EEA Chapter 20

The 30-day service of the Tiliph Knights was coming to an end. Clint had dozed off while listening to the elders who had long governed the territory give him lectures disguised as education about protecting Excalize at the cost of his life, then came home and slept properly.

Though part of it was because he had lived poorly to avoid standing out, Clint was fundamentally well-suited to being an idler. He didn't dislike a life of drinking all day and enjoying light romances.

Nevertheless, at least in the early days of his marriage, he had resolved to live virtuously, considering what others might think. But there had been no reward for such efforts at all.

It was because Ailea wouldn't come out of her room.

On the first day, Clint thought nothing of it when Ailea wasn't visible in the mansion. But she wasn't visible on the second day either, and anyway, except for the day of the title bestowal ceremony, he couldn't meet her at all.

When Ailea first said she would come to the mansion, he had worried that perhaps she was already acting like a wife, trying to monitor him meeting other women, but she wasn't even visible to Clint's eyes.

He no longer even hoped for monitoring. Though this wasn't a marriage where they expected affection from each other, wasn't it too much to abandon her husband like this?

Clint had to meet Ailea today. In his hand was a ball invitation delivered from the Crown Prince.

He knocked on Ailea's door. 

"Ailea, come out for a moment." 

There was no answer. Clint frowned and knocked on the door again. 

"Ailea."

 As he kept calling, the maid in charge of cleaning the mansion said, "Lady Ailea goes out at this time." 

"Out?" 

"Yes." 

She wasn't at home? He had never imagined Ailea wandering around somewhere. While Clint was frozen by this shocking fact, fortunately the door opened and Ailea came in. 

When she appeared, Clint said with dissatisfaction, "I thought you were at home." 

"Ah, I went to the library for a bit." 

That made sense. So that's where she had been these past few days—the library. That was reassuring, but the invitation in Clint's hand still felt heavy.

"There's going to be a ball soon." 

"A ball?" 

It was an obvious fact that the ball Crown Prince Roylin was holding was actually being hosted by Rita Brea, who was practically his lover.

Ailea stared at the invitation Clint handed her. 

'This is a gathering prepared to celebrate the marriage of the Grand Duke and Duchess of Excalize. Please be sure to attend.' 'P.S. Masks are not permitted.'

From the Crown Prince's standpoint, preparing a gathering to celebrate Clint and Ailea's marriage was something that could reasonably happen. Whatever was between the two of them, Roylin and Clint were publicly known as old friends, and Clint had achieved feats that would remain in Teniac's history.

But not permitting masks was clearly meant to hurt Ailea. Clint was confused. By his common sense, Roylin should have felt sorry toward Ailea. But instead, he seemed to harbor anger. As if he blamed her for the fact that he couldn't meet Rita for a while.

Clint said, "Just think of it as going to say hello briefly and coming back, Ailea." 

Clint was worried that Ailea might be frightened, but unexpectedly she said firmly,

"It's okay. Nothing will happen." 

"Is that so." 

"Yes. Surely they won't say anything to my face? It'll just be whispering, so I can pretend not to hear it." 

"Oh, you're brave?" 

Clint held back his desire to pat his wife's head vigorously because she seemed so admirable.

Ailea thought that on the day she wore her wedding dress and cried, when Clint kissed her forehead, perhaps she wasn't the terrible existence that Roylin had spoken of.

Clint seemed relieved by Ailea's brave voice, and soon asked with a relaxed expression, "Did you bring all your dresses from the outer castle? I'll pick out a dress for you." 

"You will?" 

"I have a better eye for women's clothes than women do." 

"Playboy, is that something to be proud of?" 

"Let's dress up as splendidly as possible and go. Show me the dress room." 

"Well, the thing is..." 

"Why?"

"I don't have a dress room." 

When she said this with a troubled face, bewilderment filled Clint's face. 

"Why don't you have a dress room?" 

"Because I don't have... dresses?" 

"So why don't you have dresses?" 

He spoke with an expression that suggested he might get angry.

Though Ailea had lived within the imperial castle, it wasn't as if much money came out for buying dresses. Moreover, since she had never received a single gift from Roylin for birthdays or national founding festivals, she had no jewelry either.

Still, before she fell ill, she had purchased a few good dresses, but when she was driven to the outer castle, she sold even those. With that money, she repaired the old castle or bought good things that wouldn't burn. Ailea, who had been flustered, spoke as if she had a good idea.

"Shall I borrow one? I heard that Roop's wife, who's an outer castle merchant, has so many pretty dresses." 

"You want to go to a banquet held in the imperial castle, for us, wearing borrowed clothes? And not even from a noble, but clothes worn by a merchant's wife?" 

