Chapter 40
However, unlike the anxious Floria, Aidan was completely composed.
“Don’t worry. It’s not like we come into town every day.”
“But how could I deserve something like this…”
He looked at her silently.
“Beautiful Floria.”
Beautiful?
The word he tossed out rippled through her heart so strongly that Floria couldn’t respond.
Yet his voice flowed gently, as if he had said nothing significant.
“You are the Grand Duchess of the Principality of Sieff.”
Floria quietly looked at him as he called her.
“My wife. You’re no longer the third princess of Altomole.”
In his words, Floria couldn’t speak.
Not being the third princess of Altomole anymore—and being called beautiful, not just kind—left her unsure of how to reply.
No one had ever called her “beautiful Floria” before. She had always been “kind Floria.”
Embarrassed and flustered, her cheeks turned rosy.
Trying to come up with a wise response, she murmured as she turned her head toward the window.
“I won’t indulge like this anymore. Your Grace, you’re spoiling me too much.”
With that, she pouted slightly and looked outside.
“I don’t want anything. I’ve had money but no place to spend it—so this is perfect.”
It made her happy, yet also felt strange.
It wasn’t just about being allowed to buy whatever she wanted—it was that he gave her his time and told her to do as she pleased. That sentiment felt unfamiliar.
It was a kind of generosity—or perhaps attention—she had never experienced before.
As Aidan’s candid words poured out, the carriage climbed steadily toward the castle atop the mountain. With every jolt, her heart jumped too.
While looking out the carriage window, Floria spotted a brown figure in the distance.
It was about half her size, covered in brown fur with white spots—a creature…
“Oh! A deer.”
There were no deer in Altomole.
She recognized it from an illustrated bestiary in the royal library, but this was her first time seeing one in person.
“So cute. How could something be that adorable?”
Its ears twitched as it nibbled the grass, then looked up with bright, sparkling eyes.
Hearing her delighted exclamation, Aidan gave the coachman an order.
“Stop the carriage for a moment.”
Clatter—No sooner had he spoken than the carriage came to a stop on the mountain path.
Perhaps hearing the wheels, the deer looked over anxiously.
“It’s my first time seeing a deer.”
The small deer, said to live deep in the mountains, had a fluffy tail that was absolutely charming.
She wanted to reach out and touch it.
Floria leaned out the window to get a closer look.
Watching her fascination, Aidan turned and retrieved a quiver and bow from the back of the carriage.
What is he doing? Why the bow all of a sudden?
While Floria stared at him in confusion, Aidan silently pulled an arrow and knocked it to the bowstring.
Is he going to hunt?
The deer?
That deer?
That adorable, innocent deer?
With the bow in hand, Aidan moved to open the carriage door.
Seeing this, Floria panicked and grabbed him.
“Aidan.”
“Hm?”
Surely not. His behavior was incomprehensible, yet unmistakable.
“You’re not trying to catch that deer, are you?”
“You seemed fascinated by it. I wanted you to see it up close.”
If they approached, it would run—so he’d catch it with an arrow.
Her breath caught at his words.
“I don’t want to see a dead deer!”
Of course, she’d eaten venison before.
Just a few days ago, she’d enjoyed a steak made from deer meat.
But watching Aidan kill the very creature she had just called cute—right before her eyes—was something else entirely.
Perhaps some would call her a hypocrite, but she couldn’t stand it.
At her desperate protest, Aidan raised a brow and asked,
“I can catch it without killing it. Just hit its leg, for example.”
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