Dear Contract Husband, I Didn't Know You Were Like This? - Chapter 80
Does he not realize that saying something like that with such a face is practically a crime?
“Tristan, it would be better if you refrained from saying things like that.”
“Why?”
“Because those words should be reserved for your future wife.”
“But I already have a wife.”
“I’m just a contract wife.”
Tristan quietly observed Maya’s honest expression. She didn’t seem troubled, but she didn’t look completely at ease either.
‘Am I burdening her?’
He needed to find out why she always drew a line, always making it clear that she was just a contract wife.
Perhaps the reason she wavered yet kept trying to remain rational was connected to a past he still didn’t know.
He waited, but Maya showed no sign of speaking up first.
It seemed it was time to find out.
“Tristan.”
He didn’t want to trouble her by bringing this up before she went to the banquet.
He decided to bring it up this evening.
With his thoughts concluded, Tristan displayed a warm smile.
“Alright. I’ll only say it to the person in my heart.”
He wasn’t lying.
He was saying it to the person in his heart even now.
There will come a day he’ll no longer need to hide his true feelings.
Tristan truly believed that.
***
Maya, seated in the carriage, looked outside.
The road to the imperial palace felt unexpectedly unfamiliar. Perhaps it was because the memories she retained from her clear-headed moments were only the most intense ones.
‘…Maybe it’s because I spent so much time attached to the palace.’
Maya reflected on the room she used to stay in.
The tiny room attached to the training grounds was woefully inadequate for the head of the imperial knights, but even that had made her happy.
She had thought it was the moment her life truly began.
Maya tightly shut her eyes and then opened them, pushing away the haunting memories of the past.
Stay strong.
Murmuring to herself, Maya stepped out of the carriage.
The palace, where she and the others had arrived, was eerily familiar.
“Grand Duchess Maya Bayarden has arrived!”
With a loud announcement, Maya entered the high society she had never been able to set foot in before.
The chandelier’s light pierced her eyes. From the top of the stairs, she looked down and saw people staring at her with wide, rabbit-like eyes.
The people who had scorned and looked at her as if she were a bug.
‘What are you thinking now?’
Maya walked confidently forward.
At the end of the path, Emperor Reserfield was waiting for her. His eyes gleamed as he sat on the throne.
Maya recalled the words she had heard through the former captain of the knights.
‘I chose her because her appearance was just my type, but who would have thought she’d be so useful?’
She never knew how despairing it could be to be told her appearance was just someone’s type.
In this life, I won’t let you control me.
Maya approached her former master, her sworn enemy.
“Maya Bayarden greets Your Majesty the Emperor.”
Since Pendragon was a name she had already discarded, it was proper to align herself with the House of Bayarden now.
Adding the name Bayarden made her feel much more at ease. Maya lifted her head.
“Maya Bayarden, is it?”
Reserfield twisted the corners of his mouth faintly, though Maya wasn’t sure which part of her words had provoked him.
Maya perfectly caught the subtle nuance others might have missed.
She had observed him for so long, after all.
“I never imagined the daughter of House Pendragon would be so beautiful.”
In her previous life, he would have at least pretended to be courteous, trying to win her over.
Maya despised Reserfield, whose words now revealed his true intentions so clearly.
She wanted nothing more than to cut his throat right then and there.
‘I should ask later if I can do the honors of executing him.’
But first, she had to say what needed to be said.
“Thank you, Your Majesty. But if it’s House Pendragon, it would be far more honorable to be praised for swordsmanship.”
“Ah, swordsmanship. Right. House Pendragon. Has anything changed?”
Reserfield’s vague question was clearly about Maya’s awakening.
He must be holding on to a faint hope that this generation’s Pendragon would be different.
Just like in the past, Reserfield was keenly interested in Maya’s condition.
Of course, Maya had no intention of discussing her state.
Even her usually immobile facial muscles worked a miracle in front of Reserfield.
Maya lowered her gaze and spoke as if deeply regretful.
“Unfortunately, I have yet to achieve any significant results.”
Of course, Reserfield wasn’t going to let her off so easily.
“…Hmm, after seeing you defeat the monster in the north, didn’t you feel anything different?”
