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Chapter 29
Johannes Schultz is a dangerous man.
His father, once the guardian of Müssen, is dead, and Johannes—who had been hidden behind a veil—is very different from what you thought.
Edward Windsor kept planting seeds of distrust in my mind.
Was he simply trying to drive a wedge between Johannes and me? But for what purpose?
I hadn’t spent enough time with Johannes, so I lacked the judgment to tell which of it was truth and which was lies.
All I knew were fragments.
The son of the former Duke of Schultz, who was killed under a false accusation. The man who proposed to me with the frank admission that he needed me in order to use me.
What do I actually know about Johannes…?
Nothing. He rarely revealed himself.
Johannes strode toward me through the narrow gap between the curtains. When he finally came close, he shoved the curtain aside with force.
The rings hanging from the curtain rod clattered noisily as they struck one another. The chatter of the bustling banquet hall hit my ears.
Johannes was looking down at me with a hardened expression.
His lips were tighter than usual, his eyes sharper, his gaze cold. He was clearly angry.
Startled, I shrank back.
“If you wanted to hide, you did a pretty half-hearted job.”
“That’s not—”
I started to make excuses reflexively, then closed my mouth. He didn’t press me as I’d expected; instead, he stepped in front of me.
“Oh, you saw everything? I should’ve tried a little harder to hide.”
“Next time, put a bit more effort into it.”
“Then you wouldn’t be able to find me.”
Edward tapped Johannes lightly on the shoulder.
“I didn’t say anything bad, so relax your face, cousin. You look scary when you glare like that.”
“If it’s something you can’t say in front of me, it would be better not to say it at all. Or is your ability to learn lacking?”
Edward’s brows knit together.
“Regrettably, that might be the case. The older I get, the stronger my opinions become.”
“Your habit of spewing filth from your mouth hasn’t changed, I see.”
Johannes still stood perfectly between Edward and me. I stared blankly at his broad back.
The anxiety that had been swelling inside me just moments ago quieted in an instant.
Edward Windsor, a member of the royal family who kept the House of Schultz in check. I wouldn’t doubt Johannes over nothing more than his groundless words.
No matter what anyone said, Johannes had promised to fulfill his duties as a husband. I had to do the same.
Once I thought that way, it felt absurd.
How could someone try to sow discord between a newly married couple without batting an eye?
“I really didn’t say much. I just explained how blunt you are and gave her some advice. Told her to run away quickly—said this was her only chance.”
Edward raised both hands as if surrendering. Johannes replied with a bored expression.
“You’ve finished dispensing your worthless advice and made a brief appearance at the wedding. Seems like you’re done here. You’re not idle enough to enjoy yourself in Müssen, are you?”
“Of course not. Baden is full of ominous incidents these days. Compared to that, Müssen is so peaceful it makes me jealous.”
Edward looked around with rapt eyes.
Might as well transfer my post to Müssen, he muttered, rolling his eyes upward as though he truly meant it.
It was understandable. Big and small incidents filled Baden’s daily papers every day.
Crimes too gruesome to even mention sometimes made it into Müssen’s newspapers as well.
So for the chief of Baden’s police bureau, how enviable must this peace be? Of course, it wasn’t what it once was—but compared to Baden…
“It would be perfect, as long as no one breaks that peace.”
At Johannes’s words, Edward tilted his head.
In the suffocating silence, I looked back and forth between the two men. An eerie tension prickled instinctively.
It seemed that many things had happened between them beyond what Lord Frett had told me.
After a moment, Edward let out a deflated laugh.
“A pointed remark.”
“That’s unfortunate. I thought the explanation was finished just now. Has your comprehension worsened in the meantime?”
“Oh, I understand perfectly. You’re telling me to get out of your flawless territory. But I’ve never been a kid who listened well.”
I didn’t know what Johannes said, but Edward’s playful expression stiffened in an instant.
Then he muttered, “Just kidding, just kidding,” and gave me a sly wink.
What on earth was he thinking?
