Herdin burst into laughter at his wife’s first words, finding them absurd.

He had expected her to say something with a serious expression.

He found it both amusing and irritating that she suddenly wanted to undress, seeming to treat the purpose of this night like a chore to be completed.

“You seem more impatient than you look.”

Herdin added as he pulled out the chair next to him.

“Sit down first. I’ll unwrap the package.”

Blair blinked, not understanding what he meant, but followed his instruction and sat down.

Herdin poured wine into a glass and handed it to her.

“Drink.”

“Thank you.”

As Blair took the wine glass, her hand lightly brushed against Herdin’s. She flinched at the contact, quickly withdrawing her hand.

But in that brief moment of contact, Herdin noticed her hand trembling slightly and narrowed his eyes.

Blair moistened her lips with the wine and seemed to be thinking for a moment before carefully speaking.

“I may still be lacking and inadequate, but I’ll learn a lot to become a wife you won’t be ashamed of.”

Herdin sneered at her words.

It was laughable that she spoke of trying to be a good wife, as if she had completely forgotten what had happened between the Imperial family and the Delmarks.

When Herdin didn’t respond, Blair became awkward and started drinking the wine again.

He drank wine with her while openly observing her. Blair was desperately keeping her lips on the wine glass, trying not to make eye contact with him.

Herdin, who had been staring at her red lips wet with wine, finally spoke.

“Are you good at drinking?”

“Um… I don’t think so.”

“Then let’s stop with the alcohol.”

Herdin took away Blair’s glass. He didn’t want to embrace a drunk woman whose judgment was impaired.

Blair, who had been clinging to the wine glass as if it were her lifeline, opened her eyes wide in apparent surprise when it was taken away.

Herdin leaned towards her and whispered.

“Let’s fulfill your first duty as a wife.”

With that, Herdin’s lips devoured hers, still tasting of wine. He then immediately lifted the frozen Blair, laid her on the bed, and continued with a kiss that seemed as if he would devour her.

Her lips had the sweet scent of the wine she had just been drinking. Even though he didn’t particularly like sweet wine, he couldn’t pull his lips away from hers.

That sweetness made him feel dizzy, and heat rushed through his body as if a fuse had been lit. Despite the wine not being very high in alcohol content, he felt intoxicated.

Herdin, blinded by desire and indulging in Blair, came to his senses when he grasped her chest.

“Ah…!”

Blair flinched in shock at his rough touch. She was so startled that her body trembled, breathing heavily.

Her eyes looking up at him were filled with fear, reddened as if about to burst into tears, and her breath came out shakily between her teeth.

Herdin, silently observing this sight, let out a bitter laugh.

“…Ha.”

The seductress rumored to have multiple male concubines was nowhere to be seen.

What was before his eyes was unmistakably the image of a woman spending her first night with a man.

The fact that those rumors were merely hearsay gave him a strange sense of relief, but at the same time, it made him perplexed.

His body was already heated just from kissing her. Her eyes, filled with fear, only stimulated his desire more.

His swollen lower abdomen was now suffering from an almost painful longing.

He found it amusing – his own state of arousal towards the frightened daughter of his enemy, this entire situation.

Swallowing hard and suppressing his desire, Herdin lifted his body that had been pressing down on Blair.

After all, the woman had become his wife, and there was plenty of time beyond tonight. There was no need to take her tonight specifically.

But it was too much to cool down his heated body as it was.

“…You go to sleep first.”

As he was about to head to the bathroom, leaving Blair behind, a slender hand grasped his.

Even that careful touch felt like a great stimulation to Herdin, who furrowed his brow and turned to look at her.

Blair, still with frightened eyes, opened her quivering lips.

“The wedding night is… for the couple to spend together, isn’t it?”

“…So you want to sleep together?”

She nodded slightly. Herdin swallowed a sigh at her response.

This woman doesn’t know men.

She doesn’t know how desperately he’s clinging to his reason to avoid ravishing her like a beast right now.

“But what should we do?”

“…”

“If we sleep together, I don’t think I’ll be able to just sleep quietly.”

