Having set forth an important expedition, having achieved his initial goal of obtaining a revolver, Cassard did not leave the drug store and held the woman in his arms until dawn.
When he brushed the thickly swollen crimson lips with his thumb, the woman’s pumpkincolored eyes slowly lifted.
“Why don’t you get married, Your Grace?”
“I don’t know. It’s none of your concern.”
“I suppose so.”
Irritated by her too easy agreement, Cassard roughly swallowed her lips again and tormented her delicate flesh until it bruised.
Leaving plenty of marks on the slender neck that seemed breakable by hand.
Though she shivered in fear at the slightest touch, the woman always endured it.
It was visible that she was groaning every time to keep from moaning, but every time the lustful noise leaking through her breath was what pained him.
Whenever she felt how the man’s body was changing because of her, Scathach’s eyelashes trembled, and her small face often flushed.
A woman who has a husband reacts like this every time; it’s maddening, and it’s shameful.
Looking intently at her face, Cassard unhooked the necklace she still wore and treasured.
“Ah…!”
The surprised woman grabbed the necklace string. It was quickly snatched from her, though.
“Why are you doing this? Give it back!”
Seeing her pumpkincolored eyes in confusion somewhat eased his mood. At least, he could take something precious to her.
“If you return alive from this operation, I’ll give it back then.”
“Your Grace…?”
“You or me.”
“What if Your Grace dies? Then I will lose the necklace forever…?”
“Like the title you call me over and over, I am the empire’s only duke. It means that even if my neck is severed or I burn, my body and relics return to my homeland. If I die, I will leave a will to retrieve the necklace from my corpse and return it to you, so don’t worry.”
The duke, who even nonchalantly spoke of his death, was incomprehensible, and Scathach frowned.
“What if I die?”
He tilted his head and spat out the words. It wasn’t a story he wanted to imagine.
“Then it will become both your mother’s relic and your relic.”
When his mother, Queen Lia, was mentioned from the lips of Blahnath with beautiful red eyes under his black hair, an unbearable depression and selfmockery seemed to heavily press down on his heart.
He may not know, but still…
…It hurts.
The way you nonchalantly speak of my mother. And my death.
“…Stop it.”
“Stop it?”
He grinned as he looked at the woman, who turned her head with a stiff expression and did not answer further.
If there was someone who didn’t use the proper honorifics with the empire’s only duke and the commander of the imperial army, he also had the authority to summarily dispose of them.
But she looked cute even when being so cheeky, so it was difficult to pass proper judgment.
As he forcibly made her look at him by holding her chin, her face distorted even more. Even that was insanely pretty, though.
“Give back the necklace.”
As Cassard admired her face, looking down at her with a gaze that seemed to appreciate it, he kissed her sweetly moist lips once more. Then he brought up a completely different topic.
“Scathach. Would you like me to get married?”
As if time had stopped, Scathach slowly shook her head, looking at him blankly.
Her tangled long hair, her shoulders and beautiful curves more vivid than the pale moonlight, all stained with his marks, looked indecent, but she appeared impeccably pure.
“…I don’t think it’s any of my business.”
Shaking her head, he thought she was telling him not to, but Cassard’s brow narrowed at Scathach’s response, echoing his words.
“But if you do… you can do everything you want with your duchess.”
“What do I want?”
“Something more… than this… you want to do.”
“Ha.”
He laughed with cold eyes, smirked, and then sat down away from the woman.
“Taking me for a beast.”
“……Isn’t it beastly to do this to a married woman?”
“If I were a beast.”
He gestured to his flat belly beneath Scatha’s voluptuous curves with a mocking smile.
“It would have already been filled with my child.”
It was an insult enough to hate him, but Scatha could not do so.
The clearer the situation became that they had no future together as she got used to him, the more miserable it became.
“Is that what you want?”
“If you want, will you give it? Even though you say you hate your husband?”
Scatha quietly stared into the man’s red eyes, listening to his sarcastic words. Even if Scatha had been unmarried, such a thing should not have happened.
A child out of wedlock who could neither register with the church nor have a proper job.
He twisted one corner of his mouth and giggled, tilting his head and puckering his lips.
Lately, Cassard had been seriously contemplating how to keep a woman by his side even after the war had ended.
Considering how bringing a concubine before even welcoming the Duchess might affect the future marriage contract, thinking about hiring a lawyer to find out.
Male lead is a Destined Young Husband (Female-dominant)
One-sentence summary: Wife-master, listen to my explanation!
Li Ruantang, a young lady from a prestigious family, stumbled and fell. When she woke up, she saw a noble and beautiful young man sitting by her bedside, wiping away tears.
The young master had slightly reddened eyes, and his every move exuded charm.
The sight made Li Ruantang’s eyes hot and her heart flutter. After all, she had made a bet with the young master Meng from the neighboring family. If she couldn’t marry a husband before the end of the year, she would have to admit defeat and give up the jade she had worked so hard to obtain.
Outside the window, the flowers were in full bloom.
Rather than losing the bet, the jade, and her face, Li Ruantang calculated that it would be better to seek marriage with the young master in front of her, killing three birds with one stone.
…
Meng Jun never thought that an accident during a spring outing would lead to them rolling down a cliff and into a river, yet still survive.
Now they were trapped in an unknown village, and Meng Jun had overheard that the family who had rescued them had their own intentions.
After all, it was Li Ruantang who had lost her mind and sought marriage first. He was only trying to protect himself!
Glancing at Li Ruantang, who was listing her own merits, the young husband’s voice softened, and he blushed as he lied, “W-wife-master, Wife-master, don’t you remember me?”
The young husband’s voice was clear and handsome, coaxing Li Ruantang’s heart to be soft and sweet, and she spared no effort to protect him.
It wasn’t until they returned to the capital that Li Ruantang suddenly remembered.
When they had fallen off the cliff, in order not to implicate Wei Yunruo, whom he secretly admired, the young husband had instead pulled her, who was slightly farther away, down the cliff with him…
Short summary by Yuushi L: Initially, the male lead (ML) liked another girl, while the female lead (FL) liked the ML. Both fell off a cliff. The FL temporarily lost her memory, and the ML, fearing others might take advantage of him, claimed FL was his wife while they were staying in a village. Later, when they returned home, the FL regained her memories and remembered that the ML liked someone else, so she kept her distance from him. However, during their time living together in the countryside, the ML’s view of the FL had completely changed. From this point, his pursuit of the FL begins.
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