If You Wish For A Married Couple’s Duties - Chapter 82

Embroidery required a long period of concentration, and was delicate, meticulous and repetitive.

It shouldn’t be looked down on as something like playing house that’s only done by girls.

‘I’d rather shoot a hundred arrows or ride a horse while hanging upside down.’

Dooha rubbed her eyes, which kept blurring, and moved her hands diligently.

In the middle of the empty silk cloth, an eagle with a blue insignia and an eagle with a gold insignia formed a circular shape with entangled feet.

The outline of the dynamic and beautiful composition was somewhat completed, but it seemed like it would take a long time to complete.

‘Come to think of it, when will Leonhart come back?’

Meanwhile, Dooha recalled that as soon as he sent her to the main castle, he left to catch Count Jive immediately.

When she was told that she didn’t have to follow along and to get some rest first, Dooha returned to the castle reluctantly, but she didn’t feel comfortable.

“As expected, I should have followed him.”

Dooha blinked as the image of the duke darted past her mind.

Her eyelids became very heavy when she laid on a soft bed after a long while.

‘Oh, I can’t.’

She ended up falling asleep in front of the unfinished embroidery.

* * *

Saaak.

The sound of a thread on a needle gently passing through cloth could be heard.

“Have I been embroidering by myself for so long that I’m hearing the sound of embroidery in my dreams?”

Dooha tossed and turned impatiently and opened her eyes in an instant.

‘When did I fall asleep? Rather than that, there shouldn’t be anyone else in this room besides me.’

In addition, something moderately firm and supple was supporting her head.

Should she describe it as feeling like someone’s thighs?

At this hour, someone actually offered their lap to a lady.

‘Maybe it’s a ghost…’

Perhaps because she was still half awake and her brain wasn’t working well.

Captivated by the groundless imagination, Dooha’s eyes grew bigger and bigger.

She took a deep breath and sprang to her feet.

“Who…!”

“Why are you getting up all of a sudden like that? What if you get hurt?”

It wasn’t a ghost.

Dooha couldn’t help but be utterly shocked by the fact that the lap she was lying on didn’t belong to  a ghost, but the duke.

“…W, what are you doing?”

No, to be exact, she was shocked by the curious sight of the duke embroidering.

“What else can I be doing?”

The duke, Leonhart, replied nonchalantly.

“Can’t you tell by looking? I’m embroidering.”

“Who would ask without knowing that?”

It was absolutely ridiculous.

The appearance of the unrivalled Duke of Esbaden moving his hands to embroider diligently, that is.

The needle that he was holding looked as fragile as a small fishbone.

No, the sight of a man as wide as the bedroom door clutching a needle shorter than his fingers and embroidering in itself was like a dream.

‘Am I still dreaming?’

Dooha couldn’t help but pinch the inside of her arm.

From how the pain was as vivid as life, it doesn’t seem to be a dream.

“Wait a moment, when did you return, no, more importantly, you know how to embroider?”

Leonhart lifted the silk cloth in his hand silently in response to her question.

It was definitely the tapestry that Dooha had been embroidering before she fell asleep.

But it looked quite different from her final memory before falling asleep.

The two eagles in the center were barely completed, but before she knew it, they seemed like they were about to take off into the sky together, displaying a beautiful appearance.

The tapestry would be considered complete if a portion of the insignia that surrounded the eagles was fixed.

“You…!”

Dooha looked at him in disbelief.

Leonhart gave the shocked Dooha a cheeky smile.

“It seems like I’m better at embroidering than my wife. What do you think?”

The ends were smoothly finished, which indicated his embroidery skills were certainly excellent.

“…Shut up. I should be doing this alone.”

“Why?”

“I heard that that’s the Esbaden family’s tradition.”

“Since when did you adhere to things like traditions and customs?”

Leonhart raised an eyebrow, like he’d heard something strange.

“That’s why I wanted to adhere to it this time! It doesn’t seem sincere when someone has helped me! I was planning to continue to the end without anyone else’s help…”

He laughed soundlessly as Dooha shot back in a despondent manner.

“Since it contains my sincerity, let’s just say that the sincerity that was placed in this has doubled.”

“That’s…”

“What I meant was, don’t push yourself too hard.”

Leonhart lowered his slightly relaxed eyes and spoke.

“This is what you taught me.”

Dooha stared blankly at his side profile.

He, a sturdy young man, was leaning against the leg of a chair in front of the fireplace and embroidered with a quiet smile.

The combination was rather unfitting, but why?

She felt at ease as she watched him.

“Did you specifically learn embroidery?”

“Well, yes.”

“Who did you learn it from?”

