The woman looked at herself in the mirror, carefully stroking the necklace and turning her head left and right.
"This is my first time receiving something like this."
She murmured this, then awkwardly closed her mouth as if regretting the admission.
Seeing Claudel glance at him, Kaian tried to raise one eyebrow but then lowered it instead.
The old Valmonde fox's calculations were transparent. He was merely pretending to reconcile in accordance with the King's orders. Having no desire to accept Kaian as his son-in-law, he must have been unable to bear the thought that after Claudel's death, all of her dowry and gifts would belong to the Temnes family.
Kaian didn't have a daughter yet, but if he had to reverse positions and send his daughter to Valmonde, he would have done the same thing. The last thing he wanted was for the Duke to pity her or for her to realize the truth.
He'd already turned a blind eye to it, but he couldn't openly acknowledge that he knew. Vermont giving its daughter in marriage empty-handed would become grounds for an official protest from Temnes. Then Claudel's position within the Temnes family would deteriorate.
Kaian didn't want such a delicate and innocent woman to suffer like that.
*I feel like I'm truly possessed.*
What was it about this woman that had changed him so completely? Kaian himself couldn't understand it.
*Is it because I believe she saved my life?*
Had he developed a self-imposed attachment, considering her special for that reason?
The thin, gaunt woman he'd seen on their wedding night was nowhere to be found. Now she seemed as if her whole body glowed, like a precious gemstone or placer gold lodged in a crevice of stone beside a flowing stream.
"It suits you wonderfully."
When he pretended not to notice anything amiss, Claudel's face finally relaxed with visible relief.
She was a woman who seemed incapable of lying. She was a woman who revealed everything inside her. So her heightened responses to what he did during times when darkness obscured her vision were probably not fabricated.
"Really? Does it truly suit me?"
Claudel happily rose from her chair and slowly twirled to admire herself wearing the brilliant necklace in the mirror.
"But why are you suddenly giving me a gift?"
Originally, this necklace had carried complex meaning. He'd been planning to compensate for the embarrassment he'd caused her over the button decoration by filling in her sparse personal belongings. And though he'd discovered it too late, he'd learned that because of Antjone, Claudel had never received her wedding gift. Kaian had thought to rectify this by giving her the necklace as well.
So he'd give her this, and they could cover up that past incident and pretend it had never happened. But now he didn't want to give Claudel expensive compensation or anything like that.
"It's all right if I don't receive this. The jewelry you bought me last time was already too much."
Because she was special, he wanted to give her something special—more than just things he could purchase at a jewelry store with money. But how could a man say something like that?
"The Duchess of Temnes is someone who will be scrutinized for nearly everything. From now on, when I give you anything, I hope you'll accept it without protest."
"...Yes. All right. I'll do that."
It had taken several weeks to receive the actual necklace after commissioning it, but he couldn't even show off and had to pretend to be solemn instead.
Kaian, who immediately regretted what he'd just said, felt somewhat annoyed by Claudel's neat agreement to his command.
"Is there any other thanks you can give?"
"Any other thanks..."
She blinked her large, clear eyes like a doll and provoked him with that innocent face that understood nothing.
"I'd like to see you wearing the necklace."
"You're looking at it now."
"Only the necklace."
The woman, who belatedly grasped his meaning, flushed crimson and didn't know what to do.
"When it's this bright? What are you saying?"
"It means to prepare yourself mentally."
It was amusing to see her flustered, but he was genuinely being considerate. After seeing Claudel's burning cheeks, Kaian felt the tension in his chest ease.
He bent his head to the woman's cheek and kissed it. When she looked up at him in shock, her eyes were already glistening.
"I'm looking forward to tonight."
Kaian was able to leave her room in excellent spirits.
Tonight, he was confident he would achieve what he desired. Claudel couldn't refuse him.
Kaian had discovered something. He had a tyrannical temperament that demanded everything be done his way, and it was unexpected that the woman who'd been forced to become his wife met his exacting standards.
The woman, who couldn't even die in Rowan lands without his permission, was complying with what Kaian told her to do.
These days, his daily life couldn't be more perfect. Thanks to the widespread knowledge that his marriage to Claudel was by the King's command, he'd been freed from the hassle and bother of courtship—an added bonus.
And every night, sleeping with Claudel in his arms relieved his fatigue so thoroughly that he became more energetic each day. It seemed like only yesterday that he'd gone to hunt the crocodile with her eyes filled with terror.
Every time he saw Claudel, he wondered if he'd saved her life for precisely this reason.
She looked like a fairy. *Fairy.* As of now, no word could come to Kaian's mind that described Claudel more perfectly than that.
She was naturally fine-boned and, like a northerner, possessed much paler skin. Her skin was so fair and delicate that veins and muscle definition were visible beneath it. Silky red hair, and eyes that shone transparent as jewels.
Occasionally he would glimpse a woman from a distance passing through the castle halls, and she alone seemed to glow softly white among the other southerners, as if her coloring were entirely different.
