Don't Keep a Dog in the Garden - Chapter 24

It was the first time she had seen Whisker with his eyes closed.

That Whisker Mastiff, letting down his guard and falling asleep.

She hadn’t even expected to see his sleeping face, but it seemed he was human after all.

Beautiful.

Belatedly, Cassia thought.

People speak of Cassia’s golden eyes as the sun.

But the moment she first saw Whisker, she understood why they called the sun beautiful.

That brilliance and radiance felt as if they didn’t belong to this world, stealing her gaze in an instant.

Even as she watched young Whisker’s face flush red with embarrassment, she couldn’t look away.

Just like now.

Cassia realized she had unconsciously reached her hand toward Whisker’s face.

Just before her fingertips touched his golden hair, she hurriedly tried to pull her hand back.

Whisker caught her hand. “Is there something on my face?”

She thought he was fast asleep, but there wasn’t a trace of drowsiness in his voice.

The red eyes revealed between his slowly lifting eyelids were clear and vivid.

“You were awake?” Cassia asked, flustered, one hand still caught in his.

“I woke up. Your gaze was rather intense.”

With a faint chuckle, Whisker brought Cassia’s hand to his lips.

He lightly kissed the back of her hand and asked, the corners of his eyes curving, “What’s your impression after admiring my face?”

It was clearly a teasing tone, but Cassia hesitated before answering seriously, “I thought you were beautiful.”

Caught off guard by the unexpected answer, Whisker blinked, then burst into laughter.

He let go of Cassia’s hand and rose, his shoulders shaking as he laughed.

Then he asked again, looking at Cassia, who seemed unsure why he was laughing.

“Do you like it?”

“I like it.”

Once again, Cassia answered seriously, like a commander issuing an order.

She didn’t judge people by their looks, but if given the choice, it was better if they were pleasing to the eye.

Especially if she had to look at him for the rest of her life.

Satisfied with her husband’s appearance, Cassia quietly observed Whisker, who was smiling prettily, then lowered her gaze to his body.

Things that hadn’t been visible in the dim light last night came into view.

Scars of varying shades stood out against his pale skin. Among them, the reddest scars caught her eye first.

They were from when he broke through the Imperial Guard’s encirclement and escaped from the Mastiff mansion.

In particular, the large scar below his left chest was so red it looked as if blood might seep out of it.

“Does it hurt?”

“What?”

She asked because she wondered if it truly hadn’t healed, and Whisker, not understanding, asked back.

Cassia pointed at the scar beneath his chest with her finger and asked again, “Doesn’t it hurt?”

“It’s completely healed.”

Whisker claimed it was healed, but the red scar still looked painful.

Cassia extended the hand that had been pointing at his chest a little further.

Her pale, slender fingers touched his wound carefully, yet precisely.

After brushing it very lightly, she checked her fingers, relieved to see no blood.

So she reached out again. This time, she touched it more boldly.

It was her first time touching a scar, so she had been worried, but it didn’t feel particularly strange.

The smooth texture was oddly fascinating, and as she rubbed it with her fingertips, Whisker’s Adam’s apple jerked sharply above her head.

“Right now….”

Whisker gently wrapped his hand around Cassia’s wrist and spoke.

He slowly pulled her hand toward him and placed it over his heart, then, with a subtle gaze that traced over her face, asked, “Are you trying to seduce me?”

Cassia tilted her head away and pushed away Whisker’s approaching lips with her free hand.

Then she shook off his hand and stepped back from him, answering with a displeased expression, “If you touch me again today, I’ll consider a divorce.”

“What? A divorce on the first day of our marriage, that’s too harsh.”

Whisker put on an extremely hurt expression, but Cassia shot him a brief glare and got out of bed.

***

The Grand Ducal couple, having spent their first night, stepped out of the bridal chamber.

As they descended the spiral staircase leading to the first floor where the dining room was, the couple, or more precisely the groom, had a face blooming with delight.

