“Shall I undress?”

Caught off guard by the unexpected words, Kaian flinched involuntarily.

The woman who had boldly asked stood still like a doll, as if waiting for his response.

Her demeanor only served to further sour his already irritated mood.

“You seem quite confident, don’t you?”

Kaian looked her up and down.

Even upon second glance, she was far too small and thin.

She looked so frail and weak, as if he could easily break her with one hand, let alone two.

‘Is she even capable of consummating the marriage?’

Tonight was Kaian’s first night as well.

Raised under strict heir education, if the first thing the previous Duke emphasized was “Don’t let a single Vermonte live when you meet them,” the second was “Don’t carelessly spread your seed anywhere.”

Lowen, with its warm, mild climate and vast fertile soil, was a symbol of abundance.

As the saying in Oberon went, “There are no beggars in the south,” food was so plentiful it rotted, growing on its own. The task was to thin it out appropriately to maintain a suitable yield without letting it become too cheap.

As a result, all the collateral relatives and retainers had large families.

Once children were born, they too grew up naturally amidst Lowen’s abundance.

If the Lord of Lowen decided to become depraved, the succession was bound to be in shambles.

In fact, there had been several instances in family history where illegitimate children vied for the successor’s position, leading to bloodshed within the household.

That’s why all Temnes heirs were raised in an education so strict it bordered on ascetic.

The abundance and wealth of Lowen’s land was an endless temptation that could corrupt the soul of its lord.

In any case, this was Kaian’s first opportunity as a man, but the woman didn’t seem capable of receiving him at all.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t seen women excited by his inexperience before.

There had been countless virgins throwing themselves at Kaian’s bed like moths to a flame. Add to that the married women who came running despite having husbands, and the number was beyond counting.

Soft-hearted guards who stepped aside from the bedroom door for money offered by flower-like young ladies clinging to them were fired almost daily.

The pleas of virgins were supposed to please a man.

The guards couldn’t understand why granting those requests was reason for dismissal. They could only guess that the virgins who seemed quite pretty to them must not have met their lord’s standards.

The women who had hidden in the bedroom and were immediately chased out all tried to throw themselves at him with intense gestures and pressed their heated bodies against him, allowing him to sense the heat and passion accompanying the act even before doing anything.

Suddenly realizing the flow of his thoughts, Kaian became displeased.

‘What am I doing? There’s no need to be so concerned about Vermonte.’

He had never wanted this marriage.

From the start, Kaian was an exceptionally outstanding and excellent lord and man.

Even as the person involved, he was overwhelmed by the sudden marriage ordered by royal decree.

He had vaguely thought that someday he would take a wife of grace and capability, continuing the family’s glory as previous Dukes had done, but he had never imagined he would end up in such a mess of a marriage.

It only stimulated an innate, bone-deep aversion, and he avoided even thinking about how to treat the bride from Vermonte.

The enemy’s daughter.

The enemy’s blood.

Vermonte, who had dared to point swords at Temnes for generations.

Was it his fault if a woman carrying Vermonte’s dirty blood strained herself or got hurt?

It was the fault of her and her father, Duke Vermonte, who crawled into the castle knowing full well what treatment she would receive in Lowen.

Her thin body was visible through the sheer undergarments. Her figure, wavering in the flickering candlelight, looked so insignificant and weak that there seemed to be little to see or touch.

‘Is she even capable of consummating the marriage?’

Tonight was Kaian’s first night as well.

“Even if you undress completely, I don’t think there will be much to expect.”

Having decided how to treat the Vermonte bloodline, he sneered.

Nevertheless, she remained motionless.

While he liked that she was quiet compared to the women who had squawked and panted, he consciously erased any fondness.

“I suppose Vermonte taught you some bedroom arts to please a man even with such a plain body?”

He sat on the bed, sizing her up with his eyes.

“Whether tonight’s consummation happens properly depends on you. You’ll have to move my heart.”

The woman didn’t react to Kaian’s stream of insults.

As if such words couldn’t taint her.

She stood there regally like a statue carved from soft ivory, seemingly waiting for the verbal abuse to pass.

“Do as you please.”

Giving her a chance as if bestowing a favor was the best he could do for Vermonte.

In front of Kaian, who was leaning halfway on the bed with an uncooperative attitude, the woman’s clothes slowly fell away.

He forgot what he was going to say and appreciated the female form.

Her neck, supporting a head small enough to fit in one hand, was long and slender. The shoulders below, thin and revealing clear collarbones, looked elegant.

Below that, the woman’s curves swelled and dipped, falling in a gentle line from knees tinged with a soft peach color to slender ankles.

Faced with his statement that there would be no consummation if she couldn’t seduce him, she was not vulgar.

Rather, she looked as noble as a saint trying to bestow mercy on him.

Under her touch, the buttons of Kaian’s formal attire came undone one by one, soon revealing his upper body.

Seeing this, a hint of perplexity finally settled in the woman’s eyes. It seemed she had managed to move this far somehow, but didn’t know how to proceed next.

That attitude, seeming to prove that at least this woman was also inexperienced, made Kaian a little more lenient.

In the meantime, she lowered her head and kissed his chest exposed through the opened formal wear.

Only then did he clearly feel that the woman was trembling slightly.

Suppressing the desire pooling in his body while savoring the ticklish sensation, Kaian asked her.

“What’s your name?”

But the woman who had not reacted to his various insults until now stiffened and trembled violently.

