TYWML 11

Chapter 11. Duke Kassel Winkler (2)
Published: 2024.05.11

“What is all this commotion?”

She must not have heard the details, but she began to scold Riena right away.

“Taking a walk in the rain at this hour? What kind of misunderstanding do you think Viscount Rotman would have if he saw that!”

Even in the midst of all this, Riena found it ridiculous that she kept talking about a “walk.” And it was even funnier that she was yelling this loudly while supposedly worried about being caught by Viscount Rotman.

“Mother, if you keep speaking so loudly, Viscount Rotman might wake up.”

Only then did the Countess lower her voice.

“Before Viscount Rotman wakes up, you must go back inside right now—”

While whispering with a face flushed red, her eyes finally turned to Kassel, who was standing beside Riena. Her face instantly stiffened.

“You’re not saying…”

“I can guess what you’re thinking, but it’s not that.”

“Then what is it?”

“It wasn’t an elopement. He proposed to me, properly.”

“What?”

The Countess’s voice, which had just gotten quieter, rose again.

“A proposal? What are you talking about—”

Riena raised her left hand toward her. On her pale, slender ring finger shone the diamond ring Kassel had placed there. It was a ring neither Viscount Rotman nor Johannes had bothered with, even though they had come with marriage talks.

Seeing the ring, the Countess screeched and grabbed Riena’s hand.

“Take it off right now! I haven’t given permission as the head of the family—how dare you say you were proposed to!”

Riena yanked her hand free from the Countess’s grip. Then, catching her cue, Kassel swiftly pulled a letter from his coat and handed it to the Countess.

Riena explained calmly.

“You’ll see once you read it—it’s a letter from my father. It may not be a formal marriage proposal, but he suggested marriage with this man.”

“W-what?”

Until now, the Countess hadn’t even glanced at the letter, but now she began to read it.

“So, since my father already approved this marriage, it isn’t improper. In fact, it’s perfectly legitimate.”

“Legitimate? Your father is dead! And this man only appeared long after the funeral! How can you call this legitimate?”

“This was a marriage already discussed between the heads of our families. Why wouldn’t it be valid?”

“I won’t accept it! Riena Dyke! You’re still a Dyke—you must obey me!”

Furious, the Countess tried to tear up the letter, but it remained intact, thanks to a preservation spell.

“Mother!”

Startled, Riena snatched the letter back. Even then, the Countess continued to stomp her feet in rage.

“You!”

The Countess lunged toward Riena with wild eyes, but Kassel quickly stepped in front of her. Her anger, finding no outlet, was now directed at him.

“Who do you think you are! Trying to take my daughter! I am the only one who can decide her marriage!”

“Strictly speaking, that’s not true. The late Count left me a letter requesting I look after Lady Dyke, and I intend to honor his wishes by marrying her.”

“And who are you to decide! The temple won’t issue a marriage license if I protest!”

Just as she screamed with all her might, Viscount Rotman—having come out due to the noise—heard everything and was stunned.

“A marriage license? What’s going on, my lady? And who is this man?”

“Just as you heard. I—”

Riena tried to speak, but Kassel gently shook his head, stopping her, and spoke on her behalf.

“I am engaged to Lady Dyke.”

“By whose authority! Lady Dyke and I—”

“I heard you never actually proposed to her.”

That was true. Stammering for a moment, the Viscount then began making excuses so desperate they were almost pitiful.

“I was going to do it at sunrise!”

“She has no intention of accepting your proposal.”

Again, he couldn’t respond right away. His face flushed with rage, he turned to Riena and shouted.

“How dare you! You think you can mock me like this?”

Riena was dumbfounded. True, she was a noble lady without a title, but she was still a member of the prestigious Dyke family. There was no reason for a Viscount to call her something like “you little—”

Perhaps thinking she was intimidated by her silence, the Viscount became even more arrogant. He hurled crude insults at her without hesitation.