Merlin, who had been watching for their appearance from below the stairs, looked at Whisker, who had naturally wrapped an arm around Cassia’s back, and muttered, “Seems we avoided being cast out.”

“And avoided bloodshed too.”

Marsilla, standing beside her, added to Merlin’s remark.

The two, who had been preparing for the worst that might occur during the night, let out sighs of relief at the same time.

Now that their worries were set aside, they looked like any other newlywed couple on their first day.

Though the bride’s expression was somewhat stiff, Merlin, who had stayed by Cassia’s side for over a decade, knew.

Cassia was in an exceptionally good mood right now.

Even Marsilla, who had been Cassia’s physician for eight years, could tell, if not as keenly as Merlin.

“I was worried, but Her Grace looks at ease.”

“I know, right? I was so shocked when I heard the news of the marriage back in the territory…. I suppose first love really is frightening.”

Merlin lowered her brows and chuckled softly.

At that, Marsilla asked in surprise, “First love? You mean Duke Mastiff is Her Grace’s first love?”

“Well, that’s what it seems.”

“What? Then she’s had feelings for the Duke since six years ago?”

“Much earlier than that.”

Merlin winked one eye and chuckled again.

Marsilla pressed her for what she meant, but Merlin never told her about the first meeting between young Cassia and Tommy.

Pretending not to hear Marsilla’s barrage of questions, Merlin looked on fondly at Cassia and Whisker, who were seated across from each other at a small table.

The two were sharing a late breakfast and chatting amiably like any other couple.

It felt as if her young mistress, who had confined herself to protect everyone, had finally found a place where she could lean comfortably, and Merlin’s heart swelled with emotion.

Though, the conversation the two were sharing was somewhat different from that of an ordinary newlywed couple.

“Was it really the former Crown Prince Dion who killed the Second Prince Mesus?”

“More precisely, it was Mesus’s escort knight. He was bought by Dion, so you could say Dion is the one behind the assassination.”

Whisker answered Cassia’s question with a shrug.

With smooth movements, he cut the steak on his plate into appropriately sized pieces, then switched it with the plate in front of Cassia.

Looking down at the neatly cut steak, Cassia murmured as if in a groan, “So the so-called true culprit wasn’t innocent either.”

“I told you. There’s no such thing as an innocent person inside the imperial palace.”

Whisker grinned as he cut his own steak.

Cassia set down the fork she had been holding.

As she recalled the tragedy of that day to ask her next question, her appetite completely vanished.

“Then who killed the former Crown Prince Dion?”

“Someone who coveted the throne as much as he did.”

Holding a knife in his right hand, Whisker answered, his red eyes curving softly.

Someone who thirsted for power enough to kill a man who would even murder his own younger brother to secure his claim to the throne.

And now, the one who holds all that power in his hands.

Cassia didn’t find it difficult to guess who Whisker was referring to.

“You’re saying Jachim pushed Dion from the spire?”

“He died with his head smashed in by a blunt weapon. I created His Highness Jachim’s alibi.”

Cassia recalled the ‘click’ sound she’d heard atop the spire on the day Dion’s body was discovered.

It seemed Whisker had arranged things so Dion’s body would be found with a time gap.

Though he hadn’t laid a hand on the deaths of the prince and the crown prince himself, Whisker was still an accomplice.

Cassia’s golden eyes sank gloomily.

“And what did you receive in return?”

“…Your life.”

“What?”

As Cassia frowned and asked, Whisker set down the knife he had been holding.

That day, it was Jachim who proposed the conditional agreement.

By the time Whisker arrived after being summoned, Dion had already been killed.

In exchange for Whisker creating Jachim’s alibi, Jachim agreed to fabricate the true culprit.

Of course, a culprit with no connection whatsoever to Cassia.

After hanging Dion’s body at the top of the spire, Whisker had the Captain of the Guard, Mikhail, seized and imprisoned by the Inspection Bureau.

As expected, the Imperial Guard’s attention focused on the Inspection Bureau and Whisker, allowing Jachim to move quietly.