Chapter 2
Someone was shaking my shoulder, and I jolted awake with a start. As I snapped my head up, I saw worried brown eyes looking at me.
“My Lady, are you alright?”
“Milla…”
I thought Kaelan had returned.
I swept back the disheveled hair that had fallen over my eyes. My neck was stiff. It seemed I had dozed off while sitting in the armchair in the reception room.
Outside the window, a blue dawn was breaking.
“Sir Ben has returned. He said he wishes to see you when you wake. What shall I do?”
“Show him in.”
I hurriedly rose to my feet.
“Please wait a moment, My Lady. Sir Ben said he would come up here. I will go down and prepare some warm tea.”
Why? Ben had returned earlier than expected.
Clutching to a sliver of hope, my pace quickened. The fact that he hadn’t prolonged his investigation and had returned so soon – perhaps he had met Kaelan on the way to the Mistwood and they had come back together?
But Ben was alone.
“The border of the Mistwood was closed.”
His voice wasn’t entirely devoid of despair as he delivered the grim report.
“I assume you’ve heard of the ‘Closure Period,’ Your Grace. Under normal circumstances, we would have had to break the taboo and search inside the monster’s nest, but a mist wall had formed at the border. It was impossible to even look beyond the border, let alone enter. For now, our knights are searching the area and will report the situation, but…”
“The Closure Period?”
The period when the monster forest refuses human entry. The closure, where the mist hardens like a solid rock wall and blocks the nest’s border, is a rare anomaly known to last anywhere from a few months to several years.
The mist wall wouldn’t disappear for months or even years?
“Then His Grace…”
Ben didn’t bother to utter the hasty conclusion that it would be difficult for him to return safely. We were simply enveloped in a helpless silence. All sorts of thoughts flooded my mind, clamoring and intertwining.
Lies. There’s no way he wouldn’t come back.
Just days ago, I had seen Kaelan’s robust form. After spending a night pressed down by his large, heat-radiating body, falling asleep as if losing consciousness, I had heard his new plan in the early morning light.
He had suggested we take a vacation. Our first trip solely for the rest of just us two, husband and wife. Unaware that his wife secretly harbored thoughts of divorce.
‘How about visiting Tesena after a long time? Before we get busy preparing for winter, I think I can spare about a week.’
‘I’ll think about it, Kaelan.’
I remembered his calm voice, the man who had suggested we go on vacation together to my hometown, Tesena – the place I had actually been planning to return to forever, alone.
It sounded like an absurd promise, a week-long vacation amidst our hectic daily lives. But if I had simply said yes, he would have surely taken me to Tesena before autumn ended.
“…He’ll be back soon.”
Unfiltered words of certainty slipped from my lips.
“Only a day has passed. I’d appreciate it if everyone refrained from rash talk of disappearances.”
My tone had unintentionally become sharp, but Ben apologized as usual, bowing his head.
“I was thoughtless. I will also advise the knights. For now, while we devise a plan, I would like you to carry on with your schedule as planned, Your Grace. However, if you find it too difficult, we will prepare an alternative.”
He made the kind suggestion in a very gentle tone. As if assuming I was in shock from the fear of possibly losing my husband, his eyes looking at me were softer than usual.
But I shook my head.
“Marquis Rizen is scheduled to visit this afternoon. There are no other significant appointments, so I will be fine.”
Marquis Rizen was the legal heir to Wayriver, a distant relative of the previous Duke of Wayriver.
At the mention of his name, Ben’s expression darkened. Even though he was merely a formal reserve heir who would drop to the bottom of the succession order if Kaelan or his younger sister, Diana, had children in the future, it was an inopportune time to encounter him, especially with Kaelan’s whereabouts now unknown.
“Are you sure you’ll be alright, Your Grace?”
“Of course. I’ll rest a bit and then prepare.”
I gave a faint smile and rose from my seat.
My husband is simply returning a little late.
I just need to act as usual. There’s no reason to act spoiled even towards the servants. There’s also no reason for me to be unwell.
As long as I am the Duchess in name, I will do my duty.
“Please try to get some sleep, even for a little while, My Lady. I will bring up your breakfast when it’s ready.”
“Thank you, Milla.”
I gave a light smile to Milla, who was looking at me worriedly, and went up to the bedroom.
Kaelan hadn’t returned by morning.
It was the first time he had unilaterally broken a promise.
And he had willingly thrown himself into the monster’s nest?
“What on earth were you thinking…”
He had broken a taboo. A person who, despite being a remarkable knight, had always strictly adhered to the imperial law stating that one must not cross the border.
What had happened there? It wasn’t like him. No, do I even truly know what is like him?
I buried my dizzy head in the soft down pillow and closed my eyes. I didn’t think I would fall asleep. My nerves were on edge, as if in a state of alert, then would become hazy as if dreaming. And so time passed.
Soon, Marquis Rizen was supposed to visit.
I need to pull myself together.
‘Do monster babies live in the nest, Kaelan?’
I need to focus…
‘Yes. You could call them babies, or younglings, they live there too.’
‘That’s fascinating. Do monsters also build nests and form families, living like us?’
