Since everyone in the Polar mansion was on Lariella’s side, Kais, the seeker, couldn’t catch Lariella no matter how hard he chased after her.
The maids informed Lariella when Kais wasn’t at the door, and they kept watch so she could enter and leave her room without encountering him. Mrs. Tara filled a basket with food at every mealtime and tied it to a rope that Lariella lowered from her window. The servants and coachmen misled Kais by pointing in completely wrong directions when he followed Lariella.
The servants of the Polar household all disliked Kais. And they didn’t particularly try to hide it.
The authority and status of a great noble had no effect on the people here, who would never have occasion to visit the capital and didn’t seek great wealth or honor. To them, Kais wasn’t the Duke of Elmano who should be respected and revered. He was just a wretched nobleman who had made Lariella, whom everyone here cherished and liked, sad.
It was the fifth day of the indefinite hide-and-seek between Kais, who had become an unwelcome guest of the Polar household, and Lariella.
“He’s in the reception room with the Baron right now.”
The maid Reina, who had brought a clean new dress, informed Lariella of the Duke of Elmano’s location.
“He still doesn’t seem to have any intention of leaving?”
At Lariella’s question, Reina shook her head vigorously.
“Not at all. At lunch, Mrs. Tara deliberately served meat with a burnt bottom, but he didn’t even frown and ate it all. Then he said it was very delicious and asked for lamb to be prepared for dinner. He seems determined to stay here.”
She had thought it would only be a day or two at most. After all, it wouldn’t be easy for the noble Duke of Elmano to stay in such a rural area without his butler or attendants.
But contrary to Lariella’s expectation that he would soon return, he was getting along quite well here.
The longer he stayed, the more frustrating and uncomfortable it became for Lariella. She couldn’t take walks freely, couldn’t help with Murina’s preparations for childbirth, couldn’t deliver the storybooks she had promised to the village children, and being cooped up in her room for five days already was unbearable.
“I think I need to visit the village.”
Having made up her mind, Lariella quickly changed her clothes.
Now was the perfect opportunity to sneak out of the mansion, with the Duke of Elmano together with her brother.
“Reina, please load all those books into the carriage. And tell Hans to move the carriage to the front of the gate in advance.”
“Yes, Miss.”
When Reina, who had gone out carrying a pile of books, signaled that there was no one in the hallway, Lariella slipped out of her room.
Holding her shoes in one hand and gathering the light dress hem in the other, she carefully descended the stairs, quickly crossed the not-so-spacious entrance hall, and dashed to the gate, safely boarding the carriage.
Hmph, keep guarding the empty doorway.
Lariella, whose mood had lightened at the prospect of an outing after several days, soon erased the Duke of Elmano she had left behind from her mind.
Upon arriving at the village, Lariella went around the square as usual, calling the children together.
When all the bright faces had gathered, she sat down by the fountain and distributed the storybooks she had brought to the children.
“From now on, instead of me reading to you, you’ll read the storybooks yourselves. How about it? Can you do it?”
“Yes!”
The children’s resounding answer made Lariella feel pleased.
“Then shall we start with Cassie?”
Cassie, the oldest among the children, stood up and began to read “The Enchanted Prince” book clearly and precisely. Lariella looked proudly at the children who had grown so much.
It was when Cassie was reading the last page of the storybook that little Lilu suddenly raised her hand and pointed at someone.
“Oh, it’s the knight!”
Lariella turned her head to the side, following Lilu’s adorable little finger. In the distance, Duke Elmano was striding toward them. Lariella, who had thought she’d escaped so perfectly, sighed deeply when she saw him coming.
She gently lowered Lilu’s finger that was pointing straight at the Duke of Elmano.
“Lilu, that person isn’t a knight. He is…… well, that person is……”
Even though they hadn’t made it to the wedding, everyone in the village knew she had married the Duke of Elmano.
People were already curious about why she had suddenly returned to the Polar mansion when they thought she was living well at Elmano Castle. She didn’t want to draw the villagers’ attention by revealing that the man walking toward them was none other than the Duke of Elmano.
While Lariella was searching for an appropriate excuse, Lilu stubbornly retorted.
“No, he is. He is a knight.”
Lilu’s small, round face tilted to one side.
“Both Father and Uncle called him ‘Sir.’ The knight also gave Lilu a shiny gold coin. The knight came to Lilu’s house more than this many times.”
Lilu spread all five of her short right fingers and waved them about.
Lilu’s father ran an inn at the village square with his twin brother. Perhaps because she had seen many people coming and going since she was a baby, little Lilu couldn’t read letters or count numbers well yet, but she remembered people very well.
Upon hearing Lilu’s words, Lariella’s face filled with doubt.
She soon tidied up her place and stood up, taking a few steps toward the Duke of Elmano. She had intended to just walk away pretending not to see him, but what Lilu had said was so puzzling that she couldn’t help asking.
“Lariella!”
The Duke of Elmano, who had already come very close, called out to her cheerfully.
Lariella, with a sullen face, avoided his gaze and asked only what she was curious about.
“Have you ever been here before? Have you stayed at that inn over there?”
Even as she asked, she felt she was asking something pointless. No matter how she thought about it, there was no reason for the Duke of Elmano to come all the way to this remote place and stay at that small, uncomfortable inn. And more than five times at that.
Thinking that young Lilu must have confused him with someone else, she was about to withdraw her question when the Duke of Elmano nodded readily.
“Yes, I have. Lariella.”
“You really came here? Why?”
Kais, who knew better than anyone what consequences could follow from not properly conveying his feelings, honestly told Lariella the reason as she stared at him with wide eyes. Finally telling her what he should have told her back then.
“Because I was curious about you. To see you. That’s why I came all the way here looking for you.”
Lariella looked even more confused.
“But I’ve never seen you here, Duke.”
“There.”
Kais stretched out his arm and pointed to a window on the second floor of the inn.
“I watched you reading books to children from behind that window.”
“Why would you……”
“I was too exci—, no, I mean, your voice was so pleasant to hear, so I very eagerly…… well, that’s what happened, Lariella.”
With children staring at them from just a few steps away, Kais almost confessed that he had been so excited by her voice that he had taken out his swollen c*ck and stroked it vigorously, but he quickly changed the subject.
“If I were to explain how I first came here, it would be quite a long story. How about we go to that tea house and have some tea? Or we could take a walk around the village together. What do you think, Lariella?”
She had firmly decided not to listen to anything he said, but she was too curious to resist hearing how he had ended up coming here.
The story was too intriguing, but she couldn’t discuss it here with villagers pricking up their ears. After hesitating briefly, Lariella answered primly.
“Then let’s talk when we get back to the mansion.”
“Good idea.”
Kais politely extended his arm toward Lariella. But turning her head away coldly, Lariella didn’t take his arm and walked briskly toward the carriage alone.
Upon reaching the carriage parked at one side of the square, Lariella was immediately dumbfounded. The Duke of Elmano, whom she expected would ride a horse back, had climbed right into the carriage she had come in.
“Why are you getting in here?”
To her pointed question came a completely nonchalant answer.
“My legs are too sore from riding a horse for so long.”
The distance from Polar mansion to the village was only half an hour on horseback. It wasn’t far enough to complain about sore legs, yet the Duke of Elmano was making “oh my” sounds and ostentatiously patting his legs.
