Chapter 8
As he said, the “perfect life of a duke” that Valderion dreamed of included marriage, a matter of human duty. The engagement with the Margrave House of Floydens, a part of that blueprint and a connection maintained since childhood, was quite solid. If it were revealed that he had acquired a Name partner, this matter would be the first to encounter difficulties. Since it would be one-sided anyway, this issue need not even surface. Therefore, for the time being, hiding it was the better course.
“Poor Lirete……”
Dailun, chin resting on his hand, whispered as he watched the clear streams of water flow with a crystalline sound. Beneath his calmly lowered eyelids, his languidly opened blue eyes were opaque, impossible to read.
“Well, fine.”
The next moment, they took on an excessively glossy sheen.
“It’s a favor from my beloved you, so I’ll do as you wish. But I have a condition.”
“A condition?”
“After one year, if your Name hasn’t manifested on Lirete, give her back to me.”
Valderion furrowed his brow involuntarily.
“……Give her back?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Does there need to be a reason?”
“……”
“She was originally mine, after all.”
What caprice was this now?
As always, his perverse temperament, which had never been comprehensible at any moment, seemed to have acted up again. It wasn’t that long ago that he had handed Lirete over, saying she was now Valderion’s.
But since he was the type to change his words on a whim, Valderion couldn’t bring himself to point that out. The Crown Prince was a person who only became more tiresome the more sincerely one dealt with him.
“If the Name doesn’t appear, she’ll be a useless woman to you anyway.”
Hearing Dailun’s added words, Lirete’s nervously trembling figure also came to mind. A beat later, he wondered why he was even recalling such a thing.
Instead of a verbal answer, he nodded once.
The atmosphere had subtly frozen over, as if touched by winter’s chill.
—
* * *
A few days later.
Valderion, who had been busy with political affairs since early morning, straightened his attire at the butler’s sudden report and left his office.
As he had felt during his recent conversation with Dailun, layers of thin ice still lingered in the air. A visitor arriving on a winter’s day like this without any prior notice.
He had already been informed of who that visitor was.
Valderion couldn’t decide whether to point out the rudeness unbefitting her station or to worry that she might have uncovered some clue regarding his situation.
“Lady Floydens.”
Inside the reception room, a woman in an ivory-colored dress adorned with sapphires raised her head at the single call. Her citrus-colored hair, falling to her waist, swayed with the movement.
Camille, rising while clutching the hem of her dress, greeted him first.
“Have you been well?”
“Of course. I do hope you weren’t too surprised by my unannounced visit today.”
Valderion twitched the corners of his mouth ambiguously and headed to the seat opposite her. When expressionless, he had a cold impression reminiscent of frost, but because he possessed such a handsome exterior, even a slight smile changed his atmosphere considerably.
His fiancée, Camille, was no exception; she could not take her eyes off the approaching Valderion.
“I hadn’t heard from you at all since the last ball, so I took the liberty of coming to see you in person.”
Her face, expressing worry that her visit might have caused trouble, was overly charming.
She was indeed a woman who had captivated high society.
Camille knew exactly how to make herself look lovely. Valderion could point to precisely that as the reason he continued his engagement with her.
If she was to become the mistress of the House of Justutia, shouldn’t she be able to effortlessly dominate high society?
The last ball.
That was about a week before he had gone to the imperial palace at Dailun’s summons. In other words, right after that ball ended, he had become entangled with Lirete and had been busy in many ways.
“Also, His Highness the Crown Prince sent us a gift.”
“A gift?”
“It’s black tea obtained from a foreign trading company that recently visited the empire. It’s a specialty product made only in certain regions of that country and is said to be very famous. He enclosed a letter expressing his wish that we enjoy the gift together and spend some quality time…….”
He wondered if it was mere impulse, but behind that action existed a clear ulterior motive.
*Dailun has made an unnecessary move.*
Valderion simply defined this cause and effect and sat down with his legs crossed.
“His Highness has graciously taken care of even such minor details.”
Camille, who had been occasionally gauging Valderion’s reaction as if anxious, broke into a bright smile at those words.
“Oh, by the way. I heard there’s a glass greenhouse here.”
“That is correct.”
“How about we have tea there together?”
Valderion readily rose to his feet, agreeing.
