After training, Rivelius spent the rest of the day in his study. By evening, he’d worked his way through whatever the estate’s library could offer him on the subject of bloodlines; specifically, Ancient Bloodlines, the kind that came with names and lineages and, apparently, the sort of raw power a sealed dormant fraction of one could still produce inside a mostly unremarkable body.
The estate’s shelves had nothing useful. A handful of children’s stories about War Gods long dead, half a Chapter in an outdated military primer, nothing with any real substance.
[You really thought that was going to work? Really?]
Rivelius closed the book harder than the moment strictly required.
A knock came at the door.
"Enter."
Reyna stepped in with a ledger in hand. "The figures you asked for, my lord."
He pushed the closed book aside. "Go on."
"Your personal stipend, as heir to House Kane, comes to forty thousand gold a month. Separate from that, the estate’s operating funds; guards, beasts, household upkeep, currently sit at one hundred and forty-five thousand gold a month. There are no deficits anywhere. Everything’s accounted for."
Rivelius did the math without effort, and didn’t like where it landed. Forty thousand gold a month, for years, and there was nothing left of any of it. Nothing saved. Nothing set aside. Just a fresh forty thousand arriving on schedule, spent before the next one ever came.
Fool, he thought again, with fresh conviction.
"Very well," he said. "That will be all."
Reyna inclined her head and left him to it.
At the edge of his vision, the marker flickered.
[Warden: Active.]
He didn’t need the reminder. He was already rising from the desk, already thinking of what to say to Cordelia, before it had finished blinking.
He went looking for her first in their shared room, then the breakfast hall, then the garden path past the east wing, coming up empty each time.
[Wow. You don’t even know where your own wife is.]
He ignored it, as always, and found Mireille instead.
She was in the corridor near the kitchens, arms full of linens.
"Mireille."
"Yes, my lord?"
"Do you know where—"
"The Princess is in her study, my lord," she said, smiling, before he’d even finished the question. "Second floor, past the library. She spends most evenings there."
He noticed the smile, and understood exactly what it meant. He said nothing about it, and left her to draw whatever conclusions she liked.
He found the room exactly where Mireille said it would be, door left slightly ajar, lamplight spilling out from within. He knocked once against the frame.
"Come in."
He stepped through, and Cordelia looked up from whatever she’d been reading, her eyes lighting the moment she registered who it was.
He held that look a beat longer than he meant to before letting his attention move past her to the room itself.
Shelves lined every wall, floor to ceiling, packed with more books than the rest of the estate’s library combined; economics, military history, agricultural treatises, court records, a handful of titles in languages he didn’t recognize. Papers covered the desk in neat, deliberate stacks, each one weighted down and organized with a precision that told him more about her than a week of conversation had.
He realized, standing there, that he knew almost nothing about the woman he’d married beyond two facts: she was a princess, and she was, by every indication so far, a genius.
He crossed to the nearest shelf and pulled a book free, turning it over in his hands before glancing back at her.
"You read The Doctrine of Encirclement?"
Cordelia’s mouth curved, something pleased and a little amused in it. "I’ve read it four times."
"This is a military strategy text."
"Indeed it is." She was still watching him, still genuinely pleased he was talking to her at all, let alone about this.
He let his eyes move down the row, and found the rest of it exactly the same, shelf after shelf of strategy, tactics, siege warfare, command theory. His gaze caught, briefly, on a familiar title, and then another, and another; the same books, the same doctrines he’d studied a lifetime ago in a different world entirely, credited here to different names he’d never heard of.
Some things, he thought, apparently didn’t change across worlds.
[50 EXP received — shared interest acknowledged.]
[Marital Instinct — Lv. 2. EXP: 445/500 to Lv. 3.]
He slid the book back into its place on the shelf and turned to face her.
"What brought you here?" she asked, setting her book aside.
He held her gaze for a beat before answering. "The treasury figures came in."
"And?"
