Ah, it couldn’t have been a more miserable imagination than pain, but Clard was too breathless from the impending agony to have such rational thoughts.

His body and mind, which had been pushed to the limit every time, finally crushed his pride after two sweet sleeps.

“Are you acknowledging me as the mistress of this house and as Your Highness’s wife?”

“You begged not to be driven out from the beginning. You have nowhere to go, right?”

Clard did not hide the defiance that peeked out in the meantime.

If he was going to keep her around, it was better to make the relationship clear.

Even if Peliesse wanted this woman, the reason why she didn’t want to go home so desperately was obvious. She wasn’t being treated properly in that house.

Moreover, since she had provided proof of the wedding night, there would be no place to take a bride who was no longer pure.

In short, it meant she was a woman of marriageable age whose ‘value as a bride had completely fallen.’

Yuan closed her mouth, unable to answer the question that hit the mark.

Clard curled up the corners of his mouth crookedly, suppressing the pain that was beginning to surge.

There was no villain.

“It’s a useful talent. Plus, I won’t have to see the tiresome new bride processions anymore or hear rude screams.”

Yuan gripped her knees tightly with her damp hands, feeling as if she had encountered a white light shining far away after passing through a long tunnel.

This crooked man seemed to have found the answer she had wanted most.

“I’ll treat you as a useful servant. So, live as if you know your place, as if you don’t.”

It was a cold treatment that seemed outrageous to say to a wife who had just consummated the marriage, drawing a line as if a huge wall had suddenly appeared before her.

But Yuan felt so elated that her vision turned white just because he hadn’t driven her out of this house.

‘I don’t have to return to the Peliesse mansion.’

She could live here peacefully, maintaining an appropriate distance as she wished.

On some day when they became closer, she might be able to talk about Louise.

“Answer.”

Her head was already so low that she had become a turtle-neck.

No matter how much she tried to act dignified, it pricked her conscience, and she couldn’t pretend to be haughty in front of a hostile royal who had been lethargic and intimidated for 10 years.

To be able to even mention Louise, she needed to become a friend he wanted to give everything to, not just a useful servant.

But to the former prince who was baring his teeth like a trapped wolf, this was as good as getting everything.

Fearing that Clard might change his mind, Yuan quickly answered.

“Yes. I’ll do that. Thank you.”

At her obedient and positive response, one of Clard’s eyebrows shot up. But the conversation wasn’t over.

“But that intimate warmth.”

“!”

“Do we really have to share that?”

Yuan had to stiffen her body to avoid tucking her neck in like a turtle again.

That was the minimum arrangement.

She had to touch him somehow to absorb the pain, and it was a rule made out of anxiety that if there was a great medicine, he might just ask for that and drive her away.

Although it had only been a few days, from what she had observed and heard, the former prince not only avoided touching anyone but also limited the people he allowed into his domain.

He despised even having someone see his appearance for a short time.

It seemed unlikely that such a former prince would share “warm intimacy with a person” by pressing flesh with butler Gustav, or Lancelot Lev, who occasionally greeted him with an oily “Madam” when they met, or Eddie Lev, who was full of wariness, or Duke Kompani, whose eyes glittered like a snake’s.

Besides, he must have known too. At least what “intimate warmth” meant.

Wouldn’t Yuan, who was believed to have spent several nights together, be better than spending nights with a new woman each time, showing his body? After all, she was his wife, at least nominally.

“Answer.”

Look at that picky and rude temperament.

Seeing that haughty bridge of his nose and stubborn lips, which looked like he would kick away even a child if one came clinging to him, Yuan might be fortunate not to have been hit when she kissed his cheek under the pretext of treatment.

“If you don’t like it, shall I call the butler or someone else instead……”

The eyebrows of the man who knew how to convey disgust through his eyes alone furrowed in the middle.

As expected.

“Since you don’t like it, I’ll… do it.”

Yuan stood up and moved a little closer to Clard, who truly looked unwell.

Since he had called her to use her, Clard knew that this was an act of treatment.

Whether it was because he disliked it or because of tension about the unknown medical technique, Clard, who had been sitting carelessly, straightened his back to look at her.

Even sitting, he was so tall that he didn’t really have to look up at her, but his eyes, weakly rippling towards her, looked like those of an abandoned puppy.

