89. My Wife’s First Love (4)
“Uh, well, I, I…… I thought you already knew……”
The instigator stammered while breaking out in a cold sweat.
“Source?”
In contrast, Nikolai maintained a calm expression.
They say it’s the calm before the storm.
When the surface was too peaceful, it became more frightening as one couldn’t gauge the depth of darkness beneath.
“……Pardon?”
“I asked who you heard it from. Is it a reliable source?”
“Well, Alyona……”
In fact, while staying at the Smirnov mansion, Boris had become quite close with Alyona, Katya’s lady’s maid.
As they chatted about serving their peculiar masters, they ended up discussing all sorts of things, and this was one of the topics that came up.
Nikolai knew well that Katya admired knights.
So he naturally thought he knew why she had become so deeply fascinated with knights.
Though she had always enjoyed reading knights’ adventure stories since childhood, she began taking a serious interest in martial arts and collecting weapons like shamshirs after hearing about Pavel’s exploits at the jousting tournament.
Of course, this was before she knew his face or that he was Pavel Petrovsky, Ivan’s older brother.
“Alyona…… Then it must be reliable information.”
“Perhaps I have misheard?”
“Don’t you think it’s too late to deny it now? It’s already deeply embedded in my mind.”
“How about trying to gently erase it with an eraser……”
Hiiieek!
As soon as those words ended, Boris flinched and avoided Nikolai’s gaze as he turned to him with an icy stare.
If he didn’t want to die, keeping his mouth shut was the best strategy.
While reading the atmosphere, he suddenly started hitting his own mouth.
“This blabbermouth! I knew I’d cause trouble with this mouth someday!”
Whether or not the aide was having belated regrets, Nikolai stared intently at his wife and her first love having a pleasant conversation.
“First love……”
Katya was his one and only first love.
Whenever he thought of her, he always felt tender, and like cotton blooming from a cotton flower, his insides would tingle and make him keep smiling.
To think that someone who made him feel this fluttery and happy existed for her too, and that it was Pavel?
‘And I foolishly put him right next to her?’
First love or whatever, the fact that he had once been loved by Katya…
He felt so envious and jealous of that fact.
Pavel was clearly an attractive man even by his standards.
Though he appeared gruff on the outside, he had a warm heart and knew how to care for those beneath him. He was the real deal.
Moreover, unlike the weak flies that had been buzzing around Katya until now, he was handsome and well-built, making him completely Nikolai’s type.
Which meant their competition points overlapped.
When that thought struck him, Nikolai couldn’t hold back anymore and strode over to wedge himself between them.
“What are you talking about?”
“Ah, Your Highness!”
Katya turned her head toward him with a bright smile.
Just what did this woman eat to become prettier and more lovable with each passing day?
Nikolai seriously considered blinding all men except himself and his father-in-law once again.
“Pavel said it looks like it will rain tonight, so we were discussing what to have for dinner if we stay here.”
“Rain’s coming? How does he know that? Does he have holy power or magical power?”
“It’s nothing special. My left kneecap just tends to ache before it rains.”
“Isn’t that amazing, Your Highness? How the human body can detect and signal weather changes first.”
Katya sought agreement with a bright face.
“Well. I’m not sure if it’s amazing. It’s a natural phenomenon where joint pressure increases relatively as atmospheric pressure drops before rain.”
Nikolai snapped back irritably without realizing it.
By the time he regretted his childish response, she was already wearing an awkward smile.
‘Your Highness, did something bad happen? You seem upset.’
As Katya quietly observed his expression, Pavel spoke first.
“Since it seems clouds will gather soon making it too far to go hunting, I was considering catching some fish for dinner.”
“River fishing? Do you know how to fish? Do you have a fishing rod?”
“I don’t have a rod, but I think I can make a net. If we try with the net a few times, we should catch something.”
Something about his optimistic attitude exuded confidence.
Could this be his own unique technique that he often used as a trump card?
Though the other party hadn’t meant it that way, Nikolai took it as a challenge.
“I’ll lend you a fishing rod—”
As he turned around as if checking if there was a fishing rod in the luggage, he saw Boris wildly waving both arms and finally realized what had happened to the fishing rod.
What Nikolai had thought was just a branch he picked up and broke earlier had actually been the fishing rod.
“—but unfortunately, I don’t have one at the moment.”
