Princess Shu

Schuden fiddled with Valia’s soft hands, lost in thought.

‘Is it that embarrassing to look at my body?’

Even back after she took off Schuden’s gown, Valia still could not look down beyond his chin. Schuden was well aware of his wife’s shyness.

Valia was especially shy about physical contact and could not even make eye contact with Schuden in bed. So the fact that she tried to strip him off was amazing in and of itself. Schuden vaguely predicted that it would take another year for Valia to make an attempt to undress him.

‘Well, I have also been busy.’

Schuden thought that their low frequency in having sexual intercourse was the cause of Valia’s shyness. He foolishly gave up his honeymoon, he was busy with the knightage’s maintenance, he had to attend the noble’s meetings, and he even had to stay in the Imperial Palace while preparing to welcome the delegation from the Eastern Kingdoms Union. Moreover, he even had to go to the battlefield for war.

Of course, once he held her in his embrace, he spent a lot of time with her. But it was a selfless fact that they indeed spent a short duration together.

[You are requesting leave? What’s gotten into you? Oh, never mind that. Of course, I should give you your leave. I’m not a liege who is petty to my subject. Besides, you have already made outstanding contributions to this empire. So, how long should I give you?]

That was how Schuden got three months of leave. It was a very long vacation considering his heavy responsibilities, almost as if the Emperor had brought it to the maximum.

‘I thought I’d be fine if I worked.’

Schuden took charge of various responsibilities without refusing because of his late younger brother. It was not difficult to keep his promise to keep on living, however, it was difficult to keep his promise to live happily. Schuden had no idea how to live so that he could be happy, so he vaguely copied the happy life that others pursued. He accumulated wealth, made meritorious deeds, and held power.

And yet, he was not happy. Even though he lived up to his reputation as the best noble in the Gel Empire, he did not know what being happy was like. He had all the conditions of happiness that other people had said there were but he was still not happy.

Still, Schuden did not pay much thought to it. He was someone who had managed to survive even when he was in immediate and deathly pain, he was not the type of person who would be concerned about not being happy. Back when he was still an heir, Schuden’s personality rapidly became dull after Leo’s departure. And it was this dullness that had helped him in many ways.

‘Happiness, huh?’

Schuden buried his lips on Valia’s forehead. He thought he would never know happiness. 

Despite having given up for a long time, Schuden changed in just one year. He got the happiness he wanted after getting married to a woman.

For Valia to laugh happily at his confession. For Valia to not avoid him, to not turn him down, and to not push him. For Valia to just be quietly embraced.

If that happened, Schuden felt like he could tell his late younger brother.

I have finally kept my promise to you, Eden.    

A few days had passed since Schuden had returned to the Duchy of Garth.

Garth Castle was busy with workers carrying letters. Most of the letters were from the nobles in the capital. The contents of the letter were mostly similar. The main topic was ‘Congratulations on becoming a Duchess’ and ‘I really want to meet you sometime later.’ Even the nobles whose names Valia did not remember had sent her letters.

The only letter that stood out from the others was Diana’s.

There was silver powder sprinkled on the paper. In the letter, Diana wrote about how she had missed Valia. She also said that she had planted a new kind of rose in the yard to show Valia when she returned. Though the letters’ penmanship and tone were elegant and befitted her title as the Marchioness of an Empire, its content was not like that. If one covered the name, the letter was almost like a love letter out of context.

Valia grinned.

‘It was fun to have tea time with Diana.’

Usually, Diana would be the one who did the talking and Valia would mostly be the one who did the listening. Because for Valia, listening was more fun than talking, she was just born that way. 

Valia submerged the tip of her pen in ink and wrote back to Diana.

When she read that Diana earnestly missed her as if they had become lovers, she smiled and wrote that she also missed Diana. She thought it would be nice for Diana to be happy when she read her response letter. After she finished writing her letter, Valia fiddled with the feather on the top of her pen.

‘I will need to hold a tea party when I get back.’

Valia and Schuden had received many congratulatory letters, and since the Garth territory had been promoted to a Dukedom, there was a lot of work that Valia had to do as the lady of the house. 

Valia visualized the tea party in her head and leaned her back on the soft chair.

‘He said three months, right?’

Schuden said he would be in the Duchy for three months. Valia tilted her head when she heard him.

[What about your work?]

[I‘m on leave.]

[Leave? For how long?]

[His Imperial Majesty gave me three months.]

[Really?]

[Yes, my dear.]

Valia’s eyes sparkled when she heard that Schuden was on leave. He was a busy man. He had been busy since they got married. They had many dinners together, but there were also quite a few times when he could not come back to the manor at all. He always had a lot of work to do, but with his new job as a duke, Schuden has gotten even busier than before.

‘He seems to be the busiest among the Gel Empire nobles.’

