Chapter 19
The main dish was a small bird said to be rarely caught in the south, fried whole.
Helena frowned slightly.
“I said I don’t eat fried food. Was my message not delivered properly?”
In front of her, Benjamin deliberately tore apart the bird meat with his hands and shoved it into his mouth, crunching through the bones.
After wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he said darkly,
“Know your limits.”
“Oily food makes you gain weight.”
“I’m not talking about the fried food. I’m telling you not to cross the line.”
He pointed downward with his finger—more precisely, toward the ruined Isphern Count’s estate below—and warned her in a chilling voice.
“You’ve already seen what happens to things that get on my nerves. Don’t provoke me and then blame me for the consequences. Everything happening to you now is the result of your own actions. Wasn’t it because of those filthy rumors that you ended up here?”
The word rumors struck a nerve.
A vein bulged on Helena’s forehead.
Having lost her composure, her hands moved with unsettling precision as she stripped the bones from the bird.
“Don’t bring up those rumors. It puts me in a foul mood. You’re the one crossing the line.”
Her voice bubbled with anger.
“Don’t push me. Behave yourself while I’m still pretending to smile. Haven’t you seen what happened to Crown Prince Rufus? I didn’t exactly mean for it to happen, but among the people who messed with me, not a single one sleeps peacefully with both legs stretched out.”
At her words, Benjamin sank deeper into his chair and stretched out his legs, staring at her sideways.
There wasn’t a trace of amusement on his face.
It was the expression of someone saying, Go ahead and try.
His voice sank low, like an echo from inside a cave.
“It seems the meal is over. Is that all you wanted to say?”
“Over?…”
Helena was about to ask what he meant by over, but stopped when she looked at her plate.
To her shock, it was completely clean.
I barely even tasted it… and getting fat without enjoying the food is the worst…!
For the sake of her conscience, she felt she should skip dessert.
Still, she had more to say.
Suppressing her emotions, she spoke.
“…What do you mean, over? There’s still dessert left. You’re not seriously planning to leave me alone during our first proper meal together after marriage, are you?”
Benjamin looked thoroughly irritated, but he didn’t get up and leave her alone.
Dessert was a large fig served with fresh cheese and candied chestnuts.
The moment dessert arrived, Helena finally brought up her real topic.
“When I looked around the castle, there were lots of locked rooms. I searched everywhere, but I couldn’t find any keys. Where are they?”
Benjamin answered immediately.
“I don’t know.”
“What? You… you don’t know?”
“This room is enough for now. Why would you need to open the others? Leave them alone.”
His indifferent, irresponsible answer left Helena speechless.
Between them, the nearly melted candle dripped wax like tears.
What kind of person is this? What is he thinking? Has he never considered there might be something important in those locked rooms?
Eyes lowered, Helena chopped her fig into tiny pieces.
Because she thought Benjamin might disappear again tonight, just like he had the previous evening.
Does this man actually know and is hiding it?
The anger she’d barely suppressed started bubbling up again.
As she nearly crushed the fig in frustration, Helena suddenly frowned.
Her eyes stung.
The nearly burned-out candle at the center of the table was giving off smoke, and the smoke drifted directly toward her face.
Just my luck. Why is this coming toward me too?
She blew softly at it.
The smoke drifted toward Benjamin instead.
Having long since finished his dessert and waiting for Helena, Benjamin frowned at the smoke.
He looked at her.
Helena quickly pursed her lips innocently, as though she had done nothing.
The smoke drifted back toward her.
Benjamin had never experienced such absurd pettiness in his life.
He questioned her.
“What exactly are you doing? Why are you deliberately blowing smoke at me?”
She had reached her limit too.
Glowering at him with resentment, Helena snapped,
“Because I wanted to…!”
Crack.
A vein rose on Benjamin’s smooth forehead.
“So you did it because you wanted to? What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means nothing! I just wanted to!”
“And why did you feel like doing that? I sat at the table with you, didn’t I? I listened to everything you said. How much more am I supposed to accommodate you before you’re satisfied?”
“The keys… give me the keys!”
“I told you I don’t know where they are!”
“How can you not know? Aren’t you hiding them? If you are, I really won’t let this go.”
“I’ve said it several times already—I don’t know.”
“If you don’t know, then that’s pathetic in itself.”
“Pathetic? Did you just call me pathetic?”
“If you’re pathetic, I’ll call you pathetic!”
“And who’s the one acting pathetic right now…?!”
In the end, the conversation dissolved into a childish argument.
“Annoying bastard!”
Back in the bedroom, Helena removed her makeup, washed up briefly, and changed into a fresh, fluffy set of pajamas.
“I can’t stand the sight of him…!”
She neatly placed her soft slippers beside the bed, then glanced underneath it.
There was some dust, but thankfully no socks.
“Hmph.”
She was about to bury herself among the pillows when the bedroom door opened.
Benjamin entered, freshly bathed and clean.
Helena glared at him fiercely.
“What?”
Setting a bundle of papers on the table, he replied calmly,
“Is there a problem?”
“Why are you here?”
Why?
Benjamin was honestly baffled.
“You seem to have forgotten—this is my room. You’re supposed to be in the annex. Since failing to prepare the annex was my fault, I graciously allowed you to share my room.”
Helena was equally stunned.
“Oh, really? Then where did you sleep last night instead of in your room?”
“…In the workshop.”
“Then how about sleeping there again tonight? I seriously can’t stand looking at you.”
“Can’t… stand…!”
The unimaginable insult left Benjamin speechless.
How can a woman—no, a human being—like this even exist?
This was nothing like the married life Benjamin had imagined.
The marriage was purely political.
They only needed to get what they wanted from it.
Money for him.
A refuge from scandal for Helena.
Afterward, he had expected a cold, distant marriage.
But every day turning into a war?
This is all because of her. This woman is insane.
What was harder to believe was something else.
He was slowly becoming accustomed to this strange woman.
Do people go insane themselves when they live with someone insane…?
Last night, shaken by the incident in the bathroom, he’d gone to the place where he normally rested best.
Yet the coldness of that familiar sleeping place had pierced his bones.
It had only been one day.
Only one day sharing a bed with Helena.
And somehow, that unbearably uncomfortable bed beside this unreasonable woman had begun to feel… familiar.
This makes absolutely no sense.
But the one at a disadvantage was him.
Even after fighting with her and hearing her say she couldn’t stand looking at him—
He still wanted to stay here.
Eventually, Benjamin said,
“No. I don’t want to. There’s nowhere else for me to sleep.”
After saying that, he turned away from Helena and sat heavily on the edge of the bed.
Helena was just as bewildered.
What is wrong with this man? Didn’t he say he wasn’t someone who slept in beds in the first place…?
She was about to snap at him to move his annoyingly well-shaped backside—
But stopped.
Sitting on the bed, she alternated her gaze between Benjamin’s broad back as he looked through the papers and the bedside dresser.
That dresser… I really don’t like the feeling of it.
The dresser Benjamin had brought had rough edges.
His back looked a hundred times better than that dresser.
“Hmm…”
After thinking for a moment, Helena lay down and lightly tugged at the hem of his clothes with her fingertips.
Feeling the strange pull, Benjamin looked back and froze.
Buried among blankets and pillows with only her face showing, Helena was expressionless as she tugged on his sleeve.
“What are you doing?”
“Lie down.”
“…What?”
“You said there’s nowhere else to sleep. Then sleep here. Hurry up and lie down.”
The moment Benjamin realized what she meant, his eyes trembled.
This woman… seriously…
