TVIOWHFW 35

Underneath solid muscles, John’s heartbeat could be felt. My ears burned with a rosy tint.

“Wait—is that my heartbeat?”

I thought I had grown used to his robe, but I definitely hadn’t expected him to be completely bare.

“Not even completely naked…”

Though covered with a blanket, John still wore pants. Yet, because of the situation, everything felt strangely different.

“It’s not like I’m naked…”

My, covered with a blanket, was still clothed in trousers. But the perception was completely altered by the circumstance.

“As if it were a true lustful moment…”

John clicked his tongue softly, brushing my palm with his.

“So, what do you think of your wife?”

The hand I had not dared to move suddenly slipped toward the sharply defined abs. His well-formed body suggested a predator.

A body clearly different from mine as a woman.

Honestly, I had never even touched a man’s body, let alone looked at one openly. The unfamiliar, hard texture sent a chill from my arm. I swallowed, saliva pooling at the corner of my dry lips.

John drew his eyes shut and smiled sweetly.

“You can touch as much as you want.”

“…”

“I’m your husband, after all. What’s the problem?”

My face blazed brighter. Watching me stumble with a stifled awareness, John let out a low, amused laugh.

“That’s how people will think we’re real. Right?”

John released the hand he had been holding as if granting me freedom. His crimson eyes fixed on me intently.

‘Tell me to touch you directly?’

Outside, there was still a sense of presence. It seemed they were checking what was happening inside.

‘Come to think of it, Betty said this guest room is easy to spy on.’

Thinking that others were watching, my whole body tensed in a completely different way than just moments ago.

“Like this?”

I reached out one hand and cupped his cheek. John often did this. Then John closed his eyes, savoring my touch. Even that gesture seemed to lure me.

“Good, you’re doing well. Take it slow.”

“Slowly…”

“No.”

John’s throat bellowed like a hunter about to spring.

“I think this much will satisfy my suspicions.”

He pulled me into a hug and pulled his body close. He lightly bit my earlobe and breathed softly and provocateurily.

“Why do you have to resist this?”

“What?”

“Should I just eat you up like this…?”

John’s crimson eyes gleamed fiercely as he skimmed my back with his hand. Everywhere his touch burned hot as if fire spread.

I asked, flushing my cheeks.

“Excuse me, you’re going to eat me?”

“It’s a joke. There’s nothing to eat about when you’re this thin.”

Despite his words, John bit and lightly gnawed at my body here and there with increasingly ferocious glints in his eyes. It was dangerous.

‘That look, especially.’

The look in John’s eyes that made everything seem unbearably lovable frightened me.

His hot gaze made me feel like I might misinterpret things. I pretended to be casual and replied.

“But why do you keep biting?”

“Because if I don’t do something, I won’t be able to hold back.”

For some reason, I dreaded facing John, so I wrapped my arm around the back of his neck.

‘A mistake.’

With his face not visible, I began to feel John with my entire body.

“My wife… really.”

John traced from the back of my neck down my spine with his index finger.

“You drive people crazy. Do you know that?”

A chill ran through me. With no sight of his face, my whole body became sensitized. He slowly pulled my upper garment away and pressed his lips to my exposed neck.

I tightened my grip on John’s arms.

The arm he held me with trembled as he raised his face to meet mine again. The red eyes that opened again sparkled with a frightening light.

“Haa.”

So close. I stared at John’s lips and held my breath. He approached ever so slowly, kissing my nose tip.

Playfully biting my nose tip, John’s eyes twisted in amusement.

“Not quite worth it yet.”

But there was a strange anger in that voice as well.

“Because I won’t let those things become a spectacle.”

Starting at my nose, then my cheeks, and back to my neck, John pressed his lips again. Not even a beast could be this patient. Yet John seemed to be displaying a restrained ferocity.

“Thank you.”

That spontaneous thank you drew a puzzling look from John. I hesitated, then, as John did, lowered my voice and whispered.

“I wanted my first kiss to be in a place where the duke and I could be alone.”

“Your first kiss?”

“Yes. I’ve never done it before.”

My teasing reaction filled John’s crimson eyes with possessive hunger. His hand at my waist clenched tightly.

“Hm.”

After a moment of deliberation, John narrowed his eyes and asked.

“Aren’t you scared because it’s too fast?”

“Actually… I’m more worried about something else. I worry I’m not good enough.”

‘It would seem odd if I did nothing here.’

To pretend to be a loving couple, we needed to act as if we were familiar with each other. This gave me courage to try things I would never have done otherwise.

