I’ve Become a S*ave Bride - Chapter 14

“He’s taking forever.”

Lenette muttered irritably as she paced inside the new room—nominally their “honeymoon suite.”

It had already been several days since she sent the new salve.

Not only had there been no word, good or bad, but the so-called groom hadn’t shown his face once.

“If this was the plan, why merge the rooms at all?”

The only person she’d encountered during this time was Nazan, a new servant who appeared to be one of Kazen’s personal aides.

“Don’t tell me the salve wasn’t good enough.”

Maybe he’d decided there was nothing special about it after all.

Lenette shook her head, trying to push away the anxious thought.

“No way.”

There was one thing she had learned after spending a few months as a slave in the empire:

The Tazetra Empire, so admired by the King of Ecaron, wasn’t nearly as perfect as it appeared.

Unlike the Kingdom of Ecaron, this empire had no ongoing wars or internal strife.

Everything seemed stable, peaceful even.

But as with any bright light, shadows followed—and in this case, the shadow lay in their technological development.

Strangely enough, areas like medicine and weaponry felt far more primitive than those of Ecaron.

Just take the salve, for example.

Even though it wasn’t made from a particularly complex combination, Kazen had seemed genuinely surprised. He even questioned the herbs she used.

“I think you put in gamalcho. Isn’t that usually used for treating insomnia?”

Through his question, Lenette realized something important: there hadn’t been much advanced research into herbs here in Tazetra.

No—saying there had been ‘little’ research would be generous.

The empire’s medicine was, at best, a slightly refined version of centuries-old folk remedies.

“Truly fascinating… Could this be the flip side of peace?”

Lenette wondered if a comfortable life had made these people complacent.

“Well, it makes sense.”

The Tazetra Empire had no wounded soldiers dying from war like in the Kingdom of Ecaron, nor was there the ever-changing, damp climate that made people fall sick with colds or infectious diseases.

After all, the driving force behind growth is often ‘lack.’ So it wasn’t an entirely absurd idea.

Given the circumstances, the salve she had created must have been quite significant to the master of this palace.

“Then why hasn’t he shown up?”

Just as she murmured to herself and kept pacing the room—

Tap.

There was a soft landing sound, followed by a beast’s cry coming from the balcony.

“…!”

Lenette’s eyes widened. She stopped pacing at once and quickly sat down at the table.

Moments later, just as she expected, the door burst open.

“What are you doing?”

Kazen entered, one hand in his pocket, and glanced over at Lenette, who was scribbling away at the table.

“Researching the salve,” she replied, pretending to be engrossed in her work, avoiding eye contact.

A soft chuckle came from above her head.

“Are you sensitive to heat or something?”

A sudden, out-of-the-blue question.

The pen she’d been moving so diligently came to an abrupt halt. Why was he asking that?

‘Did my face turn red from that short dash?’

No way. She had only run across the room, from the center to the edge.

“Well… this place ‘is’ hot, compared to my homeland, at least.”

“That makes sense.”

Kazen nodded, the corner of his lips curling unpleasantly as he sat next to her. Slouched lazily, he rested one arm on the backrest and fixed his gaze on her lower body.

“So that’s why you pulled your skirt up like that, huh?”

“…!”

She quickly glanced down—and was met with an embarrassing and revealing sight.

In her rush to sit down after hearing Kazen’s approach, she had accidentally sat on the edge of her skirt, causing it to hitch up.

‘No wonder it felt breezy!’

One of her thighs was fully exposed—of course it felt cool. She hadn’t even realized and had been pretending to concentrate on her writing.

Thankfully, Lenette was no stranger to court intrigue, and her face didn’t betray the flustered emotions she felt inside.

“It ‘is’ quite hot these days,” she said evenly.

“Right. Hot enough for bare skin. Wouldn’t you say?”

He asked with a smirk, clearly knowing exactly what had happened. Lenette merely lifted her shoulders calmly.

“If it bothers you, I’ll lower it.”

“It doesn’t bother me, but I can’t say I’m thrilled to see it either.”

“…”

How could someone be so consistently unpleasant with their words?

