A Bed Worth Guarding
How many noble sons with no inheritance and no title to expect clung to the Royal Guard, pinning all their hopes on the one title that might fall to them under its name? Of course, a few of them must have served in earnest. But men like that were an extreme minority.
When Chloe had first been commissioned as an aide, she had not understood why the people in the Royal Guard referred to her as “navy trash.”
No one could honestly claim the navy was sharp and disciplined. But it was not as though the Royal Guard was particularly taut with military spirit, either.
What kind of good army required you to constantly remember each man’s family background more than his military position?
“You saw Second Lieutenant Theodora de Tornier, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“The units I commanded in the war against the Three Kingdoms were made up entirely of people like her. Second Lieutenant Tornier was outstanding even among them, but still. They keep their mouths shut, and even while they’re assessing a situation, they never act rashly.”
Chloe agreed with that as well.
After all, she too had looked at Theodora Tornier and admired how cleanly, classically military she seemed.
She did what had to be done, with not a single wasted motion. She did not ask about things she did not need to know. She merely observed the situation while keeping everything in mind.
And the way she had stripped Laura le Gautier bare with a speed worthy of someone from the 8th Regiment?
If the words rational and precise were shaped into a human being, Chloe thought, they might look like that.
“When His Majesty assigned me to the Royal Guard, I wasn’t that angry at first. I expected he would want to keep me somewhere he could see me.”
“…”
“But being summoned and seated as the head of these idiots was truly irritating. To the point that I wondered if he meant to make me die of sheer frustration.”
Chloe let out an involuntary snort of laughter.
Curtis grumbled under his breath.
“The Royal Army changed its garrison to Celty solely because of me. Which means the only force left in Ivanneres is the Royal Guard, but with them in that state, would the Royal Castle survive an emergency?”
She looked at Curtis anew.
The Royal Army had originally been stationed in Ivanneres, but the king had moved its garrison from Ivanneres to Celty, a place that took an hour to reach on horseback.
Apparently, he had feared that Curtis Shan Berk might incite the army and start a coup d’état.
Ridiculous.
If Curtis had been the sort of man greedy enough for the throne to stage a coup, he would never have brought about the armistice with the Three Kingdoms in the first place.
It was something Chloe could understand with only a little thought, but the king, blinded by jealousy, could not see it.
“From the supply system to emergency drills, not a single thing was properly in place. You worked there, so you should know.”
“Yes, well. At first, I thought you were a warmonger.”
At the man’s words, Chloe nodded.
When she had been commissioned as his aide, the countless tasks Chloe had to handle had mostly converged on reorganizing the Royal Guard.
Things like overhauling emergency command systems by squad, or restructuring formations—enormously troublesome work that made one wonder what the point even was.
Work that was only possible if one assumed there would be war.
“Yes. I also heard you call me a crazy bastard.”
“…Excuse me?”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Curtis gave a small laugh, then continued as he watched her stunned expression.
“What can’t one say when the ruler isn’t present? As long as you don’t call me that to my face.”
“No, when did I ever….”
“Can you swear you never did?”
“I am merely grateful for Your Grace’s boundless generosity.”
At his question, Chloe answered with impressive speed.
The man chuckled with his arm still cut open.
The awkward atmosphere had vanished before they knew it.
Chloe opened her mouth only after his laughter had died away.
“Although I did think of Your Grace as a crazy bastard.”
“So you admit it?”
“…I won’t deny it. In any case.”
The man quietly gazed into her pink eyes.
Clear, large eyes that looked almost amber where the candlelight flickered across them.
Since being assigned to the Royal Guard, the man had never truly laughed.
If he laughed, it was usually because something was fucking unbearable.
There was a reason the Royal Guard had an oral legend that when he laughed, it was the prelude to disaster. He had heard that saying himself.
But was that Curtis Shan Berk’s fault?
No.
It was the fault of the idiots who made him laugh like that.
And yet, strangely, in front of his aide, he kept laughing in other ways.
Out of disbelief. Out of exasperation.
For all sorts of reasons.
