CH 63

Chapter 63

She didn’t know why he kept talking about death with anxiety. If he really wanted to kill her, he shouldn’t have caught her on the stairs earlier.

“The stairs will be changed immediately.”

“What?”

“Because you can’t get hurt in my absence.”

It was nice to hear that. Elysia also wanted to change that damn staircase first. She couldn’t understand who made such a murderous staircase.

“How was the Grand Duchy?”

“The Grand Duchy?”

Fortunately, he didn’t seem to want to talk about names anymore. Elysia sighed inside.

“I heard you were busy today, looking around the Grand Duchy.”

Even though she was busy, she didn’t think he would care about such a thing. He would not have any interest in her at all. Damon, who kept failing her expectations, was unfamiliar.

“Oh, I think the budget is too much.”

“The budget?”

“Yes. Not only the housekeeping budget, but my personal budget is too much.”

Combined, the two budgets totaled ninety million gold.

This was by no means a reasonable amount. The County’s annual budget would not be even half of the amount Damon gave her even though the Countess was by no means frugal. Angelina, who pursued luxury and pleasure, did not spend large amounts of money like this.

“I thought you would say it was not enough.”

Elysia was speechless. That amount could never be sufficient, though to find that not enough… What should this mean? As she wondered if he was possibly testing her, she was troubled by what answer she should give here.

“It’s not lacking at all…”

“I can give you more.”

She brought it up to reduce the budget, but instead, there was talk of increasing it even more. Did Damon really want her to be extravagant? Otherwise, he wouldn’t have said such a thing.

“The Grand Duchy’s balance will never run out, so feel free to use it.”

“It is enough for now.”

“If you wish, you can gild the entire castle with gold.”

Was it true that he said she could paint it gold? Of course, she thought he was just talking…

“I brought it up because it was too much.”

Elysia had no intention of gold-painting it at all. If the castle was gold painted, she would be told that it was too extravagant. Obviously, it was her first goal to get a divorce by being extravagant, but she wanted to get the divorce quietly and undetected in common sense.

“Didn’t you want to spend a lot of money?”

“No?”

Elysia gave an immediate answer, but she missed it. She only wanted to be extravagant, but she thought there must be another way to be extravagant.… Of course, she still didn’t know what it was.

“Don’t worry about money, do whatever you want.”

Elysia was terrified whenever Damon spoke this way. To say that he entrusted everything to her was as if he was waiting for her mistake.

“You can change everything.”

“…Everything?”

It was difficult for her to figure out if he really believed in her. Damon shouldn’t have believed in Elysia. In the first place, he did not acknowledge any other beings. However, he believed in her and entrusted everything to her…?

It was an inconsistent story.

“Yes.”

“How would you like the castle to change?”

“Whatever the wife wants.”

She changed her mind about cutting the budget. Right now, Damon was testing her since she was married, she had to fulfill her duty as the Grand Duchess.

“I will do my best.”

“….”

Damon didn’t respond when she said she would do her best. Wasn’t this the answer he wanted? The blue eyes, staring at her quietly, seemed to be binding her body tightly.

“Again, it’s like that.”

“Yes?”

She couldn’t figure out what it was. Damon, who always said only words that were difficult to understand, was terribly frustrating.

“Nothing.”

The reason wasn’t even clearly explained, so her anxiety just kept piling up. It was ridiculous to understand him from the start. No one in the world would ever understand Damon.

“Brother seems to have arrived well.”

“Yes? Who?”

Did Damon have a brother…?

As far as Elysia knew, he had no siblings. Exactly, there were, but they were all gone because he killed them all. Damon came up to his place after killing all his siblings. There was no way he had a brother now.

“Brother Edward. He seems to have arrived safely in the Logan Empire.”

Clatter.

Elysia lost the knife in her hand. She couldn’t believe the name that came out of his mouth. Her hands were trembling, and her vision blurred.

“Bro-brother Edward?”

Apparently, Damon and Edward’s first and last meeting was when Edward failed to get her to run away, so she couldn’t help but be anxious.