“Probably so. I feel I know very little…”

As our relationship deepened, excitement and fear grew. A phrase I had heard in passing in the past came to mind:

‘A girl like you won’t ever be loved no matter what you do!’

The cruel words I once heard in Libertan.

‘Might you know? I’ll pretend to marry a noblewoman as the wind of Libertan but…’

The words of the tyrant who tormented me.

‘There’s no need to trust such bad people, but…’

Still, I remembered every word they had spoken. And whenever I let my guard down, they would suddenly creep back in and overwhelm me.

I spoke to him in a trembling voice.

“I might disappoint you.”

John’s protruding Adam’s apple trembled. He let out a hollow laugh, lowering his gaze at me with cold eyes

“…You’re not asking this seriously, are you?”

“…”

“Ha.”

As if he could not stand it, John pulled me close again. He gripped the blanket with his big hand. Veins bulged on the back of his hand.

“Aren’t you angry?”

“Madam. There is no husband in the world who would be disappointed by such things.”

John covered the words I had asked with his lips in a lower voice. The warm breath aroused my body.

“At the very least, I’m not that kind of man. No matter what you do, I won’t be disappointed. Understood?”

Don’t pamper me like that.

Anyway, you won’t love me. You won’t truly love me.

His crimson eyes, shifting with the angle, burned with intense desire. He pressed his lips to my jaw and tip of my nose again and warned me.

“So don’t have any foolish thoughts.”

“Whatkind of foolish thoughts?”

“Any thoughts. Just look at me and think only of me.”

The original story may have changed, but the situation surrounding me and John hadn’t. So I could not expect anything easily. Expectations would hurt me more.

‘But I…’

I find comfort in John’s lies.

A play to deceive the Hurtleton family, a prank to seduce me, is all it is, and yet my heart trembles.

Even knowing someday he would kill me, John’s lie felt like salvation.

I closed my eyes tightly.

Suddenly, I realized there was no sign of the outside world. My mind, immersed in feeling, woke to reason.

“…Duke. Is there anyone outside right now?”

“Mm, no one.”

John answered with a gentle, teasing smile.

“Because of that, I am glad.”

“Excuse me?”

“Because I could know you better.”

I was barely muster the courage, but already he was gone from my body. I tried to push away from John.

“Then… there’s nothing here, so I’ll put my clothes back on…”

“Perhaps you’ll come again tomorrow morning.”

Then John held me tightly as I tried to wriggle away.

“Don’t be so shy. You’ve already seen and touched your wife.”

“Stop it.”

His arm muscles trembled as they wrapped around my body, and I couldn’t ignore the contact.

“Still, I think you’ve realized it clearly now.”

The fond tone of his voice calmed my mind.

“Between us, no one will dare interrupt.”

A soothing voice that settled my heart.

“I’m tired.”

I nodded off, my eyelids drooping, and soon fell asleep. I didn’t know what would happen next.

Nor did I know that John was stroking my forehead as I slept.

“What is this desire I feel when I see you?”

Even as I slept, a meaningful whisper seemed to say this to me.

“And why do I feel like I know a missing part inside me?”

~·~·*· . ·*· . ·*· . ·*·~·~

Late at night, rain began to fall in a drizzle.

‘Gone! It’s not there at all!’

The gardener in a raincoat frantically dug beneath the trees. When nothing was found, his actions grew more desperate, almost unbelievable.

But no matter what, the treasure did not appear.

‘This is my treasure to protect.’

The gardener, Baron Peñuela, despaired. Without the treasure, even if he kept running, he could not reclaim past glory.

His eyes, dyed in darkness, glittered fiercely.

“I must recover it.”

Baron Peñuela’s gaze slowly swept the Hetel castle. If the treasured item had suddenly vanished after being hidden so well, there was only one reason.

‘There are outsiders.’

Baron Peñuela hurried to the Hetel count’s room. There was now only one option left.

~·~·*· . ·*· . ·*· . ·*·~·~

“Madam. The Hetel Countess has invited you to a tea party this afternoon. What should we do?”

Betty brought in an official invitation from the Hetel Countess.

“A tea party? In this rain outside?”

“Yes, and it seems a number of noble ladies have gathered. But don’t worry, my lady.”

Betty leaned close to my ear and whispered with a grave tone.

“If you wish, I can discreetly deal with anyone who disturbs you. Should I take care of all the irritating nobles?”

“…?”

“Whenever you say.”

I asked in a troubled voice, watching Betty’s calm demeanor.

