Strategic Marriage with the Mad Villain (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 14
Contrary to my earlier cowardice, Reus carefully lifted my foot and placed it onto his hand. I saw the bandage dangling over his palm.
‘Ah, because of the bandage….’
Without a word, he silently rewound the loose wrapping, though it looked oddly out of place on him. His unexpected kindness eased some of my tension.
Yet even after finishing the bandage, Reus didn’t rise from his seat. He stared at me intently, as if he still had something left to do—then suddenly reached out his hand toward me.
‘Is he asking for my hand…? Why…?’
Hesitating slightly at his unreadable gesture, I cautiously placed my hand in his.
Immediately, Reus’s thumb lightly tapped my fingers.
It didn’t seem intentional—it looked more like an unconscious habit. He himself probably wasn’t even aware of it.
He’d done the same thing earlier in the drawing room. It must be a quirk that surfaced whenever he became lost in thought.
Reus remained silent for a long while, clearly deep in contemplation.
Just as the prolonged silence began making me uncomfortably self-conscious and I twitched my hand, Reus gently enclosed it in his. Puzzled, I looked at him—only for him to lift my hand up to his eyes.
For a brief moment, I was startled by his sudden action.
“Why can’t I remember?”
With that single sentence from Reus, I instantly understood his intention.
I’d spent the whole day keeping quiet and avoiding this exact situation, yet in that one careless moment, I’d walked straight into his trap.
“I don’t mean to harm you. So please, don’t move.”
The words Reus murmured were:
[“I-I don’t mean to harm you…! So please, don’t move…….”]—exactly what I’d whispered into Reus’s ear that day.
The memory came rushing back, freezing my body stiff.
“Yes. Judging by your reaction, it really was you.”
“Y-Your Grace….”
“Why didn’t you have the slightest intention of speaking up?”
Reus loosened his grip on my hand.
As my hand fell away, his uncovered blue eyes came into view.
Those clear eyes, as bright as the sky, held not a trace of displeasure—in fact, his irritation had noticeably softened.
“I suppose I should stop trying to persuade you now.”
“…What?”
“It seems faster to wait until you yourself want to speak.”
What scheme was he hatching now?
I watched him warily, but Reus, unusually for him, gave a brief smile before standing and smoothing out his crumpled clothes.
“You may not realize it, but that single sentence is all I remember from that day—just those words, without even knowing who spoke them.”
Without even knowing who spoke them…?
‘Did I… slip up?’
It was Reus himself who had spent the entire day pressuring me—without outright threats—to admit I’d saved him.
Yet in his memory, he couldn’t even tell who had spoken…?
Something didn’t add up.
“So at first, I believed the man at the mountain lodge without question. I wish it had stayed that way… but someone later told me the truth—that it was you who saved me.”
I clearly heard every word Reus said, yet I kept chewing over them as if I hadn’t understood properly.
‘Who told him what…? What does that even mean…?’
Despite my mind being frozen in confusion, my body reacted swiftly to the shift in circumstances—my spine chilled, and my back straightened involuntarily.
“Now you finally look like you want to speak.”
“…Your—”
“I appreciate your change of heart, but as you said yourself, it’s already late. You should get some rest now.”
“Wait, Your Grace….”
The moment I jumped up, Reus smoothly turned me toward the bed.
“Your Grace…!”
“Then I’ll see you tomorrow, Lady Yveler.”
Reus left the room without the slightest hesitation.
[This is the timeline separator]
In the end, I didn’t get a wink of sleep.
‘Just who could have seen me…? No, how was that even possible in the first place?’
The Darkwood Forest was so pitch-black it seemed as if someone had cast a spell of darkness over it.
That day, I couldn’t even recognize Reus standing right in front of me—that’s how this whole mess started!
The idea that someone happened to spot me from afar was obviously absurd. So if someone really did see me, they must have been near Anas….
‘That’s an even bigger problem…! If they recognized me, they surely saw me entering Anas too.’
I couldn’t fathom who knew about me, or why they’d told Reus—absolutely nothing made sense.
But one thing was certain: I could no longer respond to Reus’s words with silence.
“Sigh….”
Just as I buried my forehead in my knees, sinking into deep thought, a knock sounded at the door.
“…Yes, come in.”
I straightened my posture, wondering if it might be Reus—but it was only a maid from the ducal manor.
“His Grace has ordered me to bring Lady Yveler to him.”
I followed the maid directly to where Reus waited. The journey felt unbearably long.
I couldn’t keep my hands still, fidgeting like someone afflicted with anxiety—until, before I realized it, I stood outside Reus’s study.
Knock knock—
“Your Grace. Lady Yveler has arrived.”
Soon, a pleasant baritone voice granted permission to enter.
