COARV Chapter 18

Having finished dressing for the year-end party, Kallis stood by the window, looking down at one arm. The arm, freed from rotting agony, was now as sound as any ordinary knight's.

A demonic crystal bracelet dangled at his wrist. The bracelet Seria had given him as a gift.

"Seria."

Kallis murmured alone. Until just the day before yesterday, the fiancée who had certainly been going to become his wife. Today's occasion, hastily changed to a year-end party, had originally been a reception for her and himself.

Seria Stern.

She was the cherished daughter of the prestigious Western Keliden Marquess. Though her birth mother's status was extremely low, making her quite isolated at home. Her half-brothers, Seria's two older brothers, didn't even want to talk about Seria. They practically shuddered.

In truth, it was an understandable reaction.

Seria's misdeeds were well known to Kallis too. The young Seria had been a girl utterly absorbed in luxury. She summoned the capital's jewel merchants and dress designers daily.

Among the jewels Seria bought on whim was a quail-egg-sized blue diamond that Empress Aekizel herself had coveted at the time. The price was so exorbitant that rumors circulated about Marquess Keliden selling off an island after receiving the bill.

Kallis knew a bit more detail, being a fellow western noble.

Though Seria had apparently been severely scolded by Marquess Keliden over that blue diamond, her extravagant habits still didn't subside. Her relationship with her family grew progressively worse until at fifteen, after becoming a Stern, she left the Keliden Marquess house entirely for a townhouse in the capital.

Shortly after, Kallis likewise went up to the Haneton estate in the capital. At the capital social scene's distinguished balls, Seria Stern was always present.

More precisely, there was always a Seria Stern 'tormenting someone.'

Seria back then had been such a spectacular villainess that no one could make excuses for her. Spilling dark-colored juice on a lady's dress she disliked was basic, and publicly crushing them before many people was a bonus.

Unable to watch her even slap someone across the face, Kallis had rescued a young lady being tormented by Seria.

'As a fellow westerner, are you insulting me now?'

Kallis could never forget Seria's blazing blue, chilling eyes that day, burning with fury.

Shortly after, Seria took revenge on Kallis as per her reputation. She poured a poison called Sengmalon onto his arm.

Sengmalon wasn't a powerful poison. If it had endangered his life or caused permanent bodily damage, Seria would have been brought to trial by now.

The symptoms weren't even severe. His limbs stiffened for about a week, just enough that he couldn't dance properly.

The problem was the soup Kallis had eaten the night before because of a cold. The nourishing soup his nanny, old Lady Risolt, had simmered all night contained langerbeu herb. An herb good for strengthening a patient's weakened body, but designated illegal by the imperial family due to its narcotic components.

However, elderly ladies in the countryside often used this langerbeu herb as medicine, knowingly or not.

The fact that langerbeu herb and Sengmalon poison were terrible antagonists wasn't well known.

A terrible chemical reaction occurred inside Kallis's body because of this, and as a side effect, one of Kallis's arms began slowly rotting.

He couldn't accuse Seria or get angry. If he did, Seria would learn about the langerbeu herb and might sneer about reporting his nanny. Kallis cherished his nanny greatly and didn't want to subject her to needless hardship.

So Kallis had been hiding the agony of his rotting arm alone all this time. Getting pain-relieving medicine from a couple of tight-lipped doctors.

He'd been slowly preparing to part with one arm when it happened.

'Marquess Haneton?'

Seria suddenly showed up one day and knelt, bowing her head. Kallis truly thought Seria had gone completely mad that day. But to suspect she'd truly gone insane, her other behaviors were too aristocratically refined for Seria...

It lasted a full month from then. Seria, who came to the estate every other day begging earnestly, suddenly said she'd found a way to fix his arm and took him to a small, quiet temple on the capital's outskirts.

'Wait here a bit.'

Leaving Kallis to endure the pain as his painkiller effects wore off, Seria returned hours later in a completely disheveled state. She pulled several herbs with small yellow flowers growing long from the pouch she'd taken.

'What's that?'

'Herbs. I can fix your injured arm with these.'

With clumsy but earnest skill, Seria applied the crushed herbs to Kallis's arm and wrapped it with bandages.

"How is it? Any better?"

Kallis was flustered. His arm, which had always hurt even slightly when taking pain-relieving medicine, felt magically fine the moment the herb touched it.

It was the moment his lingering doubt completely vanished.

'Where can I get more of these herbs?'

'That? I can't get more here, and though there are many in another place... I can't bring them because they're not mine.'

'Not yours?'

'Right. They have a separate owner. An owner who will appear in about a year.'

