AWLITEB Chapter 37

"You felt it, didn't you? How the viscountess kept humiliating me."

Isabella wiped the remaining soot from the back of her hand as she asked.

"I'd be an idiot not to notice. Though Viscount Oshier was completely oblivious. The man's utterly ignorant in that area."

Genos spoke lightly.

"Then if you knew she was insulting me, why didn't you do anything about it?"

Isabella asked.

She wasn't blaming him.

If he'd made a decision, she figured there had to be a reason for it. She was just curious what it was.

"Because I thought it was right for you to handle it."

"Since I'm the one who needs to make an impression in the West?"

"That was part of it, but half was for a different reason."

"A different reason?"

"I wanted you to experience the pleasure of crushing someone beneath you."

"What?"

"I wanted you to experience it as much as possible and derive pleasure from it before we return to the capital. That way, you'll keep trying to get that pleasure again, like a drug, won't you?"

Genos's nonchalant expression made Isabella shake her head from side to side.

"I thought I had you figured out, but you still manage to surprise and fascinate me."

"Should I take that as a compliment?"

"I'm not sure. It means you're interesting, but I don't know if it's a compliment."

Isabella took a bite of fish and spoke while chewing.

"Sometimes you seem to care for me blindly, and other times you seem to push me blindly. You're impossible to predict, Your Grace."

"If I cared for you blindly, I'd be a terrible master, and if I pushed you blindly, that would also make me a terrible master. So I simply alternate between the two."

Genos looked at Isabella as he spoke.

The sea breeze stirred his glossy hair.

Whether it was the moonlight or his beauty itself—his hair shone smooth and pretty, as if someone had plucked down constellations and set them there.

"I'm the best horse trainer there is. You need to remember that. Because it's true."

"Looking at you, you really are quite the narcissist."

"You do know most people would choose narcissism over an affection deficit, right?"

"You deliver criticism and observations with such elegance."

Isabella grumbled and tossed the fish skeleton into the sea. Splash.

"Touring all the grand duchies of the Empire and managing public sentiment is, of course, groundwork for the next stage, but it's also the last rest period before entering a bloodbath of war."

"Six months of rest?"

"Yes. We're already racing toward the halfway point, so enjoy it a bit more."

When they returned to the capital, a real fight would begin, just as Genos said.

Both the destruction of the White family and Genos's rebellion for the imperial throne would ignite in earnest.

Any undertaking required momentum to carry out a major event.

In that sense, if she could regard this entire journey touring the grand duchies as a rest period like Genos suggested, it would be a great help.

To follow Genos's advice, Isabella closed her eyes and listened to the sound of the sea.

The waves rushing forward violently before gently scattering in an instant—that sound melted her heart.

But perhaps it melted too much, because Isabella soon began nodding off. Drowsy.

"Sleepy?"

At Genos's question, Isabella lifted her head and wiped away the drool.

"Hm? No."

"A habitual lie."

Genos spoke, then gently pulled Isabella's arm.

He hadn't used much force, but since she was drunk on drowsiness, Isabella collapsed onto Genos's thigh.

Thanks to Genos catching her head, the catastrophe of getting a concussion from his rock-hard thigh didn't occur.

"Sleep a little."

"...Like this?"

"Yes. Why?"

"It's a bit hard."

"Deal with it. It's my leg."

"Your narcissism really has remarkable penetrating power, Your Grace."

Genos chuckled. Heh.

"The guards are pretending not to look while watching us. Showing them this isn't bad."

"Now that you mention it, you did use that young knight's eyes on Witch's Night too."

"Young knight? You remembered that knight was young?"

Genos asked in an irritated tone.

Isabella looked up at him, puzzled.

"What, are you jealous right now? That possessiveness again?"

"Don't try to mock me with something you have just as much of."

"But I want to mock you, what can I do? Goodness. You get this jealous just because I remembered a knight was young."

"Just sleep."

Even as Genos covered Isabella's eyes with his hand, Isabella pushed his hand away and grinned deviously at him.

Those starved of affection never missed an opportunity to fill that void.

"Does it bother you that much that I remember detailed information about other people?"

"..."

"Tell me. Does it upset you that much? Irritating and anger-inducing?"

Isabella's lips kept moving. Chatter, chatter.

As she chirped like a sparrow waking from morning sleep, Genos simply covered Isabella's entire face from eyes to mouth with his large hand.

"Mmph, mmph!"

Suddenly smothered by his rough palm, Isabella flailed.

But Genos didn't remove his hand.

"Yur hnd! Yur hnd iz too rff!"

Ignoring Isabella's complaint that his hand was too rough, Genos just kept his hand on his fiancée's face.

"Then just keep your eyes closed. Hurry up and sleep."

Isabella flailed a few more times, but it was useless, so she eventually gave up.

As she closed her eyes and listened to the sound of the waves, her body gradually relaxed.

And drowsiness poured over her.

Seeing Isabella's arms and legs go limp, Genos finally removed his hand from her face.

Isabella was sleeping soundly.

Genos looked down at her and smiled.

Of all the things he'd ever possessed, had there been anything this precious?

No matter how much he thought about it, nothing was more precious than Isabella.

Nothing was more remarkable, strong, beautiful, or insane than her.

Genos slowly twisted Isabella's hair, then lightly brushed her cheek with his knuckle.

Isabella briefly furrowed her brow but didn't wake.

