Crack.
The sound of something breaking came from near the dining hall entrance.
It was the sound of the door handle being crushed in the hand of the boy who stood frozen like a statue—Kairon von Northguard.
The Young Master’s red pupils trembled violently, as if struck by an earthquake.
And his gaze was fixed precisely on the spoon in my mouth, and on Kara’s hand feeding me with it.
‘No way… is that brat jealous right now?’
I chewed the stew in my mouth and snickered inwardly.
Kairon definitely hadn’t properly seen Kara’s face yet.
Since she had her back turned to him to feed me stew, with her mask hanging from her chin,
to think he was already reacting based solely on the atmosphere.
As expected, the male lead’s intuition in the original story was frightening.
But my appreciation ended there.
“Everyone, attention!”
The knights following behind Kairon burst into the dining hall and shouted.
“The Young Master of the Northguard Archducal House, Lord Kairon, has arrived! Show your manners at once!”
At the booming cry, the noisy dining hall fell silent as if doused with cold water.
Soldiers scooping up stew stared blankly at the entrance, spoons in hand.
“What? The Archducal House?”
“Why is the Young Master here?”
Expressions that seemed to ask what kind of disaster this was, interrupting their meal.
Among them were some who set down their spoons and rose hurriedly.
But there were also veteran soldiers still lounging insolently in their seats, tilting their cups.
At that sight, one of the escort knights frowned and yelled.
“You there! How dare you smoke a cigarette in front of the Young Master! Put it out at once!”
The singled-out soldier adjusted the cigarette in his mouth crookedly and snorted.
“Ah, having a smoke after a meal is my only pleasure, but you’re being terribly uptight. Is this a banquet hall for noble lords? This is our area.”
Huu—
He blatantly exhaled pale smoke toward Kairon.
“Y-you insolent…!”
As the knight moved to put his hand on his sword, Kairon raised his hand to stop him.
“Enough.”
Kairon covered his nose with a handkerchief and frowned.
He hadn’t known the borderland discipline was this lax.
‘Count Eisen had definitely said the borderland soldiers all had something free-spirited yet heartwarmingly passionate about them…’
But the cigarette smoke blown at Kairon now was free, yet not passionate—merely rude.
And rather than getting angry at that unhesitating rudeness, confusion took precedence over this crude air of the lower depths that he was experiencing for the first time in his life.
Above all… the acrid, murky air was hard to endure.
But Kairon didn’t step back.
His red pupils were aimed at only one place—our table sitting in the corner.
Thud, thud.
Kairon strode over, fuming.
The escort knights fidgeted, wanting to stop him, but the Young Master’s momentum was so fierce they dared not lay a hand on him.
Soon, Kairon stood before our table.
Paying no heed to Count Eisen, whose eyes were darting about trying to grasp the situation, Kairon glared at me and slammed the table.
“You insolent wretch!”
“……?”
I looked up at him with the spoon still in my mouth, wearing an expression of complete innocence.
Kairon shouted, pointing his finger.
“How dare you, a mere escort, attend personally to the noble Lady of Count Eisen! Have you lost your mind!”
‘……Pfft.’
I barely swallowed the laughter threatening to burst out.
Lady?
Count Eisen’s daughter?
Ah, I see.
Count Eisen had been guiding us.
Naturally, he seemed to have mistaken Kara for Eisen’s daughter or a relative.
Well, a young woman in her twenties with a middle-aged count could be seen that way.
“As expected of a rootless barbarian, you know no manners! Gobbling down food your master feeds you? Have you no shame!”
At Kairon’s tirade, Kara opened her eyes wide and looked at Count Eisen.
“Count? Did your daughter come here, by any chance?”
“What? No. My daughter is at the estate….”
Count Eisen waved his hands in confusion, but he couldn’t stop me—my mischievous streak had already kicked in.
Kairon’s misunderstanding was simply too adorable.
This brat, blinded by jealousy, can’t even tell front from back.
I grinned and opened my mouth wide toward the spoon held by Kara, who wore a blank expression.
“Aaah~”
“Huh?”
The moment Kara hesitated, I snatched the spoon from her hand and ate it in one bite.
And I deliberately smacked my lips, savoring the taste.
“Delicious. As expected, food someone feeds you is the best.”
“Y-you…!”
At the insubordination unfolding before his eyes, Kairon’s face turned bright red.