It seemed even more so when she saw the area under his eyes, stained with fatigue and sensitivity.

Yuan gazed at her past self in those eyes.

“I hope Your Highness has a comfortable night.”

And I hope you’ll share a piece of that expensive heart with me, and talk about Louise.

I want the truth about Louise’s death.

I hope to bury my sister, who was once your wife, so she can rest peacefully even if it’s in this domain.

I hope that even if I ask for such things, you won’t drive me away, and that this house will become a comfortable home where I can stay…….

Yuan brewed a cup of herbal tea with no real efficacy, filled with her disorganized wishes.

She gently rubbed his wet lips with her finger after he drank without complaint, waiting for her next action.

Just a little, as she absorbed the pain, Clard took a deep breath.

Watching his face change like paint named peace and tranquility spreading in water, Yuan carefully took his clean hand, like businessmen sealing a contract.

Despite its long and elegant shape, Clard’s palm was quite calloused and firm, showing what he had been doing all this time.

When she rubbed the calluses with her thumb as if licking them, Clard flinched.

Just enough for one night of comfortable sleep.

And just that much pain came over to Yuan.

She had no intention of absorbing more than that.

If by any chance this man had tormented Louise, or worse, killed her, then he was a person who deserved to suffer.

Clard’s eyes, which had been blazing earlier saying he would watch closely what she was doing to his pure body this time, began to blink slowly.

The purple irises, which had been as desolate as lustreless beads under his long eyelashes, gradually disappeared under his eyelids.

There was no way he could win.

If Yuan, who took away the pain, wished it, the other person was bound to fall asleep no matter what.

Yuan stared at Clard’s sleeping face for a long time.

His jewel-like face sparkled, oblivious to even a grain of Yuan’s pain.

‘He’s quite pretty when he keeps his mouth shut.’

The appreciation was fleeting.

Yuan bit the inside of her mouth, swallowing the tangy taste of blood.

She firmly pressed her hand against her mouth to suppress the scream that was about to burst out.

Gritting her trembling teeth.

She chanted as usual.

‘This is nothing. Nothing at all.’

The morning Yuan opened her tired eyes.

The items she had ordered yesterday had arrived in abundance in the huge ‘Mistress’s Bedroom’ that was now Yuan’s.

Not only the latest medical books, but also bookshelves filled with academic papers that her uncle had never shown her unless necessary began to fill up one wall.

Butler Gustav raised his eyebrows as he watched the merchants lining up to bring in books and papers.

“Did you order these?”

“Yes, I did.”

Yuan looked at Gustav, who seemed perplexed, and pondered for a while, wondering if she had ordered too much since she was told she could decorate the room to her liking. But the butler shook his head briefly.

“What about curtains or canopy decorations? Are the carpet or bedding alright?”

“The ones here are more than good enough!”

In fact, by the standards of typical royalty or nobility, the items in Yuan’s room were not top-quality.

Due to the budget set for a single owner for over 10 years, they had to tighten their belts for the rest.

But for Yuan, who had shared what the maids used for over 10 years or didn’t even have that, these were already more than enough.

“Even if we put aside the other things, you should have enough clothing made. You brought so little with you……”

“Did His Highness say so?”

Yuan asked, feeling a bit embarrassed.

She understood that Clard, who had just barely accepted her existence in the mansion, would find many things displeasing.

In Yuan’s memory, Clard had mostly looked at her with contempt, hostility, and rejection.

“Yes.”

The butler, recalling Clard frowning deeply at the sight of her wandering around the garden in this severe cold, relying only on the thin fur cape and ear muffs she had been wearing since her arrival, and saying, ‘Dress her properly. Do I have to worry about even this?’, answered briefly, thinking it wouldn’t be right to convey such things.

“The winter here is particularly colder, so he said I should pay some attention to it.”

Seeing her seemingly deflated appearance, he added a slightly softened explanation.

The butler smiled faintly as he saw her face brighten noticeably at that brief additional explanation, after wondering if he had crossed a line.

“Isn’t this too flashy?”

“Flashy? It’s just a single ribbon decoration.”

“That’s right. We want to see some bright clothes too.”

“Please choose this color. Please?”

Thanks to the dressmaker who was immediately called in the afternoon, the young maids were in an uproar.

Starting with Hena, Monica and Canaria exclaimed every time the dressmaker took out a piece of fabric or lace.