Chapter 17
“You really — what would you do if you got hurt!”
His blue eyes were full of worry. This time he seemed really angry.
Seeing so, Iellie immediately apologized. “I’m sorry, were you worried? I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“No, why the hell did you climb up the tree?”
A mixture of anger and worry, Zachary wrinkled his brows.
‘Oh, my.’ She rolled her eyes.
“That’s because the baby bird fell off. So, I tried to get it back up…”
Zachary, lost for words, narrowed his eyes. Iellie then shrugged her shoulders and apologized once more.
“I’m really sorry. Don’t be angry, okay?”
“….”
“Zacharyyy?”
Moments later, he let out a long sigh.
‘Oh, is he feeling better now?’
Iellie looked into his eyes and asked, “Hey, are you feeling better?”
“…I can’t, really.”
He sighed and replied. However, it was kind of weird. It felt as if he would never let her down.
“By the way, when will you put me down?”
“I won’t put you down.”
“What…? Why?”
Terrified, she gazed at Zachary. Though he only stared at her with a brazen face, then grinned.
“Because you climbed the tree dangerously.”
At those words, Iellie had a sullen face. Zachary, who is holding his wife, asks affectionately. “More than that, why are you so depressed? Is it because of what father said when we ate earlier?”
At those words, she felt her chest tighten.
As he had seated her on the bench nearby, he picked up the shawl that had fallen on the floor. Zachary shakes the dust off and wraps it tightly over her shoulder.
Looking at his action, she choked up.
“It’s because of me…” Iellie said as if spitting out.
He tilted his head as he was wearing the shawl around her neck.
“What are you talking about?”
“You keep being dragged to the battlefield, it’s all because of me.”
“Len.”
Zachary narrowed his brow.
She bowed her head low. The suppressed emotions come out in pieces. “Honestly, what am I that you have to suffer like that?”
“…What?”
“I’m so sorry that you are hurt because of me.”
“Len…”
At that moment, Zachary cut off Iellie’s words. He sat down on the floor and met her at eye level.
“I’ve said it before.”
Blue eyes like the clear sky contained inside it. He then declared with a firm voice.
“You’re the one who saved me.”
“Huh…”
“I’m not a monster, I have someone who needs me.”
Zachary’s hand caressed her cheek softly. His hand touching her cold cheek was very warm.
“You were the only one who told me it was okay to live.”
“Isn’t that obvious? Why are you a monster…”
“No, Iellie.”
He shook his head. Pure white silver hair that shines alone in the dark. Iellie stared at her husband as if possessed. His hands clasped her cheeks with both hands, and Zachary looked straight at her.
“Only you looked at me as a person.”
Finishing his words, he smiled softly. This was the case in the past.
She met him that night three years ago when they first met. At that time, Iellie grabbed his cheek and said, ‘You’re not a monster.’
The light green eyes that neither despised him nor feared him. Thanks to her for treating him like a human, Zachary was saved.
“I cherish you very much, Len.”
“….Zachary.”
“So, don’t belittle yourself.”
‘Don’t belittle yourself.’ That is what Iellie had said to Zachary before as well. Funny how this word came back like this. After a while, she finally smiled.
Iellie whispered as she leaned her forehead on his shoulder.
“It’s great to be able to spend time with you like this.”
“Same thing, Len.”
As Zachary grabbed her gently with both of his arms, the two of them shared their body temperature for a while.
***
And just like that, a week later, Zachary joined the expedition to subdue the barbarians. The sharpened spear blades the knights held in their hands flashed and glistened in the sunlight. Among the knights, he was also standing there.
‘Zachary…’
Iellie gazed at Zachary, who was standing remarkably straight even among the knights. Beneath the pure white-silver hair, the deep blue eyes shone brightly. His eyes sharpened like a sharpened sword.
‘When did he grow up like that? There is not even a trace of the young boy’s appearance.’
Then, the Duke took a step forward and opened his mouth.
“Win and come back.”
It was a short greeting. However, whether that was enough, the knights let out a loud roar.
Zachary, who gave a brief greeting to his father, turned to look at her. A bright smile appeared on his face.
“Len.”
“Zachary.”
He strode closer to her. His eyes, which are usually cold like ice, shine as warmly as the afternoon sun when he looks at her. Iellie held out her little finger at first.
“You can’t hurt even a single hair. If not, I’ll get angry.”
“Okay, I promise.”
Smiling, Zachary intertwined his finger with hers. After that, he left a short kiss on her white forehead.
“Come on, Zachary. People will look…!”
“Now, now, I probably won’t see you for more than a month, so let me have this much.”
Unlike her, who dyed her face red, Zachary only shrugged his shoulders with a brazen face. Meanwhile, the knights glanced away with a face that they could not bear to see, and the Duke narrowed his eyes.
“Have a safe trip.”
“Yes, see you in a month.”
Finally, he stroked Iellie’s cheek and turned around. The knights each got on their horses and spurred. Standing nailed to the spot, she looked at his back as he moved away for a long time.
As soon as Zachary left, she felt her mood drop and turned back with a sad face.
…A month.
She won’t be able to see his face properly for a month.
As she grumbled inside, the duke called her.
“Iellie.”
