Winter Field Chapter 18

Absorbed in watching the people, Rensley did not immediately understand the Grand Duke’s words and simply stared ahead. It was only after a brief pause that he asked again.

“Pardon?”

“There is no need to remain in attendance throughout the banquet. Let us go up now.”

“Ah…”

To be honest, Rensley’s feelings were that even if he could not go down to the hall and dance, he at least wanted to watch a little longer. But he was in no position to whine about what he wanted, and the Grand Duke’s expression was laying bare the fact that he had not a shred of interest in the banquet before his eyes.

Left with no choice, Rensley hesitantly straightened the train of his dress and rose to his feet. When the two stood up from the high table, the gazes of the people, who had been busy reveling, converged on them at once.

It was then. The Grand Duke approached closely and suddenly wrapped his arm around Rensley’s back. Before he could even ask what he was doing, the Grand Duke leaned over slightly, scooped his arm beneath the skirt as well, and lifted his entire body up with a swift motion. Waaaah! Cheers and applause mixed with laughter poured from the crowd.

Rensley’s body stiffened. The sparkle of the banquet lighting stabbed at his eyes and the ceiling spun round and round dizzily. He had lifted someone up like this in his life, but never once been on the receiving end, and cold sweat formed on his forehead and back.

“Y-Your Highness. Wh-what is this now…”

The Grand Duke’s voice that came back was low and composed.

“It is part of the wedding ceremony procedure.”

“Ah, yes. I-I see…”

Come to think of it, regardless of rank, most wedding ceremonies concluded with the scene of the groom lifting the bride and carrying her to the bridal chamber. It’s a perfectly normal thing, perfectly normal.

Rensley tried diligently to drive out the anxious questions creeping into his head, but it was no easy task.

‘He can’t possibly, can’t possibly, can’t possibly actually intend to spend the wedding night, could he? He hasn’t forgotten that, though I may be wearing a dress and producing a woman’s voice right now, strip off just one layer and I’m a man with the very same equipment dangling between my legs as his?’

He had never once heard a rumor that Grand Duke Gisel enjoyed sodomy, but having already confirmed that the strange rumors about him up to now held little credence, he was instead terrified that he could not predict what might emerge. And he could not bring himself to voice it, afraid that an unwelcome, resolute answer would come from those curt lips.

As though Rensley’s anxiety was of no consequence whatsoever, the Grand Duke strode out of the banquet hall without a single word in reply to the showering blessings and well-wishes. In his ceremonial armor and attire, he looked unnecessarily even more robust. Several attendants followed behind them.

The Grand Duke’s bedchamber was on the topmost floor of the main castle. When they wound up the spiral staircase and at last reached the Grand Duke’s bedchamber, the attendants advanced a few steps ahead and threw open the large doors.

The interior was similar to the Grand Duchess’s bedchamber, but everything from the size of the room to the windows, bed, fireplace, armchairs, and other furniture was larger, and a great banner bearing the royal crest hung on the wall.

It was a room where dignity naturally resided even amidst the appearance of comfort, but he could not look around to his heart’s content. He wished the Grand Duke would put him down now, yet the Grand Duke, still holding Rensley aloft, commanded the attendants.

“You are all dismissed. Let no one approach until I call.”

“Understood.”

The door closed with a hushed sound, and all signs of people vanished completely.

Having walked unhesitatingly to the bed, the Grand Duke slowly lowered Rensley down. The sensation of his body sinking through the air regardless of his own will was bizarre. Rensley let out a sound like a fool as he plopped down onto the soft mattress.

Immediately, the Grand Duke’s hands reached toward his head. The golden crown that had encircled his head throughout the wedding ceremony was removed, and the gossamer veil that still faintly obscured his face was lifted away.

Into Rensley’s now-clear field of vision, the features of the man who had become his husband, if only in formality, came into sharp relief. Without realizing it, Rensley called out aloud to the man gazing silently down at him.

