Having finished preparing for bed, Ariel made a lucky bracelet as a gift for Kaius with the thread she bought during the day. While at it, she made one for herself too.

“It’s pretty…”

Ariel smiled faintly as she raised her arm to look at the bracelet fastened on her wrist. Then she opened the bottom drawer of her dressing table. Even when fully opened, the medicine bottle was not visible. Only after reaching deep inside did Ariel pull out the white medicine bottle and stare at it quietly.

[I want only one thing. If you wish to stay by my side and save me, bear an heir for Elbartan. After that, you may leave or stay as you wish. I will respect your decision.]

She knew. This might become an even greater deception than before.

But she couldn’t give him a child as he wanted. If a child with the same abilities as her was born, she had no confidence in protecting the child from demons and greedy people.

Hide it, you say?

There’s an injured person next to you and you have the ability to save them. How many people could just stand by and watch?

An unhappy life where it would be absolutely impossible for an ordinary person to hide their abilities and live, thus being exploited again and causing disturbances. When it was so clearly going to turn out that way, how could she have a child? Thinking about it again, there was only one choice.

If she didn’t conceive a child, he would probably sleep with another woman. Like most nobles. When her thoughts reached that point, her face unconsciously frowned, but Ariel shook her head to erase the thought.

Anyway, what Kaius wanted was only an heir to continue Elbartan, so everything would be resolved if she saved him.

Lost in thought for a moment, Ariel opened the medicine bottle with a determined look in her eyes. After wiping the water that flowed to the corner of her mouth with a handkerchief, she began to draw the internal structure while recalling the building she saw today with a lighter heart.

It was then that the door between the bedrooms opened silently. Kaius knocked on the door to draw the attention of Ariel, who seemed absorbed in something.

Slowly raising her gaze, fortunately, it seemed he hadn’t been attacked by demons today. Ariel, biting her lower lip, rose from her chair.

Kaius raised an eyebrow at the sight of her approaching him. She wasn’t wearing the dress she had been stubbornly insisting on. As Ariel passed by him and entered the bedroom in her robe, a fragrant scent wafted up. That scent made him sigh involuntarily.

Ariel was cunning and brazen for preparing gifts for others while excluding her own, but what he wanted wasn’t those trivial things, but this very moment.

As he leisurely approached her standing demurely in front of his bed, their positions were reversed before he could do anything.

“Would you like to sit down?”

Ariel pulled Kaius’s hand to sit him on the bed, then slipped the bracelet she had been clutching into his hand and tightened it to fit his wrist.

“I made it myself. I thought things bought with money would have no meaning for you, Your Grace. I’m sincerely grateful for giving me another chance at life.”

Kaius’s gaze turned to the bracelet. It was made of intertwined blue and white threads. While Edward Camellon received this as a matter of course, he had to risk his life to receive it. As he let out a slight chuckle that sounded like a sneer, Ariel’s face flushed red with embarrassment.

“…If you don’t like it, it’s okay to take it off.”

Although she said that, she hoped he wouldn’t take it off. Watching Ariel fidgeting with her clasped hands while looking down, Kaius cupped her cheek with the hand wearing the bracelet. Raising her gaze to meet his eyes, Ariel could tell. That he had accepted the bracelet.

Although he didn’t seem particularly pleased, she was glad he had accepted it anyway. The same bracelet was now on her wrist too. Until the moment she saved his life, the two were bound by a common fate. Because only then could her life exist as well.

So she had to do her best.

Kaius gripped Ariel’s cheek as she was momentarily lost in thought. At that moment, Ariel recalled his words about wanting to be cared for. That was also why she wasn’t wearing a dress today. Twisting her face to escape his hand, she gently placed both hands on his shoulders while swallowing dryly.

“Um, well…”

Kaius slightly furrowed his brow at his wife’s action of slipping out of his grasp.

While he watched her with displeased eyes, the fingertips touching his shoulders began to tremble. And how her chest was rising and falling rapidly even though she was standing still. As confusion filled his dark eyes, Ariel swallowed dryly once more and gathered courage to look straight at Kaius.

Kaius’s eyes gradually narrowed at the force pushing against his shoulders.

