The journey to return home felt faster than the journey to the destination, for some reason. At least, that’s what Ann thought. She still slept in both journeys, though.
‘Is it the fatigue, I wonder?’ Ann thought as she was standing before her residence again.
‘This is my current residence… It’s pretty comfy. Had it not for the inevitable plot that will lead to my death, I’d be very happy to live here all my life…,’ Ann cast her eyes down.
“Are you tired?”
The unexpected voice reached out to her, breaking away all the melancholic thoughts that were about to flood her mind.
Caught off guard, Ann didn’t even have the time to think as she reacted naturally—and that was by half-smiling and saying, “A bit, but it’s alright.”
“Then, go to rest right away,” Allen said, a bit taken aback with the unexpected expression he saw on Ann’s face.
“Yeah. I need to go to the orphanage and give the presents to everyone tomorrow, so I gotta rest quick,” Ann casually said as she stretched her hands a bit.
It was by no means an attitude befitting of a noble lady, but for some reason, Allen didn’t scold Ann. He even liked this natural, inelegant side of her that she showed in front of him.
“If you’re so tired, why not take a rest tomorrow and give it to them after that?” He suggested.
“Hmmm… Nope, I’m missing them already,” Ann casually answered.
Allen’s body stiffened a bit.
Missing them? Who exactly is she missing?
Is it the man that she danced happily with the other day, in downtown?
Although such questions bothered Allen, he didn’t dare to ask it out loud to Ann.
But it was certainly gnawing at his heart, for he still thought of it from time to time, even during the next day!
Yes, on the next day…
“Hey, Kurtis. Do you think I’m old?” Allen muttered in his office room.
There was only one person there, a man around Allen’s age with his long dark green hair tied in a tidy ponytail. His round eyeglasses covered his dark green eyes as he was organizing the books on the shelves.
However, upon hearing Allen’s question, the man named Kurtis dropped the books he had been carrying as he quickly turned to look at Allen in surprise.
“Allen-sama!!! If you are old, then what am I, huhhhh???” Kurtis asked as he pointed himself several times.
Allen didn’t answer, he only sighed.
“Are you saying that I’m a fossil already?! Should I plan my pension right now?” Kurtis continued to blabber.
“No, that’s not it,” Allen put his hand over his head, tired of Kurtis’ antic.
Kurtis is Allen’s right-handed man, two years older than him, who Allen trusted with bigger jobs and was often away from the office because he had to see things on site. After finishing a big task that was located quite a distance from this town, he directly requested to use his time off to spend some time with his family.
That time off was finally over now, and he returned to Allen’s side in his office.
“Come to think of it, you and your wife have quite the age gap. Aren’t you concerned over it at times?” Allen asked.
The image of Ann and Silas dancing harmoniously like a couple with similar age kept replaying in his mind once more, and that worried him.
“Oh? It’s rare for you to be concerned about my romance,” Kurtis was surprised, but he happily blabbered.
“On the contrary, I feel happy that my beautiful young wife is my wife! I am only concerned in my own appearance, so I tried my best to keep my youthful appearance. People often say that we’re a match made in heaven, so I guess my efforts bore a great result!”
Kurtis’ happy chirps irritated Allen.
Yeah, how stupid of me to ask this to Kurtis.
“Anyway, have you checked the documents I just handed over to you? It’s something that I found about your… ah, that woman,” Kurtis suddenly said, diverting the topic.
“Oh… I will check on it later,” Allen just dismissed it.
“It’s quite important. It might be the clue we’ve been looking for!” Kurtis approached Allen and whispered close to his ears.
“You know, if her real identity is really that of the former princess, she and the Claritianta family have been deceiving us. Your marriage to ‘Arlea Pristine Claritianta’ will be annulled too on the basis of a forged identity and fraud. We have to get to the bottom of it quickly, for your sake too.”
Hearing Kurtis’ words, Allen felt upset for some reason.
Before, he accepted this political marriage proposal and planned on investigating her and the Claritianta family. Should Arlea really be the former princess, they were planning on uncovering the truth and deal with her and the rest of her accomplice. But if she was just an innocent daughter of the Claritianta family while the Claritianta family was proven guilty of collaborating with traitors, because she was already married off to his household, she would escape the punishment that would be bestowed to her family and thus, she would be saved.
Allen didn’t have any thought about his marriage and never thought about pursuing romantic love himself. All that he knew about noble marriages that they were done for political reasons and as long as the two people could live amicably with each other, he wouldn’t mind it at all. Since his marriage to Arlea was beneficial anyway, he didn’t put much thought to it. If he was deceived, the marriage was considered void. If she was innocent while her family was guilty, he would’ve saved her from being condemned with the rest of her family. If both were innocent, then it would be the best scenario.
There wasn’t a rumor about the Claritianta family’s daughter at all other than how she spent most of her time away from public’s eyes and ears because of her weak body since she was young. Thus, when he learned of her bad attitude and rotten personality after they were married, he was sure that she wasn’t at all innocent and was intent on investigating her and uncovering the truth. But now…
“Kurtis, I have a long story to tell you,” Allen said after he realized that he hadn’t kept Kurtis in the loop of what was happening, due to him being away most of the time since Arlea hit her head and since he had a change of heart.
He couldn’t really talk about this with anyone other than his closest people, so he was glad that Kurtis returned just right on time.
The usually quiet and calm Allen then narrated everything that had been happening so far to Kurtis, who was listening quietly.
But the more Kurtis listened, his face gradually showed an ugly expression.
“Y-y-you!! This is something really big and you didn’t even think of giving me an update through letters?!” Kurtis was annoyed.
“This is my private matter.”
“Am I not your friend?!”
“If the letters were sabotaged and words were to come out, it won’t do us anything good,” Allen answered rationally, and Kurtis couldn’t rebuke his words at all.
Kurtis heaved a very long sigh as he touched his forehead.
“If you can get along well with your current wife, that’d be the best scenario I could ever hope for… But if her identity is really… Ah, this is a confusing matter indeed. Give me some time to digest all this. I can’t think of anything,” Kurtis said.
“Alright, then,” Allen said as he was tidying up his desk.
“Do you have some important matter to attend to? It’s unusual for you to be tidying your desk at this time,” Kurtis asked.
“Today’s work is done. I’m going home.”
“WHAT?!” Kurtis raised his voice reflexively, but he then covered his mouth with his hands.
“You’d usually find more work to do and will only return later. To think that now you are so eager to go home… Tsk, tsk. Do you understand now why I always want to wrap up today’s job and return home quickly?” Kurtis asked.
Allen paid no mind to Kurtis’ teasing and just left the room after he was done.
From then on, Allen would spend more time at home. He would take breakfast leisurely together with Ann in the morning before departing, then he would return as the sun was setting or as soon as today’s work was concluded. This was truly different from the time he returned just in the nick of time for dinner, and sometimes he skipped his breakfast.
This change of behavior confused the maids and even Ann.
Thus, Ann decided to ask during one of their dinners together.
“You seem to be at home more often these days. Work has been going well and reduced?”
“Yes,” Allen didn’t bat an eye as he quickly answered.
“Oh. That’s good,” Ann nodded to herself in understanding.
Meanwhile, the maids and butlers who listened to their conversation couldn’t even look at their master in the eyes.
Lies, it’s clearly a lie!! He never did that!! Allen-sama always takes more jobs, be it the job that’s supposed to be for some time in the future, or one of the jobs he entrusted to his subordinates, but he decided to do himself after he was done with his portion of work!
This is definitely the first time he’s done something like this!!!
Even so, nobody dared to spill the beans to their clueless mistress…
