Chapter 4
On the road to Cassion, the two had no choice but to stop by the imperial capital.
Among the many privileges granted to the Dukes of Cassion by the first emperor, one was the exemption from needing imperial approval for marriage.
So, technically, there was no need for them to visit the capital at all.
Yet, for some reason, the Emperor had sent word that he was preparing a grand banquet to celebrate their marriage.
Because of that, their plan to head directly for Cassion was altered, and they were forced to stop at the capital first.
‘He’s still young.’
That was Elizabeth’s first impression on the day she met the Emperor face-to-face.
Until now, she had only ever seen him as an old man, or already dead, lying in a coffin.
To her, seeing him as a man in the prime of middle age felt strangely unfamiliar.
Once, he was the one she had hated more than anyone else.
For so many years, she had lived with the sole purpose of watching him fall—
to see his wretched death.
After he died, she had even dug up his grave, ripped open his coffin, and desecrated his corpse multiple times.
Even then, her rage had not subsided. She had desperately struggled, lifetime after lifetime, just to force him to kneel before her before death claimed him.
‘In the end, I managed to capture him when he was withering away from illness, just before he died, and cleanly took his head.’
Because they had clashed so bitterly across dozens of lives, Elizabeth felt considerable tension before coming face-to-face with him this time.
And yet—
Strangely, the moment she actually stood before him, she felt… nothing at all.
The only surprise was how different he looked from the image she remembered.
“Was the journey uncomfortable? I was truly pained to hear that such a young girl had to marry and travel so far.”
At the Emperor’s words, Elizabeth gave a shy smile and gently clutched at the hem of Clayton’s sleeve beside her.
“Clayton—ah, His Grace the Duke—has taken good care of me, so I am well.”
There was no hidden intent or deeper meaning behind the gesture.
She was simply showing that, as a twelve-year-old child in a foreign land, she trusted and relied on her husband.
But Elizabeth had no idea what significance that small act carried for the two men sitting with her.
The Emperor smiled benevolently at her answer and continued,
“I have many daughters about your age. My sixth child is the same age as you, in fact. And the royal house of Castillo has long been tied to our imperial bloodline, has it not? Though this is the first time we meet, I cannot think of you as a stranger. It would please me if you looked upon me as an uncle, and leaned on me as such.”
At those words, Elizabeth was struck speechless with disbelief.
‘Uncle? That’s what you say to the child whose throne was stolen by her so-called uncle?’
It was true that she had stormed out on her own, but to the outside world she was nothing more than the poor little girl who had been chased away by Cornwall.
And now he dared to speak of being her uncle.
Elizabeth was incredulous, but she forced a smile and answered politely.
“Yes, Your Majesty. I will not forget the kindness you have shown me.”
On their way back from the audience with the Emperor to the quarters assigned to them, Clayton looked down at Elizabeth walking beside him for a long while.
Her frame was far too small for a twelve-year-old—she barely came up to his waist.
From his vantage point, all he could see was the crown of her round little head as she scurried along in quick little steps.
Watching her like that, Clayton suddenly stopped walking.
Elizabeth, not realizing at first that he had halted, kept going a good distance ahead before turning back with a puzzled expression.
What she saw was Clayton, kneeling on one knee and holding out his hand to her.
“Come here.”
“…Eh?”
Elizabeth blinked wide-eyed, tilting her head in confusion.
‘What on earth is this about?’
“The imperial palace is vast. Members of the royal family—or those who have the Emperor’s permission—move about within the palace on horseback or in carriages. At your pace, it will take far too long to reach our quarters.”
At that, Elizabeth nearly laughed aloud in disbelief.
So the Emperor, after telling her to treat him like an uncle, couldn’t even be bothered to provide her with a carriage, and left her to walk?
Wait—no, that doesn’t make sense. He’s a duke, yet he isn’t allowed to ride a carriage inside the imperial palace and has to walk around on foot?’
Well, it wasn’t entirely incomprehensible. Elizabeth already knew full well how displeased the Emperor was with House Cassion and with Clayton himself standing before him.
The only thing she couldn’t be certain of was the reason. She had her suspicions, of course, but still…
“Uh—ah.”
Elizabeth’s attempt to recall fragments of memory about the affairs between House Cassion and the Emperor was cut short.
Without a word, Clayton suddenly scooped her up into his arms.
“P-put me down!”
“The more you struggle, the harder it will be. Your clothes will get wrinkled, too.”
“But still…”
“It would be better if you held on here. I plan to move a little quickly.”
Ignoring her pleas to be let down, Clayton shifted her so that he supported her with one arm, while with the other he took her hand and placed it on his shoulder.
Before Elizabeth could open her mouth again, he darted forward.
‘W-what on earth—?!’
As if eager to show off his skill, Clayton stepped onto the corridor railing and leapt straight down into the garden.
From there, he sprang off tree branches, vaulted over the building’s balustrades, and crossed walls with astonishing speed.
Startled by the sheer unexpectedness of his movements, Elizabeth clutched tightly at his clothes, her body tense.
She knew, of course, that he wouldn’t drop her—but fear was fear all the same.
Dying wasn’t something she feared.
But if she were to get injured, the pain of it would be…
Unconsciously, strength tightened in Elizabeth’s grip as her body gave a little shudder.
