EEA Chapter 34

A Little More Than What I Like Most

Clint's brow furrowed. Even though the garden was noisy, that voice came through clearly. Bique was drunk and didn't realize how loud his voice had become.

"Even when I insulted her loud enough for Lady Excalize to hear, she couldn't hear a word and just kept smiling."

"Did she catch some kind of deafness?"

"I went close and made cow sounds at her, but she just kept grinning. Or maybe she was too stupid to realize it was about her? With all those spots."

Laughter erupted from that spot. Clint walked over and grabbed Bique by the collar.

"What are you doing... Ahhh! Your Highness Excalize!"

The Tiliph Knights who had been far away came running at Clint's actions.

"Captain! You mustn't do this!"

Kaiton and Shante, who had been talking with Lady Kesha, rushed over to try to remove Clint's hands, but his grip strength was too much for even two grown men to handle. Still, since there were people trying to stop him, Bique shouted loudly.

"A knight who used to lead a knight order getting into a fight that's not even a formal duel!"

"Who was it that touched my wife first after becoming a knight?"

Clint slammed Bique's head against the wall, just hard enough not to break it.

"And you want a formal duel when you can't even shake off my hand? You seem weaker than most newborns."

Bique's previously confident face turned fearful. Clint said with an expressionless face.

"The reason I live in silence is because that's what my wife wished for."

As Clint pressed his face against the wall, blood flowed from Bique's face. He was so terrified he couldn't move and just trembled, unable to even respond. He was even too overwhelmed by the aura to scream. Clint continued speaking.

"This is why I told my wife that dogs should be treated like dogs. When you treat them like people, they forget they're dogs."

Clint grabbed his head and threw him to the ground. Then he kicked the man who couldn't even breathe properly to make him lie straight, and trampled his face with his shoe while speaking.

"It's because it's me that I'm letting you off this easy. If it had been the guys from our knight order, you would already be torn limb from limb and become wolf food."

Kaiton said desperately to Clint.

"We wouldn't do that, I'm not even the captain."

"You would."

"More importantly... if the lady finds out, she'll be angry..."

Shante chimed in from the side.

"That's right. She'll definitely be angry."

Then Clint looked at them and said indifferently.

"This bastard made cow sounds at my wife earlier."

Upon hearing that, the two men shut their mouths. After a moment of silence, Kaiton broke through and answered.

"I'll handle it. Well, making one person disappear is nothing."

"Hey."

Shante hit Kaiton as if asking what he was talking about and said.

"Let's sell him. I heard that fishing boat over there is short on hands."

"Ah, should we take that money and buy some meat?"

"Oh, you know something."

As the two chatted harmoniously, Clint sneered and let Bique go.

"Don't think you're really alive just because I let you live."

Clint rubbed his shoes on the stone path as if he had stepped on something dirty and continued.

"One day you might really be disposed of without even a fingernail fragment remaining. Got it?"

"Yes, yes! Your Highness!"

Bique frantically ran away from that spot. Clint buttoned up his sleeves that had come undone from getting heated and said to Shante and Kaiton.

"I'd like to make him kneel and beg, but I don't want my wife to see that dirty bastard again."

"Yes. We'll handle it later and just report the results to you."

"Yeah, do that."

Clint also fixed his disheveled hair and headed toward the banquet hall where Ailea was. He thought for a moment, then gestured to a young man in the garden.

"Sorry, could you lend me your tie? I'll pay you back."

"Pardon?"

As the young man took off his tie in confusion, Clint said.

"My wife really likes it when I dress formally."

Clint joked as he put on the tie properly and headed to the banquet hall.

He then headed toward Ailea, who was sitting between Flora and Lanteigne's chatter, with a face so happy it was as if she were walking on clouds. As he entered, the eyes of all the women in the banquet hall focused on him. Though he had dressed properly, Clint couldn't change his behavior, so he leaned crookedly against Ailea's table with one hand and said to her.

"Isn't it about time you danced with me, my lady?"

"C-Clint?"

He smiled with his eyes. Ailea stood up in confusion. As she flustered, Clint said.

"You said that before in the imperial capital. That we should dance in a bright place at least once. The sun hasn't set yet, so now's our chance."

'Shall we dance in a bright place at least once?'

Ailea had said that to Clint at a party in the imperial capital. Clint looked out the window and said.

"This is where we live. A place where we can start everything anew."

"..."

"A place where we can dance in the bright light, and no one can say anything about it."

Ailea smiled slightly, but Flora pushed her back and scolded her.

"You're receiving so much love from your husband, why are you being modest?"

"It's not like that..."

Ailea's face reddened slightly as she followed Clint out. In a place full of beautiful sunlight, she began to dance to Clint's lead. Clint said mischievously.

"Wow, you seem to be enjoying yourself even without me?"

"I made friends."

"Friends over husband, is that it? If it's like this already, the future is scary."

His eyes were gentle even as he grumbled. Ailea couldn't believe that those golden eyes that resembled the sunset were looking at her, that she was dancing among people even though the sun hadn't set yet.

This world where there was a man who looked at her with such a warm expression, this moment.

She was afraid it might be a dream.

She stopped walking. Then Clint took her hand and bent down to ask gently.

"Why did you stop?"

Ailea looked quietly into his eyes, then smiled and said.

"It's summer, so the days have gotten longer. The sunset is coming now."

At her words, Clint smiled and replied.

"Indeed it is."

Looking at him, Ailea thought.

Clint.

I like sunsets. I like the time when the sunset comes.

But more than sunsets, more than the time when sunsets come, I like the time I spend with you.

