Chapter 11 – Newlyweds

As there was no clear excuse she could make, she made do with a vague reason.
“I knew that the power of wealth Viscount Liart had, but I didn’t think it would be this powerful.” 

As Kalix didn’t know the truth, he simply believed what she said.
Even though he could have quickly seen through her lie if he had thought about it for just a moment.

Though Viscount Liart was certainly rich, he didn’t have the power to completely identify the going-ons of territories that he had never even seen.
If he were able to accomplish something so amazing in the first place, he wouldn’t have fallen for the emperor’s scheme and given his daughter to Kalix.

‘Is this person… Does he really think that I would never lie to him?’ Amber once again realized that her husband was truly younger.

“Seeing as you’re asking how I was able to find out means that what I’m saying is true, isn’t it? The truth that Your Excellency doesn’t actually need to participate in this subjugation?”

At Amber’s correct assumption, Kalix made an expression as if he realized his mistake, but it was too late.
“My wife, I…”

“It’s fine.
I told you after all.
I completely understand how you detest this marriage and the sight of my face.”

Kalix kept his mouth shut tight with a stunned expression.

“The reason why I’ve come to you, by which I mean, there is just one thing that I wish from you.”

The candlelight flickered again and the shadows cast from the two wavered on the walls.

“I wish for you to show me courtesy we are together in front of others so that I will be able to live well here,” Amber turned her stare away from the swaying shadows towards Kalix and spoke with clarity in each of her words.
“If you promise to be careful in front of others, I won’t mind it at all whether you go somewhere for any reason or don’t come back home to the bedchamber for several days.
You can even have a mistress if you wish, as long as you respect the position that I am in.”

Kalix’s eyes opened wide at her words.
In the conservative lands of the East, for a wife to not concern herself with the private life of her husband, and to even allow a mistress was unheard of.

“It’s not a bad condition for you isn’t it, Your Excellency?” Amber asked, but Kalix didn’t answer as he thought deeply about what he just heard.
Amber assumed that he was simply delighted about the amazing position he would have by accepting her request that he couldn’t find the words to say.

“The first thing you need to do is to inform me ahead of time if you need to leave the castle for a while.
And I want you to stay for at least 3 weeks so that you can help me adapt to the castle.”

“I understand.
I will only send the knights for this subjugation.” Though he obviously preferred otherwise, his agreement was an agreement.

“And…” Before she went on to what she wanted to say next, Amber studied Kalix’s expression with a quick, sneaky glance.

During the walk to the drill hall behind Grace, Amber had thought deeply about what she needed to request from Kalix and made her decision when she once again met her husband in the drill hall.

In order to start her new life, in order to change her married life that ended in a terrible manner, there was one thing she definitely needed.

‘But will it be possible?’ Amber’s heart raced with nervousness.
What she was requesting him to do was something that had never happened in the Eastern Lands. ‘But this is what I absolutely need.’ Amber breathed in deeply to calm down her racing heart.

She would carry out what she has determined to do.
No matter the obstacles, she would not falter.

Amber reflected on a passage that was inside the adventure novel that she read when she was young and had since been her creed.

“And please, speak to me with honorifics.”