Maverick, watching, had reached a similar conclusion. No, he knew better than Natalie. His wife Rose, though extremely intelligent, was physically weaker than ordinary women.

He simply thought this was another instance of her strange madness that he had come to know.

“Wife.”

Though he tried to pull her back gently, thinking he should calm her down, Rose didn’t follow Maverick’s guiding hand. While she appeared calm on the outside, her mind was boiling with bright red anger.

“Make your choice, Lady Salematia. Out of the friendship from our time playing around together, I’ll kindly give you options.”

Rose giggled out loud. Natalie shuddered at that laugh and unconsciously took a step back. It wasn’t that Natalie had never seen Rose angry before. But this was definitely different.

“First. We go to the dueling ground and fight. After hitting me with that precious talent of yours, you quietly accept the Clematis ducal family’s punishment. I’ll get to see my father angry after a long time.”

“Wh-what is this…! What did I say to deserve this?”

“Why? Wasn’t treating a person like a toy just an ordinary thing?”

“……”

“Choose so I can play with you like a toy too.”

The smile never left Rose’s face. Rather, it only deepened more sweetly.

“Second. You refuse the duel and face the Clematis family’s legal team that will storm your family tonight.”

“……”

Rose usually had a high threshold. Since she would withdraw even at her own expense when she lost interest in something, they thought this too would be brushed off as mere irritation. Like how she had always ignored moments when her lovers were insulted.

In fact, while Rose had been indifferent to her past lovers, she was different after marriage. She had ruthlessly dealt with excessive insults related to her husband, but Natalie, who had deliberately avoided and ignored news about Rose’s husband, didn’t know this.

“How funny, all the men who passed through you would cry! Why does only he get special treatment!”

“Of course. He’s special, that’s why he’s my husband. Does it look like he’s lacking something?”

“……”

“Do I really need to tell you that I’ve become a woman crazy about my husband lately before that stiff neck of yours will bend?”

Only then did Natalie deeply feel that Rose was truly angry, without an inch of retreat.

It was time to apologize. No matter how great the Salematia family was, they couldn’t match Clematis. To avoid facing her father’s angry face, she needed to apologize… but pride, and the numerous gazes watching this situation with interest, prevented her from losing the strength in her neck.

“I’m sor…”

“Don’t think about escaping with an apology. Haven’t we known each other for years?”

Rose stepped on her fallen glove and ground it firmly.

“I only allowed two answers.”

“……”

Finally, words accepting the duel challenge flowed from Natalie. If punishment awaited either way, it was better to accept the duel and lose. Natalie disappeared with quick steps, leaving behind mumbles that could have been either apologies or incoherent sounds.

Rose didn’t take her eyes off Natalie’s retreating figure until the end, like a hawk that had found its prey.

A dark shadow fell over Rose’s face. Soon Maverick’s hand completely covered her eyes.

“Wife, shall we move somewhere else for a moment?”

His cold, businesslike voice brought her back to her senses.

“Where to?”

“Well, anywhere would do. I’m embarrassed by people’s gazes.”

It was quite a feat to say this in such a chilly voice. A sigh escaped from Rose, followed by an affirmative answer. They moved to one side of the park.

‘Well, this should spread good rumors.’

Perhaps it would spread as something like ‘that harsh woman has now become crazy about her husband.’ Especially since society saw her and Natalie as friends, she might become a woman invisible to the eyes of friendship.

Rose knew about the gazes that gathered on her wherever she went and the numerous false gossip created from her small actions. So she thought this incident too would be exaggerated in rumors.

That was fine. If it could warn everyone that Maverick was within her territory, that was enough.

“Why did you do that?”

The place they settled was a pavilion on one side of the park. Befitting a park made strictly for nobles, pretty structures were everywhere. Moreover, the few people who had come this far had long since disappeared after Maverick approached and said a few words.

Since they had already crossed many rivers for Rose to brazenly ask ‘What do you mean?’, she just calmly shrugged her shoulders. Though her anger wasn’t gone, she had no intention of foolishly taking it out on Maverick.

“Nothing she said was wrong.”

“Is that so?”

Rose quietly questioned.

“But what can we do? Maverick, I’ve been punishing such nonsense about you like this for the past 2 years.”

“…This is the first I’m hearing of it.”

“Because this is the first time I’m telling you.”

Rose said as she turned her head. Maverick held his breath for a moment. Rose was smiling with such a lovely expression. Her cheeks flushed with shyness were adorable.

“You’re quite uninterested in social gossip.”

Well, of course. Throughout his life, Maverick had only been interested in two things: the Clematis ducal family and Rose. But he couldn’t tell Rose that.

“I was famous, you know. For not letting insults slide even while neglecting and ignoring my husband after marriage.”

“Why did you do it?”

“Even if what Natalie said was true, as you say, I can’t let such things slide.”

“……”

“You must have come as a married-in husband either giving up something or wanting something. But whatever choice you made, there’s no reason for others to mock you.”

“Did you also throw gloves like today?”

“Ah. This is the first time I’ve thrown gloves so actively.”

“Will you keep doing this?”

“Yes. Because I’m someone who can.”

The arrogant answer matched perfectly with her elegant posture as she sat straight with her back *rect. No matter how reckless her actions or how crude her words were, she possessed an nobility that never dimmed.

“You can too.”

“Why is that?”

“Because you’re my person.”

Maverick quietly stared at Rose. It was truly strange. While ordinary people would be embarrassed saying such lines, Rose instead became shy while talking about how hard she had worked to punish others.

It wouldn’t have been strange to question why he was ‘her person.’ Coldly refuting Rose’s words was something Maverick always did. Yet he felt his mouth wouldn’t move.

‘How funny, all the men who passed through you would cry! Why does only he get special treatment!’

As Rose had predicted, Maverick had anticipated the words and rumors that would follow him from the moment he decided to become a married-in husband. But he hadn’t expected to hear that Rose treated only him differently.

“I was jealous.”

Rose turned her head. Her upward gaze was filled with Maverick who had approached without her noticing.

‘Are you jealous?’

Though late, it was an answer to her question from the carriage.

“As you said, because I am your person.”

Maverick reached out his hand. Rose extended her hand, enchanted. It was the hand wearing the wrist decoration. Maverick carefully removed the decoration and looked at the bruise marks he had left.

“If it’s alright for you to have such a twisted and crooked husband who can only claim ownership by leaving marks like this and in such ways…”

Rose had no intention of pointing out the self-deprecating modifiers. She was distracted by Maverick’s gentle tone. These words seemed to offer a choice containing some kind of invitation or warning.

“If it’s alright with me?”

“I’ll continue to be jealous.”

“……”

“As naturally as breathing.”

Rose bit her lip. Her heart was pounding violently. Finally the distance closed completely — was this what it felt like to pet a large beast? She didn’t want to let go of this hand.

Because this man had finally approached on his own.

And because he had declared he would lay down in her territory.

She felt like the day their hearts would connect wasn’t far off.

* * *