Second Male Lead, You Said It Was A Contract Marriage? - Chapter 18

I looked at him with pleading eyes.

“Yes, Yezar…”

He glanced back and forth between the badly broken wooden sword and me, then turned his gaze to the knights.

“Is everyone not focusing on training? Are you going to be so lax?”

At his words, the knights who had stopped began to move again. The gazes pouring onto me were also quickly withdrawn.

Ah, as expected, having a contract husband is the best. Afterwards, he looked at me as if he wanted to ask something, his lips twitching, but soon brought a new wooden sword.

“Please give me that broken wooden sword, and shall we try with this one?”

“Yes!”

I handed him the badly broken wooden sword and received a new one. I felt a little unfairly misunderstood because of the poorly made wooden sword.

‘It feels like misunderstandings keep piling up in the ducal residence.’

I wasn’t in a very good mood. But the way to blow away such unpleasant feelings was right in front of me, so I swung the wooden sword without worrying about it.

Yezar thought for a moment. Perhaps her lively and cheerful demeanor came from that very strength.

From a spot away from the center where the knights were training, a very fierce striking sound could be heard.

“Wow. Madam, you’re not playing around at all.”

“It seems like His Lordship won’t need to go easy on you during the duel…?”

“I told you to focus on training.”

He replied like that, gazing at Julieta. Her rose-colored hair, tied up high, swayed back and forth following Julieta’s movements.

Her softly curved eyes were extremely lovely, but the wooden dummy in front of her was in a miserable state.

Moreover, about 5 wooden dummies were already damaged beyond use and set aside. On top of that, the 2 new wooden swords he had brought were somehow already broken and lying coldly on the ground.

“But, how can one focus on training while seeing a sight like that?”

Kwang-! Yezar was also curious how such a clear resonance could spread just by swinging a wooden sword.

“My Lord. If you ever make a mistake with Madam, just unconditionally apologize and say you were wrong.”

The knight who said that was a married man. For some reason, seeing him flinch every time that clear sound rang out, it seemed his wife was very fierce.

At some point, the knights gathered cozily next to Yezar witnessed the moment the 6th wooden dummy breathed its last.

Soon, exclamations of admiration and applause poured out from them.

If his wife found out, he’d have to make her run 100 laps around the training ground right away, but his kind wife didn’t care and laughed, preparing to destroy the next dummy.

She didn’t seem to tire at all, her brightly smiling face looking extremely delighted. Then a knight muttered as if puzzled.

“No, there must have been knights who taught swordsmanship to Madam. How could they not say a single word after seeing something like that?”

That was a part Yezar was also curious about. Anyone could see she wasn’t ordinary. If well-polished, she could become an excellent knight leading a war to victory…

Yezar shook his head in the middle of his imagination. He wished for his wife not to do dangerous work.

He just wanted her to enjoy swordsmanship to the extent that she liked it, just like now.

Julieta’s already lively green eyes shone beautifully and the corners of her mouth lifted up pleasantly. Even the furrowed brows from concentrating so hard despite the sweat flowing, and her serious attitude were really cool.

As he was completely captivated watching her, another knight answered the earlier question.

“What, why are you curious about the obvious? It’s evident. Even if a noble young lady has talent in swordsmanship, unless she succeeds the family, there’s no use for it. So they probably didn’t bother mentioning it.”

Hearing that answer, Yezar recalled Julieta’s father, Count Orbetian.

He was a father who never even considered his daughter learning swordsmanship, worried she might get hurt, but was too busy to even know what his daughter was doing.

Yezar remembered Julieta’s bitter gaze.

‘If it were me, I wouldn’t want to neglect such a lovely daughter.’

Yes. If a small child with green eyes fresh like sprouts and hair fluttering like rose petals ran up to me calling me dad…

Imagining that, Yezar paused for a moment. Because Julieta naturally standing next to him in that image came to mind. In other words, him and her, and their child…

It was an imagination Julieta must never find out about, but a smile spread across his face without him realizing it.

At that moment, the wooden sword Julieta was swinging broke.

“Ah. This time the wooden sword broke first.”

“Did Your Lordship know about Madam’s monstrous strength?”

Disregarding the horrified voice, Yezar replied with a smile.

“I only heard that she learned swordsmanship. But isn’t it cute how she’s so immersed and smiling like that?”

Then the knights with disgusted expressions threw out a word or two.

“Oh my. It’s a severe case.”

“Even if the newlywed passion is hot, I doubt it’s really our lord if it’s this hot.”

“They say everyone is the same in front of love, but you seem to be taking it too far.”

“The knights who just added unnecessary comments, I’ll personally spar with you one-on-one tomorrow.”

Neatly brushing aside their complaints, Yezar approached Julieta. Because she was sweating too much.

He thought she might like it if he wiped her sweat with a handkerchief. She also seemed to be taking a short break, putting down her wooden sword and looking at him.

“Yezar, you came at a good time! My clothes are soaked with sweat. Do you have a handkerchief?”

It seemed he had arrived at the perfect timing.

He smiled and tried to wipe her sweat with a handkerchief.

But there was something he hadn’t expected. He noticed her sweat-soaked clothes sticking to her body.

