Chapter 3

After Yuna got the appointment card, she called for Kael to quickly prepare the invitations.

She raised her eyebrows at me.

"Zara, don't get any funny ideas. Our wedding will be held in the fox clan territory. If you go, you might not come back with all your limbs intact!"

I shook my head mockingly.

"I won't go."

Her eyes were full of contempt.

"That's best. Besides, if you went, Kael would be the most unhappy one.

You've been with him for three years, but you never understood how to be considerate of him."

"Do you know how much pressure he faced just to have a home with you?

The council of elders advised him daily to choose another partner.

His father publicly scolded him at clan banquets for his short-sightedness.

Even the younger clan members privately gossiped that the heir had been bewitched by a woman."

"Every time he couldn't bear it, he would come find me."

"I always found ways to help him shed all his fatigue.

He even personally told me these were things you could never give him."

"He was so exhausted, yet you understood nothing.

So if you want to blame him for being heartless, you should blame yourself for being useless."

I lowered my eyes, concealing my resentment.

How could I not know about his exhaustion?

I just thought what he wanted was to solve the most pressing problems.

When the clan lacked food, I secretly contacted old friends to arrange the import of large quantities of grain.

When foreign clans frequently invaded, I deployed my private forces to intercept the bear clan's repeated incursions at the border.

When the aging population became increasingly serious, I quietly brought in hundreds of young wolf clan descendants from exiled scattered groups to strengthen his bloodline.

Every crisis was handled by me.

But what he saw each time was Yuna massaging his shoulders, softly coaxing him with gentle words.

While I said nothing, never asking about his worries, just silently cleaning up the problems.

He'd worry all night, then wake up to find help had fallen from the sky and think it was good luck.

I lowered my eyes, hiding my unwillingness.

"Yes, so he chose you as his capable wife. I hope you can satisfy him."

The environment in the West Street warehouse was worse than I imagined. The only clean space was barely enough for me to lie on my side.

I held the dragon pearl and couldn't sleep all night.

Before dawn the next day, I endured the pungent dust and cleaned thoroughly.

While moving wooden boards, Kael's cold voice came from behind the stone wall.

"Zara, how much longer will you be busy?"

When I turned to look, he was covering his nose, having stood there for who knows how long.

"Do you need something?"

He paused.

"I seem to have left a seal here. Yuna says she can't find it at home."

The object used to summon internal dissidents within the clan was hidden by me in layers at the bottom of the wheat barrel.

"In the wheat barrel."

"Where are the training methods for messenger pigeons recorded?"

"In my head."

Kael was startled, obviously thinking I had trained the messenger pigeons based on methods I'd obtained.

"Then could you write down the methods? Yuna wants to learn."

I took a deep breath and helped him in the end.

But there was no ink or paper in the warehouse, so I had to return to the Kael residence with him.

Beside the inkstone, more than sixty letters were impossible to ignore.

The first letter was a thank-you note from Kael to Yuna, full of admiration and completely inappropriate.

I remembered very clearly that day Kael received news that the leopard clan was invading the border. When he arrived, there were already many casualties.

The leopard clan had shouted the night before that they would seize a piece of land, but the next day they suddenly retreated in disgrace.

And Yuna happened to pass by the border at that moment.

Kael didn't know it was I who secretly called people to expel the leopard clan and issue warnings, securing many days of peace at the border.

In his eyes, all he saw was me. A deer with improperly grown antlers. Doing nothing but laundry and cooking every day. No help with internal stability. No help with external pacification.

I didn't explain, enduring everything silently and maintaining this persona.

As soon as my pen stopped, Yuna's crying voice suddenly came from outside.

"Where's my little shawl? The one Mother brought from the fox clan, my favorite!"