88. My Wife’s First Love (3)
“On the condition that I take all the militia members you worked with. Of course, I will responsibly fill your vacancies with others for the villagers.”
“Your Highness, what is this……”
“Will you refuse?”
Nikolai’s proposal left no room for maybes or perhapses.
“……No. I will serve Your Highness’s command.”
Pavel muttered with a trembling voice, his eyes reddening with emotion.
Then he knelt on one knee, taking the position to swear loyalty to his new master.
Nikolai drew his sword and performed a simple ceremony appointing him as his knight by placing it on his shoulder.
“Do you swear to protect me and my Grand Duchess to the best of your ability as the head of my guard?”
“Yes. In any situation, I will protect both Your Highnesses with my life.”
“You must not give your life. Your life is no longer your own now. Therefore, I forbid you from recklessly throwing away your own life.”
“……”
“No matter what happens, live. Live and remain by my side as long as possible to fulfill your duty. Can you do that?”
“I will do so, Your Highness.”
Nikolai raised the man who had become his knight.
A tremendous tremor enveloped Pavel’s body.
He felt as if his previous life had disappeared and he had been reborn with a new life to protect his sovereign.
Watching the two men creating a warm atmosphere, Katya briefly fell into somewhat unnecessary worry.
This man, won’t he end up charming men too at this rate?
“Always protect the Grand Duchess first. If blades come flying at both of us simultaneously, then don’t hesitate to save the Grand Duchess.”
“Then what about you, Your Highness?”
Katya interrupted during the conversation.
“I can block or dodge any blade coming at me.”
“What if a sword comes from the front and an arrow from the east?”
“Since arrows are faster than swords, I’ll dodge the arrow first then catch the sword.”
“Then what if a sword comes from the front, arrows fly simultaneously from east and west, and a bullet comes from behind?”
“……Then I might die?”
Nikolai provided an answer to this strange question, but it wasn’t the answer the questioner wanted.
Katya burst out loudly.
“No! You should escape by jumping into the sky or sinking into the ground! Didn’t you just tell Pavel to live no matter what?”
“Though it doesn’t seem like a very possible hypothesis, I’ll try my best.”
“No, I’m saying you must survive no matter what!”
She cried out, indignant at his irresponsible answer.
Katya had unknowingly approached him and grabbed his collar, rising on her tiptoes until she was almost right under his chin.
“Since when did Your Highness lose such will to survive?”
“And since when did you become so obsessed with my life?”
“That’s……”
His sharp observation left her speechless.
Since the moment she realized this was love?
She didn’t want to lose Nikolai.
She had found someone more precious than her own life.
“W-well, I don’t want to become a widow!”
“So it’s fine if I become a widower?”
“Your Highness is this country’s sovereign, so you’re an important existence that can’t disappear! So if one of us has to die, it should be me!”
“What? How can you say such things?”
Nikolai shouted, bristling at those words.
“You are the most important existence in the world to me! Rather than seeing you disappear from my life, I’d rather end my life!”
“No, how can you say such harsh things! If a perfectly fine sovereign suddenly dies, what will happen to this country?”
“A Grand Duke can be replaced by anyone! But you can never be replaced by anyone! My Grand Duchess is only you, Tia!”
Watching the couple having an intense argument about something that hadn’t even happened, Pavel realized that his new masters were not ordinary people.
The arduous path that Boris had walked so far supporting this eccentric couple was about to unfold before him as well.
“Both Your Highnesses, please calm down.”
Both turned their heads toward Pavel at his voice.
“Fortunately, I have two arms, so I can push one and pull the other, or push or pull both of you somehow to save you both simultaneously, so don’t worry.”
“Did you take my words lightly? No matter what, the Grand Duchess comes first–”
“No, just! Save whoever is closer. Got it?”
Katya said while covering her husband’s mouth.
While the Grand Duke glared with a dissatisfied expression after being stopped by his wife, Boris entered the tent by opening the door.
“What are you still doing here? The situation outside seems to be mostly resolved, so please come out quickly.”
While climbing the stairs to go outside, Nikolai whispered to Pavel in a voice only he could hear.
“Always stay close to the Grand Duchess. So you can save her first in sudden situations.”
Pavel finally swore he would do so to the persistent doting Grand Duke.
Nikolai smiled with satisfaction, thinking he had judged people well.
