I Want To Be Your First – R19 - Chapter 79

In any case, since the Madam was the Young Lord of that land, she wouldn’t starve even if she heads to the North. Vieta was a little reluctant to only send off her master, but this worked out in her favour.

 

Since she had already made the decision to go, there was no need to be depressed. Vieta began to think about pleasant thoughts.

 

Apparently white ice cubes would fall from the sky in the North. She also heard that the duration of half the month wasn’t night, but day. Vieta could also appreciate the huge mountains and things that only appeared in fairytales.

 

The excitement of sightseeing quickly vacated and regret took most of its place. Vieta slowly turned her gaze towards the harbour at the bottom of the hill.

 

“While other things are fine, it’s a bit disappointing that we couldn’t visit the sea in Pahar. I wanted to teach Madam how to swim…”

 

“Oh, I know how to swim.”

 

“What?”

 

“It’s because I played in the forest often. When I got dirty, I would wash up by the river before returning. I would have been lectured by my father if I was caught by him.”

 

As expected, while she looked like a person that was weak and incapable of anything, she was a lady that surprisingly knew a lot of tricks. Ariel grinned, hitting the two stones in her hands together.

 

“I’m much better than Gwen at swimming. I might be even better than Vieta.”

 

At this, Vieta, who had always been humble, widened her eyes and shouted, “What?!”

 

“Madam, what do you think of Southerners? If you live in Pahar and can’t swim, you aren’t treated like a person. Besides, I’m from Grand Pahar!”

 

“Really?”

 

“In the villages adjacent to the beach, such as Grand Pahar or Rach, most of the children learn to swim before they learn to walk. You’ll be kicked out if you can’t pick seaweed at the age of three.”

 

“Wow…”

 

“Anyways, my nickname is Flying Fish. Flying Fish!”

 

Vieta patted her chest with pride. Then, she suddenly exclaimed, “Ah!”

 

“I’ve heard something interesting about swimming. No, it might just be a rumour, but…”

 

“What kind of rumour?”

 

Vieta scratched her cheek as she pondered whether or not she should talk about this, before opening her mouth again with a slight smile.

 

“Didn’t I just tell you about it? Natives here that can’t swim aren’t treated like people. But in the mansion… I heard that there’s someone that can’t swim.”

 

“Who is it?”

 

At Ariel’s question, Vieta smiled with an ambiguous face for a moment, and then she slowly opened her mouth.

 

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The sound of seagulls echoed over the ship. Berthwald frowned and looked upwards at the mast. A flock of seagulls squawked above the fluttering sails loudly. Perhaps it was because the boat was unusually large and overpowering, the sounds of their flapping wings were louder than usual.

 

“Look at this, Count. There are many artillery doors on the deck of the 3rd floor, so it will resist even the invasion of pirates. This is enough to sink any normal battleship instantly.”

 

As the designer pointed to the artillery, his eyes shone with pride.

 

Due to the Count’s request to replace the main sailing boats, the living legend of naval architecture, Trevor Tenwith, used unimaginably high-quality wood to build the fastest boat to ever exist. While compliments were given all over the place, the person that actually requested this responded apathetically.

 

“Good.”

 

“Also, there’s a huge space for cargo. It is different from the existing ships. If you look down here…”

 

“Ah. It’s fine.”

 

It seemed like Berthwald couldn’t pay attention to anything that was being said, gazing towards the port.

 

East of the market, a white mansion on the slope of a hill.

 

“Count.”

 

Perhaps the fact that his dazed superior was discomforting, Vion stepped forward and pushed Berthwald away gently.

 

“You don’t look well. I’ll listen to the instructions on your behalf, so please go down first.”

 

“It’s okay… No, that’s fine. I’ll leave it to you then.”

 

“You didn’t have to force yourself to get on the boat.”

 

“It’s not too much for me.”

 

Berthwald smiled bitterly and waved his hand.

 

“In any case, I’ll go down first, so come down as soon as you’re finished. We also have to check the contraband sanctions by today, so step up the pace.”

 

“Understood.”

 

Leaving behind his aides, Berthwald came down from the boat and stepped away from the beach before sighing deeply.

 

The worries that filled his head and the place he was currently at right now, there was nothing that was to his liking.

 

“…Seriously.”

 

It’s been quite a number of days since Ariel had left the house.

 

As all of the South was in the palm of his hand, it was a piece of cake for him to find out where she was hiding. That white coloured mansion, the mansion that was well within his reach, that mansion that was 15 minutes from here was where Ariel was hiding at.

 

But he couldn’t rush in recklessly. From the fact that even the Young Duke was brought in, it meant that she had planned to divorce him a long time ago… He couldn’t figure out how to approach her.

 

Why was she asking for a divorce, what was there for her to regret. He wanted to catch her right away and press her for answers, but Berthwald’s heart rejected that.

 

It actually said to let her divorce him.

 

How could it say such a thing to him?

 

Without knowing what Berthwald had abandoned in order to return to the South, he couldn’t quite understand how she had made such an absurd choice. No. He didn’t even want to understand.

 

Come to think of it, Berthwald was always the one that was anxious. He was the only one that was always impatient and unable to reach her. Although he knew that Ariel had no choice but to accept him, he thought it was still too much.

 

Ariel doesn’t know, but this was too much for him to understand. She seemed to think of Berthwald as a stone by the side of the road. That’s why it was easy for her to talk about divorce like this, acting as if nothing had happened.

