Ophelia removed her lips and pressed her forehead against the man’s.

“Can we do it?”

“But now is…”

“Don’t you want to?”

Then Idren shook his head again. Is this a new way of acting cute?

Thinking this unconsciously, Ophelia recalled that he originally had a personality that was good at being coy.

Then what’s the problem? As she asked this while kissing his slightly wet lips again, he averted his gaze and mumbled.

“We were just arguing a moment ago…”

That irrelevant remark probably meant he didn’t want to make up for the situation this way.

Still. Talking about romance.

Yet the hand that couldn’t leave her waist, as if lingering with regret, felt quite adorable.

Ophelia wondered if something was really wrong with her eyes. Had she always been able to feel such emotions?

What does it matter anyway?

Ophelia lifted one leg that was on the floor and placed it on his thigh.

It was a posture where she would have fallen backwards if she hadn’t been holding onto his neck, as her center of gravity was off.

Idren, seemingly surprised, hurriedly grabbed her thigh. Taking a sharp breath, he said in a low voice.

“What if you slip?”

Her stomach tingled at his low voice, slightly more husky than usual. Ophelia whispered, lowering her voice to match his.

“You’ll catch me, won’t you?”

And she glanced sideways at the large hand that had come up onto her thigh.

Sighing at the hand that left no room for excuses, he spread the hand that had been caressing her waist to support her back.

When the man pressed his lips to hers again, Ophelia pushed against his chest. Idren obediently fell back onto the bed.

“It’s dangerous. Don’t do that in the future.”

Idren cautioned as he stroked her thigh that was straddling his upper body.

Ophelia silenced the man’s mouth with her own as he voiced unnecessary concern about her doing such things elsewhere.

With a slightly obscene sound, the hem of her skirt was slowly lifted.

When her breath became short, Ophelia placed her hands on his chest and separated her upper body.

“Aren’t you curious about what I was going to do back then?”

“Back then…?”

“I mean on your birthday.”

As if surprised by those words, the hand stroking her calf paused. Ophelia saw the man’s expression harden.

She knows there are things they need to say about that day between them.

But for now, she wanted to talk about something else. Ophelia placed her hand on the bare skin revealed between his disheveled shirt.

As she slowly rubbed between the hot skin and muscle contours, she thought somewhat irrelevantly. It’s fortunate I dressed up as much as I did then, even today.

“Let’s talk about complicated things later.”

And Ophelia slipped her fingers under the buttons that were still fastened.

Her nail flicked against the metal button, and more of the bare skin that had been covered all along was revealed.

Idren drew in a sharp breath. His well-muscled upper body trembled slightly. Sitting on top of him, Ophelia could clearly feel his tension.

Almost unconsciously, Ophelia curled up the corners of her mouth.

It was then that Idren, who had been looking up at her with a dazed expression for some reason, acted.

The hand that had been caressing her calf suddenly grabbed her waist.

When she was lifted up and laid down on the bed, Ophelia burst into laughter. Playing hard to get, are we?

The man looked down at her with shadowed golden eyes for a moment before closing them. Soon after, hot breath settled on her.

Feeling him parting her lips and entering, Ophelia closed her eyes along with him. It was okay not to see anything.

It was the first time she had done it impulsively, but it wasn’t her first experience.

If there was a difference from the past, it would be that she had voluntarily initiated it this time.

Ophelia stared up at the ceiling, ruminating on the experience just now that had been quite different from what she originally knew. She already knew it was an act involving physical pleasure, but she didn’t know the emotional fulfillment would be this much.

Is this love? Though she wasn’t particularly doubting it, it was also the first time the difference from the past had been so clearly revealed, so Ophelia thought unknowingly.

It was refreshing because she didn’t know the results would differ so starkly in this direction depending on the presence or absence of affection.

Suddenly, she recalled that she had gone out to the castle walls to show her face, then taken this man’s hand and come right back in.

Ophelia murmured absently.

“I guess the rest of today’s schedule is shot.”

The actual schedule would be carried out by the royal soldiers at the base of the castle walls anyway, and she had just gone out to give a good impression of the royal family.

Still, it was a shame not to have gotten the maximum efficiency out of it, considering she had dressed up nicely – especially taking care to look benevolent.

It was then that a slightly sulky reply came from beside her.

“It doesn’t matter.”

