EEA Chapter 19

The investiture ceremony ended and a party immediately followed. Ailea told Clint she would return straight to the mansion, but deep down she also wanted to stay.

Clint's appearance at the investiture ceremony overwhelmed Ailea like a massive flame. It wasn't just her. Everyone present stared at him in a daze. The man who was always mischievous and lighthearted was nowhere to be found.

Having returned to the mansion, Ailea gazed at the women in glamorous dresses visible in the distance and the men sweetly tempting them.

Ailea picked up Blue, who was following her around persistently.

"When I go to Escalize Castle, I'll have to hold banquets, and I'm worried..."

The only advantage of someone from the capital was being able to hold refined parties by being sensitive to trends, but Ailea lacked even that advantage.

Though it felt like making excuses, she thought she might do a little research for parties.

Ailea put on her veil again and left the mansion. But when she saw people approaching from a distance, she was startled and hid behind a tree.

Ailea's eyes widened as she watched the approaching people.

Clint was there, surrounded by various nobles. Seeing Clint enjoying himself noisily made Ailea feel inexplicably disappointed.

Men who desired power and beautiful young ladies who wanted his heart spoke to him. Clint made light jokes, and the young ladies giggled.

Then Rita approached Clint. She wrapped her delicate hands around his muscular, firm arm.

"Are you having fun?"

Rita was a refined beauty. Her blonde hair was carefully curled with hot heat, giving her an even more innocent atmosphere. Clint smiled charmingly.

"Yes, now that everything's finished, I feel very refreshed."

"Where is your wife?"

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

She lightly tapped Clint's arm.

"That's too bad, missing such an enjoyable party."

"..."

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

She waved and disappeared. Everyone's attention was drawn to her. And several men followed her, moving along. Even knowing she was the crown prince's woman, they overcame their fear and tried to say even a word to her. She possessed such beauty.

Ailea was stunned by this sight.

She kept forgetting, though she knew it, that Clint was a man who should have originally received temptation from such beautiful women.

Ailea returned to the mansion feeling dejected. Perhaps because there wasn't much delicious food at the party, Shante and Kaiton had returned home. Kaiton approached Ailea.

"Where have you been?"

"Oh, I just went for a walk, Lord Loranstein."

When Ailea deliberately added the title, Kaiton scratched his head, seemingly embarrassed.

"Just call me by name. It's awkward."

Then Shante said from beside him.

"That won't do. Wouldn't the captain be jealous?"

"Jealous, what nonsense. He goes around calling all women by their names... No, I'm sorry."

Kaiton, who had spoken without thinking, slapped his own mouth and continued.

"Oh, since you didn't go to the party, how about the two of you have a small party to commemorate receiving the title?"

"What?"

"Choose your prettiest dress to wear. He'll definitely like it."

Shante also seemed satisfied and clapped while saying.

"Then let's ask the maids to make lots of food!"

"Oh no..."

"I'll drag the captain here!"

It seemed they were trying to comfort Ailea for not being able to attend the party, but her position was very awkward. While Ailea was flustered, the two ran off in different directions.

Ailea was swept up in their enthusiasm.

Prettiest or not, the only dresses Ailea had were the one she wore at the annulment ceremony and her wedding dress. On the day she wore these clothes two years ago, she had died. Perhaps because of this, her heart became infinitely weak.

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

She briefly looked at herself reflected in the mirror. Tears suddenly poured out.

"I look strange."

She hung her head and her shoulders shook. The tears wouldn't stop. She had been keeping her sorrowful feelings inside, but now unbearable sadness burst forth and she couldn't stop crying. She kept remembering Rita speaking to Clint. They seemed like people living in a different world from herself.

While she was crying like this for a while, Clint's bedroom door opened. Tarren's voice was heard.

"Captain! Come down quickly!"

"I'm coming."

As if receiving the title meant nothing at all, the knights' way of speaking remained as friendly as ever.

"Why are they using us as an excuse when they just want to drink among themselves."

Clint, who had already drunk quite a bit, muttered irritably, then noticed the back of a woman sitting in the chair and asked while taking off his outer garment.

"Is that the wedding dress His Highness Roylin gave you?"

"Yes... This is the first time I've worn it."

"If you had no intention of marrying, why did he give it to you?"

"..."

Was it a difficult question to answer?

Guessing so, Clint changed his question.

"But why are you sitting turned away?"

At his question, Ailea's shoulders flinched. She said, "I, I tried doing makeup but it looked so terrible... I'll go erase it and come back soon."

"..."

"The knights said you would like it... They kept expecting it, so I had no choice. I'm sorry."

"..."

"White doesn't originally suit me..."

Before she knew it, Clint's two hands gripped the armrests of the chair Ailea was sitting in. Perhaps because he was drunk, his movements were a bit rough. He said, "This woman is my bride."

Her face covered by the veil wasn't visible. Whether she had been crying, tears were beaded on her chin and dropped.

Clint asked, "Who told you that you're pretty?"

"..."

"Or when did I ever say anything about you being terrible or ugly or such nonsense?"

"N, no..."

"Then why?"

"..."

"Why are you crying?"

Clint touched Ailea's chin with his finger to wipe away her tears.

"If your appearance was as terrible as you think, I would have somehow refused too."

As he spoke, he lifted her veil. Then, as if greatly surprised, Ailea's shoulders, which had been heaving from sniffling, stopped abruptly. Clint chuckled and said in a very bad person-like tone.

"Something that's not even ugly is pretending to be ugly somewhere."

At his joke, Ailea smiled slightly. When she smiled, Clint grabbed Ailea's veil and completely removed it. Then he knelt in front of her and looked up at Ailea, asking tenderly.

"Are you done crying?"

"Yes."

