Marquis Engelger entered his office.
Denis sat in silence on the main seat, while the Marquis sat next to him and kept chatting about side matters without delving into the heart of the matter.
“Didn’t I tell you earlier that I have tea that the Hou Inan Kingdom gave me during the signing of the armistice agreement?
I brought it out of a desire to share its flavor with Your Majesty.”
“If it's tea, my room is full of it.”
Denis refused the Marquis's tea with a decisive sentence.
“Let us finish what you started in the hallway, Marquis.”
“Ah, yes.”
The Marquis continued as if he had just remembered the matter.
“It's not that big of a deal.
You know, isn't it difficult for a woman to give birth to a child?”
“How extremely important lineage is!
You, Your Majesty, know best the importance of lineage.”
“Just hit the main topic.”
“Since there is no child, you must take another wife, Your Majesty.”
This is what he was aiming for.
Dennis' brow furrowed.
After a while of silence, he opened his mouth and asked:
“…Aren’t you the father-in-law, Marquis?”
“Ah, of course that is true, but the matter of the royal family is more important, and the public interest is higher and her being my daughter is a very secondary matter, Your Majesty.”
“Public interest.”
Dennis repeated his statement and then smiled wryly.
“It seems that what matters to you is different from what matters to me.”
"Impossible!
It is exactly the same, even completely identical.
It is your throne, your direct lineage."
“It seems that your words are not worth listening to.
You can leave now.”
“Your Majesty.”
The Marquis's speech suddenly changed.
“You must ascend the throne quickly, you cannot wait forever.”
“I intend to do that.”
“It is also necessary to get rid of everything that is an obstacle on this path in advance.”
Obstacle.
Dennis realized for the first time how his wife was treated by her father.
He got angry about this.
Denis warned the Marquis in a low voice:
“…Marquis, since you won’t understand anyway, I’ll say it clearly.
You’d better live uprightly without the slightest shame and stop hitting as well.
I will no longer tolerate your rude treatment of my wife.”
The Marquis defended himself by objecting to his words:
“Of course.
But it was just for the sake of education.
Isn’t a daughter, for her parents, a child no matter how old she is?
And also...”
Denis interrupted the Marquis's words firmly:
“You better stop your excuses.
If you lay your hand on my wife again, you will pay the right price.
Marquis, I will force you to do so.
Silbang, accompany the Marquis to leave.”
“Yes, fine, Your Majesty.”
When Silpang rose to take the Marquis's arm, the Marquis swatted his hand away.
Then he closed his coat again.
“You seem to have changed somewhat, Your Majesty.
I wonder if there has been a change in your mood.”
The Marquis, as he fastened the buttons of his coat, looked down upon Denis as if he were looking down upon him.
“Maybe whether I've changed or not, I think finding out little by little wouldn't be so bad.
Goodbye.”
The Marquis stared at Denis once and then left.
“Foo…”
Dennis picked up a cigarette that he had recently quit smoking.
Silbang opened the window to ventilate the place, for the Marquis's strong musky scent had filled his office.
Dennis, smoking a cigarette, rubbed his neck.
He felt tired as if he had only met the Marquis for a short time.
“If you're tired, why don't you go to the lady?”
Dennis looked at Silbang with a surprised face.
How could he read what was in his heart?
He was about to remember that woman just now.
“You look tired, go quickly.”
Silbang waved his hand as if to dismiss Dennis.
Dennis reluctantly got up at Silbang's request.
“Then, finish your work in moderation and leave the palace as well.”
“That is the most gracious word I have heard from you this week, Your Majesty.”
Dennis snorted and left the room.
To go to his only place of rest.
Dennis was walking around confused.
He went to her office thinking she would be there, but the woman was not there.
Instead of her, he found her maids who always worked with her.
“Where is Therese?”
Danielle answered with a straight face:
“This is usually the lady's walk time, so she's on her walk now.”
