“You can look now. I’ve covered everything.”

Even as I spoke, I gripped the bed sheet tightly out of embarrassment. At times like this, acting awkward only makes the atmosphere more awkward.

Yezar lowered his hands covering his face and met my gaze. He also seemed embarrassed by the awkwardness.

There’s no helping it. What good will come from being awkward like this? I tried my best to change the subject.

“…Now that Yezar is here too. I think it’s okay to clear away what the maids prepared. Would you like to help me clear the rose petals scattered on the bed sheet?”

For now, I had to return the room that was creating an even more awkward atmosphere back to normal. He nodded and came closer to me. Then, as if his foot caught on something, he looked down at the floor. It was the piece of cloth I had carefully tucked away in the corner. He picked it up as it was.

“My lady. What is this?”

‘I put it away so well. Why did Yezar have to see that of all things…!’

As things turned out this way, I answered with a resigned feeling.

“It’s a piece of cloth the maids gave me to wear. As you can see, it’s not properly functioning as clothing.”

I think I wore a see-through slip on the wedding night too. But not to that extent. The piece of cloth they gave me had a very open back.

Then Yezar said as if surprised.

“This was clothing?”

It seemed to look like just a rag for a puppy to wear in his eyes too.

“To be precise, it’s a slip. But since it’s all see-through and the back is all open, I thought I couldn’t possibly wear it, so I searched for something more wearable and put on this gown.”

And that gown came undone, fully exposing my cleavage. How could things turn out like this.

“Phew…”

Taking a deep breath, I tried to think as positively as possible. What can I do about what’s already happened? I have to move on.

Even though I’m dying of embarrassment. Even though I want to bang my head against the wall, I have to endure it.

“Still, seeing how excited the maids were to decorate for the consummation night, I couldn’t completely ignore it.”

I brushed off the flower petals on the bed and gestured to Yezar.

“Yezar, would you come here? I just roughly brushed off the petals with my hand. I need other help.”

“What kind of help do you need…?”

Saying that, he approached carefully while avoiding my gaze. I could see his face was red under the soft light.

‘Ah… Yezar, please don’t show it. I’m embarrassed too.’

My face reddened again too, but I endured it. I can bear my own embarrassment. After all, the maids did all this thinking of us.

I should understand, understand all the mishaps that occurred because of their efforts…

“Just a moment. Let me go bang my head against the wall a few times.”

It felt like banging my head against the wall a few times would erase it cleanly from my memory. But he blocked me.

“If it’s because of me, don’t worry about it. I’m sorry… I’m not used to these things… I didn’t mean to make you more embarrassed.”

Hearing him say that. It occurred to me that both he and I were flustered. Why are we both acting so awkwardly?

“No, I’m sorry for overreacting. Well, these things can happen in life.”

“If you’re bothered that only you were exposed, I could also…”

I grabbed his hand tightly and stopped him. What is this pure man saying?

“Don’t do that. I don’t want to be the wife who deliberately undresses her husband to carefully admire those muscles.”

I hoped he wouldn’t stimulate the lustful demon inside me. Then he relaxed his hand that was about to remove his clothes.

I focused again on what I was originally trying to do.

“So the help I need is… First of all, it’s our consummation night, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“So they’ll think we’ll do something inside. But imagine if they see just clean bed sheets. They’ll notice nothing happened. If they see a usually affectionate couple not wanting to share a bed, what would they think?”

Of course they would find it strange. A small seed of doubt could someday make them realize our marriage is a contract marriage. Though it might be a bit of a stretch.

I moved my body vigorously to wrinkle the bed sheets here and there and messed up the flower petals. Yezar, who was quietly watching, asked.

“So you’re making the bed all crumpled now?”

“Yes! If we make the bed all crumpled like this, won’t it look like we did something? Ah! If we get it wet too, it’ll look quite convincing.”

If it were the wedding night, I would have even cut my body with a knife to spill some blood.

“Yezar, help me too!”

“I’d like to help, but won’t the bed be damp when we sleep if we wet it?”

