It's Too Late for Regrets - Chapter 11.11

Then what was it? Rayan, flustered, checked the list of her requests he had memorized in his head.

 

“You said you wanted to see the sea from the window. Building a villa on the eastern coast of Lezan will take a few months, so until then, in front of this place—”

 

“That’s not it.”

 

Ines cut him off, baffled.

 

“Why are you so rigid? That was just something I said. I couldn’t think of anything, so I just said whatever came to mind.”

 

Anyone with common sense would’ve laughed it off after hearing that.

 

Unfortunately for her, Rayan wasn’t exactly a man of common sense.

 

He looked at her for a moment and tilted his head in confusion.

 

“So it was a joke?”

 

“Joke…”

 

She stopped herself, almost repeating his words unconsciously. A joke… yes, technically it wasn’t serious, so it did count as a joke.

 

But the familiarity that word implied made her uncomfortable. They weren’t close enough to joke around like that, were they?

 

Ines closed her mouth and didn’t say anything more.

 

But Rayan, who was completely oblivious to her true thoughts, was strangely sensitive to the emotions she showed outwardly.

 

He muttered in a puzzled voice.

 

“A joke… So you joke with me now, too.”

 

“…Don’t take it that way.”

 

His thoughts always ended up somewhere she never intended. His expression turned unusually relaxed, like he had just received something special from her unintentional slip of the tongue.

 

“Not bad… really.”

 

“But since we’ve started it, why not build one anyway? If there’s a lake in front of the mansion, Caesar can come anytime and ride boats.”

 

“….”

 

“Once we fill it with water, you know the things I gave you yesterday? If there are any you don’t like, we can crush them and scatter them on the bottom of the lake. It’s not that deep, so everything will be visible. From a distance, it would sparkle and look pretty—”

 

Rayan’s excited voice finally faded when Ines glared at him hard.

 

“…Would it be better to just go to the eastern coast instead?”

 

Ines looked at him with a face that was hard to read, then turned around and went back into the mansion. The way he took her random, ridiculous words so seriously made her uneasy.

 

Sure enough, when she went up to the duke’s office, several documents were neatly stacked on the desk.

 

She scanned the titles and let out a sigh of disbelief.

 

“A dress shop and a jewelry store… Why would you buy the whole thing?”

 

On top of that, there were half-written letters asking for the theater to be cleared out for today’s performance.

 

She turned to the man who had quietly followed her into the office.

 

“Don’t tell me you always do this when watching plays with Caesar? You didn’t rent out the whole theater every time, right…?”

 

“…Is that a problem?”

 

Rayan still couldn’t figure out why she looked so unimpressed.

 

To let the boy watch without worrying about others’ eyes, he had often ordered the theater to be emptied.

 

In fact, not just often—always.

 

In the duchy, his word was law, so there was no need to spend money. But in Randeva, he had to pay for it under a proper pretext.

 

Ines sighed deeply, realizing he truly didn’t see the issue.

 

<“If the young lord said he wanted the Empire, I’m sure the duke would hand it to him.”>

 

She suddenly remembered that line from a report she had once received. The timing was no coincidence.

 

Devotion… yes, it was devotion, but…

 

She wasn’t sure whether to be impressed, frustrated, or to correct him.

 

“You said you wanted to do ordinary things…”

 

“…?”

 

One thing was clear—his idea of “ordinary” was very different from hers. Then again, it wasn’t her business how a rich man spent his money.

 

Rayan, watching her hesitant expression, muttered with a puzzled tone.

 

“Ines, you’re making the same face as Caesar right now.”

 

“….”

 

“Caesar often looks like this, too… Whenever he does, I start to wonder if I’ve done something wrong. But when I ask, he just laughs.”

 

“….”

 

“Did I mess up again?”

 

It made her uncomfortable. He had an almost scary sense for some things, but then he’d suddenly act clueless like a child.

 

She couldn’t predict him, so she couldn’t prepare for him.

 

With a deep sigh, Ines mumbled,

 

“…It’s just that this isn’t what I wanted.”