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

When he teased her mischievously, Ailea laughed softly again, then reached out and lightly hit Clint's shoulder as if telling him not to play around. Clint stood up from his position.

"Want to go downstairs and have a drink?"

"I'm not good with alcohol..."

"It's okay, just sit there."

"Then I'll go."

Because Ailea spoke in a joyful voice that was lovable, Clint stroked her head and gently kissed her forehead.

At that moment, Ailea's eyes widened.

"Since we're married, this much should be okay."

He said and waved his hand.

"I'll wait downstairs. Come out when your tears are dry."

He left the room.

Ailea sat in the chair with vacant eyes for a moment, then slowly turned her head to look toward the door. Then she covered her forehead with both hands, her face turning bright red as she mumbled.

"Really... such a playboy..."

It was a kiss to let her know that her appearance gave him no disgust whatsoever.

This feeling, what should she call it?

How can this man so sweetly, so instantly lift my mood like this?

She slowly stood up with a face that looked like she might cry again and walked to the door. Then she leaned her cheek against the door that Clint had already left through and closed. Unable to get any closer to him than this.

Ailea murmured.

"Thank you, my husband."

Somehow worried about Ailea, Clint, who couldn't go straight down to drink and was pacing around, heard her soft voice from beyond the door.

Do we really have to go to Escalize?

Escalize was at the southern end of Teniac, right in front of the border. Even if one was building strength to commit treason, it was a distance that made it difficult for the imperial capital to notice. That's why it had to endure constant checks from the emperor.

Even if they went to Escalize, the commoners and nobles who had been under the Kanna Empire's rule for a while wouldn't welcome Clint. To restore the Serton region, which would be a complete mess from being constantly embroiled in war, they might have to do nothing but work for several years.

Moreover, Ailea, with her different appearance, would certainly be ostracized more severely than in the capital.

Since he had already received the title anyway, couldn't he leave Escalize to the knights and occasionally make rounds while staying in this outer castle? If he managed this outer castle well, built a new house, and lived like that. The crown prince would be annoyed, but if he continued to stay in the capital, he could maintain an amicable relationship without any future checks.

Instead of going there and struggling unnecessarily, he should find a way to live here. Like getting an infectious disease so he couldn't move...

He had lost countless comrades before his eyes. Clint was now tired of being checked by imperial power.

It seemed fine to compromise with the emperor as much as possible and stay in the outer castle, only going when there were reports that the frontier was dangerous.

"What's the matter?"

Rita, who had returned from enjoying herself with the crown prince, asked with a slight frown between her brows. She wanted to go straight to sleep because she was tired from returning from the party, but her father Alex had called her. Alex glanced at his daughter who was receiving the crown prince's love, then pointed to a magical device.

"Look at that."

Rita looked at the magical device pointing to the emperor. Then she let out a scoff of disbelief.

As if it had never leaned toward Clint, Roylin's name occupied all ten spaces, boasting the weight of his name. There was no one threatening the crown prince's succession to the throne at this moment.

We worried for nothing.

Even while thinking this, Rita felt a strange regret. The image of Clint receiving his title kept flickering before her eyes.

Because Ailea wasn't good with alcohol, she went in tired after one sip and fell asleep. Everyone got drunk and fell asleep, leaving only Clint and Shante, who were heavy drinkers.

Clint continued talking to Shante.

"Even if we go to Escalize anyway, you guys will suffer too. Don't you not really want to go?"

"Honestly, that place was completely in ruins, so I don't want to go. There probably won't be any food either."

"Should I say I got seriously ill and delay it as much as possible, going as late as possible?"

"How about saying this hand has an infectious disease?"

"I was thinking the same thing, but I think Ailea would hate it if rumors spread that this is an infectious disease. If I ask her and she says it's okay, maybe I'll say I got an infectious disease and try to hold out in the outer castle as long as possible."

The conversation between the two reached the ears of Kaiton, who was sleeping. He squeezed his eyes shut and pretended not to hear.

A few days ago.

When Clint was receiving marriage certification documents from the emperor at the imperial palace, Kaiton was helping Ailea pack in the outer castle. It was to temporarily move to the mansion the crown prince had prepared until the investiture ceremony.

It wasn't much luggage. Most of it was just the cat's things. It was embarrassing that he had come to help. Kaiton, who was helping Ailea pack, asked, "What is this?"

Kaiton held up rolled papers. White paper was tied with a ribbon made of autumn sky-blue thread. Ailea untied the ribbon and said.

"It's what I organized about the area around Escalize Castle."

The papers were filled with content about the Serton region. Geography, climate, history, culture, and so on. Ailea said.

"Since Captain Clint is someone who has only been on battlefields, I thought he would need this kind of information to govern a territory."

"You, you organized this much in that time?"

"There are many blank spaces. I'm going to gather as much material as possible from the imperial library before going to Escalize Castle."

"Ah, so that's why you said you wanted to enter the mansion His Highness the Crown Prince prepared?"

"Yes."

She rolled up the papers again and tied them with blue thread while saying.

"Because Serton was under the Kanna Empire's rule for a while, it will be very difficult for Captain Clint, who is from Teniac, and moreover from the capital, to win the people's hearts. I won't be of help, but I can at least search for books."

"As you know, the captain is not such a diligent person..."

Kaiton looked at the papers with an enormous amount of data written on them. In that short time, she had extracted this much information from Clint's study. It seemed she had stayed up all night.

Ailea said bashfully.

"But he's someone who doesn't treat the weak carelessly. When he sees the people of Serton struggling after the war, he'll work diligently."

To think such things were inside the head of that woman who seemed to easily cower and appear weak. Kaiton nervously swallowed his saliva.

Kaiton, who was pretending to sleep, thought while listening to Clint and Shante's conversation.

Captain, it seems you've been properly caught. It looks like slacking off is goodbye from now on...