Chapter 16: Can’t Help but Wonder

When Theobald first reported to Rodrick about his interaction with Urien, the latter had forgotten to tell the former, “Do as you please.”

It had been three months since the contract marriage between Rodrick and Urien Martritz had started, and during these three months, he was out on a dispatch to the neighboring Barca Republic with his knights.

Said dispatch wasn’t for war purposes though, but rather for a peace treaty. The Lustrand Kingdom had been at constant war with its other neighboring country, the Belmania Kingdom. Currently, they were in the middle of a ceasefire and there was no hostility between the two of them, but there were rumors about how Barca Republic might just join forces with Belmania, so Lustrand dispatched the duke to prevent that from happening.

Before the dispatch, the duke launched an investigation on each of the noble families whose territory was located near Barca—especially one that bordered the republic, the Martritz.

In short, the Martritz was the most ‘convenient’ option for them.

After all, their eldest son, Urien Martritz was an Omega, so it wouldn’t be a problem for him to marry Rodrick, an Alpha. With that, the contract marriage was established, and as soon as that was done, the duke immediately set off for Barca. The talk for the treaty hadn’t concluded yet. It’d continue until next year, but since he had done his job to a certain extent, the duke decided to go back to his estate before winter arrived.

But, when he came back, apparently his younger brother, Theobald, had grown considerably close to his consort, Urien.

“…What’s going on?”

Inside Urien’s room that he was kicked out from, Rodrick muttered as such to himself.

Theobald’s report came in last night. Back then, Rodrick was too surprised over hearing the fact that his younger brother had grown close to his ‘consort’, so he lost the chance to tell him to just do as he pleased.

This was why he invited Urien to dinner the other day.

He wanted to tell Urien that he approved of his friendship with Theobald, but he also wanted to ask the man a few questions that were bugging him.

Why did Theobald become so close to Urien? Was Theobald trying to seduce his wife? What kind of conversation did those two have?

Many more questions riddled him, of course and the dinner with his consort only added more to the list.

‘Don’t drink Barca’s tea too much.’

Who exactly was Urien?

All Rodrick wanted to tell him back at the dinner was to feel free to associate himself with Theobald, but the conversation took an unexpected turn.

Urien was wise, was fluent in Barca, knew a lot about plants and insects, but knowledge wasn’t all that he had. Seeing how he was able to exterminate the bees that made a hive in Rodrick’s study, it turned out that he was courageous as well.

“Just what is…that guy…?”

The thing that left the strongest impression on Rodrick was the way he put the dead bee in his pocket.

He looked like a child pocketing candies. Rodrick couldn’t even guess what he was planning to do with it. He had only picked the man as a consort because he couldn’t find anything notable about him, but now that he knew how clever and incomprehensible Urien was, he began second guessing himself.

There were just too many things that he didn’t know about Urien Martritz.

The eldest son of Baron Martritz, an Omega…

He married Urien so that he could use the Martritz Family as a puppet. The reason why he rushed to marry him was also because he heard rumors that Barca’s leader’s daughter wished to marry him.

There had been no such talk up until that point, so he easily marked her sudden interest as suspicious—likely a prelude to some sort of blackmail. After putting all the information he could gather together, it was clear that Barca was trying to join forces with Belmania.

To fall into their ploy and marry the leader’s daughter was out of the question for him, so he decided to get married before Barca could even start the talk about it. At the same time, he decided that he’d marry a child of a noble whose territory bordered Barca’s. By doing so, he could control them as they pleased and even stationed his knights and soldiers in their territory to pressure Barca if needed.

In other words, all Rodrick was thinking was about the matter with Barca.

He had no interest in his potential spouse whatsoever.

Besides, information about Urien was scarce, even within the baron’s estate itself.

There were rumors going among the nobles of how ‘Urien’ was a man-slut, but judging from the ‘Devilish Urien’s appearance that was depicted in the rumors, it was clear that it wasn’t actually him but his younger brother, Arnault Martritz. In the rumors, Urien was depicted to have blond hair, but the real Urien had brown hair. An Alpha spy that the duke dispatched also confirmed that the man who went around wasn’t an Omega but a Beta.

The real Urien Martritz rarely left the estate, if ever. It was unclear why such rumors circulated, but it didn’t matter. This revelation made Urien the perfect candidate for his marriage partner, so Rodrick quickly ended his investigation and proposed for a marriage.

He also figured that since Urien kept a low profile back at his own estate, he’d do the same in the duke’s estate. Hence why he was confident with the two-years contract.

After two years passed, the treaty talk with Barca would be concluded and he wouldn’t need to deal with the barony anymore.

Then, he’d be free to set Urien free from the duke’s estate.

There really was no need for him to build a close relationship with him.

As long as Urien kept a low profile, no problem would arise.

——Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to be a man who’d be able to ‘stay put’.

“Just what he’s planning to do with those bees…?”

After collecting the bees and the beehive, Urien quickly left the room.

Rodrick leaned his back on the sofa, looking up at the sky. ‘What was I doing?’ He asked himself that, but at the same time, he made an excuse for himself, ‘I was too tired.’

Throughout the whole ordeal, he hadn’t been calm at all. He showed Urien a pathetic display when facing a single bee, he couldn’t do anything but watch as Urien dealt with the bees by himself, but the worst of them all was that he showed Urien his weakness.

Confiding in someone about his fear of bees was something that he never thought he’d do. But, then again, Urien was somehow able to look through his fear. It was common for soldiers to hide their weaknesses from others, but maybe because the other man was pretty much a stranger, he was able to confide in the man easily.

Regardless, the one thing he understood from their exchange was that Urien was a peculiar man.

…Actually, he should’ve figured that out from the very beginning.

Most people wouldn’t make eye contact with Rodrick and instead, they’d tremble in fear, as if he was the personification bad omen or something. Their fingers would fidget around, their faces would turn pale, and their eyes would dart around nervously.

But that wasn’t the case with Urien. The first time they met, he looked somewhat relaxed around him, and even stared at him in the eyes as if it was the most natural thing to do.

And that was exactly someone whom Rodrick liked—someone who wouldn’t shrink away from him.

“Did I make a mistake?”

‘Maybe I did,’ he nodded to himself at his own question.

The fact that Theobald, who normally would steer clear of the people Rodrick was involved with, became friends with Urien, was already a matter that he should try to find out about. ‘What do they even talk about usually? …Should I ask Urien directly? But…’

Those questions haunted him through the night until he slept, and even after he was awake, they still persisted. All he could think about throughout the day was Theobald and Urien.

How did they start to talk? What would they talk about? Was it because they were close in age that they became friends? Also, Theobald was a smoker, so maybe Urien was curious about what kind of smoke he liked, or why he started smoking so early, as it would affect his health as he got older?

And lastly, how close they had gotten in these three months? Those questions just refused to leave Rodrick’s head.

“…I’ll ask.”

It was now night. He muttered as such to himself.

The duke could see the heavy downpour—with strong winds and thunder—happening outside from behind the window. Had this downpour fallen when they were still marching, his forces would definitely suffer heavy damage. Though sudden change of weather was extremely common in this region, such heavy rain was rare.

Which meant, it’d also be uncommon for such rain to fall on the barony, so there was a good chance that Urien was still awake. Rodrick was pacing around in his room, touching the back of his neck, thinking that maybe Urien’d appreciate it if he were to bring some wine with him as he visited him.

But…

“…What’s going on?”

When he arrived, the room turned out to be empty.