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Chapter 13
“The meeting ended early, I see.”
Amber, who had finished even the jelly, asked Calix.
“Yes.”
“What about the subjugation force?”
“Lord Zeit will lead them out tomorrow.”
“I see.”
Knowing what would happen after the subjugation, Amber’s face darkened.
The subjugation itself would end easily, but the real problem was the subsequent expedition to the Kingdom of Kale, ordered by the Emperor.
Starting with the Kingdom of Kale expedition, the East would begin its path to ruin.
*’I have to save the East somehow before that. To do that… is there no choice but that?’*
Amber’s head grew complicated. Seeing her dark expression, Calix frowned.
Without noticing Calix’s displeasure, Amber remained lost in thought for a moment before speaking.
“While the subjugation force is away, I…”
“Since this is something we’ve done every year, the system is well-established. There’s nothing for you, my Lady, to worry about.”
But before Amber could finish, Calix cut her off, speaking firmly and blocking her words.
Amber felt him pushing her away.
The warm atmosphere from their meal conversation shattered in an instant.
It had always been like this in her past life, too.
Whenever Amber showed curiosity about his affairs or tried to interject, Calix would shut her out like this.
*’Why am I disappointed again as if it’s something new? I already know he’s like this. Let’s not get hurt anymore.’*
Amber braced herself, enduring the stern gaze her husband was sending her.
“There is something I need to do while the subjugation force is away.”
She spoke loudly on purpose, so as not to be intimidated by Calix’s brusqueness.
“Something you need to do? My Lady, you…”
“Don’t tell me to stay still in the castle.”
This time, Amber cut Calix off. He closed his mouth, looking as if she had struck a nerve.
“Besides, what I’m planning to do is something even you, Duke, would welcome.”
Deep doubt filled Calix’s face.
Amber took a deep breath and straightened her back.
What she was about to say was very important. It could change not only her own life but perhaps the entire situation of the East.
“I intend to solve the East’s food shortage.”
—
**2. What the New Bride Brought**
—
At Amber’s words, Calix’s eyes widened in shock.
“My Lady…”
After a long moment, Calix sighed and spoke.
“The barrenness of the East is different from the droughts in other regions you’ve experienced.”
Calix’s words were true. What was happening in the East was a strange phenomenon never witnessed in any other region of the Empire.
Fifty years ago, the rainfall in the East began to decrease dramatically.
There was no change in topography, nor any other factors affecting the climate, yet rainfall had decreased as if by magic.
The people of the East tried everything to identify the cause of the reduced rainfall and solve the strange phenomenon. But no effort yielded any results.
“We even invited scholars and mages from the Magic Tower, but even they couldn’t determine the cause.”
Amber was not discouraged by Calix’s words.
“I know my words will sound absurd.”
If someone who had just arrived in the East boasted that they could fix a problem no one else had touched, Amber herself wouldn’t have believed it if she were on the opposing side.
“But I truly have a way.”
Amber spoke in an earnest tone, hoping her sincerity would get through.
*’I have to persuade this man somehow.’*
She needed Calix’s help to do what she had in mind.
“My Lady…”
“At least hear me out. You won’t lose anything by it, Duke?”
Calix showed reluctance. But Amber didn’t give up and faced him.
It wasn’t that Amber wanted to pester a cold man like this.
Besides, this was for the East, not for Amber herself.
Amber was not a purely kind person.
She had lived in the East for ten years, but she had no affection for it. Every day she thought that if hell existed, it would be the East.
Thinking of Bella, Grace, and all those who had tormented her, she wanted to pretend not to see the poverty and desolation of the East.
*’But Xenia and the residents of the East are innocent.’*
Amber remembered Xenia, lying face down on the blanket, begging to be taken in.
She also remembered the fiefdom residents she had to care for when Calix was away from the castle. The misery and helplessness of having to bury fiefdom residents who couldn’t survive the winter and starved to death.
*’And my child.’*
The existence of the child who would come nine years later was also a great force moving Amber.
*’Even to protect that child, I need to make the East strong.’*
If the East had no power, she couldn’t protect her child.
It would be a problem if the East became too strong and prosperous, becoming an enemy of the Empire, but it would also be a problem if it became so powerless that it crumbled without ever being able to resist the Emperor’s schemes.
At the very least, the East needed to be stable enough for Amber to escape to a safe place with her child.
“I’m not trying to restore the rainfall.”
Amber spoke to Calix, who still looked troubled. His eyebrows twitched, as if her words were unexpected.
