“May I ask why you’re so obsessed with pigs?”

“Why, you ask?”

“Yes.”

Drukan felt somewhat dizzy as he asked, while still holding back, at Magnus’s expression of utter bewilderment.

It’s known that teaching young children requires a lot of patience.

‘Of course, my daughter is smart, so she isn’t like that.’

Drukan, a doting father who always gets nagged by his daughter, thought to himself.

“Aren’t pigs chubby and cute?”

After a while, the answer came out of Magnus’s mouth.

It was a maddening answer.

‘D*mn it…’

Drukan suppressed his character that was about to burst out by rubbing his temple with his thumb.

“You’re saying pigs are cute?”

“Yes. They’re chubby and small, which is quite cute. They’re also very affectionate. Serena doesn’t have much cuteness, but when she blushes and gets shy, she’s quite cute.”

“……”

I want to go home.

‘I miss Riphi.’

He thought of his daughter, who was staying with him in the servants’ quarters of the ducal residence.

Thanks to Serena’s consideration, they were able to use a double room alone, so life with his child was more comfortable than expected.

‘…That’s right, we’ve received a lot of consideration.’

When he first said he needed to commute because he had a daughter, it was Serena who suggested that they just assign a room and stay in the dormitory.

She had also been considerate in many small and trivial ways.

Things like rounded furniture corners so the child wouldn’t get hurt, an exceptionally soft bed, and pastel-colored bedding.

Thinking of the consideration he had received, it seemed wrong to casually dismiss the man in front of him.

“…So you’re saying you think Serena is cute?”

“Objectively and honestly speaking, she’s cute when she doesn’t know what to do.”

I wanted to answer, ‘That’s what the world has decided to call love-blindness.’

‘He likes her.’

Drukan came to a conclusion without further deliberation.

‘But he’s mistaking that feeling for friendship.’

And he made an accurate judgment.

‘If I can just make him realize that it’s not friendship but romantic feelings, it’ll be solved quickly.’

He also quickly found a treatment method.

Drukan was once deeply in love with his wife and had experience sticking by her side while treating her injuries, so his mind worked well in this area.

“I heard you’re in the middle of divorce proceedings, but is it okay if Serena marries someone else?”

Magnus frowned slightly but soon nodded.

This was a concern he had already resolved in the past.

“…It’s okay?”

And now Drukan couldn’t understand what was what anymore.

How can he be jealous of her dating but okay with marriage?!

It just doesn’t make sense at all.

“Yes, because I’m her best friend anyway. Serena also told me that I would continue to be her closest first friend.”

Magnus said proudly, raising his nose high.

Drukan really wanted to go home. He didn’t have the confidence to persuade him.

“Aren’t spouses closer than friends?”

“No.”

Magnus’s answer was firm.

“Why not?”

“When we were spouses, Serena was cold. We didn’t even share a room, and we hardly ever had conversations. We didn’t eat together or do business together. She wouldn’t even nod to requests for dates.”

“Wait, you asked her on dates?”

“Yes.”

“And Serena accepted?”

“Yes.”

He now looked so proud that his nose seemed about to shoot up to the sky.

‘Does he already know her feelings?’

Drukan thought for a moment.

But if he knows the other person’s feelings and she accepted his date request, did she then make plans to go out with another man?

‘……’

While Drukan was pondering, Magnus spoke again, as if boasting.

“At first, when I said I wanted to go together, she misunderstood and said she would plan a date course for me to go with the count’s daughter…”

Ah, so that wasn’t it.

Serena either doesn’t know his feelings or isn’t interested.

“When I said I wanted to go with her, she said we could just go wherever I wanted without needing to plan a course. I guess that’s what you’d call a picnic.”

Is this level of positive thinking not a disease?

Anyone can see that he’s been properly pushed out of a real date.

Anyone can see that that isn’t a date, but more like ‘an outing with a friend!’

