Chapter 20

༺❀༻

“There are three things. First, I will grant you the title of duke, and correspondingly, Hastred and Grosslan agree to a life contract with Cecilia G. Sarian. In other words, Hastred is in contract with Grosslan until death. In addition, the increased rate of salary will be the same as Ilyde signed.”

“……”

“Second, Cecilia G. Sarian, Duke of Hastred, is engaged to Eden Grosslan.”

“Yeah?”

“They are engaged and will also get married. I don’t care what kind of marriage you have. They can have different mistresses or can fool around. However, the two cannot divorce.”

“No, that’s not just for you to say….”

“Third, Cecilia G. Sarian, Duke of Hastred, becomes Eden Grosslan’s guarantor. She bears joint responsibility as guarantor of all his legal activities.”

I knew that the third of the arbitration proposals was the key.

If Eden does something, he will use it as an excuse to confiscate Hastred. This is a trap. I must refuse at any cost. Even though I knew everything and could somehow deny it, I couldn’t say no when I thought about what would happen to Eden afterward. Instead, if Eden had been in the stables of someone else’s house, I would have flatly refused. But he was found in our stables in a miserable state. He was skinny because he couldn’t eat and was dirty because he couldn’t wash. Our servants may have left the numerous whip marks on his body.

I have a sin owed to him.

So I couldn’t refuse.

When I said I would do it, the king told me to bring Eden.

“Ily raised his daughter intelligently, but he didn’t raise her wisely.”

I was angry at the beginning of the year. As if one was crazy. When I thought about it, I pulled out the tobacco, put it in my mouth, and then grabbed Eden’s letter. Eden’s life was written in detail in the letter.

And the last greeting is always the same.

I’ll wait for your reply. I love you.

Your fiance, Eden.

What love…..

My head hurts.

Fourth part. Return

Cilli returned one day after two and a half years of separation.

I made sure to write a letter once a week. The truth is, I wanted to send every day, but I thought Cilli would be bothered. So her reply would come once a month or once every two months. Unlike me, who writes down various things in detail, her response was very straightforward.

The weather was good, I was in good health, and the knights talked about where they had moved. No one was injured, and the beast struck at once.

The content that has come with only words changed little by little. Occasionally, there were replies to my letters. It’s good to study hard, but take care of your body as well. Every time I received such a letter, I realized,

All my teachers are spies.

If I collapsed while studying, there is always a nagging written in Cilli’s letter telling me to take care of myself. Although written indifferently, the source of information was apparent when a word came out whenever I collapsed. After all, they were all spies. I stayed at her Istrum and Hastred; her servants were also looking after me.

It was reassuring rather than unpleasant. I felt like I was in Cili’s cradle because she is always on the lookout for my news. She pretends not to be, but she is, in fact, observed me and is keen on my safety. Even if I coughed for nothing, the following letter immediately came with a reply with a word telling me to pay attention to what I was wearing because the day seemed terrible. She never left me alone.

“His highness, Grand Duke Irsias.”

I became the grand duke—the Grand Duke Irsias. Irsias is the name of a person who was very loyal to the country in ancient times. He was neither a great man nor an outstanding person, but his loyalty was so great that it is often used to symbolize fidelity. So the Irsias became another name for me.

“Your highness is showing unprecedented academic achievement. Hence, even if you enter the Royal School now, you will do well enough, or even better than anyone else.”

My teachers began to persuade me to go to the Royal School. I know it’s normal. I’m thirteen, and it’s already too late. The Royal School was a gateway that anyone with a will for the upper society should go through. It was an unavoidable procedure for me, who had to live as grand duke, but I was reluctant.

I’ve never been to the Royal School, but I know it’s a boarding school. I had a feeling that if I went to a boarding school, I would be farther away from Cilli. So now I’m waiting for her here, and at least I care about her, but will she care about me if I go to the royal school?

As winter arrives, it was frosty every morning. Hastred is not a warm region, but Cili is farther north than Hastred. Last winter, she wrote in her correspondence as if everything was going well, but the real news wasn’t. Several supply routes were blocked with snow; due to that, soldiers and knights fighting monsters on the outskirts died from cold and starvation instead of monsters slaughter. It is said that there is no such thing in the Knights of Hastred, but they said that it is because of her ability and not God’s protection nor the supply.

“Are you alright?”

When I asked Istrum’s butler, Rizen, he looked at me without hiding his tired face from me. Orphaned by the loss of his parents during the war, he was an oddly positive and negative person.

“Death comes in an instant. No one can guarantee that it will be alright. The same goes for any holy knight.”

It was a night when Rizen said so. The inside of the mansion have filled with orange lights,  and I somehow talked to Rizen and looked at the window behind him, not him. The windows of Istrum were all in different shapes, and they were said to be beautiful-shaped windows that have been procured directly from the north. It was somehow ominous to see the shadows of trees waving while the intricate decorative frames beautifully adorned the glass.

That can’t be true.

While trying to get rid of the feeling, I tried to avoid his gaze, but for some reason, I couldn’t.

If something happens to Cilli, there’s nothing I can do about it. I know, but I still have status and wealth. Wouldn’t that be better than nothing? She is an orphan, and I am her fiance, who will be her only family. I thought we should be close. Families should be close. If she’s far away, I don’t even know if she died.

Like I didn’t know when my parents died.

“Your highness?”

As I frowned, the maid who was putting flowers in a vase quickly approached me.

“Are you having a headache again?”

“… … .”

“Sir Butler!”

I didn’t want to answer. My fiancée, Cilli, is a famous knight and also a holy knight; but I get sick from time to time. No matter how hard I tried to be healthy, it was to no avail.

Watching the maid run away, I stopped thinking whether to stop her or not. I had a headache, and my body was drooping too. I sat down on a soft chair and waited for Rizen. Unsurprisingly, Rizen ran at a faster speed than usual. The maid hasn’t caught up to him yet, so how fast was the run.

“Pardon me, Grand Duke.”

With notice, his large hand covered my forehead.

“Bring me a towel!”

The maid, running at Ryzen’s words, changed her direction and ran back to somewhere else.

“Summon, Dr. Orssen!”

When Ryzen shouted, his attendant rushed out. Soon the sound of a wagon coming out of the distance was heard. Along with the coachman, the servant rode a carriage bearing the Hastred coat of arms to pick up Orssen, one of Yenson’s most famous doctors. Orssen was a reputable doctor, but he was a commoner, and when he was taken in a carriage bearing the coat of arms of Hastred, his mouth would be ripped to the ground and flew away. There were times when he felt like he was more pleased with the carriage than he was getting paid.

“Since when did you have a fever?”

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Rizen asked, and I thought for a moment. Since when did I feel bad? It’s probably been a while. A month or two after being kidnapped? My body started to worsen from then on, and after about a year, it was out of control. I was in a much better state now than before because I was being cared for. However, my body was somehow broken, and I can feel it.

But if I say it like that, it will look crooked. No, aside from that, these men will pass it on to Cilli. Then, how will the truth be accepted?

“I must have slept a little cold last night. Perhaps I need more blankets.”

I had only been with Cili for a short time, but I read the guilt in her eyes the whole time. She always treated me with responsibility. Her guilt for having her father imprisoned me left her in a state of helplessness, and even after saving me, she couldn’t get herself out of her empathy and guilt. But for me, her guilt was a little embarrassingly naive because her father was neither the kidnapper nor the one who beat me. Was her father, the former Duke of Hastred, the one who treated me well? Of course not. But he was just the one who kept me the way I was, not the one who made me worse. So I have no grudges against him. Although, strictly speaking, some people will have grievances before him that I don’t want to share with him.