'...?'

Kallis didn't quite understand Seria's words, but made an effort to let it pass. And how could it be just her words? In truth, her actions were also hard to understand.

'Then where did you get these herbs?'

'From the cliff below the temple.'

'What?'

Kallis was momentarily shocked.

'You don't mean you climbed down and up the cliff?'

'That's right.'

The answer delivered with blinking blue eyes. Seria's eyes were completely different from those chilling, cold eyes that had glared at him before. It struck him anew that she was counted as a great beauty even in the capital.

Since when had she changed so much?

'Why are you doing all this for me?'

'Because I did wrong. Um, should I kneel one more time if that's not enough?'

'...No. Don't kneel. It's enough.'

Shortly after, Kallis proposed to Seria while presenting the emerald ring passed down through generations to the wives of the Haneton Marquess house.

The way Seria looked flustered then had been truly beautiful. The way she stared at the emerald ring, unable to look away.

"...Seria."

Kallis clenched his fist. He loved Seria. Though she'd married Grand Duke Berke by accident, it was temporary anyway. Not just Kallis but every noble in this castle thought similarly.

That Grand Duke Berke had taken extraordinary measures to save the precious Stern.

'Lina...'

Kallis intended to divorce Lina. She was different from any women Kallis had seen before. Rather than hiding flaws, she honestly revealed them and spoke freely about what was hard being hard. He'd felt rather sorry seeing how much she relied on him.

Most of all, Kallis was the marquess governing western Haneton. Building a relationship in advance with the saint who would strike the capital in the future was also politically the right calculation.

But he'd never wanted to lose Seria just to gain these advantages. Kallis couldn't let Seria go.

"Hah."

Until yesterday, his mind had been half-gone at the fact that Seria had married another man, unable to act rationally. After sleeping, his senses had returned somewhat.

Right now Seria was very angry, so he needed to give her time for that anger to cool. After that, if he apologized sincerely again...

Knock, knock.

With the sound of knocking, Kallis's knight rushed in urgently. That knight was one Kallis had stationed at Seria's annex.

"My lord!"

"What is it?"

"You should come see. The saint said she'd commission a dress from Designer Begonia, then searched the entire castle and even went to Lady Seria's annex..."

"Lina did?"

Lina was a saint. Pure as white jade. She didn't match well with aristocratic Seria. Lina might offend Seria, and who knew what Seria—already furious to the tips of her hair—might do.

"...I should go."

Kallis headed to the annex with a hardened face. He had no idea he'd run into Lesche Berke in front of the door guarded by knights at Seria's annex.

Turning back time, just a bit earlier.

Linon was grumbling slightly to Lesche.

"Your Grace, even so, she's someone who collapsed bleeding profusely at the wedding ceremony, yet you work her like a slave the moment she wakes up—am I not enough for you alone?"

His wicked master Lesche gave no response, just checking documents. As the castle's master, he had to make an appearance at the party, so he too was impeccably dressed.

His Grace the Grand Duke, checking documents just because he had spare time.

"Better to work. Otherwise pointless thoughts keep coming."

Even the answer he gave was that indifferent. Lesche kept turning through documents containing the word 'sorcerer' several times, then lifted his head as if suddenly wondering.

"This is strange. Why are you taking the lady's side?"

Linon answered proudly.

"Because I like people who work quickly!"

"I suppose so."

Such a clear reason.

But Linon's words were quite sincere. Seria processed work quite—no, extremely quickly. He hadn't accompanied her to glacier inspections so he didn't know about those, but yesterday she'd kept repeating only the words 'quickly, quickly' while reading documents on Elliot's back, receiving reports about food types on Elliot's back, and checking decorations for the hall on Elliot's back.

Thanks to that, the castle had completely transformed in a single day. Red ribbons and mistletoe decorations hung everywhere. Even the fabric had been completely replaced with damask. It was like magic.

"What do you think the demons of the manor will say when they see Lady Seria?"

"Who knows."

"I'm so looking forward to it."

Linon grinned.

"But Your Grace. Shouldn't you at least give Lady Seria advance warning about the manor? Even if it's a temporary marriage, you did get married, so you should enter together."

"She didn't seem to have such a timid personality."

"She certainly doesn't seem to..."

Lesche glanced down at the documents.

...lastly inviting six sorcerers from the Nesla Kingdom to the manor...

'...I suppose I should tell her after all.'

Lesche rose from his seat. He was also thinking of picking up Seria while he was at it. Once the ball began in earnest, temporary wife or not, he'd have to escort Seria in.

But he hadn't expected to encounter Kallis at Seria's annex.