“Is Juna well locked up?”
“Yes, I had locked her up so she couldn't get out of the carriage. She even tries to run away in the middle of it.”
“Ha.”
Selina snorted and shook her head. Even though she thought it was necessary so she attached people to find the will, she couldn't give her a chance to escape. It was not that the will was urgent, so she should let Juna suffer a little more.
She entered the bathroom coldly.
It was not much different from other lodgings she stopped by while she was on the move. A bathroom in which a bathtub was placed in an empty room and filled with bath water. Still, they seemed to have enough time to prepare, and they carefully arranged the assortment of things like scented candles and curtains.
“Oh, my!”
As she was undressing, one of the maids let out a small shriek in surprise. Selina, who had been staring blankly at the wall, turned to the maid, regaining her senses.
“What’s wrong…?”
“N, nothing. Sorry.”
“What?”
At the question, the maid’s face as she hurriedly tidied up the clothes was flushed red. Even as her back was turned, she still glanced at her body.
Seeing that, Selina glanced down at her body, looking for something.
“….”
The blush moved to Selina's face as well. Her whole body was mottled, full of bites and sucking marks. There was no mirror, so she didn't even have a chance to look at herself, so she didn't even know she had any of these left.
“Yesterday, His Excellency… a lot… I guess so. Haha."
The maid smiled and spoke brightly on purpose so that Selina would not be embarrassed. They were also taken aback as there were traces that could not be found when they were usually attending her bath.
“Yes, it was… Haha.”
Selina also tried to laugh, hiding her embarrassment.
Now, there was no need to deliberately misunderstand. Still, it was true that Kalcion was very much so last night and that the two of them did something adult. It had become a reality that couldn’t be denied.
Once again, she realized the difference between acting and reality. She could show herself to the fullest ‘when we were acting, we had a hot night!’ When it became real, she wanted to jump into the bath and hide.
“A lot, uh… you must be tired? I'll wash you quickly.”
The tiredness the maids were mentioning was actually topped with something different from the tiredness of horseback riding. However, Selina pretended not to know, and she only smiled.
“Oh.”
The maid, who had set Selina in the chair next to the bathtub and lightly rinsed off the dirt with hot water, made another noise of surprise. Then, as she turned around, the maid's eyes swiftly darted downwards.
Was there something else this time? Did she get a big scar on her back…?
However, what she found was not a stain but bloodstains that had fallen on the bathroom floor.
“…Ah.”
Selina immediately recognized the identity of the bloodstain. Somehow, she felt like her body was heavy.
“I think I started my period.”
“The cycle is a bit off. I don't have anything here, so I'll have to search the carriage.”
The maid responded naturally.
It’d already been a few periods, so they didn't panic at each other. Even if she forgot, the maid roughly memorized her cycle and told her in advance.
‘…Huh? If they know my cycle like this, shouldn't everyone know that Irell is pregnant?’
A sudden thought flashed through Selina, and she turned to the maid who stayed and wiped her body.
‘No.’
The one who knew Irell's matter best was Juna. If she casually asked the maid about pregnancy, chances were there would be word of mouth. No matter how late she was, she didn't want to see it became a talk in someone else’s mouth. She was a person who suffered and struggled throughout her life because of word of mouth.
Selina finished her bath and left the accommodation instead of entering her room.
Since the advance party and Kalcion's party were combined, they had to split it into different lodgings because it wasn't enough to rent the whole building in one lodging.
Juna was there.
Besides, because they were on the move and Selina wasn't accompanying them, they could have let her loose, but she was thoroughly hated.
After stopping the maid from following her, she walked toward the building with only an escort, and in the middle, she ran into Kalcion, who was coming towards the accommodation. Perhaps he had finished his errands.
“Where are you going?”
“I have a question for Juna.”
“I’ll accompany you.”
Kalcion was welcome because he was the one who needed to know the story best. As he stood side by side and held out his arm, Kalcion didn’t forget his escorting, even for short distances. While he stuck to her side, the escort knights naturally spread the distance.
He then tilted his head towards her as if he had been waiting for her.
‘Is he going to kiss me here…?'
Selina reflexively got surprised and stiffened her body. Nonetheless, it was her hair, not her lips, where Kalcion’s face was directed.