Ophelia turned her head to scold the man who was acting childishly without knowing who she had done such things for, but she just fell silent.

She didn’t want to say anything when she saw what Idren was doing.

Idren was rubbing her wrist with his mouth tightly shut.

There was a bruise encircling her wrist, now turning dark red. It had been caused by him grabbing and not letting go yesterday.

When that bruise mark that had been under her sleeve was revealed, the man’s hand that had already come up over her upper body had paused.

If she hadn’t covered his mouth then to prevent him from saying something else, he would surely have hesitated because of that.

The calloused thumb gently rubbed around the bruise.

While he was doing that, Ophelia observed his furrowed brow and ear tips that still retained some heat. It was then that Idren grumbled.

“…You should have said something.”

“Would you have been able to hear if I did?”

“I would have.”

“You’re being stubborn. From someone who was talking nonsense from the pain.”

At that, Idren’s face turned bright red in an instant.

“At that time, I thought there was no way you’d be by my side…!”

Ophelia spoke before he could make the obvious excuse that he thought it was a misunderstanding.

“I’m not saying anything. It was cute.”

She knew what kind of excuses people who had done something embarrassing by their own standards sometimes preferred. But Idren didn’t need to make excuses.

Ophelia was satisfied with him to the point where no consideration was necessary.

She thought he liked being treated prettily, but when she said he was cute, Idren lowered his eyes demurely.

“Don’t… don’t say things like that.”

If she teased him a little more, he seemed like he would get sulky. Ophelia placed her hand on his cheek to prevent him from turning his head away.

“I like it. It seems like you can do bad things too, even though you always pretend to be nice.”

“What do you mean bad things, it was a mistake.”

“It’s okay. I like it even if you’re bad.”

It was then that his already red face flushed even hotter.

Idren pulled her close suddenly. Their touching bodies were very warm.

Hugging her tightly, he groaned as if in pain.

Realizing through the heat and breath sounds that he was still a sick person, Ophelia squirmed.

“Let go. You seem to have a fever.”

“I don’t.”

What do you mean you don’t… A rebuttal rose to the tip of her tongue, but Ophelia ended up hugging him back.

She decided to let him do as he wanted, since it wasn’t like he had a terminal illness.

After listening to his pounding heartbeat for a while, Ophelia murmured.

“I ended up not being able to take out your hair ornaments this time.”

There was a reason for putting hair ornaments on a bride that she couldn’t take out by herself.

Anyway, as you take down the hair, skin ends up touching, and when skin touches, the atmosphere becomes strange.

In conclusion, it was a device to increase the success rate of the wedding night, so it was actually of little use to them, but Idren seemed to be bothered by those words as he ran his fingers through her hair, stroking it down.

He repeated the same words he had said a little while ago.

“It doesn’t matter.”

He says nothing matters. With an unnecessary feeling, Ophelia pressed firmly against his chest and murmured.

“Well, you’re not good at taking out hair ornaments anyway. Maybe it was better that there weren’t any.”

“…Did you have to say that.”

“It’s the truth.”

He was probably pouting with a sulky expression.

Imagining her partner’s kind face without having to look, Ophelia carefully traced his back with her fingers.

She slid her fingertips as if drawing something, though she herself didn’t know what she wanted to draw.

Anyway, this man would always offer his back to her. Just as he had done all this time…

It was then that her fingertips caught on an unfamiliar, rough mark.

Ophelia was about to ask him what it was, this unfamiliar mark she didn’t know existed. It was then that Idren murmured.

“I thought you were going to confess something to me then.”

Though I thought nothing mattered, I had such expectations.

Because you asked to live together. I wondered if you might say you love me.

But Ophelia’s thoughts seemed to have been completely different.

Idren thought of the body that had been beneath him until just now.

White and smooth, soft, and anyway prettier than he had known. But what struck his eyes even more was the face smiling at him.

The Ophelia he remembered was not always depressed, but generally had a hard time.

Especially towards the end, wasn’t she paler and thinner than other days? She didn’t cry much in front of others, but she cried when alone with him, and often had sleepless nights due to bad dreams.

Seeing the woman dropping her soft inner thoughts, Idren would feel miserable along with her.

It was because he felt worthless, knowing she wasn’t someone who deserved such treatment, but being unable to do anything for her.

As he reminisced about the days he had spent together by her side when she couldn’t sleep, the woman in his arms whispered.

“Don’t you like it?”