She ate in tiny bites, savoring each morsel with her delicate frame. She moved lightly on her feet, walking with graceful steps. A fragrant scent emanated from her body.
It was by chance that he'd realized this smell wasn't from soap. A few times he'd used the bathroom in her bedroom, where the soap was identical to what was in Kaian's room. Yet her body didn't smell like that.
Her existence bordered on mystery, so he supposed she was simply like that. Or perhaps the legendary ice witch of Valmonde had cast some kind of enchantment specifically on Claudel. Was that why Kaian was so captivated?
Kaian, who was returning to his office after a brief visit, stopped when he suddenly overheard voices.
"The Lady..."
Some people dared to discuss his wife.
"Isn't she like a fairy?"
"A fairy?"
"I think she's somewhat different from other women. She's so small and delicate."
"Ah, yes. I had that thought too. Should I say her coloring looks different when viewed from a distance? She seems to be glowing somehow."
Kaian's mood suddenly soured.
"At first, I thought I was unlucky just seeing she was from Vermont. But when I look at her now, I think she's beautiful."
To think these insignificant servants were voicing thoughts exactly matching his own sentiments.
Kaian returned to his office and summoned the butler.
"My Lord, you called for me?"
The butler bowed his head and awaited his command.
"In the hallway outside Claudel's room—"
"Yes?"
"From now on, I want only maids working there."
"What?"
The butler looked bewildered, wondering what this was about.
"I don't think it looks appropriate."
"For... aesthetics?"
"In any case, it means male servants shouldn't be passing through that hallway reeking of sweat."
"Is the Lady uncomfortable?"
Kaian frowned and glared at the butler.
"When I tell you to do something, you do it. Since when did you ask so many questions?"
"Yes, my Lord. However, there are certain tasks the servants must handle—some things we can't ask maids to do because they're dangerous. I'll manage it carefully."
"That can't be helped, but have the maids do all the cleaning and other such work."
"Yes. Understood."
The butler departed from the office under the misunderstanding that Claudel was dissatisfied—that Kaian was saying she didn't want to see male servants outside her room for "aesthetic reasons."
*She's not that particular.*
With a sense of private satisfaction, regardless of what the butler assumed, Kaian was pleased with his own actions. He had no intention of allowing his wife to become entertainment for some worthless scoundrels.
"That necklace suits you."
The thought of the woman wearing it around her neck while clinging to him made him want to return immediately to the bedroom he'd just left.
That night, Kaian achieved what he'd wanted.
---
Male servants were no longer permitted on that floor of Rowan Castle.
As speculative rumors circulated that Claudel was dissatisfied with the Lord and found male servants unsightly, the castle staff finally recognized the presence and influence of the Lord's wife.
"I heard they weren't dismissed, though?"
"What are you talking about? Being reassigned from the castle to the knights' training grounds or stables while still employed isn't as bad as being fired, but it's close."
Work in the castle was comfortable, easy, and desirable. It was a position everyone was eager to secure, but since there had been no mistress of the house until now, assignments had been managed by the butler.
As the butler had served as a long-time vassal of the Temnes family, he possessed a sharp, exacting personality and never distributed work based on personal favoritism.
The only way to obtain a better position, more comfortable duties, or more profitable assignments was to be recognized for diligence and capability.
As rumors spread that people who'd built careers at the lowest level and worked as castle servants for years were being reassigned at the mistress's word, it was belatedly recognized that Claudel was suddenly someone who could control their livelihoods.
The maids who took the vacant servants' places and were promoted to work near the Lady's chambers all became friendly to Hannah and Claudel.
"Hannah! Look at this."
"What is it?"
"I heard the Lady likes flowers, so I picked these."
One maid even began picking fresh flowers every morning to offer her.
"Hannah! It's not much, but may I offer this?"
"What is it?"
"Actually, I haven't been able to show this openly in Rowan Castle until now. My cousin married someone from Valmonde."
In Vermont and Temnes, where even residents spat and cursed at each other, forbidden love existed everywhere.
"In Vermont, when he learned his wife was marrying someone from Rowan, he fretted about it as if it were his own concern, and made tea from Valmonde herbs and sent it to me."
One by one, people who'd been sympathetic but unable to show it due to prevailing attitudes grew eager to speak openly with Hannah.
In particular, a biased rumor was being spread by the new maids that the Lady—beautiful as a fairy—would make people fall in love with her loveliness just by seeing her in person.
The fact that she'd been suffering from illness, and that many people had been unable to properly see her when she'd arrived at Rowan Castle in an unsightly state after being drenched in rain—most glossed over this, thinking, *Would she be different if properly adorned?*
Hannah entered Claudel's room excitedly.
"My Lady! Look at this. Someone gave me tea made from wild shrubs from the north. Would you like to try it now? I can smell the scent of home."
However, the fairy-like Lady—protagonist of all the rumors—sat by the window with a somewhat melancholy expression, gazing at the distant mountains.
"What's wrong? Is something the matter?"
"No."
"But you don't look well."
Claudel laughed awkwardly, then stopped and let out a long sigh.
"I think he only likes my body."
---