It seemed words wouldn’t come out due to the shock—on top of anger and jealousy, a shock greater than the soldier’s rudeness from earlier.
As the atmosphere grew hostile, Count Eisen, having finished grasping the situation, calmly rose from his seat.
And he bowed politely to Kairon.
“I greet the Young Master of the Northguard Archducal House. I am Eisen.”
“Ah, Count Eisen?”
Only then did Eisen properly enter Kairon’s sight, making him flinch.
“However… my family did not accompany me on this borderland inspection. It seems there has been some misunderstanding.”
Count Eisen gave our couple a look.
“Now, you two, wipe your mouths and rise to show courtesy to the Young Master.”
“Understood.”
Kara, not knowing what was going on, rose from her seat.
Even though it was during the meal, perhaps because they were newlyweds, Kara had been completely absorbed in feeding me.
Before marriage, when they lived like siblings, she had tried to look after me as an older sister, but I had been too shy to accept it.
But after getting married and starting to receive her care, lately she often fed me absent-mindedly.
Today as well, she had forgotten that the herb leather mask Old Baba gave her was hanging on her chin as she fed me stew.
Kara turned her head to show proper etiquette.
And belatedly noticing the mask hanging on her chin, she untied the strap and raised her head toward Kairon.
Swish.
The crude leather mask came off.
In that instant.
It felt as if all the light in the dining hall, and in the world, was focused on Kara.
Kara’s bare face, hidden beneath the mask.
A beauty as cold as a blizzard over snowy fields, yet just as pure and noble.
A sharp nose and red lips.
And the moment her mysterious sapphire eyes were fully revealed.
“……!”
Kairon’s breath lodged in his throat.
The anger that had been seething until moments ago evaporated.
His mind went blank.
She had been pretty even wearing the mask.
She had been beautiful even in the fleeting first impression when he saw her passing by.
But facing her bare face head-on, he was breathless.
‘Ah….’
It was fate.
The irresistible magic of “Love at First Sight” forcibly bestowed by the original novel.
Kairon stepped back as if entranced.
Thud.
He bumped into the armor of the escort knight behind him, but paid it no mind.
Only the woman before him, Kara, existed in his world.
I clicked my tongue inwardly at the sight.
‘Look at him? He’s completely lost his mind.’
I stood behind Kara and subtly bent my knees.
If I revealed my full two-meter frame, that brat might get scared and run away.
It wasn’t yet time to intimidate him with my size.
Now was the time to enjoy the prologue of this twisted love triangle a little longer.
That was when.
The smell of food filling the dining hall and the cigarette smoke the soldiers had been puffing grew thicker.
Eventually, that acrid air irritated the still-developing Kairon’s weak respiratory system.
“Kuhak! Kuhak! Ugh….”
Kairon furrowed his brows and covered his mouth with his hand.
Perhaps having strained himself trying to shout, the coughing wouldn’t stop.
His face flushed red, and physiological tears even formed at the corners of his eyes.
“Y-Young Master! Are you alright?”
“Open the windows! Now!”
The escort knights panicked and flustered about, at a loss.
Watching that, Kara fiddled with the leather mask in her hand.
She alternated between looking at the mask and the coughing boy, then subtly turned her head to look up at me.
‘……’
She didn’t say a word, but I could tell just from Kara’s eyes.
‘Will that child be okay? Shouldn’t we help him?’
That’s my wife for you.
An icy cold beauty on the outside.
But on the inside, warmer and more affectionate than anyone.
And that consideration in asking for permission first, knowing that her husband might be uncomfortable with her handing something she used to another man, even if he was just a boy.
‘How commendable.’
I sent an affirmative signal with my eyes.
But it was a bit awkward for me to step in myself.
If I gave it, he’d obviously throw a fit calling it a “dirty object from a barbarian.”
And above all, since I was currently bending my knees for a surprise prank, I couldn’t move rashly.
That was when.
Count Eisen, not missing the exchange of glances between us, naturally extended his hand.
“Lady Kara, if you don’t mind, may I deliver it for you?”
At the Count’s low question, Kara nodded and handed over the mask.
And Eisen took out a clean wet handkerchief from inside his coat and carefully wiped the inside of the mask.
The considerate gesture to remove any foreign substances that might be stuck on it.
Fwisk, fwisk—
Adding to that, he even fanned the inside of the mask just in case, showing such attentiveness.
‘Count Eisen must have been jealous when he was young too. Like me.’
