Herdin's eyes paused for a moment when he saw the unexpected visitor.
Blair had a rolled up piece of paper in her hand.
Coughing slightly from the cigar smoke that permeated the office, he approached him only when the coughing stopped.
—Yesterday I was so dazed that I remembered that we hadn't finalized the contract.
Herdin looked at the paper Blair placed in front of him with somewhat incredulous eyes.
For a simple piece of paper.
She acted as if that role guaranteed her everything.
A naive and persistent woman.
Herdin took the pen with the intention of signing quickly and sending this naive wife back to her room.
At that moment, Blair stopped her hand.
—Wait a moment, Herdin.
The woman's hand holding his was cold.
To the point of grating his nerves.
—The contract must be reviewed meticulously.
—Didn't we do it yesterday?
—I could have changed it completely in the meantime.
The mouse worrying about the cat?
His wife seemed to think he had enough power to cause her enormous harm.
With those wrists that seemed to break with a breath.
I see you don't get scammed easily.>Herdin thought so and examined the contract again.
—There is an added clause.
Blair pointed his slender finger to a clause in the contract.
—When this contract ends, write a letter of recommendation so that Lina can get a good job.
—Are you referring to that maid you brought from the Imperial Palace?
-Yeah.
He is sociable and works well, so wherever he goes he will defend himself perfectly.
Herdin's gaze toward Blair sharpened.
Is she planning to elope with a secret lover?
More than twenty years ago, in the neighboring kingdom of Derant, a princess fell in love with a knight, rejected the marriage arranged by the king, and fled.
Because of that event, the knight was executed and the princess, upon losing her lover, stopped eating and drinking until she took her own life.
Scandals over unequal marriages between high-ranking women and low-status men were not very common, but not extremely rare either.
Blair could also be the protagonist of such a scandal.
Although seeing as how last night was her first night with a man, maybe that wasn't the case.
<…Be that as it may, it is none of my business.>
As long as he could achieve the goal of this contract marriage, he didn't care.
Herdin signed both copies of the contract and returned one to Blair.
—It seems that it is already quite late.
If you're done, go back to rest.
It was a polite way to throw her out.
But Blair still seemed to have something else to say.
—As you well know, there is a lunch at the Imperial Palace tomorrow.
The first day of marriage is eaten with the groom's family, the second with the bride's family.
That was the custom, and Herdin knew it.
—I remember.
—It doesn't matter if you don't attend other banquets or appointments.
But I would like you, to the extent possible, to accompany me to engagements related to my brother or the imperial family.
In her past life, after he became estranged from her, she barely attended banquets or meals with the imperial family.
—Because for my brother to have no choice but to accept the divorce when this contract ends, you must not have any fault as a husband.
Although Herdin Delmark was a war hero, he was ultimately a subject of the emperor.
Without the emperor's permission, he would not dare to remove the emperor's only sister from her position as duchess.
So the end of this marriage had to be settled completely because of Blair.
For this, it was better that Herdin not show even the slightest flaw.
He added one more impression about Blair other than pretty, petite, naive and persistent.
A determined woman.
—It's a reasonable argument.
I'll keep that in mind too.
At the end of the matter, Blair left immediately.
Because he remembered the hint from before to get him to leave.
—So… good night, Herdin.
Blair carefully rolled up her copy of the contract and quietly left the office.
Herdin let out a dry laugh when he saw the contract his fake wife had left.
—Ha.
He had come to the office to chase away the thoughts that had been running through his head all day, and the cause of those thoughts had come of her own accord.
The cause was precisely Blair.
All day today, his mind had been occupied by his contractual wife.
The white and soft skin, the sobbing face and voice, the abundant chest that did not match her small body, and...
The dizzying pleasure that that body gave him that plunged him into a sweet endless quagmire.
And also in a nightgown, which revealed her figure.
Not knowing the impure thoughts that occupied his mind about her.
But at the same time, a dirty desire to make that innocent face cry again and defile that innocent face incited him.
As if he were a dog in heat.
He thought that if he bit her, sucked her, and hugged her as he pleased throughout the night, his thirst for the woman would calm down.
