Chapter 54

When I immediately accepted his answer and acted so blatantly relieved, Aedis laughed louder.

He couldn’t even breathe over there.

My eyes were about to fill with tears.

“You……pfft, really.”

“You can only do one thing, laugh or talk.”

“Then I’ll laugh.”

“…..”

Should I go outside? Maybe go to Sarah or Procyon’s carriage?

Aedis only stopped laughing when I narrowed my eyes.

“I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve laughed like this.”

“Is it your first time in 10 years?”

I’m pretty sure it is.

I straightened my narrowed eyes and grunted, but he soon replied with an answer that exceeded my expectations.

“Not 10 years, more like 500 years?”

Excuse me?

“Are you kidding?”

“I’m always honest with you.”

Aedis closed his eyes and laughed languidly.

It didn’t contain anything like tension, vigilance, or deception. Thanks to that, he looked even more innocent.

I stared at Aedis.

Aedis was both someone I knew and did not know.

“…..”

I’ve already guessed that before Aedis became Grand Duke, he might have lived alone in a cave-like place.

Other than that, there was no way to explain his overly shallow interpersonal relationships.

No matter how it was explained, it was absurd.

But it wasn’t long before I concluded that.

It was possible.

Aedis had lived that way, and nothing would be different even if he denied it.

Even if Aedis lied, it would be enough to just explain why it was false.

But I’m still a little dissatisfied with the fact that he hasn’t laughed in 500 years.

And Aedis didn’t even realize that it was weird.

He has never enjoyed ordinary, natural pleasures so to him, others who enjoy them seemed weird and abnormal.

For him, a life in which he hadn’t laughed for 500 years was natural, and it was rather his life and laughter now that was unnatural.

But anyway, the most important thing is that Aedis is my husband.

I will continue to keep Aedis by my side just as I have been.

Sometimes I’ll give him up to Regen, but he’ll still have to sit next to me and sleep next to me.

Yeah. If I don’t keep him, who will?

There are many secrets that we are hiding from each other right now.

But it’s not the time to reveal them yet.

For now, trying to get closer to him is enough.

“Aedis, I have the courage. I want to sit on your lap.”

I reached out and shook his hand.

“For your information, you don’t have to worry because my head is full of healthy thoughts.”

I thought of the flower garden as I did before.

Aedis smirked as I tried to stabilize and purify my mind and body by drawing a childlike world in my imagination.

“I’m sorry, but it’ll have to be next time. The time limit has expired.”

Why?!

***

“That’s Eire Forest, right? Rather than beautiful it, uh, it looks like a ghost will come out of it.”

Procyon said while looking out the window.

As soon as we could see the destination, Procyon, Agena, and Thuban, who had gotten back in the carriage, looked bored to death.

Agena then pointed something out.

“It will feel different if you look at it during the daytime. Rather than that, how about buttoning up your buttons properly? How rude you are in front of His and Her Grace!”

“Ack!”

I stared at Procyon.

Procyon’s outerwear was stuffed with buttons all out of place.

On the other hand, Agena’s uniform did not even have a single wrinkle.

And he’s been in the carriage all day.

“Why are they like this?! My Lord, Your Grace, it was absolutely not intentional!”

Sarah, who smiled thanks to the Procyon, checked her clothes, quickly changed her expression, and looked at me anxiously.

“Your Grace, are you tired?”

Sarah moved into the carriage a few hours ago, and she was frightened when she saw my face.

She said that I suddenly looked 10 years older, but it was all because of my worries for my husband, who seemed to have a very turbulent past.

“Oh, we’ve finally arrived!”

Sarah said gladly.

Rosa Estate was enveloped in the early morning light. The snow that covered the manor glistened like sugar powder.

At the end of the main road, where carriages were crossing, was Baron Paisley’s mansion.

As the time to get off was near, my body shrunk by itself.

“It’s going to be very cold outside, right? And it’s dawn.”

How great it would be if we could put the heat-insulating magic on people as well.

Sarah handed me a coat and comforted me.

“Please hold on for a second, Your Grace. The inside of the building will be warm.”

As I put on the coat, Agena, who listened to Sarah, looked out the window and briefly reported.

“The Baron is here.”