“I’m trying to find a way to grow enough food even with the low rainfall.”
“If such a method existed, we would have tried it already.”
This time, both Amber’s words and Calix’s words were correct.
*’You will try. Eight years from now.’*
Eight years later, the East’s situation would become so bad that simply solving the food shortage would be too late to reverse it.
*’And it was also a task that required a lot of time.’*
But Amber, who had come back through time, knew the right way to quickly solve the food shortage. Knowledge that the scholars of the East had discovered through two years of trial and error in her past life.
“My method is certain. Duke, you only need to write a single invitation.”
Amber continued to speak, but Calix was too stubborn.
“I can solve the East’s problems. So there’s no need for you, my Lady, to step forward.”
Calix, his expression now blank, spoke brusquely.
Strangely, the more Amber stepped forward to solve the East’s food shortage, the more restless Calix seemed to become.
He acted as if Amber leaving the castle would bring some great threat upon him.
*’I’ll handle it myself.’*
Amber once again felt the high wall that had risen between them, something she had experienced to the point of boredom in her past life.
*’People really don’t change.’*
No matter how young he was, no matter how unexpectedly he acted, Calix was still Calix.
His essence was always to push Amber away and exclude her. Like an iron fortress guarded by countless soldiers with spears.
*’Then I don’t need to behave nicely anymore either.’*
To lay siege to a fortress, you need to mobilize more firepower than the troops inside.
Their gazes clashed in midair.
The moment Calix thought he saw something glint in Amber’s eyes, she spoke.
“Duke, why are you trying to confine me?”
Caught off guard by the unexpected words, Calix was speechless for a long moment.
“…You think I’m trying to confine you, my Lady?”
Calix spoke in a terrifyingly low voice.
In the past, Amber would have been scared, unable to say anything, and just hung her head. But now, she wasn’t afraid of him.
There was a time she thought her husband was the scariest being in the world.
But after living, she realized that wasn’t true.
There are many more terrifying, miserable, and vicious things in the world.
For example, a great famine that takes the lives of countless commoners.
“Yes. Without even hearing what I have to say, without even trying to know what I’m trying to do, you just tell me to stay inside the castle.”
“I… my Lady, I was just…”
“I am not a person who can be placed inside a cabinet like an ornament, locked away, and prevented from moving.”
“I was just…”
Calix couldn’t bring out his true feelings and swallowed his words.
His throat was dry. Calix raised his glass to drink, but the wine was already finished.
He couldn’t bear Amber’s gaze, staring straight at him.
Calix barely resisted the urge to bolt from his seat.
He already had a record of trying to run away using the monster wave as an excuse, only to be caught by Amber.
If he ran away again here, he would never be able to lift his head in front of Amber again.
And above all, Amber’s gaze held him in place, refusing to let him go.
When he looked into her orange eyes, resembling a warm, gentle ember, his body somehow stiffened, and he couldn’t move an inch.
Even though she was a small woman four years younger than him, Amber’s eyes held the wisdom that only someone who had experienced much over a long time could possess.
If he hadn’t seen Amber before, perhaps. But now that he had realized how much color and heat were held in her eyes, he couldn’t possibly defy Amber.
*’But I…’*
Calix, tormented, gripped his wine glass tightly.
He hated himself for not being able to speak properly and stammering like a fool whenever he stood before Amber.
He also hated his own situation, so poor that it made Amber, who had only been in the East for a day, talk about food.
He had even given orders to the kitchen, wanting to recreate the lifestyle she had enjoyed as much as possible…
His shoulders felt heavy, like he had been caught in the rain without an umbrella.
Just then.
“…Please, Duke. I’m asking you.”
“Pardon?”
Lost in his own thoughts, Calix lifted his head at the word “asking.”
Amber raised one eyebrow.
“That’s what I’ve been saying all along. Send an invitation in your name to the Freya family.”
“B-But…”
Calix stammered like a fool again.
An invitation to the Freya family? Count Freya, Thales, was indeed an old loyal retainer of the ducal house, but Calix could not for the life of him see the connection between him and solving the food shortage.
And besides…
“You said ‘asking,'” Calix said. “Did you not say you had no intention of asking me for anything?”
“Ah… that.”
Amber looked at her husband with disbelieving eyes.
She blinked repeatedly, but his expression didn’t change.
It was hard to believe, but no matter how she looked at it, it was a sulky expression.
*’Surely… was he pouting? Because of that one remark?’*