“Discreetly deal with them?”

“Come to think of it, it would be too crude to tell you. It simply means you can talk ill of them in my presence.”

Betty smiled warmly and waved her hand. The previously subtle aura she carried seemed to vanish.

“Perhaps this is my mistake?”

After all, Betty was just a servant, even if she played the betrayer sometimes. She could seem odd at times, but she still belonged to the ordinary category.

‘She cares about me, so she says things aggressively.’

As I turned my gaze, Betty’s brown eyes flickered.

Until then, I did not know that Betty was an extremely dangerous assassin who had acted as a spy in the Blanchet family and eliminated dozens of people.

~·~·*· . ·*· . ·*· . ·*·~·~

I attended the tea party in a lavender dress with jewelry. The reason was Betty.

‘Madam! You’re the most beautiful even without dressing, but you must go and look even more beautiful! I’ve dressed you, but you should look as if you haven’t dressed at all.’

She did this for me, so I didn’t want to refuse completely.

‘There’s no need to go to such lengths…’

The host, the Hetel Countess, greeted me with a bright smile.

“Welcome, Lady Blanchet. I’m delighted to introduce such a wonderful person as you to my dear friends.”

I nodded as I looked at the Countess, who seemed to have pulled out her finest attire, and the tea party guests in the background. It looked as if I might attend a royal ball.

‘…This was necessary.’

Especially the eyes of the Hetel Countess looked as if she were facing a sworn ally. I suspected she thought I had spent the night with John last night.

‘It’s a trap, though.’

To see such an openly hostile expression was almost comical.

“It’s an honor to meet you, Lady Blanchet. I’ve longed to meet you since I haven’t had the chance before, and I’m in awe of your beauty.”

“Indeed. The rumor was perhaps exaggerated; you’re even more beautiful than the rumors suggested.”

The noble ladies around me waved fans like butterfly wings and laughed brightly.

‘They all hate me.’

Not having appeared in polite society yet implied that I was out of place, and the insinuation about a noble-born adopted child implied I was a commoner. Mentioning the rumors was the same.

‘They cannot treat me as a noblelady.’

The Hetel Countess had invited everyone in a hostile manner, and they all were outwardly hostile. Yet I did not feel afraid.

‘I’ve faced much worse things.’

Even openly showing hostility was easier to manage, as it made outcomes predictable. Looking at their openly hostile faces, they didn’t seem to be particularly formidable people.

I spoke with a gentle smile.

“It’s nice to see you all. By the way…”

I frowned slightly, as if in trouble, and tilted my head.

“Could you tell me which family you all belong to?”

Then one noblewoman, as if she had caught a clue, cried out, “Why, indeed!” and waved a fan emblazoned with her family crest in pride.

“Do you not recognize the crest on the fan? Although you haven’t debuted in society, is it not rude of you?”

“Yes. In society, that’s common sense. I’m quite worried for you, Lady Blanchet.”

At that moment, the Hetel Countess snapped the fan shut.

“Please don’t treat Lady Blanchet so harshly. It’s not the Countess’s intention. As the hostess of the tea party, I’ll apologize on her behalf.”

As the Countess’s shoulder shrugged, I regarded them with a troubled smile.

“If anyone is upset, I’ll apologize.”

I sighed, showing a look of lament.

“I’m only familiar with noble families that are listed in the Golden Bough genealogical record.”

The Golden Bough genealogy map—a roster of names and titles of those recognized as true nobles since the founding of the empire. Even though nobles could be bought with money, names could not be bought into the Golden Bough Genealogy. It symbolized the highest esteem of the imperial lineage.

‘No family here should be in the Golden Bough.’

Even the Countess Hetel’s family name, which is considered esteemed, had not earned a place in the Golden Bough.

“I still have a lot to learn.”

“…”

“Now, could you please introduce us once more? Which family are you from?”

The noblewomen who had been bragging about their crests just a moment ago lowered their hands. Some who had been puffing up their shoulders with pride shrank.

Perhaps it was because I hadn’t moved to help them.

At that moment, Hetel Countess’s young daughter, Rothe, appeared alongside Ortea the Minister.

~·~·*· . ·**##^^##**· . ·*·~·~

Hey there, It’s Green Rose 😉

Since I human I might have make some mistakes while translating so please if you find them let me know here in the comments or in the Discord group so I can correct them and be careful in the future so they do not repeat.

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

~~~Next Chapter~~~

Next chapter will be released Tomorrow.

See you then!!