“It’s fine. If Your Highness just waits here briefly, I’ll catch some soon.”
“No. I’ll go.”
“No! Your Highness must preserve your body. Such things should be done by your subordinate like me!”
“I don’t particularly like repeating myself.”
“Your Highness……”
“Let’s have a contest to see who catches more fish. The loser grants the winner’s wish. Shall we see your skills?”
After the argument, Nikolai stripped off his top first and entered the valley.
Pavel, who was usually competitive, accepted his provocation and followed him into the water.
Suddenly, a war between men had begun.
The knights watching the two men’s competition from the rocks whistled, saying they would have more than enough to eat tonight as they saw fish piling up in the wooden tub.
Finally, Katya couldn’t stand it anymore and jumped up to shout.
“Can’t you both stop? At this rate, there won’t be any fish left in the valley!”
The competition finally ended with Katya’s intervention.
The knights, excited about both watching the match and getting abundant ingredients, hummed while carrying the fish.
They planned to finish cooking quickly by starting the fire before it rained.
While the cooking team grilled fish skewered on sticks over the wood fire and boiled clear fish soup, another team set up several tents after finding places to sleep.
Nikolai would help his subordinates proactively but whenever Katya and Pavel seemed to be having even a brief conversation, he would appear here and there to wedge himself between them.
Seeing her husband’s strange behavior of seemingly not being able to stand the two of them being together even for a moment, Katya finally grabbed his arm and dragged him somewhere.
“What’s wrong with you since earlier?”
Katya asked while pinning Nikolai against a tree, trapping his body between her arms braced against the trunk.
The Bloody Grand Duke, suddenly cornered by the Strawberry of the South, blinked in confusion as he looked down at her.
“What do you mean?”
“You keep acting weird. Did something happen?”
Rather, his wife was the strange one.
Nikolai felt hurt whenever she acted oblivious to such things.
Even if she didn’t know Pavel was her first love, no husband in the world would like his wife being close to another man.
Forgetting that he was the one who had assigned a new close protection knight to his wife who was already well-protected by the knights, he wore a displeased expression.
“Never mind.”
“What do you mean never mind all of a sudden?”
“The meal preparations seem about done, let’s go.”
Nikolai lightly slipped away from Katya and walked away first, showing his back.
He thought if someone attacked this place right now and cut his body with a sword, jealousy would flow out instead of blood.
That’s how full his entire body was with envy.
He quickly left because he felt he might show his bad mood to his innocent wife if he stayed longer.
“What’s this? Why are you leaving without even listening to me?”
As Katya stood there with an incredulous laugh, Boris slowly approached and carefully spoke to her.
“Your Highness?”
“What is it?”
“Well, I have something to tell you……”
“Why do you keep hesitating? Just say it.”
Katya said while glaring at her husband’s back that had become small in the distance.
“I think I made a slip of the tongue to His Highness……”
“What do you mean you think? Did you or didn’t you?”
“I did, definitely! I caused an accident!”
“An accident?”
Feeling guilty, Boris confessed everything that had happened earlier.
“What? First love?”
Katya grabbed the back of her neck at the horrific accident scene caused by these two gossips, Alyona and Boris.
Though it was true she had once admired Pavel, it was nothing more than respect and admiration for a jousting tournament winner.
First love.
Yes. In the past, she might have mistaken those feelings for love. But now it was different.
She was in love now.
So she knew better than anyone that her feelings toward Pavel hadn’t been love.
‘So all this time when he kept popping up trying to separate Pavel and me, it was jealousy?’
Ha, what should she do with this man.
Katya couldn’t help but keep smiling.
‘So he was feeling jealous?’
This country’s ruler was always cool-headed and rational, with an intimidatingly large build and who inspired fear with his nickname ‘Bloody Grand Duke’.
To think that someone with such outstanding looks could be jealous of someone else.
How frightening and mysterious an emotion love was.
As she was giggling at how cute her husband was, a knight approached her and Boris.
“Your Highness. His Highness ordered us to set up two tents in the cave earlier, would you mind checking if that’s alright?”
“Two tents?”
“Yes. His Highness asked us to prepare separate sleeping quarters for both Your Highnesses.”
Why was he suddenly wanting separate rooms when they had been fine sharing rooms until now?
Then something flashed in Katya’s mind.
“It seems wasteful for two people to use one tent each, so take one back for you all to use.”
