What’s Wrong With My Marriage? I Was Bought as a Wife, Yet My Husband Is Madly in Love With Me! - Chapter 30

The morning after their night together, Nora said nothing about the fact that Luce woke up later than usual. As always, she prepared tea with her usual efficiency, though she seemed particularly attentive to Luce’s well-being.

Klaus had woken up first and was already sitting in the seat opposite Luce, sipping his tea.

“G-good morning.”

“…Good morning, Klaus.”

They exchanged awkward greetings. Whenever their eyes were about to meet, Luce instinctively averted her gaze. She knew it was a terrible way to behave, but she was so bashfully self-conscious that she simply couldn’t look him in the eye.

“…Lu-Luce. About, um, your body… how do you feel?”

“E-eh? Oh, there are no problems at all, Klaus.”

“That’s a relief.”

“Yes, a relief indeed.”

Luce wondered if that was actually the correct way to respond. In her state of confusion, she took a sip of the tea placed before her.

“It’s delicious.”

“It is tea leaves imported from the country of Ghoolam,” Nora explained. “It is the tea that the Master prefers to drink.”

A soft, sweet, and strangely stimulating scent wafted from the cup.

(This is the same scent as Klaus.)

Realizing this, Luce drank the tea while turning beet-red. Why on earth had Nora prepared this tea today of all days?

“Since you mentioned it smelled sweet…” Klaus murmured.

Come to think of it, Luce remembered saying something like that. She had told him she liked his scent.

(I—I might have said something incredibly perverted!)

Luce belatedly felt humiliated by her own past remarks.

“I’m fond of Ghoolam tea,” Klaus said. “Since you said I smelled sweet, I thought perhaps you meant the scent of this tea.”

“O-oh, I see.”

“I love this tea. If you like it too, Luce… um, it makes me happy.”

“…!”

Seeing Klaus smile bashfully, Luce fell into a strange sensation as if her chest were being squeezed, yet filled with a rising warmth.

(He… he’s such a cute person.)

She had felt this way about him before. It might be rude to think of a grown man that way, but she couldn’t help but find the side of himself he showed in these sudden moments to be truly adorable.

“St-still, it has a bit of a mysterious flavor, doesn’t it?” Luce said, trying to cover her embarrassment by commenting on the tea.

Nora, standing nearby, informed her that in Ghoolam, even the method of brewing tea was different.

“Their customs differ from those of our Kingdom. Although I have studied their ways and try to prepare it in the Ghoolam style, the dwarven craftsmen say I still have much to learn.”

“Oh, really?”

It seemed this was Nora’s way of ensuring Klaus could enjoy the tea he loved even at home. Without changing her expression, Nora bowed her head and apologized for her “lack of skill.”

“I’m always saved by Nora’s kindness,” Klaus said.

“Your words are more than I deserve, Master.”

Her tone was cold, but Nora’s actions always seemed to be for the sake of Klaus and Luce. Unlike Luce’s own family, it wasn’t just lip service. The late Earl, the butler Deck, and the head maid Nora. None of them discriminated against Klaus for being a child of the slums.

(They truly are good people.)

“Street stalls are very popular in Ghoolam. Even nobles and royalty go out into the city to eat,” Klaus told Luce, sharing stories of the country where he had studied.

In Ghoolam, the distance between nobles and commoners was quite small. Merchants held great power, and the social hierarchy was complex.

“The dwarves mentioned it, didn’t they? The country is governed by a human King, but there are also tribal chiefs. It’s a monarchy, yet not quite.”

Klaus added firmly, “Though, I have no interest in politics.”

“It’s a meritocracy in many ways, so it suits some and not others. …Well, it was certainly easier to attend school there than with the noble crowd in this country.”

In the Kingdom where Luce lived, the King and nobles had occupied the ruling class since ancient times. However, she felt the authority of the nobility had been waning lately. There were houses like the Orlovs, who clung to vanity while piling up debt until they had to surrender their titles. Then there were those who bought titles with money.

Perhaps it was an era where excessive pride in noble blood was no longer necessary though such a thought would have made her grandparents faint. Her grandfather, the previous head of the Orlov house, was a strict man. Her grandmother was also rigorous, disciplining her grandchildren to be “exemplary nobles.” She had heard that her father and mother were constantly lectured by them on how they “should” be.

Perhaps that was why her parents had been acting so recklessly since the grandparents passed away. Their business failures and extravagant spending were perfect examples of things the grandparents would never have allowed.

But if my grandparents were still alive, I would never have been blessed with the chance to marry Klaus.

(They say you never know what life has in store, and it’s true.)

She remembered a poem from her favorite collection that said something similar. She realized that her marriage was the great turning point of her life.

And Luce was now feeling ready to accept this opportunity and take a step forward. Surely, she would still remember what her family did to her and feel depressed. She might never fully stop thinking “someone like me.”

But.

“…Hey, Klaus. If there’s ever an opportunity, I’d like to visit Ghoolam too.”

“R-really, Luce!?”

“Yes. I want to know more about you. The things you like, the places where you spent your time. You know all about me, but I still don’t know much about you.”

All I know is that you gave me the heart of a flower.

For the old Luce, that would have been enough. But for the current Luce, it wasn’t sufficient. Because even if Luce couldn’t treasure herself, she wanted to treasure Klaus.

Even if she couldn’t fully wipe away the fear of being betrayed, she could forget it during these moments with him. The more she thought that perhaps Klaus felt the same, the more she wanted to be with him.

“A trip to the street stall district would be perfect for a honeymoon,” Deck suggested, having appeared out of nowhere.

“A h-honeymoon!? Luce and I… This is no time to be sitting around! Deck! We must build a passenger ship immediately! A ship for Luce and me to sail on!!!”

“Master, building a ship from scratch takes time. I believe it would be faster to simply buy out an existing shipping company.”

Deck listened to Klaus’s outburst without any intention of stopping him. Luce wondered what Nora meant when she said she usually kept Klaus’s rampages in check.

“Deck is simply high-spirited because this is a joyous occasion,” Nora said, as if seeing right through Luce’s thoughts.

“A joyous occasion?”

“Because the Master’s feelings have finally reached you.”

“Th-that’s…”

As Luce turned bright red once again, a hint of a smile finally broke through Nora’s stoic expression.

“Thank you, Madam. For accepting the Master. We have looked after him for many years… we recognize him as the precious grandson of the late Earl.”

When told that everyone in the mansion had been rooting for them, it goes without saying that Luce turned even redder.