Chapter 70

Chapter 70

“Just a rash, huh…? What if it leaves a scar that can never be erased?”

“Hm? No, that won’t happen.”

“Let’s say it does. If something like that happens, are you going to keep wearing something like this in front of me for the rest of your life?”

Leonard’s hand reached for the veil covering Irenea’s face.

The moment he did, Irenea startled and grabbed his hand with both of hers.

“W-Well… I haven’t really thought that far ahead.”

“Then think about it now.”

At Leonard’s low, subdued voice, Irenea answered with a hint of discomfort.

“Why do I have to think about something like that? I’m really fine. The Imperial Physician will treat me, and there’s Woody, too.”

“You never know what the future holds. What if you end up with an injury that neither of them, nor anyone else, can treat?”

Silence briefly settled between them.

“What if a scar appears on your skin, one that can never be erased?”

At that moment, Irenea’s grip tightened, and her nails dug into the back of Leonard’s hand.

Faint red lines remained where she had scratched him.

Startled by what she had done, Irenea abruptly released his hand, but this time Leonard seized hers.

“Are you going to keep hiding like this?”

“Would… would that be so wrong?”

There was a faint trace of resentment in Irenea’s voice as she asked.

Her face was hidden behind the veil, so Leonard couldn’t see her expression at all.

And yet, somehow, he felt as though he knew exactly what she looked like.

‘Please, just pretend you don’t notice. I know it, too. My reaction isn’t normal.’

‘Don’t get the wrong idea. Just because you pulled me out of that hell doesn’t mean you have the right to interfere in my affairs.’

Right. Now he finally understood why he felt so utterly miserable.

One moment, she would pull him close, making him lose his bearings with words like I’m yours and You’re mine. Then, before he could even react, she would shove him right back across the line.

Leonard let out a hollow laugh and asked in a somewhat incredulous voice,

“Rin, who am I? What am I to you?”

“What do you mean, what…? You’re my husband.”

“Exactly. I’m your husband. So why am I the only one who never gets to see how badly my wife is hurt, and gets pushed away every single time?”

Back in the VIP compartment, when he had rushed over and found Irenea curled up on the floor, Leonard hadn’t felt nearly this miserable.

He had been told in advance that things would turn out this way.

He had received repeated assurances that her health would not be affected.

He had even secretly tested the poison on himself to make sure it would cause a rash.

If anything, he should have been happy that everything had gone according to Irenea’s plan.

But just as he had approached to take her somewhere safe…

‘Stop! Don’t come any closer!’

‘It’s all right, Rin. It’s me, Ray.’

‘I know. You… You stay away. Stay right there.’

The back she had turned toward him had been more impenetrable than any wall.

Unable to close the distance between them, Leonard had no choice but to stand there and stare at Irenea’s back.

‘Poison? What poison? That little brat is standing there perfectly alive! What poison could I possibly have sprayed on her?! I didn’t do anything!’

Yes, it was the words Viscount Calio had spat out that had made Leonard lose his temper.

It had undoubtedly been an outlet for his anger.

If Peter and Theord hadn’t stopped him, Leonard might genuinely have beaten the man to death.

“Why wouldn’t you let me come near you on the train? Don’t you trust me? Is that why you can’t rely on me?”

“What kind of ridiculous thing is that? It’s just that I…”

Irenea hesitated, fumbling for words, before continuing cautiously, as though confessing a secret she had kept hidden for a long time.

“I didn’t want you to see me looking so hideous.”

But that reason did nothing to convince Leonard.

“Do you think scars on the body are ugly? Then I suppose you must think the same when you look at mine.”

After years of working as a mercenary, Leonard’s body was covered in scars, both large and small.

He immediately began unbuttoning his shirt to show her the scars across his chest, prompting Irenea to shake her head in alarm.

“I’ve never thought that! It’s just… men and women are different.”

“Who says men and women are different?”

“It’s just… That’s what everyone says.”

Irenea answered in a feeble voice and turned her head aside, as though avoiding his gaze.

Leonard stared silently at the veil covering her face, his jaw clenched tight.

‘This isn’t like you.’

Even when she had introduced him as her marriage partner after meeting him only twice, and even when she had told him to sign that agreement if he wanted Rayze Messer returned, Irenea had always worn a confident expression.

He couldn’t believe that the very same woman now couldn’t bring herself to stand proudly before him over something as trivial as a rash on her face.

‘If I’d known this would happen, I should have opposed it to the very end.’

Was her insistence that she was fine really true?

His unease turned into hurt, and Leonard’s voice grew darker.

“Anyway, you’re saying you have no intention of taking off that veil in front of me until the rash disappears.”

“…”

Irenea hesitated to answer, but Leonard nodded as though he had already heard enough.

“If you want to rest comfortably, then I should leave. All right. Get some sleep.”

When Leonard stood up after saying that, Irenea hurriedly raised her upper body.

“Wait. Where are you going?”

“Anywhere. Surely there’s a room for me to sleep in somewhere in this enormous castle.”

