Chapter 47
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Caligo’s well-being was more important than momentary triumph. If those who sought to exploit him learned he could communicate, who knew what novel ways they might devise to use him. It seemed she must be cautious in all her actions here.
“How ironic. Both you and I.”
The situation where both were thoroughly exploited by the imperial household was absurd. Caligo, who had been forced into marriage against his will, and her own predicament, dragged here to wed him.
Using people as tools simply because they lacked the power to resist such coercion was truly unjust.
Would the day ever come when they could escape this deception and repay them in kind?
It was a future without promise, but even imagining it lifted her spirits somewhat.
“But why have you suddenly become able to speak?”
She had been told he was incapable of interaction beyond following commands. How had he come to recognise her and respond to her questions?
As far as Fiona knew, Caligo had been discovered in this castle. It was possible some magic or curse had caused his condition. If that curse was slowly lifting for unknown reasons, allowing him gradually to speak…
“I hope you will improve further. I have many things I wish to discuss with you.”
Like the Emperor’s magic or the Dragon’s Pact, the continent held countless secrets yet uncovered. Perhaps Caligo was some being entangled in such mysteries. The possibility that he was not human, as Jayden claimed, could not be dismissed.
Yet such speculations no troubled her as before. Whatever his nature, he wore a human form, and Caligo was gentler and quieter than any man Fiona had ever known.
If his speech continued to improve little by little, might the day come when they could live together as ordinary husband and wife?
Her unpleasant mood was restored by the hope that had rekindled within her.
“Fio, na.”
Unlike the distant future she imagined, Caligo continued repeating only her name, as if that single word were the only thing existing in the world. Of course, she was more than content with this alone.
“Fiona.”
“Yes, I am Fiona. Your wife, Fiona.”
At this point, it was nearly brainwashing, but she wished to imprint her existence upon him by any means.
“Kal, leego.”
“That is your name, and also the name of the husband who married me yesterday. Fiona and Caligo are now husband and wife. Do you understand?”
She murmured as if reaffirming it to herself.
Could it be that he understood the word husband and wife? Yesterday he had shown no particular response, but perhaps, just as he had remembered his name, every word she spoke was slowly seeping into his unconscious mind.
She could not be certain, but the rumbling of his throat felt like an affirmative answer, and her spirits lifted.
Before long, however, Fiona felt another wave of melancholy.
For as they learned each other step by step, like a child taking first steps, she must engage in the same carnal act as yesterday. It felt somehow indecent.
“I do not wish to spoil the mood, but I have bad news.”
Caligo made no sound, whether he was listening or not.
“About what we did yesterday. It seems we must do it again. That is, well, what they call marital duty.”
Fiona spoke now with a strange certainty that he understood her to some degree. Even if not everything, she felt he would digest what he could from her words.
“The reason we must perform this marital duty… is because it is how children are made. The Emperor wants your child. More precisely, a child who inherits your power.”
From what she had gathered so far, this was clearly the case. The Emperor, while using Caligo’s power for his northern conquest as he pleased, simultaneously desired more. Like a prized stallion expected to produce finer offspring.
Officially, they claimed an heir was needed to maintain the Grand Duchy as imperial territory, but she had sensed at the audience with the Emperor that this was not the whole truth.
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