(3) A Strange Misunderstanding
Meeting his eyes, Asla was filled with mixed emotions.
She was glad to see Enoch, but also hated it terribly.
It was painful because she didn’t want him to discover her miserable situation, suffering such humiliating harassment.
No, she also desperately wanted Enoch to know.
So that he…
She caught the racing tail of her thoughts and stopped.
‘So what?’
Even if Enoch knew Margo was tormenting her, would he really take her side?
Asla hung her head.
Margo Ventus was the widow of his deceased brother whom Enoch had relied on and respected since childhood, a pitiful sister-in-law he felt sorry for.
Margo Ventus, a young widow who had lost her husband.
Since Margo had been engaged to Aren Ventus since childhood, she had frequently visited the Ventus mansion and was said to be quite close to Enoch.
‘Margo even acted as a mother to Enoch who had no mother.’
Asla clenched her fist, convinced she couldn’t come between Margo and Enoch.
She would be worth less than a handful of sand to him.
While Asla was filled with despair, feeling as if she were falling off a cliff, Margo stood up first and smiled kindly at Enoch.
“Hello, Duke. What brings you here so early in the morning?”
Though Margo’s delicate voice might sound clear to others, it was so painful to Asla that she wanted to dig out her ears.
Hate, hate, hate.
She wanted to cover her ears tightly with both hands, but Asla couldn’t bring herself to do something so rude.
This was because the etiquette she had learned as a princess of the Holy Kingdom for the past 22 years was deeply rooted in her.
Enoch slightly nodded his chin to Margo in greeting, then looked at Asla.
His wife, who didn’t greet him, was trembling while fixing her gaze on the plates on the trolley.
Enoch spoke to Margo.
“This is my wife’s room, so I can visit this place anytime. I find it perplexing that you ask why I’ve come.”
“But Duke, you’ve hardly ever visited Asla.”
Margo covered her mouth and chuckled as if amused.
It was clearly mockery.
Asla felt as if all the blood was draining from her body and thought she might collapse soon.
She wished Margo wouldn’t act like this, at least in front of Enoch.
She barely managed to stand, using all her strength.
If she could, she wanted to escape from this place immediately.
From Margo, from the maids who mocked her, and from that man Enoch!
“You know very well how busy I am in the capital. It’s difficult for me to visit the territory even once a year.”
“Oh my, Duke. You should call me Margo like before.”
Surprisingly, Enoch frowned at Margo, who was talking nonsense and smiling innocently.
Asla was dumbfounded to see Enoch showing such an attitude as if Margo was very annoying.
Margo also looked flustered at Enoch and hastily approached him.
“By the way, Duke.”
As the distance narrowed, Enoch subtly turned toward Asla.
Asla was as perplexed as Margo when Enoch openly avoided her.
Why was this man suddenly acting like this?
Wasn’t he always unconditionally generous to Margo?
Asla felt cracks forming in the world she had constructed from the words she had heard from Margo over the past two years.
Enoch stood beside the confused Asla and spoke while looking at her.
“We have a long way to go, so let’s depart now. I was thinking of having breakfast at a nearby place, is that alright?”
“……Of course.”
Asla swallowed hard and quickly answered.
She absolutely did not want to eat the terrible food Margo had prepared.
Though dining with Enoch would also be uncomfortable, she judged it would be better than dining with Margo.
“Let’s depart immediately.”
“Yes.”
After hearing Asla’s answer, Enoch briefly nodded his chin and strode ahead to the door with his long legs.
Then Margo asked Enoch in a trembling voice.
“Where are you going?”
“The capital.”
“The capital……? With that Asla?”
Margo pointed at Asla with jerky movements, wearing an expression of disbelief.
Asla found it slightly amusing that Margo couldn’t even guess why she was going to the capital.
‘Does she think we’re going on a date or something? That’s impossible.’
Seeing Margo, who always maintained a composed attitude, looking anxious made Asla feel somewhat vindicated.
So she kept her mouth shut.
She didn’t particularly want to tell Margo now that they were going to the Grand Temple for a divorce.
Though Margo would laugh at her considerably later, Asla wanted to leave her to suffer with various worries for now at least.
In fact, Margo loved Enoch despite being his sister-in-law.
Knowing Margo’s feelings, Asla hated and feared her even more.
“If you have more things to pack, I’ll wait.”
“I don’t.”
Asla carried her light luggage bag herself and quickly followed Enoch, deliberately ignoring Margo’s terrifying gaze.
She wanted to leave this Ventus mansion quickly.
“My lady, I’ll carry that.”
Talet, who had somehow followed them, took Asla’s luggage bag, and she smiled slightly.
“Thank you.”
It had been so long since she had received kindness from someone that Asla was genuinely happy.
“Not at all.”