‘No wonder I mistook him for a slave.’

There wasn’t a trace of manners or courtesy in anything he said.

“Anyway, it’s been a while,” she said casually, smoothing down her skirt and settling in her seat.

Kazen leaned an elbow on the table and rested his chin in his palm.

“Why? Did you miss me?”

“……”

Lenette was momentarily at a loss for words.

‘So this is what they mean when they say good looks make your mind go blank…’

Crown Prince Daw and Prince Asel were certainly handsome.

But the man in front of her—those predator-sharp eyes tinged with indifference, that razor-edged jawline—standing before him, the other two would be reduced to blurry-featured imitations.

With that fleeting thought, Lenette spoke honestly.

“Yes. I missed you.”

Caught off guard by her response, Kazen’s eyes widened slightly as he rested his chin in his palm.

“You missed me? ‘Me’?”

“Yes.”

“That’s unexpected. I thought you’d be wishing I’d never show up.”

Lenette gave a small shrug and returned her gaze to the paper she’d been scribbling on.

“If you practice medicine, of course you’d be curious about the results.”

“Then you should’ve asked Nazan.”

“I don’t want to.”

Having ruled all his life, Kazen likely wasn’t used to such direct refusals.

That was exactly why she did it—she had to provoke him just enough to keep his interest. If she were too agreeable, she’d disappear into the background.

Sure enough, his tone shifted from playful to slower and more measured.

“You ‘don’t want to’?”

Lenette raised her lashes and met Kazen’s gaze head-on.

“No, I don’t.”

She didn’t immediately explain why. She let silence hang between them on purpose.

Only after his sharp gaze swept over her from head to toe did she speak again.

“It’s my personal principle to always examine the patient myself. That’s why I don’t want to hear it through Nazan.”

Her words brought a silence between them.

His emotionless gaze bore into Lenette, but she didn’t avoid his eyes. On the contrary—she met them head-on.

Then he chuckled and rubbed the corner of his eye.

“You’re interesting.”

She hadn’t said it to be entertaining, but she knew better than to push further. She didn’t intend to provoke him to the point of overstepping her bounds.

In a softer tone, different from before, Lenette asked,

“Can you tell me how the ointment worked?”

“It was effective.”

That short, straightforward reply was all he gave, but she didn’t press for more. She hadn’t asked out of deep medical curiosity anyway.

“I see.”

Lenette nodded faintly and returned to what she was writing.

“What are you writing?”

“About herbs.”

“Herbs?”

“Yes.”

In truth, what she was writing wasn’t about herbs, nor was it in the language of the Tazetra Empire. The report was written in the language of the Ecaron Kingdom.

There were no medical notes on the page. Leaving such knowledge behind on paper might risk leaking what could become her key to survival. Besides, she already had it all committed clearly to memory—there was no need to write it out.

What she ‘was’ writing was nothing more than curses directed at Ophelia and Daus.

Things like:

「Do you think you can make someone cry blood and still live happily ever after? Disgusting creatures.」

「May you two suffer the greatest misfortunes a human can endure. And if such a future does not come on its own, then I shall forge it with my own hands.」

That sort of thing.

But Lenette continued her lie without a hint of guilt.

“The herbs here in the Empire are a bit different from those in my homeland, so I’m making notes about them.”

“Is that so?”

Kazen glanced briefly at the paper.

Even if that half-blood knew the Ecaron Kingdom’s language, he wouldn’t be able to read ‘this.’

‘Because it’s not in standard Ecaron.’

It was a dialect from one of the unified city-states. Sure enough, he leaned back as if he couldn’t make sense of it.

Silence returned between them once again.

Only the quiet scratching of Lenette’s pen echoed in the room as she continued writing her curses.

In that stillness, Kazen leaned back further in his chair, nearly reclining, staring blankly at the ceiling.

‘Why isn’t he leaving?’

She had confirmed that he hadn’t forgotten about her and that her ointment had value. So he could leave now.

‘What’s he even doing just sitting there? It’s uncomfortable.’

Then suddenly—

“You,” Kazen said out of nowhere, turning his face toward Lenette.

“Do you need anything?”