IBTHM Chapter 32

Father, Abel, and I all turned to stare at Hades.

His ears had gone completely red as he stood there coughing out an entire symphony of embarrassed throat-clearing sounds, his face a study in mortification.

Father watched this display with something approaching pity before speaking carefully.

"For now, Aisha... let's talk, just the two of us."

Taking the hint, Hades quickly scooped Abel into his arms.

After leaving us with vague words about hoping we'd have a good conversation, he practically fled my room, his face now resembling an overripe persimmon.

The moment Hades closed the door behind him, Father's expression shifted back to urgency as he moved closer.

"Aisha!"

"What!"

I snapped back sulkily, still annoyed with Father for causing such a scene and making Abel cry over nothing.

"You are taking your medicine regularly, aren't you?"

...Medicine?

The word that popped out of Father's mouth was completely unexpected—I'd been braced for immediate persuasion attempts about the marriage.

Why was he suddenly asking about medicine?

I just blinked at him in confusion as he pressed on.

"You've been taking it faithfully since coming north, haven't you? Right?"

"Why are you suddenly asking about that?"

"Huh? Oh?"

"..."

"I just... I was worried you might have forgotten, that's all."

Father's face radiated genuine concern, but something about his expression struck me as off.

We'd just been in the middle of a heated argument about marriage, and now he was asking if I'd been taking my medicine?

Of course it was a perfectly reasonable question for a father worried about his daughter's health, but...

'Do you have someone at the temple you're in contact with?'

'When I mentioned your name and sent word this time, the temple urgently contacted me back. They said they'd visit tomorrow if possible.'

Why did Hades's words from before suddenly surface in my mind?

The temple that had only ever sent me medicine but never actually interacted with me.

The temple that had contacted us out of nowhere right after our marriage announcement, insisting on visiting the duchy to see my face.

And Father, who'd shown up at the duchy without explaining his reasons properly, just to oppose the marriage.

Humans have intuition.

I might have lived in the scientifically advanced 21st century, but I generally believed in this potentially unscientific thing called 'intuition.'

Intuition.

Wasn't there a theory that gut feelings are warning signals from our brain, based on the big data of all our life experiences?

The chilling sensation creeping down my spine convinced me that this uneasy feeling wasn't just a feeling at all.

'Is something going on? That medicine... it's not just a vitamin supplement, is it?'

Thousands of suspicions bloomed in my mind, but I hid them all and answered casually.

"Of course I've been taking it faithfully. You don't need to worry about that."

"Good, that's a relief. And about the marriage—please, just think about it one more time. Duke Ruvermonte isn't a man you can handle."

Did Father truly believe that?

Or was there some reason he couldn't tell Hades and me the truth?

This wasn't something I could solve by agonizing over it alone right now.

I decided to pretend to back down.

"Well... if you feel this strongly about it, Father, all right. I'll think about it more. I can't just follow your wishes immediately though. I'm taking this marriage very seriously."

My tone was still firm, but the fact that I'd softened even slightly made Father hesitate before nodding.

Both of us had retreated a step, but this conflict was far from resolved.

Judging by Father's expression, he was planning to placate his stubborn daughter for now and somehow convince me later.

But the question of whether I'd get Father's permission for the marriage had already flown far away from my mind.

From the moment I'd begun to suspect the identity of that 'medicine' I'd been taking so matter-of-factly every day, it had become nearly impossible to maintain my composure.

The moment Father left, I went looking for Hades.

He must have been waiting for me—he was pacing back and forth with an anxious expression, his movements restless.

"What happened?!"

"For now, I'm planning to keep Father here and try to persuade him. The conversation didn't end right away."

"...I see."

"You don't need to worry. If he keeps opposing it, I'll just submit a disownment request to the imperial family and leave the household."

Hades's eyes went wide.

The Crescenta Empire's stuffy marriage system.

Normally, family members couldn't marry freely without the family head's official permission.

There were occasional cases of foolish noble heirs falling for commoners and throwing tantrums about their "love of the century," demanding marriage—but such marriages almost never actually happened, for exactly this reason.

However, since individual free will couldn't be completely ignored, there was one way to marry without a marriage document.

That method was 'disownment.'

Simply put, abandoning the Esclife surname. After that, Father's seal wouldn't be needed on the marriage document.

Once I was no longer 'Aisha Esclife' but just 'Aisha,' all I'd need was my own seal.

Hades hadn't expected me to go this far—he fell silent in apparent shock before speaking.

"Why would you go to such lengths..."

"Well, the dukedom wasn't in a position to benefit from the marriage anyway, so you wouldn't exactly miss out if I lost my family surname, would you?"

If I abandoned the Esclife name, I would no longer be a noble.

The title had been embarrassingly insignificant to begin with, so I didn't think Hades would particularly care, but...

It did mean something significant to me.

Even if only on paper, I'd become an imperial citizen with no home, no temple, no surname—completely unconnected.

"Still, marrying a noble lady is a bit different from marrying a commoner with no status or anything. I'm sorry."

As I belatedly apologized with a cautious glance, Hades—who'd been staring at me while blinking—suddenly exploded.

"What kind of nonsense is that?!"

"Oh my goodness! You scared me! Why are you shouting?"

"What exactly do you take me for?"

Hades ground his teeth as he continued.

"Why would I care about something like that? Why are you apologizing? I wouldn't care even if you were a slave who'd illegally fled here from another country. Understand?"

What an overreaction...

Hades's fiery response was quite flustering, but it did put my mind at ease.

Whatever I became, Hades clearly intended to push forward with the marriage.

Still agitated, he took a slow breath before continuing.

"I truly don't care if you make such an extreme choice and lose your surname."

"..."

"But asking you to sacrifice the natural bond between parent and child—that doesn't sit well with me."

"Ah, yes. Of course. I'll try my best to persuade him first, and that option is only if nothing else works. I'll talk to Father more while he's here."

At my soothing words, Hades finally seemed to relax.

"All right, then."

He rubbed his forehead tiredly and let out a long sigh.

Well...

The marriage issue seemed settled for now, but that wasn't the only reason I'd come looking for Hades.

I hesitated slightly before speaking.

"Your Grace."

"What."

"I have a favor to ask. Could you help me?"

Perhaps noticing the worry in my expression, Hades looked puzzled.

"What is it?"

For someone who'd come to Hades so boldly, I was surprisingly hesitant to actually voice my request.

I urgently needed to find out what exactly the medicine I'd been taking actually was.

But I had no idea where or how to begin investigating.

It was medicine made directly by the temple. Investigating it would be...

Essentially the same as digging into the background of the temple—an institution with influence rivaling only the imperial family and House Ruvermonte.

I had no connections who could investigate the medicine while avoiding the temple's notice, and even if I found someone, I couldn't be certain they'd be trustworthy.

But I didn't want to keep taking this medicine without knowing what it was.

I couldn't survive without this medicine, but my intuition—based on thirty years of life's accumulated big data—was blaring warning signals too loudly for me to keep blindly taking it.

Anyway, I was hesitating because I couldn't easily bring myself to ask him to investigate the temple's background when Hades suddenly gripped my shoulders firmly.

"Listen, Aisha."

"Yes."

"You're going to be my wife, my person. And my people don't need to hesitate like this when asking me for something."

"Ah..."

I was momentarily stunned by Hades's decisive words.

"There's no 'let me think about it.' Whatever you ask of me right now, right here, I'll do it all."

"...Really?"

I knew his words were completely sincere, but for some reason I wanted confirmation again.

Hades smiled with that characteristic confident expression of his.

"Of course. There's nothing in this empire I can't do for you."