“Does it look like he’s trying to dedicate half of his fortune to avoid seeing Aedis?”

“Well, first of all, he’s empty-handed.”

The carriage soon stopped.

The knights got off first, then I took Aedis’s hand and got off.

Oops, it’s cold.

Because I was tired, I felt the cold even more vividly.

It felt like needles were piercing my body.

I stuck to Aedis’s side, but the Baron and a few people ran over wildly.

“Oh my God, Grand Duke! Grand Duchess!”

At the quiet break of dawn, Baron Paisley’s voice rang out.

It was noise pollution, you can consider this place to have been under a curse for the past 10 years.

“I can’t! Believe! You’ve come! All the way! To such a shabby place! I am so thrilled that I don’t know what to do!”

You seem more dissatisfied than thrilled.

Baron Paisley smiled broadly, revealing his teeth, and his lips twitched.

When you look closely at it, it looks quite bad.

The Baron’s face was haggard as if he had been up a few nights, and he had dark circles.

Oh, maybe the curse was hair loss? Even though he was still middle-aged, the Baron’s hair was almost half gone.

From time to time, the Baron took out his handkerchief and wiped his palm, sweating like rain on this cold dawn.

Of course, sweating may also be the curse or it might just be because he’s scared of Aedis.

“….”

When no one responded, the Baron laughed awkwardly.

“Ooh, let’s go inside first. My son will be there.”

The Baron only stared and spoke to me, not Aedis. He didn’t seem to have any intention of turning his head in Aedis’s direction.

Did Aedis hit or threaten you?

Oh, he must’ve made a threat.

“….”

Again, no one responded. The gaze of the Grand Duke’s knights toward the Baron was also cold.

Earlier, Procyon was so bored that he told me a little bit about how much the Baron hated to meet Aedis, but this way seems to have worked out very well.

The Baron started to cough, but then he scolded his son.

“Sein, what are you doing without saying hello!”

A boy with a dwarf physique, who had been mixed in with the attendants, hurriedly lowered his head after the loud yell.

The boy was terrified.

“My…my name is Se…Sein Paisley….”

Oh, that kid is that ‘second’.

Viscount Ella and Baron Paisley had two children.

They said that she had a daughter and the Baron had a son, they grew up like strangers.

Their last names were also different.

I remembered the information I had adequately memorized in my head, and suddenly wondered why I should show sincerity to this man who wouldn’t even look at my husband’s face?

By being a vassal of the Grand Duke family, you haven’t done anything but suck honey all the time, right?

But if you can’t even do the bare minimum for us, as a vassal, shouldn’t you spit it back out?

I opened my mouth as I looked down at Sein’s trembling body.

“Baron, how old is your son?”

Suddenly, the knights turned their heads and stared at me like a group of meerkats.

It seems I made a small mistake for some reason.

“Uh, in ten days he will be sixteen, Your Grace.”

The last time I checked the time, it was around two o’clock in the morning.

It wasn’t good to not let the child sleep and instead use him as a shield.

No matter how you look at it, the Baron wasn’t trying to introduce his son.

It’s just because he wants to avoid confronting Aedis as much as possible.

Honestly, he didn’t seem to be too trustworthy either, but I didn’t forget to send the Baron a look.

The Baron’s mouth gaped open like a goldfish.

I grabbed Aedis’s hand to show that I would not listen to any rebuttal.

Aedis didn’t say a word after getting out of the carriage, but he seemed to be worried that someone would faint.

It wasn’t an unreasonable guess when I saw Sein shivering like a leaf.

Anyway, we went into the mansion.

Baron Paisley’s mansion secretly possessed many luxuries.

Procyon, the youngest master, was curious.

“Is that 〈Wanderer In The Red Desert〉? My mother told me that this is a very expensive painting.”

“It, it, it’s a coincidence, I-I found it! Luck…! Yes, I was lucky!”

The Baron explained while wiping his sweat.

Procyon’s eyes narrowed when he heard the answer because he was acting so blatantly suspicious.

“Ah, I see. Now, Sir Agena, what do you think?”

As the knights from the duchy began to fuss, the Baron’s complexion began to look pale.

The Baron quickly sent away the knights and, walking like a wooden doll, guided me and Aedis to the honored guest room.