TMWL 05

Chapter 5

At those words, Pesha’s face turned pale for a moment.

Of course. He’s supposed to marry Io, but he shared a ring with me instead.

It did not comfort her at all.

She weakly listened to the maids’ words of comfort when Owen, who had been talking with the knights, approached her.

“The sun will set soon, so we cannot rest here for long. Please get into the carriage.”

“Ah, yes.”

Pesha forced a smile and climbed into the carriage, sighing deeply inside.

Just as her mind was becoming hazy from the uncomfortable silence, they finally arrived at Swap in Count Namoi’s territory after traveling by carriage for ten days.

After getting out of the tiresome carriage, Pesha tapped her stiff joints and stretched lightly.

I thought I was going to die.

Even putting aside Owen’s complete disregard for her, Pesha, who had never traveled long distances before, struggled with the exhaustion and fatigue from the journey.

If the journey had lasted even one more day, she would have collapsed from exhaustion.

As she turned her stiff neck from side to side, Pesha suddenly met Owen’s eyes.

Was he looking at me?

The moment their eyes met, Owen looked away.

What was that?

While she tilted her head in confusion, the butler of the mansion appeared a little late.

There was no way he had not been informed in advance that the lord and his wife were arriving at the mansion, yet it was obvious that he had not been prepared and had hurried out at the last moment.

“My lord! It is a pleasure to see you again after a year. Welcome back.”

“Hmm.”

The butler was an elderly man with graying hair, dressed in a black butler’s uniform and wearing a mustache.

Not only had he failed to come out beforehand, but even the way he bent his back toward Owen was awkwardly hunched, as if he was barely even greeting him.

Is he treating him casually because he has worked here for a long time?

No, that probably wasn’t it.

Owen Namoi had only received his count’s title a few years ago, so he had probably simply hired an old butler.

The butler was not openly ignoring his master, but there was a subtle atmosphere of looking down on him.

It was obvious that he still could not shake the thought that Owen was a commoner.

In fact, Owen was still often treated as little more than a commoner by nobles, so why would the commoners themselves think differently?

It was hard to say that none of Owen’s supporters cheered for him because they felt a sense of kinship with him as someone who came from a commoner background.

The butler seemed to have the same way of thinking.

After giving Owen an insincere greeting, the butler noticed Pesha standing beside him and took a deep breath in surprise.

“But is this perhaps the rumored Lady of House Clark? I heard she is a precious purification mage…!”

Pesha, who had opened her mouth to greet the butler, froze like a stone.

His misunderstanding stopped not only Pesha but also Owen and the knights who had followed him.

It was understandable.

The more Owen accomplished and the more Io’s purification ability became widely known, the more often people connected the two young men and women of marriageable age.

Although the story had changed from the original because Io’s abilities had awakened earlier, the East still needed purification power.

So, until the Emperor’s order came down, Pesha had firmly believed that if anyone became Owen’s wife, it would definitely be Io.

In fact, the Clark Marquisate had been the first marriage proposal discussed as a reward for Owen.

But who would have known that Io’s father would use a trick because he didn’t want to marry his daughter to a commoner?

Originally, the Marquis of Clark would have traded his kingdom’s land for his daughter…

But after realizing the value of his daughter’s awakened ability, the Marquis of Clark hid Io in his territory under the excuse that she needed to recover and that he needed to solve problems in the Clark Marquisate.

At the same time, he pushed the Duke of Rydel House as the next best option.

An ordinary father might have been reluctant to give his precious daughter to Owen, whose background was lacking, but the Duke of Rydel was different.

He had exchanged Pesha and the land as if he had been waiting for the opportunity.

Yes, I’m not even a son like Jeremy. I’m the child of his former wife…

The butler probably had not heard the rumor that Owen’s bride had been changed to another woman.

He had heard that the lord was getting married by the Emperor’s order, so he naturally assumed that it was the purification mage, Lady Clark, who had been the subject of rumors for so long.

Pesha forced a smile and tried to correct his misunderstanding through the awkward atmosphere.

But someone spoke before she could.

“Of course not, Mr. Roam. You got it completely wrong. She is Lady Rydel, who has no abilities at all, let alone being a mage.”

It was a man with red hair that stuck out like a lion’s mane, tied together in a ponytail.

He had just gotten off his horse and handed the reins to the stableman before speaking in a blunt tone.

“If we were bringing home a purification mage as his bride, the escort wouldn’t be this small.”

“……”

Thanks to the man kindly adding words that did not need to be said, the butler realized his mistake too late and hurriedly apologized.

“I-I am truly sorry. I was slow to receive the news and committed a great offense! Everyone in the territory had such high expectations for Lady Clark that I spoke without thinking…”

Pesha lifted the corners of her lips as she looked at the top of the deeply bowed butler’s head.

“It’s all right. It could happen. It is true that I cannot use magic.”

As she acknowledged it, the atmosphere became solemn.

Everyone remained silent as if they did not know what to say.

After pausing for a moment, she continued.

“Still, I am a little surprised that a well-trained knight would completely ignore manners and etiquette.”

“What did you say?”

The red-haired knight’s face immediately twisted, despite how boldly he had spoken just moments ago.

Pesha turned her head and stared at him before continuing to speak to the butler.

“Calling the woman who married your lord ‘Lady’ as if she were still an unmarried noble lady… Could that possibly mean he is dissatisfied with this marriage ordered by His Majesty the Emperor?”

“Hah! That is quite a leap…”

“What a shame. I thought etiquette was something that anyone could learn, even though it isn’t something you are born with like magic.”

She did not lose even a single word.

Even when she openly embarrassed him, she did not become angry or shrink back.

Rather, her calm voice, which pointed out his mistake, was like a quiet blade.

The knight had thought she was an ordinary woman with a gentle appearance and delicate body, but he was momentarily caught off guard.

“T-That’s not what I meant!”

Just as he was about to hurriedly make an excuse because the eyes of everyone around him were painfully fixed on him—

“Jane. That’s enough.”

Owen ordered the knight.

It was a short command without any warning or threat, but the knight, Jane, flinched in surprise.

Owen slowly shifted only his eyes toward Jane and said,

“She is my wife.”

Those few words carried more weight than a hundred words of scolding.

Jane’s face turned pale as he lowered his head deeply toward Pesha and apologized.

“I am sorry… My lady… Please forgive my rudeness…”

Pesha simply answered with a smile, as if she had never argued with him.

Owen took his eyes off the dejected Jane, who had somehow ended up looking like the only one who had acted arrogantly and then apologized alone, and turned back to the butler.

“I am tired. I’d like to rest now.”

“Yes. I will show you to the room we prepared!”

The butler hurriedly gestured for the maids to gather.

The tallest maid among them stood at the front and listened to his instructions before asking,

“Butler. What should we do about the master and mistress’s bedroom that is still under construction?”

“Under construction?”

What kind of construction were they doing?

And shouldn’t they have finished it before the lord arrived?

As Pesha looked confused, Owen answered her question instead.

“There was a worn-out part, so I ordered it to be repaired before I left for the campaign. It seems it still hasn’t been completed.”

He said he came back after a year.

Then have they been working on it for an entire year?