Chapter 4: Reason Behind the Contract Marriage

Night. Urien, who was sleeping in the shed at the edge of the estate, had no idea that a great commotion occurred inside the main building.

As for why it occurred, he learned it the next morning: Rodrick had returned. That morning, a maid came to wake him up. Still half-asleep, he tidied himself and dragged his legs to the main building.

The maid led him to a room where they had prepared breakfast for him and Rodrick, but the latter wasn’t there. Only after he fought off his drowsiness for a while longer did he appear, clad in the Edel Ducal’s Knights’ combat outfit.

“This afternoon, I’m heading to the Barca^[1] Republic.”

“Yes.”

Urien replied in a monotone towards Rodrick’s monotonous declaration.

Though it was still so early in the morning, Rodrick’s attractiveness still stood out, just like his stature. His black hair, though he shouldn’t have the time to tend to it in the battlefield, was smooth and sparkly, as if he had it meticulously styled at a salon.

His skin too, was smooth and beautiful, even though he hadn’t taken any special care of it. He was such a handsome man to the point that Arnault, Urien’s brother, might just fall in love at the first sight with him the moment he laid his eyes on him.

But, Urien noticed something off about him. Just like during their first meeting, he gave off the air as if he was extremely exhausted. ‘Maybe didn’t have much sleep?’ Urien thought to himself.

Not knowing what was going on in Urien’s mind, Rodrick just continued to eat and declared, “I don’t know when I’ll be back.” It was all the more clear to Urien that he was battling an intense sleepiness, which made him think that the duke really was diligent to arrange this breakfast in such a state.

Duke Rodrick Edel had the privilege to not attend the assemblies and events at the capital. The Edel Ducal House was the only family in the kingdom that had a private knight order and that same order had made various contributions to the wars that occurred between the Lustrand Kingdom and the other nations.

As the commander of such an order, naturally, Rodrick was often away from the kingdom, hence why his brother, Theobald, had been attending the assemblies and events in his stead.

In short, due to him owning the knight order which served as one of the most powerful military forces in the kingdom, Rodrick was exempted from attending the events that the royal family held—normally, all high-ranking nobles had to attend those without exception. This was something that Urien had learned after he crammed everything that was publicly known about Edel Ducal House within a week after he was offered the marriage proposal.

It was clear from that information that Rodrick was someone who’d disregarded customs even if the other party was the royal family. Hence why it made Urien all the more confused that he went out of his way to follow this inconsequential custom of having breakfast with his consort.

“While I’m gone, be mindful of your own actions, lest you put the name of Edel Ducal House in danger.”

“Yes.”

It was clear that he was implying Urien’s reputation as the dazzling man-slut, but Urien had no intention to join or start a party or whatever. So, he just confidently nodded while saying, “No need to worry.”

In truth, Urien was more interested in the food than his words.

The breakfast spread in front of him was a hundred times better than the meals he had eaten for the past few days. Every piece of food in front of him was warm, fresh, and soft.

For example, the bread he was eating right now, fluffy and warm—incomparable to the bread he had been eating for his whole life, which might as well be rocks. The jam—something that he hadn’t tasted for years—was so sweet that he almost just licked the spoon clean while crying.

There was also the salad, which was made of fresh veggies, and the pork, a meat from an actual livestock, not meat that he had hunted in the forest himself.

Lastly, the milk and the tea, both were incredibly tasty. He was just sitting here with his husband, but by just doing that, he was provided with such an incredible breakfast.

‘Thank you, Rodrick and bye bye. Have fun in Barca.’

Though his husband was still in front of him, he already bid him farewell in his heart. That was less of a goodbye to the man more like to the meal in front of him, though. After all, without the man, he wouldn’t be able to enjoy such a breakfast.

‘…I wonder what Marx is eating right now.’

Suddenly, Urien found himself thinking of him.

When he sipped his warm tea, he became visibly more relaxed. And because of that, his thoughts slipped out a little.

“Mar…”

“Mar?”

At that moment, Rodrick placed down his coffee cup and sent him a suspicious look.

Still in a daze from both sleepiness and the pleasant sensation, even Rodrick’s glare didn’t faze Urien. So, he just shook his head, seemingly completely relaxed.

“It’s nothing.”

“…”

But, it was clear that the duke was less interested in the leaked ‘Mar’ than the state of his consort himself.

“You’ve been spacing out.”

“Yes?”

Urien looked up at Rodrick as he sipped his milk.

The latter then continued, his expression unchanged—expressionless.

“Ever since we first met, you’ve been spacing out a lot.”

‘Spacing out?’

It seemed to Urien that Rodrick found his current attitude grating, hence the subtle criticism just now.

‘Get a grip of yourself,’ that was what he probably tried to tell Urien, but seeing how he’d be gone in a few, Urien didn’t take that ‘advice’ to heart.

“I’ll try.”

“Try? What for?”

Rodrick furrowed his brows so deeply that one could probably slip a business card in it.

Peering into his fierce golden eyes, Urien said, “I’ll try to stop spacing out.”

“…”

“I’ll do my best.”

He had to pay attention to not drag out his last word into, ‘I’ll do my be~st’. He didn’t want the proud knight commander to slice him in half, after all.

“…”

After a long silence, Rodrick stood up first. At first, Urien thought that he’d be leaving without a word, but for some reason, when he reached the door, he turned back to stare at him.

‘What? Is there something on my face? Whatever, I’ll just smile at him for now.’

He relaxed his expression, sent him a slight smile and told him, “Take care,” but then…

“…Stay out of trouble.”

Rodrick warned before leaving the room with a stiff face.

As soon as the duke left, the head maid came in. But, before she could say anything, Urien already stood up and walked down the opposite direction Rodrick went.

He felt no need to see his husband off. After all, the man himself told him to just stay put, so he’d do exactly that. Stroking his belly, he quickly went back to the shed.

“…Barca Republic, huh…?”

Though Rodrick would be going there, it wasn’t for war purposes, that was for sure.

For over a century now, the Lustrand Kingdom had been at an intermittent war with its neighboring country, Belmania Kingdom.

Lustrand Kingdom itself was a vast country. To its south, there were three kingdoms sharing their borders with it: The Rouleau Republic, the Belmania Kingdom, and the Barca Republic.

Considering that the majority of the southern part of the kingdom was Edel Ducal House’s territory, they were pretty much the guardians of those three borders.

The Rouleau Republic was a longstand ally of the Lustrand Kingdom, while the relationship between the kingdom and Belmania couldn’t be worse due to the frequent wars. Recently, there were rumors going around that Barca Republic might just join forces with Belmania.

By the way, Martritz Barony also shared a border with Barca Republic. Up until the moment Urien left the barony, they didn’t make any move suggesting that they’d attack at all, but it was only natural if Rodrick was being wary of them.

Regardless, Urien didn’t know why he’d want to go there specifically. As a consort that served no purpose other than to rot, he had no right to know that sort of information.

But, after hearing Rodrick’s words this morning, he understood part of it at least.

‘So our marriage is related to the matter in Barca Republic, after all.’

Why did Rodrick place a time limit on their marriage? As per his previous speculation, it was either because he wanted to marry someone else after two years, or because it was due to something that was related to war. This revelation meant it was the latter.

‘Whatever it is, I’ll endure. I’d just need to follow the contract.’

—Or at least, that was what Urien thought.

“Why would the master pick someone like Urien Martrits…”

“Be patient. This is just until Lady Siana recovers from her illness. Once she’s better, I’m sure the master will divorce him.”

It turned out the reason was the former after all.