3.

「The goddess who returned to the heavens couldn’t sleep every night from that day on. What could it be? Since Kalus cherished it so much, there must surely be something tremendous inside. Thinking that made her body burn even more.

However, there was no suitable method. The clay human Kalus created guarded under the tree without sleeping or eating.

The troubled goddess decided to first seduce the guard. No matter how firm his resolve, he was ultimately just a human man. She was confident he wouldn’t refuse a goddess’s touch.

Thus the goddess chose the best day, wore the best clothes, and descended to earth. And she was shocked. Befitting a human molded with breath blown in directly by the supreme god, the guard’s bearing was very dignified and handsome.

— I wish to take you.

The goddess, who forgot her original purpose, coveted the man’s heart more than the box. After all, if I take that man, won’t the box become mine too? She also had such complacent arrogance.

— I am not worthy of such.

However, the man rejected her heart like a solid stone. Though the goddess persistently circled around him, the man didn’t yield.

For a full month like that. Her pride gradually became hurt.

Just a toy of the gods, yet you dare refuse me so?」

The eye of a storm is calm and very peaceful. No matter how fierce the wind rages outside, you can’t feel any danger at all until you actually leave the eye. Without even knowing the fact that you will surely be swept up in that ferocity someday.

And now. We stood right in the middle of that storm’s eye.

One month after the princess arrived in Warlock. The rumors that had been stirring up excitement from the start shot out quickly like arrows nocked on bowstrings, stirring up everywhere. The Grand Duke is completely smitten with the princess. The grand duchess who fell from her horse injured her head and went strange. No, the shock from the princess was so great she went mad, and so on. Gossips who loved to chatter moved their mouths excitedly, and the spies of the noble faction led by Marquis Gladi fanned them diligently like working bellows on a furnace.

Meanwhile, the princess also busily inflated the rumors. She used priests to bestow blessings and sprinkled holy water to encourage favor.

It was quite a successful operation. It was a natural progression that the duchy citizens who admired romance and passion were enthusiastic about the story of the charming young Grand Duke who conquered even a foreign woman. My reputation declined very rapidly in inverse proportion. She’s not in her right mind after the fall from the horse. She searched the entire castle looking for a child that doesn’t exist, and so on. Scandals that would normally be hushed up swiftly left the castle like wind through the mouths of the noble faction’s spies.

I admit it. My complacency in not knowing the marquis’s influence was this powerful was the problem.

I felt newly self-loathing at my own stupidity for being indifferent to government affairs. However, since regret is better the shorter it is, I stripped Herot of her position as head maid that very day. It was because of the impatience to separate her from me as quickly as possible.

The anxiety whose source I didn’t know became more certain after the private meeting with Father. But I couldn’t treat Herot like an ordinary maid. Is there any condition that becomes a target more easily than a power holder’s fall? I only wanted to save Herot, not torment her.

After much deliberation, I appointed Herot as the new manager of the annex. I judged it was quite a good position to make it seem like I was showing mercy considering old affection even though my heart had already left.

“I will do my best to serve Your Grace.”

Melissa, who became head maid replacing Herot, was a maid quite seasoned in the main building. Her low value compared to her experience was the biggest reason for the choice. Having no prestige meant no one had paid attention to her, so I thought she was rather suitable for avoiding suspicion or persuasion.

Melissa seemed to misunderstand that I regarded her specially, but I didn’t bother to clear up that misunderstanding. In any case, that seemed advantageous to me.

“Let’s go.”

After finishing dressing from early morning, I headed to the library with the wine Father sent. It was a gift for the head librarian. The head librarian, old and appropriately materialistic, was quicker-witted than expected. Especially seeing how he showed great interest in the fact that the librarian child quit work after meeting with me, it was certain.

I still had no hobby of reading books, but I consistently stamped my face at the bookshelves from that day on to dispel needless suspicion. There were many people I encountered on the way, so it was quite perfect for reading the atmosphere inside the castle.

Yes. Actually, my mood was quite good until then. Until I happened to encounter an unwelcome guest in the garden.

The princess dressed in a splendid dress was surrounded by a crowd of people. Not only was the number of servants she brought out considerable, but there were also quite many nobles clinging to her flatteringly.

“Oh my, Your Grace.”