“The path to the glass garden is outside, so it might be a little cold.”
“That’s fine.”
Camille smiled brightly. Her face was full of lively energy.
Seeing that, Valderion recalled, for a very brief moment—a mere instant—a woman who was simply sallow and languishing.
But it was such a trivial gap, and by the time he took a step, it had faded away like a faint echo.
—
Meanwhile.
Lirete pressed her palm against the cold glass window. The chilly sensation unhesitatingly attacked her fingertips. It was difficult to find any vitality in her eyes as she looked outside.
Just then, something entered her field of vision.
A man and a woman had emerged from the eastern building and began walking through the garden together.
The woman was a stranger, but she knew the man all too well.
The master of this mansion.
The master of this bedroom.
And the master of the name engraved on her back……
Even from a distance, it was clear that the two were close. The woman, presumably a noble lady, clung to his side and chattered away like a lark without pause, adding pretty smiles. Though the distance was considerable, Valderion could also be seen smiling in response to her words from time to time.
They were a well-matched pair. From just that much, Lirete could infer their relationship.
*’So he had a fiancée.’*
In high society, marriage was used as a means to expand power by joining families together, so preparations often began from quite a young age. An engagement was the cornerstone of those preparations. As a grand duke among nobles, the House of Justutia would have prepared even more thoroughly on this matter.
*’Come to think of it……’*
Keeping her hand on the window, Lirete glanced behind her.
Since staying here, she had never witnessed any servants other than the butler. Not even a doctor. Every matter was handled either by Valderion himself coming in person or by the butler carrying out his orders.
Mulling over this closed-off situation, Lirete suddenly realized.
*’Is he hiding me?’*
There was still no word that could define her and Valderion. Their relationship was fluid. And throughout that “one year” he had mentioned, it would continue to waver without being fixed in place.
Until it was decided whether this godly prank was mutual or one-sided.
If it was one-sided—not to mention if it was mutual—he had said he would not interfere no matter where she went. In other words, that was tantamount to discarding her.
If that happened, he would remain firmly in his place as Duke of Justutia, having lost nothing. Until he gained confidence that this could become reality, the Duke intended to keep her tightly hidden from the world.
“……”
Her gaze dropped downward.
When she moved her ankle slightly, the shackle revealed its heavy presence with a clanking sound. Lirete slowly blinked her achromatic eyes, which seemed assimilated to it.
Under Valderion’s flawless plan, Lirete too had to prepare herself.
To do so, escaping this shackle was her top priority.
There was only one key that could resolve it.
“What would I have to do for you to remove this?”
Only the person who had ordered the shackle to be placed on her.
When evening came, Lirete asked Valderion, who had come to her bedroom. It was his first visit in a while, since the day they had not only traded barbs without concession but had even ended up physically wrestling.
Caught off guard by the question before he had even sat down, Valderion stopped in his tracks. After scanning Lirete’s resolute face, he let out a short laugh.
“You might as well ask a cat to guard a fish.”
“I won’t run away.”
He, who had been acting as if he couldn’t even hear her, finally turned and properly looked at Lirete, gripping the back of the sofa.
“Now I understand clearly. What my condition is, and what I truly need.”
As she spoke, she finally seemed to be humbly accepting her situation. With her eyes demurely lowered, she looked docile. Having only seen her glare at him as if she wanted to tear him alive or talk back sharply, this subdued posture was quite striking.
He leaned his upper body askew against the sofa he was gripping and glanced at Lirete’s ankle.
Then he noticed her unstable posture.
In just a few days, her condition had worsened again. Seeing that, his brow furrowed involuntarily.
“Do you truly understand?”
Letting that emotion show, he sat down on the sofa.
“There’s a saying that the Name is a leash of the soul.”
He loosened the cravat neatly tied around his neck.
“Meaning it ties two souls together.”
“……”
“If the Name becomes mutual, our conditions will also resonate.”
*Resonate?*
Lirete tilted her head, not quite understanding.
Valderion let the long, loosened cravat fall to the floor. Gazing at the crumpled, pitiful shape it made, he murmured in a lowered voice.
“If your health becomes critical, I too will be significantly affected.”
“……”
“If you suffer, I also suffer.”
His gaze slowly rose.
Soon, their eyes met.
“If you die, I die as well.”
