58

Unaware of what Klen was thinking, Lavian pulled her sleeve down again and asked.

“What time will you be home?”

“Around seven. Get ready. I’ll come pick you up so we won’t be late.”

“Yes.”

Klen glanced at Lavian’s wrist again, swallowed the urge to tease her with something like “trying to show off how heated last night got?”, and went on with breakfast without a word.

“What opera is it?”

“Don’t know.”

“……”

“Look it up yourself if you’re curious.”

It wasn’t about watching the performance seriously.

It was simply a matter of showing the world: look how well we’re doing. Lavian let out a small laugh before she could stop herself.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Sorry. I just thought, you really are consistent. I think you were the same way the first time you asked me to go to the opera.”

“What a trivial thing to find funny.”

Klen pulled his gaze from his wife and sent it somewhere else entirely, then took a sip of coffee.

“Eat. I’ll stop now.”

“Sometimes I think you really don’t know.”

“Pardon?”

“Never mind. Keep doing that.”

Klen set his cup down and said it without feeling. The words landed without explanation, and Lavian met his eyes with a puzzled look, but he only waved his hand.

Knowing no answer would come, she quickly looked away and went back to fidgeting with her coffee cup the way she always did. Her pale hands moved a few times and then drifted back to her sleeve.

Klen’s gaze followed again.

“Lavian. That……”

“Yes, go ahead.”

Klen drew out the end of his sentence in a way that wasn’t like him. He wet his mouth with coffee and spoke slowly.

“Don’t take what I said last night to heart.”

“What do you……”

Lavian was someone who, no matter what happened, could step out of the room and act as though nothing had occurred. Today was the same.

But today, for some reason, Klen was the one to open a thread that led back to the night before.

Lavian startled inwardly, wondering what had come over him.

“If you’ve already forgotten, even better.”

“I’ll trim my nails properly.”

Lavian answered while fidgeting with her wrist, as though it had already become a habit.

She thought it might be about the child, but she didn’t bring it up specifically. She didn’t want to dredge up buried feelings first thing in the morning.

There was no need to complicate the mind of someone heading out to work, or the heart of someone staying home alone.

“Nails.”

But that did seem to be what he meant. Lavian’s mention of the bedroom incident made Klen burst out laughing.

He looked like a painting in the bright morning light pouring into the room.

“Not that.”

He had laughed for a while and shook his head, still smiling. Lavian watched him with quiet attention and let out a small sound.

“Oh.”

“You know that? You have a way of getting under people’s skin.”

“……I never meant to.”

“Anyway. I went too far yesterday. I’m sorry.”

The apology came out so readily that Lavian couldn’t find her footing and her lips moved without words.

After the way yesterday had ended, she had been preparing herself for the possibility that a newborn might appear out of nowhere one day, or that a child might miraculously be hers, and she would simply have to accept it.

And now here he was, wrapping things up out of nowhere, with an apology as clean and simple as that.

Lavian found no answer and bit her lip with her white teeth.

Klen was the one caught off guard.

Where in that did she find something to be shaken by?

Those usually steady, unreadable eyes were drifting without direction, and he briefly retraced the last few moments to see if something had gone wrong.

But no matter how he looked at it, nothing seemed wrong.

“Don’t bite it. I’ll bite it if you do.”

Klen decided it didn’t matter and cleared his head, then stretched out a long arm and placed his elegant fingers over her lips.

He gently eased her lip free from her teeth as he spoke, and Lavian’s porcelain face flushed faintly.

“What’s wrong this time?”

“Just……”

“Just?”

Klen echoed her word and kept touching her lips, soft as pudding. Lavian wavered between pulling away and not, then caught his hand and spoke.

“I’ve never heard a family member say sorry to me before…… I don’t know how to respond.”

“……”

This time it was Klen who lost his words. He freed his caught hand and propped his chin, forgetting entirely that he was in the middle of a meal.

“I’m sorry too, because of my father…… I went too far as well.”

In his silence, Lavian lowered her eyes and offered her apology quietly. He had been staring at her lips, and he tossed out a single line.

“Bringing your sister into it was too far.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I told you, didn’t I. That you’re my type.”

Klen said it without any particular weight, the same words he had said on their wedding night.

Lavian knew now what those words meant. That she was someone who didn’t know anything. So she wasn’t startled or flustered the way she had been that night.

She simply thought: I suppose I’m still someone who has a lot to learn from him.

“For what it’s worth, you’re good at it. Saying sorry. Even now.”

“I’m the one who makes mistakes.”

The easy reply made Klen snort.

The faces of the Elder family came to mind, and he couldn’t help it.

“Then I suppose we’re family.”