“Yes, Duke.”
Iellie, who cleared her expression, looked back at the Duke. His eyes that were looking at her had unknown emotions inside.
“You always have a good relationship with Zachary,”
“Yes, we are a couple, after all.”
She gave back the answer, which she had always given. The Duke sometimes looks at their marriage itself with surprising eyes, and she never knows what kind of marriage he had.
‘Isn’t that what a married couple is like?’
Growing up with her friendly parents, Iellie only tilted her head.
The Duke asked again.
“How could you like Zachary so much?”
“I think it is natural for a wife to cherish and respect her husband.”
“Husband…”
Hearing that, he made a strange face. Even as parents, the Duke couldn’t like his son, and it was strange that she was not afraid of Zachary, having grown up in an unfamiliar environment.
He then added his words, “Don’t you know that he is a monster born with the strange powers of Hessenweitz?”
“Zachary is not a monster.”
She answered firmly. Iellie’s answer to this question has always been decided.
To be honest, the attitude of using Zachary’s power as much as he could and dismissing him as a ‘monster’ was rather annoying.
“Well… You think I’m a bad father, don’t you?”
The Duke’s face looked a bit complicated when he asked that.
‘In this case, what should I answer?’ Iellie rolled her eyes and peered into his eyes.
The Duke, who stared at her like that, immediately smiled softly.
“Well, that’s probably true…”
“….”
Fortunately, it seems that the Duke didn’t really want to hear her answer from her. He spoke again.
“Now, I thought you’d need someone to educate you.”
“Educate…?”
“Yes, there’s much to learn to manage the internal affairs of the Duchy.”
He said without blinking an eye.
Iellie was surprised inwardly. To manage the Duchy’s internal affairs—He was going to give her an educator. Doesn’t that mean that he thinks of her as the mistress of the family?
As her expression brightened up, the Duke narrowed his eyes and spoke to her.
“But, there is one problem.”
‘Problem?’ Iellie tilted her head.
Whomever he was thinking of, the Duke had a very unpleasant face.
“The Imperial Family has recommended Countess Laurent as your educator.”
“If you say, Countess Laurent…”
“Zachary’s aunt. She is also the mistress of my wife’s family, County Laurent.”
The Duke’s eyes, saying that, subsided coldly.
He continued to speak with his arms crossed. “Recently, the Imperial Family said they will keep an eye on us, though I didn’t expect they’re going to intervene like this.”
In fact, he did not respect Count Laurent very much. In the distant past, Count Laurent had come to him and said,
‘I know that the Duke loves my sister.’
It was true. The Duke had held Adelaide in his heart from the moment he first saw her. However, his heart broke, as she had a fiancée at the time.
Nonetheless, the Count managed to entice the Duke.
‘Perhaps, my sister would be much happier to marry you, too.’
So, for the benefit of the family, the Count married his younger sister off as if selling it to the Duke. He only found out after they got married that she loved her own fiance very much.
So, although Adelaide had already come to hate the Duke, he still pretended not to know her fiancée because he loved her.
‘Of course, it’s not for me to say. Because, it was me who accepted her after all…’
Recalling that time, the Duke smiled bitterly. County Laurent thus married into the Hessenweitz, inflated their power from a weak family, and placed a line in the Imperial Family.
Thinking about it, it seemed clear why the Imperial Family put the county at the forefront.
The County was the only family in the North that was favorable to the Imperial Family, and it was probably because it was easy to use because they were tied to the Duke family.
After organizing his thoughts, the Duke finally opened his mouth to Iellie.
“I believe you know very well what to do as the Heir Apparent’s wife.”
Iellie swallowed her dry saliva. This was the opportunity the duke gave her. She will learn to manage the internal affairs as the wife of the next duke, freeing herself from being treated as a frivolous Viscount’s Lady.
She had to stand upright without being pushed by the ‘educator’ recommended by the Imperial Family.
The pale green eyes stood out.
“I know. Thank you, Your Excellency.”
Saying so, she politely bowed her head.
What was to be done was clear. She had a chance, and it was her responsibility to make use of it.
She lit up her eyes. It was time for her to defeat Countess Laurent.
The first time Iellie met the ‘educator’ was while she was having lunch. While she was slicing the steak for a while, Mary approached with a puzzled face.
Then, she speaks carefully to her.
“Lady, you have a visitor.”
“A guest?”
“That is, Countess Laurent.”
‘Oh-ho.’
A fire rose in Iellie’s eyes. It seemed as if she was going to have a power struggle with her.
“She dared to come just in time for lunch… Huh.”
Although the Countess obviously knows that she was eating at this time, she still comes to see her without even asking for permission. It was obviously for suppression. Hence, the meaning of her action is roughly as follows,
‘Stop eating and come meet me, that’s what it means. Childish…’
Iellie, who burst into laughter, got up from her seat.
A normal lady would have been livid for being insulted when something like this happened, though she didn’t. Instead, she only raises her head with a cold face.
“Let’s go.”
As she rose from her seat relaxedly and moved her steps gently, the smile painted on her lips was cold.
‘If even she is in charge of education, she is already going to act like she is in charge now? Needless to say, choosing to bother me like this from the beginning…?’