Herdin gave his own warning. He thought she would understand the meaning and back down. She was so frightened, after all.

But what came out of Blair’s mouth was an unexpected answer.

“I can do it. I’ve learned everything…”

As she said this, her hand was desperately holding onto him. As if she was afraid he might leave her behind.

Taken aback by her unexpected response, Herdin felt as if he’d been hit on the back of the head and burst into laughter.

Blair still looked at him with anxious eyes, seemingly unable to interpret the meaning of his laughter.

She provoked him first with that innocent face, so this was her fault. Whether she cried and resented him in the middle or not.

Herdin quickly wiped the laughter from his face and leaned towards her.

“Well then, let’s see you do as you’ve learned.”

After hesitating for a moment, Blair took off her nightgown that had been revealing her body’s curves.

Herdin, who had been watching her actions intending to follow along, lost his composure and pounced on her as soon as he saw the snow-white naked body before his eyes.

At that moment, he completely forgot about his intention to use her to uncover the truth about the fire incident, and the fact that she was the daughter of his enemy.

* * *

His wife was innocent, pretty, and comfortable.

She generally obeyed his words, gave him pleasure in the bedroom that could pickle his brain with her pretty face and body, and decisively, she loved him.

“Herdin.”

His wife’s eyes looking at him sparkled more than anything else in the world, making it impossible not to recognize the emotion in those eyes as love.

Looking into those eyes made him feel like he was an even greater being than he thought himself to be.

Sometimes he deliberately treated her coldly and hurt her.

‘Herdin. If you have time, can you go with me to see the clock tower in the square?’

‘I’ll tell the knights. Dress warmly as it’s getting cold.’

Seeing Blair sticking by his side even when hurt by his words and actions gave him a sense of complete possession.

That was Herdin’s way of confirming Blair’s love.

Moreover, she served her purpose externally as well.

Even though she was the daughter of his enemy, bringing in a mistress of the house meant the elders no longer pestered him to get married, and the women trying to make connections with him almost disappeared.

She was the perfect wife, except for the fact that she was Katrina’s daughter.

Occasionally, when he became aware of whose daughter she was, he remembered that he should ask about the fire incident, but he soon forgot in the pleasure she gave him.

After all, this woman is my wife.

The innocent she believed his warmth to be affection and loved him, so she would be in his arms for life.

As long as I don’t abandon you, forever.

So there was plenty of time, it didn’t have to be today.

…That’s what I thought.

Until the day that priestess I had encountered a few times during monster subjugation came to visit.

“You must distance yourself from the Duchess. If you stay by her side, you might go berserk too, Your Grace. Like the previous Duke…”

After hearing Miela’s words and checking on the sleeping Blair, a black magic crest was confirmed on her collarbone. And the fact that it was a mark that surpassed the second constraint of the family’s power that had disappeared in the ancestor’s generation.

The existence of the black magic crest, which he learned of one day, completely changed his daily life.

He hid the fact about the black magic crest from Blair. He was afraid that if she learned the truth, she might become scared and leave his side. He was afraid of losing that daily life that had become so natural now, of returning to a life without her.

I, who was terribly selfish, only came to acknowledge my feelings for you when faced with the fear of possibly losing you.

But after that day when he became aware of her preciousness, whenever he fell asleep by Blair’s side, he invariably suffered from terrible nightmares.

Nightmares where the face of his father, whom he killed with his own hands, changed into the face of his mother who died at his father’s hands, and eventually into Blair’s face.

Suffering from nightmares, Herdin finally distanced himself from Blair. And he searched frantically for a way to undo the black magic.

He thought that by doing so, they could return to their daily life.

He believed it was for Blair’s sake.

He only thought about resolving all of this as soon as possible and returning to her side. Not knowing how many bruises were forming on her heart as she waited for him every night.

“Herdin, I want to talk with you.”

Then one day, Blair, unable to bear his avoidance that had begun at some point, came to find him.

And that day, Herdin, unable to handle his emotions, made an irreversible mistake under the influence of alcohol.