INDC 09

~Chapter 09~

I Only Need the Duke’s Child Episode 9. The Body’s Heat That Won’t Cool

Mason immediately nodded at Blair’s words.
“I will submit the documents tomorrow so you can review them right away.”
“You’ll probably think I have many shortcomings.

Please teach me a lot from now on.”
Mason was inwardly surprised by Blair’s attitude.

He had assumed that a princess raised like a precious jewel would avoid complicated and difficult matters altogether.

Moreover, unlike someone raised so delicately, she was not ashamed of her shortcomings and was willing to learn.

Some might think showing such a side lowered one’s dignity, but to him it made her seem even more noble.
“I look forward to working with you as well, Madam.”
The Mason Blair knew was not someone who easily revealed his emotions.

But for a moment, it felt as though his gaze had softened.

After finishing the greeting, Mason withdrew, and Blair returned to the bedroom after finishing her bath.

It was still too early to go to sleep.

Blair decided to organize her plans for the future.

She had proposed a one-year contract marriage to Herdin, but in truth she had conceived Asiel around early summer.

Herdin must not notice Asiel’s existence, so everything had to be finished by the early stages of pregnancy at the latest.
‘Half a year from now.’
Before that, she had to resolve three things.

First, recovering the memories of the fire incident.

Since Herdin would take the lead on that, there was nothing she needed to plan separately.

Second, preparing for divorce.

To divorce in the empire, the emperor’s consent was required.

But would Ivan, who had pushed this marriage precisely because he wanted Herdin, really agree to their divorce?

At the very least, he would never allow it if the fault lay with Herdin.
‘I must make it my fault, and in such a way that public opinion will force him to approve the divorce.’
The clever plan she devised was a “scandal.”

Creating a scandal with another man.

But if such a scandal broke out, that man would be punished.

So Blair decided to make the scandal even bigger.

If there was only one man involved, the blame would be directed at him—but what if there were several?

Then people would naturally direct their blame not at the men who committed adultery with a princess, but at the promiscuous princess who played with multiple men while having a husband.

That was exactly the development Blair wanted.

If things went wrong and Asiel’s existence became known, she could claim he was one of their children.
‘For that, I’ll first need to buy several men.’
After divorcing through such a disgraceful scandal, she would not be able to live in the empire—at least not in this capital.

If she was unlucky, she might even be confined by Ivan or Katrina.

However, while she was legally the Duchess of Delmark, even the imperial family could not touch her, so the moment the divorce was finalized she would have to leave the capital.

That meant she needed a new identity and a place to stay in preparation.

Somewhere no one knew.

The only place where all of this could be obtained was the guild.
‘I should visit the guild soon.’
And finally, the third task: finding the mastermind behind her murder before her regression.

It was unlikely that the assailant had killed her out of personal feelings.

There must have been someone behind it.

She had to find that person and discover why they had killed her.

Because in this life, she never wanted to leave Asiel alone.
‘For now, let’s start with the closest place.’
Blair planned to visit the knights’ training ground the next morning and lay down on the bed.

At that moment, the memory of last night suddenly returned along with the contract.

Blair got up from the bed and took out the contract she had placed in the drawer.

The signature line on the contract was still blank.
* * *
After finishing his bath, Herdin was reviewing documents in his office with a cigar in his mouth.

Most important documents had already been handled before the wedding, so nothing was urgent, but he chose work instead of rest.

It was to forget the thoughts that had been tormenting him since morning.

In the quiet study where darkness had settled, only the rustling sound of papers turning echoed.

Knock, knock—

The sudden sound of knocking broke the silence.
‘Mason?’
Ruth had complained that he had been overworked while preparing for the wedding, so he had been sent home early today. There was no way he would come back to the office on his own.

“Come in.”
But the person who entered the office was neither Ruth nor Mason.

It was Blair.

Herdin’s eyes paused when he saw the unexpected visitor.

A rolled-up sheet of paper was clutched in Blair’s hand.

She coughed lightly at the cigar smoke filling the office, and only after the cough subsided did she approach him.
“I realized yesterday that we were too busy and never finished the contract.”
Herdin looked at the paper Blair placed in front of him with a somewhat bewildered expression.

