EEA Chapter 33

Clint, for once free from Ailea's nagging, talked with local dignitaries and young knights, building friendships. Fortunately, there were many familiar faces from his two years spent on battlefields here.

But worried about whether Kaiton, who knew nothing about women, was properly escorting his wife, he looked for Ailea.

In his line of sight, he saw Ailea facing Kaiton and laughing.

The smile completely disappeared from Clint's face, which had been cheerfully joking around.

Kaiton's voice could be heard. 

"Look, the pillar is exactly as I said, right?" 

"Mm, but it's still boring though?" 

"How can this story be boring? I don't understand."

Ailea seemed to be enjoying her conversation with Kaiton. Clint felt like there was fierce noise in his head.

When he had told Kaiton to escort Ailea, he had entrusted her to him seeing him purely as a knight. But the Kaiton looking at Ailea now wasn't a knight. He was just a man.

Clint approached them. And with a smile at the two who looked happy, he said, "You look like you're having fun?" 

"Oh, Clint."

Ailea smiled and was about to say something when Clint put his arm around Kaiton's shoulders and said, "There's Lady Kesha who seems like she'd really love architecture. I'll introduce you. Let's go, Sir Kaiton." 

"It's fine, Captain. I'm escorting the lady..." 

"It's an order, Sir Kaiton. Go date." 

"...What kind of order is this inhumane, Captain?" 

"Just do it when I tell you to."

When Clint dragged Kaiton away without even looking at her, confused Ailea stared at them for a while. Clint seemed angry about something. What happened, Ailea wondered, when she heard a crash. Ailea turned around in surprise to see that Countess Boer seemed to have dropped a dish. When a maid rushed over, Boer slapped her cheek hard.

"You brought such a slippery plate? Did you wash it properly? What if I had gotten hurt!"

"I'm, I'm sorry!"

The maid sat down in shock and began cleaning up the dishes. While frantically picking up plate fragments, she seemed to have cut her hand and let go in surprise. Ailea rushed over urgently.

"Mary, are you okay?" 

"I'm fine!" 

"But your hand is bleeding..."

Though Ailea usually didn't make physical contact with people, she was so surprised now that she covered Mary's bleeding hand with her own.

"Let's go to the doctor. It looks like you're bleeding a lot."

As Ailea stood up to take Mary to Joachim, a man's voice was heard from behind.

It was Bike, a knight sent by Marquis Cus's family, the Emperor's close friend, to observe the atmosphere. When the atmosphere became chaotic with Boer's appearance, Bike became even more emboldened and started talking loudly to people he had known from before who were attending the banquet.

"But that cow wouldn't listen. So I was about to cut the cow's throat when."

He made a "moo" sound like a cow and continued. "It started going crazy like this."

Laughter erupted among the people. Ailea's face turned white. All she could do was repeatedly convince herself that the cow that man was talking about couldn't possibly be referring to her.

Ailea forced strength into her weakening legs and took Mary to Joachim. Too frightened to return to the banquet hall immediately, she briefly went to her room to take deep breaths.

She had tried to fool herself into thinking she was having fun, but her body kept trembling. When Ailea entered her room, Blue came running. She hugged the cat that understood her feelings tightly.

"It's okay. There's lots of delicious food, and it's glamorous. I can do the decorations better next time. And..."

Ailea bit her lips tightly, but couldn't calm down. Why had Countess Boer come here? Ailea couldn't understand Rita's malice in sending Boer to Escalize out of wariness of her existence.

As she finally calmed her heart and came outside, Lady Lanteigne from the Green family of Jeneta Castle, which Clint had saved two years ago, walked toward Ailea. She had developed some personal fondness for Ailea after seeing her embrace the maid's wound as if it were her own.

Lanteigne asked, "Um... are you hurt, my lady?" 

"Pardon?" 

"No, it looked like there was blood on your hands earlier." 

"Ah! I'm not hurt!" 

"Let me see."

Lanteigne quickly grabbed Ailea's hand. Though she confirmed there were no wounds, she still seemed annoyed and grumbled. 

"What's with that damn woman, really. Capital people, honestly." 

"La, Lady Lanteigne!"

How could she use such harsh language! Ailea's eyes widened in surprise, while Lanteigne said aggressively, "Let's just step on her dress." 

"What?"

Ailea couldn't close her mouth at this way of thinking she had never considered in her life, when Flora, the Countess who had arrived late, walked over and said to Ailea, "There you are?"

"Ah! Countess Flora!" 

"Sorry I'm late! Some men suddenly blocked our carriage and we had an argument..."

Men hired by Countess Boer to ruin the party had blocked the carriage, so Flora could only arrive late at the party. She apologized and asked, "What are you doing here, by the way?" 

"Ah, I was about to go back out."

Ailea smiled brightly. With Flora, one of the most important people in Serton's social circle, appearing, complaints about this banquet decreased somewhat. 

When Ailea returned, the maid Mary ran to her and asked, "Lady Ailea..." 

"Your hand? Did you get treatment?" 

"Yes, I did."

Mary seemed more pained by the fact that Ailea had to pretend not to hear the cow sounds than by being slapped herself. Soon the smile disappeared from Ailea's face. Mary's cheek was still red.

Seeing this, Ailea realized an important fact. Because she was weak, her people got hurt. Lady Lanteigne who came to comfort her, Countess Flora too, ultimately had to endure humiliating gazes.

She was no longer that abandoned little girl. She had to take responsibility for this situation.

