Here is the professional, literary English translation of Chapter 7, maintaining consistent terms, narrative flow, and tone:
Chapter 7
Her undulating golden hair was just like a field of golden wheat, and her eyes, curved into crescent moons, were lovely to look upon. Her plump lips, forming a soft arch, looked as if they would taste like sweet fruit if taken in a single bite. His wife was a beauty by anyone’s standards.
If he revealed his true appearance rather than this form hidden through a magic sword, what kind of expression would she make? Would she be angry that he deceived her? Or would she treat him exactly the same as she did now? Kalix was surprised that he was having such thoughts.
‘I was almost completely fooled by that innocent face. In the end, was I no different from the rest?’
Self-mocking, Kalix let go of her hand and began walking ahead.
It had been nearly three months since his wife came to his castle. To Kalix, she was still an extraordinarily suspicious individual. Peeking her head out toward the training ground almost every day to steal glances at him, or casting stealthy looks at him non-stop during meals. Was it a scheme to grasp his weaknesses or flaws?
‘There must be a reason. I’ll have to investigate it myself.’
First of all, that fellow Jerome was completely hopeless. Even today, had he not forgotten his duty of surveillance to go on an outing with his wife?
Thump.
Kalix came to a sudden halt. Selena, who was trailing behind him, almost bumped into his broad back.
“……Your Grace?”
She had called him by name so naturally earlier, yet now she called him ‘Your Grace’ again.
“I wish you would pick one, whether calling me by my name or calling me Your Grace.”
He could feel Selena behind him catching her breath at his words.
“And starting today, let us share a room. It makes no sense for us to still use separate rooms when it’s been nearly a hundred days since we became husband and wife.”
The added words were uttered to keep his wife by his side and observe what kind of person she was. Of course, if she refused, he intended to look for another way.
‘She will surely refuse.’
Thinking so, Kalix turned around to gauge his wife’s reaction. However, defying his expectations, his wife was smiling brightly. Her large eyes curved into arcs. She was so overjoyed that teardrops were even gathered at the tips of her thick eyelashes.
“Yes, Kalix.”
As expected…… suspicious. Kalix narrowed his eyes and moved his steps quickly toward the Grand Ducal Castle.
Returning to the castle, Selena was filled with mixed emotions. Today could not be anything but an immensely joyous day for her. Her husband had suggested sharing a room and granted her permission to call him by his name.
‘Kalix…….’
Selena softly murmured her husband’s name to herself. A bloodthirsty killer, a war demon, a monster. Her husband, who carried all sorts of rampant rumors with him. Yet in Selena’s eyes, her husband was a different person from the rumors.
In the training ground, her husband engaged in training harder than anyone else, whether she watched him or not. When a young boy knight—who seemed to have barely shed his childish air, having just become a member of the knighthood—collapsed during training, her husband personally carried him on his back to receive treatment from the physician.
｢The Commander told us that we are free to leave the knighthood whenever it becomes too hard. The ones remaining right now are all here by their own will.｣
In Jerome’s eyes as he said so, an unswerving loyalty toward her husband was evident.
Selena wanted to know about her husband in detail. She was curious why he had taken someone unremarkable like her as his wife, and why he always walked around hiding one eye with a black eyepatch. However, because her husband kept avoiding her, she didn’t even have a proper chance to ask.
And yet…….
‘To think we’re sharing a room starting today…….’
Selena stared blankly at the man before her eyes. The place she was currently in was not her bedroom containing merely a bed, but the office where her husband worked. Seated in a brown chair, her husband was completely absorbed in processing the stack of documents before him.
Scratch, scratch.
The sound of the pen moving filled the room.
‘I came because he told me to come to the office, but…….’
Even though he told her to come, he was busy wrestling with documents. However, fearing that speaking up might disrupt his work, Selena quietly kept her mouth shut. Instead, she decided to observe her working husband. The sight of him working felt quite fresh to Selena. His appearance in the sweat-soaked training ground had been cool, but how could he look this handsome while reviewing documents with a monocle on? Selena gazed at his figure engrossed in work for a long time.
How much time had passed like that? Having finished his work, Kalix set down the quill he had been holding. Removing his monocle and rubbing his stiff eyes, his field of vision belatedly caught his wife’s figure.
“Ah.”
Kalix let out a low sigh. Looking at his wife, who had fallen asleep leaning her body against the office wall, a complicated feeling washed over him. Because his wife had stared at him so blankly, he had intentionally refrained from even glancing in her direction.
‘I did wrong.’