However, when she realized what the atmosphere in Talet’s voice and attitude implied, she felt as if her heart had dropped.
‘Are you pitying me?’
Could Talet have noticed that she had been bullied?
But before she could think more deeply, she reached the carriage waiting in front of the main gate and boarded it with Talet’s escort.
When Enoch, sitting across from her, stared at her intently, Asla buried her concerns and managed her expression as usual.
“We will depart now.”
With the coachman’s announcement, the carriage departed.
An uncomfortable silence settled in the large carriage.
The handsome Duke sitting in the luxurious burgundy leather chair and the slender, beautiful Duchess matched perfectly, yet the atmosphere was cold.
Feeling suffocated, Asla secretly glanced at Enoch.
He was intensely staring at the tips of his fingers, deeply lost in thought.
The carriage traveled for quite some time.
When the Ventus mansion became a mere dot in the distance, Asla stopped stealing glances at Enoch and turned her head to the scenery outside the carriage.
“Wow……”
An exclamation escaped her without realizing.
Asla was completely captivated by the outside scenery, not even noticing that Enoch’s gaze had turned toward her.
‘Summer in Ventus territory was this beautiful.’
The mirror-like blue lake, green vegetation, and sheep leisurely grazing were extremely peaceful and beautiful.
Life returned to Asla’s eyes after a long time.
She even had the amusing regret that if she had known this place was so beautiful, she should have knelt before Margo and obeyed her to come out and see it.
“I’ve been thinking about why you want to divorce me.”
Suddenly, Enoch’s low voice broke the silence in the carriage.
Asla, who had been inwardly smiling while thinking the white clouds floating in the blue sky looked like rabbits, felt slightly resentful toward Enoch for tactlessly interrupting her happy moment.
Turning her head, Asla found Enoch with his hands clasped under his chin, looking serious. She thought life was quite ridiculous.
‘Now that I want a divorce, he’s finally interested in me?’
She nodded to Enoch, indicating for him to continue.
Then he parted his lips with difficulty.
“Is it because of my sister-in-law? Yesterday, Talet discovered some facts. I thought she might hate you because she’s a jealous woman, but… I didn’t know she would torment you.”
“Ah, yes.”
Asla added a lifeless response to Enoch’s words.
The sympathy she had felt in Talet’s attitude was not an illusion.
Asla found it amusing that he regarded Margo simply as a “jealous woman.”
He said he had discovered the fact that she was being tormented. Then how much did he know?
If Enoch was speaking like that without knowing properly……
That would be sad in its own way.
And if he knew everything and still spoke like that, then Enoch was truly…… a bad person.
To the extent that she wanted to slap his face one last time before divorcing.
As Asla stared intently at him, contemplating which cheek to slap, Enoch frowned.
“Besides that reason…… if there’s another reason. Like you’ve found a lover you want to live with.”
‘What……? A lover?’
Asla was so dumbfounded that she couldn’t even deny it.
Interpreting her silence as affirmation, Enoch twitched his thick eyebrows and sighed deeply.
After catching his breath for a moment, Enoch looked straight at Asla and spoke quickly.
“You’re beautiful, so there must have been many men who flirted with you. But even if you divorce me and live with that bastard, you won’t be very happy.”
“Why?”
Asla was so appalled by his absurd misunderstanding and confidence that she first asked for his reason.
Though furious to the tips of her hair, Asla was about to snap at him but closed her mouth, puzzled by the flames flickering in Enoch’s black eyes.
Was it an illusion? Why was he so angry? She was the one who should be angry about this absurd misunderstanding.
Just when Enoch’s gaze felt too intense and burdensome, he moved his lips.
“I need to protect you. To the extent that I regret not bringing you immediately from that summer rose garden when we first met.”
“What strange nonsense is that?”
Asla asked back, feeling utterly incredulous.
Why should she live under Enoch’s protection?
It was nonsensical.
This marriage was arranged by the Emperor, and it was because the people of the Sherita Holy Kingdom needed time to settle, not for the purpose of receiving his protection.
She had never particularly valued her life, and she was merely the last princess of the Holy Kingdom with an empty status.
As she pondered Enoch’s words about having a lover and needing protection, Asla felt something strange.
‘Why is he mentioning the rose garden of the Sherita Kingdom? He should have protected me since then?’
“Asla.”
“……I want to be quiet for a while.”
Asla turned away from Enoch and looked out the window.
Though irritated by the misunderstanding that she had committed adultery, Asla kept thinking about the fact that Enoch remembered their first meeting.
‘Enoch isn’t the type of man to talk nonsense.’
To him, time was gold and his most precious asset.
He wouldn’t have time to joke with her.
‘Was there a separate reason he needed to protect me? Something I don’t know?’
As Asla pondered various concerns, having barely slept at dawn, she dozed off while looking out the window.
