“It’s nice to have someone to talk to like this.”

“Me too. The conversation is very enjoyable.”

Delphine quickly replied.

Thanks to her, I was able to hear several useful pieces of information today.

This talkative lady would surely be a useful source of information in the future.

“Please come visit me like this occasionally. ……My life is always lonely.”

Lady Megan smiled faintly with sadness.

For a moment, I seemed to glimpse her true self behind the mask of vivaciousness and chattiness.

Delphine also replied with some sincerity.

“Of course. Let’s see each other often.”

As she left the extremely luxurious reception room, Delphine fell into deep thought.

If the emperor mediated directly, I wonder if I could find out more by asking Ioan?

After all, he’s a hero lavishly favored by the emperor and the captain of the imperial guard.

When he comes home this evening, I’ll have to melt his heart again and find out.

But as soon as she decided that, she recalled the smile that leisurely looked at her with eyes curved upwards and the firmness of that body pressed against her back.

Suddenly her heart contracted as if squeezed.

‘……It must be because I have to flatter such a cruel man.’

Yes, it must be because of such anxiety and unpleasantness.

Delphine attributed the cause of her suddenly fluttering heart to that, as she got into the carriage.

Confident that today too, she would be able to play tug-of-war only up to that point of melting him precariously.

‘Was it the wrong idea.’

In the dark chamber that had just welcomed evening.

Delphine asked, trying not to appear too awkward or flustered.

“What is this… now?”

“Well.”

Then Ioan, who was holding her close wearing only a thin shirt, leisurely murmured into her ear.

“Enjoying a wife’s welcome for a husband returning from a hard day’s work?”

“……”

Delphine barely swallowed an embarrassed gulp at his increasingly intimate touch.

This was not the scenario she had expected.

It was a problem that she had offered to help him change clothes when he came home early today.

She had planned to naturally ask about the duke and marquis’s duel while receiving his jacket and while he took off the rest of his clothes.

Mentioning the light outing that any noble lady might have, about visiting Lady Megan’s reception room.

But she never expected him to suddenly hug her.

The startled Delphine said as she felt his thick arm wrapped around her waist.

“If you’re tired from your busy schedule, wouldn’t it be better to wash up and rest…”

However, Delphine couldn’t finish her sentence.

Because Ioan buried his face in her nape and took a deep breath.

Startled by the unfamiliar sensation of his breath brushing her bare skin, Delphine stammered.

“Wh-what are you…”

“Resting, my lady.”

A languid voice was muffled on her shoulder.

But contrary to his calm and relaxed tone, his large hands were showing completely different actions.

‘I should just ask quickly and end this.’

Delphine, having made up her mind, spoke while trying to ignore his hands moving like they were swimming over her body.

“…I went to visit Lady Megan today. Fortunately, she looked healthy.”

“Hmm. Is that so?”

“Yes. And… you know about House Purcell, don’t you, Ioan?”

She kept trying to push away the strange feeling that kept coming from his hands gently caressing her entire body.

Struggling to hold onto her reason that was trying to fly away, Delphine asked.

“Hmm….. I do.”

Still with his head buried in her nape, he answered simply.

“I heard that… hic. …Recently His Majesty personally mediated the duke’s duel.”

“He did.”

“Do you happen to know anything about that? Lady Megan was curious.”

“Hmm. I do. ……Because I was there at that mediation.”

As expected.

It was a good choice to ask him.

Of course, this current situation was never what she had anticipated.

“…I see.”

Delphine asked naturally, trying not to show that she was too surprised.

“…Then, what was the reason the marquis challenged the duel?”

“Hmm. To be honest, I didn’t pay much attention. From what I vaguely heard, it seemed to be related to the young duke and young marquis.”

“…What kind of matter? Hic.”

Now Ioan’s touch was becoming uncontrollably bold.

Delphine’s white cheeks had long since ripened like well-ripened apples.

From his gentle but persistent touch, a tickling sensation in her lower abdomen had been spreading through her body for a while now.

