INDC 01

~Chapter 01~

I Only Need the Duke’s Child Episode 1. The Second First Night

Late at night, Blair was standing in front of the door.

Today was her wedding day, and this room was where she would spend her first night with her husband.

After standing there blankly for quite some time, she covered the thin nightgown that revealed the curves of her body with a shawl and then knocked.
“…….”
It seemed her husband had not yet come to the bedroom.

Blair let out a small sigh of relief, then entered the room and sat on the sofa.

And waited for her husband.

Ten minutes passed like that.

Thirty minutes, and then another thirty.

Even after an hour had passed, her husband did not come.

Unlike the past.
‘Is he trying not to come?’
As Blair stared at the tightly shut door, she suddenly remembered what kind of promise this marriage had been made with.
‘Well, it’s not a real marriage this time, but a one-year contract marriage.’
A marriage concluded thoroughly for each other’s purposes.

There was no need to fulfill a couple’s duty of the first night like real spouses.
‘This is better, actually.’
If she faced that handsome face and once again pressed her body against his and shared warmth, she might fall under the illusion that he loved her.

Just as she had in the past.
‘Spending a night with him—just once, the day Asiel was conceived, is enough.’
Today was not that day, so it did not matter anyway.

Blair concluded that her husband would not come to her room tonight and took out paper and a quill from the drawer.

Then she calmly began writing a contract that would prove this contract marriage.

It was just as she finished the final sentence of the contract.

Suddenly she felt warmth behind her, and a large man’s hand that had appeared out of nowhere braced itself on the desk.

Startled, Blair turned around and saw a man who had somehow come up behind her.

Much taller than ordinary men, with a perfectly built masculine body visible through the opening of his robe.

Beneath softly fluttering black hair were cool eyes resembling a blue summer night sky.

A man with a face so beautiful that anyone—man or woman—would momentarily stop breathing upon meeting it.

Duke Herdin Delmark.

From today onward, the man who had officially become her husband.

As if he could read her mind from Blair’s surprised gaze, he asked,
“Why do you look so surprised?

Tonight is the first night. It’s only natural for a married couple to spend the night together.”
“……I didn’t think you would come.”
“Even though you stayed up waiting until now?”
At his words that struck the mark, Blair pressed her lips tightly together.
“I only waited just in case.

Du—… no, you came, so it would be rude to be asleep.”
At the address “you” that slipped from Blair’s lips, Herdin’s gaze deepened.
“That sounds as if you were prepared to spend the first night.”
Blair flinched at the touch of his hand caressing her cheek and the low voice ringing beside her ear.

But more than that, what surprised her was what he had said.
‘Why on earth?’
In her previous life, Herdin had accepted an unwilling marriage proposed by his older brother in order to uncover the truth from her.

The first night and the kindness had all been nothing more than an act to bind Blair and draw out the truth.

So in this life, in order not to be swayed by his act, she had made a proposal to him before the marriage.
‘If the Duke accepts my proposal, I will cooperate as much as possible in uncovering “the truth of that day.”’
Even if you don’t deceive me, I’ll give you what you want.

So she thought he would no longer put on an act to seduce her—but why.
‘Once you learned that truth, didn’t you have no more business with me?’
Just as you did in the past.

But he showed a reaction completely opposite to Blair’s expectations.

For Blair, who had thought he would not even come to the bedroom, this was rather bewildering.
“There’s no need to necessarily consummate the first night—”
“I want to.”
His low whispering gaze was fixed on her red lips.

The hand holding her cheek stroked those lips with his thumb.

At the heat she felt from his fingertips, her heart began pounding rapidly.

At that moment, Herdin, who had been looking at Blair’s lips, lifted his gaze, and their eyes met.
“Right now.”
In his blue eyes flickered an intense, unrefined desire.

Before Blair, startled by that raw desire, could retreat, his approaching lips swallowed hers.

Suddenly Blair remembered that he was also a man.
‘Men can share bodies even with someone they don’t care about.’
Yes, this was not love.

Nor was it pretending love for another purpose.

It was merely a moment’s desire.