“Your Highness…”

Ah. His voice had returned.

Rensley touched his own throat. To regain his voice the moment they left the banquet hall—had Larkov even calculated the time when the two would depart the banquet?

The Grand Duke, who had bent down to lift Rensley’s veil, straightened his upper body.

“I intend to go back down to the study.”

“…The study? Do you mean the underground chamber?”

Now, of all times, he was saying he would go not to the banquet hall but to that underground chamber?

At the unexpected words, Rensley stared at him vacantly. But the Grand Duke answered in a tone no different from usual.

“There is a matter I have been continuously researching of late. I wish to make up for the time delayed due to the wedding ceremony. As tonight is meant to be spent as our wedding night, Prince Malosen, please rest here.”

“Then Your Highness.”

“There is a bed in the study as well, so I shall sleep there. Would you not also be more comfortable falling asleep alone? For help disrobing, or food, or anything else, if you go through Madam Samrit, she will bring you whatever you need. I will give instructions that no one else is to approach, so rest without concern.”

As he spoke, he unfastened the decorations attached to his shoulders and collar one by one. With an air that suggested the formal wedding attire had been exceedingly bothersome, he placed them carelessly on the table and even swept his fingers roughly upward through his neatly arranged hair, disheveling it again.

“From tomorrow, you may return to the Grand Duchess’s chambers and reside there. As planned in advance, it would be best not to stray from there as much as possible until the next course of action is decided.”

“Ah, yes. Of course… I understand.”

The Grand Duke, who had concluded the conversation that was close to a unilateral notification without so much as a glance back at Rensley’s face, stepped onto the round stone slab placed in one corner of the room.

“Well then.”

When he stood upon the stone slab engraved with a magic circle and gestured, a blue light surged up in an instant. The next moment, Grand Duke Siebendad’s form was already nowhere to be seen in the bedchamber.

The royal castle of Cornia also had magical transportation devices, but naturally there was none in Rensley’s room, and he had hardly ever seen one actually in use. Rensley blinked at the spot where the Grand Duke had vanished, then shifted his gaze and looked around the bedchamber.

Seated on the bed, he strained his ears to the surroundings and stared into the empty air. Perhaps because it was the highest floor of the main tower, it was utterly silent, with not a hint of outside noise seeping in. He was truly all alone in the spacious room.

The boisterous banquet he had glimpsed briefly and the voices of the people so utterly elated already felt like a dream. A sudden chill ran through him, and he clutched the bedding where he sat.

‘From now on, I’m to live practically confined to my room, right?’

Rensley, who had grown gloomy, shook his head vigorously. What a shameless thought. How many days had it even been since he had floundered between life and death? They had said until the next course of action was decided. Until then…

Rensley stared vacantly down at the tips of his own feet, then rose to his feet. In the Grand Duke’s bedchamber, just like everywhere else, a cord hung beside the bed.

“Rensley!”

When he pulled the cord, before long Madam Samrit entered the bedchamber. She approached Rensley with a bright smile.

“You were so, so beautiful today. You were a perfect Grand Duchess, I tell you. Watching from afar, I can’t tell you how proud I was. You must be hungry. Shall I prepare a meal for you?”

“Yes. Perhaps because I was so nervous, I’m hungry.”

“Still, I think it would be best to change out of your clothes first. Let’s remove your makeup as well, and relieve your fatigue starting with a bath. And is there anything else you need?”

Rensley nodded toward her, smiling back, and answered immediately as if he had been waiting.

“Alcohol.”

“Alcohol? You want to drink?”

“Yes. Please bring plenty, enough and to spare. Beer is fine, wine is fine, rum is fine too. Watching others drink, I can’t tell you how much I wanted some myself. I’m curious what the alcohol in Oldenland tastes like.”

Madam Samrit soon nodded and laughed warmly. As she unfastened the knots of Rensley’s dress, she began to boast.