Chapter 41: Chapter 41

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Chapter 41

“Come in. I prepared some good tea and refreshments for your visit.”

“Wow! I’m looking forward to it!”

Seeing Leila conveyed her lovely and boisterous energy, which made me feel happy and uplifted at the same time. I took her straight to the drawing room with a smile on my lips.

“What do you think?”

“It smells so good?”

“Really? What a relief. Last time, you served us a precious floral tea, so I wanted to serve a suitable tea for you, too.”

“It’s such a sweet and pleasant scent. Thank you, Astell.”

“No. I’m rather grateful. Thanks to Leila, I had a great time with my family.”

“I’m glad I was helpful. Are you staying in Hares now?”

“Yes. If nothing else happens, I will live here.”

“Wow, I’m so happy! That means I can see you often now, right?”

“I’m very happy too.”

We chatted together for a while, and ate the specially prepared floral tea and snacks.

“But I get a lot of invitations for the Duchy, so I don’t know what to do. It’s been difficult for me since I’ve been without interaction with anyone for ten years.”

Even though I’ve only seen Leila twice, I felt very comfortable with her. Perhaps she gave me a lot of information about Astell’s family and I made good use of it, so I felt she was very trustworthy. Maybe that’s why I was telling her openly about the problem I was having, without realizing it.

“I heard that the Marquisate of Aris is having a garden party next week, how about going together, Astell?”

“Come to think of it, I think the invitation came from the Marquisate of Aris.”

“Then it’s fine. Let’s go together. I will introduce you to several nobles.”

“But I’m sorry to get help from you like this again, Leila…”

“It’s okay. We are friends. Aren’t we?”

And again, Leila was giving me a good solution.

‘She’s too trustworthy.’

Leila was becoming more and more better that I thought I was going to have to give McCain a big bonus sooner or later for letting me meet this person.

“Yes, friends. Thank you. Leila. Again, if Leila needs any help, you can always tell me.”

At my words, Leila gave a clear and pretty smile instead of an answer.

“Leila, you asked me something back then. If I ever went to the Holster Marquisate?”

The day I first met Leila, I felt very sorry for not being able to properly answer the only question she asked me. So, after returning to the Duke’s residence, I continued to trace and trace Astell’s memory. After digging through my head for several days like that, I remembered that Astell had been invited to dinner when she was about fifteen.

“I was around fifteen, so I think I went there because I was invited to dinner with all of my family.”

“Really? So, do you remember seeing McCain back then?”

“Sir McCain? I probably saw him. The people of the Holsters also ate together. There are quite a lot of young girls and boys of the Marquisate, so I’m not sure which one of them was Sir McCain.”

“Ah… that’s true.”

“By the way, I can’t remember the details of the face, but strangely, there was a boy among them that I was particularly concerned about. He was a kid who couldn’t even eat properly because he looked around with a confused expression…”

Perhaps Astell’s lack of blending among her own family seemed to be similar to the child’s own, and she was drawn to the child. After she finished eating, Astell happened to exchange a few words with the child when she met the child again in the garden.

“I think that was the first and last time I went to Marquisate Holster. So I don’t remember seeing Leila at all. I’m sorry.”

If Leila had been at the dinner then, I would have seen her, but it made no sense at all that she was there that day, when she was not from the Holsters or from the Heines. I gave her an apologetic look and apologized for not having remembered her once again.

“No. Astell! I shouldn’t have brought it up. Forget about that now. Alright?”

Fortunately, there was no sad light on Leila’s face. It gave me relief and I nodded my head slightly.

After Leila returned, I headed to his office to see Bleon. As I entered, Bleon got up from his desk and strode over to me and held me in his arms.

“Wife…”

Then he put his head down on the nape of my neck, as I was far smaller than him, burying his face, inhaling my body scent, and making himself aware that I was by his side. Now that it’s almost everyday, I quietly accepted his gestures and waited.

“Did you have a good day at training today?”

“Yes, it was good. Is Princess Parkers gone now?”

Bleon’s voice somehow contained a sense of inadequacy.

“Yes. I just came here after seeing Leila off.”

“I missed you…”

“We ate lunch together…”

“It’s hard for me to not see my wife even for a second. I am still enduring it even now.”

“I know. I know how well my husband is doing.”

I gave him a big pat on the back as if I was proud of him. We held each other for a while, then realized that I had something to say to him and tried to get out of his arms. But Bleon didn’t let me go, so I couldn’t help but open my mouth.

“Shall we go over to the sofa and sit down? I have something to say…”

“Yes… I understand.”

As soon as I pushed Bleon gently, he grabbed my hand. Then he led me to the sofa and sat me next to him.

“You have something to say?”

“Yes. As the Duke knows, invitations are pouring in from various nobles, right? So I thought about where I should go first, but I finally decided.”

“…Where is it?”

In an instant, I could feel the tension and anxiety rising from Bleon’s expression and voice. But it had been decided from the moment I made up my mind to come to the capital, so I tried to ignore it and continued talking.

“Next week, the Marquisate of Aris is having a garden party. I want to go there.”

“The Marquisate of Aris?”

“Yes. The Marquisate of Aris is a clean household and has been very loyal to the imperial family, so I think it will be helpful for us to build and maintain a good relationship with them from now on. I thought that it would make a good impression if they knew that they were chosen among the many invitations.”

The details of the Marquisate of Aris were given to me by Leila earlier.

“Do you have to go…?”

“Yes. I have to go.”

I answered with a firm expression on my face. Then Bleon locked me in his arms and took a deep breath.

“…Alright. If that’s what the wife wants, I…”

His face, who reluctantly replied with a look of his voice that had lost all energy, was vivid in my mind. It was clear that he didn’t want to show me like that when he hugged me like this. I sneaked out of his arms as I pondered how to relieve him. Then I reached up and grabbed his little pretty face with both hands, fixing his gaze on me. I could see Bleon’s face tinged with wonder at my sudden action.

“…Wife?”

“Shall we kiss?”

“Yes?”

“I want to kiss you now, but we haven’t been able to for a while.”

In fact, it wasn’t for a while, but a few days. Over the past few days, a lot of busy work has come in. Bleon came to sleep beside me, but I was too exhausted to wait for him. And in the morning, he’d leave the bedroom before I even woke up. So when I woke up in the morning, only his body scent that surrounds me knows that he has been by my side all night.

I smiled broadly at Bleon and waited for his reaction. But, as soon as I saw the lust in his pupils, without a second thought, he devoured my lips like crazy.

“…Mmhh!”

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