Follow Your Heart [EN]: Chapter 36

#36.

“Your Majesty, it seems Her Majesty the Queen had a brief conversation with Lawrence.”

Roderick raised his eyebrows, then immediately frowned. It was a genuine frown.

“Where? The audience isn’t until tomorrow.”

“It seems they encountered each other by chance by the lakeside.”

The king sighed and covered his forehead, causing everyone to tense up.

“Commander of the Knights.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Does Lawrence not understand that the Queen’s husband is soon to be the King?”

The king’s face showed clear displeasure, implying Lawrence’s lack of intelligence.

“Why is that presumptuous bastard coming and going from the castle unnecessarily? Why is he stirring up the Queen’s already troubled heart?”

It was a somewhat contradictory statement. Knights naturally trained in the castle, which wasn’t unnecessary.

However, even his closest friend couldn’t point out the contradiction.

Because the king continued to cover his forehead.

“So, what happened?”

“Yes?”

“What? There must have been some conversation. They couldn’t have just been staring at each other.”

As the Commander of the Knights hesitated, Roderick’s face darkened further.

“He said he would continue to protect her, even as a knight…”

“Haa, that crazy bastard, really.”

Roderick was so dumbfounded that his recently stabilized mental state seemed on the verge of collapse.

“Since when has discipline in the Cayenne [referring to the Knights of Cayenne] been so lax?”

“I am sorry.”

“Hailey.”

“Yes?”

Jade was unusually hesitant today.

“The Queen… did she cry again?”

When Jade affirmed with silence, Roderick threw the documents he was looking at away with a thud, his face filled with irritation.

“But she said their relationship was already over, and she left first.”

“What good does saying that do when she’s crying? If she’s crying her eyes out like that, how could that bastard not be shaken?”

“…………”

“The Queen sometimes drives people crazy like that.”

How deeply in love did they have to be for her to burst into tears just by looking at his face? He was starting to get angry.

Roderick thought he should have just shot him back then at the hunting grounds.

It was a moment right before a marital fight broke out.

The king continued to wear a sullen face as dinner was being prepared.

Lee Jae glanced at him, assessing his mood.

There were no lingering spirits attached to him, but she had a hunch about his feelings.

As Lee Jae took a sip of water, Roderick, who had been resting his chin on his hand, blurted out.

“Are you going to keep having affairs like that?”

Lee Jae almost spat out the water, quickly covering her mouth with her hand. Roderick handed her a napkin.

“…What strange thing are you saying?”

“How can you, as the Queen, not set an example for the people, but instead take the lead in having affairs?”

Lee Jae felt wronged.

She felt like she was being punished all afternoon even though she hadn’t done anything wrong.

“What affair are you talking about? I think you’re jumping to conclusions.”

“You met Lawrence, didn’t you? A married person meeting their ex-lover in private, isn’t that an affair?”

“…………”

“Isn’t it?”

“…………”

“Are you really going to be like this?”

Lee Jae, embarrassed, tried to explain the situation.

“I’m sorry about that, but it was really a chance encounter, and we didn’t talk for long.”

“You cried, didn’t you.”

“…………”

“How could you cry there? Don’t you have any awareness of how you look? Don’t you even look in the mirror?”

“Does Your Majesty also think my face looks ill-fated?”

“…What is she saying right now.”

Lee Jae was honestly wronged.

She was originally quite good at hiding her emotions.

But whether Hailey wasn’t that kind of person, or whether she was only thinking about that before she died, she couldn’t manage it at all.

Moreover, Lawrence wasn’t even Lee Jae’s lover.

The part that Lee Jae felt most wronged about was not being falsely accused, but her past, which was close to a blank slate.

“Your Majesty said you wouldn’t rush me until my heart felt at ease, so why are you getting angry at me?”

“I said I wouldn’t rush you, but I didn’t tell you to go back there again.”

“But actually, Your Majesty…”

As Lee Jae stopped speaking, Roderick immediately nodded.

“Say it.”

“You said you didn’t care about that kind of thing before.”

“…Is the situation the same as then? So, is your heart still the same?”

“………”

“Huh?”

Roderick was slightly taken aback this time.

He had feelings for the Queen that were much deeper than mere liking, and he liked her more and more as the days went by. But it didn’t seem like his wife felt the same way.

She often seemed preoccupied with something, looking elsewhere.

Despite that, she seemed to be trying to maintain her composure.

What was funny was that Roderick took Lee Jae’s plate in the midst of all this.

He was cutting the meat for her while being very angry.

He was a bit annoyed, but he had the heart of a married man who thought, ‘If I don’t take care of this little bean, who will?’ [a term of endearment].

“If you keep acting like this, you’ll see me go ‘Ughhh’ one of these days.”

Lee Jae smiled a little without realizing it and covered her mouth. Roderick seemed dumbfounded when he saw that. He pushed the plate back to Lee Jae and said.

“Okay, as long as you’re having fun.”

“…I’m sorry. But I didn’t want to run into him either. I really mean it.”

Lee Jae lowered her gaze, feeling embarrassed and sorry.

Roderick was already upset, but he suppressed his emotions the moment he saw that expression.

He had felt it before, but it was an expression that evoked a lot of guilt.

“Okay, I understand.”

“…………”

“Don’t make that face. When you do that, it really seems like something happened.”

“It’s not like that.”

“Okay, I said I understand. I wasn’t even angry at you.”

Lee Jae frowned slightly and asked.

“Really? Then why did you bring it up in the first place?”

“Because I’m not in a very good mood. Anyway, I have to listen to what you have to say.”

In fact, he felt a similar feeling to when his madness was about to come.

But Roderick decided to stop here. He didn’t know why he was like this either, but it was genuinely difficult for him to get angry at the Queen.

