The General's Wife Wants to Leave-Chapter 167: A haughty air of royalty

The current situation made him look back a few moments ago when he actually noticed there was something not usual about her since they stepped inside the carriage, or perhaps before that that he failed to sense.

But he did not dig deeper, as he thought that it was something that did not need to be worried about, based on the fact that he had never been to any social events with her, where her gestures came to be something peculiar for him.

What transpired from her that caught his concern was that she looked more tense than usual. Had she not put some make-up on her delicate face, Canillas was sure that Joanna would have looked paler than she usually had her face bare.

He also recalled her gestures during their journey to the castle. The way she played with her fingers on her lap, which was something she would frequently do when she was anxious, was somehow fervid.

It was not the only thing that Canillas observed from Joanna, who seemed to forget about his and her father’s presence at that moment.

Regarding what she mostly did inside the carriage when they were on a short trip, she would spend most of her time gazing out of the window. However, when he connected it with what he had just discovered about her, what he had grasped at the time seemed to be correct.

Instead of gazing at one point calmly, she saw nothing in particular, at how her eyes were busy moving here and there as if trying to catch something that could occupy her mind to help her calm her nerves.

That gesture was enough to confirm that she was under anxiety, of which he was sure toward the banquet that they were about to be present soon, as he could not find any other reason aside from that.

And the confirmation proved to be right from the way she gripped his arm tightly while having her gaze focused ahead of her right after she came out of the carriage, as if too stiff to turn her head to look around her surroundings.

For him, it had also indicated that, in such a situation, she needed someone to cling to as a companion, as that situation either subconsciously or unconsciously made her involuntarily hold his hand.

She did not even object to his actions to comfort her.

All the barriers that she had been determined to build sturdily against him all this time seemed to be forgotten in a blink of an eye.

She certainly had problems with social engagement.

Then, that positive finding brought Canillas’ mind into the memory of the content of the parchment that he read on that cold night, where the background profile of the lady whose name had pulled him toward her was clearly written.

’Lady Joanna de Lara: Social indulgence is low. The social circle is narrow.’

That memory caused another memory to emerge in his mind, like drop after drop of rain that fell from the sky to drench the land. It was when she conveyed one of her reasons why she wanted to have their marriage annulled—that she was alone to adjust to life in Archess.

He first thought that it was only a reason that she fabricated to make him agree to grant her wishes. But it turned out to be true that she had difficulty adjusting to a new environment.

Canillas wondered how she endured living in Archess alone without her family during that period of time.

Fortunately, he did not prevent her maids from accompanying her there, as was requested by her father through the letter he sent to him. Otherwise, how much guilt he would feel at the moment, added to the fact that he was absent during that time.

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Step after step, Joanna took in rhythm with Canillas, who was walking beside her, while noticing all the crowds were gradually returning to what they did before they were disturbed by her family’s arrival.

She also found her father beginning to mingle with the guests, who were not willing to let him be idle. One by one, his acquaintances approached and greeted him, until she could not get the sight of him again as more people came around him.

Had she not been married yet, or had the man beside her chosen to follow her father, not making his own way among the crowds as he did now, she would have been there as well, greeting those people, whether she recognized them or not, one by one with all the grace she could pose in the middle of restlessness.

Glancing through the corner of her eyes to see the man who chose to walk in the opposite direction of her father, Joanna somehow felt another impression surge inside her.

The man, who was still wrapping her hand under his, strode with a haughty air of royalty. He sauntered with confidence, which made him look like he was born as a noble man.

His every step was taken lightly, as he wanted to show the importance of his presence to others. His every breath was shown as a claim of his superiority. There was no trace of inferiority that could be found in him, although he was not born as a nobility.

Had his background not been known to the public, Joanna believed that no one could have noticed that he was a commoner.

That realization made Joanna take a heavy sigh inwardly at her incompetency as a so-called noble lady.

"Good evening, General von Rodega. It is an honor to finally meet you here."

Joanna halted her steps two seconds later than Canillas, as she belatedly perceived the coming voice that came from an unfamiliar person before both of them due to the trail of her mind that was filled with the topic of whether she might get her social status switched with him in this life.

About one step away before her and her husband stood a tall and lean figure of a platinum-haired man in the late-thirties or early forties in the uniform of a Terran soldier.

At the first greeting her husband received at the banquet, which came from the Terran soldier that was standing before them, Joanna wondered why her husband did not reply to him immediately.

On the other side, Canillas indeed did not return the greeting of the man who suddenly appeared, cutting off the plan where he wanted to take his wife with him.

It was not because he acted arrogant but because he did not recognize who the man was, as he was sure that he had never met him before.

He would remember him if they had ever met, even for once.

Hence, Canillas just stood facing the man who had the same height as him, waiting for him to introduce himself more while he raked his brain to find a memory if he had ever met him but forgotten.