 

No matter how angry she was, there were things that can and can’t be said. While he didn’t intend to deny that he was hung up on Ariel, there was a limit to how much she could disrespect him.

 

Shouldn’t the line be kept at the very least?

 

He didn’t know why she was like this. If she was angry, she could be angry, but how dare she talk about divorce? Furthermore, if she doesn’t change that habit now, she’d bring up divorce every time he made a mistake, influencing his feelings in this manner.

 

To Berthwald, who hates being ordered about by others, the current situation wasn’t just pouring oil on a burning fire, but lava.

 

He was fine with persevering with her, but frankly, he was disappointed at Ariel, who tried to use the word ‘divorce’ to deny the hard work and effort that he had placed.

 

Very well.

 

‘Go if you want to. Go as you please!’

 

‘Go and regret.’

 

‘Go out in the world and find out for yourself if there’s another man that’s like me.’

 

‘Then you’d know what you had done wrong.’

 

‘Even if you come back crying, I won’t accept it right away, so regret it as much as you’ll like, Ariel Janssel.’

 

“Count. Wouldn’t it be better if you went back home now?”

 

Vion approached with a finger pointing towards Berthwald’s forehead. Berthwald used his index finger to rub at the deep furrow of his brows lightly, before shrugging.

 

“It’s nothing much, so it’ll be fine.”

 

After a moment’s hesitation, Vion raised the question that had been lingering on his mind.

 

“Why don’t you just go and pick her up now, instead of being stubborn?”

 

“It’s okay.”

 

“No, you should at least ask the reason why she decided to get a divorce.”

 

“I’m not curious.”

 

“I don’t think she’s doing this just because she doesn’t like you. I heard that she had even left a present behind for you.”

 

“…Hah, a present.”

 

Upon recalling it, the feverish anger rose again.

 

‘That d*mned white sweater. She left a farewell gift, but it just had to be that. What… It’s absurd.’

 

“Whenever she was troubled, wouldn’t she often think about such thoughts? It would have been fine if the Count had given her assurance.”

 

“Assurance?”

 

He had already given her so much, what did you mean assurance? When he glared fiercely with widened eyes, Vion brushed against the nape of his neck awkwardly.

 

“Of course, the Count’s resentment is understandable, but the Madam is a genuine person.”

 

“Vion. If you want to talk about it, you’d better choose the right words. As you’ve said, I’m feeling quite poorly right now.”

 

Vion’s expression hardened and he observed Berthwald cautiously.

 

A terrifyingly handsome face came into view. However, a handsome face doesn’t mean that it’s always pleasing to the eye. When he has a smile on his face, it gives him a gentle atmosphere, but when he’s expressionless like that, he doesn’t look like a human, instead giving others goosebumps.

 

Trying not to panic, Vion tried to calm himself as he spoke with a friendly tone.

 

“Isn’t Madam deeply wounded in many ways? Be it her disability or her family environment… She isn’t as outstanding in appearance as the Count, and neither is she resourceful or well versed in the arts. She isn’t good at speaking, so wouldn’t she be in the dark about the world…?”

 

Just as Vion was about to continue speaking, his eyes met with his lord’s, which were staring at him with a frown.

 

Vion kept his mouth shut as Berthwald spoke.

 

“If Ariel was a woman who wasn’t pretty, had a bad head, and didn’t know art, would I have to put so much useless effort to get married?”

 

“No, that’s not it.”

 

“If there was a woman better than her, I would have jumped ship a long time ago, but why do I have to live like this, watching the Duke of Aegis’ moods? Hey, do I look amusing to you because I’m spacing out?”

 

“…No, no.”

 

“I was originally not in a good mood, so stop talking nonsense and call the carriage.”

 

There was a chill within his tone of dismissal. Contemplating whether or not to call the carriage as per his orders, Vion decided to continue pushing his point forward.

 

“Count.”

 

“What now?”

 

“In any case, what I wanted to say was that Madam has a much lower self-esteem than the Count.”

 

“So?”

 

“She didn’t ask to get a divorce because she didn’t like you… Her low self-esteem dropped even lower. I think that’s why she is trying to get a divorce with you.”

 

After listening to him calmly, Berthwald shook his head and said, “No.”

 

“I’m not angry because of that, whatever the reason was, so it doesn’t matter. It’s just…”

 

Berthwald had also guessed that perhaps Ariel overthought about too many things by herself and that’s what that caused her to leave. That woman that became frightened and watched others’ moods whenever someone said something… He guessed that this incident occurred because she wasn’t confident in herself.

 

It was sad and heartbreaking.

 

But sadness is sadness, and anger is anger.

 

The fact that she mentioned divorce as she pleased couldn’t be overlooked.

 

“Forget it, since we’re here, find out how she’s going to move from now onwards. If she’s with the Young Duke, she would definitely be moving towards the North.”

 

“It would be easy to identify her ship, but… Are you going to wait until she’s leaving?”

 

Instead of answering, Berthwald raised his hand and brushed against his chin lightly.

 

The desire to see her right away and the desire to persist till the end and to follow what he wanted to do, collided with each other.

 

‘What should I do?’

 

He fiddled with his gloved hands, deciding which emotionally guided decision to choose.

 

“For now, let’s find out about it. It doesn’t matter if I move after I figured out her movements.”

 

‘You can leave if you want.’

 

Ariel will be the one who will regret leaving.

 

As he vowed inwardly, Berthwald extended the grace period for his emotions.