It was a family I had gained after ten years. Kaelan was that to me.
‘Well, it’s been a restricted area for a long time, so the specific ecosystem is unknown. I’ve heard it’s called that simply because it’s a place monsters go to be born and to die.’
‘Is the nest a forbidden area even for a knight as strong as you? Even for you, the lord of this territory?’
Early in our marriage, when I sought sleep in his arms, against his broad, warm chest, I would often ask silly questions, feeling strangely giddy, like a drunk person.
I was full of curiosity. About Kaelan. About the man who had become my family. About the man who would bury himself in work all day, then lift my blanket at night and pull me to him with his strong arms.
‘No one is allowed to enter the nest, Ruwena.’
‘Hmm…’
‘It’s a dangerous place where the magic-releasing mist can turn into a trap at any moment and trap intruders.’
‘Like, a Venus flytrap?’
About the man who rarely smiled properly but still looked handsome just by slightly furrowing his clear eyes and faintly raising the corners of his mouth.
I had thought I was getting to know him, little by little.
‘Yes. Like a Venus flytrap.’
Kaelan would wrap his powerful arms around my waist and squeeze, as if to forcefully restrain me and not let me go until he had absorbed everything of me into himself.
I would feel dizzy, as if breathless from his overwhelming strength, but at the same time, a deep sense of stability.
‘The nest must be a very scary place. Kaelan, you must never go in there without my permission either. Understood?’
‘Yes. Never.’
Burying his nose in my tangled, messy hair as if satisfied, he had clearly promised.
‘Without your permission, Ruwena.’
I don’t think he lied.
Kaelan wasn’t someone who was adept at telling fabricated lies. There were times he simply wouldn’t tell me, or times I was excluded from sharing the truth.
But then why the monster’s nest…
“Excuse me, I have something urgent to discuss with you, Your Grace.”
Ben came to see me again right after a servant announced that Marquis Rizen had arrived at the Wayriver manor.
An envelope sealed with red wax was placed on the table in my room.
“What document is this?”
“You may open it.”
I broke the seal on the yellowish envelope and took out the contents. It was a document about a dozen pages thick.
[Last Will and Testament]
My heart sank at the letters written on the front of the first page.
It was a familiar handwriting. A handwriting that seemed to embody both noble dignity and rough savagery – it was uncommon, so I recognized it at once.
Undoubtedly, Kaelan’s writing.
It felt as if all the air in the room had vanished somewhere. Forcing my lungs to expand, I inhaled, and then managed to remember that drafting a will was a standard procedure for all heads of families to prepare for the future.
Is this meant to be a mental preparation, then?
“It hasn’t even been a full day yet, Sir Ben.”
I tried to manage a bitter smile.
“Your cool-headed execution is one of your strengths, Sir Ben.”
I almost made an uncharacteristically emotional remark, asking if I really had to read this right now.
“The document contains specific provisions His Grace wrote regarding inheritance rights.”
Fortunately, Ben added this before I could let slip an emotional comment.
“Two weeks ago, His Grace expressed his intention to designate an heir while drafting a new will. In the presence of his lawyer, myself, and the Dowager Duchess Schumann as witnesses, he requested that the contents not be disclosed unless an unforeseen circumstance occurred.”
“Are you saying the heir to Wayriver is changing?”
Despite the heir being Marquis Rizen, recommended by the Imperial Family? Why?
Ah, perhaps Kaelan had directly designated Diana as his heir. It would become subject to a succession order trial once Diana came of age anyway, but if Kaelan took measures in advance, things would be much simpler. I had heard it was a common practice.
“That is correct. However, he strictly instructed that this content must remain confidential until the formal succession takes place.”
Honestly, it was an issue anyone could likely guess, not particularly secret.
Still, I pretended not to know and silently nodded in agreement. My eyes scanned the dense listing of dizzying legal terms filling over ten pages, but none of it properly registered in my head.
“And if, by any chance, Marquis Rizen were to find out in advance, it could lead to a dispute.”
“Does the Marquis have that much of a right?”
I tilted my head.
If the head of the family, through his will, wishes to grant inheritance rights to the previous head’s biological child, could an outsider oppose it? Even the Imperial Family couldn’t openly object, could they?
While murmuring to myself, searching for the name ‘Diana’ within the flood of dense text, I discovered a completely unexpected name. My gaze stopped.
What is this…?
“…Sir Ben.”
[Ruwena Hiela Steinway]
There it was – what appeared to be my name.
[I, ‘Kaelan Steinway, Duke of Wayriver,’ pursuant to Imperial Law which grants me the right to directly designate my heir for the titles and properties I possess by appointment of the Emperor of Viatella, hereby designate ‘Ruwena Hiela Steinway, Duchess of Wayriver’ as the primary heir to Wayriver.]
“What is this…?”
I asked, my gaze fixed on my name.
“As you see, Your Grace.”
Ben’s tone remained proper. His voice, calmly stating the simple truth, seemed to mimic his master’s nonchalant tone.
“In fact, His Grace has designated you, his spouse, the Duchess, as his heir.”