Her wide golden eyes were clouded with complex emotions, as if she had encountered something unbearable.

It twisted his insides again, which had just begun to unwind. Just as the atmosphere was about to improve, she made him feel like the bad guy.

“Don’t make me ask twice. I asked what your name is.”

A small voice, unable to hide the trembling of her body, answered his question.

“Claudel Quinn… Vermonte.”

That damned Vermonte.

Kaian muttered quietly under his breath.

“Whether you can become Claudel Quinn Temnes depends on your efforts tonight. I hope you try hard.”

He got up and blew out the candle.

He thought he might be able to do it somehow if he couldn’t see his clumsy wife’s red hair.

Soon his massive body overlapped with the woman’s.

Claudel Quinn Vermonte.

It was unexpected that she, neither pretty nor fair, became the wife of Kaian Flook Temnes, the war god said to have tripled the territory of the Oberon Kingdom.

Originally, Temnes and Vermonte were the two pillars of politics within the Oberon Kingdom as founding contributors.

The Indomitable Sword Temnes and the Guardian Vermonte.

The military family dominating the battlefield and Vermonte, who acted as a diplomatic bridge based on their excellent oratory skills and widespread marital connections, each devoted themselves to their assigned roles for the prosperity of the Oberon Kingdom. Thanks to this, the kingdom achieved peace and prosperity day by day.

Two hundred years ago, a major incident occurred that severely damaged the relationship between the heads of the two families.

Initially, it was said to have been over trivial matters such as unfavorable seating arrangements at a banquet or finding an unshelled oyster in the food served to guests.

However, the problem was that those who took offense at such trivialities were the leaders of the kingdom’s largest political factions.

As they built up hatred and malice towards each other while asserting their pride, they gradually became more antagonistic and fought in various places, big and small.

As a long time passed, the hatred between Vermonte in the north and Temnes in the south reached such an extreme that even the territory’s residents would spit towards their enemy when spitting on the street.

When the power of the two families was balanced, it was rather better even if they fought fiercely. The problem arose when the Valmond region suffered from drought for ten years in this generation.

Valmond, located in the northern part of the Oberon Kingdom, was originally a land with little farmland. Most of it consisted of mountains and frozen earth, with most of the territory’s residents working in mines or in the mountains and fields. It was impossible to feed them fully with harvests from within the territory.

Vermonte had amassed wealth by selling medicinal herbs, timber, game from the mountains of the Valmond territory, and precious ores from the mines, using the money to buy and store food.

However, when the output from Valmond became unsatisfactory due to the prolonged drought, Duke Temnes, as if he had been waiting for this, blocked food exports to the north.

As the food shortage within the territory worsened, residents began to flee one by one with their families.

The most important thing in maintaining a lord’s power was influence, and people.

As the starving territory residents escaped, Valmond’s prestige rapidly declined.

Kaian did not miss this opportunity.

Rumors spread that he was preparing for a territorial war, as if this was the chance to erase Temnes’ grudge against Vermonte.

The King of Oberon intervened and resolved the matter by sending the daughter of Duke Vermonte to Duke Kaian Temnes.

If Temnes attacked the territory, it was clear that the Vermonte ducal family would be completely wiped out this time.

Vermonte’s money and jewels had become almost meaningless since Temnes restricted grain exports to the north.

It was cruel to ask starving people to take up arms and fight.

The Oberon King’s overt attempt to revive Vermonte had the external justification that he couldn’t lose such excellent diplomatic talent.

If Vermonte fell, no one else could replace them. This was because an important pillar of Vermonte’s diplomatic skills was their marital connections.

Nobles from the family had married into or been taken as sons-in-law by families holding important positions in various countries.

If we had to say, it was an unwanted marriage for Kaian, while it was a marriage Claudel wanted.

The territory’s residents, who had been suffering from famine for years, couldn’t be made to wage war.

Moreover, this marriage meant that Temnes would allow food exports to the northern region.

It was fortunate that there was something she could do for the starving children.

The next day, Claudel, woken up early, had to hurry with her grooming.

Her body, tormented until dawn, creaked and complained of pain, but she was used to enduring pain.

“Cough, cough.”

Seeing her coughing lightly, Hannah asked worriedly.

“You must have caught a cold from the rain yesterday.”

“I suppose so.”

“I’ll go get some medicine.”

After just one day, Hannah seemed to have realized that she shouldn’t make requests here. The fact that she said she would get it herself showed that. Claudel smiled at her spirited lady-in-waiting.

A moment later, the castle’s butler came to escort her.

Even after consummating the marriage, the wedding wasn’t completely over yet.

She had to go pay respects as the future mistress to the underground tomb of the past Temnes dukes in the castle.

The damp underground stairs were slippery, perhaps from flowing water.

Holding Hannah’s hand and carefully descending, she saw the stone tombs filling the vast underground cave.

There were graves dug into the floor with coffins placed inside, and tombstones engraved with names and achievements above them.

In the center of these was a newly made tomb.

Kaian Flook Temnes.

Claudel Quinn Temnes.

It was the place for Kaian and her.

Claudel gently stroked the cold, smooth tombstone.

What more could be engraved under these names carved in stone?

The man who had said last night that it depended on her whether she could use the Temnes name seemed to have no intention of casting her out after all. Seeing that he had prepared a grave site like this.

At that moment, Kaian’s cold voice was heard from behind her.

“Does the place where you’ll rest in eternal sleep please you?”