EEA Chapter 19

The investiture concluded with an immediate celebration. Ailea told Clint she'd return to the residence, though truthfully, she wanted to stay.

The sight of Clint at the investiture had overwhelmed her like a massive flame. Everyone present had stood mesmerized by him. The man who was always playful and carefree had vanished entirely.

From the residence, Ailea watched the glittering ladies in their elaborate dresses and the men sweet-talking them from a distance.

She picked up Blue, who trailed behind her devotedly.

"When we go to Excalize Castle, I'll need to host a celebration, and I'm worried... I don't know how to arrange things the way people do in the capital."

It was an excuse, perhaps, but she thought she'd do a little research on party planning.

Ailea wrapped her veil back on and left the residence. When she saw someone approaching in the distance, she startled and hid behind a tree.

Her eyes widened at what she saw.

Clint was there, surrounded by various nobles, playing boisterously. Watching him laugh so freely, Ailea felt an inexplicable sting of disappointment.

Men seeking power and beautiful young ladies wanting his affection spoke to him. Clint made light jokes, and the girls laughed musically in response.

Then Rita approached him. She wrapped her delicate hand around his muscular, firm arm.

"You seem to be enjoying yourself?"

Clint gave her a charming smile. "Yes, now that it's all done, I feel quite relieved."

"Where is your wife?"

"She's not feeling well, so she's at home."

Rita touched his arm lightly. "What a shame, missing such an enjoyable party."

"..."

"I'll go see His Highness then. Goodbye."

She waved and disappeared. Every eye in the vicinity followed her. Several men pursued her, hoping to catch her attention despite knowing she belonged to the Crown Prince, too drawn by her beauty to resist. The sight left Ailea numb.

Clint was the kind of man who should have been seduced by beautiful women. She knew that, yet kept forgetting it.

Ailea returned to the residence listlessly. Apparently the party had no food worth eating—Shante and Kaiton were already home. Kaiton approached her.

"Where have you been?"

"Oh, just for a walk, Lord Luranschten."

When Ailea deliberately used his title, Kaiton looked embarrassed and scratched his head.

"Just call me by my name. It's strange."

Shante spoke up from beside him. "We can't do that. The commander might get jealous."

"Jealous of what? He goes around using every woman's name—" Kaiton slapped his own mouth. "I'm sorry, forget that."

He quickly continued, "Hey, since you didn't go to the party, why don't the two of you have a small celebration here for the promotion? We could make it special."

"Pardon?"

"Pick your prettiest dress. I'm sure he'll love it."

Shante clapped enthusiastically. "Let's tell the maids to prepare lots of food!"

"No, wait—"

"I'll bring the commander myself!"

By the time Ailea could protest, both men had dashed off with such enthusiasm that she found herself swept along despite her resistance.

The truth was, Ailea owned only two dresses: the one from the broken engagement ceremony and her wedding gown. Two years ago, when she'd worn this wedding dress, she had died. Perhaps that was why her heart felt so terribly fragile now.

She took out the wedding dress and put it on, sitting in a chair in Clint's bedroom.

For a moment, she stared at her reflection in the mirror. Then tears came flooding down.

"I look strange," she whispered.

She hung her head, her shoulders trembling. The tears wouldn't stop. All the sorrow she'd been holding inside came pouring out in waves of grief she could no longer contain. The image of Rita speaking to Clint kept surfacing in her mind—people living in a world so different from hers.

She was lost in tears when Clint's bedroom door opened. Taren's voice called out, "Commander! Come down quickly!"

"I'm coming."

As if receiving a promotion meant nothing at all, Clint's tone remained casual and familiar even to the soldiers.

"Why are they using us as an excuse to drink on their own?" he muttered irritably, already removing his outer coat as he spotted the silhouette of a woman in the chair. "Is that the wedding dress the Crown Prince gave you?"

"Yes... I've never worn it before."

"You weren't planning to get married, so why did he give it to you?"

"..."

It was a difficult question to answer.

Clint adjusted his question. "Why are you sitting with your back to me?"

Ailea's shoulders flinched. "I tried... I tried putting on makeup, but it looked so awful... I'll wash it off right away, I promise."

"..."

"The knights said you'd like it... they kept expecting so much that I couldn't refuse. I'm sorry."

"..."

"I was never suited to white anyway..."

Somehow, Clint had crossed the room without her noticing. His hands gripped the armrests of her chair. Perhaps the alcohol was affecting him—his movements were a touch rough. "This woman is my bride," he said.

The veil hid her face. Tears had gathered on her chin and now fell, one by one.

"Who told you that you're beautiful?" Clint asked.

"..."

"Or did I ever call you hideous? Ugly? Anything like that?"

"No, I... I didn't mean—"

"Then why?"

"..."

"Why are you crying?"

Clint touched her chin with his finger, wiping away a tear.

"If you looked as terrible as you seem to think, I would have found a way to refuse. Believe that."

He lifted her veil. Ailea's trembling shoulders stilled, caught off guard. Clint let out a small laugh before saying with deliberately wicked charm, "Here you are, pretending to be ugly when you're not even remotely close."

His teasing drew a small laugh from her. As she laughed, he completely removed her veil. Then he knelt before her, gazing up into her eyes, and asked gently, "Are you done crying?"

"Yes."

"Did I marry a child? Why do you cry so easily?"

When he teased her playfully, she let out another small sound of laughter, then reached out and lightly tapped his shoulder in mock reproach. Clint stood.

