Chapter 50

The hunting festival was just a few days away.

Noblewomen worked hard to adorn themselves whenever there was an imperial event, such as a hunting festival or a founding festival.

How expensive their clothes were and how precious jewels they wore were symbols of their wealth.

Not only that, but it also meant how much a wife was loved by her husband.

For this reason, costume designers and jewelry craftsmen were busy ahead of the Imperial event.

In order to preempt the famous designers and craftsmen they liked, the nobles often signed contracts for several years.

Elisha had not booked designers and craftsmen because she had been planning to divorce for the first time in years.

Fortunately, however, there were designers and craftsmen that Richard had paid a large sum of money to early on.

‘I’ll pay as much as you want, so make as many different things as possible.’

Richard said he would buy all the products made by designers and craftsmen.

The designers and craftsmen had to put all their energy into creating a variety of dresses and jewelry.

Among those, there must be at least one thing that the Duke and wife would like, that’s what they thought.

And today was the day to present them.

Among the five or six dresses the designers and assistants made, a light blue dress and a light pink dress were selected as the dresses for Elisha to wear on the day of the hunting festival.

“Humm.”

Elisha, who was contemplating what to wear between the two dresses of different colors and different designs, held them up in front of her and showed them to Richard.

“Richard, which one suits me better?”

Richard, who stared at the scene, slowly opened his mouth.

“Both are pretty.”

That was his honest opinion. She will look pretty in his eyes no matter what she wears.

But Elisha shook her head as if displeased with the answer.

“Yeah, both dresses are pretty. I mean, which of the two do you think suits me better.”

The designer, who was observing Elisha, who was hardly able to choose, carefully suggested.

“If you can’t decide, why don’t you try both on? Just looking at it and wearing it are different feelings.”

“Oh, I’d like that.”

Elisha agreed with the designer and decided to try on each dress.

She entered the dressing room with her assistants, and Richard, who was left in the bedroom, looked at the catalog in front.

‘Your belly will be showing soon.’

By then it will be too late to order. But there were no maternity dresses in the catalog he was looking at.

When Richard was about to ask the designer next to him, the door to the dressing room opened and Elisha came out in the light blue dress.

The light blue dress combined with Elisa’s dazzling blonde hair and shiny green eyes creates a cool and refreshing atmosphere. It was the perfect outfit for a spring picnic.

“How is it?”

“Pretty.”

At Richard’s answer, Elisha went back into the dressing room with a satisfied face.

In the meantime, Richard asked the designer.

“Do you have any maternity dresses?”

“Oh, you’re looking for a maternity dress. Can you wait a minute? It must be in the catalog…”

The designer had his assistant bring all the catalogs he had prepared.

The Duke of Rubellin was wealthy enough to be the wealthiest nobleman throughout the Empire.

In other words, it was an opportunity to increase their sales.

But no matter how much he searched, he couldn’t find a catalog of maternity dresses.

“I’m sorry, my lord. I think I left the catalog at the shop. I’m going to send someone to get it right now.”

“No, you don’t have to.”

When the designer was berating themself inside their mind, Richard continued.

“Send all the maternity dresses in the shop to the Ducal household. Focus only on light and comfortable clothes.”

“Pardon?”

“I’ll buy everything.”

The designer, who looked at Richard bewildered, understood his words belatedly and replied brightly.

“Ah, yes! We will send it right away! thank you.”

Just after talking to the designer, Elisha came out of the dressing room wearing the light pink dress.

Richard’s gaze, who had unintentionally turned to her, stood still.

Her slender shoulders were exposed in the pale pink dress with an off-the-shoulder design.

The dainty arms and fair skin reflected through the see-through sleeves created a neat and delicate image.

Elisha asked, twirling slightly in front of him.

“What do you think?”

To Elisha, the pale pink dress seemed to suit her better.

And she thought he would also choose the pale pink dress.

But Richard gave a different answer than expected.

“Let’s go with the dress from earlier.”

“Uh? I think this one is prettier…”

“Only if you wear it at home.”

As if he would not listen to any objection, his voice was very firm as he said that.

‘Is it that bad?’

Elisha shook her head, puzzled by his reaction, but decided to listen to his opinion when she saw Richard’s seemingly relaxed and sure appearance.

The last element was the accessories that were made in advance.

They finished the outfit with a necklace and earrings made of high-purity diamonds from the mines of Rubellin.

Anne and the maids, seeing the necklace and earrings filled with dozens of diamonds, said that they liked them the most.

But in Richard’s eyes, it was Elisha who looked brighter than the jewels.

Richard, who was looking at Elisha, asked.

“Is there anything else you need?”

“No. That’s enough.”