“I heard you were modest, but clearly you’ve been playing around behind closed doors for men to cling to you like this! You’re not even a virgin anymore, are you? Maybe you seduced Lord Beliar with your body? Sneaking into his bed at night or something?”

“……”

“And since you chose him over Beliar, I guess he was better in bed, huh?”

Riena couldn’t take it anymore. This wasn’t just an insult to her—it was a disgrace to the Dyke family itself. Worse, it tarnished the memory of the late Count Dyke, who had raised her with affection and honor.

“Now just—”

But as Riena opened her mouth to retort, Kassel reached out and stopped her. Shaking his head slightly at her, he turned his fierce gaze on the Viscount.

“Choosing whom to marry is Lady Dyke’s right. A true gentleman respects a lady’s decision, even when rejected. Yet you, Viscount, not only fail to respect her—you insult her.”

“What did you say?”

And then Kassel revealed why he could stand so confidently.

“I lent the Countess a great deal of money. I was going to cancel her debt with this marriage—and now you say we can’t marry? Aren’t you all in this together? Do you think I won’t collect just because you run away?”

Riena let out a bitter laugh and turned a piercing gaze toward the Countess. When their eyes met, the Countess looked away.

“She took a loan? And tried to pay it off with my marriage?”

Riena had known that the Count and Countess sometimes argued over money. Though her father never showed it in front of her, she wasn’t a naive girl unaware of their financial troubles.

The Countess had been indulgent in luxury—and Riena had heard she even gambled at times. The Count had once declared that if she gambled again, he would cut off her allowance.

Still, things couldn’t have been so bad that she had to borrow from Rotman…

Apparently, they were. No wonder the Countess had been in such a hurry to arrange the marriage.

“So whether she accepts or not, she’s mine!”

The Viscount made another desperate move and tried to grab Riena’s wrist.

In the blink of an eye, Kassel unsheathed his sword and aimed it at him. The Viscount staggered back with both hands raised.

“W-wait, let’s not do this—let’s talk—”

“No one touches her without permission.”

Kassel’s tone had dropped to informal speech now.

It dawned on Riena: informal language suited him far better. Of course it did.

He was a duke—one who ruled above all. The only reason he’d been speaking formally until now was because of her.

“How much was the debt?”

“W-well…”

“No matter. I’ll repay it tenfold.”

“T-tenfold…”

“If you have a complaint, take it up with House Winkler directly.”

“W-Winkler?”

There wasn’t a soul in the Empire who didn’t know that name. As the Viscount repeated it, realization struck—and he dropped to his knees before Kassel.

“F-forgive me! I didn’t recognize Your Grace—please forgive me!”

So this is the man who once acted like he feared nothing…
Riena almost laughed.

A man rumored to have killed his own wife, someone who acted untouchable in front of her—was now groveling in the mud.

I can’t believe cowardly Cass has changed this much.

When Kassel first came to House Dyke, he had been so timid he couldn’t even meet Riena’s gaze. If an adult man approached him, he would flinch as though on the verge of collapse.

He had shown some improvement while training under Count Dyke and living alongside Riena, but even when he left the house, he still had that timid side.

What could have happened in those ten years to turn him into this?

While Riena pondered over Kassel’s hardened face, he sheathed his sword. Taking that as a cue, Viscount Rotman scurried back into the house—likely to pack and flee.

“Your Grace…”

The Countess trembled visibly. Kassel gave her a cold, cutting look.

“Do you have anything more to say?”

“N-no…”

“Then I’ll take Lady Dyke with me to the capital, assuming you have no objection.”

He turned to Riena.

“Do you wish to bring anything with you?”

“Ah…”

Riena turned a wistful gaze back at the home she had known all her life. There was much she wanted to take.

The apple tree her real mother—whose face she couldn’t even remember—had supposedly planted for her.
The swing in the backyard, which her father had hung with his own hands.
The wide fields where she used to ride with her father every spring.

Or maybe what she truly wanted to take with her… were the memories.