The Price of a Kiss
“But isn’t that still a lie in the end? No, think about it. Does that Grand Duke have any reason to go this far? I mean, yes, he might not want to go to Glintland, but… the atmosphere between that couple, no matter how I look at it….”
“Well… that’s true. Now that you mention it, yes. I heard the bride had once refused the Grand Duke’s proposal.”
“Good heavens! Then didn’t the marriage proposal from Glintland end up bringing those two together?”
“Just look at the ring. It’s his mother’s keepsake. To simply give something like that away!”
People chattered as they pleased.
Just as Grand Duke Berk had wanted.
Everyone knew the king and the Grand Duke were on bad terms, but no one truly believed the king would actually eliminate Grand Duke Berk. In a way, it was a kind of innocence built on the mighty name of Curtis Shan Berk, the “war hero.”
Surely His Majesty doesn’t want to just blow away that war hero like that.
He only wants to see him bend to His Majesty’s will, doesn’t he?
But of all things, His Grace happened to be in love….
What a shame. She must have come here so confident with that pretty face of hers….
Ah, serves her right.
It was the same with Queen Mildred, but for some reason I’ve never liked Glintlanders.
All manner of talk drifted through the crimson glow of sunset.
There was so much of it that it reached the ears of Isabelle la Glintland, who had been kept sitting in the pews for quite some time after the wedding banquet ended by those who insisted on detaining her.
But she smiled with perfect confidence.
Let them talk, then.
To others, she would look as though she was preserving her pride, pretending not to know the humiliation of a marriage arrangement that had failed to come through.
But Isabelle had no intention of withdrawing like this.
The wedding was already over. In that case, she had no choice but to make a festering sore out of it, even if she had to scratch one open herself.
“No matter how you look at it, she’s still a lower noble. I wonder if she’ll even manage to act properly as Grand Duchess.”
Yet at the words that followed, Isabelle suddenly came back to herself.
It was strange. They were certainly not so different from what she herself had said to the King of Ibanes, and yet those words felt exceptionally sharp.
Perhaps because Isabelle, too, had once been mocked with similar words.
“Well… since His Majesty is sharpening his knife for her, I suppose we’ll have an amusing spectacle soon enough.”
At the same time, however, she felt as if the sun had emerged from behind the clouds.
The things that hurt when they struck her would surely hurt others as well.
Isabelle gripped her fan tightly.
What could she do?
The world was always cruel to women who had nothing.
And she had no room to worry over anyone else’s circumstances.
The Grand Duke and his bride, having just finished their wedding, went straight to the main house without holding a banquet.
Once they arrived at the residence, they even postponed the servants’ greetings and headed for the Grand Duke’s rooms.
Everyone assumed it was probably because the ceremony had tired them out. Or perhaps they meant to enjoy a swift beginning to their newlywed life.
But the reason they shut themselves inside the ducal residence was slightly different from what people imagined.
The newlywed groom looked at his newlywed bride as she came out of the bathroom brushing her teeth and asked,
“How does it feel to be married?”
“Mmmngh mmwahng mmngh.”
“Spit out the rinse water first.”
Without another word, Chloe trudged back into the bathroom and spat the salt water in her mouth outside with a ptooey.
Then she turned around and spoke again, clearly this time.
“I saw Your Grace’s heartfelt desire not to go to Glintland very well. It was a deeply moving experience.”
Immediately afterward, she shoved the toothbrush in her hand back into her mouth and scrubbed furiously.
Scrub, scrub, scrub.
Curtis, the man who had asked the question, let out a soft laugh.
The first thing Chloe had said after withdrawing to the ceremony preparation room as soon as the vows ended was, “Please give me a toothbrush.”
Second Lieutenant Noel, who had been waiting, handed her a fine toothbrush made of horsehair without a word.
It was a one-hundred-sing toothbrush sold at a high-end general goods shop in Ivanneres.
Under normal circumstances, she would have grieved over having to brush her teeth with something so expensive, but this was an emergency.
The moment Chloe sprinkled salt onto the toothbrush, she put it in her mouth and scrubbed hard.
As she rubbed with all her strength, it felt as if the expensive toothbrush was screaming for her to handle it a little more gently.
But what could she do?
If there had been no toothbrush, Chloe would have been the one screaming.
She brushed her teeth the entire carriage ride back.
