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In Fact, This Marriage (3)
Really. Just once. Can I hit you?
It was Talin’s commentary on Dandelion, who brought the sinner in without permission.
The way he fluttered his curly eyelashes was disgusting.
Talin came to his senses and turned his head to Lily. “Madam. There was no way the chief would allow it. I’m sorry to tell you this about your friend, but he’s still a criminal.”
Dandelion cried out in shame, “Isn’t that a lie? I mean, he really allowed it!”
“Sir Talin.” Although she was momentarily embarrassed by her brother’s sudden action, Lily quickly calmed down. “Would you mind leaving for a moment? Ten minutes, maybe five.”
“Absolutely not.” He couldn’t make the same mistake twice. Mistaking Tristan for her younger brother was a painful disgrace in his life. “He is a reckless man who threatened the lady in the middle of the castle and touched your body.  Even his crimes… In any case, I can never leave my position.”
He was like an iron shield.
Talin vowed to himself that no matter how strong and stubborn she might be, no matter how gracefully she appeased, he would not move a step.
“Sir Talin. The day I fainted, were you in Tristan’s execution venue?”
His posture momentarily faltered. Bewildered brown wandered over Lily’s face. “I… I wasn’t there.”
Other than the soldiers present, no one knew exactly what had happened the day the death penalty was aborted.
No one dared to speak of the details. Like everyone else, all he knew was that she had collapsed back then.
He looked at her sympathetically.
“I have something to tell him,” she said. “I don’t have the confidence to share it in front of others, sorry.”
“No. I think I’m the one who should apologize, Madam. But…” Talin glared at the culprit who caused this problem. “Please let your brother stay in the room.”
Although Dandelion was a helpless person in many ways, Talin couldn’t leave her alone in the bedroom with the man who had caused such a ruckus.
Besides, Dandelion didn’t seem to want to hurt his sister on purpose.
Lily slowly shook her head. “It will just take a while.”
Talin clenched his teeth and nodded. “…I will be standing right outside the door.”
“Thank you very much, Sir Talin.”
When he opened the door, he saw a man with dark hair.
Tristan’s attire was the same as when he first waited for Lily. His shoulders were still bandaged, but he looked pretty decent even with a coat. He even looked natural with his tousled black hair.
The feelings of hostility intensified.
Tristan bowed his back deeply towards him. “Thank you very much for your consideration,   Sir Knight.”
“Stand with your back to the door. If you touch her, I’ll rip your skin off.”
Following Talin, Dandelion mouthed, “I’m cheering for you!”
Tristan leaned his back against the closed door and finally saw Lily. Her black dress made her look like someone in mourning, pale face unveiled.
She seemed fragile.
The last he had seen her was when she was shedding tears for him. It was pretty romantic.
Today she was quite different from back then.
“Lily. I was in a lot of pain…”
The wine-colored coat draped over her seemed to belong to her husband. Although Lily was quite tall, most of the fabric touched the floor.
Tristan smiled bitterly as she avoided eye contact. “Is your body okay? I waited quite a long time and you didn’t come. You don’t know how worried I was.”
His knee joints had almost broken.
She should have been worried.
Lily didn’t answer, but he thought she was merely choosing what to say.
Tristan carefully observed her graceful profile. Even today, her silver hair shined like powdered gems on lily petals.
He has dealt with countless women, but there was no one as pretty, quiet and naive.
In terms of jewelry, she would be a special product. The kind that would be difficult to acquire with money alone.
“Thank you for stopping your husband. How should I pay off this debt? I kept thinking of you. The more I thought about the words you said, the more my heart ached, so I thought I wanted to do something for you.”
“I can’t remember.”
Those were Lily’s first words to him. Her tone was cold, but Tristan didn’t pay much attention to it. In any case, a reaction in itself was a positive sign.
If she was telling the truth, the goddess of victory was on his side this time.
“I told you my true feelings about what you have endured for so long. It was painful for me to know he treats you as a sexual tool.”
Lily was startled, her shameful expression evident. “That was my mistake. He thinks of me as his wife so stop talking like that.”
