Chapter : 3
What on earth was going on?
Shurkan seemed more accustomed to moving himself than giving orders to others.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have opened the carriage, stepped inside, picked me up in his arms, and started walking without hesitation.
The carriage door, which hadn’t been locked, opened far too easily.
Erich followed behind us, talking nonstop.
“Your Grace, Your Grace! Are you really, truly going to marry this concubine…?”
“I said I am. Stop making such a fuss and get out of here.”
“No, no, that’s not what I mean…! But since you’re taking a Grand Duchess, shouldn’t you at least ask the young lady what she thinks…?”
Shurkan suddenly stopped.
He looked down at me and asked,
“Do you dislike it?”
“What?”
Shurkan didn’t have much patience.
His brow quickly furrowed in displeasure.
“Your jaw is going to fall off. If the idea of marrying a wild mixed-blood disgusts you, say so now.”
“N-No, it’s not that…”
My voice wouldn’t come out properly.
Shurkan’s eyes were right in front of me, and I could see my own reflection in them.
I still couldn’t get used to it.
“I’m just shocked. I don’t find you disgusting. It’s absolutely not like that…”
Even in the middle of all this, I didn’t forget to make my feelings clear to him.
I didn’t want to anger Shurkan, the male lead.
I still had no idea how the situation had ended up like this.
Shurkan stared at me for a moment before giving a short answer.
“Then it’s fine.”
After walking for a while, Shurkan took me somewhere.
Coincidentally, it was the very office where we had first met.
This had originally been one of the central offices mainly used by the Emperor.
The Pasa Empire was the only empire on the continent, and the old Emperor enjoyed extravagance so much that he had altars covered in jewels installed everywhere he went.
Shurkan walked all the way to the altar before finally putting me down.
I still couldn’t shake off my dazed feeling.
I was actually going to have my wedding here…
Quite a few knights had seen us on the way here.
They were all nobles with commander ranks, and they were busy whispering among themselves.
“The Grand Duke is holding a wedding ceremony with that concubine from Pasa!”
“What?”
“But isn’t she extraordinarily beautiful? Isn’t he worried? What if she has the Pasa Emperor’s child in her stomach?”
“She hasn’t slept with him!”
“That was actually the reason he got into an argument with the Commander-in-Chief…”
Thud.
“……”
At the same time, something heavy landed on top of my head.
Shurkan had taken the cloak he had been wearing over one shoulder and thrown it over my head.
It was so large that it felt as if an entire animal’s fur had been peeled off and turned into a cloak.
Yet there wasn’t even the slightest bad smell.
Instead, it had a warm, comforting scent, like stepping inside a giant bird’s nest.
Before I could even recover, my hand was grabbed.
With the thick cloak completely blocking my vision, all I could see were the marble floor and Shurkan’s long legs, long as those of a stallion.
“Grand Duke Gonette!”
It was then that I heard Duke Baetan’s angry voice.
“Are you really going to take things this far?! Do you have absolutely no respect for the Commander-in-Chief?!”
“You expected respect from a mere mercenary bastard? I had no idea.”
At the mocking question, Duke Baetan shouted in genuine fury.
“There isn’t even a priest here! A marriage performed without a priest isn’t recognized by the Holy Kingdom!”
“Really? Then why don’t the great Commander-in-Chief call one?”
“Hah!”
Duke Baetan laughed as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
He seemed to even clutch his stomach as he laughed.
Then he stopped laughing and gave an order in a voice filled with venom.
“Anyone who calls a priest will be considered insubordinate and executed on the spot!”
Under the cloak covering my vision, I saw Shurkan’s feet shift at an angle.
“You’re really being pathetic.”
“If your swordsmanship were as good as your mouth, I might have respected you too. Instead of wasting time wagging your tongue, why don’t you train your swordsmanship?”
“How dare you…”
“Isn’t it true? How many times have I saved our great Commander-in-Chief when he was about to die?”
Duke Baetan seemed overwhelmed by intense anger and humiliation.
“Grand Duke Shurkan Gonette!”
“Commander! Please restrain yourself!”
Shurkan seemed to have completely lost interest in Duke Baetan.
He turned his back on him entirely and looked at me instead.
His feet were now pointing toward me.
“Laurel.”
