149. A Love Story of a Tomboy and a Tyrant

“Irina!”

Irina staggered after taking the knife instead and fell into her fiancé’s arms.

While the knights rushed to subdue Oksana, Duke Oblonsky, and their forces, Mikhail heard nothing.

Seeing the blood soaking his hands, he sat down holding his fiancée and began to sob.

He had thought she was just a woman carrying his child in an engagement forced by his mother.

But the fact that someone loved such an unworthy person enough to risk their life, and receiving such love felt so foreign and made his heart burn that it made him shudder.

Tears poured out thinking how he had always treated the woman who only looked at him coldly, only to lose her so futilely.

“Please calm down…… I’m not dead yet.”

“I-Irina!”

“I think it just grazed my arm. Simple first aid should be enough for now and treatment can wait until later.”

“What are you saying! You need to be treated right away!”

“This is the first royal wedding I’ve seen in my life. Do you know how much I was looking forward to it?”

Seeing Irina speaking firmly to him for the first time, Mikhail was taken aback and ended up nodding.

Boris quietly asked Nikolai how he planned to punish the villains being dragged away.

“Death is too good. They should live an eternal life of suffering until they beg to be killed.”

Since Oksana and Duke Oblonsky were filled with ambition for the highest positions, it would be best to make them fall to the very bottom and experience both physical and mental pain at once.

As he contemplated the level of punishment with a murderous face, his eyes met Katya’s and immediately returned to those of a large dog.

“I wasn’t thinking bad thoughts. Today is a good day.”

He unconsciously told a lie.

He couldn’t have today’s bride running away in fear of the groom before the wedding.

“It’s okay to think bad thoughts. What’s wrong with that?”

“What?”

Nikolai blinked at the unexpected response.

His wife would normally have taken his hand and suggested they pray together, but today she was strangely permissive.

“Are you serious?”

“Living only kindly all the time leads to losses in this world. I think it’s fine to have somewhat of a tomboy and tyrannical side when needed.”

“My heart swells hearing you say that.”

“I’m going to try living with both the untamed tomboy and tyrant just as they are.”

Katya said this and held out her hand with a solemn face.

Nikolai smiled and took his wife’s hand.

A pure white wedding road stretched before them.

The path to becoming each other’s true family.

***

“Oh my, what should I do with this wild filly of a child! Hey!”

A noblewoman from a newly elevated family ran in shock toward her daughter playing with commoner children in an alley.

She herself had been a commoner not long ago, so she didn’t mind associating with commoners at all.

The Grand Duke was gradually showing policies to abolish the boyar class of high nobles and relax the class system, which she actually welcomed.

Anyway, the problem was that despite all her efforts to raise her daughter as a proper noble young lady with lessons on etiquette, she would secretly sneak out to have sword fights with boys whenever she got the chance.

Her husband had received a title from a distant relative and they had just entered the capital’s social circles, but she couldn’t present her daughter anywhere like this.

“Are you going to stop there?”

“Waaah, let’s run away!”

When the daughter saw her mother chasing, she laughed brightly and ran through the alleys excitedly with the boys.

While running and looking back to see how far her mother had come, she collided with someone coming from the opposite direction and fell backward with a thump.

The woman she collided with gently helped up the child who burst into tears and dusted off her clothes.

“Oh my, I’m so sorry!”

The mother kept apologizing to her, then scolded her daughter while spanking her bottom.

“What should I do with this tomboy! Are you really going to be like this? For a girl! You’re like a wild beast! You should at least be like a well-trained livestock!”

“Waaah—”

“I’m fine, so please don’t scold her too much.”

“But still……”

“And while she needs to be careful while running around, there’s one thing that’s wrong.”

The mother looked at her wondering what she meant.

The woman smiled freshly and continued.

“A tomboy isn’t something to be tamed.”

“But we’ve come to the capital now and she’ll have to make her debut someday, who would take such a child?”

“Well, this country’s Grand Duchess was quite the tomboy too. They say she was so rough that she was called the Villainess of the South.”

“W-we shouldn’t speak ill of Her Highness the Grand Duchess! And I heard Her Highness is a very excellent person!”

“People even criticize the king, what’s the big deal about the Grand Duchess? And they say the Grand Duke was a notorious tyrant too. Even killing people with black tea!”

“Hey!”

