“It’s hard to see in the daylight.”
Thinking it would be better than a hand mirror for checking her hair, Eunice examined her reflection in the window of the moving carriage from various angles.
Is this good enough…?
What would Johannes think seeing his bride looking so haggard after just one day? She tied her lightly brushed hair, then untied it, repeating this several times.
Eunice decided to take a moment to catch her breath. Her gaze shifted to a bundle placed beside her.
It had been given to her by a knight before departure. When she opened it, she found dried fruit and jerky inside. It seemed to be meant for breakfast.
“I’ll eat a little.”
Having put nothing in her mouth since getting up, she was starting to feel hungry.
Eunice picked up a piece of dried fruit and chewed it slowly. A sweetness seeped through the chewy texture.
Taking one bite and chewing it for a long time, she quietly gazed at the passing scenery. Northward, further northward.
What kind of place would the Kingdom of Nordish be? Since it was called the land of winter, would it be covered in white snow? Looking at the wasteland spread before her eyes, she felt there was still a long way to go.
By the way, when had the Land of Death recovered like this?
As Crown Princess Richen had said, grass was growing in various places. To Eunice’s eyes, accustomed to the prosperous Pavlone duchy, it still looked desolate, but not enough to associate it with death.
If this land was no longer abandoned.
If people could live here.
Would Johannes gradually come down and expand his territory? Would he raise an army targeting the prosperous southern lands?
It wasn’t a vague worry. Nor was it something for the distant future. He would enchant people with his captivating beauty, then cruelly wield his sword. That’s how he would take over the south too.
A chill ran down her spine.
She felt her situation as a hostage being sold off etched into every cell of her body. Suddenly, the fruit flesh tasted bitter in her mouth. Eunice quietly gazed at her face reflected on the flowing scenery.
Her expressionless face gave her a strange distance, as if it belonged to someone else. At the same time, it was a face she knew all too well. Looking at herself from a third-person perspective, Eunice asked a dry question.
‘Eunice, what can you do?’
Should she captivate Johannes’s heart with the face that had made Callian obsessed? Should she prove her usefulness and gain his trust through the efforts she had made to please her father? Or perhaps both were necessary.
Love it or hate it, Tranche was her homeland. It was the land where she was born and raised, and the country her mother, whom she had only seen in portraits, had loved.
Solenne, who had established poorhouses, given to the poor, and practiced noblesse oblige.
She was the perfect woman who had captivated Rockford. Not only Marie but others unanimously praised her so.
Thus, Eunice had tried hard to resemble a mother she had never actually seen. The Pavlone duchy, and more broadly Tranche, contained the hours of her fierce efforts.
So there were enough reasons to protect it.
It wasn’t something she could cut out just by looking at painful memories. The mere thought of Tranche being engulfed in flames and stained with the blood of war pained her heart.
As Wilhelm II had ordered, she needed to firmly capture Johannes Reinhardt’s heart.
To ensure this marriage alliance wouldn’t break. She had to become someone close enough to share his innermost thoughts, someone who could influence his decisions and plans.
Could she do it…?
As she resolutely steeled her heart, a flower of doubt bloomed. At that moment, someone suddenly appeared over the passing scenery outside the window. Eunice was startled by the face that abruptly filled her vision.
“Eek!”
It was Johannes Reinhardt, the man who had been occupying her thoughts entirely until just now.
Eunice barely closed her open mouth and swallowed dryly. It seemed she had completely ruined everything.
Johannes was frowning deeply, as if incredulous that his bride would scream at the sight of him. Showing his displeasure without filtering.
Soon his gaze grew even colder.
“…Eek?”
As if to say, is that how you greet your husband-to-be?
After looking her over with a displeased expression, Johannes suddenly waved his hand in front of Eunice’s face as if shooing away flies.
Was he telling her to get lost because he didn’t want to see her?
Eunice’s green eyes trembled slightly as she interpreted his hand signal in her own way. How could she get lost inside a moving carriage?
Unable to retort that she couldn’t leave, Eunice hesitantly moved her bottom backward. She had to do something. In the process, she found herself pressed as close as possible to the opposite window.
Whether her interpretation was correct or not, Johannes withdrew his waving hand. Instead, he flung open the carriage door.
“…!”
Eunice almost let out another scream.
Tremendous wind and noise swept into the moving carriage. Her skirt fluttered roughly.
As she covered her mouth with her hand and pressed her body as close as possible to the corner, Johannes lightly jumped into the carriage.
It was an impressive feat. To move from a galloping horse to a carriage as if taking a stroll.
