Chapter 1: Consummation on the Night of the New Moon (2)

Same time.

In the Grand Duke’s office, Terian was looking down at documents. His long fingers gripping the papers occasionally tensed with force.

The imperial family’s excessive interference was becoming more and more outrageous. This time, they had imposed sanctions on the trade rights the Grand Duchy had been managing until now, throwing everything into chaos.

Terian’s elegant brow furrowed slightly.

No matter how nicely it was packaged, it was nothing more than childish obstinacy.

The incompetent emperor had neither the power nor the justification to restrict the operations of the Avnir Grand Duchy.

That’s why he resorted to such petty tactics in an attempt to keep Terian in check.

Then suddenly, he recalled the one thing he had allowed the emperor to interfere in without protest.

“How is the lady?”

At his quiet question, the butler, who had been steeping tea off to the side, straightened and turned to face Terian.

The butler, unusually, was handling the teaware while wearing thin, spotless gloves.

Since this was a question Terian asked at least once a day, the butler naturally reported the details he had noted.

“She skipped dinner. And requested a painkiller.”

Terian had expected to hear that she had stayed in her room as usual, so his brow furrowed deeply.

“Is she ill?”

Unlike with the earlier report, the butler couldn’t answer this simple question.

He only bowed slightly, his face stiff.

Sensing something in that demeanor, Terian asked through clenched teeth, a wave of displeasure surging over him.

“The physician.”

“She refused.”

“Hah… Of course she did.”

All interest in the wretched documents vanished. Terian threw the papers onto the desk with a thud, his eyes flashing sharply.

Memories from a year ago rushed through his mind.

From the moment they were married, Larie had oddly refused medical attention.

When he asked why, she would only avert her gaze without ever offering a clear answer.

Then, that incident had happened.

The day when Larie, burning with fever, asked for a physician for the first time.

The physician who examined Larie said there was a possibility the Grand Duchess had ingested some kind of drug.

Terian’s mother, alarmed, contacted the Baron’s family to ask whether she might have a chronic illness.

In response, the baron and baroness stormed into the Grand Duchy in a frenzy.

“How can we entrust Larie’s health to the Grand Duchy when she’s being mistreated like this!”

Even though they hadn’t brought their own physician from the Baron’s household, they insisted on keeping the Grand Duchy’s doctor away from Larie at all costs.

That suspicious behavior bothered Terian enough that he personally intervened.

“And yet you, Baron, behave this way even after an unidentified substance was found in the Grand Duchess’s body.”

Were they afraid he might call off the engagement if he suspected a chronic illness?

If they were merely trying to hide an illness, that would have been tolerable.

But if she had ingested poison, time was of the essence—so why act like this?

“That’s, …because Larie kept begging, and I couldn’t refuse her.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Their strangely composed attitudes soon gave way to the truth.

The baroness, who had stayed silent until then, finally opened her mouth as if she had no choice.

“She kept insisting she wanted to have an heir soon, so I merely found her some tea that might help with… marital relations.”

The truth was absurd.

It was hard to believe such a commotion had stemmed from something so trivial.

Wasn’t it Larie herself who regarded marital duties with dread?

That’s why Terian didn’t believe that excuse.

But when he asked the Grand Duchy’s physician to confirm, he received a definitive answer:

It could indeed be symptoms caused by medication related to female fertility and pregnancy.

“If Your Grace had properly cared for Larie from the beginning, this wouldn’t have happened either.”

At the baroness’s venomous words, Terian’s expression stiffened ever so slightly.

It reminded him of that incident—the one after which Larie truly began to distance herself from him.

“Haa…”

“Shall I finish serving the tea?”

At the butler’s words, Terian let out a sigh and raked a hand through his hair.

His cold gaze drifted slowly between the documents and the door.

“That’s enough for today.”

Once he made the decision, he stood up without hesitation.

The moment he rose, the butler swapped his gloves for a fresh pair.

The butler then brought a clean, damp towel and delicately wiped Terian’s hands.

Even as he was attended to with graceful precision, Terian’s thoughts tangled further with images of Larie.

Eventually, the chill of the damp towel seemed to seep into his expression, freezing it over.

Tonight, he would say it clearly.

That this Grand Duchy would not consume her.

And that if she’s in pain, for god’s sake, she should see a damn doctor.

❖ ❖ ❖

“Bring Susan to me.”

Storming out of the office, Terian gave the order to a passing servant.

