Chapter 10 (Part 2)

“Madam, you look much healthier.”

“…Indeed.”

Edarson replied bluntly to the butler’s deliberately playful comment.

Seeing the shyness hidden in his response, the butler, who had watched him since birth, smiled contentedly.

Though Nux had hastily sent her, claiming to follow the King’s command, Tarnu thought it best to wait until Madam came of age.

The years when she was called Madam but not yet truly the Madam.

The biggest concern for the residents of Tarnu’s ancient castle was how much more radiant the Madam would become, how much she would eat, how often she would laugh, and how plump she would get.

Thinking that this was about someone who would eventually become his wife, Edarson found himself pretending to be indifferent.

“The Madam’s birthday is said to be in the ninth month.”

“And?”

“Well, it means her birthday is after summer, so you should consider the wedding.”

Edarson’s face lit up with embarrassment.

He had spent more years without a family than with one. Although he had exchanged affection with the servants, the only memory of familial love he had was his parents patting his head and kissing his nose before he was ten years old.

Knowing he was betrothed to the bishop’s family of Nux, he had no interest in other women, and love was even more out of reach.

While the servants loved and fattened the young Madam, Edarson, who would be her husband, felt awkward.

“Um, my lord.”

It had been three months since the young Madam had arrived at the castle. Returning from an outing to the back mountain with the maids of her age, the Madam entered the study, hiding something behind her back.

“Are you busy?”

“No. Did you go outside?”

“Yes, the sun was quite hot.”

Her eyes, like the summer sea, sparkled playfully above her pale cheeks.

Though it had become quite natural to see this little lady’s bright blonde hair fluttering around the castle, Edarson still felt awkward dealing with his young fiancée.

Half of his twenties had been lost to the expedition to the duchy, but even so, the fourteen-year age difference made him hesitate.

Edarson could only look at Ellenia across the desk, unable to speak. Feeling embarrassed by his silence, Ellenia scratched her nose. The faint freckles that had appeared for the first time since coming to Tarnu were visible.

“Um, there were a lot of flowers blooming on the back mountain.”

Speaking aimlessly, Ellenia walked around the desk to Edarson’s side, still keeping one hand behind her back.

The sudden closeness made Edarson awkwardly pull back a bit.

That made both of them feel embarrassed.

“I thought you might not know summer had come since you’re always in the study.”

Hehe, she laughed and extended the hand she had hidden, revealing a lily.

Edarson looked bewildered, not understanding the situation. It was the look of someone seeing a flower for the first time.

So, this is a flower… and she’s giving it to me…?

As if interpreting his silence negatively, Ellenia’s hand, which had started to drop with her sinking heart, suddenly extended forward.

A white lily was placed among Edarson’s jet-black hair.

“Everyone is kind to me because you are a benevolent lord.”

When Ellenia found the white lily among the unkempt yellow grass, she thought it was like the ancient castle of Tarnu in her life. And even though she hadn’t become very close, she appreciated Edarson’s presence, which allowed her happiness…

Edarson stared blankly at her shy face, which was adorned with a bright red blush over her light freckles.

“You look even whiter with it. Like a full moon in the night sky.”

His face, rough from the sun and his hair as black as a crow’s feathers. He had never thought positively about his appearance, but hearing his young fiancée say that made him reconsider his looks.

No one could see the blush under his skin in the room where the curtains were tightly drawn, even in broad daylight.

This bright girl, who lit up the dark and rigid room that had been his life since his parents died.

Her image was deeply imprinted on his heart.

“I heard your birthday is in the ninth month.”

“Yes, well…”

Ellenia had only heard about it; her birthday had never held any significance in her life.

“You will be eighteen then, so I thought we could have the wedding.”

Edarson realized too late that these words had come out instead of a thank you.

The wedding was modest.

Even though the bishop who usually stood as a witness at weddings was the bride’s grandfather, no one from her family came, claiming they could not officiate the wedding of unbelievers. The groom had no family either, being an orphan. Some distant relatives from the collateral family attended, but they only came for the feast and left, uninterested in the wedding itself.

The wedding in the ninth month, remembered by the villagers below the castle as a time when they ate and drank to their heart’s content.

Wearing a newly tailored dress to fit her plump body, the eighteen-year-old Ellenia became the new Madam of Tarnu, according to an agreement made before she was born.

The consummation was postponed until the Madam came of age. The unwritten rule of announcing the consummation of the marriage by confirming bloodstains, following religious doctrine, was not practiced in Tarnu. The marriage bond was established without it.

That night, instead of consummating, Edarson led his young wife to the castle’s secret.

“A secret room, it really is an ancient castle.”

“It’s not like an ancient castle; it is an ancient castle.”

“Is that so?”

Hehe. 

The young Madam giggled.

In the lord’s study, Edarson pushed the bookshelf aside, pressed a few bricks behind it, and a crack in the shape of a horseshoe appeared, opening into a door.