 

Rayan watched her expression a little longer, then spoke with a hint of regret in his voice.

 

“Then the theater…”

 

“Return all the unneeded tickets to the theater owner. I’ll tell Caesar that we can’t go see the play today. What’s the point of watching a play in an empty place?”

 

“…And the dress shop?”

 

Ines now looked at him suspiciously.

 

“With that poor sense of economics, how have you been running the duchy? Don’t people complain that you’re a wasteful duke?”

 

“I spent over ten years on the battlefield. The people probably want me to spend a little extravagantly to restore Eleanor’s prestige.”

 

He never lost a word. Ines, slightly annoyed, retorted.

 

“But they probably don’t want you spending so much it shakes domestic affairs. I’m sure people are quietly grumbling about it.”

 

She expected him to brush it off again, but at the word “domestic affairs,” Rayan’s face stiffened slightly. He often overreacted to certain words.

 

Domestic affairs. The previous duke’s portrait. The bed.

 

A slap.

 

There were no clear connections between these things, yet he couldn’t hide his reactions. Ines felt a wave of exhaustion as she stepped back.

 

“Anyway… If you have that much money and emotional space, then sponsor Gelnor instead.”

 

“Gelnor?”

 

“The slum on the west side of Randeva.”

 

Hearing that familiar place name from her mouth, his eyes darkened.

 

‘Gelnor… Gelnor…’

 

After he took Ines from there, he had paid a large reward to the facility that had cared for her.

 

Enough money to feed and clothe over a hundred illegitimate children in luxury for the next ten years.

 

But now that he thought about it, that one facility was the only part of the slum that got any support.

 

Rayan’s thoughts settled quickly.

 

“Got it. You want me to transform Gelnor.”

 

He had already bought hundreds of play tickets, so it would be perfect to give them to the children of Gelnor under the name of a sponsor.

 

‘Still, it’s a shame to just fill in the lake again…’

 

Even if he filled a lake that big with gold coins, the treasury wouldn’t blink.

 

While Rayan was concluding his thoughts in his own way, Ines let out a long sigh.

 

“…I heard you’re a brilliant tactician.”

 

“Me?”

 

Even in the middle of daydreaming, he immediately caught on when she meant him. He took her hand and pressed his lips gently on the back of it.

 

“Right. I wonder where that brain went.”

 

“….”

 

“When I’m with you, I always act like a fool. I’ve been pathetic since long ago, and that never seems to change.”

 

He took in the scent from her wrist and whispered sweetly.

 

“So tell me. Like that time in the forest. Tell me what you want. What I can do for you and Caesar. I’ll do whatever you ask.”

 

Ines looked at him with a complicated expression and slowly muttered.

 

“…Let’s go on a picnic. Just like others do, something ordinary.”

 

 

Three days later, on a clear and sunny day, the three of them left the mansion for a picnic.

 

‘Picnic…’

 

Caesar repeated the unfamiliar word in his mouth for a long time.

 

Packing food and taking a short trip outside the city.

 

“Your father never took you on a picnic, Caesar?”

 

“No…”

 

He had ridden horses through nearby forests and visited scenic waterfalls near the capital, but this kind of simple outing was a first for him.

 

The carriage traveled down a winding path.

 

The picnic spot was a small hill known as Nois’s Hill.

 

A stream ran below, and a large tree at the top provided shade. It looked like something straight out of a fairy tale.

 

Caesar sat on Ines’s lap and glanced at Rayan.

 

His eyes were slightly bloodshot like he hadn’t slept well again, but he didn’t look particularly depressed or sensitive.

 

His eyes barely met Caesar’s. Almost all of his attention was on Ines.

 

‘Is Mom okay…’

 

Caesar looked at her.

 

Wearing a white frilly dress and a wide-brimmed hat, she looked bright and beautiful. Gaining some weight and strength recently helped.

 

‘Whenever Mom and Dad were together, something bad always seemed to happen…’

 

But since Ines returned, every day had been peaceful. The duke, who had been on the verge of exploding for the past two years, had finally found some stability.

 

At least, on the surface.