Normally, she would have immediately separated herself from him and gotten away.

But now she still had more to hear from him.

Delphine slightly urged Ioan, who kept dragging out his words unnaturally slowly.

“Hmm? What kind of matter?”

“…Hmm. Marquis Humphreys absolutely refused to say that.”

Answering like that, Ioan suddenly lifted Delphine and placed her down on the bed.

Surprised, she looked up at him, and he leaned over Delphine, placing his hands on either side of the bed.

Delphine flinched at his face that suddenly came close.

In a precarious distance where they could fully feel each other’s breath, Ioan whispered lowly.

“…Do you want to know more? My lady?”

What did he want to know?

From his expression, atmosphere, and tone, Delphine immediately realized that he was not asking about the duel incident now.

She should cut it off here now.

But his burning gaze seemed to paralyze her body.

Was this unfamiliar sensation of her whole body melting just from his gaze also some kind of strange magic he wielded?

“……”

When there was no answer, he slowly raised his hand.

His large hand gently cupped her flushed cheek.

His lips approaching ever so slowly, as if telling her she could avoid them if she wanted to.

……Delphine ultimately failed to avoid them.

An unfamiliar sensation rushed towards her like a tidal wave through the gap between their touching lips.

It wasn’t her first kiss with him.

On the day he raged after discovering the scars covering her back, he had devoured her as if he would consume her.

But even though it was the same person, the same lips, tonight felt completely different.

This act today was something entirely different from the rough and barbaric one back then.

Soft, and a feeling as if the ground beneath her feet was floating away.

It’s not that she hadn’t prepared for something like this to happen someday whenever she seduced him.

But she hadn’t expected to feel such unfamiliar emotions in the process.

He was the enemy.

Such a cruel man, they said.

But why were the lips of this man with such a firm body so soft and sweet?

The initial purpose of extracting information from him had long since disappeared.

The two lips that had been slowly savoring each other for a long time parted.

Her eyes that had closed on their own opened, and she met his gaze looking at her as if he wanted to devour her.

……Could it be that she was making the same expression as him right now?

‘Why am I acting like this?’

Is this what it means for a man and woman to clash bodies with each other?

Even though she didn’t feel love for him.

Even though it was clear that he too didn’t truly love her yet, something passed between their overlapping lips.

“Delphine……”

He called her name like an affectionate plea.

At that voice, reason flew from her mind once again.

“……Ioan.”

Once again their lips met.

Her hands naturally wrapped around the back of his neck.

The thought that she was just pretending to love him, acting so that he would love her, had long since disappeared far away.

I can’t think of anything.

Just him, deeper, deeper…….

‘What am I thinking right now?’

Delphine startled as if burned and separated from him.

“Delphine……”

However, Ioan didn’t look disappointed or regretful at all.

Rather, a face as if wrapped in strange ecstasy.

“Qu-quickly go downstairs and……!”

Delphine who was trying to make excuses just gave up and rushed out of the chamber as if fleeing.

Left alone in the empty room.

The standing Pryde smiled, raising the corners of his mouth with a hint of madness in his expression.

Found it.

The way to keep her by his side forever.

The way to distract her gaze from the ruthless truth those rat bastards are desperately trying to uncover.

She was once a saint far away, and at times an object of love and hate.

But now she is simply his rightful wife.

So under the pretext of being a married couple, in the name of love.

If he could make her look only at him.

You and I could be happy forever in this sugar candy world.

Having reached a twisted conclusion, Pryde quietly smiled in the dark room.

It was an act.

A very thorough one.

Curled up on the sofa in the study, Delphine absentmindedly stroked her lips with a confused expression.

I just got swept up in his fervor without realizing it because I was so immersed.

After all, isn’t he a man with beastly instincts?

If I hadn’t been so immersed, I could never have fooled him.

That’s why.

No matter that I’m currently bound to him in the name of marriage, no matter that I received a mission to make him fall in love with me.

‘This is absolutely not love.’

In the brightly lit study, Delphine quietly closed her eyes while making that vow to herself alone.