‘I don’t think Edgar will like it.’

It was only for practice. She had embroidered aimlessly without thinking about Edgar’s refined taste. Giving it to him would only get her scolded, so she put the finished handkerchief in the basket. The patterns book that had been so interesting only a while ago was now so boring.

The boredom she had never experienced before pressed on her. When she first came to the mansion, every day had been full of surprises. She had studied everything carefully, even the patterns carved on the doors. However, even that couldn’t last forever. She had memorized everything in less than a month, like the number of vases that decorated the mansion, the types of forks, and the gardener’s shoes.

Moreover, she was totally surprised when she first had a meal at the mansion. The series of ingredients she had never seen before, the fresh meat and fish. She hadn’t been able to miss even one dish. Of course, Steven was still a great cook and everything he made was tasty, but Rubica just couldn’t feel the thrill she had felt at first.

“I’m bored.”

No more relatives came to bother her even when she had braced herself to have huge fights with them about mana quartz but, thanks to Ann’s misunderstanding, everyone thought she was pregnant now and no one came to confront her.

“Should we play cards?”

Elise glanced at her and carefully asked, but Rubica shook her head. She was always the winner when playing cards with Elise, even though Elise was a much better player. A game with a set winner was not fun.

Rubica stroked the dog Latte lying near her feet. The dog’s fur was soft, and Latte growled pleasantly. Rubica was feeling good as well. But still, she was bored, and time was going by way too slowly.

‘I need some kind of excitement.’

However, no matter how hard she tried to think of something new, she had already tried everything. And the last one had been shattered by Elise’s firm refusal. Emptiness and hollowness pressed on her.

‘I wish time would go fast, so Edgar would come back from the capital.’

Then, Rubica was surprised to find herself waiting for Edgar’s return. Why would she wait for that man? He was hard to understand, arrogant, and as sarcastic as his beautiful face.

‘I shouldn’t go down to that even if I’m bored.’

Yes, that was the problem. With Edgar, there had been so many incidents that she hadn’t been able to sense the passing of time. She had to think so hard to counter his scolding words and actions with meanings she couldn’t see. He seemed to have taken making fun of her as his life’s pleasure.

‘And he keeps trying to kiss me. He really shouldn’t do that with his pretty face!’

There wasn’t a woman who could resist that kind of temptation. Even Rubica had been shaken. She would have turned him down flatly if it had been another day, but that day had been a little weird. She had been very moved by him, and they had shared this odd feeling. His blue eyes, that were as clear as the sky, had been like the universe that day. His irises had a deep navy-blue border and would get clearer in the center. Moreover, they had shining stars like the Milky Way. Were the rising stars of the night sky like them?

She had never seen someone else’s eyes at such a close distance before, and those eyes were so beautiful. Rubica had been frozen on the spot as if she had been enchanted. She had known what he wanted her to do and what would happen next if she did that, but she still closed her eyes.

‘It was because his eyes were so pretty.’

Rubica pressed her cheeks that were now red by just recalling the scene. She decided to ignore the fact her heartbeat had been somewhat different from when she normally saw beautiful things.

It must have been the magic cast by the shock of seeing something so beautiful at such a close distance and the mood aroused by his strangely sad voice that quietly called her name.

“Rubica!”

Yes, he had called her name just like that.

‘No, this one was a little urgent. It has to be softer and closer to my ears, mixed with the sound of him breathing…’

She closed her eyes to remember it more clearly.

‘Rubi…’

“Rubica!”

A sound came to wake her up from her imagination. She was irritated, but she tried to go back to her thoughts again.

“Rubica!”

However, she couldn’t. Soon she felt a pair of cold but strong arms embrace her. Those were a man’s arms. She was surprised. There was a man who was daring enough to hug her in the Claymore Mansion? She was a married woman. Whether or not she and Edgar were truthful to each other, she couldn’t let anyone else embrace her. She opened her eyes to push away the man, but she couldn’t.

“Edgar?”

The person who was holding her was the only man who could do that in the mansion.

He had run really fast as Rubica could feel his hot breath. That didn’t happen often to Edgar as his body was normally cold.

“Thank god.”

Edgar wrapped her face with his hands, and he looked so relieved that Rubica couldn’t tell him to let her go.

“You stayed.”

He smiled sadly. So, he did know how to smile like that. Hurt, sad, and pitiful. Seeing that made Rubica’s heart ache. The man had always been arrogantly beautiful, proud and strong. But now, he looked so pathetic as if he had a wound she couldn’t even imagine.

“Shouldn’t you be in the king’s castle by now? Why are you here?”

Rubica gulped and changed the subject. He was dangerous. He was too tempting. She couldn’t let herself get enchanted by his blue eyes again and lose reason.

“How could I remain at the king’s castle after receiving those letters?”

His voice came out calm, but it had an irrepressible anger within it. Rubica thought he was mad about the whole fake pregnancy thing and was surprised.

“No, no.”

Seeing her scared made him scared. Her mood was as fickle as the spring weather, so he pleadingly took her hands. Then, he looked to the side and ordered sharply.

“Leave.”

It made Elise immediately stand up. She took all the maids and animals with her. The dogs would have insisted to stay normally, but now they didn’t protest. Edgar’s voice must have been threatening enough for them.

“Edgar, I’m sorry that I surprised you. But there’s no need to worry.”

Rubica had finished making plans and had already recruited the doctor to her side. She decided to explain everything calmly. Actually, she hadn’t planned this, it had all been a misunderstanding. After listening to Ann, she had to admit the housekeeper had good reasons to think so, but Rubica was more worried about mana quartz than that.

“There’s no need to worry?”

However, Edgar didn’t calm down. He then asked back in an angry voice, “I shouldn’t worry? How could you say that to me?”

He was enraged and yelled at her. He had promised himself to remain calm for her as she had to be more afraid and worried than he was, that he had to support her, but now none of that came to his mind.

Rubica sometimes messed up with his heart too much.

“But I’ve already made plans.”

“Plans?”

Edgar’s mind went blank. One of the strings that held reason in his mind snapped.

“Plans? You can’t be saying you are going to leave alone in this cold weather!”

Leave alone? What was he talking about? And cold weather? Of course, it got a little cold in the evening, but it was springtime now.

“No! Absolutely not! I won’t let you do that.”

Rubica didn’t know why he was doing that, so she couldn’t convince him. Instead, she decided to calm him down first.

“Edgar, listen to me.”

However, he wasn’t in a state of mind to listen to her.

“You can’t leave!”

He wasn’t even giving her time to speak.

“You can’t take a step out of this mansion. You can’t.”

Rubica widened her eyes. She blinked once or twice as she couldn’t see why Edgar was doing that. She looked like a bunny to Edgar’s eyes. He couldn’t let this cute woman, his own wife, suffer in the outside world.

“I’ll take care of it.”

“… of what?”

Sadly, she left him out till the end. She acted like he had nothing to be responsible of, but it was a husband’s duty to protect his wife and children. He had vowed so in front of Hue’s priest. At the time, Rubica had crossed her fingers to ask forgiveness for lying, he hadn’t. He had sworn.