In other words, Leonard was saying they would sleep in separate rooms.

Irenea hastily grabbed his hand and asked,

“Have you forgotten the agreement we signed? We agreed that no matter what happened, we wouldn’t sleep in separate rooms.”

“Would you really be comfortable with me sleeping beside you? I might lift your veil while you’re asleep and take a look at your face.”

“…”

Irenea couldn’t bring herself to say that it was all right.

Instead, she clutched the edge of her veil with both hands, and Leonard turned away.

“Get some rest. I’ll turn off the lights, so don’t even think about looking at those documents.”

“…You should sleep well, too.”

Leonard gave a slight shrug, extinguished all the lamps in the bedroom except one, and carried the remaining lamp out with him.

The door closed, and the room was swallowed by deep darkness.

Inside, Irenea removed the veil covering her face and bit down hard on her lower lip, feeling miserable.

“You don’t understand how I feel at all…”

Her face had to look hideous before she could even consider showing it to him.

When she carefully felt her face with her hands, she could feel the raised patches of rash all over her forehead and cheeks.

She hadn’t told Leonard, but Irenea had been frightened when she looked in the mirror and saw just how much worse the rash was than she had expected.

Just as he had said, what if it really did leave a permanent scar?

“No. Woody said it would be fine.”

It wouldn’t leave any scars.

After a little time, she would regain her smooth, beautiful complexion just as it had been before.

Repeating those reassurances to herself, Irenea tried to fall asleep, doing her best to ignore the emptiness beside her.

The following morning.

After finishing breakfast, the Crown Princess’s party boarded the train and headed straight for the capital, taking the tightly bound Viscount Calio and his aide, Peter, with them.

“If the charges of conspiring with an alchemist are proven, the trial will begin immediately. As the victim and a witness, you will also receive a summons, so make sure to take care of yourself.”

“Yes, Your Highness. I leave it in your hands.”

Leonard accompanied the Crown Princess’s party to the train station to see them off in Irenea’s place.

After watching them board safely and depart, Leonard headed for the docks instead of returning to the lord’s castle.

He boarded a warship anchored there and set sail for the southern waters.

His purpose was to completely eradicate the band of pirates that had established a new hideout on a small island in the archipelago.

“But was there really any reason for the Marquis Consort to go aboard that ship himself?”

Kiri, who had only heard the news later, asked Irenea.

She was already familiar with the contents of the patrol report on the southern waters, since she had reviewed it before submitting it to Irenea.

It was a report requesting permission for a warship to set sail, along with the accompaniment of capable knights, after remnants of the pirate gangs had been discovered in the archipelago of the southern waters.

The request for knights to accompany the expedition wasn’t because the pirates were particularly skilled.

It was to cut off their escape routes, which they had managed to slip through like loaches every time, and finally wipe them out for good.

There was absolutely no reason for someone as distinguished as the Marquis Consort to personally go along on an expedition to eliminate a few pirate remnants.

“There is a reason. That man ran away from home.”

“Pardon? Ran away from home?”

At Kiri’s astonished question, Irenea drove her fork into a tomato.

There was no one around she needed to hide from, so she had taken off her veil.

Her jaw tightened as she chewed the tomato thoroughly.

“We had something like a marital quarrel yesterday.”

“A marital quarrel? Good heavens! How long have you even been married?”

“Do you need to have been married for a certain amount of time to quarrel? A married couple can fight as much as they like, even on their wedding night.”

“My goodness, how can you speak as though you know so much about it? Anyone listening would think you’d been married for thirty years!”

“Thirty years…? It hasn’t been that long.”

Watching the newlywed bride seriously calculate how long she had been married, Kiri let out a short laugh.

She assumed Irenea was simply joking.

“So how did you end up having a marital quarrel? After boasting so much about how well you two get along.”

Emily, who was standing beside Irenea and attending to her meal, asked with an expression of intense curiosity.

Irenea was about to put a piece of roasted mushroom into her mouth, but she set down her fork as though Emily had asked the perfect question.

“I suppose he didn’t like me wearing a veil in front of him.”

“What? Why?”

“He said he wanted to see for himself that I was really all right, but I refused to show him my face until the very end. Then he asked whether I intended to keep wearing this in front of him until the day I died if the scars remained on my face. I just didn’t want him to see me looking hideous, but is that really something Leonard should feel hurt about?”

“Hmm, I’m not sure…”

Even Kiri thought Irenea’s face looked rather bad right now.

It was only natural that she would wear a veil to hide it.

What woman would want to show her husband a face like that?

But when it came to whether Leonard had any reason to feel hurt about it…

Honestly, Kiri couldn’t give her an answer.

The feeling of being hurt belonged to Leonard, after all.

Who was she to decide whether his feelings were justified or not?

The answer was no one.

So Kiri simply shook her head, admitting that she didn’t know.

Unlike Kiri, who had reached that conclusion, Emily placed the fork back in Irenea’s hand, urging her to finish her meal, and gave a firm answer.

“Perhaps the Marquis Consort was simply hurt because the Marchioness…”