78. My Husband Already Knows the Answer
“What are you all doing this evening?”
Katya asked casually as they left the dining hall.
“I’d like to invite you to my lodgings if that’s alright.”
“Ah, sorry but I don’t think we can today. We have a joint party with the academy……”
The noble young ladies made troubled expressions at her suggestion.
Katya knew already.
According to Viscountess Borodin, they arranged a gathering around this time to connect members of the Despot Club.
She had a reason for asking despite knowing.
“Then it can’t be helped. Don’t worry about it.”
Katya waved her hand with an embarrassed smile.
“It’s just that I’ve never been so far from my family and friends before…… I wanted to spend the first day in lively company.”
When she dropped her head regretfully with a pure face, loneliness seemed to seep from her entire body.
The children didn’t know what to do, feeling sorry for this kind and beautiful teacher who had come to a strange place.
“Then Teacher, why don’t you come to the party with us?”
The innocent fish took the bait.
“Oh no. It’ll surely be just students, what would I do there?”
“No. Graduates come too. There will be many noblemen around your age.”
“Right. Come with us, Teacher. It might even make that man who hurt your heart jealous.”
“You never know. You might meet someone better than him there.”
No, that’s not possible.
Katya was certain.
There was no better man in this world than Nikolai.
“But I don’t have an invitation……”
“Don’t worry about that! I’ll get one for you!”
“She has connections, so getting one invitation won’t be difficult.”
“So come with us, Teacher. Please?”
As the students clung to both her arms and begged, Katya finally nodded like she’s giving in reluctantly.
“Alright. I’m really not causing you trouble?”
“Of course not! What party would refuse entry to a boyar?”
Though Baron Lantskoĭ had a low title as he wasn’t the firstborn, he was boyar by birth, making him of highest class.
The fictional character she created—Alyona Lantskoĭ—as his relative would naturally be boyar as well.
According to plan, Katya obtained the invitation she wanted.
Though she could have gotten a party invitation easily by using her maiden name as she was also boyar, she went through the children to preemptively block any future tracking.
As she walked down the corridor with the chattering children, she turned her head at a gaze she felt from afar.
The commoner students who met Katya’s eyes quickly averted their gazes and pretended to be busy.
Actually, they too wanted to be close with the new teacher, but they couldn’t associate outside the classroom.
It was an unspoken rule that nobles and commoners stuck to their own groups except during class time.
Just as Katya tried to approach the commoner children, someone else reached them first.
It was the leader of the commoner group.
“Girls, come with me for a moment.”
“Why?”
“The vice principal is calling.”
“What for?”
“I’ll tell you when we get there. Just come for now.”
After whispering cautiously while watching their surroundings, she soon led her friends toward the vice principal’s office.
With her sharp hearing, Katya caught the word ‘vice principal’ and sensed something suspicious.
After sending the noble students ahead saying she would go to the staff room, she secretly followed the group of commoner students.
The principal’s office door closed, and occasional exclamations of delight burst from the girls inside.
When the students finally emerged, each preciously clutching something wrapped in bundles, Katya hid behind a wall.
Looking at the excited faces of the girls, Katya could guess what conversation had taken place inside.
“Oh my, dear. You dropped this.”
The vice principal handed a fresh flower brooch to the last girl who came out.
“You must wear this when you come. It’s a sign that only they and we can recognize. If we openly said you were the girls I introduced, imagine how jealous the noble young ladies would be.”
“Thank you, Vice Principal!”
The vice principal watched the happily departing children before entering the principal’s office with a smirk.
To the children who had been gloomy about not being invited to the ball, the vice principal must have seemed like a fairy godmother.
But the reality was different.
The flower on the brooch was a blue rose.
Blue roses were impossible with current cultivation techniques, so they painted white rose petals with blue dye.
Thus its flower language meant impossible, unattainable.
It was clearly meant as a symbol mocking the commoner children invited to the ball.
Katya clenched her fist in anger at these rogues who violated the girls’ hearts.
***
“No.”
Nikolai, who sat beside her, said sternly.
When Katya got in the carriage after work, he had been waiting inside.
Though it was a short distance, he had come to pick her up himself out of concern for his wife.
“Are you refusing without even hearing me out?”
