Duke, Please Stop Because it Hurts

Lyndon, who was still clamping down on his lips, bowed himself. No matter what he said, he was right in front of the Lord, but he just couldn’t break his promise with the Madame. Both the Madame and the Lord were equally precious to him.

Raven eventually heaved a deep sigh when he saw him being consistent in such a straight manner.

“That’s enough. I already know everything.”

The fact that Molitia cared about him was deeply realized by the past incident. She already said that she’d tell him everything. Even though he felt sad, it immediately disappeared without any reservation when he thought back to what she was feeling for him.

It wasn’t that bad of a thing for her to hide it. Bad bugs that buzzed around her were simply ugly. Raven’s lips then murmured under his breath; “Ferdinand”.

“The next time you see that shameless guy, just cut him off somewhere. You may slice his nose off so that his mouth could no longer move at all.”

“Okay.”

“You may go.”

Lyndon, who breathed a sigh of relief, eventually left towards the door.

“Clemence, Werner.”

The mysterious combination of those two families bothered him greatly. There were two problems that had been keeping him busy. And those stemmed from the turmoil of the neighboring kingdoms and the hidden merchant group of Count Clemence, which had been all too quiet.

‘Who hid them for you?’

He thought that he’d at least catch a tail, but he hadn’t at all. There was a moment when he had put Marquis Werner within the line of suspicion. However, the Marquis, who wasn’t keen on backstabbing, was eventually found not guilty.

Nevertheless, there was a strange sense of foresight towards the son’s behavior. He seemed to have come to his senses recently and he even had fallen in love with Arjan as well.

“Gilbert.”

“Yes.”

“Look back into the Werner family. You may spend as much as you want until you’d finally find something new—besides what you’ve researched before.”

“Understood.”

Raven turned his gaze at the map.

Marquis Werner’s territory, which had always been attached to the border, was covered with white snow all year round. It was also recognized as a poor place with actually more land to play with in comparison to other large territories.

‘What is actually the purpose of Count Clemence’s end goal?’

Raven’s eyes were fixated on the Marquis’s territory for a long time.

A few days later, two letters had arrived to the Duchy.

One was already in front of Molitia. She had written to Doctor Arendt that she sincerely wanted to invite him over, but the response she received was—no.

As soon as she read the letter, a sigh naturally leaked out from her mouth. Why not? There had only been a few lines on the letter which were polite, but they completely cut her off and refused.

‘Why do I feel like I’m being rejected now?’

Molitia, who had suddenly thought that far, immediately shook her head. Perhaps it was due to the recent events that made her very sensitive at that moment.

Molitia eventually folded the letter and put it back in the envelope.

“What’s with the letter?”

“Oh, this.”

Molitia looked away. There was a letter wrapped in a soft cloth in his hand.

“This is an invitation from Marquis Werner. They’re going to have a banquet soon, so we are being invited.”

“…Werner.”

Her shoulders immediately stiffened when that particular family’s name, which she never wanted to hear at all, was quietly recited.

“You don’t really have to go if you don’t want to.”

Raven, who was thoroughly looking through her complexion, carefully said that.

“To be honest, I don’t want you to go that far. It’ll be too harsh for you to bear over there.”

“We will absolutely have to see each other one day anyway. He’ll undoubtedly be Arjan’s husband. So, I’m going to take this opportunity to visit the latter—and it’s not that bad.”

“The wind is actually getting worse nowadays.”

“Let’s bring the doctor with us, then. If something were to happen, she can heal me right away.”

“What if you get sick in the middle of the procession?”

“It wouldn’t be bad to have two carriages prepared for rest. It’s quite a long way to go, so even a few more carriages won’t be attracting much attention.”

Raven hardened his smile at her unimpeded thoughts of many alternatives. To be honest, the invitation was a pretty tempting offer for Raven himself. To think that he had just begun exploring the Werner family, such a banquet was an excellent opportunity to scour some information from him.

However, the problem was that his wife’s name was the one that had been written on the invitation.

Would his wife, who always seemed to fly away whenever the wind blasted over the cold place, be able to endure it completely?

“The distance itself is quite far, so it won’t be over in just a day or two. It might be delayed even more because of the snow and it might take a toll on your health since the road is quite rough.”

“Didn’t you say before that it’s a comfortable carriage that won’t even budge when I was lifted up?”

For a moment, Raven’s expression was just blank. The only time where they had ridden the carriage together was when they had intercourse with each other. Raven’s sudden embarrassment due to the fact that he hadn’t foreseen her to speak directly like that, lasted longer than expected.

“And Raven, this will be the first public place that I’m going to be with you. If you say that you’re not excited, then you’re just lying.”

“Do you really want to go?”

Raven sighed softly when he saw her head had nodded. He wondered if she actually knew what he was truly up to.

However, it was just a thought that he could never say out loud. Moreover, didn’t she just open that letter which had just arrived?

Raven glanced into her eyes and soon gave a very heavy nod.

“…if you insist.”

Raven then quickly added when his anxiety had struck immediately upon granting permission.

“Let’s get in the carriage together instead. It’s easy for me to be next to you while checking your physical condition.”

“Of course, you can’t really ride a horse in this freezing weather. You’ll catch yourself a cold.”

“Molitia, I don’t catch colds.”

“Don’t say that. You don’t truly know when or where a cold might come from.”

He ultimately gave up trying to say that he had never caught a cold at all in his whole life. And it was all because his wife, who was very worried about him while pouting her lips, had been absolutely cute.

“Okay, I’ll keep that in mind.”