While watching Eisen’s consideration, he approached Kairon, whose face had turned red from coughing.
“Young Master, excuse me. The air here is murky, so please wear this.”
Count Eisen politely held out the mask.
Even while coughing and out of it, Kairon raised his head at the familiar voice.
“Keok… kulk! Ah, Eisen…?”
Then one of Kairon’s escort knights reacted first.
“C-Count Eisen! No matter what, to give the noble Young Master something from barbarians…!”
The knight looked at Kairon, who had received the mask, with worried eyes, revealing his displeasure.
At that, Count Eisen fixed the knight with a cold gaze.
“They are the ‘Revered People.’”
“……What?”
“Not barbarians, but the Revered People.”
Count Eisen cut in decisively.
And he declared in a clear voice so that everyone in the dining hall could hear.
“They are the northern sworn allies His Grace the Archduke personally ordered to establish ties with, warriors deserving of respect. Mind your words and actions.”
Silence.
Both the soldiers and the escort knights in the dining hall were struck speechless.
Since Count Eisen, the Archduke’s closest confidant, had put his foot down like that, no one could object.
I admired him inwardly.
‘Oh… as expected of Eisen.’
Revered People instead of barbarians.
He had changed just one word, and the target of contempt was instantly flipped into an object of respect.
The sensibility to elevate dignity with a single word.
Truly befitting the empire’s greatest administrator.
That sight overlapped with a scene from the original story.
Kara, who had been insulted as a barbarian by the grown Kairon, whose inferiority complex had left his spite at its peak.
The image of Count Eisen who had directly rebuked that Kairon, his lord’s son, to protect her dignity.
‘As expected, one of the few male characters I liked in the original story.’
Suddenly, what I’d said at the clothing store earlier came to mind.
“It’s not good for prenatal care. Or ‘Revered People’ like that customer mentioned earlier. It sounds much better, doesn’t it?”
I had used a similar tactic back then too.
The method of changing the word to reframe the situation and point out the other’s rudeness.
I must have unconsciously used that scene from the original as a reference in my head.
Huuh.
As the escort knight shut his mouth, intimidated by Eisen’s momentum, Kairon, wearing the mask, opened his mouth vaguely.
“Enough. …Don’t nag. Lord Eisen is right.”
And he pressed the mask Kara had worn more tightly to his face.
Between the faint herbal scent, her unique scent rushed up to him powerfully.
A cool yet sweet scent.
The tips of Kairon’s ears turned red.
‘Is this… a barbarian’s scent?’
It wasn’t unpleasant at all.
Rather, his head cleared and his heart pounded.
Moreover, the one who handed him this mask was Count Eisen.
Count Eisen, who had taken care of things for him since childhood.
An uncle-like figure who understood him better than his father, and was sometimes even scarier.
The young Young Master didn’t have the guts to object when he spoke so seriously.
Huuk, huuk—
Kairon’s breathing soon calmed and he caught his breath.
In the meantime, Count Eisen naturally introduced our couple.
“My apologies for the late introduction. These are the family of Chieftain Gorgon of the Winter Claw tribe, who have been invited by His Grace the Archduke of Northguard to enter the academy this term. Currently, he has also risen to the rank of Baron of Wintersword.”
He turned his palm toward Kara.
“This is Lady Kara Wintersword, the daughter of Baron Gorgon Wintersword.”
Kairon’s eyes peeked at Kara over the mask.
‘Winter Claw tribe… the chieftain’s daughter…’
Then is she… the legendary Gorgon’s… real daughter…?
The protagonist of the heroic tales he had heard countless times from Count Eisen in his youth.
That a woman inheriting his blood…
Curiosity and admiration, along with an indescribable excitement, mixed in Kairon’s eyes.
The excitement that this meeting was surely fate.
But.
Eisen’s hand turned toward me.
“And this is the son and heir of Baron Wintersword…”
“….”
‘Hm?’
Was it my imagination?
I felt like Eisen had slightly paused when introducing me as Gorgon’s son.
Still, I was grateful he hadn’t gone out of his way to introduce me as the adopted son.
“…and Lady Kara’s husband, Lord Varg.”
“H-husband…? M-married…?”
Kairon’s pupils shook.
And I straightened my knees, revealing my giant frame.
Swoosh—
“Eek!”
The shadow cast by my massive frame darkened Kairon’s black-haired face.
Even so, Kara’s fair skin and silver hair were not hidden by my shadow.