After all, it is likely that Crown Princess Rose would be the center of attention at the hunting festival.

Elisha thought about other ways to attract people’s attention other than dresses and accessories.

Then she saw Anne and her maids standing nearby. A good idea came to her mind.

“Anne, can you come over here for a second?”

 

The night before the hunting festival, Elisha took Richard to his bedroom.

Usually, Richard slept with Elisha, so his bedroom was only used as a dressing room.

The reason Elisha brought him to his bedroom was to decide his outfit with him.

‘This hunting festival is the first official event that Richard has attended since returning from the war.’

All nobles will be interested in him. Either in a good or a bad sense.

‘So, you should live up to their expectations.’

Elisha brought out some clothes from Richard’s dressing room. These were the clothes she had looked at when she came to his room for a while before she ran away.

“Richard, try this on first.”

Richard accepted the turquoise jacket from Elisa and he was about to take off his pajama tunic.

Elisha was startled by this and pulled his tunic back down.

“What, what are you doing?”

“I have to take it off to wear it.”

“I meant you should go to the dressing room and get changed! How can you take it off like that anywhere?”

“It’s not anywhere.”

Richard shook his head as if feeling wronged, took off his tunic, and added.

“This is my room, and you’re my wife.”

Suddenly, her heart pounded at the word ‘wife’, which she had taken for granted.

The red eyes that faced her and the word ‘wife’ that he growled out in a low voice seemed to tie her up.

“Uh, uhm… yeah… that’s right.”

There’s nothing wrong with taking off your clothes in front of your wife. While I’ve already seen it all. That’s right, though…

‘Still, I don’t know why my face is so hot.’

Elisha, who was staring blankly at Richard, blinked and lowered her eyes.

At that time, she saw a scar from an obvious stab wound left on his side, which was made up of strong muscles.

It was a pretty deep scar, something she hadn’t seen before.

Without realizing it, Elisha reached out her hand to the scar.

Surprised by the touch, Richard was startled, but he did not avoid it.

“…Did it hurt?”

“…I don’t remember.”

In fact, there were times when I was seriously injured and in danger, but the only thing he could remember clearly was the thought that he would surely come back to Elisha alive.

Having safely returned to her side as he had thought, the scar was now an irrelevant memory for him.

However, it didn’t seem to be for Elisha.

Elisha’s hand, which had been caressing his scar with her slender fingers, suddenly pinched his side.

Then, when the muscled flanks couldn’t be pinched well, she slapped them with her palm.

“Take care of yourself from now on.”

She was upset.

Every time she saw the traces of war left all over his body, every time she saw him being indifferent to those scars.

It was heartbreaking to see him covered in wounds.

If all these big and small wounds are already forgotten, she couldn’t even imagine what he had been through.

“You’re a father now. You have a wife and a child.”

“…”

“If you’re having a hard time, don’t carry it alone, and if it hurts, don’t put up with it, tell me, okay?”

“…I will.”

Richard liked Elisha’s concern, but he felt sorry that he had no choice but to lie at the same time as he answered.

Elisha would be worried if she knew about the pain in his back, so he couldn’t talk about it.

“I’m done.”

Richard stood in front of her wearing the clothes Elisha had chosen.

Elisha looked over his entire body with satisfaction.

‘As expected, the face completes fashion.’

He had a handsome face, nothing new, but something was missing.

Elisha, staring intently at his face, sat Richard on the bed and began to touch his head.

‘Soft…’

The feeling of fine black hair tickling between the fingers and the unique scent of soap that fluttered every time she ruffled his hair, felt good.

Elisha fiddled with his hair, brushing up the bangs that lightly covered his eyebrows.

The dark eyebrows and straight forehead that had been hidden were revealed.

The straight bridge of the nose that stretched below highlighted his masculinity.

While she was busy admiring the unrealistically handsome face, Richard raised his gaze and looked up at Elisha.

Elisha’s heart skipped a beat when she met his red eyes.

“Elisha, it seems it’s pretty late…”

Richard, who didn’t know what was going on in her mind, was worried that Elisha would be tired tomorrow, but his voice could not be heard in her ears.

Elisha stared absentmindedly at his face.

1STKISSNOVEL. DO NOT STEAL MY TRANSLATION!

Her heart was pounding at the sight of him calmly entrusting his face to her; a face that looked as if there would be no blood or tears.

‘He’s cute and handsome… He’s handsome but cute…’

After Elisha remained silent for a while, Richard asked curiously.

“My hair, are you going to have it pushed back like this tomorrow?”

Elisha, who was suddenly awakened by Richard’s voice, was unconsciously captured by his face again.

Then she finally came to her senses and pulled his bangs back down.

“No, I don’t think so.”

He was very, very bad for her heart…