But he was wrong.
What he had drunk was not water, but sea water.
The more he drank, the more he craved her.
Last night was like that too.
At first it was curiosity.
I was curious to know what face that doll-like woman would make in bed.
But the moment he hugged her, curiosity disappeared and only the desire for pleasure remained.
So he hugged her wildly all night, and only when he saw dawn dawn did he come to his senses.
He left the room fleeing, horrified at himself for feeling lustful desires even seeing the sleeping woman as if she had fainted.
She is a woman I should hate.
She is the daughter of the enemy whom I should hate.
You should not forget that fact under any circumstances.
However, even at this moment when he reviews that fact, the heat of his body that arbitrarily remembers last night does not cool down.
—…Have I gone crazy?
Herdin let out an anguished sigh and stood up.
And he headed back to the bathroom.
⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅∙∘☽༓☾∘∙•⋅⋅⋅•⋅⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅
The Delmark knights were pale on the training ground early.
—Ugh!
A companion of his, who had not even been able to counterattack once, dropped his sword and rolled on the ground.
The one in front of him was Herdin.
Herdin looked at him with cold eyes and pointed his head towards the side of the training field.
There was a row of knights kneeling with their heads bowed in a punishment position.
All of them were the ones who had failed to give a decent counterattack in the duel with Herdin.
-Following.
The glances of the other knights towards their companion were like those directed at a comrade who is thrown into the slaughterhouse.
At the same time, they gave him compassionate glances like a condemned man awaiting execution.
They looked with resignation at their unfortunate companion and at Herdin in front of him.
War hero.
The empire's only current magic swordsman, blessed with the power of divine beasts.
Especially the knights who had fought alongside Herdin for long years on the battlefield knew his ability well.
By being able to make just one decent counterattack and escape punishment, they were already satisfied.
That handsome face that normally, although they cursed the extreme favoritism of the Creator, they instinctively gazed at in awe, today seemed to them the face of a god of death.
—Hey, who was it?
—Who of what?
—Who has irritated His Excellency.
—Irritating, what's up.
If we have barely seen him in all this time with the preparations for the wedding and the ceremony.
—Then why is a newlywed who should be enjoying his honeymoon here blowing off steam since the morning of the second day?
—Would you feel like enjoying the honeymoon if you had been forced to marry your enemy's daughter?
Hearing it like that, he is right.
The enmity between the imperial family and the Duchy of Delmark was a fact known to any noble in the empire.
After assenting to reason and ruminating again, the knight suddenly burst into indignation.
—Well, if he's angry, let him vent to her!
Why are you messing with us?!
What do I know?
The knights shrugged their shoulders without knowing the answer.
Then, they suddenly remembered the presence of someone who might know it and looked at him.
But Ruth also shrugged, shaking her head.
It was at that moment, when they were being crushed without knowing why since dawn.
-Hey?
The knights who were standing facing the entrance of the training ground began to stir.
The moment Herdin, who had just knocked down the knight he was sparring with, took in the atmosphere, he heard a small cough.
Turning towards the direction where the sound came from, he saw Blair entering the training ground accompanied by the butler.
—Mason, what business do you have?
He asked the butler, but it was actually a question directed at Blair.
Blair responded instead of Mason.
—Yesterday I greeted the servants, but I couldn't greet the gentlemen.
Since I had a moment before going to the Imperial Palace, I thought I would introduce myself.
But, except for a moment when they were captivated by her beauty, no one welcomed her.
Although a moment ago they had a funeral face thinking about the beating that Herdin would give them, they were comrades who had survived together on the battlefield.
The greater his loyalty to Herdin, the greater inevitably was his rejection of Blair, a member of the imperial family.
A fact that she probably didn't ignore either.
Was it naivety or simple foolishness?
Although Herdin thought so, he came forward to introduce Blair to the gentlemen.
—Although you will have seen each other's faces coming and going, you will not have been formally introduced.
—…
—Greetings.
It is the Duchess whom you will serve from now on.
When their lord intervened like that, even the gentlemen who viewed Blair unfavorably showed respect outwardly.
…To be continued