It’s like having half of your cake taken away right in front of you and still saying, ‘Wow, I still have some cake left~!’

“That’s not what being married is about.”

Drukan said firmly.

He recalled his life when they were newlyweds. Usually, it wasn’t this bland, loveless, and dry.

He has ears, so he’s heard rumors that their relationship wasn’t good from the beginning.

But he didn’t expect that to be considered normal married life.

“It’s not?”

“No, don’t you think Serena will do even more than that with her partner when she gets married?”

“That?”

Magnus frowned.

“Yes, the things she’s doing with Mr. Bartolin now. Holding hands, sharing food, probably sharing a room, kissing each other, making love, having children.”

“…What?”

“That’s usually what a normal marital relationship is like.”

Drukan answered honestly and bluntly.

“Your parents, I mean the previous Duke and Duchess, were they in a relationship like you and Serena?”

After pondering for a moment, Magnus slowly shook his head.

“No, when Father was with Mother, he almost always carried her around. There were few moments when she wasn’t in his arms. He always told her he loved her… and they often kissed and went out together.”

Did they do that in front of the children?

‘…There really is no middle ground.’

Drukan thought that in some ways, the relationships of the two ducal couples were similar.

One is too excessive, and the other is too dry.

‘If you could mix them half and half, it would be just right.’

Relationships between men and women were truly not easy.

“…So you’re saying that’s what being a couple is usually like?”

“That’s right.”

“Usually, they share the same room?”

“Yes.”

“Can’t you do that if you become friends?”

“That wouldn’t be just friends, would it?”

“…So you’re saying that I… I like Serena Lavernia?”

What did you think we’ve been talking about all this time?

“Me?”

He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it, even after talking to himself.

“Then imagine another noble young man doing with Serena what your parents showed you.”

“Serena would never do that.”

He snorts at the suggestion to imagine rather than deny reality.

“Then how about Mr. Bartolin?”

Drukan implemented a tailored education.

Crackle–

Electricity…, no, killing intent sparked. Drukan’s eyes widened slightly. An ominous aura began to dominate the surroundings like a storm in an instant.

‘…What’s this now.’

He unconsciously swallowed at the killing intent that made his whole body tingle.

‘…Do monsters fall in love too?’

Well.

He was a monster too.

Drukan took a deep breath at the man’s aura that made his spine shiver for the first time in a long while.

From the first time he saw him, he thought there wasn’t a single gap despite the languid and quite soft atmosphere.

He didn’t feel anything strange even when he was exchanging bizarre questions and answers with Serena.

‘…Right, it’s not a lie that he’s been rolling through battlefields since childhood and earned an epithet.’

At the age of thirteen, he earned a name on the battlefield.

The Red Lion of the Iron Wall.

It was said that he shone his bright yellow eyes in the darkness, cruelly slaughtering enemies, and his grip was strong enough to separate a person’s head from their body.

‘…He hasn’t died softened by peace.’

If you were to say who the most fearsome man in this empire is, it would be this man.

The empire’s last shield and sword.

The southern region was the most troublesome area in the empire.

Below was the border line adjacent to other countries.

Also, there was a port to the side, and a long, rugged mountain range stretched behind.

Countless bands of thieves and mountain bandits constantly aiming for resources, as well as pirates and minor invasions from other countries.

It was a place with abundant resources and goods, active trade and exchange, and if properly managed, it would bring ample wealth.

Most couldn’t withstand those numerous invasions.

So at one time, there were almost no residents in the current Kelahinum territory.

However, when that land was granted to the previous Kelahinum, his young son, the current Duke of Kelahinum, became an entity that thoroughly protected and crushed all of those threats.

This is why Magnus von Kelahinum is called the Iron Wall of the South.

The Red Lion of the Iron Wall.

This epithet was given because he never retreats a single step from where he stands and sweeps away everything around him.

Standing firmly in his original position, he is said to be like an iron wall covered in blood.