Klen unpropped his arm and said it without ceremony, then picked up his fork and knife again.

The tone was as flat and unremarkable as ever.

And yet the calm, ordinary words made Lavian’s fingertips itch with a warmth she couldn’t sit still with.

It felt like a soft breeze moving over her whole body.

The heart that had been so wretched just the night before stirred again.

“By the way.”

“Yes?”

“I think you can cut your nails carelessly.”

He had been pressing his fork into a salad with a light dressing when he said it without warning.

Lavian blinked, not sure what he meant. Her eyes went wide, and Klen looked off to one side.

“You seemed to like it too. More than usual.”

Lavian felt his gaze land on her wrist and shoved her arm behind her back in an instant. The quick movement made Klen curve one corner of his mouth with a wicked look and put the salad in his mouth.

How does he say things like that with such a straight face.

Lavian shot him a slightly sharpened glance and pulled her sleeve down even more diligently.

Klen noticed, but he didn’t tease her further.

“Oh, take this.”

He handed over the document envelope he had pushed aside when he sat down. Lavian took it and turned it over in her hands.

“I thought you’d be keeping this.”

“You hold onto it. Something worth this little, I’d forget where I put the papers. It’d be a problem if you needed them later and couldn’t find them.”

He had once talked about preparing for ruin, and now he was calling it pocket change. It was a small sum compared to what he owned, but it was far from nothing.

The way he was acting, though, made it clear he wouldn’t notice even if Lavian sold it all and spent every coin.

Lavian felt something was off about his reasoning, but she didn’t argue.

“I’ll keep it safe.”

She answered gently, the way she always did, gripped the envelope once, and set it quietly to the side. Her eyes kept drifting back to it.

But only for a moment. She returned to her usual self and waited for him to finish eating.

Klen didn’t eat much, so the meal ended soon enough.

She had only breathed in the rising scent of coffee again today, not actually drinking any, and cleared away the early morning meal.

After seeing Klen off to work in her usual way, Lavian began her ordinary routine. She brought roses from the garden and arranged them, then checked the groceries and household supplies coming into the residence.

“Camilla. Look into whether something has happened with Mr. Delion’s produce delivery. This has never happened before, but the vegetables this week haven’t been very good.”

“If you’re not satisfied, you could simply switch suppliers.”

“He’s worked hard and faithfully all this time. I can’t do that. It’s only right to give him a chance. If there’s something we can help with, we should.”

“Yes. I’ll look into it.”

“Now I need to see to his shirts. You go take care of your own work, Camilla.”

Lavian tucked the ledger under her arm and stood. Just then, Ethan came into the sitting room and bowed his head.

“My lady. The new furniture for the sitting room has arrived.”

“New furniture?”

Lavian tilted her head slightly. The furniture had all been bought new when they first set up the household. Everything was still perfectly fine.

“Yes. The tea table here will be taken out and replaced with a new one that is taller and wider.”

“Did he give the order?”

“He does tend to act on impulse. He must have taken a liking to it.”

“Then tell them to be careful not to hurt themselves.”

“Yes, my lady.”

Lavian gave the tea table she had grown fond of one last absent touch and left the sitting room. Heading out, she climbed the stairs to the second floor and, noticing dust caught in the ceiling cornice, remembered to remind the staff to pay closer attention to cleaning.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Klen called for Amelia the moment he arrived at work.

“Master. You called?”

“Pull out anything from the Ibtan documents that needs a quick translation and set it aside for me.”

“Yes. Of course.”

“And there should be a professor at the academy who told Lavian to take a leave of absence instead of withdrawing. Find out who it is.”

Klen gave the order without lifting his eyes from the documents in front of him.

Amelia wondered why he wanted to know, but he wasn’t the type to assign tasks without reason, so she accepted it quickly.

“Yes, understood.”

“You can go.”

Klen still didn’t look up and waved her off. Amelia had no hesitation, turned, and headed out.

“Amelia.”

“Yes.”

She had just put her hand on the door handle when she stopped and turned back. Klen had finally looked up from his documents, and their eyes met.

“Also check whether that professor takes on private tutoring.”

“Yes.”

“That’s all.”

The moment her answer came, he was already back to his documents.

A few hours after that order, Amelia gave a brief report.

“The Ibtan documents are all fully translated at the moment. I’ll bring you the next batch when they come in.”

“Fine.”

“As for the professor who was particularly fond of the lady, it’s Professor Ptarin. He prioritizes his own research above all else and doesn’t take on private tutoring. Apparently he won’t budge for anything short of an imperial command.”

“Is that so…… Still, try to arrange a meeting. Make sure to emphasize that I’m Lavian’s husband.”

“Yes. I’ll do that.”