"Well, why did you only give me the invitation now..."

He should have told Ailea as soon as Roylin brought up the ball. If he had known she didn't have dresses, he would have prepared them in advance.

Clint's gaze was somehow cold, making Ailea feel a little frightened. Clint pressed her. 

"Not even one?" 

"Ah, I still have the wedding dress." 

"Throw that away, in the trash." 

Clint looked for a servant and told him, "It'll be difficult to get good jewelry right away, so get some fresh flowers." 

"Yes, understood."

Ailea felt awkward that everyone was busy because of her dress in the late afternoon. Clint, who had assigned tasks to each of the servants, took Ailea's hand and pulled her along, saying, "You come with me to buy a dress."

The two took a carriage out of the imperial castle and headed toward the capital's center where luxury shops lined the streets. There, famous designers from all over had opened dress shops.

Ailea looked around with wonder at the center visible through the carriage's small window. Her expression didn't seem like someone who had frequently come to the center. That expression somehow kept making Clint's stomach burn. She was satisfied and happy with such small things. Being modest wasn't bad, but it was painful to see that she had set her own limits.

The full moon flowed beautifully through the open carriage window. The carriage stopped in front of the most famous designer's dress shop in the center.

Ailea, who got out of the carriage first, hesitated when she saw inside the shop. Rita was wearing a beautiful dress and spinning around in front of Roylin.

Whichever of the two was dissatisfied, Rita pointed to another dress and then disappeared to change. And the gaze of Roylin, who had been sitting in a chair, turned beyond the glass wall.

Having spotted Ailea, he watched her with indifferent eyes. Ailea felt as if her heart had dropped to the floor. As her gaze became fixed, Clint, who had gotten out of the carriage behind her, looked inside and noticed that Roylin's gaze was directed toward Ailea. Moreover, Ailea was also looking at Roylin.

She hesitated, then turned around and tightly grasped Clint's arm. Clint's lips curved up slightly as he looked down at Ailea's behavior. He bent his waist and asked, "Want to make him jealous?" 

"..."

Ailea's innocent sky-blue eyes looked up at him. The movement of her unusually long eyelashes was strange. Standing in the moonlight, she looked as if leaf shadows were cast here and there on her face. The dark parts were black as if shadowed, and the white parts were pitifully pale.

When Clint slowly slipped his fingers past Ailea's ear to embrace her neck, Ailea startled. In the dark night, dark golden eyes unlike anything else in the world were looking at her. Up close, they were cold and made her feel a little frightened.

Roylin instantly disappeared from her mind. Clint sometimes made her feel a pain as if he were grabbing her heart and forcing it to beat. He bent down and said, "If you're going to do it, you should do it properly." He was close enough that she could feel his breath. Ailea couldn't say anything and tried to turn her head. At a glance, she saw Roylin sitting on the sofa still watching the two of them with an indifferent face.

Clint felt as if his mind went dark. That she hoped Roylin would be jealous—didn't that mean she still had that much feeling left for him?

"Shall we even kiss?" When he asked in a sunken voice, Ailea was flustered.

Ailea's feelings toward Roylin were complicated. Humans are truly foolish creatures—when what they had believed in for seven years crumbled, she felt as much betrayal as she had missed him. It would be better if she could completely ignore him, but that wasn't easy. She kept thinking of him, adding to her wounds.

Ailea turned her gaze toward Roylin inside the shop again and said, "N-no... You don't have to." 

When her gaze turned toward another man, Clint's handsome face crumpled. He embraced Ailea almost forcefully and put her back in the carriage. 

"Clint?" 

"Let's go to another shop." 

Ailea was startled and fidgeted at his rough behavior. "It's suffocating, Clint..."

If it had been the usual Clint, he would have let go immediately when a woman moved even slightly away from his embrace, but today he had no intention of doing so. At Ailea's words that it was suffocating, he rather tightened his embrace more. Until the word "it hurts" came from her mouth.

Clint couldn't think of anything. Only one thing—he wished she wouldn't miss Roylin Theresia de Calise, let alone not even hate him. He would only hurt her. So he wished that man would completely disappear from her mind.

Ailea was flustered by Clint's behavior of forcibly confining her in his embrace. Though his outer appearance showed a sharp face with remaining playfulness, his body was strong as if he weren't human.

Honestly, she found it hard to believe that this young idler had recaptured Excalize from the Kanna Empire. The same went for watching the immature knights of the Tiliph Knights. Still, what was surprising was the absolute trust between them. The captain absolutely trusted his subordinates, and the subordinates absolutely trusted their captain.

While Ailea was briefly lost in other thoughts, Clint said gently, "There's a designer with quick hands at the end of this road. Setting aside prettiness, we need to get a dress quickly first."