While she was in a state of either amazement or shock, Johannes calmly closed the door as if nothing unusual had happened. The carriage became much quieter.
“Why are you playing hide and seek since morning?”
He asked bluntly. Flustered, Eunice instinctively denied it.
“Hide and seek?”
“You were running away when you saw me.”
“Me?”
Their eyes had met as soon as she came out of the tent, but they had been quite far apart. It was a sufficient distance to deny it. But Johannes was no ordinary person.
“Yes. I can tell by your flustered reaction.”
“That’s because Your Majesty just entered in such a strange way…”
Eunice, who had been making incoherent excuses, quickly closed her mouth. When she needed to make a good impression, she had essentially said he was strange.
Would this upset him too?
As she worried anxiously, she felt Johannes’s gaze examining her face in detail. Eunice didn’t know what to do as her skin tingled.
“How was your sleep? I made sure to have things prepared, was there anything uncomfortable?”
There were many uncomfortable things.
But she couldn’t explain the intricacies of a woman’s world in this place teeming with dark-clothed men. The thought of knights having to attend to her needs was even more horrifying.
“I slept well, thanks to you.”
“Really? You look tired.”
“…That’s because I couldn’t do my makeup properly.”
Eunice’s voice lost confidence as she continued.
‘I did put some on. Did I put on too little? Do I look haggard today?’
As her worries grew, her head lowered. Then suddenly, Eunice realized that her companion was too quiet. When she slightly raised her head, Johannes was blinking his eyelids slowly, like an idiot.
A dumbfounded voice flowed from his lips.
“…Makeup?”
“Yes.”
Eunice’s face burned with embarrassment. She could feel him observing her with an even more detailed gaze.
Unable to bear his scrutiny any longer, she covered her face with both hands, and he burst into laughter.
‘Yes. Go ahead and laugh.’
She had built up quite an immunity to mockery. Eunice quickly waited for the moment of ridicule to pass.
“Is that why you ran away?”
He seemed to find it very amusing. His voice was heavily laden with laughter. Eunice mumbled, offering minimal defense.
“The maids who helped me with grooming all returned with the Tranche escort yesterday.”
“Ah, I see. I didn’t think to bring maids.”
“…”
Eunice bit her lower lip firmly. She hadn’t wanted to speak this way; it made her feel too pathetic.
It was at that moment. A large hand suddenly gripped both her wrists that were covering her face and pulled them down, while another hand grabbed her chin and turned it.
“Ah…”
Eunice, now unmistakably showing her makeup-free face to Johannes, wanted to run away. She tried to turn her head slightly to escape, but the hand holding her chin didn’t budge.
Pfft.
A deflated laugh shook the air. Soon, a sweet voice flowed into her ears.
“You’re pretty.”
“What?”
“You don’t need makeup to be pretty. I can’t quite tell what’s different.”
“…”
Eunice now felt her face burning hot. A feverish heat rose up, making her want to hide in a mouse hole right away.
When she twisted her head again, this time Johannes let her go willingly. As she bit her lower lip and fidgeted with the hem of her dress, a small murmur was heard from beside her. “Ah, this is maddening.”
What did he mean by that? What did that mean?
Eunice felt like crying. Her pounding heart and face that felt like it would burst made her completely disoriented. And then the very person who had disoriented her said something even more outrageous.
“Call me if you need assistance.”
“No, I can’t do that.”
How could she ask the king to serve her? Unless one had lost their mind, it would be a crazy thing to do. But Johannes put her in a difficult position.
“What kind of help do you need?”
“Really, it’s fine. I can manage on my own.”
“I’ve heard dresses are complicated. Should I help you put them on and take them off?”
“No…!”
Her voice rose involuntarily. To recover, Eunice reflexively felt for something beside her. Here it is, a comb.
“Hair…”
She thr*st out the comb and asked in a stiff voice.
“Please brush my hair. That’s all I need.”
“…”
Johannes stared at the comb blankly. Then, letting out a deflated laugh, he smiled prettily with his blue eyes curved.
“Give it here.”
Taking the comb lightly from her hand, he wrapped his arm around Eunice’s shoulders and adjusted her posture so that she sat with her back to him. Eunice quietly held her breath.
The rough touch of his hand on her hair felt strange. It was as if each strand, each cell was alive and breathing. Her heart felt ticklish, as if filled with feathers.
As she felt those awkward hands inserting the comb into her hair…
“Ah!”
As he pulled it straight down, Eunice’s head jerked backward. The comb caught in her tangled hair, causing a sharp pain.
When she instinctively turned around with a sharp look, Johannes flinched and apologized.
“Sorry. It’s my first time doing this…”