Stepping inside through the door the maid held open, I found Reus reviewing documents. Upon spotting me, he offered a refreshingly cheerful morning greeting.
“Good morning, Lady Yveler.”
Just from his face, it was obvious he’d enjoyed a night so comfortable it bordered on indulgent.
Meanwhile, I hadn’t been able to close my eyes even for a moment due to sheer anxiety!
Though I felt resentful, I neither had the standing nor the position to say anything—so I quietly took a seat opposite him.
Reus set the documents down on the table and shifted into a more relaxed posture.
“I’m glad to see your willingness to talk still holds.”
“…….”
He was utterly at ease. I wished I could match his calm, but—
Having waited for this moment all night, I cut straight to the point.
“…Your Grace. Just who was it that claimed to have seen me?”
Yet instead of the answer I expected, his reply felt oddly irrelevant.
“Lady Yveler. I’m truly grateful that you saved my life. However, separate from that, I haven’t yet decided whether I can trust you.”
“…So you’re saying you won’t tell me after all?”
“Let’s just say it depends entirely on how you answer my question.”
He had a question for me? I couldn’t even guess what it might be.
Then Reus spoke.
“I heard you sent a letter of annulment to Marquis Ershian.”
‘How does he even know that…?’
Stunned by the unexpected statement, I asked in disbelief.
“Your Grace… just how much do you know about me…?”
“Well… from beginning to end.”
“…From beginning to end, you say…?”
“Anas. Your status. Your birth. Those three come to mind immediately.”
That meant he already knew I had no choice but to surrender.
Reus had simply been waiting for the right moment.
“Then let me ask you this, Lady Yveler. Was the annulment merely a necessary step to flee the Empire?”
Why did he keep asking about the annulment, as if he’d been interested in me all along?
But… I was in no position to evade this.
Recognizing the topic immediately, I answered a beat too slowly.
“…No, it wasn’t. The annulment was a separate matter.”
“In that case, this will be much simpler.”
What Reus said next was utterly beyond my imagination.
“Lady Yveler. How would you like to marry me?”
His tone was as casual as if he were suggesting we share a meal—making it all the more bewildering.
Marry? Who? With whom…?
“Weren’t you planning to leave for a foreign land with a new identity?”
“Well, yes, but….”
What did that have to do with marriage?
“I’ll provide you with enough money to settle comfortably abroad.”
‘…So he even knew I intended to leave the Empire with not a single coin to my name.’
How had he uncovered even that? I was astounded by Reus’s network of information—but quickly regained my composure.
Ultimately, my reason for leaving the Empire was to avoid becoming engaged to him.
‘And yet this man is proposing marriage to me, completely oblivious to that!’
Reus surely had his own reasons for this proposal—but marriage? Not even an engagement, but full marriage!
Without needing to hear more, I shook my head firmly to make my refusal clear.
Or at least, I tried to.
“Your Grace, I cannot—”
“The House of Yveler.”
“…What?”
“I’ll give you the House of Yveler.”
Seeing me frozen and speechless, Reus repeated himself.
“I’m offering you everything that belongs to the House of Yveler.”
“…….”
“Of course, our marriage would be a prerequisite for that.”
He’d said he’d give me funds to settle abroad…?
‘Did he mean the entire Yveler estate?’
That wasn’t just settlement money—that was a fortune beyond imagination!
How was it that every single thing this man said left me utterly shocked?
“Do you still hold any affection whatsoever for the House of Yveler? If so, it might be awkward for both the giver and the receiver….”
Reus wore a genuinely troubled expression. As if he were the one in a difficult spot.
So dazed was I that I stared blankly at him—until a sudden doubt crossed my mind.
‘But… would he really hand over the earldom just by marrying me?’
The very fact that he asked whether I still cared for the House of Yveler suggested that transferring its wealth to me wasn’t exactly a favorable outcome in his eyes.
Male lead is a Love-Obsessed Merman
When he discovers she has gone, he risks everything to pursue her on land, enduring agonizing pain to transform his tail into human legs…
One-line summary: Male lead chases female lead. The male lead’s love is a bit sick, an invincible love brain.
Synopsis
During a voyage at sea, Jiang Yang accidentally captures a merman.
Servant: I heard that mermen are fierce and brutal.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman obediently rubbing her palm like a puppy: “You call this fierce and brutal?”
Servant: I heard that mermen have no human nature.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman with wet puppy eyes, obsessively calling her ‘A Yang’ like a childish infant: “You call this having no human nature?”
With great difficulty, she releases the merman back into the sea and returns to shore.
Who would have thought that in less than half a month, the merman, who should have been freely wandering in the South China Sea, would shed his scales, endure the pain of losing his tail, transform into human legs, and come ashore to find her?
He kneels at her feet, rubbing her palm, with merman tears rolling down: “A Yang, don’t abandon me.”
_____
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