What was this little piece of paper supposed to be?

She behaved as if this paper guaranteed everything.

An innocent and persistent woman.

Thinking he would sign quickly and send this naive wife back to her room, Herdin picked up the quill.

At that moment, Blair grabbed his hand and stopped him.
“Wait a moment, Herdin.”
The woman’s hand gripping his was cold.

Cold enough to irritate his nerves.
“You should review a contract carefully.”
“Didn’t we do that yesterday?”
“I might have changed it to something completely different in the meantime.”
Was the mouse worrying about the cat?

The woman seemed to think she possessed some great power capable of causing him serious harm.

Even though her wrist looked like it would snap if squeezed.
‘So I thought she was just a naive princess.

But it seems she won’t be easily scammed out there.’
Thinking that, Herdin looked over the contract again.
“There’s an additional clause.”
Blair pointed precisely at the clause with her slender finger.
“When this contract ends, please write a letter ensuring Lina can find a good place to work.”
“You mean the girl you brought from the imperial palace?”
“Yes.

She’s sociable and good at her work, so she’ll do well anywhere.”
Herdin’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Blair.
‘Is she planning to abandon even her only confidant before leaving?’

Was she planning to elope with some hidden lover?

About twenty years ago in the neighboring kingdom of Derant, a princess had fallen in love with a knight and fled after refusing the marriage arranged by the king.

The knight was executed for that incident, and the princess, who lost her lover, starved herself and eventually took her own life.

Scandals involving a high-born woman and a low-born man were not very common, but they were not unheard of either.

Blair might also be the protagonist of such a scandal.

Though seeing as last night had been her first night with a man, perhaps not.
‘…Either way, it has nothing to do with me.’
As long as the purpose of this contract marriage was achieved, it did not matter.

Herdin finished signing both copies of the contract and handed one back to Blair.
“It’s quite late.

If your business is finished, go back and rest.”
It was a polite way of dismissing her.

But Blair seemed to still have something to say.
“As you must already know, there will be a luncheon at the imperial palace tomorrow.”
On the first day of marriage, the couple dined with the groom’s family, and on the second day with the bride’s family.

It was customary, and Herdin knew it as well.
“I remember.”
“You don’t have to attend every banquet or engagement.

But I would like you to attend appointments related to my brother or the imperial family whenever possible.”
It was a request based on memories from her previous life.

In her previous life, after distancing himself from her, he had rarely attended banquets or meals with the imperial family.
“So that when this contract ends, my brother will have no choice but to agree to the divorce, since you will have committed no fault as a husband.”
Herdin Delmark might be a war hero, but in the end he was still a subject of the emperor.

Without the emperor’s permission, he could not dare remove the emperor’s only sister from the position of duchess.

Thus the end of this marriage had to be concluded as entirely Blair’s fault.

For that, it was best that Herdin show not even the smallest flaw.

Herdin added another impression to the ones he already had of Blair—beautiful, small, naive, persistent.

A capable woman.
“That’s a reasonable point.

I will keep it in mind.”
Once her business was finished, Blair immediately stepped back as if she had been waiting.

Because she remembered his dismissal earlier.
“Then… good night, Herdin.”
Blair carefully rolled up her copy of the contract and quietly left the office.

Herdin looked at the contract his fake wife had left behind and let out a dry laugh.
“Ha.”
He had come to the office to rid himself of the thoughts that had been stirring in his mind all day, yet the very source of those thoughts had walked in on her own.

That source was Blair.

All day long, his fake wife had occupied his mind.

Her snow-white, soft skin, her tearful face and voice, the full breasts that didn’t match her slender body, and…

the dizzying pleasure that body had dragged him into, sinking him into an endless swamp of sweetness.

Unlike him, she had come to see him at this hour as if she had completely forgotten what happened last night.

It was absurd.

And she had come in nightclothes that revealed her figure completely.

Unaware of the improper things happening in his mind about her.

Yet at the same time, a filthy desire stirred within him—to make that clear face cry again, to defile it.

What was he, some dog in heat?

He had thought that biting, sucking, and holding her all night as he pleased would satisfy the thirst he felt toward her.

But he had been mistaken.