A Productive Use for a Knee
“...No matter how pressed I am, I can’t have people saying I married a madwoman. We’ll pretend this never happened.”
The instant she heard those words, Chloe snapped back to her senses as if someone had dumped cold water over her head.
Outwardly, she waved her hand lightly and pretended to be perfectly calm, but the splendid thought of I’m screwed wrapped itself around her entire body.
Fortunately, Curtis asked again, “What on earth are you doing?”
Assuming every action must have some plausible reason behind it was a bad habit of people in high places. Sometimes, a person simply wanted to make someone else eat dirt.
Of course, she could hardly say, Because I’d like you to eat a great deal of dirt, sir. So Chloe played the family card.
It was a card she had pulled in a hurry, but it was also something she had been thinking about all along. That made it easy enough to put on a weighty air and start talking.
The result was successful.
Curtis Shan Berk seemed rather convinced by her.
Well, he’s not really going to put his head on the floor, but...
A pity, but it looked as though she could squeeze more money out of him with this, so she decided to be satisfied. On top of that, she had also managed to secure her younger siblings’ safety, which was quite encouraging.
It was then.
“Good. I understand what you’re trying to say well enough, Warrant Officer.”
Having said that, Curtis strode over to an empty space in his office.
That alone was enough to unsettle Chloe, but he went on to bite off the glove on his hand and look straight at her.
...Surely not.
“I’ll do as you say, Warrant Officer.”
“...Pardon?”
“On one condition.”
Curtis laid the two gloves he had removed one atop the other and tossed them onto the sofa.
Slap.
The sound of fine leather gloves landing on the sofa rang strangely loud.
“After this, Warrant Officer Amboise will pay the proper price for receiving my obedience.”
Emotionless purple eyes.
Goosebumps prickled over her skin.
But it was already too late. Chloe had no chance to stop him.
Curtis once again lowered himself to one knee on the floor.
In all his life, he had never knelt before another person. Perhaps only when the king held his coronation ceremony, when Curtis had sworn fealty.
With one knee on the floor and the other raised, Curtis measured the office floor with his eyes. Once he planted one ungloved hand against it, the sensation felt oddly unfamiliar.
Even though this was the office where he had already spent more than a year.
Had he ever had cause to sit on the floor in this office?
...The floor is filthy. I’ll have to tear into the cleaning staff tomorrow morning.
Trying to do something he had never done before kept inviting useless thoughts.
He lifted his head and asked his aide, “How long should I do it?”
“Pardon?”
As if she had briefly lost her senses, his aide asked back in confusion.
A hollow laugh almost escaped him too.
What would Noel say if he saw me now? Perhaps, “I should have offered up my sister after all.”
Curtis asked again, solemnly.
“The service inspection. I asked how long I should do it.”
“...You’re really doing it?”
“Did you think I was pretending?”
Curtis rested his elbow on his raised knee and looked up at her.
Chloe’s pink eyes were trembling with bewilderment. Her gaze said she truly had not expected him to try kneeling.
Is she softhearted, or did she think I would call off this contract?
“You called it a contract. In that case, I’d like to pay the deposit properly.”
“...”
“When I discipline my subordinates, I’ve never made them stand punishment indefinitely without telling them the duration. So I’d appreciate it if you at least told me the time.”
Chloe faltered and her eyes darted about.
“...Uh...”
Regardless, Curtis glanced toward the grandfather clock on one side of the office.
It was pointing to two in the morning.
“Unfortunately, I doubt I can go past four hours.”
The guard detail changed at six in the morning. Since Chloe was also Curtis’s aide, she seemed to understand at once.
But instead of telling him a time, she let out a deep sigh.
“...Why are you trying to go that far?”
Chloe rubbed her dry eyes with her fingers.
It seemed that now that Curtis had truly, properly committed to it, she was flustered.
Not that it was incomprehensible.
Many people did not really understand that words and reality were different things. Seeing someone who was, after all, a Grand Duke actually try to kneel in front of her must have been frightening in its own way.
If a third party had been present, they would likely have assessed the situation like this:
No, I think they’re both just acting strange because neither of them has slept. How did this become the conclusion?
But only the two of them were here.
Which meant there was no one to advise them to come back to their senses.
So Curtis urged her on as if nothing were amiss.
“Chloe Amboise. Do you need time to think? An opportunity like this won’t come often.”
At his contemptuous tone, Chloe Amboise visibly bristled a little.
But only for a moment.
Soon, she roughly dragged her hands over her face and opened her mouth.
“No.”
“Then.”
“Please stand, Your Grace.”
At that, Curtis raised one eyebrow.
But Chloe immediately removed the hand covering her face and said, almost like a sigh, “That’s enough.”
“Warrant Officer Amboise.”
At the way he called her name, as if asking whether she meant it, Chloe looked at him and sighed once more.