“Now that I think about it, you’re right.”

The bedding that’s in such a nice fluffy state perfect for sleeping would become damp if wet, making it unpleasant to sleep in.

Then what should we do? Should we leave a wet towel messily strewn about?

“You just lie down, my lady. I’ll make it look like something happened when I wake up in the morning.”

Since he wakes up at dawn to go train, that might be better.

“Okay, sounds good.”

I spread out the bed sheets I had deliberately crumpled. And I blew out the flickering candles one by one. It should be dark when sleeping.

Leaving only one or two lit, it finally looked like a normal bedroom now. Though my vision became a bit darker, I knew where Yezar was.

As I groped my way to where his figure was, his voice sounded close by.

“My lady, if you come any closer, you’ll bump into me.”

I seemed to have come too close. I tried to carefully step back. But his sharp nose bridge brushed against my nape.

For a moment, my body trembled. A sweet voice enveloped my ear.

“Julieta. Did you put on perfume?”

“No… I didn’t.”

“Coming closer, there’s a very nice scent.”

Was there anything that could be called a nice scent? Come to think of it, did the maids slather on some fragrant oil? They seemed to have applied everything good for the skin.

“It must be because of what the maids applied to my skin. I guess something with a nice scent was mixed in. They even styled my hair to make it wavy.”

My hair, which tends to tangle even when well-groomed, now flowed smoothly in waves. Then his hand stroked my hair.

I unconsciously held my breath. I don’t know why, but I felt tense at his touch.

“It’s a pity. I can’t see the waves.”

I felt the movement of his fingers going through the curling strands of hair. His fingers rustled as they combed through my hair.

“…Ah, I’ll show you in the morning.”

I stuttered without realizing. Even while grabbing his hands. Why am I getting flustered by his action of caressing my hair today? An awkward laugh flowed out to erase the embarrassing feeling.

“Hahaha. The maids paid a lot of attention to me today because it’s our consummation night. Now that we’ve cleared everything away, shall we go to sleep? You must be tired too, Yezar!”

Since it was late at night. This much conversation before bed would surely be enough.

But he pulled me back as I was about to turn over. His hand naturally wrapped around my waist. I suddenly felt how large the bones of his hand were.

“I have something to ask you, my lady.”

“What is it?”

“Didn’t you ask me to show that our marital relationship is good to your younger brother?”

I did say that. Wizlet had a lot of unnecessary worries and doubts.

“How much contact should I have with you to show that we’re on good terms?”

Contact. That word reminded me of the moments when I grabbed his hand or suddenly hugged him. Just that much would be enough to prevent Wizlet from being suspicious.

Surely that would be enough. But without realizing, different words came out of my mouth.

“Wouldn’t it be okay to do like we did at the wedding?”

My lips were moving on their own, saying we should do like that time when we briefly kissed. Of course, we had already kissed at the wedding, but I recalled that it was so brief I barely felt our lips touch.

‘It was a short kiss that lasted less than a second, I don’t even remember what it felt like.’

But why am I bringing up that time now? Only then did my mind return to normal.

‘My goodness. What did I just say! Was I momentarily distracted because of the room the maids decorated?’

I quickly tried to take back the words I had blurted out. If I laughed it off saying we don’t need to go that far for Wizlet to not misunderstand, it would be like nothing happened.

But why is Yezar’s face so close?

“Like this?”

As those words ended, a soft sensation touched my lips. I couldn’t understand what was happening. It felt like my thoughts had momentarily stopped.

Hot breath was felt through my slightly parted lips. He had a nice scent too.

A heavy yet dense fragrance like fog lingered at the tip of my nose. It felt like the sound of my eyes rolling would be transmitted to him. As my lips trembled slightly from tension, his lips gently pressed against mine with a soft touch.

Surely, at the wedding it was a brief kiss that didn’t even last a second. But the time our lips were touching seemed to have far exceeded one second. As his lips slowly parted, his body heat remained on my lips, burning hot.