Ailea nodded. Fortunately, Clint soon returned to his usual gentle self. Rather, as if he felt sorry for treating her roughly, he arranged Ailea's disheveled hair to one shoulder from his embrace.

The carriage soon stopped in front of a shop. When Clint knocked on the door, Beige, the designer who had been sleeping on the second floor, opened the door. 

"What is it, at this late hour..." 

Grumbling, she realized that the person standing in front was Clint, immediately covered her mouth with her hand, then spoke professionally. 

"Oh my, Your Highness Excalize, you've changed women... No, you've met someone new?" 

"I'd rather you keep your mouth shut and let us in."

Beige appeared to be Clint's age, so Ailea thought she would be three or four years older than Clint, who looked more mature than his age. She was a woman with severely curly hair.

Apparently, though she had heard the news that Clint had recaptured Excalize, she hadn't heard that he had married. Of course, after the ball ended, rumors would spread throughout the entire capital.

Beige looked at Clint with displeasure and said, "By the way, last time you said you'd never come again? What? The quality has declined? How could you insult my artistic soul like that!" 

"Honestly, it's true that you make things quickly and roughly. Besides, you knew I'd come again." 

"Making things quickly is part of my art, you know? Because of Your Highness's bad review, I nearly starved to death with flies buzzing around for a while."

She grumbled and lit the lights. Inside the shop, several dresses were hanging. Clint said, "I came to choose a dress for my wife to wear." 

"You're joking, right?" Beige looked at Ailea in surprise. The blotchy skin was bewildering. Beige had to think about how to refuse this.

If she made a dress for a woman like that, her reputation—which wasn't good to begin with—would surely deteriorate even further. However, at the same time, she couldn't turn away Clint Rishers, who was such an important customer. Though she had criticized Clint before, the truth was she hadn't had many customers to speak of in the first place.

Well, what's life anyway. Besides, Beige was the type to take a loss herself rather than hurt someone like Ailea, who clearly looked like she had lived a difficult life. Beige said, "How about sky blue? To match your eyes." 

"Ah, sky blue. I've never worn it, so I'm curious."

Ailea answered happily. She had been anxiously worried that Beige might refuse to sell her a dress.

After she fell ill, it had become difficult to obtain dresses. There were many designers who wouldn't sell dresses because their reputation would fall if Ailea wore them. Ailea had tailored and worn clothes herself to fit her body.

Because Ailea didn't like showing her body to others, she said she wanted to wear it alone, took the dress, and went into the fitting room. When she went in, Beige said to Clint with a stiff face, "Good heavens, marriage... Do you even know what marriage is? You have to live completely opposite to how you've lived until now!" 

"I'm marrying by His Majesty's command. I can just live as I have been." 

"Did your wife also agree to that? She didn't reluctantly agree, did she?"

Beige had never seen Clint have a serious romance. He always seduced with appropriately sweet words, but never gave genuine love. She wondered if such a bad man could be endured by a young lady who looked so innocent.

Meanwhile, Ailea opened the fitting room door wearing the dress. Seeing her appearance, Beige scratched her head and said, "I'll have to take it in a lot." 

"I-is that so?" 

"When do I need to have it ready?" 

"In two days..." 

"That's plenty of time."

Beige shrugged, and Clint said, "I'll send flowers and decorations here, so attach all of those too." 

"What? You want me to do all that in two days?" 

"You just don't take any other work for two days. I'll pay accordingly."

Clint spoke and wrote her a check. Beige's eyes widened when she received the check. It was a price that made her want to vigorously praise herself for not refusing this proposal earlier.

Two days later, trying on the completed dress, Ailea was dazed. She had never worn such a splendid dress. She wore a round petticoat and over it a dress where white and sky blue were dazzlingly mixed. It was a dress that further emphasized her slender arms and waist.

Clint looked at Ailea for a moment. He had woven red-toned flowers like a headband through her platinum hair that was pinned up. Ailea faced Clint. 

"This is the first time I've dressed up so splendidly."

She was the one who used to apologize for being sorry when Clint looked at her for long. But today, perhaps because she quite liked her appearance, she didn't say such things.

To Clint's eyes too, Ailea was very beautiful. Decorated with fresh flowers on her hands and neck, she was like a girl born in a place where flowers bloomed. 

"Isn't the waist too tight?" 

At those words, Ailea looked down at her waist. As her gaze went down, only then did Clint mutter, "...You're really pretty today. Please believe it a little."

Clint somehow couldn't easily say the word "pretty" today. It was a word that usually came out so well, but somehow he felt shy. 

When Clint spoke like a shy boy, Ailea shyly nodded her head slightly. 

"I will."