“When you come out of the wash, your hair is more shiny. Since all the stars have fallen here, the sky must be exceptionally dark tonight.”
“….”
Selina barely survived without fainting.
Kalcion was only ignorant at times like this. He just pressed his lips to her hair and stared at her with enraptured eyes. It was even a wonder why he couldn't even see her eyes that were about to go crazy from there.
“Your hair is like a river flowing in the night.”
“Stop…”
He truly ran without knowing the end. The Northern Duke Selina knew was not like this.
“You, who has never been able to say a word to all women, how is it that you are able to recite these words? You actually could have done it, but you didn’t because you wanted to mess with me?”
“I really couldn’t do it back then.”
“Lies. You’re so good at this? This is an expression that cannot come out unless you learn it somewhere.”
“Oh, I did learn.”
Was there really a place that teaches these things? Selina glanced at Kalcion in disbelief.
“The heir learns anything. Politics, economy, philosophy, martial arts, art… Among them was a courtesy to the lady.”
“Then you were able to do it after all.”
What are the struggles she had been through? She even tried to seduce him sincerely by drawing out his feelings. As a result, both of them are rolling in the dust of love.
“I couldn’t because I didn’t know.”
“You don’t know what?”
“I never knew when to say that. I didn’t even know why I had to do it.”
“Huh.”
If she asked this question, she would get another great answer though she still couldn't help it. Wherever she went, there would be comebacks.
“Why are you able to do it now?”
“Because it seems so.”
“….”
Oh, my God.
“Really, the whole world, including you, is shining.”
I'm just saying what it looks like.
Kalcion whispered.
Selina regretted her past foolishness with her mouth open, and her eyes drained of her soul. Whenever she received a script with romance in it, she looked at the lines of male characters and reflected on herself that cursed it for not being realistic.
The reality was actually more.
“That… even so, it can be a bit awkward or annoying to those who can't bear to see it, because it is. I think you should do it in moderation.”
“I have learned everything that may be embarrassing to others, but to a lady, like watering flower pots, even if you repeat it endlessly, it is not enough.”
“There are different types of flower pots. I didn’t know until now, but I guess I was a cactus that could survive a year in the middle of the desert with just one drop of water.”
“…Ah.”
Kalcion was finally pushed back by her hardline refusal.
“I’ll be careful.”
“Yes.”
As Selina smiled earnestly and caressed his arm, he nodded his head like an obedient animal and immediately brought up her business matters.
“What are you going to ask the maid?”
“Ah. Irell's pregnancy.”
In case her voice leaked out, Selina whispered in the lowest voice she could.
“Pregnancy?”
Kalcion probably never heard of it before. Selina, too, because she only heard from the Crown Prince yesterday.
“Is that what you were talking about yesterday?”
When she tried to tell the story about the Crown Prince, she was stopped by Kalcion, who said to tell him later.
“Yes, the Crown Prince said it with his own mouth.”
Kalcion let out a short sigh and nodded his head as if to continue.
Selina relayed the stories she had heard from the Crown Prince. Irell, who was intentionally isolated from the social world, the Crown Prince who approached Irell, and Irell, who began to obsess after having a physical relationship…
She thought Kalcion would be enraged and rampage, but he unexpectedly calmly nodded his head and listened to the story to the end.
“Certainly the best way to insult Renbird.”
Even after hearing everything, that was all his reaction. He was so calm that she was worried that he might explode in the wrong place.
‘…Or maybe it's just that he doesn't feel much emotion.’
Regarding her death, Kalcion was angrier about daring to touch ‘Renbird’s person' than ‘Irell's death. Although Irell's situation could be considered pitiful, it was still someone else's affair.
‘It's better than being hurt.’
As she thought so, Selina was also relieved rather than shocked by Kalcion's indifference. She was glad he was a strong person.
“Yes, I feel like he has a deep grudge because the duke didn’t lose to him when he was young… How old is he to still be trying to take revenge? Ugh. I don't think he's even human. If he has sacrificed one Irell, he should think about quitting, but again…”
“Again?”
Although she was talking about the crown prince, as she was getting sick just thinking about it, Kalcion's sharp question cut off her words.
“Yes, again…”
Selina hesitated at the unusual energy and gazed back at him.
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