“T-today, I…”

Ariel barely parted her lips that refused to separate when he didn’t move as she intended. Only then did Kaius’s gaze deepen as he grasped his wife’s intentions. Seeing how red she was, not just her face but also her body visible between her face and robe, her whole body must be crimson.

Kaius decided to willingly go along with her intentions. It was what he had wanted, and he was also curious about what exactly his clumsy wife would do, and her flustered appearance when he didn’t move as she wanted was quite cute too.

With a slight smile, he lay down on the bed on his own, and his hesitant wife sat astride his body with a resolute face as if going into battle.

“…Stay still.”

As he unconsciously embraced her waist, she commanded in a low voice. While finding his wife amusing like this, Kaius laughed softly and obediently complied, finding it even more amusing that he didn’t dislike it.

As his wife’s soft lips actively kissed him and her small hands ruffled his hair, Kaius’s hands tightly gripped the bed sheets. Ariel was grateful to him for giving her another chance at life. That was an undeniable truth, so even though her whole body felt like it was burning with embarrassment, she had to endure this much.

When her breath became rapid, Ariel finally parted her lips and untied his loosely tied robe. She hesitated for a moment at the thought of touching his body for a purpose other than treatment, but after squeezing her eyes shut and opening them again, Ariel soon continued her actions slowly with soft hands and lips, just as he had done to her.

Heat bloomed everywhere her soft lips touched. Even with his wife’s actions that seemed clumsy and devoid of any desire, Kaius’s body grew hot and he let out a deep sigh.

“Stay still, Kaius.”

As his hands unconsciously cradled her head and back, Ariel commanded in a slightly stronger tone.

“Do I really have to?”

A low, husky voice flowed out.

“Anyway…”

Instead of continuing his words at her action of biting his neck, he swallowed a rough, hot breath along with a low laugh.

How did she become so bewitching?

Why is his body getting hot again?

Why does he keep feeling the desire to live?

He knows. That her current actions are not sincere feelings. Yet why does he feel satisfied? As he pondered the reason, Kaius couldn’t continue his thoughts. It was because his mind became hazy as if drunk on alcohol he hadn’t even consumed, due to his unprecedentedly aggressive wife.

And that’s not all.

The moment he discovered a bracelet of the same design on her wrist after she took off her robe, the last thread of reason disappeared far away.

“No, I…”

“Be still. Ariel.”

In an instant, their positions were reversed. He smiled as he interlocked their fingers and pinned her hands to the bed, seeing their matching bracelets touching.

Watching that sight, Ariel turned her gaze away, rather relieved by his weight pressing down on her.

It’s nothing.

She’s not deceiving him, just acting as he wants.

This is just something necessary to save him. Ariel desperately clung to self-deception to alleviate the rising sense of guilt.

As Kaius lowered his head again, the sweat beading on the bridge of his nose fell onto her cheek. As she ruffled his hair almost grabbing it while he devoured her swollen lips again, hot breaths escaped between his lips.

He was living proof that her life was cursed. He was a man she respected, but hated; she had to stay by his side, but wanted to leave. What she felt for Ludvian was hatred, and that hatred turned back to herself. Because of this very man on top of her.

Yet she received the things he gave her and felt happy and joyful.

The El steak he said was rightfully hers, the shop she liked so much. The big paper that allowed her to quickly exchange letters with her parents was a great comfort to her. Perhaps something had gone wrong from the moment he built the greenhouse for her. Thinking that he was now watching her feel ecstatic pleasure rather than pain made her feel like she could die of shame.

“Look at me. Ariel.”

Kaius commanded softly to Ariel, who had tightly shut her eyes in intense self-loathing.

As he filled her hazy golden eyes, clouded with heat, the sight was unbearably beautiful. So much that he wished time would stop right there.

What was she aiming for by giving such a bracelet as a gift? And why had the woman who had been like a wooden block changed so easily? He knew well that she couldn’t have changed like this just because of one word about being considerate.

But instead of asking the reason, Kaius willingly went along with her intentions. His mind was filled with hot passion at the sight of the woman beneath him, stained with instinctual pleasure. The joy she gave him was now undeniably satisfying enough to put everything else aside. So if only this moment could last forever, he would gladly be deceived.

Ariel, my Ariel. My audacious wife.