“Eat first.”

“Yes. Please eat too, Your Majesty.”

They seemed to focus on their meal as it was.

However, there are bound to be unlucky days in life.

Today was such a day for Lee Jae.

Her third crisis came right away.

“What’s wrong?”

Roderick asked, puzzled, as Lee Jae was staring blankly at something.

She was looking at one of the dishes on the table.

It was a snail dish, similar to escargot [a French dish of snails cooked in garlic butter].

The fact that it was on the king’s table meant that it was treated as a fairly high-end dish here as well.

However, Lee Jae, who had lived in the mountains for over ten years, had seen crawling things too often, so she felt a slight aversion.

Moreover, even the snails here… were too big.

As her expression gradually turned sour, Roderick chuckled and asked.

“This is edible, you know. Don’t tell me you’ve never eaten it before?”

“…………”

“I don’t know if you’re not interested in food culture, or if the Duncan family’s financial situation is not good.”

Lee Jae shook her head. Hailey seemed to have eaten it often in the Duke’s family. But Lee Jae also had her own personal tastes and preferences that she had built up.

*I’m sorry. My taste isn’t very luxurious. Actually, it’s rustic.*

*I’m not just saying that, I really grew up in a mountain village.*

Roderick, who found her reluctant expression cute and funny, picked up the plate to hand it to a servant.

“Take it away. Our Queen is feeling uncomfortable.”

But this time, it was Jade who intervened unexpectedly.

He was spending his days with the credibility of the reports he was involved in collapsing every day. Because of that, the First Knight Commander of a nation was making a fuss over just a few snails.

“Your Majesty the Queen, didn’t you like that?”

“Huh?”

“You said you liked it quite a bit… I definitely heard that.”

“From… whom?”

Lee Jae looked at Jade with a puzzled face.

She felt that the atmosphere was a bit strange.

She was embarrassed that even the Commander of the Knights was interested in such a trivial eating habit.

It was Roderick who stopped him. He clicked his tongue and said.

“Jade. The Queen is having dinner right now.”

“…………”

“Don’t disturb her.”

The king gave Jade a warning look.

But Lee Jae felt that the king also thought something was strange.

Roderick asked Lee Jae again.

“You don’t want to eat it?”

“No? I like it?”

But his expression, carefully observing Lee Jae, who was inwardly flustered, was saying.

*’She’s lying again.’*

The king handed the plate to a servant.

“Just take it away quickly.”

*Why does it feel like I’m being punished today without doing anything wrong?*

Lee Jae, who had been beaten by three burly men in turn, ended up eating humble pie [being forced to admit one’s mistake and apologize].

After finishing their meal, they walked in the garden for a while before coming inside.

Lee Jae, who had a slight stomach ache, felt better after getting some night air.

As she walked down the hallway leading to her room, Roderick asked.

“Are you okay? If you’re not feeling well, take a few more days off.”

“No, it’s okay. But, Your Majesty.”

“Yeah, why.”

“Could I sleep in Your Majesty’s room today?”

Lee Jae was planning to resume the exorcism.

There would be audiences from tomorrow afternoon, but she had rested a lot, so she thought she could eliminate one [spirit].

But Roderick wore an expression that he didn’t really like.

“Wasn’t that enough of a tour of the room? I like your room better.”

“…Did you?”

“Yeah.”

Roderick’s impressions were actually all based on reason. Lee Jae’s room was a much safer place, and a human amulet [a person acting as a protective charm] couldn’t block all the energy.

Lee Jae also had many concerns, so she cautiously asked.

“Then, will Your Majesty sleep in my room? I like that room.”

“…You can say you don’t want to sleep with me in such a novel way.”

Lee Jae chuckled but didn’t deny it.

Honestly, she was more comfortable without Roderick. She was always nervous that he would wake up during the exorcism, and then her concentration would be disrupted.

“Hailey. Don’t you think it’s too petty to take revenge like this just because I said something unpleasant today?”

“Revenge? It’s not like that. And I didn’t particularly hear it as something unpleasant.”

“Then how should I take your words?”

As she closed her mouth again, he ran his hand through his hair, looking frustrated.

“Don’t do that, just let me sleep. I really can’t sleep without you.”

“…………”

“If you really don’t want to, think of it as punishment for having an affair.”

Roderick felt a bit of his pride hurt as he said this. But she, who thought the word choice sounded very strange, smiled faintly and said.

“Your Majesty, how is that a punishment?”

“What.”

“Punishment is never that warm.”

Roderick stared at the air for a moment at those words.

He sighed and rubbed his eyes.

“…You’re honestly doing this on purpose, aren’t you.”

He slightly pushed the shoulder of the apricot-colored fox, who was playing with him, towards the wall. And then he immediately bent down.

Roderick bit her slender chin and then licked it soothingly. As he bit her entire lips, Lee Jae’s lips disappeared into his mouth and could not be seen.

Watching the king, who was out of his mind like someone eating delicious food, the servants thought.

*’He’s not kissing her, he’s almost devouring Her Majesty the Queen.’*

Lee Jae, who was obscured by Roderick due to the significant difference in their physiques, was not easily visible.

But Roderick, who had been caressing her waist, quickly fell away, panting roughly. He felt a signal that he was about to lose his reason.

If he went any further here, he was not confident that he could end it with just a kiss.

“I can’t do it today. You just go in quickly.”

Roderick shoved Lee Jae into the room against her will and closed the door.

She, who was left alone in an instant, had a bewildered look on her face.

This situation was too different from the plan.

Today was a day when she would fall backwards and break her nose [experience a complete failure].

But strangely, she felt that it wasn’t a bad ending.

She was a little worried about the king sleeping alone in that room, but she thought he would be okay for one day.