and smeared it on her face and body.

She wore a sack-like nightgown and slippers.

She planned to run all the way back to her room without changing. In the daytime, it would be impossible, but now it was night. The most she would encounter in the corridor would be a maid tapping her stiff shoulder.

“I’ve got a blouse, a skirt… It’s too annoying to put on and take off again.”

Marienne Didi is not a member of the royal family, who is expected to behave in a dignified manner. She’s a civil servant living in the palace’s side rooms.

If she was caught running around in her pyjamas with a towel over her head, it wouldn’t be a scandal.

Scandals happen to famous people, and she’s just someone who can’t be bothered to get dressed.

“Why don’t I run up to my room?”

Marienne paused as she grabbed her bath basket and a pile of clothes.

“What is this?”

It was a bird made of yellow-coloured paper. It was perched on top of Marienne’s clothes, an object that hadn’t been there when she’d left her clothes in the dressing room basket. Marienne turned the elaborate paper bird around and around.

“Are you giving it to me?”

It was a cute gift, but she had no idea who gave it to her.

And why did they come all the way to the locker room and leave it on a pile of clothes when they could have just left it on her door? How did they know she was here?

“This is the women’s locker room…”

The person who gave this to me must be a woman, right? No, it has to be a woman. It’s creepy when a guy comes into the women’s locker room to give me a paper bird.

“Anyway, I’m just going to go to my room.”

Marienne dropped the paper bird into the clothes basket, grabbed her clothes, and ran to her room. Once inside, she threw herself onto the bed. The luxurious mattress cradled her body.

The mattress and bedding were the first things she changed with her salary.

The morning after entering the world of <The Marriage Alliance,> Marienne woke up feeling like she had been beaten up somewhere during the night, and she made a decision. If she didn’t want to get sick, she had to change her bed.

It was more expensive than she expected. Still, every time she threw herself into bed like this, she was all worth it.

“Oh, it’s been a terrible day. I’ve been following a northerner all day, so it’s been a day of bad luck.”

Why can the male lead only attract attention that way?

Even after she’d sent the flying arrows to the northerner, even after the sketchbook event, Marienne couldn’t help but shudder at what she’d done.

Shameful! So childish! So painful!

“Let’s see something good.”

Marienne pulled a portrait out of the drawer that she bought from a young merchant. The postcard-sized portrait didn’t do justice to Vileon’s radiant features, but it was enough to make up for it.

Marienne studied the portrait, jaw set. She sighed sweetly.

“I’ll make your wish come true, just trust me.”

Later that day, Vileon appeared in Marienne’s dream, gently asking if she would like to practice kissing him. Marienne curiously led the way, claiming to be the expert.

Then, just as their lips touched, Vileon slipped his tongue in without warning.

Marienne opened her eyes in surprise, and instead of a sweet Vileon, she saw a vicious northerner. A monster with five tentacles protruding from its mouth. From the first kiss, aaahhh!

“AAAAHHK!”

Marienne screamed, waking up from her dream. It was her worst nightmare.

188cm

meaning that something is so obvious or predictable that it seems to have come out of the person’s body without any effort. It implies that the outcome was easy to anticipate or straightforward.

male genetalia