If I Disobey the Duke

In Fact, This Marriage (4)

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“An escort knight, who fully knows that a criminal is in my wife’s bedroom…”

The indifferent expression was a punishment for Talin.

“I couldn’t believe it even when I saw it.”

Talin just bowed his head silently.

Vlad glanced back at the chief standing behind him.
“I told you to report to me without delay, but you didn’t.”

The chieftain also shrank like a willow tree.

The air that had become as cold as a winter valley gave Dandelion the feeling that his lungs were shivering.

Gray eyes turned towards her room.

Tristan, who was overwhelmed with his appearance, was also very nervous.

Vlad stared at him.
“Take him out.”

“I will take your order.” Talin, saluting politely, strode in and grabbed Tristan’s back.

“Argh…!”

The pain in his shoulder pricked him and he let out a pained groan.

No one cared about his reaction.
Lily was only reflexively startled, but that was the end.

Talin easily dragged Tristan through the hallway like a straw doll.
At Vlad’s orders, the chief also followed in his footsteps.

Vlad’s gaze finally turned to Dandelion, who began to tremble all over.

The gaze didn’t even seem to register that he was a human.

“You have been with her since you two were young, so let me ask.
Did your sister kill your mother, Brother-in-law?”

“Erm… t-that…” Dandelion stuttered, feeling like his tongue was being cut off.

Vlad, who watched the reaction closely, asked, “Did she stab her with a knife?”

Dandelion jumped.
His eyes popped out and widened as if they were about to fall.
“N-no! Sister didn’t.
She would get worried over thorns, what more a knife…”

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“Then did she push her down the stairs or strangle her? Or maybe used poison?”

“That… It’s not even…”

A subtle annoyance began to appear on Vlad’s sullen expression.
“I hate protracted conversations.
Tell me directly what the exact cause of death was.”

“She died from a severe cough.
She was weak at first…”

“Right.
My wife had the ability to make other people cough.
Had I known earlier, the war could have ended much sooner.”

With Dandelion’s intelligence, it was difficult for him to notice that Vlad was being sarcastic.

Dandelion lowered his eyes.
“If it weren’t for Sister, Mother wouldn’t have been dragged out of the house…”

“Stop.”

Lily didn’t want to hear it anymore.

This was ridiculous.
Vlad thought it was going to be absurd at least, but he didn’t know it was at this level.

He slightly closed his eyes and tilted his head from side to side as if to loosen his tight neck muscles.
“Now I understand roughly.” Pausing with his head tilted slightly, he opened his eyes and looked at Lily.

Her face was pale as snow.

Vlad, who had been staring at Lily, slowly opened his mouth.
“Lily.”

She trembled slightly.

“It will be hard to accept, but now I have to say it.”

He could see Lily’s eyes tinged with fear.
Vlad felt bitter.

“I know you’ve been working hard.
But your younger brother is the best idiot in the world.
I can assure you that the piglets raised by serfs are smarter.”

“…”

Lily’s eyes were downcast.

Dandelion was in a similar state.

“It’s not your fault.
In the world, the more you think the love you receive is undeserved, the more you think lowly of yourself.
So…” Vlad narrowed the distance between him and Dandelion.

Dandelion grabbed his right shoulder without even taking a step back from him, breath hitching.

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“Sometimes, education is needed, Lily.” He slowly raised his right hand, reaching for Dandelion’s head.
“Let me tell you in advance.” His long fingers pointed at the center of Dandelion’s forehead.
“When a person dies of disease, it is not murder, it is called misfortune.
Stupid.”

Keok!

A finger struck Dandelion’s forehead.

“Ugh…” Dandelion groaned, then he fainted.

Vlad lightly grabbed Dandelion’s shoulder.

The younger man was raised by his clothes.

“Dandelion…!”

“Do not come,” Vlad said without even turning his head.

Lily’s steps stopped in the middle of the room.

“Boys have to faint a thousand times as they grow up.
Don’t worry too much, I’ll teach him manners when he wakes up.”

Vlad lightly patted his dangling hand.