“I didn't know she had time like this.”
When Denise answered as if he were talking to himself, Danielle added: “She is doing this on the advice of the palace doctor.”
“The palace doctor’s advice?
Was my wife complaining of any pain?”
At Dennis's question, an inappropriate expression crossed Daniel's face for a moment.
Then she added:
“He said that moderate exercise is beneficial for pregnancy.
In addition, the woman is in good health and does not suffer from any special illness.”
“She's a little thinner because she's not eating well, but that will gradually get better.”
After Daniel's response, Dennis adopted a thoughtful expression for a while.
“So, where did you go?”
“Maybe she went to the back garden.”
"Thanks."
At Daniel's words, Dennis went to the back garden.
The small back garden of the Woman's Palace was visible even from the outside.
Whether anyone is there or not.
But she was not visible in the back garden either.
Dennis thought about the places a woman could go.
It wasn't as many as he expected.
Dennis decided to go to the birch forest where he had last met the woman.
It's too far to walk, could the woman have walked even there?
After he couldn't see the woman he wanted to see, Dennis felt a mysterious tension in his heart.
Dennis remembered the nearest place where the horses were.
He decided to go to the birch forest on horseback.
He quickened his steps.
As he was crossing the garden of the main palace towards the stables, he heard a familiar laugh.
Therese laughs.
Dennis turned towards the source of the sound.
He started walking cautiously without intending to.
He approached step by step without making even a sound from his steps on the grass.
Behind the trees of the garden, the back of a familiar head appeared.
The back of a round head with hair like golden threads.
Therese was talking to someone.
With familiarity with a man he had never seen before.
The man pointed somewhere on Thérèse's shoulder.
As if there is something stuck.
When Therese looked carefully in the direction the man was pointing and couldn't find him, the man tried to laugh and put his hand on Therese's shoulder.
As if he wanted to dust it off himself.
But all Dennis saw was the fact that this man was trying to touch Therese's body.
Dennis couldn't take it anymore and rushed forward.
Then he grabbed Therese's shoulder.
“Prince!”
Therese seemed to be talking about something interesting, because her face was glowing.
“Did I interrupt you?
Looks like you two were having an interesting conversation.”
The man standing in front of her realized that it was the prince, so he greeted him with respect.
“Prince Sasha is a classmate of mine.
We studied together at the academy.”
“Hello, Your Majesty, I am Sasha Vadim, a new employee at the Ministry of Justice.”
“You said you had no intention of entering the palace, but in the end you came to the palace as well.”
Therese laughed and looked at him out of the corner of her eye.
“How could the second-ranked woman say something like this when the first-ranked Lady Fei is here in the palace?”
The man called Sasha responded to Therese's words with familiarity.
At that moment, Dennis couldn't stand it so he called her by name.
“Therese.”
“Yes, Prince.”
Therese turned her head and looked at him.
“There are some problems.”
“What's the problem?”
“Urgent problem, my palace.”
She seemed to think it was a secret matter that could not be mentioned in front of others, so she immediately replied that she understood.
Then she said goodbye to Sasha, saying that she would see him later.
The man called Therese familiarly.
She also said goodbye to him, as if she was sorry.
Dennis walked with long strides towards his palace.
Thérèse looked at his back as he walked without looking back once, and she knew he was angry.
Because Dennis always matched his steps with her steps.
Now Thérèse was running almost to match Denise's gait.
She was about to arrive in front of his palace.
“Therese.”
“Yes, Prince.”
Dennis shook his head, upset about something.
He felt tight in his chest.
When he saw the woman looking at him anxiously with her pale face, his mood became more complicated.
He felt as if something was weighing him down.
“What happened, my prince?
You said there was something urgent...”
Dennis sighed and nodded.
“Nothing, go now.”
"What?"
When Therese answered with a confused face and was about to leave, Dennis called her again to stop her.
“Just a minute, Therese.”
