Toxic Marriage - Chapter 8.1

Chapter 8.1

Erik secretly thought that it wouldn’t be too difficult.

His master had told him that Freya Lindberg would not have the courage to die, even if she were forced to give birth to a child.

The order to keep a close watch on her seemed to indicate that the woman was planning on running away, but Erik thought it was impossible to do so. Even if she had a knight with her, the security here was tight, and the walls were so high they seemed to reach the sky.

She would be out of her mind if she dreamed of running away even after seeing that.

In the end, there was only one thing a woman who had been raised preciously as a princess could do; denying reality and suffering for a few days but eventually conforming to reality.

Having come to his conclusion, Erik went to see Freya as soon as the day dawned. There was much to do for a confused outsider.

“Lady, if you don’t mind, I’d like to go inside. I have something to show you.”

“Lady?”

The way he called her had changed over the course of the day, making the face of the escort knight standing next to Freya distort violently.

It seemed that he had heard from her about what had happened yesterday.

“Yes, she will be Margrave’s official wife starting today. That’s the main reason why I came to see Miss Freya right now.”

Erik pulled a roll of paper out of his inner pocket and held it out.

“You must sign the marriage certificate. One copy of the completed marriage certificate will be sent to Miss Freya’s home, Marquis Lindberg’s residence.”

Even as he spoke, he was a little worried about Freya, who had gone through something harsh yesterday. He glanced at her.

The woman who kept silent the whole time was expressionless.

‘Aren’t her eyes a little red…?’

Yes, she must have cried a lot last night. She seemed to have skillfully erased the traces, befitting of a noblewoman, but if he looked closely, her eyes were slightly bloodshot.

Erik, who had been trying to guess Freya’s feelings, returned his senses and handed her a pen.

“Please sign.”

“You arrogant…!”

The escort knight, whom he had previously suspected had anger management issues, grabbed him by the collar.

“You’re only trying to use Miss Freya as a tool, what do you mean by marriage!”

“Cough, cough!”

Erik tried to clear his throat, surprised, but Risyr lifted him with even more force.

Just as Erik was jerking his arms around like a bird with its neck tied, Freya intervened.

“Enough, Risyr.”

Risyr, who had been exerting such strength as if he would kill Erik soon, let him go at Freya’s words.

Erik had experienced seeing his vision turn yellow for the first time in a long time.

“How dare you try to kill me, the only attendant of the Margrave…”

“You want my signature, don’t you?” Freya asked as if her signature was of great value.

Erik forgot that he had been grabbed by the collar and let out an exasperated sigh.

“It’s not that I want it; you have to do it. If you want to live here.”

“So are you going to kill me if I don’t?”

“…”

“Wouldn’t it be your master who would regret it if I died?”

The woman was more cunning than he had expected. However, the reason why she acted so brazenly was probably because she still didn’t know what kind of power the rumored devil had.

“If you’re trying to gain the upper hand in your relationship with the master, it’s a good idea to stop. I don’t want to be harsh, but he will do what he wants, even if he has to bind you.”

Was she losing a bit of confidence now? But Freya, whose thoughts he didn’t know, still had her eyes wide open.

“Who wants to gain the upper hand? I don’t want to defeat a monster who chews raw pig liver.”

“Then…”

“I’m curious about something. If you answer all my questions, I’ll sign it.”

… Well, it wasn’t difficult. She had to know a certain amount of things to live here anyway, and there were probably things she wanted to explain too.

But he definitely wasn’t going to fall for this woman’s eloquence.

Erik adjusted his clothes and nodded.

“Alright. Go ahead.”

Freya let out a short sigh.

“I’m curious about how Niflheim works. Apparently, the Margrave rarely shows his face to the public, so I’m curious about why the people here are loyal to him.”

“Master tries not to go outside as much as possible, and when he does go out, he covers the lower part of his face with a veil.”

“Still, he must need to meet people often to take care of military training or administration.”

“He usually uses a representative for most important matters. As you will see later, the military is handled by Commander-in-Chief Harald, while administrative matters are handled by my twin sister Arne.”

Freya stared at Erik.

“You must all know how to keep your mouths shut. Seeing that the Margrave’s identity is not known in detail to the outside world.”

Erik hesitated whether to say something or not, but decided it would be better to make things clear, so he added an explanation.