"Want to go downstairs and have a drink?"

"I'm not very good at drinking..."

"It's fine. You can just sit there."

"Then I'll go."

The joy in her voice was so endearing that Clint couldn't resist running his hand over her hair before pressing a soft kiss to her forehead.

The moment his lips touched her skin, Ailea's eyes went wide as saucers.

"Now that we're married, at least this much is allowed."

He waved his hand and turned toward the door. "I'll wait downstairs. Come when your tears have dried."

He left the room.

Ailea sat frozen for a moment, staring blankly at the closed door. Then slowly, she turned to look at it. She covered her face with both hands, her cheeks burning bright red.

"Honestly... such a flirt..."

That kiss had been his way of showing her that her appearance caused him no revulsion whatsoever.

How was she supposed to describe this feeling?

How was this man able to dissolve her despair so thoroughly, so instantly?

She rose slowly, a confused smile trembling on her lips, and walked to the door. She leaned her cheek against it, wishing she could draw closer but unable to cross any further threshold.

"Thank you," she murmured. "My husband."

Clint had lingered in the hallway despite meaning to go downstairs—worried about her for reasons he couldn't quite explain. Through the door, he heard her soft voice.

Do we really have to go to Excalize?

Excalize lay at Teniac's southern border, right at the frontier. Even when accumulating power for rebellion, the distance made it hard for the capital to notice. And it meant constant scrutiny from the Emperor.

The common folk and nobles of Sutton, who'd endured Kanna's rule for so long, would hardly welcome Clint. Restoring that war-torn province might require years of work with nothing but toil.

And Ailea, with her unusual appearance, would face far harsher rejection than she did in the capital.

He'd already received his promotion. Why not leave Excalize to his knights and simply visit occasionally? He could stay here at the Outer Castle, manage it well, build a new house, live in peace. The Crown Prince would be irritating, but as long as Clint remained in the capital, he could maintain a trouble-free relationship without any interference moving forward.

Why go to all that trouble? Why not find a way to stay here? Claim some serious illness, something that rendered him unable to travel...

He'd already lost too many comrades. The Emperor's scrutiny had grown tiresome.

It seemed reasonable enough to compromise with the Emperor as much as possible, stay at the Outer Castle, and only travel north when word came that the frontier faced danger.

"What's the matter?" Rita asked, setting down her fan with a slight furrow between her brows.

She'd come home from enjoying herself with the Crown Prince, wanting nothing more than to sleep, when her father Alex had called her. He watched her carefully before pointing at the artifact.

"Look at that."

Rita saw the scale measuring imperial potential. She burst out laughing.

As if nothing had ever shifted in Clint's favor, Roylins's nameplate filled all ten notches completely, the weight of his name undeniable. There was no one threatening the Crown Prince's succession now.

I was worried for nothing.

Yet even as she thought it, Rita felt an odd pang of regret. She kept seeing Clint receiving his investiture, kept remembering the sight of him.

Since Ailea couldn't drink well, she took one sip and quickly grew tired, excusing herself to bed. The others all drank themselves to sleep, leaving only the habitual drinkers: Clint and Shante.

Clint spoke to Shante, "Going to Excalize will be hard on all of you anyway. You don't really want to go, do you?"

"Honestly, the place was a complete ruin. I'm not eager. And the food situation seems grim."

"What if I claim I've caught some serious illness and delay going as long as possible?"

"What if you say it's contagious?"

"I considered it, but I think Ailea would hate being known as spreading plague. Maybe I'll ask her, and if she's fine with it, I'll claim contagion and hold out here as long as possible."

Their conversation reached the ears of Kaiton, who was supposedly sleeping. He kept his eyes firmly shut and pretended he'd heard nothing.

Days before.

When Clint was at the palace receiving documents authenticating his marriage from the Emperor, Kaiton was at the Outer Castle helping Ailea pack. They would temporarily move to the residence the Crown Prince had prepared until the investiture ceremony.

There wasn't much to pack. Most of it was the cat's belongings. Kaiton felt almost embarrassed to be helping. As he gathered things along with Ailea, he asked, "What's this?"

He held up papers rolled tightly together, tied with a blue ribbon the color of autumn sky. Ailea untied the ribbon and explained, "Information about the area around Excalize Castle."

The papers were filled with details about Sutton: geography, climate, history, culture—everything.

"Since Commander Clint has always been on the battlefield, he'll need this kind of information to manage his territory properly."

"You... compiled all this in such a short time?"

"There are still gaps. Before we go to Excalize Castle, I want to gather as much material as possible from the palace library."

"Ah, so that's why you wanted to stay at the residence the Crown Prince prepared?"

"Yes."

She rolled the papers again and tied them with blue ribbon. "Sutton was under Kanna's rule for so long that it will be terribly difficult for Commander Clint—especially someone from the capital of Teniac—to win the people's hearts. I won't be much help, but I can at least search for books."

"Though I should mention, the commander isn't exactly known for his sincerity..."

Kaiton stared at the enormous stack of information-filled papers. Ailea had extracted all this from Clint's library in such a brief time. She must have been up all night.

Ailea spoke shyly. "Still, he doesn't treat the weak carelessly. When he sees the people of Sutton struggling after the war, he'll work with integrity."

This meek-looking woman has all this inside her head? Kaiton swallowed hard, suddenly nervous.

Later, feigning sleep, Kaiton listened to Clint and Shante's conversation and thought: Commander, I think you're genuinely caught. And that means... no more avoiding work.