Thinking that way actually made her feel more at ease.

Blair gathered her confused thoughts and closed her eyes as if in resignation.

In the past, the unfamiliar and secret act with him had frightened and terrified her, making her tremble.

His large frame had felt like a beast that would devour her, or a prison that would confine her.

And yet she had liked the way his eyes looked only at her, liked the warmth with which he held her tightly, and believing it was love, she had fallen for him in an instant.
‘But I won’t be deceived by that warmth anymore.’
Spending the night with him was only to meet her child.
‘Asiel, my baby.’
If only she could meet the child she had loved more than her own life once again.

Before her regression, she could spend the night again and again with the husband who might have killed her.

⟨Episode 1⟩ The Second First Night
Today was the day Herdin returned to the townhouse after nearly a year.

It was the first time since Asiel had been born.

Blair personally chose the dress and accessories she would wear today.

It had been a long time since she had done so.

After finishing her preparations, Blair entered the adjoining room connected to the bedroom.

There was a small cradle there.

The child inside the cradle wasn’t even fussing once, awkwardly moving tiny hands toward the mobile and playing by himself.

Blair instinctively smiled softly and picked up the child.
“Our baby, you woke up and were playing well without even crying?”
“Uung.

Eueu!

Ububu!”
Held in his mother’s arms, the baby smiled brightly and babbled incomprehensibly over and over.

As if he knew it was the day he would meet his father, he seemed to be in a good mood.

But Blair’s eyes, as she held the child and looked out the window, sank bitterly.

Not long after Blair became pregnant, Herdin left for the main castle of the Delmark Duchy in the north.

On the surface he put forward the reason of subjugating the demonic beasts that ran rampant every summer, but Blair knew well that he was leaving to avoid the wife he had gained through an unwanted marriage.

Even so, she stroked her steadily swelling belly and prayed that Herdin would not be injured.

Her husband was a man so strong he was renowned as the continent’s only magic swordsman who had received the power of a divine beast and as a war hero, yet she could not help but worry.

Every night she could not sleep from worry, every day he appeared in her dreams, Blair sent letters.

That the child in her womb was growing well.

That she hoped he too would return safely without any injuries……

But not once did a reply come back.

She thought no news was good news.

He was the lord of the vast northern lands, so of course he must be busy.
…She had to think that way.

Time passed like that, the summers and autumns when demonic beasts rampaged went by, and winter drew near.

Even then, Herdin still had not returned to the capital.

Meanwhile, the child in her womb grew steadily and began to move.

From around that time, Blair spent many nights in tears.

The child, showing off its presence with increasingly strong movements, seemed to be looking for its father.
‘I’m sorry.

I’m sorry, my baby…….’
She pitied the child who would not be loved by his father.

It felt as though it was all her fault, and her heart ached.

Then, on a winter day half a year after he had left, Herdin came down to the capital.

He stated that he had only come briefly to the imperial palace for business and would return straight to the main castle without stopping by the residence.

Upon hearing that news, Blair suddenly went to see him despite her heavily pregnant body that made even going out difficult.

It was their first meeting in half a year.

But the blue eyes that looked at his wife after half a year were as cold as a frozen winter lake.
‘Why have you come here?

Your body must already be heavy.’
Before that quiet coldness, the words “I missed you” that had been lingering in her mouth the entire time could not be spoken.

Before him, she always became a criminal.

Forgetting all her resentment and sorrow, it was miserable that her heart still raced toward him.

Blair steadied her emotions and forced herself to speak with a calm expression.
‘Herdin.

Could you spare just one hour—no, just thirty minutes……?’
Her voice, which had begun calmly, trembled subtly at the end.

Herdin, who had been quietly looking at Blair, reluctantly nodded.

The two got into the carriage together.

Blair was given the time it would take to travel from the imperial palace to the Delmark ducal residence.

In the silence where only the sound of the carriage could be heard, Blair merely fidgeted with her fingers.

She had thought she had so much to say, but the moment she faced him, her mind went blank.

At that moment, the child in her womb began to move.

It was a strong movement, as if trying to make its existence known to its father.

