Chapter 6. He Wants to But Cannot (1)

Willis, the loyal head butler of the Elmano household, reported while pouring warm tea into an empty cup.

“Miss Lariella is out in the garden.”

At those words, Kais, who had been sitting at his desk, rose and approached the window.

Golden hair that looked like it had been plucked from the sunshine of the brightest day was poking up above the rose vines. Seeing only the top of her head barely visible above the waist-high vines, she seemed to be crouching on the ground.

Unable to understand why she was doing that, Kais narrowed his brow and tilted his head.

“What is she doing over there?”

“I believe she’s planting seeds. She asked where the sun shines well, so I showed her that spot. Even though I called for the gardener, she insisted on planting them herself, so I gave her a hoe and a watering can.”

Not taking a walk, arranging flowers, or drawing flowers, but crouching on the dirt ground, directly digging with a hoe to plant seeds—what kind of lady was this?

Kais snorted in disbelief. Yet his eyes wouldn’t leave the golden head that repeatedly poked up above the vines and then sank back down. The corners of his mouth had already formed a small upward curve. On his face, gazing out the window, not a trace of the boredom and tedium that had long clung to him like a crust could be found.

After sending the proposal letter to the Baron Polar household and receiving a reply accepting his proposal, Kais immediately announced the wedding date for three months later. For an ordinary family this might have been fine, but it was woefully inadequate time to prepare a wedding for the wealthiest nobleman in the Bayaroman Empire. However, Kais, well aware of his condition, couldn’t afford to drag things out.

Afterward, using the tight wedding schedule and Polar territory’s distance from the capital as an excuse, he requested that Lariella’s residence be moved to Elmano Castle in advance. Baron Polar gladly accepted this. Thus, Lariella, not yet married, came to be planting seeds outside his office window.

Lariella had arrived at Elmano Castle two weeks ago.

When the carriage that had traveled for three and a half days crossed the drawbridge of Elmano Castle and stopped before him, and he personally opened the carriage door, pushing aside the approaching servant, Kais realized his condition was more serious than he thought.

Just making eye contact with those blue-green eyes filled with tension and curiosity made his left chest feel tight, and when he took Lariella’s hand to help her out of the carriage, his lower back tingled and his unruly c*ck half rose.

It was fortunate that he had hastily released his seed before her arrival and worn a longer jacket just in case.

But Kais’s difficulties didn’t end there.

Perhaps her legs had weakened from the unfamiliar long carriage journey, for Lariella staggered helplessly as soon as she placed her dainty foot on the carriage step. If Kais hadn’t quickly extended his long arm to wrap around her waist, Lariella would have slid down the carriage steps and landed with a thud on the cold stone floor.

‘Th-thank you, Duke Elmano.’

She seemed quite startled.

At a distance of barely a span, her plump lips exhaled rapid breaths, and her light blue eyes trembled with apparent confusion. Her upper chest, rising plumply above the neckline of her dress, heaved greatly, and her slender neck visibly gulped as she swallowed dry saliva.

Kais felt dizzy from the desire surging to the top of his head.

If he pulled her tight and devoured those plump, red lips greedily, how would those eyes contort? If he buried his face in that fair bosom and neck and nipped at them like a dog in heat, what expression would that harmless face show?

In that brief moment with his arm around her slim waist, such mad thoughts crossed his mind.

Kais was completely shaken because of her. But he soon removed his hand from her waist with an expressionless face. He narrowed his brow more than usual due to the pain in his lower abdomen, so perhaps he might have appeared somewhat angry.

‘I sincerely welcome you to Elmano Castle, Lady Polar.’

His voice greeting Lariella and his expression as he kissed the back of her small white hand were just like his usual self, wearing an icy mask.

In front of others, he was always the perfect Duke Elmano.

Hiding his complex, lewd, and greedy inner thoughts and presenting a very cold, rational, and icy exterior was what he did best.

‘……I am honored to meet you, Duke Elmano. I am Lariella Polar.’

Whether from nervousness or unfamiliarity with society’s formal greetings, Lariella awkwardly bent her knee while lifting the sides of her dress with trembling fingers.

It was a greeting received very belatedly. Would this woman ever know that she once had the opportunity to greet him like this in Count Viller’s garden? She would probably never know how hungrily he had devoured her with his gaze during that brief moment when she bent her knee and lowered her eyes.

It was rather fortunate that Lariella would stay in the guest wing, not the main building, until the wedding ceremony. Otherwise, with the hands that still felt the touch of her small hands and slender waist, he might have committed the rudeness of lingering outside her door late at night, roughly rubbing his c*ck.

It was also better that she spent most of her day busy with various lessons and wedding preparations, leaving little time to spend with him.

Seeing her prettily chattering more each day after initially being so awkward she couldn’t open her lips, and having to merely watch those busy red lips during their occasional dinner times together, was becoming an increasingly unbearable ordeal for him.

All of this was because of the wretched etiquette of high society.

Men in society could have lovers or mistresses and associate with courtesans whether married or not without any problem. Married noblewomen also openly kept young knights or young servants by their side. But unmarried young ladies were different. Until the wedding ceremony, they had to maintain absolute purity and modesty. This applied even if the other party was her fiancé.

Of course, there were occasionally bold young ladies who enjoyed secret meetings before marriage, but if discovered, not only they but their entire family would have to endure low-class finger-pointing. In such cases, most would hasten the wedding ceremony to smooth things over, but it was hardly an honorable affair.

Lariella had already become a target for society’s fierce gossips simply by receiving Duke Kais Elmano’s proposal.

Every time he met her, he wanted to firmly grasp that slender neck and suck on those sweet-looking lips as he pleased, but he couldn’t give those nasty rumor-mongers any excuse to slander Lariella. If Kais couldn’t control his s*xual desire and acted rashly, the person who would be troubled was not him but Lariella.

Three months. Yes, just three months of patience.

Whether walking with Lariella or having dinner, Kais always wore his cravat tightly up to his chin and meticulously donned his vest and long jacket.

He maintained an even colder and more detached exterior to hide the undisciplined beast stirring beneath his stiff jacket. He avoided creating opportunities to be alone with her, and in front of others, he treated her with excessive formality.

For him, these were the longest and most difficult three months of his life.

And finally, the wedding day arrived.

* * *

While Lariella, having removed her wedding dress, soaked in a bath sprinkled with alistro flower petals, Kais had already finished his bath in his own room.

“Please wait a moment until the madam completes her preparations, master.”

But Willis, who had asked him to wait “a moment,” remained silent for quite some time. Perhaps due to the impatience building up to his chin, what was actually a short time felt extremely long.

Feeling restless, Kais rinsed his body again with cold water. When that failed to cool his heat, he opened the glass door and stepped onto the terrace. The cool night air felt good against his skin. But when he recalled how beautiful Lariella had been today, heat once again enveloped his body that he had just barely cooled.

For the past week, Kais hadn’t seen even a strand of Lariella’s hair, let alone her face. This was due to the Bayaroman custom of hiding the bride in an invisible place from a week before the ceremony until the morning of the wedding day, to protect the pure bride from all manner of impure and inauspicious things.

Because of this, Kais had been deprived of the pleasure of hearing Lariella’s voice coming through his open office window, and the joy of watching her golden crown of hair while she tended to plants at his desk.