# 15
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Kenneth hoped that the woman with her injured ankle would remain quietly in her room, and continued speaking: “I thought you would complain about the empire’s weather once you arrived, but you are surprising me.”
"Ha! I'm not complaining about everything in the empire."
That was a lie. Damian harmlessly mocked every part of Cremisa. Nothing, from the humidity to the air and the heat, satisfied him.
“Today, the weather is relatively good for Netia...”
Damian's voice trailed off. There was a strange noise at the crossroads to the main palace.
Kenneth made a gesture with his eyes to wait, then advanced to the path covered with bushes.
The voices of panicked servants mingled in the palace, but Kenneth's voice cut through the noise sharply.
“…Why did you come here?”
“I was walking and got lost on the way.”
Kenneth sighed in distress.
This sound made Damian very surprised.
'Clifford this?'
How could a man who seemed to be protected by a sacred grace, almost immortal, show his feelings so clearly?
Damian couldn't hold back his curiosity, so he walked forward to find an even bigger surprise waiting for him.
It was Kenneth Clifford, his face showing pure annoyance.
Throughout their interaction, this was the first time he lost his composure.
But what really made Damian lose his speech was something else.
A woman wearing a bright blue dress, carrying a small basket of flowers.
Under the shadows of the leaves, her blue eyes were like glass beads, sparkling.
“Ah…”
Damian couldn't help himf, and let out a choked sob.
As a patriot, he believed that Dobris women were the best, but this woman severely shook that belief.
The woman put the flower basket back in her hands and whispered:
“Hello, there seems to be a guest at the palace.”
“Ah… hello, ma’am.”
Damian gave a sociable smile as if nothing had happened, but a voice in his mind was muttering desperately:
‘Please, say she is the Duke’s cousin.’
But the Duke had no relatives now.
So, is she...?
Kenneth approached the woman and began to speak slowly:
“You didn't see her well at the wedding, did you? Let me introduce her. This is my wife, Ariana Clifford. And this is Marquis Damien Baptiste from the neighboring kingdom.”
...So, the bad feeling is never wrong.
But Damian smiled indifferently and took off his hat to greet the woman:
“Nice to meet you.”
“So do I, Monsieur Baptiste. I will do my best to ensure your comfort here.”
Damn, her voice is beautiful too.
Damian swallowed a laugh and corrected something in his mind:
Even if her notoriety had reached Dobris, the rumors about her beauty were never exaggerated.
Suddenly, a light breeze blew, making the shadows of the leaves dance above her head like waves.
Likewise, shadows danced in Kenneth's eyes as he watched the conversation between the guest from across the sea and Ariana.
***
When the guest disappeared into his residence, Kenneth released the hand of Ariana, who was accompanying her. He maintained a calm smile, but distress was creeping through his nerves like a small snake.
“Who told you I'm here today?”
"no one."
Ariana answered calmly.
Everything Ariana did was guessing based on the tea. If she made a mistake, that's okay, and if she got it right, it was a win.
‘If I were to settle in Dobris, wouldn’t Marquis Baptiste be the most suitable as an ally?’
At least, if you approached one of his subordinates, you might find a way.
Kenneth frowned coldly, looking at her extremely polite face:
“Didn’t I warn you not to walk around freely?”
“You mentioned a lot of things I shouldn't do.”
Ariana tightened her grip on the flower basket:
“But I was just taking a walk and greeted your guest. Isn’t that polite?”
"a guest."
Kenneth remembered the greeting scene and silently sneered:
“Your husband does not give you pleasure, so are you really looking for a lover?”
Ariana froze for a few seconds at Kenneth's question.
She heard his words, but did not understand his meaning.
"What? A lover?"
“You said that a few days ago, don’t you remember?”
“That was...!”
Ariana finally remembered what Kenneth was making fun of
“So I'm going to look for fun here now.”
Is he making fun of her words for luring him into bed like that?
Ariana's face turned red and she stammered:
“Do you think that, because I have never found pleasure, I will immediately run off to look for a lover...?”
“Well, I have to trust you first.”
Kenneth replied coldly.
He knew that this sarcasm was a bit unfair.
Wasn't it Damien Baptiste who was clearly showing interest?
'I must warn him strongly.'
However, his childish behavior was because he had never seen Ariana, when she was in Aberdeen, speak so comfortably before.
He lost his family, was hit by gunfire, and was torn apart by knives, but survived, and yet he gets upset over something so trivial?
This was the paradox of life.
'And an ignorant woman who does not even know how to court the one who saved her life...'
His torn nerves calmed as he saw Ariana's cheeks redden. The light pink color suited her face, but the darker shades weren't bad either.
He tasted her flushed face with his eyes and laughed:
“You've never been out here for a walk before.”
"With an injured ankle, you wandered in here. Doesn't that mean there's another reason?"
"And in your opinion, it was because of a man. Because I..."
Her hands that were holding the basket trembled.
Ariana felt pain tearing through her insides.
But she uttered the words that ate her heart:
“Because I am a woman ing for a living?”
“Wow, you're so objective about yourf.”
“My lord the duke-”
“But isn't that true?”
At that moment, Ariana wanted to scream or burst out laughing like crazy.
Could her beautiful love from days gone by fall into the mud like this?
“Such an offer is made when the driver is not present.”
He had previously teased her harshly, but there was a slight kindness.
Where did that man go, leaving this cruel person behind?
In her life before death, she blamed herf.
If I hadn't invited him to the stage. If my family didn't covet...
'So I didn't confront Kenneth in that way back then.'
Before her eyes, everything turned white, and she wanted to respond, but a thought stopped her: ‘Why should I be angry?’
Josefina was always angry because she loved Ariana.
So, anger and screaming were an extension of love.
But those feelings ended when she confessed her love and committed suicide with a gun.
'I'm here to meet my baby girl. This is the most important.
You no longer need other feelings.
Why did Kenneth come to her silently? Who put that gun in her bed, even though she might shoot Kenneth?
The unsolved mysteries of her past life, she will now let go.
With this thought, her boiling anger slowly subsided, and her torn pain subsided.
Ariana lowered her eyelashes and whispered:
"If I caused a misunderstanding, I'm sorry. It wasn't intentional...I was incautious."
“I will not attend dinner, I will leave it to the servants and the head butler.”
Normally, palace banquets were the responsibility of the lady of the house, but in this house, she had no role.
Life as a puppet belonging only to Kenneth.
But if she ended this painful conversation, she could retreat to that life temporarily.
Kenneth closed his eyes and sighed deeply:
“What's the point of apologizing after what you did? Didn't you see what happened to your family?”
“Bring dinner. Be gentle, then leave.”
Kenneth turned towards the suite again, but his gaze fell for the first time on the woman’s hand, which avoided speaking: “Those flowers?”
Ariana tightened her grip on the flower basket even more.
Words she couldn't say festered in her mouth:
‘These are flowers for my baby girl.’