Sensing her trembling, Clayton eased his pace slightly.
He had intended from the start to carry her like this, but it had never occurred to him that she might be frightened.
‘Is it because she’s a girl? Ed thought it was fun…’
But it was still too far to set her down and walk the rest of the way slowly.
So Clayton’s choice was to hold Elizabeth even more firmly in his arms, making sure she wouldn’t feel uneasy.
“If you’re scared, just close your eyes. Close them for a moment and count… up to fifty. By the time you reach fifty, we’ll already be there.”
“W-who says I’m scared?”
Elizabeth tried to argue at his whisper, as he gently pressed her head against his chest.
But soon, the rush of wind brushing past her ears silenced her.
After washing up, Clayton turned to his aide, Hanson, and asked:
“Where’s Elizabeth?”
“My lady seemed tired, so she fell asleep.”
“She did?”
Hearing that she had gone to sleep without even eating dinner, Clayton briefly considered whether he should wake her and make her eat.
But then Hanson’s next words made him freeze.
“But why didn’t you use the carriage, my lord?”
“Carriage?”
“Yes. The Emperor had a carriage prepared for my lady. Yet your grace…”
Clayton looked taken aback. Seeing that, Hanson deliberately sighed and shook his head.
“I never heard that there was a carriage prepared. So I simply moved as I usually do.”
“Before the attendants could even mention the carriage, your grace had already scooped up the lady and dashed off as if flying, which caused quite an uproar. In any case, since it was the Emperor’s favor toward my lady, it ended up looking as though you rejected him.”
Hanson added in a worried tone. Clayton, however, sneered.
“As if he would’ve liked us any better if we had used it. Enough of that. If we’d taken the carriage, we’d only just be arriving now after going the long way around. This way was better—we got here sooner, and the tired one could rest earlier, isn’t that so?”
No matter how he spun it, the biggest reason the fragile lady had collapsed into sleep like that was clearly because Clayton had whisked her through the palace like a kidnapper.
But Hanson quietly held his tongue and withdrew.
His lord was already lost in his own thoughts about something, and it was obvious that anything Hanson said now would only go unheard.
Shaking his head, Hanson left the room.
Unaware of this, Clayton sank deeper into thought.
‘She was so light.’
He had assumed she would weigh about the same as his nephew Edward, since their builds were similar.
In fact, from the moment he first saw Elizabeth, she had reminded him of Edward.
Different gender, different age—but just because their height was similar, Clayton had treated her as if she were in the same category as Edward.
But the sight of Elizabeth trembling in fear in his arms earlier had made Clayton realize that she was not the same as Edward after all.
“She looked about the same height… Hmm. Maybe it’s because she’s a princess? Well, Edward also used to get scared easily when he was about five.”
Then, all of a sudden, the memory of her subtly clinging to his sleeve during the audience with the Emperor came to mind.
Recalling how Edward had once broken his aunt’s cherished vase and then hidden behind him, sniffling, Clayton nodded as if settling his thoughts.
And with a click of his tongue, he cursed Cornwall I—whom he would never have to see again.
“Tsk. Still, she’s his niece. Couldn’t they have taken better care of her? Just how much must they have tormented her all this time…”
All the other sides of Elizabeth that she had shown until now vanished completely from Clayton’s mind.
What remained there were only the image of her trembling in fear in his arms, her featherlight weight, and the tiny hand that had timidly clung to his sleeve.
And so, once again today, Clayton steadily piled up more misunderstandings about Elizabeth.
Two months later.
It had been three whole months since they left Castillo. The reason their journey had taken so long was entirely thanks to the Emperor, who had kept them tied down.
They could not refuse the Emperor’s “favor” of holding a celebratory banquet for them.
Because of that, they had ended up staying in the Imperial Capital for nearly two months—something they had never expected.
At any rate, after all those months, they finally arrived at Cassione, the place that would be Elizabeth’s home for the next several years. At the news, Elizabeth flung open the carriage window.
“That over there is Cassione Castle.”
Originally the capital of a kingdom, the land had since been turned into a ducal territory. As such, Cassione was far larger in scale than the typical estates of the Empire’s dukes.
In particular, Cassione City—the seat of the Duke—and the ducal castle itself were places steeped in long history.
In fact, they appeared unfailingly in fairy tales across the continent, tales that drew from the legends and myths of the northern lands.
Because of this, Elizabeth stretched her neck eagerly out the window, her eyes shining with expectation, following the direction of Clayton’s pointing finger.
‘At the very least, this is where I’ll have to stay for the next five years…’
Elizabeth’s eyes froze on the sight of the ducal castle.
“My goodness.”
“The castle is a little large, isn’t it? Back in the day, it was…”
It seemed Clayton had misunderstood the exclamation she made upon seeing the castle.
Wearing a proud expression, he began to explain the history of the ducal seat.
But none of his words reached Elizabeth’s ears.
How in the world could anyone manage a castle so poorly that it ended up in that kind of ruin?
Elizabeth didn’t know much about Cassione, but the fact that the family’s ancestral seat looked like this—that had to mean something was very wrong.
‘Could it be… the reason this place is ruined isn’t because of monsters?’