“I do value my life.”
“Do you think I’ll retaliate once it’s over?”
He had tossed the words out without much thought.
You’re the one who told me to do this. It was a fairly reasonable point, so I intended to comply. Why are you telling me to stop now?
That was about all he had meant.
But at those words, Chloe shifted her eyes slightly away from his gaze.
“...A little?”
A vein faintly stood out on Curtis’s forehead.
“Hearing that makes me determined to kneel.”
“Your Grace?”
Chloe looked at him in some alarm.
Curtis rose from where he was and approached Chloe once more.
The arrangement was somewhat different from before.
The woman remained seated, staring blankly up at him, while Curtis looked down at her on the sofa.
For some reason, that natural composition did not feel particularly welcome.
“I don’t know what you take me for, but I like what you said, Warrant Officer.”
“What do you...”
“Most people would struggle to remain calm in today’s situation, but you recovered quickly enough to calculate your own gains and losses.”
Chloe’s brows drew together slightly.
Curtis gave a faint laugh and slipped a hand into his coat.
“That wasn’t an insult. I have absolutely no desire for you to become the one-sided sacrifice in this transaction.”
“What do you mean?”
“My mother always taught me not to take another person’s sacrifice for granted.”
Queen Mildred had always taught her son that he must never take it for granted when someone sacrificed themselves for him.
Of course, it had not been for the sake of discussing a ruler’s virtues.
“Because that sacrifice will surely make the ruler pay a greater price later.”
“What are you—”
Curtis, who had been speaking as calmly as ever, knelt before her once again.
Then he opened the ring box he had taken from his coat and showed it to her once more.
“Chloe Amboise. I propose to you again.”
“Ha...”
Chloe squeezed her eyes shut and pressed a hand to her forehead.
Her expression said she found this utterly absurd.
Kneeling on one knee before her, Curtis found that expression somehow rather amusing.
He, too, was a man well past marriageable age. It would have been a lie to say he had never imagined proposing to someone.
The images he had imagined were quite varied.
They were moving, or beautiful, or sometimes scenes of political strife teeming with negotiations and competing interests.
But among them, there had not been a single image of a woman holding her head as though his proposal had given her a splitting headache.
“I am also of royal blood. Since I’ve gone to the trouble of kneeling, I ought to put it to productive use.”
Even Chloe found that ridiculous.
Put it to productive use? What was his knee, a sword? It sounded as though he might as well cut a radish now that he had drawn the blade.
Whether she found it ridiculous or not, the Grand Duke shamelessly remained on one knee and presented the ring to her.
And what he said next was truly something to behold.
“You may not be able to become the owner of my soul, but please become its temporary owner.”
“You make it sound like I’m picking up a stray dog... Temporary owner, really...”
“Do you dislike it?”
Chloe rubbed her forehead again and again.
But the answer had been decided without any need for deliberation.
“Damn it, fine.”
Damn it.
For a woman receiving a proposal, it was an exceptionally unconventional answer.
Curtis laughed under his breath and took the Sacred Flame from the ring box.
It had earned its name because it resembled a brilliantly glowing purple flame.
True to that name, the amethyst sparkled even beneath the lamps of dawn.
“My mother’s life changed after she wore this ring. I swear it won’t be bad for you either, Warrant Officer.”
“My mother told me to beware of anyone who says things like, ‘I’ll change your life,’ because they’re a fraud.”
“Your mother gave you excellent advice.”
“Are you going to defraud me?”
“Have you ever seen a fraud announce he’s about to commit fraud?”
Was it because they were conscious of the act of proposing?
They exchanged the most trivial jokes.
Surprisingly, the ring fit perfectly.
Right after Curtis slid it onto her finger, he observed her expression.
Chloe was staring at the fourth finger of her left hand with a face like she had bitten into something foul.
For some reason, seeing that look put him in a good mood all by itself.
“Good. You and I are now engaged, Warrant Officer.”
“Yes.”
“Then there’s something we need to do now.”
Chloe turned her eyes away from the ring and grimaced.
That her face could crumple even further was truly astonishing.
“It’s not something like cutting an engagement cake, is it?”
“Of course not.”
After hearing what Curtis ordered her to do, Chloe became even more gloomy.
She had thought she might finally get some sleep.
Sleep, her foot.
It looked as though she would be up all night.
“Isn’t it a violation of military law to overwork your fiancée immediately after proposing?”
“Warrant Officer. Do you know something?”
“What?”
“You and I are engaged now, so even if I make you work at night, you don’t get overtime pay.”
“Can I break off the engagement?”
Of course she could not.
“Extra! Extra!”
“Grand Duke Curtis Shan Berk is getting married!”
The entire kingdom was turned upside down.
Because at the diplomatic banquet with Glintland, that Grand Duke Berk had announced his marriage.