When it came to the man she loved, it still did not feel enough even when they were together all day. Valia was delighted with his long leave. Schuden had only cracked an inscrutable smile after looking at her glittering silvery-gray eyes.

It was only a little later that day when she learned what his smile meant, exactly right after lunch.

Valia pinched her waist.

‘I’m still a little stiff.’

She could not get her hands off her waist the whole time she was in the bath. The sensible maids knew immediately what was wrong with their madam, and so applied fragrant oil and massaged Valia’s back, waist, and thighs. Without the maids’ helping hands, Valia would have had to endure the pain every time she sat.

“Haa.”

Valia sighed softly. Being stiff was one thing, but her question had not been solved; the main culprit behind her waist pain.

‘Why does it keep getting up even after doing it over and over again?’

It should only be right for it to subside after a few times. After the fluid spread gently a few times, Valia thought it was over. She would close her eyes and let out a heavy breath. But suddenly, she would feel a part of his body touch her thighs and would try to deny herself. When she opened her eyes, they would be in the act again… Valia was frankly a bit flustered.

‘I don’t think we did it this much before…’

Putting aside how many times they did it, the intensity had also changed. Before this, of course, their nights were long and hot, and Valia would always fall asleep exhausted. But it was not on that level anymore.

It was now normal for Schuden to not let Valia go even when she was so exhausted that her slim knees would be shaking. There were a few times when Valia would push him away because she thought that she would really pass out if they kept going. But even then, Schuden did not get pushed back. He could not take his lips off her. Even though Valia’s skin was flecked all over, it still seemed insufficient for him.

‘Is it because we have a lot of time?’

Since Schuden did not know how to express his love in words, his male body would instead react in a violent way. But Valia did not know. Schuden in his prime looked at his beloved woman without looking back.

Of course, Valia was unaware of the state that Schuden is in. She could not have realized that just because they made love a dozen times. Otherwise, she would have noticed his feelings right away.

It was for this reason that Valia could not sleep well at night. She should have gotten a good night’s sleep just as she had worked out, but she ended up nodding during the day. She would take a nap for around 30 minutes in the Duchess’ office. When she woke up, the employees would serve refreshing tea and sweet snacks for her. The snacks had varied these days.

A cake topped with plenty of peeled fresh summer grapes and fluffy whipped cream. Steamed pudding with syrup melted in her mouth. The employees filled the tray with candied fruits and cookies. Valia sipped her milk tea and put the cookie into her mouth. The cookies baked with various kinds of jam were round and cute.

‘They are serving a lot of snacks these days.’

Valia thought, munching on the cookies. She did not tell them to reduce the amount because it was all delicious. Valia had no idea how carefully Garth’s employees were watching the amount she ate.

“Did Madam eat all the snacks?”

“Yes, General Butler. She also had two more cups of tea.”

Paul nodded. These days, Madam had eaten almost all the snacks that the employees served. One was bound to crave more sweet things the more one used one’s energy.

“She will be tired tomorrow too so serve her lots of sweets.”

“Yes.”

Madam would stay in the bedroom with His Grace day and night as of late, and she would use up a lot of her energy. There was no employee who was unaware of that fact. Of course, none had the audacity to blurt it out, Garth’s employees were all well educated.

As Paul predicted, Valia fell into Schuden’s clutches again as soon as they had dinner. The employees pretended not to see anything and dodged their eyes. They were used to it since it was something they had been doing since in the manor in the capital.

They dodged their eyes and shut their mouths, but they could not block their thoughts. The employees were secretly imagining their Madam being pregnant. Even if she was pregnant, she should be eating as well as she is now. It would be painful if she had severe morning sickness. It was best for a pregnant woman just to eat delicious and nutritious food.     

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Under national law, land prices for the commoners’ residential areas were frozen, but it was not the same for the nobles’ residential areas.

The capital of the Gel Empire had high land prices. It was inevitable for a capital of a country to be the center of high society, and for most nobles, having a manor in the capital even if they had a decent castle in their own territory was the standard. It was also common for nobles not to go to their territories at all and live only in the capital. 

With high demands but consistently low supply, naturally, the land prices for the nobles’ residential areas had always been high. And whenever an area was available, supply would always be sold immediately. The more central the area was, the higher the price went.

For a similar reason, there were other places where the price was high. It was a luxurious urban area with a huge jewelry auction house.

The jewelry auction house, which had a reputation even in other countries, had always been a success. Around the auction house were a high-end boutique, a jeweler, a flower shop, and a restaurant targeting the nobles. Opening a store in this area where land prices were high was basically saying that they were the best in their industry. 

Not long ago, a new beauty salon opened in the area.

“Boss!”

Fleur Beauty Salon. The assistant designer came rushing and opened the door wide. Fleur, the owner and chief designer of the beauty salon, was lying face down on a long sofa. Her drooping hands did not even move.

“Boss, Countess Roland has sent someone!”