“Poor girl. You trusted him, but he was lustful and treated you like that…  I’m really heartbroken, Lily, I am your only friend.”
“…”
Lily’s expression softened slightly. Then, as if she didn’t want him to see, she quickly turned away.
But Tristan was not someone who would miss that opportunity. “You have a strong sense of responsibility, but you are so naive that you often make mistakes. Just as you helped me, I know the world better than you. Let me help you.”
“You’re right, Tristan. I don’t know the world as well as you. I’m not smart” Lily, who had hardened her expression, soon turned to face Tristan again. “But now it has nothing to do with you.  So stop it. You…”
Contrary to her weak voice, her eyes were calm.
“You are no longer my friend.”
She wasn’t swearing or declaring adamantly.
But he felt like Lily said something she had always wanted to say. Tristan couldn’t understand what he had just heard.
“The reason you took Dandelion into the maid’s quarters…  Is it for your business?”
During her time alone, Lily had pondered. A crime so severe that the lord of the land himself would get involved.
In Arcadia, the death penalty was given to those guilty of prostitution. And Tristan was a procurer, a pimp.
She couldn’t even dismiss it as a misunderstanding caused by his job.
From that point of view, Dandelion would have been judged as well. And when she thought about her brother’s words… No matter what, she was sure.
“Tell me honestly, Tristan. Were you trying to turn my maids into prostitutes?”
Tristan’s eyes twitched.
There was no way Lily would notice that on her own.
‘Ah. Dandelion. That child snitched on me.’
He held back from swearing, looking at her with a wounded expression. “How could you say that…?”
His mind raced.
“My job always makes you think that way. I’m always thinking of you, Lily.”
“The maids told me about it. What did you say to them?” Lily averted her eyes.
He knew she was not good at lying in the first place. But it was the first time she had even tried to deceive him.
Despite being aware of her own clumsiness, she asked because she wanted him to deny it. It was painful to learn the wrongdoings of the person she had given her absolute trust throughout her life.
She would also be disappointed with herself who had such poor judgment.
“None of what I did was for me, it was for them. Lily.”
Tristan’s answer felt like stabs.
He suddenly moved away from the door and stared at her desperately. “I have sacrificed my whole life. I’m like you. It’s what I do, someone has to do it.  Even if no one else knows, you have to understand me as much as you always do, Lily. If you criticize me too, I can’t….”
“I will not forgive you, Tristan.”
“…!”
It was an unexpected counterattack.
She looked straight at him. “As Duchess Winter and not your friend, I cannot give you a pardon for this. I’m going to demand a formal apology and compensation from the Isles in return for saving your life.”
“Lily!” he blurted out angrily.
A feeling of betrayal wrapped around Tristan’s whole body.
“How dare you do that to me… How many things I’ve done for you in my life…”
His self-esteem was hurt.
Lily was not someone who could condemn anyone by herself.
Tristan felt like the woman in front of him was another woman wearing Lily’s shell.
“Do you know what you are talking about?  Asking for compensation from the Isles is…” He trembled in anger and pointed at Lily. “You mean you’re going to tell your father all this? You know that Dandelion and I have offended the duke!”
Tristan screamed as someone opened the door violently and hit his head.
Just before he fell, Dandelion’s shout flew in behind him. “No sister, absolutely not!”
“Come out!” Talin grabbed Dandelion’s back.
Dandelion struggled with all his might. “No, don’t tell Father. If you tell Father, what am I supposed to do? I will die! Please think again, Sister. Huh? Sister, please!” His eyes were wide with terror. “You can’t do that to me. Think of me, Sister. Sister is really selfish. If it wasn’t for Sister, Mother wouldn’t have died either, so why do you keep making the same mistakes? I-I really do not understand!”
“Yeah. I really don’t understand either.”
The eerie low-pitched voice sent goosebumps to everyone’s spine.
Talin, Dandelion, and Tristan turned their heads slowly, as stiff as stones.
A huge man stood behind them. The owner of this castle, Duke Vladislav de Winter.