“…I learnt it from Grandmother.”

Before Margaret lost her memory, she loved her grandchildren a lot and wanted to play with them, but her body was too weak.

However, Leonhart was also an ordinary boy, and so he enjoyed games like sword fighting or playing make-believe war games with children his age.

As he spent more time hanging out with his friends compared to the time spent in his grandmother’s arms, Leonhart saw her sitting in a room dazedly and waiting for his return.

“Ever since then, I’d wonder if there’s anything I can do with my grandmother. So I secretly learnt embroidery.”

At first, Margaret also got angry, saying, “What kind of boy does embroidery?” but perhaps because she liked spending more time with her grandson, she gradually opened her mind.

Margaret’s skills in embroidery were unrivalled.

Leonhart also held considerable talent for embroidery, perhaps because he’d inherited her blood.

As such, even though he’d learnt it secretly, his embroidery skills were second to none. Though it wasn’t anything worth bragging about.

Leonhart paused and inserted a needle into the silk.

“Though, now she has forgotten how to embroider.”

Ever since Margaret became child-like, she hadn’t shown any interest in embroidery.

On the contrary, she’d even rejected it so much that she trembled upon seeing needlework.

“So I thought that I wouldn’t be embroidering anything anymore, but I’d never thought that that skill would be used like this.”

Leonhart grinned as he unfolded the tapestry, which was completed before Dooha knew it.

“How is it, isn’t it quite decent?”

“…Isn’t it quite decent?”

Dooha pulled his face closer and kissed him on the cheek.

She had just acted on impulse.

“It’s practically perfect.”

She casually rolled up the hem of her uncomfortable dress and stretched.

“Actually, I was rather worried about how I was going to complete the entire thing by tomorrow. I didn’t expect to get your assistance. Thank you for your help, Leonhart.”

Meanwhile, Leonhart just stared at her blankly, like someone that has lost his soul.

Even after Dooha finished speaking, he remained silent for a long time before finally opening his mouth.

“…What is it?”

“What?”

“What did you just do to me?”

“Ah, I shouldn’t have done that, should I?”

As Dooha’s expression seemed to dim a little at the thought that she’d made a mistake, Leonhart quickly shook his head.

“No, do it. I like it when you do that.”

“You don’t have to pretend to be alright if you’re uncomfortable. I thought this much was allowed now…”

“No.”

Leonhart frowned and pulled Dooha closer by the waist as she was about to lean backwards.

“This is an order. Do it.”

He pushed the other cheek closely and threw a fuss.

“If possible, I’d like one on this cheek this time, wife.”

“Can I really do it? You don’t seem to like it all that much.”

“No, how should I describe how good it was…”

The duke only realised that she was teasing him when he saw the expression on Dooha’s lowered face, which was holding back her laughter.

“Very well.”

A corner of Leonhart’s lips curled up like he was angered and pushed her down.

“If you don’t want to, I will.”

Dooha had to struggle happily against the baptism of kisses that were landing all over her face like a shower of petals.

“Stop, stop it! It tickles!”

“Don’t wanna. You didn’t listen when I asked you to.”

Eventually, she was only released after being teased by the Duke for a long time.

He must have been very mischievous, as all the buttons at his chest were released when the duke relented.

“By the way, did your work proceed smoothly?”

Dooha caught her breath with much difficulty and asked.

Actually, she wanted to ask this question ever since she met the duke.

“What happened to Count Jive?”

“The count will be executed tomorrow.”

Not only did he try to kill the ducal couple, he’d also manipulated the monsters and caused harm to countless people, so he deserved a punishment of that degree.

But there was a part that she was unable to get over.

“Why was the execution set so quickly? Sir Nate’s wrongdoings should also be revealed. Don’t tell me, even Sir Nate…”

“That person is innocent.”

“What?”

Dooha was in a daze from a moment before frowning.

“What do you mean? What do you mean innocent? I’d clearly heard it! I heard that Sir Nate was the one that ordered the Count to harm you!”

“There isn’t any tangible proof, so there’s no helping it.”

Leonhart was rather calm and composed, like he had forgotten that his parents’ enemy had almost killed him.

“Then all we have to do is locate that, right? If you locate that strange wizard and interrogate him…”

“Calm down, Madam.”

“Do I look like I can calm down right now? Why the hell did I keep the Count alive? Did you forget that the both of us almost died trying to capture him alive?”

“No, how could I have forgotten?”

The flame from the fireplace caused the shadows on his face to deepen.

“What I meant was, he’s innocent until concrete evidence is found.”

For some reason, in the pregnant atmosphere of the darkened room, his eyes were darkly subdued.

* * *