“Yes, Prince.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Why did the palace doctor advise you to walk?”
Therese looked at him with incomprehensible eyes when she heard Denis' words.
Dennis suppressed his rising anger and said:
“Are you going to close your lips again?
Your mouth seems heavy just for me.”
“No, prince.”
At Thérèse's objection, Dennis complained:
“Your husband is me, Therese, not the scoundrel you say is your colleague.”
“…You didn’t ask me about that, Your Majesty.”
“Ha!
Do you only answer what is asked?
This is the first time I have discovered that you are this stupid.”
Dennis criticized Thérèse regarding her words.
Hearing his barbed words, Therese lowered her head and cast her gaze to the ground.
The moment it became cold, Dennis regained the sanity he had lost.
This was not my intention.
Dennis shook his hair.
But he was not satisfied with her being nice to another man.
All he wanted was to ask her if she was in a close relationship with that man.
Why do only sarcastic words come out of his mouth?
“Saying you are stupid was not my true intention.
I spoke harshly.
I apologize.”
He added his apology in a low voice.
“But I was just worried about you, Therese.”
Hearing him say that he was worried, Thérèse looked at him as if she was appreciating something.
Then she let out a small sigh and replied:
“...Okay.”
Dennis grabbed Therese's shoulder and said:
“Walk well, do not stray from the path, and return directly to your palace.
Do you understand?”
When Thérèse looked at him silently, he urged her to answer.
“You must answer, my wife.”
“Yes, I understand, Prince.”
“If you meet people, don't talk to them and don't answer.”
"…Yes."
Dennis recommended it as if he were sending a child on an errand.
Dennis returned to his office to no avail.
Then he carelessly threw the coat he was wearing on the chair and loosened the tie that was suffocating him.
He told him that if he finished his work early he could leave the palace, and in the meantime Silbang disappeared.
Dennis complained.
Even the papers on the desk were difficult for him to focus on.
It seemed that today was not his day.
In the end, Denis went to Thérèse's palace early in the evening.
Under the pretext of going to apologize to her.
“Prince, what makes you come so early...”
Therese was still dressed for going out.
“Are you sick, I wonder?”
Thérèse approached him with a worried face and measured the temperature of his face with her little hand.
He liked her anxious little hand so much that it made him want to pretend to be sick for no reason.
“Where is the pain?
Shall I call the palace doctor?”
“I want to rest.
I think I will be fine if I rest.”
She took Dennis's hand and laid him on the bed.
“I haven’t finished my work yet, I will come to you when you rest.”
“Therese.”
Dennis grabbed the hem of Therese's dress as she was about to leave.
“Yes, Prince.”
“Sorry, about what happened a while ago.”
Therese paused for a moment when she heard his apology.
Then she answered in a small voice.
It was a lukewarm reaction that felt neither cold nor hot.
“...You already apologized.”
"however."
Because that will make my heart at ease.
Dennis looked down at Therese.
“You seem to have a childish side, my prince.”
“Yes.
The child cannot sleep alone, you must put him to sleep.”
Thérèse looked at him strangely, then finally gave in and sat down next to him.
“You seem different than usual today.
Did something happen?”
"…Yes."
Dennis added, as if sighing:
“…I wish I had studied at the academy as well.”
“Didn't you study there?”
Therese asked in surprise.
He graduated from the Royal Academy before she joined.
“I wanted to study there again.”
“Really...”
Dennis did not add “with you.”
Because he still feels consciously about that bastard, her colleague.
Because he himself cannot understand his feelings well.
Why does his heart become so calm when he comes to this room only?
His anxious heart gradually began to calm down.
Knock knock
“Mrs.
Therese, are you here?”
It was Danielle in an urgent voice.
“What's wrong?”
“Breaking news: The Marquis is unconscious due to an attack by unknown assailants.”
Therese jumped up.
Dennis, who was about to fall into a deep sleep, also woke up.