Ailea started walking. She walked toward Countess Boer's table, where she was ruining the party by mocking it with the people she came with.

"Countess Boer." 

"What is it?"

Boer tilted her head as if looking at something worthless and asked. 

Then Ailea said, "Please leave." 

"...Excuse me?"

At the unexpected words, Boer's brow furrowed.

Ailea opened her mouth again. 

"It's difficult to arrange seating for uninvited guests. I'm sorry. I should have told you earlier." 

"What do you... This would be impossible in the capital. Driving people away from a party."

Boer looked down on Ailea and continued, "Perhaps you don't know such etiquette well since you've hardly attended capital parties?"

When Boer smiled and spoke, snickers erupted around them. However, Ailea was used to being mocked. She spoke with an even more resolute face. 

"This is Escalize in Serton. Here, we don't provide seating for uninvited guests. Please follow the etiquette here." 

"It seems people in Serton are both late for appointments and rude."

Boer continued with a cold face. "Even so, shouldn't you follow capital etiquette? You're not from this region either." 

"No."

Ailea spoke with strength in her voice, as if this was something she absolutely couldn't compromise on. 

"I am now completely a person of here, of Serton. I am the mistress of Escalize Castle that governs all of this Serton." 

"..." 

"Therefore, insults to this region are insults directed at me. I believe I should receive an apology for what you just said, Countess Boer."

Boer blinked in bewilderment. However, seeing there was no trace of joking in Ailea's firm expression, she was dumbfounded and stood up. 

As all the people who came with her turned around, Ailea said, "I said I wanted an apology, Countess Boer."

Despite trembling, Boer's expression hardened coldly at Ailea's calm words.

Boer had thought that the fragmentary knowledge she had of Ailea was all there was to her. The Crown Prince's former fiancée who had been abandoned in the imperial capital. The woman who covered her face with a veil and hung her head low to avoid other girls her age during tea parties, who couldn't endure insults directed at her at imperial parties and hid behind curtains.

Yet here she was, acting high and mighty in this land with her husband backing her. How dare she, to someone who came at the request of a woman who would become Empress.

Boer looked back at Ailea. Then she bowed her head and said, "I misspoke. I apologize." 

"Yes. I accept your apology." 

"I'll tell Lady Rita how wonderful this banquet was today. We'll see each other at the wedding."

Boer spoke threateningly and left. She was retreating for now, but it meant "let's see if you're this brazen at the capital, at the Crown Prince couple's wedding." In that place filled with her people.

Ailea knew this too, but while she could endure being looked down upon herself, she couldn't bear having her people, Serton, this Escalize looked down upon.

When Boer left, Ailea, whose tension finally released, swayed. When Mary made a tearful face thinking it happened because of her, Ailea tried to smile as if nothing had happened. It was the first time in her life she had engaged in such a battle of wills.

Surprised Flora supported Ailea. 

"My, with such little stamina, how do you get through the nights? That man seems to have quite extraordinary vigor." 

"Co, Countess!"

When Ailea looked at her in shock, Lanteigne said, "You should have just stepped on her dress. What's the point of talking to a woman you can't communicate with?" 

"Lady Lanteigne, you mustn't speak so carelessly." 

"You seem to be quite the nagging type." 

"..."

Ailea, hit right on target, fell silent. Anyway, Lanteigne, who was very pleased to have seen such interesting entertainment, said in an excited voice, "More than that, please tell me how you keep a man like Grand Duke Escalize from straying. I've got someone I'm interested in lately too." 

"I, I'm not keeping him from straying..." 

"How modest. Oh, Countess Flora, please give me some relationship advice too."

Flora tilted her head slightly in greeting, as if grateful that her expertise was recognized.

Ailea was dragged by the two women toward where the tables were. When Lanteigne and Flora's chaotic chatter began, there was no time to think about what had just happened. For the first time, Ailea felt like she was truly among friends.

So by the time she came to her senses, she was happy enough to bring tears to her eyes.

Flora, who had been expertly giving relationship advice to Lanteigne, asked Ailea, who was listening with a purely happy expression, "What about you, my lady? Do you love your husband very much?" 

"Pardon? Ah... I'm not sure what liking someone means."

At Ailea's answer, Flora said, "You're thinking too complicatedly. It's simple when you think about it." 

"Really?" 

"Yes. Think of it this way. Think of your favorite time. Like watching your favorite play or eating your favorite dessert." 

"Mm..."

When would that be?

Ailea loved sunsets. So even when she was at the outer castle, when sunset came, she would climb to the top of the outer castle to watch the sunset. 

As she thought, Flora said, "If time with your husband is better than that time, then you like him."

"..."

"What's so great about love anyway? Liking that man more than other men, and liking time with that man more than your favorite time—that's what it means to like someone."

When Boer walked out with her face red with anger, Clint in the garden looked at her curiously. Boer and her husband's voices could be heard. 

"I had no idea the mistress of Escalize was such a rude woman!" 

"Let's see if she's this shameless at His Highness the Crown Prince's wedding too."

Listening to the conversation of the two who seemed to be driven out, Clint's eyebrows twitched. To be driven out by my gentle wife—just how obnoxiously did they behave? Since he had begun to accept everything about Ailea completely uncritically, he had no doubt that those two people were in the wrong.

Anyway, he decided that when attending the capital wedding, he must not let Ailea out of his arms for even a moment.

Having sent Kaiton away, he was heading to the banquet hall to escort Ailea himself when he heard the voice of an already drunk man. "She seemed a bit dim-witted."