“We agreed to lure out and catch the ones who approach the children at the party. Stick to the original plan.”
“We’re not sure all the Despot Club members will come to tonight’s ball. We need to catch them all at once so they can’t cut loose ends and run. So I need to go into enemy territory.”
“That’s all fine. But why do you have to be the bait?”
Nikolai’s eyes, which usually curved into crescents when looking at Katya, turned quite fierce today.
But she showed no signs of backing down either.
As they faced off without avoiding each other’s gazes, Katya opened her mouth.
“Where else could you find someone more suitable than me? I look young enough to pass as a student, and I’m pretty so their members will be tempted.”
“I’m angry because I can’t refute that. What if someone from the southern nobility recognizes you?”
“I probably won’t run into the men I met during the social season. Most of them were graduates from the Arsetia Royal Academy, not Hersen Academy.”
As Arsetia Royal Academy attracted talented students from around the world, its graduates had long been popular in the marriage market.
Duke Smirnov had extensive connections and thoroughly knew information about southern men of marriageable age because of his two daughters’ marriages.
Thanks to that, Katya had picked up quite a bit from her father.
“I really hated balls so I only went a few times, and even then I left quickly after arriving.”
“I want to rip those memories out of those bastards’ heads for having seen you in a party dress.”
He looked ready to rip out their brains if removing memories of Katya proved impossible.
“Wait, that’s what made you angry? It wouldn’t even add up to 30 minutes total, though?”
“Whether it’s 3 minutes, 30 minutes or 3 hours, my jealousy remains the same.”
His blue eyes momentarily gleamed with jealousy and madness.
Katya started persuading her husband again, soothing him like a child as he kept going off track.
“Now you only need to look at me, Grand Duke! Anyway! I’m also excellent at improvising, and I can handle any dangerous situations since I learned some fighting from you.”
“That’s exactly why I can’t send you into those dangerous situations.”
“That’s why you just need to keep your eyes on me and follow closely to protect me, Grand Duke.”
Looking up at her husband with eyes full of fervent trust, Nikolai finally sighed.
“If I say no, you’ll go secretly anyway, right?”
“You really know me too well. I’ll award you a doctorate in Katarina Studies.”
“Right. If such a thing exists, I should naturally complete it.”
His mood lightened a bit at his wife’s joke and he smiled.
Meanwhile, their carriage stopped midway.
Thinking they had arrived, she looked out the window but they hadn’t reached their destination yet.
Boris, who had been following with the knights, got off his horse to assess the situation before returning to knock on the carriage window.
“What’s wrong?”
“Looks like there’s a collision up ahead. The parties involved are arguing so it might take a while?”
Katya chimed in,
“Grand Duke, shall we walk then?”
“What?”
“I think we’re almost there. Let’s walk. It’s stuffy being inside anyway.”
Though he hesitated as if something bothered him, Nikolai got out of the carriage at Katya’s pestering.
As they walked side by side toward the hotel, he gradually slowed his pace and observed her from behind.
Her gait was definitely strange.
“Grand Duke, why aren’t you coming?”
Only when the gap widened did Katya notice and turn to ask.
“I knew this would happen.”
“What?”
Nikolai silently sat her down on a nearby bench and removed her shoe.
When he lifted her bare foot that had been fidgeting, a blister was visible on her heel.
“I should just kill all these trash craftsmen who only focus on aesthetics as so-called masters.”
“Come on, that’s too harsh. It can’t be helped since they’re new shoes.”
Katya was already tall and rarely wore high heels, so she had bought these new ones specifically for this act.
As she tried to hide her bare feet back under her skirt embarrassedly, Nikolai grabbed her foot again and took something out of his bag.
It was a pair of low-heeled shoes she had never seen before, with smooth toes but wrinkled backs.
“Why are the shoes in this state?”
“I had them hammer the back until it softened at the shoe shop.”
Nikolai put a soft cloth on her heel before putting the shoe on.
It felt much more comfortable than before.
“I’ll give you options.”
Nikolai suddenly said.
“Get on my back or let me carry you. Choose one.”
“Can’t I just not do either and walk?”
“You know the answer.”
He sat down in front of Katya showing his broad back.
“You’d probably feel awkward being carried, so getting on my back would be better?”
The answer was already decided even before he asked.
