Chapter 69
***
Ylfus, who still lacked sufficient interest in estate management and concern for his hardworking parents, returned to the castle today only after rolling around the dusty training grounds until he was covered in dirt.
“Ah, I’m starving!”
Not wanting to show up to dinner with his beloved wife looking so disheveled, Ylfus headed straight to his room to bathe.
“Thomas, is the bathwater—”
It was then, as he turned and took off his shirt, that he saw it.
A massive, pitch-black owl perched by his bedroom window.
“Ylfus.”
“Ahhh!”
Letting out a terrified scream, Ylfus quickly realized the figure by the window wasn’t an owl. It was his mother, Marianne.
Marianne wrinkled her nose and frowned.
“Good heavens, Ylfus! The stench of sweat is unbearable.”
“It’s not my fault, Mother. I’ve been training the new recruits in this summer heat. But what brings you to my room? Where’s Cinq?”
“Cinquerus is busy preparing for tomorrow’s banquet. As for you, Ylfus, you need to prepare as well.”
Ylfus looked confused.
“Prepare for what?”
Still pinching her nose, Marianne motioned toward him.
“I’ve had bathwater prepared. Go wash up.”
“Mother, you’re not planning to wait for me to finish bathing, are you?”
“It’s not like I want to do this. But there’s something we need to address after you’re done.”
“Good grief.”
Ylfus felt as if disaster had struck out of nowhere.
Still, no matter how odd his mother was acting, he couldn’t avoid washing up. With the help of his servant, Thomas, he quickly bathed and returned to his room.
When he re-entered, Marianne was waiting with a middle-aged woman.
Marianne introduced her.
“This is Jenna, a highly renowned beautician from the capital. It wasn’t easy to bring her here.”
Ylfus blinked, surprised.
“A beautician? Did you bring her here for Cinq?”
Jenna chuckled softly.
“The Young Madam is with my assistant. We’ll make sure she sparkles from head to toe. But I’m here for you, young master.”
“For me? Why?”
Instead of answering, Jenna began inspecting him from head to toe, flexing her hands eagerly.
“Ah, just looking at you ignites the fire of my profession as a beautician.”
“Seriously, why?”
“In the beauty circles of the capital, Spinel, they call me ‘The Lawnmower of Spinel.’”
At that moment, Jenna’s assistant brought in piles of steaming wax and linen strips.
The Lawnmower of Spinel.
Boiling wax. Linen.
As he pieced the clues together, Ylfus’s face turned pale.
“Mother? What on earth are you thinking?”
Marianne replied ominously.
“Ylfus, if I must sacrifice you to keep my daughter-in-law, so be it.”
“What are you talking about? Who said my wife was going anywhere? Jenna, that’s hot! I said it’s hot! Ahhh!”
***
[Dear Angel,
Lately, I’ve been learning mathematics. Imagining such impossibly large numbers makes my heart race. I’ve also been studying the scriptures.
Though these stories are ancient, the lessons they teach feel surprisingly relevant even today.
If I were to tell you all of this, you’d probably be quite surprised…]
Morning.
Cinq woke up in the stillness of silence.
The absence of Ylfus’s snoring made the morning unnervingly quiet and strange. For a moment, she wondered if she was still dreaming.
But the journal she had been writing in before falling asleep lay in front of her. She remembered being too drowsy to put it back on the shelf and had fallen asleep with the pen still tucked between its pages.
The memory of the massage from the beautician from the capital returned. It had been so relaxing that her whole body became limp, and she couldn’t resist the pull of sleep.
Opening the journal, Cinq was relieved to see that the ink hadn’t smudged.
She rubbed her eyes and glanced at the bed. The space beside her was neat and untouched. There was no sign of her husband.
Since their marriage, Ylfus had never left her alone at night. Sometimes he came to bed after she had already fallen asleep, and sometimes he left before she woke, but this was a first.
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