My Sweet Deceiver

Chapter 40

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The Marquis of Ingeliger entered his office.

Denis sat down at the table without saying a word. The Marquis of Ingeliger, sitting next to him, did not bring up the main point, but kept talking nonsense.

“Didn’t I tell you earlier that there was a tea that Honun gave me as a gift during the armistice negotiations? I brought this tea because I wanted to share the taste of this tea with you.”

“There is a lot of tea in my room.”

Denis turned down the Marquis’ tea at once.

“Let’s finish what you said in the hallway, Marquis.”

“Ah, ah…”

The Marquis continued as if he had just remembered.

“It’s not a big deal, but as you know, the Princess still can’t have children.”

“…”

“How important is the bloodline? You know better about the importance.”

“Just get to the point.”

“Since you don’t have children, you need to pick a rear guard, Prince.”

The conclusion.

Denis’ brow furrowed. He opened his mouth after a while and asked.

“… Isn’t the Marquis the father of my wife?”

“Ah, of course, I am. But the royal family is more important. The legacy is more important. She, being my daughter, is a tiny part of it, Prince.”

“The legacy.”

Denis repeated the words once more and laughed.

“It seems that what is important to the Marquis and what is important to me are different.”

“No way. It’s the exact same thing. It is the throne of His Majesty, and the descendants of his immediate family.”

“It’s not worth listening to. Please go home now.”

“Your Highness.”

The Marquis changed his mind and said.

“You must sit on the throne quickly. I can’t just wait.”

“I intend to do the same.”

“And you also need to get rid of unnecessary things along the way.”

“…”

Unnecessary.

Denis realized again how his wife was treated by her father. That fact made him angry.

Denis warned the Marquis in a low voice.

“… Marquis, you won’t understand anyway, so I’ll just tell you. From now on, it would be better to live upright in front of Nate without a single word of shame. Stop raising your hands. I will no longer tolerate you being rude to my wife.”

The Marquis refuted his words and made excuses.

“Of course. But there was something about it. For parents, children are children no matter how old they are. And-”

Denis cut off the words of the Marquis firmly.

“You’d better stop making excuses. If you touch my wife in the future, the Marquis will be rewarded accordingly. I’ll do that. Sylvan, please send the Marquis off to his carriage.”

“Yes, sure, Prince.”

When Sylvan stood up and pulled the Marquis’ arm, the Marquis slapped Sylvan’s hand away. He opened his coat.

“You look a little different. Your Highness, I wonder if there’s been any change in your mind.”

After unbuttoning his coat, he looked down at Denis, as if he were looking down at a little thing.

“Well, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to gradually find out whether I’ve changed or not. Goodbye.”

The Marquis glared at Denis once before turning away.

Dennis picked up a cigar that he had been refraining from smoking recently.

The room was ventilated by opening the window. It was because the office was filled with terrible musk, a perfume used by the Marquis.

Denis smoked a cigar and rubbed the nape of his neck.

He only had the Marquis alone for a moment, but he felt tired.

“If you’re tired, why don’t you go to the Princess?”

Denis looked at Sylvan with a puzzled face.

‘How did you get to know my heart?’ 

Even so, he had just remembered the woman.

“You look tired. Hurry up and go.”

Sylvan waved his hand as if expelling Denis out.

Denis stood up reluctantly at Sylvan’s order.

“Then finish off your work, Sylvan and leave the palace.”

“This is one of the nicest things you have said this week, Prince.”

Denis snorted at his assistant and left the room.

It was to go to the place where his rest was staying.

Denis was wandering.

She wasn’t there in the office he visited, knowing it would be difficult to find her at this time. Instead, only her maids, whom she always carried, were working.

“Where did the Princess go?”

Daniel asked with a calm face.

“It’s supposed to be the time for a walk, so she’s taking a walk right now.”

“I didn’t know there was such a time.”

When Denis replied to himself, Danielle added, “It’s on the advice of the royal physician.”

“The royal physician’s advice? What’s wrong with Madam?”

At Denis’ question, Danielle immediately put on a disrespectful expression. Then she added.

“She said that moderate exercise is good for her health. In addition, the Princess is healthy without any particular pain or problem.”

“…”

“She’s skinny because she doesn’t eat well, but she’ll get better with time.”

At Danielle’s reply, Denis looked thoughtful for a moment.

“So, where did she go?”

“Thank you.”

At Danielle’s words, Denis went to the place. 

The small backyard in the woman’s palace could be seen from the outside.

He wondered if there was someone.

However, he couldn’t find any human there…

Denis thought of a place for the woman to go. It wasn’t as much as he thought.

He decided to go to the birch grove where he had last encountered her.

It’s quite a distance to walk, but did the woman really walk there?

When he couldn’t see the woman he was trying to see, Denis grew somehow impatient.

Denis remembered where the nearest horse was.

He was going to go to the birch grove on horseback.

He moved quickly. As he made his way across the main palace gardens to the stables, he heard the familiar laughter.

Tehez’s laughter.

Denis headed towards the place where the sound was heard.

He took a step forward cautiously. Without even making the sound of stepping on the grass, he crept closer.

Beyond the garden tree, the familiar back of the head was visible.

Hair like golden threads on the round back of the head.

Tehez was talking to someone.

Being friendly with a man he saw for the first time. The man beckoned somewhere on Tehez’s shoulder. As if something was on it.

When Tehez looked carefully in the direction the man was pointing, but couldn’t find it, the man smiled and tried to place a hand on Tehez’s shoulder. He looked like he was going to brush it off himself.

But Denis’ eyes could only see that the man was trying to touch Tehez’s body.

