How the Villainous Consort Avoids His Death Ending - Chapter 81.2
I leaned against the side railing of the flagship and gazed blankly at the port receding into the distance.
The sea around Hezekia was as blue and calm as ever. Yet a corner of my heart felt anything but peaceful.
Last night, Wilhelm, the Grand Duke’s butler, who had been busy finishing the preparations for departure, had found a rare moment to come see me. From the quiet way he greeted me, a faint trace of worry and concern passed across his expression.
“Grand Consort, you have rested for barely a month. Once you leave, you will not return for half a year. Why do you not stay a little longer?”
“You have rested enough, Wilhelm. Even though Hezekia has some breathing room, it is not yet the time to settle down.”
Far from settling down, it was time to work diligently, like a tireless ox, and earn what needed to be earned. A consort cannot simply lounge around, after all.
I smiled lightly and spoke, and Wilhelm sighed before adding.
“I know how harsh a voyage can be. Your body is weak, Consort Ruellin. You must always take good care of yourself when traveling to distant lands. If anything difficult arises, do not hesitate to inform His Grace.”
“Ah… yes. Thank you, Wilhelm.”
My voice trembled slightly. The butler, who had always been strict and rigid from the first time I met him, was looking after my well-being. He even urged me to command someone like His Grace the Grand Duke.
One must live long to see such a thing. It was unfamiliar and awkward, yet the warm feeling touched my heart pleasantly.
However…
After the last voyage, while staying at the Grand Duke’s palace, a heavy shadow had remained in a corner of my heart. Thinking of last night made a wry smile escape me. For the first time since becoming Ruellin, the Grand Duke’s butler had treated me sincerely as a consort and relied on me.
But I was not a real consort.
I rested my chin on my hand and stared absentmindedly at a flock of seagulls drifting through the air. A cool sea breeze brushed along the back of my neck. My mood swayed with the waves breaking white before my eyes.
Whether he remembered the kiss we shared at the Belforte residence or not, Tristan had been utterly silent for over a month afterward. Perhaps he wanted to act as if nothing had happened. After all, it was not a shared kiss but something I had taken. Yet later, Tristan had been the more assertive one.
Or perhaps, because I was not a “real consort,” he felt no fated attraction at all. Not that I was saying I felt such a fated attraction…
“When does the consort appear in the original story?”
Sigh…
These days, whenever I recalled the consort in the original story, my head ached. When that time came, would I have to step aside? To give Tristan a straightforward divorce?
In the original, Ruellin is brutally killed, and Tristan naturally becomes single again, but I could not give up my life. So the story would have to continue with a consensual divorce.
…
“Ah, I do not want to…”
Even though my original goal was a safe divorce, my words came out contradictory. People’s feelings change sometimes, do they not?
As I stared helplessly at the sea, struggling with my thoughts, I heard the pitter-patter of small footsteps. Turning around, I saw Constantine van de Rubyere, the Crown Prince’s son, waddling forward with his short legs.
He pressed closely to my side and pressed his cheek against my waist, speaking in his high-pitched voice.
“Grand Consort! What are you worrying about?”
“Well, something like that…”
“Do you have something, or do you not?”
“Well, I do not know either.”
Even though your uncle spent two nights with me (because of the heat cycle and rut events) and shared a deep kiss (though it was my unilateral initiative), I could not honestly say that my heart was boiling because he was destined to meet another omega. I replied gloomily, then realized how strange it was to talk about this to a child and awkwardly changed the subject.
“Are you bored, Your Highness?”
“Yes! Tell me a fun story, Grand Consort.”
What kind of fun story should I tell?
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