Chapter 13. The Duke, the Duchess, and—

“By the way, Kais.”

Hearing the clear voice calling him, Kais stopped turning the documents and looked to the side.

Next to Kais’s desk, which had stood alone in the large office, now sat a small mahogany desk.

It was a new desk brought in so Lariella could read books or handle the castle’s household affairs while Kais worked at his large desk.

Throughout winter, Kais had piled up mountains of work but kept shutting himself in Lariella’s room at the slightest opportunity. What was initially thought to be an occasional absence became almost daily, and the head butler Willis, who had been delighted at first, gradually began to turn yellow in the face.

Just sorting out what needed to be done urgently versus what could be delayed, and sending apologetic letters in response to the incoming urgent letters, was enough to fill the entire day.

Unable to bear it any longer, Lariella pushed Kais’s back, but he worked with her on his lap. After showing Worklan, who had barged into the office without thinking just like before, the sight of them kissing several times, Lariella finally ordered a new desk.

‘While you work in the office, I’ll stay beside you. But your hands cannot cross this line. If you don’t follow this rule, I’ll put new locks on every door in my room and never open them.’

Peace finally came to Willis, Worklan, and Lariella only after she stood with her hands on both sides of her waist and issued this stern warning.

From Kais’s perspective, it was a truly thunderous announcement, but when Lariella took such a firm stance, he had no way to overcome it. Still, he could see Lariella whenever he turned his head, so that was tolerable enough.

“Yes, Lariella.”

Kais, who had kept his ears wide open toward Lariella even while looking at documents, promptly answered her call. A deep smile already permeated the corners of his mouth when he looked at her.

“I’m curious about something. May I ask?”

“Anything. Ask away.”

“When you sent me the marriage proposal. Why did you send the box of gold coins with it?”

Kais, who had been staring at her intently with one hand on his chin, wondering what question she would ask, suddenly looked blank.

He didn’t know why it had to be a box of gold coins either. He had simply sent it because Lariella wanted it.

The person who should know the answer best was now asking him the reason, leaving Kais blinking like a fool, unable to respond promptly.

When no answer came readily from his mouth, perhaps thinking he was hesitating to answer, Lariella added her own explanation and pressed for an answer.

“I understand that you wouldn’t accept a dowry because it would be impossible for the Polar household to prepare one matching the standards of the Elmano ducal family, but I still can’t understand why you sent a box of gold coins no matter how much I think about it. I was curious if this was common in the capital, so I asked Marie too. Marie said that wealthy old noblemen send money boxes when taking young ladies from poor families as second wives, but you’re not that old.”

“Old……. old? There’s only a five-year age difference between us.”

Kais, who had now been treated like an old nobleman buying a woman with a box of money, protested in a sulky voice. He was the one who wanted to know the proper reason for this situation.

“That’s why it makes even less sense. The marriage proposal was one thing, but to have it accompanied by a box of gold coins so large that four knights had to carry it! Both my brother and I nearly fainted in shock. The rumor that the Duke of Elmano had a serious defect and had to buy a wife with a box of gold coins—that’s why we believed it so firmly.”

“Really, you’re asking because you don’t know? I did it because you said you would consider such a person your destiny.”

“Me?”

Kais asked, flabbergasted, but Lariella tilted her head in genuine confusion.

By this point, Kais was beginning to doubt whether he had misheard strangers talking that night.

“The first time I saw you, that day in Count Viller’s garden, you clearly told Baron Polar that ‘someone who falls in love at first sight and sends a large ash wood box with iron fittings filled with gold coins’ would be your destiny.”

After pondering Kais’s answer with a puzzled look, Lariella suddenly burst into laughter when she realized something. Kais could only stare at her in bewilderment.

“That was a kind of game my brother and I played. We would say something ridiculous and play along with each other’s jokes.”

Ronais’s greatest worry was that his only sister was growing older without settling on a marriage partner.

He should have sent her off when a suitable match came along, but unable to break Lariella’s insistence on caring for their father, he had kept her until she was fully of age, which he deeply regretted.

Each time, Lariella would comfort her brother by stating absurd conditions, saying she hadn’t failed to marry but simply hadn’t met someone matching these conditions yet.

These conditions were incredibly outlandish: sometimes it was someone strong enough to defeat a fierce dragon alone like a knight from a storybook, or someone with principles firm enough to never fall for a witch’s seduction.

Other times, it was something very specific yet completely random, like a brown-haired gentleman wearing a bluish jacket selecting books from the third bookshelf in the secondhand bookstore she occasionally visited, or a man who could roast lamb more deliciously than Mrs. Tara, which she loved.

Perhaps that day, overwhelmed by the lavish and extravagant social ball she had attended for the first time in her life, and annoyed by some fat badger-like guy who rambled on about women, books, and dowries, she had set the largest amount of money she could imagine as a condition.

It was her way of standing up for her wounded pride, saying that a fat, ugly badger without money had no right to be so presumptuous—that she might consider a proposal if someone brought money equivalent to three years’ worth of taxes from the entire Polar territory.

Her conditions always changed depending on the situation and were so detached from reality that Ronais never took them seriously, and Lariella would babble as she pleased and soon forget about it.

That’s why she never imagined someone would believe those words and actually act on them.

“I received a letter from my brother yesterday, and he says his biggest concern is still what to do with that box of gold coins. It’s true that the Polar territory isn’t prosperous, but it’s not that poor either. And you’ve seen for yourself that living in the countryside doesn’t require that much money.”

Hearing Lariella’s explanation, Kais was left completely dumbfounded.

He had heard Lariella directly saying what kind of person she wished her destiny to be, and he had fulfilled it exactly, firmly believing he had proven himself to be her destiny.

But now it turned out that what he had done with such significance attached was actually meaningless.

He thought he had made quite a romantic proposal.

But the person who received the proposal knew nothing about it, so his actions were neither a proposal nor anything else. It was just his own delusion and self-satisfaction.

“……Kais, are you alright?”

Lariella cautiously asked while gauging his mood. Kais was rubbing his deeply furrowed brow with a bluish complexion.

“I’m fine. Go on.”

“If I had recognized the meaning of the gold box from the beginning, I wouldn’t have brought up invalidating our marriage, wouldn’t have returned to the Polar territory, and would have trusted and waited for you more. I’m sorry, Kais. For not properly remembering my own words.”

No, this wasn’t something she should apologize for.

He was the idiot who failed to communicate properly despite having a perfectly good mouth.

Kais shook his head weakly.

“Then, how about bringing back that box of gold coins? It wasn’t something I said sincerely, and you sent it because of a misunderstanding. My brother is also troubled by it.”

“No. I don’t want to take it back now.”

Whether Lariella knew or not, Kais had put his heart into that box at that time. Even though it was a misunderstanding, taking it back now would feel like taking back the heart he had put into it, which he didn’t want to do.

Understanding Kais’s feelings, Lariella nodded without pressing further.

“Then may I use it to reduce taxes for the Polar residents? We don’t collect much tax to begin with, but if taxes are further reduced, it would be a great help to the residents.”