At the End of Ruin, There You Are (56 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 24

The lights in the bridal chamber were extinguished early. Pheon, having turned off all the lamps, thought of the Emperor’s spies surely watching from beyond the curtains and windows. It wasn’t just outside the windows—there were probably spies beyond the door as well.

He gazed at Caella, who had burrowed deep beneath the blankets. More precisely, it was just a lump of bedding—but even glancing at her felt sinful, so he quickly looked away again.

She was seven years younger, his little sister whom he’d held by the hand since she first began toddling around. A sister must stay a sister—that’s all there was to it. Get a grip.

But why on earth had Caella so casually slipped into bed regardless of whether he was present or not? Not only that, but she’d instantly changed her speech as though they were truly married, acting completely oblivious to the fact that they were alone together in the bedroom.

‘Is she still that innocent?’

Had she always been like this? He wasn’t sure. He’d waited as long as he possibly could, finally slipping in only when he thought Caella had fallen asleep.

It had been his mistake to overlook how much longer noblewomen’s preparations always took than anticipated. His heart sank when he saw Caella sprawled face-down on the bed—only to discover she wasn’t even asleep.

She claimed to be tired. Understandable, too—her voice sounded utterly exhausted, and beneath the white nightgown she’d carefully put on, her ankles and feet were visibly swollen, making him unbearably sympathetic.

He knew she was worn out, yet it was strangely peculiar that the princess lay so carelessly sprawled without a care. Wasn’t he frightening to her? She couldn’t possibly have skipped instruction on the wedding night.

No, wait—that wasn’t it. Pheon shook his head. After all the fuss Beatrice had caused, perhaps the princess had completely given up thinking about marital relations altogether.

In their previous marriage, they’d never consummated it at all. To be precise, Pheon had left her untouched, supposedly ‘to preserve his virtue and loyalty,’ causing Caella to be ridiculed as ‘a womanless block of wood,’ enduring deep humiliation.

‘That kind of talk must never happen again.’

It absolutely must not occur this time. Better that rumors spread about his own inability to perform properly.

Besides, that would give Caella legitimate grounds for divorce later on. If anyone was to be scorned in this marriage, it had to be Pheon—and he would never repeat the same mistake.

He turned his back to Caella and sat down on the floor beside the bed, not on it. The presence he sensed behind him felt unbearably fragile—and precisely because of that fragility, he was afraid.

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