Was he calling me by my nickname?
“Look at me.”
Shurkan gently pulled the cloak away from my face and took something out from inside his clothes.
It was a small glass bottle.
Clear liquid swayed inside it.
People who went to war normally carried a small amount of holy water with them.
If someone died, their companions would pour the holy water over the dead person’s chest.
They did this while praying that the deceased would safely return to the arms of God.
So this holy water was, well, holy water, but…
Drip.
Drip.
“……!”
A few drops of holy water fell onto my forehead.
It was neither cold nor hot.
Only a clear, refreshing sensation touched my skin.
Shurkan poured the remaining holy water over his own head.
Then he lightly kissed my lips.
Goosebumps spread all over my body.
“Tell them that this former imperial concubine is no longer a spoil of war. She is now the Grand Duchess of Gonette.”
Former imperial concubine.
Now that Pasa had fallen, all of the Emperor’s countless beautiful women would become ‘former imperial concubines,’ regardless of their rank.
Soon, shocked voices came from all around us.
“Sh-Shurkan Gonette…!”
“Surely he isn’t going to make us watch them consummate the marriage here? He’d have to be insane.”
Seeing my face turn pale, Shurkan pulled the hood of his cloak down over my eyes.
“Go to sleep. If you’re a precious young lady, you should be seeing nothing but good things.”
His indifferent voice continued.
“Cover your ears yourself.”
“……”
I was put back into the carriage.
The door clicked shut.
But Shurkan didn’t get inside with me.
Was he going in another carriage?
Or was he following on horseback?
I became slightly curious and cautiously poked my head out.
Then, as if by magic, my eyes met a pair of red eyes outside the window.
Shurkan tilted his chin slightly.
“Go ahead first. I have a few things to take care of in exchange for your life.”
“……”
“It won’t take long.”
“…Yes.”
Could a male lead really be this good at reading other people’s expressions?
I quietly lowered my head.
The cloak once again covered my eyes.
Shurkan’s voice entered my ears.
“Move out.”
Soon, the carriage began to roll.
At the same time, a huge commotion broke out outside, almost like a dogfight.
I could even hear the voice of a high-ranking priest who was familiar to me because he had often visited the Northern Kingdom.
“Lady Laureltianna! Please stop for a moment!”
‘Even a high-ranking priest came here?’
Well, Pasa’s gates had been breached, and the Empire had already fallen, so it wasn’t strange for anyone to come.
Especially since the Great Temple had even gone so far as to create some strange condition and argue among themselves over whether they could take me or not.
Why on earth had the Great Temple wanted to take me?
And why did they specifically say they would only take me if I hadn’t slept with the Emperor?
I couldn’t understand their intentions at all.
“Lady Laureltianna! The High Priests absolutely must have you…!”
I didn’t want to hear any more.
I curled up and covered my ears.
The fur cloak wrapped around my body was warm and thick.
It felt as though the entire season had changed simply because of this one piece of fabric.
Yet even then, the doubts kept returning.
Really?
Was I really going to survive like this?
My hands trembled slightly.
The commotion gradually grew more distant and eventually faded away.
‘I survived…’
I clasped my trembling hands together and pressed my face, damp with cold sweat, against them.
‘The male lead saved me…’
I felt like I was going to cry.
I was so relieved that my whole body became weak with exhaustion.
But at the same time, another thought came to me.
‘I have to repay him.’
Shurkan had fought with the second male lead and even gone as far as making me, at least temporarily, the Grand Duchess just so he could take me with him.
A debt like that couldn’t be settled with a mere map of the Pasa Imperial Palace.
Then Erich’s words flashed through my mind.
“If we think about the situation of our territory, wouldn’t that be a problem?”
He was right.
In fact, according to the original story, the Grand Duchy of Gonette went bankrupt once.
‘Let’s prevent the bankruptcy first. If I scrape together all the knowledge from the original story and the memories from my previous life, it should definitely be possible.’
Then, even if Shurkan eventually met Ayu, the heroine, and fell deeply in love with her, he would still remember all the effort I had put in for him.
Surely he’d give me a considerable amount of money, right?
‘Good. I can do this.’
I would stick close to the male lead’s side and do my very best.
Then I wouldn’t die young in this life!
