Toxic Marriage - Chapter 1.2

Chapter 1.2

Unlike her, whose eyelashes were fluttering, Risyr, Freya’s escort knight, must have returned from dawn training and was waiting for her with a clear gaze.

“Did you sleep well last night, Miss Freya?”

The escort knight, unaware of the commotion she had done inside due to oversleeping, was as loyal as ever today.

Freya sighed and shook her hand.

“Don’t even get me started. The weather has gotten so hot that I can’t sleep. I wish I could just take off my clothes and sleep naked.”

Risyr was Freya’s escort knight, but since they had been together since childhood, she was more comfortable with him than anyone else.

“If the head maid knew I slept like that, she would be very upset. She would say that a person of marriable age should never act like that.”

“…”

“I don’t really know what it’s like to ‘act like that’. The head maid talks as if me sleeping naked is the most horrible thing in the world.”

She probably thought that acting like that to her guardian, the most perfect being in the world, was worse than the leaflets of fanatics flying everywhere or the death of a sage.

“Ah, there’s one more thing the head maid deems horrible in the world. A woman of marriable age who can’t get married.”

However, in this case, Freya did not mean to disappoint the strict head maid.

“She nagged me so much yesterday. But Risyr, you know that, right? The reason I can’t get married isn’t because I can’t act like a proper lady, but because my teacher is so prudent that he doesn’t seem to have any intention of allowing me to do so.”

She was talking about Tyrann Heirn, her guardian. Freya usually called Tyrann her teacher.

“We‘re too distant to use honorifics, but you’re too young to call me by name.”

It was a title that had not changed since Tyrann stroked Freya’s head when they first met.

After that, all of Freya’s important matters were decided by him, her guardian. And marriage was the same. It was something that followed naturally.

“Just thinking about marriage is excruciatingly tiresome, but if I’m going to be treated like someone who has a problem, I’d rather just marry anyone.”

Despite Freya’s meaningless lament, Risyr’s face showed agitation. For a brief moment, complex emotions flashed across his expression.

“Still, you can’t do it with just anyone. I can’t sit still and watch Miss Freya be unhappy.”

Freya, who hadn’t heard Risyr’s words, frowned.

“Is there really no groom whom the teacher likes?”

“…”

“Or, Risyr, will you marry me? Who knows, maybe the teacher will allow it if it’s you.”

Risyr’s face turned red despite Freya’s emotionless proposal. His lips became busy.

“That’s ridiculous. How can a knight marry his master, and besides, I am from a commoner family, so the cardinal would never allow me…”

“We’re here.”

As he stuttered, Risyr’s voice died down when Freya stopped walking.

He belatedly realized that Freya’s proposal was meaningless.

Click. Freya took a deep breath to avoid showing that she had come in a hurry and opened the door. She found Tyrann sitting on the parlor couch, not in the least different from the view she had drawn in her head.

The bright blond hair that seemed to have inherited all the light of the world, the angelic features right underneath it, the sturdy body that perfectly pulled off the parish uniform, and the graceful attitude.

Even today, he had such a perfect appearance that Freya could not explain her excuse for sleeping in.

However, if there was something different from what she expected, was it that he seemed to be in a bad mood? He was a person who always had a gentle expression, so it felt quite out of place.

Freya expected it to be because of the death of the sage, Tobias. As the sage died, the only people who could use pure divine power were Freya and Tyrann.

It was troublesome in many ways.

“Teacher… I’m here.”

However, Freya quietly announced her presence without making any hasty assumptions.

She, who had been acting frivolously while complaining to the knight, suddenly became calm. It was something that had been achieved through effort.

“Freya.”

Tyrann’s voice sank as low as his expression.

Freya thought that perhaps there was something more sinister going on than the sage’s sudden death.

Had her teacher ever made a face like that? Not since when she was almost kidnapped as a child, and when he caught an old pig trying to take her away by drugging her drink at her debutante.

As Tyrann’s silence grew longer, Freya’s tension also intensified.

What in the world was he going to say…

Just as her mouth was becoming dry, Tyrann spoke, his words heavy.

“A marriage proposal has arrived for you.”