Not knowing at all that this person was once the man his wife had most admired.
Perhaps he had unknowingly left the cat to guard the fish.
***
Their final destination on this secret journey was a small city called Fallenberg.
“Fallenberg? Never heard of it.”
Katya, inside the carriage, said to Nikolai who was riding his horse beside her while leaning on the window frame.
“That’s understandable. It’s very small for a city and not well known.”
“The name feels more Charmente than Hersen, though?”
“That’s right. It was built by Charmente settlers. I heard the local community is exclusive and closed off, having continued with almost no external interaction.”
This was information that the retired Archbishop of the South had directly reported to Nikolai when he came to the Smirnov mansion to issue the ‘Ideal Spouse Qualification Certificate’.
He had been troubled by the long tradition of secret private judgments taking place within Fallenberg.
They were punishing sinners in their own way, deviating from both legal and doctrinal principles.
Priests from the Charmente Empire gathered to form a community, and their lifestyle and norms had been passed down for generations, making them very religious and conservative.
However, despite this, the religious world had no choice but to turn a blind eye to it.
Their judgment was that if they tried to stop it instead of ignoring it, it might go further underground and reach an uncontrollable situation that could no longer be reversed.
“Though it’s my shame that I couldn’t properly manage the priests under me before retirement, I couldn’t just let this continue, so after much consideration, I reported it to Your Highness.”
Thus, Nikolai’s party stopped by Fallenberg last to resolve this matter before returning to Padovangrad.
“I see……”
“Tia, are you alright? You don’t look well.”
“It’s nothing. Just a bit motion sick– urgh……”
Katya suddenly stopped mid-sentence as nausea hit her.
Once they left the city, the unpaved roads made the carriage shake, causing motion sickness.
Nikolai stopped the procession for his wife suffering from motion sickness and his tired knights and horses.
“Let’s take a short break.”
As soon as the carriage stopped, Katya came out to breathe fresh air.
As she walked, listening to the sound of flowing water, she finally felt like she could breathe again.
Growing thirsty, Katya sat by the stream, pulled a cup from her bag, and filled it.
Then the handle became slippery from the water and she dropped the cup.
“No!”
At Katya’s cry, Nikolai, who had been looking for a place for his horse to rest, let go of the reins and turned toward her.
Before he could run to his wife, Pavel, who was nearby, quickly assessed the situation and entered the water without hesitation.
He swiftly caught the cup being swept downstream and came out of the valley to hand it to Katya.
“Here you are, Your Highness.”
“Thank you.”
Since she was crouching by the water, Katya’s gaze naturally fell on Pavel’s lower body right in front of her.
It must have been quite deep, as he was wet almost halfway up his thighs.
The wet fabric clung to his legs, revealing the muscular lines completely.
“Didn’t you get too wet because of me?”
“This much is fine. It’s a nice day, so it will dry quickly.”
“No, still! Wait a moment.”
As he sat on a rock after coming ashore and took off his shoes, Katya held out a handkerchief.
“At least dry your feet with this. It must feel uncomfortable being damp.”
“No, that’s……”
“I said take it!”
Nikolai couldn’t even approach them as they argued, standing halfway and watching them.
A fallen branch that had somehow ended up in his hand made a cracking sound as it broke.
Seeing this, Boris playfully nudged his arm.
“My, my, feeling a bit jealous, Your Highness?”
“Why would I be jealous? Anyone can see it’s just a normal employer-employee relationship.”
“Well, that’s true, but……”
“I’m the one who ordered Pavel to protect Tia and stay close to her. So why should I, who gave such an order, be angry?”
“Um, I didn’t say you were angry……”
“No, I mean. Do I look like such a narrow-minded person who would be jealous of even a guard beside Tia just because he’s a man?”
Like a thief with a guilty conscience, Nikolai was introducing himself through his own words.
“Well, isn’t the Guard Captain a slightly different case?”
“Different how?”
“Come on, you know– Guard Captain Pavel is Her Highness’s first love.”
“First… what?”
“Ah….. Could it be you didn’t know……”
“This is the first time I’m hearing this.”
Nikolai muttered through clenched teeth.
Boris finally realized he had carelessly made a slip of the tongue in front of this king of obsession.
“How very interesting.”
The Grand Duke said with a face that showed no interest at all.
