If I Disobey the Duke

Sowed (5)

Lily made a decision. “I will go to the library today. So, you should go to the office now.”

As Vlad was sprinkling condensed milk on the strawberry plate, he flinched, and the condensed milk splashed on the edge of the plate. He looked back at her.

She sat across the bed and folded her arms across her robe. “I have been here for three days. I know there are limits to what vassals can do on their own. I can be alone now.”

Vlad was perfect from head to toe, even during the mornings. As always, combed hair, stiff shirt and pants. When he put on his uniform coat, he was as usual.

In a word, it meant that she was kicking him out.

He muttered, frowning slightly, “…Didn’t you say that you’re lonely when you’re alone?”

Lily let out a brief sigh.

He was restless at the slightest sign of her getting out of her bed. As if looking at a child laid out on the shore of the water, he acted so as not to look away from her even an inch.

But by the time she finished bathing, she realized he was standing in front of her bathroom door and she was terrified.

He said Lily was accustomed to both being cared for and is doing well, but she went too far.

“The doctors said I could walk around. If I don’t move my body too much, my stamina will get weaker. So now I will stop recuperating in bed.”

She became more impatient when she heard her Isles management status for the previous three days.

“I can’t postpone the management any longer. I have to do work.”

“You don’t have to start managing right now. After you figure it out and do some more tidying up…”

“…”

He glanced into her eyes and touched her lips.

Two impulses ran rampant in him at the same time. The first was that he wanted her to get involved in the Isles management as late as possible.

It was already doing well in itself. He did some things to make it easier for her. By the time she started her business in earnest, the Isles had to be stable.

She had to clean up the remnants of Shylock’s position that filled the Isles. In addition to that, the funds of the Isles needed to be checked.  He, too, had to finish that.

He was resourceful. After finishing all her work with his own hands, he wanted to hand it over to her.

But the second.

[If you feel like you have something over me, it’s all hallucinations.]

He was even more afraid because she didn’t confide a piece of her heart.

Maybe it was him who resigned. He could feel the blood cooling down to his toes.

“If you are really worried, I can go to the doctors to check my condition. But I don’t want you to follow me to the library.”

“I… Is there any reason for me not to go?”

“The administrators are uncomfortable. Unless it’s Hans, the difference in status with you is so stark.”

Even his comrades, the knights, had a hard time with him. It was obvious how the administrators would feel with an object as sharp as a pen in his hands.

The library was one famous spot where they would do what they had to do peacefully. Having to work with Vlad all day was like driving a squirrel into a lion’s den.

Vlad tilted his head slightly. “Why are the administrators uncomfortable with me?”

In the first place, no one in this world was comfortable with him except maybe Lily.

He couldn’t even understand.

“If I had lived my life paying attention to the inconveniences of others, I would be living in the caves of Mount Kylas by now.”

Lily bit her lips tightly. It was normal for this man to live a life that made others uncomfortable. Whenever she found this weak side of him, her flag naturally went up.

She narrowed her eyes as if contemplating, then looked back at him. “I’ll just go to your office. I think it would be better for us to be alone.”

She didn’t know it, but the strength of Vlad’s stiff shoulders slipped away. She wasn’t saying she wanted to be alone, and that made him happy.

Vlad nodded his head slightly. “All right. Let’s go to the office together.”

It was a successful compromise in many ways.

* * *

Summer crept into the sky.

A cool breeze and clear sunlight. Lily spent her childhood in the mid-summer rainy season. On the other hand, summer was scorching in the north.

She felt excited when the summer she had only seen in pictures unfolded before her eyes.

When the wind blew, the nape of her neck felt cold, so she had to wear a shawl.

She looked up at her husband, savoring the breeze stroking her curled-up hair.

“It’s nice to walk.” A smile filled her little face.

“Surely it is.”

Walking side by side with his wife, even the road leading to the Knights Templar was elegant. It wouldn’t have been a long distance walking by himself, but he had slowed his pace long enough to match his wife’s.

His wife’s face turned red. He was worried whenever there was a cold wind, but he didn’t want to spoil her mood as she enjoyed the open air.

Vlad untied Lily’s shawl. She continued as she let his hand go.