* * *

Vlad slowly poured the tea into an elegant teacup engraved with gold leaves, the teapot looking like a toy in his large, calloused hands.

Lily did not respond to the ridiculous sight.

She sat in her chair like a stone, staring at the steam rising from the teacup.

Vlad’s voice, sitting in the chair opposite her, interrupted her thoughts, “It is better to drink it while it is warm.
You were very cold.”

Concerns stood out from the lines of his face.

Lily held the teacup, eyes still unfocused.
She put it to her mouth, enough that she only wet her lips.

“Did he not harm you?”

She shook her head.

Vlad also scanned to make sure she didn’t get caught on her shoulder or arm.
The moment he had heard reports that Dandelion had taken Tristan to Lily, his blood rushed backwards from his toes.

And when he came to his senses, he was in the hallway leading to her bedroom.

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What greeted him as he crossed the hallway was Dandelion’s voice.

If he had left the situation unattended, he wouldn’t have been able to stand it.

Vlad began to reconsider the treatment of Talin and the chief.

Lily slowly raised her head.
“I pardoned him,” she said.
“On my orders…”

Vlad knew right away that it was about Tristan.

“I see.”

“I’m going to ask for compensation from the Isles.
He’s been spared the death penalty, so that much is reasonable.
What I was thinking of was the information on the distribution and trade routes of the jewels at Isles…”

“Lily.”

Vlad was worried.

Do you think I will forget about what happened just because you desperately try to change the subject? So I’ll pretend not to know?

“When you said that the people around you keep dying.
Was it about your mother?”

“…” Lily’s hand turned white from clenching the teacup.

Vlad, who was looking at her softly, reached out and took it from her.
It was still hot enough to burn his hand if it had spilled.

Lily took his hand with a smile.

“Did your family keep saying that? That it’s your fault that your mother died of an illness?”

Hearing it out loud like that, it did seem absurd.

Three years had passed since the end of the war.
It hadn’t been long enough to forget what it meant.

“Even the knights who returned from slaughtering dozens or hundreds of people on the battlefield weren’t called murderers.”

Returning to their families, they were called survivors and heroes.

If her illness took her mother away, then Lily was a child who lost her mother, not a murderer.

What the hell was she talking about…

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“…”

Lily had her head lowered so deeply that she had her chin touching her collarbone.

It was the stigma she had been carrying for over two decades.
She found it difficult to even face it.

She was stripped bare in front of her opponent, whom she did not want to see that side of her.

It felt like someone was squeezing her heart and trying to burst it.

The back of her eyes and nose felt stuffy, and she couldn’t quite figure out what kind of emotion it was.

As she was trying to relieve her tension, his friendly and gentle eyes and voice felt too much.

What if he would criticize her once he knew the entire story? Perhaps he would pretend to sympathize with her but secretly think she was pathetic

Irrationally, she wanted to run away.
She wanted to do anything that could end this situation.

“Now… I don’t know if I should tell you.
Sorry.”

He looked at her shoulders, which were starting to tremble frantically, and frowned thinking he had made a mistake.

Does she know she looks like this everytime?

She needed a lot of time to adapt to new people and surroundings.
It was difficult even to change her mindset and habits, which she had held firmly throughout her life.

And the way Lily always lowered herself…

“If you don’t want to talk, then don’t.
It’s true that I pushed you too hard.” His mouth twitched for a moment, as if he was choosing his words.
“You don’t have to explain anything.
I will pretend that nothing happened today.”

“N-no.
Don’t do that.” Lily slowly raised her head.

Vlad was startled.
Her green eyes were filled with intense emotion.

She seemed confused by herself and her own feelings.

“Words…  I have something to tell you.” She clenched her fists under her table as if she was determined to do something.
“I…  I have to apologize to you, Vlad”

Vlad’s eyebrows twitched.

He was a bit surprised, but he didn’t ask questions or say anything.
He leaned back in his chair, staring at her in silence.

Lily began to tell her story as she stared aimlessly at her tea table.
“You are actually…  my fourth marriage partner.”