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Chapter : 34
“Sit here, Freya.”
“Yes, Lady Savanna.”
Freya entered the drawing room and sat where Savanna indicated. Raiden took the seat beside her.
“Is your shoulder all right?”
“I can manage. You don’t have to worry so much.”
“After seeing it earlier, how could I not worry?”
Raiden reached out with his injured shoulder, then flinched and stopped. It pained him that all he could do was look at her, afraid of hurting her.
Knock, knock—
“Your Grace, My Lady. It’s Krebel.”
“Come in.”
At Raiden’s reply, the drawing-room door opened and a middle-aged man with green hair entered. Adjusting his slipping glasses, he bowed to Raiden, Savanna, and Freya.
“I greet the Duke and the Duchess, and the young lady of Marquis Balche.”
“Krebel, take a look at the young lady’s condition. She injured her right shoulder.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
Hearing Raiden’s words, Krebel approached Freya and spoke carefully as she wore her dress.
“Lady of Marquis Balche, could you lower your dress for a moment so I may see your shoulder?”
“Yes, I will.”
Nodding, Freya slightly turned her upper body and lowered her dress. Raiden was there, but she wasn’t exposing everything, and he had already seen it once earlier, so she didn’t mind.
“Oh my…!”
“……”
When the wound on her shoulder was revealed, Savanna gasped in shock. Raiden’s expression hardened as he saw again that it was worse than he had thought.
The imprint of Karin’s hand was still clearly visible. The shoulder was overall red with patches of blue, showing a deep bruise. It looked as though he had grabbed her with great force, leaving a large, dark mark on Freya’s pale skin.
When the physician gently pressed the handprint to check more precisely, a painful moan escaped Freya’s lips.
“Ah…!”
“My, this is quite severe. The bruising is deep. Since you can move your upper body, it doesn’t seem that the bones are injured, but being grabbed this hard would have put great strain on you. You must receive treatment right away.”
“How long will it take? Will it heal cleanly?”
“We should expect at least a month. Because the bruising is so heavy, it will take time to fade. There are no other wounds, so once the bruise is gone, you should be fine.”
“I see…”
At the words that there would be no lasting scar, Raiden let out a relieved expression. Carefully helping Freya pull her dress back up, he spoke to Krebel.
“As the duke’s physician, make her recovery your top priority.”
“Yes, Your Grace. I will treat the young lady with all sincerity.”
Krebel bowed with a tense face at Raiden’s order. Until now, Raiden had never brought a woman here, nor asked him to personally treat anyone other than Savanna.
Among the noble ladies, Raiden was known for being gentle and kind, but everyone in the ducal household knew that there were very few people he truly cared about.
So this young lady is someone important enough to make him act like this.
The first young lady he had ever brought and ordered to be treated personally. Anyone could see that the look in Raiden’s eyes and his expression were different from those he showed other ladies.
The daughter of Marquis Balche, was it? He had to treat her—absolutely and perfectly.
Sensing the unusual atmosphere, Krebel steeled his resolve.
“Then I will go prepare the medicine for the young lady.”
“Very well. Please do.”
After bowing, Krebel left the drawing room. Savanna then asked Freya and Raiden,
“Now, will you tell me? What on earth happened?”
“Ah, well, actually—”
“The Duke of Binok and his sons came to Freya’s office and caused trouble.”
Raiden answered in Freya’s place as she hesitated.
“When I arrived, Karin Binok was holding Freya by the shoulder and threatening her.”
“What did you say? That wretched brute…!”
How dare he injure our future daughter-in-law? Savanna sprang to her feet, her face twisted with anger.
“Dermond!”
“Yes, my lady.”
“Prepare the carriage at once. I think I should personally visit the Binok ducal house.”
A letter of protest would not be enough. For a ducal heir to brazenly threaten someone—this had gone too far.
No matter that Freya was from a lower house than Karin, inflicting injury was not something that could be overlooked.
At Savanna’s words, the head butler Dermond nodded.
“Understood. Right away—”
“Ah, please wait! Hold on!”
Freya hurriedly stopped him as he was about to order the servants to prepare the carriage.
“Lady Savanna, please calm down and withdraw that. You don’t need to do that because of me.”
“What are you saying, Freya? The young master of Binok threatened you and hurt you. He crossed the line by far.”
“It’s true that what he did was rude, but I don’t want to make a big issue out of this.”
Standing up, she approached Savanna and continued, clasping her hands together.
“Right now, the social circles are already in an uproar over my engagement to His Grace. If you lodge another protest because of this, there will be even more gossip.”
“But still… we can’t just let this go.”
“If you protest, the Binok ducal house will be put in an awkward position, but at the same time, people’s attention will be diverted from the topic of my engagement to His Grace.”
She had just managed to cut off the rumors about Astella and Raiden’s relationship. If another incident happened now, the impact of her engagement to Raiden would be diluted.
“To strike effectively, I think it’s better to first successfully carry out my engagement with His Grace.”
“But even so, you’ve been hurt…”
“I’m fine. I don’t want to make things bigger and interfere with the engagement. My wound will heal with treatment, so please don’t worry.”
With the duke’s personal physician treating her, it would surely heal quickly without complications. She was about to receive care here more devoted than she ever did at home.
In fact, this is better. If what happened today gets out, Father and Mother will make a fuss.
They would surely blame her again, saying she had acted improperly.
“Haa… all right. If you insist that much, I’ll leave it for now.”
Faced with Freya’s firm stance, Savanna sighed and nodded. She gestured to Dermond, then took Freya’s hand and sat back down.
“We should hurry with the engagement preparations. Once the two of you are officially engaged, even the Binok ducal house won’t dare act rashly. By the way, what about the consent of Marquis and Marchioness Balche?”
“They’ll likely consent without much trouble. Since it can proceed as long as I, the person concerned, agree, it doesn’t matter even if they oppose.”
The marquis had been thinking it over carefully, but there were too many advantages to refuse this engagement. And the marchioness would follow his decision, so there was no need to worry.
“Good. I will hold your engagement ceremony with Raiden as grandly as possible, staking the honor of the ducal house on it. So don’t worry about anything—receive your treatment well and recover.”
“Yes. Thank you, Lady Savanna.”
Freya smiled softly at her as Savanna held her hands tightly and spoke earnestly.
As the sun began to set, a carriage from the Bethelheim ducal house stopped in front of the Balche marquis’s residence. When the door opened, Freya stepped down together with Raiden.
“Thank you for seeing me home.”
Escorted, she said with a small smile. Raiden smiled back and shook his head.
“Not at all. This much is only natural.”
“Is that so?”
It didn’t really seem like something “natural,” but seeing how pleased he looked, she couldn’t bring herself to say that.
Holding Freya’s hand, Raiden stepped closer and kissed the back of it. His golden hair, bathed in the evening glow, shone dazzlingly.
“From now on, I’ll do this every day. We’re in a relationship where I can do that, aren’t we?”
Something he had wanted to do but couldn’t until now. Now that he had the proud justification of being her “fiancé,” there was no one who could stop him.
Seeing how happy Raiden looked, Freya calmly nodded.
“That’s right. For the time being, people’s eyes will be on us, so it would be good to be mindful of that.”
“Not just for a while—forever. Even after we announce the engagement and after the engagement ceremony.”
At his words, filled with determination, she parted her lips with a strange expression.