“I’m glad to see you and I have found one point of common ground.”
Curtis spoke as he lightly wiped the wet corner of his mouth with a white cotton cloth.
For reference, Curtis had also brushed his teeth after the ceremony, and as soon as they returned to the residence, he had rinsed his mouth with water once more.
“…It still feels unpleasant. I should brush once more. Noel, do we have a new toothbrush?”
“Curtis. Enough.”
Noel sighed and blocked Curtis.
Chloe, who had just finished brushing her teeth, glared at Curtis with triangular eyes.
“If you were going to bring up damages, shouldn’t you have first told me that you were going to inflict said damage?”
“Is there anyone who doesn’t know the bride and groom kiss during a wedding ceremony?”
His placid question left her speechless.
Of course Chloe had known that much.
Only…
You’re a germaphobe who can’t even stand a single strand of someone else’s hair. How was I supposed to imagine you would go so far as to kiss me?
This was a man who had written a clause into their marriage contract, bold as brass, telling her to tie up her hair when using the bed.
So she had never imagined he would kiss her.
What was more, he had even parted her lips and tangled his tongue with hers.
Damn it.
Having thought that far, Chloe clenched her teeth.
Her face was trying to turn red.
“…Since this is the work of a man who held a wedding in a week, I assumed you would replace the kiss with something else too.”
“Do people look like fools to you? There are all kinds of rumors flying about you and me. What do you think they’d say if we didn’t even kiss at the wedding?”
The sight of Curtis looking at her as if she were pathetic while popping peppermint leaves into his mouth made her fist tighten.
In other words, that is rich coming from you, you damned superior officer, who dragged a perfectly normal aide in front of the king and lied that she was your lover.
And you’re the one who kissed me first!
And then he brushed his teeth and chewed mint right in front of her as if to make sure she saw.
For some reason, humiliation surged up inside her.
You wiped ink off your fingers with a handkerchief and called it a day, but you treat me like I’m some cockroach.
“Curtis. You have no right to say that.”
Fortunately, Noel clicked his tongue and rebuked Curtis.
At the same time, he gestured for the servants waiting outside to come in.
With his usual mocking smile, Curtis roughly undid the collar buttons of his ceremonial uniform.
The household staff of the Berk ducal residence, including Julia, swiftly removed the ceremonial clothes and ornaments from the two of them.
“Ceremonial uniforms are fine in every other way, but the neck is too stifling.”
“Because they’re ceremonial.”
“Your Grace, the necklace….”
Julia quickly held out her hands to Chloe.
It was to remove the necklace.
The fearsomely glittering pink diamond necklace.
It had been the token of today’s wedding.
“What necklace is this?”
“It was my mother’s. Something… what was it? It had some stupid name.”
“Good heavens, Your Grace! It’s the Goddess of Spring! It was a gift Her Highness Queen Mildred received from the former king after giving birth to Your Grace!”
Julia scolded the indifferent Curtis.
Chloe quickly stretched out her neck.
To think that an object so certain to be outrageously expensive was hanging around her neck.
It was unbearably burdensome.
The necklace had three clasps, but Julia removed them with professional hands and carefully placed it inside a box.
“This too….”
It was when Chloe was taking the ring off her left hand.
Curtis lightly stopped her.
“Keep wearing that ring for the time being.”
Huh?
“What if I lose it?”
“I doubt losing a ring that size would be easy. Are you an idiot, Warrant Officer, or a three-year-old child?”
What a spectacular way with words.
But it was also true.
The reason the Sacred Flame was famous was that the radiant amethyst was not only without a single flaw or impurity, but also enormous.
Looking down at the ring, which was slightly larger than a quail egg and smaller than a chicken egg, Chloe furrowed her brow.
“How much is this worth?”
“I don’t know either.”
“You said it’s a famous ring. Shouldn’t the price be famous too?”
Curtis answered indifferently.
“With that sort of ring, the price of the stone itself isn’t important. The symbolism is. That’s why the more famous it is, the more expensive it becomes.”
“Ah….”
“I don’t know for certain, but its value has probably doubled by now. People will say things like, ‘the ring Grand Duke Berk gave away because he loves the Grand Duchess.’”
Chloe, who had been about to exclaim in admiration at his casual tone, suddenly blinked.
Because she had realized something.