Wow.

The young Madam let out a small exclamation.

It was a room with a low ceiling, built entirely of bricks like a stone chamber in an ancient royal tomb. In the center was an altar, and on the shelves protruding from the walls were items that seemed to be carefully preserved.

“Since you are now the mistress of Tarnu…”

‘Erdie, you will also become the rightful master of Tarnu.’

At that moment, Edarson realized how much he had longed for this moment.

In all the moments since his parents’ tragic death when he was called the lord, in the times he sought refuge in this treasure room, overwhelmed by loneliness and responsibility, in the five years of war with the duchy where he survived by killing others…

Watching Ellenia curiously examine the corners of the stone chamber, seeing her blue eyes shine dark green in the torchlight… Edarson felt that she was his only family.

Someone he had to protect and love for his entire life.

“This is the medal received by the sixth head of the family when Tarnu was granted to him.”

“This is the fairy compass used by the first lord during the exploration of Orpa’s labyrinth.”

“All the documents related to Tarnu’s rights are in this jewelry box.”

Listening to Edarson’s low voice, Ellenia’s heart pounded.

Not because she was in this small room with her husband, who seemed twice her size, though that wasn’t entirely untrue, and not because his voice fell pleasantly on her ears, though that was partly true… but because the stories of Tarnu’s treasures he told with that voice were so thrilling.

Since you are now the mistress of Tarnu.

The words he had murmured as they entered the stone chamber sweetly lingered in her ears.

It was her place.

All her life, Ellenia had never had a place of her own. She had just grown up in a place where she was always treated as an outsider.

If it had ended there, it might have been better.

A being who could not be acknowledged as a member of the bishop’s family, who shouldn’t be in that house, who shouldn’t even have been born…

A witch’s bloodline, a daughter of a harlot, the result of a demon’s temptation.

On bad days, on sunny days, on stormy days, everything negative was her fault.

On such days, the bishop would lock the young girl in a chest and make the sound of whipping.

‘I am purifying you!’

Claiming he was merciful because he didn’t hit her directly, he said he was a generous representative of God.

His generosity extended to allowing her to marry into the family of unbelievers. Since her mother had refused the marriage obligation and had her out of wedlock, it was like payment for the food and shelter she had received within Nux’s walls.

Even though it was a family of unbelievers, it was a powerful castle nearby, so Nux couldn’t afford to fall out of favor with them, and they whipped the young granddaughter, whipped her, and whipped her again.

Every time her hands were struck with a whip, every time she heard the sound of the whip cutting through the air beyond the chest and the crashing against the old wooden lid… she felt like she was hanging off a cliff.

Whether it was the edge of a cliff leading to hellfire or a coastal cliff plunging into an unknown deep sea, it didn’t matter.

What mattered was that she was cornered.

And the voice of her husband, calling her a member of Tarnu, was like a divine command granting her a new life.

‘Mistress of Tarnu.’

With a pounding heart, Ellenia listened to her husband’s low voice.

“And this is the record of the previous lords… ah, that, that…”

Bashfully, Ellenia laughed. Her small hand gently held his thick hand that had been hovering in the air.

With only a few torches lighting the room, she couldn’t see his expression, but she guessed his ears were red to the tips.

Just like when he kissed her during the wedding.

A deep dimple appeared on one of Ellenia’s cheeks.

“And this.”

Edarson cleared his throat and finally spoke.

The last thing he showed her was placed on the altar in the center of the stone chamber. While the magical torches along the walls burned brightly, the center remained dim.

On the altar was a dagger the length of Ellenia’s forearm. Though roughly adorned with jewels on the scabbard and hilt, it could be called a treasured sword.

But perhaps due to age, the rusty, old sword looked like something excavated from ancient ruins.

“This is the heirloom of our family, the foundation of Tarnu.”

“Heirloom…”

“The first head of the family retrieved it from Orpa’s labyrinth… because of this, Tarnu cannot serve the God and remains unbelievers.”

Perhaps it was because the ceiling of the treasure room was too low for his tall frame, Edarson’s voice sounded choked. Ellenia swallowed dryly without realizing it.

Edarson carefully reached out and picked up the treasured sword. It looked small in his hand, though it was the length of her forearm.

As he handed it to her, Ellenia, taken aback, accepted the sword. The weight of the metal and jewels settled heavily in her hand.

Nodding as if to encourage her to examine it, Edarson watched.

She twisted it slightly and drew the sword. The sound of shaded friction indicated it had not been used for a long time.

“It’s called the Sword of the Wheel. Only Tarnu can draw it, and only Tarnu can revive it.”

Ellenia’s hand holding the heavy dagger trembled. It was partly due to the weight, but also because Edarson’s story sounded quite eerie.

“It’s the proof that Tarnu will forever remain unbelievers to the God, who forbids reincarnation.”