Genos's smile deepened.

The Grand Duke's procession departed toward the South.

The luggage carts were loaded with Western bathing supplies, and they'd prepared food, tents, sleeping bags, and blankets in case they had to sleep outdoors.

"Feeling motion sickness?"

At Genos's words, Isabella looked up from the book she was reading.

"You know that's the twelfth time you've asked? Really. I've been counting."

Isabella showed him the back of her hand. There really were eleven tally marks drawn there.

She glared at him and picked up her quill pen to add one more mark.

"I just don't want to repeat what happened last time."

"I told you. That time it was because the carriage was shaking too much. I'm perfectly fine right now."

"That's fortunate. But if you feel nausea coming on..."

"I'll aim right at Your Grace. Got it?"

Isabella widened her eyes and smiled with just the corners of her mouth lifted.

"Yes. If I ask any more, you really might do that, so I should save my words."

"Thank you so much for that consideration."

After one short comment, Isabella returned to her book.

The carriage rolled peacefully toward the South.

By continuously changing horses at imperial stables in every village, they kept the carriage's speed from dropping.

"We'll need to spend the night here today."

Late at night, Paile knocked on the carriage door. Knock, knock.

Since it was so late, they'd expected this, so Genos acknowledged it.

Genos prepared to leave the carriage as he spoke.

"It's been a while since we've grilled meat outdoors. The knights seem quite tired. I'll bring you food when it's ready, so wait here."

"I want to go out too."

"What?"

Genos stopped mid-exit, wondering if he'd heard wrong.

"It would be good to make a favorable impression on the guards too. Casually."

Isabella shrugged.

"They're Your Grace's closest knights, and I still don't even know the name of your most loyal knight, so wouldn't it be good to learn?"

"You don't need to win over my escort knights. Rather, save that energy for other matters..."

"I'm also feeling stifled. Can I go out first?"

Isabella pushed past Genos and exited the carriage first.

As Genos walked toward the guards and looked back at Isabella walking and smiling, he shook his head.

He had a pretty good idea why Isabella was doing this.

Tents were set up, and several campfire spots were prepared for grilling steaks.

The guards skillfully finished setting up and quickly grilled thick chunks of meat here and there.

Isabella and Genos took seats in front of a campfire.

"I apologize for having you sit on the ground."

A knight handed them plates with large chunks of meat and spoke apologetically.

"His Grace laid down a handkerchief for me, so don't worry, young knight."

At Isabella's words, Genos looked at her silently.

Isabella gazed at her fiancé with an innocent and blameless expression, as if to say what?

"Do you have something to say?"

"Hah."

Genos shook his head and focused only on cutting the steak.

However, he couldn't completely hide his irritation—unpleasant force was fully loaded into the hand cutting the meat.

"It's an honor to share a meal like this with Your Grace's closest knights. You're all capable men who serve the Grand Duke with utmost dedication."

Isabella showed a soft smile to the knights sitting around them.

Though they were men who'd spent years as knights rarely even glimpsing women, they hadn't forgotten that Isabella was Genos's fiancée.

So even faced with Isabella's charming smile, they hardened their expressions and only offered stiff thanks.

"I trained them well."

Genos whispered in Isabella's ear.

The professional attitude the knights displayed reassured him.

However, Isabella, who'd decided to tease Genos tonight, had no intention of backing down here.

"You know it's not just those knights you've trained well, don't you?"

An explosive floral scent burst from Isabella's body.

The fragrance that flowed on the wind to Genos's opposite side stimulated the noses of nearly ten knights sitting around the same campfire.

Their faces instantly flushed red. Then they took on dazed expressions as if they'd lost their minds and stared at Isabella vacantly.

"They're all staring only at me."

Isabella scanned the knights and spoke to Genos.

"I feel like my affection deficit might be filled right now?"

"That's enough."

Genos clapped his large hands sharply—clap!—in front of Isabella's eyes.

When Isabella flinched in surprise, the seduction ability enveloping the knights vanished.

The knights looked dazed, wondering what had happened, then refocused on their meals.

Isabella gauged Genos's mood.

Of course, she'd wanted to annoy him a bit, but seeing Genos staring at her with this expressionless face was starting to scare her.

"It was training. I feel like I haven't used my seduction ability enough lately."

"..."

"Could you not look at me like you're going to devour me? It really feels like being inside a predator's cage."

Isabella stuck out her lips and grumbled.

She thought it was a bit much to look at her with such reproachful eyes just for playing around a little.

"Don't try to provoke my jealousy as an excuse to fill your affection deficit."

"..."

"What would you do if I lost my self-control and killed all these knights?"

Genos warned Isabella firmly while stabbing his knife into the meat. Stab, stab.

"Your Grace wouldn't really..."

"..."

"Fine. I won't do it again."

Isabella declared surrender.

If she played around twice more, there'd be real trouble.

As Isabella picked up her knife to eat, she suddenly felt a strange sensation.

Sticky and damp and... an indescribably unpleasant feeling.

Having identified the source of that feeling, Isabella hastily set down her plate and stood up.

Genos and the knights looked up at Isabella.

"What's wrong?"

At Genos's question, Isabella quickly smiled and said:

"No, it's just. I'm not feeling well, so I'm going to rest in the carriage for a bit. Please eat, Your Grace."

Isabella spun around and walked away quickly.

Genos's questioning gaze followed Isabella's retreating figure.