A pause. "I won’t be able to contribute toward the farm. My past self appears to have converted an empire’s fortune directly into drink, gambling debts, and at least one very expensive dog."
Cordelia giggled, quick and startled, one hand rising to cover her mouth before she could stop it.
What’s funny, he thought, genuinely uncertain, replaying the sentence in his head and finding nothing in it he’d intended as a joke.
[Unintentional humor detected. Rare. Noted.]
[150 EXP received.]
[Marital Instinct — Lv. 2 → Lv. 3 Achieved.]
[Reward: +50 Strength, +100 Agility, +100 Vitality.]
[Strength (STR): 911 → 961 ↑]
[Agility (AGI): 792 → 892 ↑]
[Vitality (VIT): 401 → 501 ↑]
[Marital Instinct — Lv. 3. EXP: 595/1500 to Lv. 4.]
"Your past self," Cordelia said, something teasing in it now. "Then who’s in front of me right now? Your future self? Or are you perhaps some conquering lord from another world entirely, who simply took over my husband’s body?"
Rivelius went very still for exactly one beat too long.
"Something like that," he said.
Cordelia laughed, easy and unguarded, still watching him, still smiling.
[Close one.]
[Wife mood: Content.]
[50 EXP received.]
[Marital Instinct — Lv. 3. EXP: 645/1,500 to Lv. 4.]
Cordelia tilted her head, something soft creeping into the tease. "Do you want a seat? Or do you prefer standing over me like that?"
Rivelius considered it, then crossed to the chair facing her desk and sat.
He sat in silence for a moment, and she simply watched him, still smiling, in no apparent hurry to fill the quiet herself.
[Psst. Say something.]
He cleared his throat, faintly, and reached for the nearest safe subject. "The farm. Has the land surveyor — uh—"
"Mr. Tomas," she supplied, amused.
"Yes. Him. Has he reported back on the boundaries?"
"He has." Cordelia pulled a stack of papers from the edge of her desk, sliding them toward him. "The land’s larger than either of us initially accounted for. It’s closer to four thousand acres, once the full boundary was walked. Good soil throughout, though the northern section will need heavier drainage work before anything’s planted there."
She went on, methodical, clearly enjoying having someone to actually lay it all out for. "For a working farm at that scale, properly staffed — not scraping by — I’d estimate around sixty farmhands to start, split across planting, harvest, and livestock. A farm manager to oversee daily operations, someone experienced, not a figurehead. Two or three foremen beneath him for the different sections. Beastherders for whatever livestock we settle on — Mudhorns, most likely, for the heavier fieldwork, and something smaller and faster for transport and lighter tasks."
[Wife mood: Happy.]
[100 EXP received — genuine engagement.]
[Marital Instinct — Lv. 3. EXP: 745/1,500 to Lv. 4.]
"The difficulty," she continued, "is that none of that exists yet. I’ll need to go into the county town myself to meet with the labor exchange, find a reputable beast trader, source seed stock that’s actually suited to this soil rather than whatever’s cheapest. It isn’t the kind of thing that can be arranged from a letter."
Rivelius considered that for a moment. He’d need eyes on the county himself regardless; who governed it, what forces they kept, what weapons and beasts moved through its markets, what the terrain looked like beyond Ashfall Hold’s walls. A trip to hire farmhands was, conveniently, also the perfect excuse to learn everything else he actually needed to know.
"I’ll come with you."
Cordelia looked up, something startled crossing her face. "Really?"
"Yes."
She beamed. Fully, unguarded, the kind of expression he hadn’t seen from her once since the wedding.
He saw it.
[50 EXP received.]
[Marital Instinct — Lv. 3. EXP: 795/1,500 to Lv. 4.]
[You’re getting good at this. Even if you’re only coming along for selfish reasons.]
He ignored that, as always, and rose from the chair. "I’ll be in my study. There’s planning to do before we leave."
"Of course," she said, still smiling.
He left without another word, and Cordelia watched him go the entire way, her eyes following him until the door closed behind him and there was nothing left to watch at all.