“Ios must have gone back to his territory to rest, completely exhausted.”

“No, I don’t think that’s what happened…”

Edgar wanted to protest that Rubica was caring too much about Ios, but then, Baron Moreau came back with a carriage. It was quite an expensive carriage drawn by four horses.

It wasn’t like they could stay in a cave forever, so Edgar got help to get on the carriage. Rubica followed him and smiled happily as soon as she sat down.

‘Ah, so comfy.’

She could finally relax. Where on earth did they get this carriage from? She thought Baron Moreau was more capable than he looked. However, Edgar scolded him.

“This cushion isn’t filled with goose feathers, and this carpet on the floor doesn’t seem to be made of wool.”

“It was the best carriage we could find. Is it very uncomfortable?”

“My wife always uses the best even if we are near the border of the dukedom-”

Rubica couldn’t bear to hear that anymore and covered his mouth.

“Thank you so much for getting such a nice carriage.”

Then, she looked at Carl who read what she meant by it, so he closed the door and started the carriage.

Thanks to the duchess, the baron wasn’t scolded for all his hard work.

Edgar was strict, as much as he was capable, so his men were always getting scolded even after working hard.

Claymore’s engineers who looked up to him greatly were happy to be scolded by him, but his retainers were not.

Carl was therefore glad when thinking that Rubica would fix Edgar’s flaws from now on.

“This is not our mansion or the nobles’ place, this is the farmers’ area. Do you know how hard it must have been to find a carriage this good? You shouldn’t be mad at him like that.”

And as Carl had expected, Edgar was scolded a lot by Rubica on their way. Of course, he didn’t know why he was being scolded as he just wanted her to always use the best of the best. Moreover, it was only right to scold his men who were not doing their job properly.

“You’re not going to do that next time, right?”

However, he just couldn’t say no to her. His wall of pride that others couldn’t even think of going over was crumbling down so easily.

“I won’t.”

Rubica liked the answer and smiled. If only he could keep seeing that warm smile, Edgar would even compliment Ios by saying that he had never seen a smart dragon like him.

“We will reach the presbytery soon.”

Each time the carriage rattled, Edgar frowned harder. He had said that Rubica had to use only the best, but he was the person who used only the best items till now. Therefore, he didn’t know what to do.

He had been inside an ordinary carriage like this less than ten times throughout his entire life.

Rubica pitied him and found a handkerchief in a drawer to wipe his sweat.

“I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not. Don’t insist.”

Rubica lightly subdued his bluffs and moved her hand. It made Edgar feel much better.

“You seem to be used to this. And, you also looked used to helping others when you supported me earlier. It surprised me.”

“I worked at the abbey. I learned how to take care of patients there.”

According to the report about her which he had received before they got married, she never worked at an abbey, so she must be talking about an experience from her last life. Edgar didn’t hold back his curiosity and asked, “And why did you work at an abbey?”

“There was a war. I ran to the south, looking for a place to live, and then I settled at the abbey. It was much safer there. They told me I had to work if I wanted to stay, and I had nowhere else to go, so I chose to work there. I could learn a lot, so I liked it.”

“What about your family?”

“They died in the bombing as soon as the war broke out.”

She tried to sound as fine as she possibly could. Even though she still had the pain and shock she had received at that time, Angela was now studying at Aron’s Academy, and her parents were fine as well although she still hated them.

“Was it because of Stella?”

“Yes…”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s not your fault.”

She shook her head. In the past, she believed that he had betrayed and sold his country for his own good.

However, after getting to know him, she realized that couldn’t be what happened. And thinking about it, the rumor itself was wrong. If he had been working with another country, why was he abducted?

“When I was being dragged by Stephen, I thought it was good that it was me. If it had been you… it would have driven me crazy.”

Even thinking about it horrified her, especially so as she knew the future. She had thought it would be better for her to die now if she only could stop the war by doing so.

She looked like she was about to cry, and it hurt Edgar. He wanted to say he had been crazy until he found her again. How would he have lived the rest of his life without her?

If Stephen had asked for Stella’s blueprint in exchange for her life, he wouldn’t have hesitated to give all the information he had.

And, if he had done that, she would have refused to see him ever again.

“Then when did you meet me? While you were working at the abbey?”

He changed the topic to lighten the mood. She blushed and nodded, which looked extremely cute.

‘Shit.’

That was the reason why he couldn’t help getting jealous. He had to try hard to not speak sharply.

“Was I good-looking then?”

“Huh? Oh, no. You were just plain-looking.”

Rubica pouted, a little offended.

“I do like pretty faces, but I do not fall in love because of beauty.”

She was right. Even though she had looked at him with interest when they first met, she had hated him.

It was a miracle that she was now at his side, wiping his sweat. How did he melt her frozen heart? Even Edgar himself didn’t know.

“I think… your appearance had changed because of tortures. Maybe that was when you were blinded.”

After that, she told him briefly about the rumors about him which she had heard in her previous lie.

Most of them made no sense that he couldn’t even laugh at them, but he could easily guess what must have happened.

“Stephen must have waited for me to finish designing Stella and kidnapped me.”

Everything had happened exactly the time he was supposed to finish the blueprint. They probably had kidnapped him and blinded him so that he wouldn’t be able to make any weapon deadlier than Stella. Stephen had been on it all along…

“We should give up on Stella.”

She demanded, but he couldn’t easily say yes. She, however, couldn’t understand why he was hesitating.

Seritos was a kingdom that survived by selling weapons, but even this country wasn’t ready for a weapon that could kill thousands in just one time.

“We don’t have to make it, this kingdom can survive without it.”

“There isn’t… much mana stone left in the Seritos Mountains.”

He had no choice but to reveal the secret he had been hiding with the king, and she was utterly shocked to hear the unexpected news.

Seritos couldn’t survive without mana stones. As the kingdom heavily depended on it, it would immediately fall without it.

“I thought of Stella to get the Golden Land. I thought that the weapon was needed.”

“But do we really need Stella to fight Ios?”

She had every reason to ask the question. Ios was a fool that trusted his own strength too much. Stephen had even succeeded in escaping from him.

However, that had been possible only because it had been a short fight. Tactics were not enough to win a war.

Not every soldier could be as good as Stephen. The sandstorm and rain of rocks which Ios had summoned had been enough to kill thousands.

“That dragon is too stupid that he has to take it to the end.”

“But he seemed to be afraid of you, a nymph.”

Rubica explained how Ios had come to her for her roses. Ios had even more remarkable powers than Edgar had expected, like changing form and stopping time.

He frowned hard at the part about how Rubica had managed to fool the dragon and escape danger.

It was good that Ios was surprisingly stupid, but if he had been only just a bit smarter, her life would have been in danger.

“If such a thing happens again, tell me first.”

“Okay.”

“And don’t get yourself involved in dangerous matters to save me.”

“You shouldn’t do that either.”

He frowned even harder at hearing that unexpected answer. He couldn’t understand what Rubica was saying for a moment.

“No, I can’t promise you that.”

“Then neither can I. I’m supposed to do nothing even if you are in danger? How am I supposed to do that?”