Denis ran out, unable to measure the uneven path below. Then he grabbed Tehez by the shoulder.

“Prince!”

Tehez’s face reminded him she was talking about something pleasant.

“Did I disturb you? It sounds like you are having a good time.”

The man standing in front of her recognized that he was the Prince and greeted him courteously.

“Prince, Sasha is a classmate who studied with me at the academy.”

“Good morning, Your Highness. My name is Sasha Vadim, a new employee of the Ministry of Justice.”

“You said you didn’t intend to enter the palace, but you ended up in the palace.”

Teherz smiled at Sasha and looked sideways.

“The Vice-Chancellor is here in the palace, but what about the chief?”

A man called Sasha responded friendly to Tehez’s words.

At that moment, Denis couldn’t resist calling her name.

“Tehez.”

“Yes, Prince.”

Tehez turned her head to look at him.

“Something came up.”

“What’s the matter?”

“Urgent. To my palace.”

He replied, implying that it was a secret and he couldn’t bring it up in front of others.

“Sasha, see you next time.”

The friendly man also greeted Tehez.

Denis strode to his palace. Watching him walk without looking back, Tehez knew he was angry. Because Denis always walked according to her stride, and now Tehez was running almost at Denis’ pace.

Before she knew it, she had almost reached the front of his palace.

“Tehez.”

“Yes, Prince.”

Denis didn’t like something and messed up his hair. His chest felt tight.

His mood became more complicated when he saw her worried about him with the look on her face. It felt like something was on it.

“What’s going on? Prince? You said it was urgent…”

Denis sighed and beckoned to her.

“Never mind. Just go.”

“What?”

Tehez, who answered with a bewildered look on her face, soon turned around, and Denis called her back.

“Wait, Tehez.”

“Yes, Prince.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“What are you talking about?”

“The reason why the royal physician told you to take a walk.”

At Denis’ words, Tehez looked at him with incredulous eyes. Denis said, suppressing the rising anger.

“Are you going to keep your mouth shut again? That mouth seems heavy only in front of me.”

“No, Prince.”

Denis growled at Tehez’s objection.

“Your husband is me, Tehez. I’m not your colleague.”

“…You didn’t ask me, did you?

“Ha! Does my wife only answer questions? I never knew you about that. She must have been an idiot.”

Denis made sarcastic remarks.

“…”

At his prickly words, Tehez bowed her head and cast his gaze to the floor. He regained his lost sanity instantly in the chilly atmosphere.

‘I didn’t mean to do this.’

Denis messed up his hair again.

He just didn’t like her being friendly with another man. He just wanted to ask if she was close to him. 

Why was it that the only words that came out of his mouth were sarcasm?

“I didn’t mean to say I was an idiot. It was harsh. I apologize.”

He added an apology in a crawling voice.

“I was just worried, Tehez.”

Hearing that he was worried, Tehez looked at him as if she was understanding something. Then she let out a small sigh and answered.

“…All right.”

Denis grabbed Tehez’s shoulder and said.

“Have a good walk. Don’t go the other way. Go straight back to your palace. Understand?”

Tehez looked at him silently, and he insisted on an answer.

“You have to answer, Madam.”

“Yes. Okay, Prince.”

“Even if you run into people, don’t talk to them, and don’t answer them.”

“…Okay.”

Denis instructed her as if sending a little child an errand.

Denis returned to his office haphazardly. He roughly tossed the coat he was wearing on his chair and loosened the tie around his neck.

Denis told Sylvan to leave the palace if he was done early. 

Denis clicked his tongue. He had difficulty concentrating, even looking at the documents lying on the desk.

It seemed that nothing was going to happen today.

In the end, Denis went to Tehez’s palace early evening. With the pretence of going to her for an apology.

“Prince, what brings you here so early…?”

Tehez was still wearing her outdoor clothes.

“Are you not feeling well?”

Tehez approached him with a worried look and warmed his face with her small hand.

He liked Tehez’s caring touch so much that he wanted to pretend he was sick for nothing.

“What’s wrong? Shall I call the royal physician?”

“I want to rest. I think I’ll be fine if I rest.”

She took Denis’ hand and laid him down on the bed.

“I haven’t finished my work yet, so I’ll come when you’re resting.”

“Tehez.”

Denis grabbed the hem of Tehez’s dress as she was about to leave.

“Yes, Prince.”

“I’m sorry about earlier.”

Hearing his apology, Tehez stopped. She answered in her small voice. It was a lukewarm reaction, neither cold nor hot.

“… You’ve already apologized.”

“Still.”

‘That’s how I feel at ease.’

Denis looked up at Tehez.

“You have a childlike side to you, Prince.”

“Yes. Little children can’t sleep alone. You should put me to sleep.”

Tehez looked at him with strange eyes, and finally laid down next to him as if she had resigned.

“You seem to be different today than usual. What happened?”

“…Yes.”

Denis added with a sigh.

“…I thought it would be nice if I went to the academy too.”

“Did you not go?”

Tehez asked curiously.

He had graduated from the Royal Academy before she entered.

“I wanted to go back.”

“Is that so…?”

Denis didn’t bother to add the word “with you”. It seemed that he was still conscious of that man. And because he couldn’t understand himself well.

‘And why do I feel so at ease when I only come to this room?’

The turbulent heart gradually subsided.

Knock

“Princess, are you there?”

It was Danielle with an urgent voice.

“What’s going on?”

“It’s urgent. The Marquis is unconscious because of the terrorist attack.”

Tehez jumped up from her seat.

Denis, who had been falling asleep, also rose.

(To be continued in the next episode)

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