Unable to listen anymore, the mother raised her voice in excitement.

“Those are just baseless rumors! Don’t you know this is the most peaceful era in Hersen’s history? Read the newspapers, miss! Even women should know what’s going on in the world!”

“Um, I’m not a miss but a married woman……”

“My goodness, what a strange person.”

The mother huffed away with her daughter.

Hearing someone barely holding back laughter behind her, the strawberry-blonde woman turned around with an awkward smile.

“Niki, I got scolded for speaking ill of you.”

Though she said that, she winked.

Finding her proud grin lovely, Nikolai pulled her arm and held her tight.

He didn’t forget to signal the knights nearby to give them space.

The Grand Duke and Duchess would sometimes disguise themselves as commoners like this and make secret visits to the capital to observe the people’s lives.

“Shall we walk together instead of taking the carriage?”

“I was thinking the same.”

As they walked holding hands, Katya noticed Nikolai’s lips kept twitching and asked.

“Why are you smiling?”

“I like when you call me Niki.”

Katya would sometimes gather her courage and call Nikolai by his nickname ‘Niki’ after their marriage.

This actually required a lot of courage, due to its connection to a dark history in the past.

She had freely used the name Niki when staying at an inn together, not knowing he was the Grand Duke, but later withdrew completely after learning his identity.

She addressed the tyrant known as the Bloody Grand Duke respectfully as ‘Your Highness’, which Nikolai felt quite disappointed about.

During his courtship after proposing, he had even directly requested:

“Tia.”

“Yes?”

“When you become comfortable with me someday.”

“……”

“Won’t you call me Niki again like yesterday?”

“……”

“Being called that name by you felt really…… good.”

After time passed like that, she would endure her embarrassment to call him that little by little, which thrilled Nikolai every time he heard it.

Seeing her husband so happy just because of a nickname, Katya determined she must somehow overcome her embarrassment.

He is truly the best husband.

He is someone who lets me live as my true self without pretense.

Nikolai lightly kissed her forehead with a face that seemed about to drown in her upward gaze.

“My tomboy.”

He called softly.

“That’s better than Strawberry of the South or Rabbit of the South. Those were a bit embarrassing.”

Katya said, shaking her head.

She remembered getting goosebumps when she heard from Boris that Nikolai had called her those names before their marriage.

“But your face looks like a rabbit’s right now too, though?”

“I have a question.”

“Ask anything, my wife. I’ll answer what I know and learn what I don’t to tell you.”

“A puppy is a baby dog, a foal is a baby horse, and a calf is a baby cow. Then what do you call a baby rabbit?”

“Well…… A baby rabbit?”

Nikolai answered after thinking seriously.

The Grand Duchess placed his hand on her belly and gently rubbed it.

“A baby rabbit, he says. It’s not my fault if it’s wrong? It’s daddy’s mistake.”

Then she said this while looking down.

Nikolai stopped in shock.

His tears came faster than his mind could process, moistening his clear blue eyes.

Katya quietly nodded, seemingly answering the question in his expression.

Not caring that her robe was getting dirty on the ground, he slightly bent his knees and carefully lifted his wife.

“It should be a son to inherit the Grand Duke title, but I’ll be happy with either a son or daughter.”

The Grand Duke kept nodding at his wife’s words.

When he finally parted his lips, his voice was wet as if his throat was also damp like his eyes.

“Me too. I just hope they’re born healthy.”

“Right?”

“Thank you, Tia.”

“For what?”

“For making me a father……”

Can someone like me be a father?

He had always been afraid.

But he wanted to be a father who takes responsibility for this child’s lifelong happiness, so they would never regret being born.

“We’ll both be clumsy since it’s our first time, but let’s do our best to become the world’s best father and mother.”

He felt the same way.

Just as he had done for his wife until now, he wanted to give this child all the happiness in the world.

“I love you, Tia.”

After sharing a deep kiss, the Grand Duke and Duchess headed home while holding each other.

Is marriage the end of love?

But after marriage, another new life awaits.

That’s just how life is.

Though we can’t know how this story will end, we continue on regardless.

Let’s turn the page with small fears, modest expectations, and slight excitement for the next chapter.

Though there may be hardships and adversities at times, a future like a gift might be waiting for you.

This story is like that too.

The love story of the tomboy and tyrant is just beginning.

The End