I like you more than sunsets.

"I... really like sunsets."

Instead of the feelings she couldn't express, she said with a smile only the feelings she could express.

After dancing joyfully and returning to their seats, Ailea asked Clint.

"But where did you get that tie?"

"Ah, I borrowed it."

"...Pardon?"

"I'll go return it."

She had wondered why someone who hated uncomfortable things was wearing a tie. Clint quickly ran to return the tie to the young man and came back to Ailea. He said shamelessly to the bewildered Ailea.

"I borrowed it to look pretty for you."

Playboy. As Ailea glanced at him sideways, Clint said shamelessly like someone who had been put in charge of compliments.

"Don't look at me with those eyes, compliment me instead. I'm the type who responds better to compliments than nagging."

"Yes, you did well. Oh, how pretty."

Her expression was still bewildered with her brow slightly furrowed as she said it was pretty. But that bewildered face of Ailea's just looked cute to Clint and made him laugh.

Since Clint had been thoughtful enough to dress formally even by borrowing, and thinking she should compliment him more, Ailea's eyes caught sight of Kaiton complaining to Shante with a wronged expression. She said to Clint with a smile.

"Sir Kaiton seems to have been rejected again. He's handsome, so why is he so unpopular?"

"..."

"I should go comfort him..."

As Ailea tried to step forward, her wrist was firmly grabbed by Clint. Ailea couldn't go further and looked up at Clint. His expression, which had been smiling just moments before, had hardened. Since Clint was always grinning in front of Ailea, he was a bit scary when he made that expression.

She wasn't afraid that he would get angry. She was only afraid that his consistent tenderness might suddenly cool down one day.

As Ailea tried to pull her wrist from his hand, Clint immediately came to his senses and smiled.

"Don't comfort him. He needs to realize that he's boring."

Clint said this while subtly leading her to the garden so she couldn't talk to other men.

The party continued late into the night. When the sun set, flames blazed in the garden following the pattern that symbolized Excalize. People's exclamations continued.

Ailea was exhausted from the battle of wits with Lady Boer during the day. However, after she drove away the unwelcome guest, people didn't think of bothering the couple unnecessarily.

Ailea felt something strange seeing people in the garden who were particularly avoiding Clint's gaze, but anyway, since people were genuinely enjoying the party without troublemakers, she felt relieved too.

Ailea distributed the dried flowers she had brought in a full basket to the guests one by one. People showed joyful expressions upon receiving flowers that had been carefully dried and could be kept for a long time. They put the flowers in their hair and laughed, gave them to a girl who had just turned sixteen and was making her social debut for the first time today, and poets rolled them up in the paper they had written poems on to preserve them.

As night fell, strangely, people's gazes turned to Ailea from time to time. Whether it was because their hearts had become comfortable or because they liked the flowers they received.

Standing in the night garden, Ailea gave off a mysterious feeling rather than an eerie one.

When the basket was completely empty, Ailea said to Clint with a joyful face.

"Next time I should prepare even better gifts. Everyone seems to like them so much."

"It's good because you gave it to them."

"Pardon?"

"Because it's a gift you give while smiling kindly. That's why it's good."

At Clint's words, Ailea's gaze, which had been on the basket, turned to him. Clint also couldn't take his eyes off his wife once night fell. Ailea's face reddened slightly as she turned her gaze back to the basket.

Parties really make people's hearts flutter, Ailea thought. Though the beginning was difficult, the ending was quite happy.

The couple slept deeply that day. It was because entertaining guests had been very tiring.

The next morning, Ailea, who had been sleeping exhaustedly, woke up because of drum sounds. She felt a painful vibration as if her heart had been taken out and beaten.

Blue, who had been sleeping in the basket after the flowers were distributed, also seemed to have woken up from the noise and climbed onto Ailea's bed, burrowing into her blankets.

"What sound is that..."

Ailea opened the window without fully opening her eyes. The wind blowing from the north carried the smell of gunpowder. Thinking vaguely that it might be from the fireworks they set off yesterday, Ailea's expression hardened. It was a beacon fire.

For the first time since coming to the border, Excalize was under attack.

Ailea was about to rush out of the room in her nightgown when the door opened. Ailea stepped back in surprise.

Clint stood at the door wearing armor. He had reacted to the drum sounds much faster than Ailea and had already finished arming himself.

On his left shoulder hung a black cloak the same color as his hair. Ailea had read about it in books too. When a knight commander dies, the war stops and is considered the opponent's victory. That black cloak was attached to easily recognize when the knight commander fell from his horse. It was a tradition to minimize sacrifices.

However, from a wife's perspective, seeing that cloak made her breath catch. Clint said calmly to Ailea, who was desperately managing her expression.

"When they beat the drums long like that, it means raiders living near the border have attacked, not the Kanna Empire. So don't worry. I'll be back."

Clint smiled as if to reassure her and placed a necklace in her hand. Ailea's mouth opened on its own when she saw the necklace. It was the necklace she had given her younger sister Sophie when she left Yuliana Castle at thirteen.

"I'll put it on you when I return. Sorry."

He apologized and ran out to mount his horse. Ailea hurried outside, but Clint had already formed ranks and departed for the castle walls.

Even while watching him leave, Ailea couldn't say anything. She should have practiced what to say. She didn't know something like this sudden departure would happen.

Only now did Ailea truly realize that this was the border. Ailea, who had been holding back tears so Clint wouldn't worry, took a deep breath as soon as she returned to her room and murmured.

"Next time... I must tell him to come back safely. I must..."

This time she was too worried about him to say anything, but next time she must say that.