‘How can you threaten the duke with such a soft body without any muscles?’

Why did those words suddenly come to mind? Was it because of the abs faintly visible through the skin showing from the sweat-soaked clothes?

Right. Such strength couldn’t just come out of nowhere. Saying she had no muscles was a lie. Separate from the fact that his wife’s body was soft when she threw herself into his arms.

“Yezar? Do you not have a handkerchief?”

At that question, he came to his senses.

‘What am I thinking right now in front of my wife…?’

With a sense of guilt, Yezar thought he didn’t want to show this appearance of Julieta to anyone else.

“I have one. But a handkerchief won’t do. It would be better to go in and change clothes now…”

“What? Why? I’ve been looking forward to today so much!”

Julieta looked at him, extremely disappointed. Seeing her utterly crestfallen eyes made his heart sink. But he didn’t want to show such a defenseless appearance to anyone. Especially not to the male knights.

So he came up with a compromise.

“Today’s training ends here. Everyone, return.”

At his sudden order, both the knights and Julieta looked at him in surprise. But Yezar quietly whispered to Julieta.

“I wanted to quietly spar with you without causing a commotion.”

Worrying that she might be offended if he said he just wanted to be the only one to see her like this.

I stretched again, loosening my body.

Although I was a bit hot from sweating, Yezar wiped the beads of sweat from my forehead.

He even sent away the waiting maids and personally attended to me.

After finishing my stretches, I looked around the empty training ground.

“It’s nice and quiet. But did you really have to send all the knights away? The maids too.”

“Don’t you also prefer it being quiet, wife? It would be noisy for nothing and you wouldn’t be able to concentrate. Besides, I didn’t send the maids away, they went to get clothes for you to change into.”

“Now that you mention it, that’s true.”

Everything he said made sense, but strangely, I had the nonsensical suspicion that he wanted to be alone with me.

The maids would prepare clothes for me to change into when I returned anyway. It was also because of Yezar’s action of specifically asking the maids.

Well, thinking deeply about it would only make it complicated. I decided to focus on the good opportunity presented to me.

“Yezar, I’m all warmed up.”

He also seemed to be ready, taking a relaxed stance and speaking to me.

“Have you had experience sparring at the Count’s residence before?”

“I have, but…”

As I trailed off, he asked with concern.

“Did something happen?”

I shook my head at his answer. There was nothing for him to worry about. Right, to be precise, rather than something happening…

“When I sparred, I did lose. But the ones who got hit a lot were the knights of our Count’s residence, you could say.”

Recalling the past incident, I felt a little sorry. Naturally, as I had only learned swordsmanship for a short period and was physically inferior to the knights, I could only lose.

Without any skill, I was helplessly hit by the opponent’s sudden attacks. But for some reason,

The knights unanimously said sparring with me was more difficult than sparring with other knights. There was even a young knight who sniffled, saying it hurt.

“Should I say that each of my swinging movements is heavy? They said if you look away for a moment, it feels like getting hit by multiple people. They avoided sparring with me. In fact, unlike me who had no injuries, the opponent would end up in a tattered state if they failed to defend against my attacks.”

If I had seriously thought about walking the path of a knight, I would have perfectly learned how to deal with surprise attacks.

Until now, I was satisfied with being able to handle several men alone.

But now I had a good teacher right in front of my eyes. If I had time, I thought about seriously learning from him.

Besides, my husband was also telling an interesting story.

“Then, will I, your opponent today, also end up in a tattered state?”

“No way. Yezar will beat me while remaining unscathed. Hmm… but you said you’d use your left hand. So my wooden sword might graze you?”

When I spoke as if provoking him, he laughed.

“I look forward to it, wife.”

Seeing him take a stance as if telling me to come, I ran forward without hesitation.

An Indifferent Woman is the One Men Desire the Most

One-line summary: The female lead is actually cold-hearted and extremely rational. She has stage-by-stage relationships and won’t two-time, but there will always be someone who secretly likes her.

This novel has the following triggers, so if you’re sensitive to these, please don’t read:

1. The female lead has had many relationships, but she treated each one seriously and broke up properly.

It’s just that the men unilaterally pestered her incessantly. For the female lead, when she doesn’t like someone anymore, she simply doesn’t like them.

(This applies to her relationships with Male Lead 1, 2, 3, and 4 as well, but she’s loyal in each 1-on-1 relationship!)

2. In this novel, Male Lead 2 and the female lead kiss in a car, and Male Lead 1 sees it and beats up Male Lead 2.

The female lead calls the police and sends both Male Lead 1 and 2 to the police station! Male Lead 1 begs the female lead not to break up with him.

3. Male Lead 1 has a gentle appearance but an obsessive personality.

Male Lead 2 has a delicate and soft appearance, slightly green tea-like (two-faced).

Male Lead 3 is a youthful college student and a smart person who has secretly liked the female lead for a long time.

Male Lead 4 is the female lead’s father’s special assistant, a business elite with deep, hidden thoughts.

4. At the beginning of this novel, the female lead has already broken up with Male Lead 1 (Chapter 4) and gotten back together with Male Lead 2 (ex-boyfriend).

5. Enter with caution if you have triggers!!!