When I frowned, he swept me with a strange look, then turned and walked away.
Only then did the tension ease. I dropped my stiff shoulders and looked up at Johannes.
When our eyes met, the chill in his face softened.
“No matter how loveless our marriage may be, I didn’t expect you to have an affair on the wedding day.”
“If anyone heard that—!”
I hurriedly looked around. Only after confirming that no one was close enough to hear did I sigh and speak.
“He really didn’t say anything.”
Johannes asked again, unconvinced.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, really. He just asked how we met. It seemed like simple curiosity.”
I considered telling Johannes about the ridiculous things Edward had said, but for some reason it wasn’t easy to open my mouth.
It wasn’t that I believed Edward Windsor, but…
They already seemed to have a bad relationship—what good would it do to provoke him further?
Especially on such a good day.
I turned my gaze out the window.
It really was a good day—one that hadn’t come often since my father passed away.
“Marriage is a blessing, Edith.”
Trying to forget my father’s words, I counted the stars embroidered across the sky, then forced a smile when my throat tightened.
“It really was nothing.”
After the brief commotion passed, the reception went on without incident.
The group of noblewomen who had tried to pick at me didn’t even look my way. I exchanged polite greetings with the nobles who approached me.
There were occasional rude ones, but overall they were friendly. As Lord Frett had said, my manners didn’t seem too poor.
“The Duchess is somewhat different from other ladies of common birth.”
Whether it was flattery or sincerity, I accepted the remarks with a practiced smile.
After greeting enough people, I drank a few glasses of champagne.
As the alcohol took effect, my tension loosened. Only then did I find the courage to ask Johannes something.
When we stepped out onto the balcony for some air, I leaned against the railing and asked him as he took out a cigarette:
“Am I really that skilled at aristocratic etiquette?”
“You are.”
He answered, pausing before lighting it.
“Really…? I thought Lord Frett was just flattering me. I assumed the other nobles were saying it to curry favor with you.”
This time, no answer came. The lighter in his long fingers sparked the cigarette to life.
Watching the flame flicker in the darkness, I kept murmuring.
“That’s a little strange. Neither my father nor I had any real connection to the nobility. So how did you learn aristocratic etiquette…? No matter how I think about it, we had nothing to do with high society.”
Still gripping the railing, I lifted my head. Stars were set like jewels in the pitch-black sky.
After expelling the stale air of the reception hall and breathing in the cold night air, a quiet question came from beside me.
“Why are you so certain?”
I turned to look at Johannes. His blue eyes, calmed by the darkness, gazed down at me with an inscrutable look.
Just as I sensed a faint, unreadable smile in his gaze, he looked away again and exhaled a thick plume of smoke.
“I suppose it’s possible he learned it somewhere, hoping I’d marry into some incredibly elite family and make a fortune.”
Even as I said it, the idea was absurd, and I laughed.
My father would never do such a thing.
If anything, he would have told me to at least find love with a man who wasn’t wealthy but had romance.
Isaac Prim was that kind of person. Still, I didn’t know why he taught me aristocratic etiquette…
“I guess I’ll never know the reason.”
“……”
“But in the end, it worked out well. I thought etiquette would be utterly exhausting, but one of my biggest fears was resolved.”
Pressing all those unanswerable reasons deep into my mind, I smiled at Johannes.
Through the clear wine glass, the night sky shimmered. I took a sip of wine holding the scattered starlight.
It wasn’t harsh, nor overly sweet. Savoring the wine Johannes had brought while standing with him on the balcony, I felt the alcohol rise further.
Looking at his glass—perched precariously on the railing, not diminished at all—I asked,
“What kind of person was my father in the army?”
Half an impulsive question.
Perhaps because I was standing at a major turning point in life—marriage—but it was a day when I thought of my father more than usual.
The day I received the news of his death, I’d been running nonstop to escape my grief. Today, at last, I was forced to slow down.
Johannes frowned, as if faced with a difficult problem.
“Is that something that requires such deep thought? Didn’t you say you were close?”