Blair frowned slightly and stroked her belly.
‘It seems healthy, taking after its father.

The kicking is so strong that it’s hard to sleep at night.’
‘I see.’
‘Would you like to feel it once……?’
‘……No, that’s all right.’
At his blunt reaction as if dealing with someone else’s child, Blair quietly closed her mouth.

She had hoped he might understand her suffering even a little.

Perhaps she had even wanted to act spoiled for once.

She had felt this way throughout her pregnancy, but as the due date approached, her fear of childbirth grew stronger.

Hearing that other nobles had their mothers from their family homes stay by their side, she cautiously asked the Empress Mother as well.

Normally Blair, knowing her disposition, would never have made such a request in the first place, but her fear of childbirth was great enough that she had no choice but to ask.

But as expected, the Empress Mother refused.
‘Every woman goes through it once. What is there to be afraid of?

And even if I went there, what could I possibly do?’
That was the content of the reply that came back.

Along with the palace midwife she had sent.

So Blair had wanted to ask her husband.

To stay by her side for just a few days around the time the child was born.

But before his indifferent reaction, Blair could not say anything.

The child that had been busily moving also stopped.

It felt as if tears would burst out.

That would be terribly ugly.

Blair suppressed the emotions rising to the tip of her throat and looked out the window.

Before she knew it, the carriage had arrived at the residence.

Herdin stared at Blair’s belly with an indifferent face and then said something that one might say to a complete stranger.
‘May you have a safe delivery.’
The butler opened the carriage door.

It was truly time to part with him now, but Blair hesitated.

There were so many things she wanted to say, yet only things she could not say filled her mind.

Looking at him and only moving her lips, Blair barely thought of one thing she could ask.
‘……A name.

Please give this child a name.’
Perhaps he could not refuse even that; after seeming to consider for a moment, he suggested two names.
‘If a girl is born, Diana. If a boy is born, how about Asiel?’
He added that if Blair had another name she wanted, she could choose that instead, but Blair named the child Asiel.

Because it was the first thing the father had given while thinking of his son.

But even after Asiel was born, Herdin did not come to the townhouse.

And now another half year had passed before he finally returned.
“Madam, His Grace will arrive soon!”
The maid Rina came into the room and delivered the news.

Blair kissed the baby’s plump cheek and whispered.
“Asiel, your father has come.”
“Abu?”
Blair carried Asiel and went down to the first floor of the residence.

All the servants had come out to wait for the master who was returning after a long time.

Before long, a carriage appeared in the distance along with the sound of hooves.

Blair’s heart swelled at the reunion with him, even though she knew it was a foolish hope.

She knew he resented her.

She also remembered the countless nights she had spent in tears with her belly swollen alone.

But now there was Asiel between them.

No matter how much he hated her, he was the child’s father, and she was the child’s mother.

Even now, Blair wanted to build a complete family with him.

For the sake of this lovely child.

If he saw the child who looked exactly like himself, it seemed he would gladly agree with her thoughts.

Soon the carriage arrived in front of the residence, and the carriage door opened as Herdin stepped down.

Forgetting all her resentment, Blair approached him eagerly, excited to show Asiel.
“Her—”
But Herdin did not look at Blair or Asiel. Instead, he extended his hand toward the inside of the carriage.

The person who took his hand and stepped down was a beautiful woman with dazzling silver hair.

The woman stood beside Herdin.

Seeing the two of them, the servants of the ducal house began murmuring.

A woman who had ridden in the same carriage as their lord.

Even without knowing who she was, it was easy to guess she was someone precious to Herdin just by how he treated her.

Blair’s steps, which had been moving toward him, stopped abruptly.

Her violet eyes trembled as she looked at them.

Herdin’s cool blue eyes and the golden eyes of the beautiful woman beside him fell upon Blair at the same time.
“Hello, madam.”
The angel-like woman smiled and greeted her.

Her clear golden eyes sparkled like jewels.

Blair stared blankly at the woman her husband had brought.

In the humid late-summer air heavy with heat, she felt as though she could not breathe.

Even more than in the summer a year ago when he had left.