“Yes. Oh, no. The knife has fallen.”

“How… Your Grace…”

“Now that we are a family, shouldn’t I care about it?”

The word ‘care’ didn’t mean literal care. It was as if he was holding her and telling her that she had a blackmail card that could shake her. Elysia had to try her best not to lose her out of her blurring vision.

“Of course, I have to care about whether my brother has arrived safely.”

Although she wanted to pretend to be calm and all right, she couldn’t because her hands were shaking like crazy. Again, she was in Damon’s palm. If she had run away with Edward that day…

Just imagining it was terrifying. In the end, the only way out of Damon Raphael was death.

“Y-yes…”

Elysia had not yet reached out to Edward, but she already knew of his arrival. This was a warning to her.

Don’t think about nonsense.

She suddenly started to get scared. What the hell did he do?

“I will continue to take care of Brother so he can be comfortable.”

“Oh, no, you don’t have to.”

“You don’t have to decline. Now, we are a family.”

From the beginning, her opinion was unimportant. Elysia only shut her lips. He was casually telling her that in the future, he would spy on Edward, and the watch would, of course, be for her as well.

“We’re family… Yes.”

With the new knife, Elysia was crushing the meat almost to mince. ‘Family’ was such a nonsensical word. Damon killed his blood siblings without a blink of an eye. The existence of a family was not important to him. Nevertheless, it was funny that he spoke as if Edward was a precious being.

“Elysia?”

“Yes?”

“Are you full?”

He would find it suspicious as the person who had been eating the food with a light in her eyes until a while ago was not eating. Her appetite dropped. She seemed to have been lost in the hopeful thoughts for a moment. Elysia didn’t know what kind of man the man in front of her was.

“I can’t eat anymore.”

How pathetic she must have been because she had been saying that the food was delicious and that she ate so well. She had to come to her senses now. For now, Edward was unharmed… Although he wasn’t completely safe.

“Come to think of it, there was something the wife wanted.”

“Yes?”

Did she tell Damon that she wanted something? There was nothing other than telling him not to have a relationship.

First of all, she was not in a position to ask for anything.

“Isn’t it your brother’s safety?”

She never told Damon to make sure Edward was safe. It was, after all, a deal between Elysia and the Countess. She never expected him to know.

…No way?

“How did you know that?”

It must have been a secret deal between her and Angelina. Even the party involved, Edward, did not know. Because the Countess had said it, she knew that the Countess and Damon had never met. Besides, even if they had met, Angelina wasn’t stupid enough to say this.

“Is how I find out important? What’s important is your brother’s safety, isn’t it?”

“It is important.”

From where Damon’s demons had stretched out, Elysia was afraid. She was terrified of him, who found out everything about her and caught her. He even told Elysia that he had done so and did not hesitate to threaten her.

…So did he know that she wanted to divorce him, too?

Her legs trembled with anxiety. Even though she never said she wanted a divorce to anyone, she did ask Estelle how to get a divorce.

“I found out by chance.”

By chance…?

It was by no chance that Edward took the medicine that the Countess gave him to protect her. Unless he planted a spy on the county…

“I thought it was what you wanted. Am I wrong?”

She was horrified to see Damon asking if she wanted it without changing the color of his face. It seemed that he had planted a spy on the County. Otherwise, there was no other explanation. In this situation, trying to convince Edward’s safety, Elysia felt miserable.

“It seems that the relationship between the siblings is strong.”

“….”

He knew that Edward had planned to get Elysia out. She thought she wouldn’t be able to hide it from Damon anyway, but she didn’t expect it to be caught so quickly. He knew everything, so she could see his intention of saying he would protect Edward.

“Your Grace, there is a misunderstanding.”

“Misunderstanding?”

Since Elysia didn’t know how far Damon knew, it was difficult for her to speak easily. What if he was really listening to the whole conversation that day? She and Edward would be dead meat. It was surprising that they didn’t die on the spot.

“Didn’t you want to protect your brother enough to do the marriage you didn’t want to?”