The servant quickly bowed and rushed off in one direction.

In the meantime, Terian made his way toward Larie’s room.

Before long, small footsteps could be heard in the distance.

Susan, having rushed over after being summoned, approached him.

Just two steps away from him, before she could even bow, Terian firmly tapped the floor in front of her with his staff.

Startled, Susan quickly looked over her appearance.

Only then did she notice the stained apron she was still wearing from helping in the kitchen.

“You called, my lord.”

Stepping back calmly, Susan bowed deeply.

Given that the Grand Duke’s fastidious nature was well-known gossip, her caution was only natural.

“I heard the lady is unwell.”

The question that came was unexpected—unexpected, because the Grand Duchess’s position in this household was rather delicate.

Recalling how she had treated the Grand Duchess earlier, Susan felt a bit tense, but chose to honestly report what she had seen.

“…Yes, my lord. Her face was pale, and she seemed to be sweating coldly.”

“And?”

“She asked for a painkiller, so I told her that you had instructed us not to give out any medication without a doctor’s prescription.”

Terian quietly stared at Susan’s clearly nervous face.

He was aware of the incident that had caused Susan’s role as the Grand Duchess’s personal maid to become ambiguous.

He also recognized the carelessness hidden between the lines of her report.

“You may go.”

But Terian merely gave a detached order.

After all, the disgrace Larie held in this estate was entirely the result of her and her family’s doing.

Suddenly, a wave of exhaustion washed over him.

He didn’t understand why hearing she was unwell had compelled him to seek her out.

Regardless, his legs moved of their own accord.

However, when he arrived at the Grand Duchess’s room, it was empty.

“She’s not here.”

“…I’ll look into it immediately.”

She said she was sick, yet she was gone.

Could she have gone to see a doctor on her own, just as he’d hoped?

The cravat wrapped around his neck began to feel stifling with his rising irritation.

As he reached to loosen it, Terian suddenly froze.

Through the corridor window, he saw a glimmer of silver.

Frowning, he stepped closer to the window and saw what appeared to be Larie’s silver hair flickering between the trees.

The moment he realized it, his legs moved again, as if possessed.

There was no reason for the ailing Grand Duchess to be in the forest, especially not at dusk.

The thought only deepened his growing unease.

“My lord?”

The returning butler spotted him, but Terian kept walking.

His steps toward the rear of the Grand Duke’s manor, which led to the forest, quickened without him even realizing it.

In the forest where he arrived, Larie was sitting, leaning against a large tree trunk.

“……”

A timely breeze blew, and Larie’s hair fluttered through the air.

Her gaze, fixed on the empty sky, seemed so faint it might fly away with the rustling sound slicing through the leaves.

Every time Terian saw her like this, he was plagued by a thirst he couldn’t explain.

He always told himself it was disgust directed at the filth of the Tromperie family—at the empire’s refuse.

Because it had to be.

Terian stopped walking three steps away from Larie.

The two of them always kept this kind of distant space between them.

In the faint moonlight, her complexion looked better than what Susan had described.

There was no sign of cold sweat or pain, which made him wonder. Wasn’t she supposed to be sick?

“My lady.”

Only after he called out did Larie slowly raise her head.

The look in her wide green eyes, startled, struck him with the sudden realization that he hadn’t seen them like this in quite some time.

“……Your Grace.”

Startled, Larie quickly lowered her gaze the moment she met his cool blue eyes.

She didn’t even realize that, because of that, Terian’s expression had hardened slightly.

Why was he here at this hour?

Had her family, Tromperie, done something again?

A sudden fear gripped her heart, tightening like a vice.

“What are you doing out here?”

His curt question felt like it had a physical form as it pressed against her.

It was difficult for her to explain why she had come out here in the first place.

Since childhood, Larie had known something was a little different about her constitution.

Whenever her body or mind was in pain, for some reason, she felt better when she came into the forest.

When embraced by the greenery, the pain would gradually fade. The urge to cry would also settle a bit.

There had been a small forest near the Baron’s estate as well, and it was because of that she had barely managed to endure all those years.

But she did know, at least, that these things weren’t quite normal.

That was why she never told her parents about her peculiar constitution.

Larie had always been the odd one out in the family.

The thought of revealing that there was something strange about her made her instinctively afraid.

Naturally, she didn’t want to tell her husband, Terian, either.

If his gaze were to grow any colder, she truly didn’t think she could endure it anymore.