“To be honest, well. It’s true I married you because I wanted to make Your Grace choke on it.”
See? There she went again.
Making him laugh.
A laugh slipped out.
It took quite a long time before the woman fell asleep.
Even asleep, Chloe was still in a ridiculous position. To think someone could sleep with one knee propped against the wall like that. That, too, was a talent of sorts.
The man lay on his side at the edge of the bed, staring at her.
She slept so defenselessly that it seemed a lie she had been squawking nonstop until moments ago.
But Curtis had a fair guess that her day must have been terribly exhausting.
She had not even gone home since the grand banquet. From morning onward, she had been kept waiting because of the investigation. Then she had spent the evening facing off with him in a cramped space. How tired must she have been?
At least, after lying beside him and exchanging a few words, she seemed to have relaxed somewhat.
If not, she would surely still have been lying awake through the night.
No, perhaps not.
He probably would have slept in the office.
Chloe seemed to have thought that if she deprived him of a place to sleep, he would obediently return to the Berk Ducal Residence and sleep there.
Unfortunately, Curtis had never intended to do that from the start.
Though he had not told her, he had a perfectly reasonable reason as well.
The grand duke’s office in the Royal Guard.
Immediately after a humiliating incident.
The Grand Duchess, alone as a person under investigation, sleeping in the aide’s office.
No matter how one looked at it, those were excellent conditions for someone to try something underhanded.
In fact, there had already been two or three assassination attempts at the Berk Ducal Residence since the wedding.
Chloe did not seem to know that.
The same was true of Isabelle la Glintland. She would be safer in the Royal Guard detention room, if anything.
But Isabelle la Glintland’s safety, to be honest, was none of Curtis’s concern.
The problem was his employee.
Therefore, he absolutely would not….
…Thinking too much is never a good sign.
Curtis forced himself to clear his head.
Even so, what came to mind was once again his “employee”—in other words, what Chloe had said.
I was a little out of my mind then. Imagine working overtime for three straight days, then suddenly being told in front of His Majesty that you’ve become Your Grace’s lover.
So she had wanted to make him choke on it?
He laughed.
What about what you said about your family?
That was on impulse… but once I’d said it, it wasn’t exactly wrong, either.
I’ll concede that.
But, well, to be honest, this marriage hasn’t been as brutal or difficult as I braced myself for. Not so far.
The woman had said it as if reciting to the ceiling of the aide’s office.
She had probably been embarrassed or awkward. Curtis understood that much.
When I said marrying Your Grace would be a disaster… well. I apologize. Honestly, what kind of disaster pays ten million sing a year?
That is true.
Somehow, hearing you agree makes me angry. …Anyway, that’s roughly what I mean.
What is?
At that, Chloe flared up irritably and answered with reluctance.
I mean it isn’t that bad.
Am I the only one who finds it rather suggestive that you’re saying that while the two of us are lying together in the aide’s office?
At his reply, which was soaked with spite, she had glared at him.
So, yes, once again he had merely asked on impulse. But why he had ended up speaking so spitefully was something even Curtis himself did not know.
Only that when she tilted her head slightly—
So I’m saying you should try your best at dating.
—the conclusion he heard somehow chilled his mood at once.
Turning away at those words would make it seem as though her answer had hurt him, so the man simply continued staring up at the ceiling together with Chloe.
The magic stone lamp must have been nearing the end of its lifespan, for its light began to tremble in uneven ripples.
Around the time the shadows had grown so faint that he thought it would truly go out soon, he heard the deep sound of sleep beside him.
Only after the final light vanished with a soft breath did Curtis finally look toward Chloe.
He did not know why he had been unable to turn sooner, even though he had already known she was completely asleep.
“You’re not even afraid, sharing a bed with a man….”
He muttered it, but he knew better than anyone that it was an absurd thing to say.
He had already spent a night in the same bed with her.
And at least on his part, he had to conduct himself so that she would never have reason to fear sharing a bed with him in the future.
The next scandal will break through the butler’s mouth.
Apparently, he would even have to play the part of a deranged high noble who, with no shame at all, shared a bedroom in the name of love.