At those words, Pesha’s complexion briefly turned pale.
‘Of course he would. The man who was supposed to marry Io exchanged rings with me, after all.’
It was not comforting in the slightest.
She was listlessly listening to the maids’ words of comfort when Owen, who had been talking with the knights, approached them.
“The sun will set soon, so we cannot rest for long. Let us get back in the carriage.”
“Ah, yes.”
Pesha forced a smile and climbed back into the carriage, sighing deeply to herself.
Just as her mind was growing hazy in the uncomfortable silence, after ten days of traveling by carriage, they finally arrived at Swapro, the territory of Count Namoi.
After getting down from the tiresome carriage, Pesha tapped her aching joints and gave herself a small stretch.
‘I thought I was going to die.’
Even setting aside Owen’s complete disregard for her, Pesha had never traveled a long distance before, and she writhed under the exhaustion and travel fatigue.
If the journey had taken even one more day, she would have collapsed from exhaustion.
As she rotated her stiff neck from side to side, Pesha suddenly made eye contact with Owen.
Had he been looking this way? The moment their eyes met, Owen averted his gaze.
‘What was that?’
She tilted her head in puzzlement when the butler of the estate appeared a step late.
There was no way he could not have been informed in advance that the lord and his wife were arriving at the estate, yet it was painfully obvious from his appearance that he had not been prepared and had hurriedly come out.
“My lord! It has been a year since I last saw you. Welcome back.”
“Mm.”
The butler was an elderly man with graying hair, dressed in a black butler’s uniform and sporting a mustache.
Not only had he failed to come out beforehand, but the way his back was awkwardly bent toward Owen made it look as though he was barely bothering to greet him.
‘Maybe he’s comfortable with him because he’s been working here for a long time?’
No, that was probably not it.
Owen Namoi had only held the title of count for a few years, so he had probably simply hired an elderly butler.
Even though he was not openly ignoring his master, there was a subtle air of looking down on him.
It was obvious that he still could not shake the thought that Owen was a commoner.
In fact, Owen was still frequently dismissed by nobles as being little different from a commoner, so why would commoners themselves see him any differently?
It was difficult to say that among Owen’s supporters, there were no people who supported him precisely because they felt a sense of kinship with him as someone from a commoner background.
The butler, too, seemed to have the same sort of mindset.
After giving Owen a perfunctory greeting, the butler noticed Pesha standing beside him and inhaled sharply in surprise.
“But might this lady be the rumored Lady Clark of House Clark? I heard she was a precious purification mage……!”
Pesha, who had just opened her mouth to greet the butler, froze like a stone.
His misunderstanding made not only Pesha, but Owen and the knights who had followed him, come to an abrupt stop.
It was understandable.
The more Owen accumulated achievements and Io’s purification abilities became widely known, the more people tended to associate the two of them, a young man and woman of marriageable age.
Although the original story’s course had changed because Io’s abilities had awakened early, the eastern region still needed purification power. Thus, until the Emperor’s command came down, Pesha too had firmly believed that if anyone were to become Owen’s wife, it would undoubtedly be Io.
In fact, the first marriage prospect discussed as part of Owen’s reward had been House Clark.
‘But who would have known Io’s father would scheme because he didn’t want to marry his daughter off to a commoner?’
Originally, Marquis Clark would have traded his kingdom’s land for his daughter…… But after recognizing the value of his daughter, whose abilities had awakened, Marquis Clark hid Io away in his territory under the excuse that she needed to recover and that there were problems in the Clark Marquisate that needed to be dealt with.
At the same time, he promoted House Rydell as the next-best option.
An ordinary father might have been reluctant to hand his precious daughter over to Owen, whose background was lacking, but Duke Rydell was different.
As though he had been waiting for the opportunity, he exchanged Pesha for land.
‘Right. I’m not even a son like Jeremy. I’m the child of his previous wife, after all…….’
The butler apparently had not yet heard the rumor that the woman who would become Owen’s bride had been changed.
Since he had heard that his master was getting married by the Emperor’s command, he had naturally assumed it was Lady Clark, the purification mage who had been the subject of rumors for so long.
Pesha forced a smile and tried to correct the misunderstanding through the awkward atmosphere.
But then, someone spoke before she could.
“Of course not, Mr. Roam. You’ve got it completely wrong. She’s not a mage, let alone a purification mage. She’s the Lady of House Rydell, and she has no abilities at all.”
It was a man with red hair sticking out like a lion’s mane, tied together at the back in a ponytail.
Having just dismounted from his horse, he handed the reins to the stableman and spoke in a blunt tone.
“If we were bringing a purification mage here as a bride, there’s no way the escort would be this small.”
“…….”
Thanks to the man helpfully pointing out even what did not need to be said, the butler belatedly realized his mistake and hurriedly apologized.
“I-I’m terribly sorry. I committed such a grave discourtesy because news reaches us so slowly! There were such high expectations for Lady Clark here in the territory that I simply…….”
Pesha lifted the corners of her lips as she looked at the crown of the butler’s head, bowed deeply before her.
“It’s all right. These things happen. It’s true that I don’t know how to use magic.”
The moment she acknowledged it, the atmosphere became solemn.
Everyone fell silent as though they did not know what to say.
After pausing for a moment, she continued.
“Still, I’m a little surprised that a well-trained knight would disregard all rules and basic courtesy.”
“What did you say?”
The red-haired knight’s face immediately twisted, despite having been so ready to sneer at her.
Pesha turned her head and stared at him before continuing to speak to the butler.
“Calling a woman who married your lord ‘Lady’ over and over again—could that possibly mean he has some objection to this marriage ordered by His Majesty the Emperor?”
“Hah! That’s quite a leap……!”
“It’s unfortunate. I thought manners were something any person could learn, even if they weren’t born with them like magic.”
She did not lose a single exchange.
Even when she openly embarrassed him, she neither flew into a rage nor shrank back.
Rather, her calm voice, pointing out his mistake, was like a quiet blade.
The knight had thought she was an ordinary woman with a gentle impression and a delicate figure, but for a moment, he was taken aback.
“Th-That’s not what I meant!”
Just as he was hurriedly trying to make an excuse under the stinging gazes of everyone around him—
“Jane. That’s enough.”
Owen ordered the knight.
It was a short command containing neither warning nor threat, but the knight, Jane, flinched in surprise.
Owen merely shifted his eyes toward Jane with an expressionless face before speaking.
“She is my wife.”
Those few words carried more weight than a hundred words of reprimand.
Jane’s face went pale, and he bowed his head deeply toward Pesha as he apologized.
“I’m sorry…… My lady……. Please forgive my rudeness…….”
Pesha answered with a smile, as though she had never gotten into an argument with him in the first place.
Owen turned his gaze away from Jane, who had somehow ended up being the one who acted arrogantly all by himself and then apologized all by himself, and looked at the butler.
“I’m tired. I’d like to rest now.”
“Yes. I’ll escort you to the room we prepared!”
The butler hurriedly gestured for the maids to gather around.
Then the tallest maid among them stepped forward and, after listening to his instructions, asked a question.
“Butler. What should we do about the marital bedroom that is still under construction?”
“Under construction?”
What on earth were they renovating?
And shouldn’t they have finished the work before the master arrived?
As Pesha looked bewildered, Owen answered the question for her.
“There was an old section, so I ordered the renovation before I went off to war. It seems it has not been completed yet.”
He said he had been away for a year.
Then…… had they been renovating it for an entire year?
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