A Way to Confirm Your Husband’s True Feelings - Chapter 57

As the mercenary band grew in size, Caesar’s purse became increasingly full, but even so, he never seriously considered settling down or starting a family.

A man who could get stabbed and die at any time as a husband? He absolutely did not want to create another child who would grow up in the same situation as himself.

Perhaps because of that, he never developed much interest in the opposite s*x. As he gained fame and wealth, there were certainly no shortage of women who showed interest in him, but neither his body nor heart were moved by any of them.

Maybe it was because he’d lived such a brutally hard life that something inside him had broken, and he’d become someone who couldn’t feel pleasure or joy anymore.

Then one day, as usual, Caesar accepted a request through the intelligence guild. It was a simple mission to rescue a hostage from an armed group. The reward was high compared to the task, so he didn’t hesitate to take it.

The resistance was stronger than expected, but he made it through thanks to all the battles and bloodshed he’d survived. Stabbing, slashing, killing—those were things he had done as routinely as eating.

He was a little dumbfounded to find out that the hostage he rescued turned out to be the Imperial Crown Prince. After following him to the capital to collect his reward, Caesar ended up being summoned by the Emperor and granted a title and estate.

It was a situation too absurd to even laugh at. If someone had told him a month earlier, “You’ll be a Margrave a month from now,” he would’ve dismissed them as a madman. But reality was even more ridiculous.

Maybe, just as Dillon had said, he’d simply been lucky. Perhaps the goddess of fortune, who had ignored him all his life, had made a temporary mistake.

If that were the case, then the goddess’s greatest mistake would be placing Beatrice of Estern right in front of him.

“I am Beatrice of Estern. It is an honor to become the new lady of Valentin.”

When they were first introduced, thanks to Freya Estern, only one thought crossed Caesar’s mind.

‘…She’s so beautiful.’

It was a face that no man with functioning eyes could react to in any other way. Her long golden hair fell like a cascade of sunlight, and the clear, sparkling pale green eyes beneath her thick lashes reminded him of spring sprouts.

Anyone in the Empire would know the name Estern. The dignified Duke, the wise Duchess, and their five daughters were a popular topic even among commoners.

Around the time Caesar had come of age, there had been especially rampant rumors about the youngest daughter. In the capital and beyond, inflated stories painted Beatrice Estern as an unforgettable beauty—the greatest in the Empire.

Seeing her in person, Caesar thought maybe rumors weren’t always to be dismissed. He had never once thought of a woman as beautiful or attractive before, but even to him, she seemed strikingly beautiful and precious.

That said, it wasn’t as if he suddenly grew ambitious or desired something he couldn’t have. Her flawless appearance made her seem almost unreal, and until very recently, she had been someone he couldn’t even imagine standing face-to-face with.

If anything, what Caesar felt was closer to viewing a rare piece of art. The only problem was that Beatrice Estern was not a cold marble statue—she was a living person with warm blood, who spoke and moved by her own will.

Caesar found himself staring blankly at the noblewoman smiling brightly while making eye contact with him. A statue was smiling at him.

“…I am Caesar Valentin. It is also an honor to meet you, Ducal Lady Estern.”

He had thought things like getting so distracted by a woman that you answered a beat too late were just the antics of fools. Feeling his mouth go dry, uncharacteristically, Caesar managed to continue the conversation.

Lady Estern, it turned out, had a heart as kind as her appearance was beautiful. For the first time in his life, Caesar resented his terrible conversational skills. Even during painfully dull conversations, she didn’t lose her angelic smile and graciously kept talking with him.

However, midway through their talk, he found himself slightly taken aback when she brought up her experience in high society and claimed to be his senior.

‘Do nobles… have initiation rituals too?’

Recalling the nightmarish hazing he endured when he joined the mercenary band, Caesar felt a brief jolt of tension. From traditional methods like making you drink a mixture of liquor, scraps, and spit from leather boots, to more ‘modern’ torments like being tied to a tree all night or being beaten all day for no reason—there wasn’t much he hadn’t experienced.

He couldn’t imagine the woman in front of him doing anything like that… then again, if it were Lady Estern doing the hazing, maybe it wouldn’t be all that bad…