At the princess’s greeting, the surrounding commotion slowly subsided. She walked toward me daintily and bent her knees slightly to offer a greeting. The princess’s appearance in a tight-fitting dress looked very voluptuous and lively, unlike the skinny me. She looked ready to go hunting right now, let alone recuperating. However, her stiff neck didn’t know how to bend at all.

“If you’re looking for His Highness, you’re a step late. He was just with me and went that way. If I had known Your Grace would come this way, I would have asked him to stay longer.”

And the voice that followed was so tender. The way she drooped her eyes looking regretful was both odious and absurd. Ultimately, the princess wanted to show off to me the fact that she could control you with a single word.

That inner intention was so transparent it was rather amusing. Even the tenacious gaze dying of curiosity about what reaction I would have was pathetic.

“Your worry is excessive. Even if you don’t ask, we can meet anytime. As you know…… aren’t we husband and wife?”

That must have been why. A faint sense of humiliation briefly crossed the princess’s face, which changed at my retort. At that fervor wanting to crush me somehow, the young nobles stiffened their expressions along with her. She was now agonizing over how to make me more ashamed.

I can say with certainty that if it were the past me, I would have definitely satisfied that expectation. She was also caring for Arthur, and I definitely wanted to give you the royal title. If only I endured. There was definitely a time when I thought everything would work out well that way.

But what became of the result? What remained was a cold, white corpse. An endlessly continuing black night and a single bloodstained tombstone.

“Those words are correct. However…… I’m just a bit puzzled why there’s still no talk of an heir when you’re on such good terms.”

So this shouldn’t be.

“How dare you.”

I slowly erased the smile I had been consciously wearing. Even after throwing out such an audacious provocation, the princess had quite a triumphant face. She seemed somewhat satisfied with her own cleverness.

But this shouldn’t be. You stupid wench who can’t tell heaven from earth! How dare you mention an heir with that mouth? And right in front of me at that!

My stomach burned like I had swallowed lava whole. My pupils narrowed with boiling anger and my vision became distant. I wanted to snatch down lightning right now and drive it into that foolish crown of her head.

No, perhaps I had already moved.

Crash—!

“Kyaah!”

“Block—!”

There was a sound of glass breaking. Following that, screams and shouts mixed together, piercing my ringing ears.

“Goodness……”

I came to my senses at someone’s sigh.

What I felt immediately after was the cold touch of a bottle. The neck of the wine bottle was gripped in my hand, and a span above the neck was already shattered to pieces with no form left. One of the knights guarding the princess had quickly drawn his sword and struck down the bottle. Thanks to that, she might have avoided injury, but half the broken glass shards were piled high on top of the princess’s head.

Was that all? The princess was in a state of being thoroughly soaked with wine, like her head had been shoved upside down into a wine barrel. It was because all the wine spilled when the bottle broke. Good lord, how ridiculous that sight was.

“Oh my. I…… my hand must have slipped. I’m sorry about that.”

I didn’t even try to hold back the leaking laughter. The princess, who had been trembling and glaring at me like that, cried out venomously.

“Do you truly not regret doing this to me? The King of Gorgon will absolutely not let this humiliation pass!”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“Didn’t I apologize? Besides, this is the finest wine from our territory. A precious item that doesn’t even produce ten bottles a year. Since you drank all of it by yourself, you don’t need to feel that wronged.”

“How can you say that now……!”

The princess now seemed almost ready to faint from anger beyond fury. She looked ready to breathe fire from her mouth if she could. However, my joy didn’t last long.

“What on earth is going on here!”

Whether someone called them or it was just coincidence. A group of knights coming up the path discovered us and hurriedly approached our way. I checked the face at the front and unconsciously clicked my tongue inside my mouth.

“Good heavens, what is this……”

Sir Guillaume, who rushed over urgently, checked the situation and held his head with a bewildered expression. He is your close aide and escort knight, and has quite deep ties with me too.

Sir Guillaume examined the princess covered in wine and the nobles with shocked expressions in turn, then finally gave me his attention. No. To be more precise, the final destination of that gaze was not me but the broken bottle neck ‘held’ in my hand.

“Oh my.”

I should have thrown it away earlier. As I muttered and loosened my grip, it rolled across the grass with a clanging sound. Immediately after, Sir Guillaume, who looked at the sky once, the ground once, and the princess once, began with an expression that he really didn’t want to ask.