To call someone over and do nothing but work. Whether she was very exhausted, she was asleep, breathing softly.
‘What should I do…….’
Raking his hand roughly through his hair, Kalix approached Selena. Because of her curled-up posture, his wife looked exceptionally small.
‘Just like a rabbit.’
It was Kalix who had released rabbits, squirrels, and the like into the neglected garden. Unable to turn a blind eye and pass by the young ones shivering from the cold outside after losing their mother, he had brought them to the castle. The black-maned horse he rode when going to the battlefield, Tabby, was the same. Though he deliberately entrusted its care to Jerome and pretended to be indifferent, Kalix devoted his care to Tabby when no one was around, secretly feeding it fodder or brushing its coat.
Kalix disliked humans, but he liked animals. That was why when his wife brought up the story of the animals in the garden, he didn’t show it on the outside at all, even while various thoughts ran through his mind inside.
‘If she was tired, she could have returned to her room. How can she be so foolish?’
Like a fool.
Kalix bent his body to match his wife’s height. As he knelt on one knee on the floor, his wife’s appearance came into better view. Right at that moment, Selena parted her lips slightly while keeping her eyes closed.
“……Ma.”
“……?”
“Mom, I…… I was wrong……”
Fearing that she had awakened, Kalix froze his movement for a moment. However, her eye rims trembled delicately. As if she were being chased by something.
‘Is she having a nightmare?’
“Don’t leave me alone……”
Teardrops flowed down her cheeks. She looked as precarious as a person standing on the edge of a cliff. Kalix tilted his head. Just as Selena didn’t know much about him, he too knew almost nothing about her.
｢Selena is a daughter I cherish very much. My heart breaks painfully to send my beloved daughter off in marriage. Had it not been for the family’s debt, I would not have sent her away like this.｣
A woman sold off due to debt to himself, who was called the Monster Grand Duke. A peculiar woman who was not afraid of him, whom everyone else shunned. It was merely feelings to that extent.
‘I’m already busy preparing for the Imperial Family’s attacks, as they are itching to tear me apart, so why am I paying attention to this woman?’
Wiping away his wife’s teardrops with his thumb, Kalix said gruffly:
“Wake up. Or should I personally escort you to the room?”
At that voice, Selena’s closed eyes slowly opened.
“Kalix? Why are you here……?”
“This is my office.”
“Ah!”
Selena hurriedly stood up from her spot. Embarrassed that she had shown herself sleeping, Selena bowed her bright red face deeply.
“You slept well.”
“I was just tired, so……”
“If you are very tired, why don’t you go to the room first and rest? By now, the maids must have moved your belongings to my room as well.”
Selena shook her head vigorously. At that reaction, Kalix asked with narrowed eyes:
“Why is that?”
“Can’t we go back together?”
“……What?”
“Even though we are husband and wife, we haven’t had a single proper conversation until now. I want to know more about you.”
‘What on earth is her scheme?’
Unaware of what Kalix was thinking, Selena continued speaking.
“You said an expedition is in a few days, right? I want to spend time together before that. Of course, if you refuse, it can’t be helped, but……”
Kalix was a busy man leading a knighthood. Knowing that, the voice of Selena, whose confidence had dropped, gradually grew quieter.
It was right then.
“Let us do that.”
Contrary to expectations, Kalix readily accepted the proposal.
“For I am just as curious about you as you are about me.”
To be precise, curious about the hidden intentions she was concealing, though. Kalix swallowed the latter words.
Meanwhile, a banquet was in full swing at the Imperial Palace. Holding wine glasses while laughing and chatting merrily, not a single trace of anxiety could be found in the people’s appearances.
War was, by nature, far removed from those of noble birth. This very place was an example of that. Among the people laughing and chatting in the banquet hall, not a single person was going to the battlefield.
It was thanks to the War Demon Kalix’s knighthood—the legion called the near-invincible knighthood—bringing a peaceful reign to the Brescia Empire, which had not seen a quiet day for decades.
“Thanks to Grand Duke Elxion, I cannot tell you how at ease my heart is.”
People took it for granted that Kalix would continue to protect them in the future.
“I heard a rumor recently that the Grand Duke welcomed a wife.”
“Oh my, I heard it as well. To think she is the illegitimate child of Viscount Serius! They say the Viscount, unable to handle his gambling debts, sold his daughter off to the Grand Duke.”
Holding up fans, the women curved their eyes as they laughed, finding it so amusing.
It was right at that moment. Into the vision of the women came the sight of a man, almost buried among the people.
