That evening, the countdom held an extravagant feast. And of course, there was no feast without alcohol.
After Yelena had drunk an adequate amount—she wanted to drink more, but Edward freaked out and took the bottle away from her—she went outside to take a stroll and sober up.
The three knights made a fuss about escorting her, but they couldn’t win against the festive atmosphere and had drunk to their heart’s content.
Yelena didn’t think that the three drunk men would be of much help, so she left them and went out to the garden alone. Nothing would happen to her inside the countdom anyway, since Sidrion had placed invisible boundaries around the entirety of the estate.
Yelena sat on a flat rock in place of a bench and looked up at the moon.
Then, she heard footsteps. Without even looking, Yelena said, “Edward.”
“…How did you know?”
“I just thought it’d be you.”
Yelena wondered if there was anyone else besides Edward who would silently follow after her, since Edward was such a worrywart.
“You know, Edward.”
“What?”
“What do you think?”
“About what?”
“My husband.”
“…”
“Tell the truth. He seems like a good person, right?”
Yelena propped her chin on one hand and looked up at Edward as she laughed softly in her tipsiness.
“You have good judgment when it comes to people. That’s your only strength. Thanks to that, you’re still able to compete with Older Sister for the succession, even though she’s better than you at everything.”
“Hey.”
Edward flared up and opened his mouth, but then he closed it, as if he saw no point in arguing with a drunk person.
Soon after, he sat down next to Yelena.
“A good person…”
Edward scratched his head. He thought of the conversation he had with Kaywhin at the castle.
“I’m curious about something. Why don’t you kick me out of here?”
“What do you mean?”
“…I came here without permission, and you yourself know that I was not completely courteous towards you. Despite that, is the reason you’ve welcomed me simply because I’m Yelena’s older brother?”
Edward knew how to reflect on his actions more objectively than one would think. If he were the duke, he would have chased himself out, not provided him with a nice room and food.
But Kaywhin hadn’t even kicked Edward out of his study, which the latter had barged into without notice. Kaywhin was, however, silent for a moment before he answered.
“You must be aware of my rumors.”
“…”
“Regardless of whether they are true, you must know how I appear in other people’s eyes. And I’m sure it isn’t very different from how you see me.”
Edward couldn’t argue with that. After all, it was true that he knew about Kaywhin’s rumors and that he was uncomfortable around Kaywhin because of them.
“If you were bothered by those rumors, then you would have avoided me at the parlor the first day you were here. You would have been afraid that the curse would spread to you if you touched me.”
“Well…”
“But you didn’t avoid me back then. Instead, you acted like you were declaring war.”
“…”
“I welcomed you because you are my wife’s beloved elder brother. Does that answer your question?”
At the time, Edward had simply concluded that Kaywhin cherished Yelena greatly, but thinking about it now, a question suddenly came to him.
What if Edward wasn’t Yelena’s beloved elder brother? What would the duke have done then?
“…”
Edward stopped scratching his head. For some reason, he didn’t really want to think about it.
“…I don’t know if I’d go as far as calling him a good person, but I do think that he could be a good husband to you.”
Yelena smiled brightly at the compromise. Her silver hair shone in the moonlight.
“That’s a given.”
***
Deep in the night, the estate was quiet while everyone was asleep.
Sidrion circled the estate without making a sound.
‘All clear.’
There was no trace of intrusion, nor was there a trace of an attempt at one either.
‘Since Kaywhin begged me…’
Sidrion had placed double boundaries around the whole estate. It was no easy task with how vast the estate was, but Sidrion had no choice but to go the extra mile at his friend’s request.
“Whew.”
After inspecting the boundaries, Sidrion felt slightly fatigued and made his way back inside the mansion.
It was then that he felt a pair of eyes on him. He turned his head and locked eyes with a woman through her window.
“…”
The woman stared at him with her chin in her hand, almost threateningly.
Sidrion remembered her name.
Liliana.
She was the duchess’s elder sister.
Sidrion consciously swallowed down a polite smile. He was about to ask what was the matter when Liliana spoke.
“Sidri.”
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