Unknowingly fidgeting with her hands, she finally spoke first.
“I’m sorry about yesterday.”
“What do you mean?”
“I fell asleep first, didn’t I?”
“It would be more accurate to say you collapsed rather than fell asleep. You rightfully needed rest.”
“My body isn’t in that bad of a condition. It’s just… this is my first marriage, so I guess I was nervous. I think I couldn’t sleep because I was excited. That’s all.”
It was a silly excuse. But Damion didn’t probe further. Instead, he teased her playfully.
“It’s my first marriage too. I was probably more excited and expectant than you.”
“Yes, that’s why I feel even more sorry. It’s our first time, yet we couldn’t consummate the marriage.”
“Ahem…!”
Damion cleared his throat awkwardly.
Ansi thought it was something she should apologize for, but it seemed she had flustered Damion instead.
Was it because she apologized by mentioning only the result without context?
Ansi added an explanation.
“About my condition, even though we came to the bridal chamber early during the wedding feast because we couldn’t wait…”
“W-wait…!”
Seeing Ansi speak so frankly with wide eyes about embarrassing matters, Damion’s mouth gaped slightly.
Suddenly, he recalled what he had said when carrying her in his arms at the hall.
“Those words…!”
Damion, who was about to retort heatedly, chose his words carefully. His long fingers that had been still now tapped his crossed knees. Turning his head to look at the empty sky outside the window, Damion cleared his throat again.
It was an excuse he made because your body didn’t look well. Somehow, saying such things with his own mouth felt like he was boasting.
In the end, Damion swallowed what he was about to say and spoke of something else.
“Which do you prefer, separate rooms or sharing a room?”
“Separate rooms, of course.”
“I wish you could be a little less blunt, Ansi.”
“If you’re asking which is more comfortable, isn’t that the right choice for you too, Damion?”
Ansi asked as if wondering why he was stating the obvious. In fact, he also found it more comfortable and had already made arrangements assuming they would do so, but…
Somehow, seeing her reaction made him wonder if he should have shattered her expectations by suggesting they share a room.
“If you really want to, I don’t mind sharing a room.”
“…I’ve already prepared a separate room for you, Ansi.”
“That’s good. Then why did you ask?”
Why ask such a meaningless question? Though not spoken aloud, that meaning was implied.
“Your opinion might have been different.”
“Ah, my opinion is the same. That’s fortunate.”
Damion felt somewhat at a loss, but Ansi seemed to have lightened up considerably.
Her face looked relaxed. In contrast to her earlier tense posture, fidgeting with her hands while gravely mentioning the wedding night.
Damion realized that she had been more worried about it than he had thought.
“We won’t consummate the marriage either. Not until you want to.”
Ansi’s eyes widened.
She hadn’t considered that there might be a choice in such matters.
But there was no reason to refuse when given the option to choose.
“That’s good too. But… why?”
Isn’t consummation expected of a married couple?
While Ansi only married this man because she needed him and had no real desire to fulfill marital duties, his response was difficult to comprehend.
Damion shifted his gaze to Ansi. And looking her straight in the eyes, he spoke calmly.
“Ansi. I know you didn’t marry me out of true love.”
“…”
“I’m waiting, and that waiting naturally includes such matters.”
Damion’s answer was clean and sincere.
Strangely, Ansi’s heart wavered. Trying to suppress it, she asked needlessly.
“What if I… never say I want to?”
“Then I suppose we’ll never consummate our marriage.”
Damion chuckled.
It shouldn’t be possible, but it seemed as if sunlight was flooding into the carriage, illuminating him. Ansi swallowed dryly at the seductive smile playing on his red lips.
“If you have physical relations with someone you don’t love, the outcome will surely be unhappy, Ansi. So I have no intention of pressuring you.”
Damion’s gaze was subdued. His resolute words conveyed a firm conviction. As if he had seen someone become unhappy from doing just that.
“But if you end up never seeking me out, I think I’ll be very sad.”
Damion smiled mischievously, as if he had never said such things.
Ansi just nodded silently without answering.
Has that tattoo appeared on your waist too?
She couldn’t bring herself to ask that question.
She recalled what Sofia had said earlier when they were talking alone.
When Ansi asked if she knew about the mark that had appeared on her waist, Sofia brightened up.
Sofia burst out laughing at Ansi’s serious question. Then, as if wondering why such things mattered, she continued cheerfully.
Come to think of it, the couples in Rubella really did get along well. Starting with her own parents, her grandparents, and even her uncle and great-aunt’s households.
Love.
If the reason that man chose this marriage was for the conditions, she could understand why this mark appeared on her waist.
But on his waist…
Ansi wasn’t certain of the answer, and didn’t have the courage to hear his response.
The mark on her waist that had felt like nothing before now burned and ached. Her chest felt constricted, as if bound by massive chains.
[This is the timeline separator]“Damion! I was about to forget your face.”
Henet greeted Damion with delight.
It had been a while since Damion showed up at the Low Club. He had been buried in work at the company to handle matters he couldn’t attend to due to the wedding, and the man who used to be always out and about now spent overwhelmingly more time at home.
If necessary, Henet could have visited some of the companies he was involved with, but he didn’t particularly want to go that far.
“Seems like you missed me a lot, Henet.”
“Please stop saying things like that.”
“Didn’t you say you were about to forget my face? Isn’t that what you meant?”
Henet’s face contorted. Damion chuckled as if he found it amusing.
“Well, aren’t you the newlywed?”
“Your face has brightened since getting married, Damion! Look at that smooth skin.”
“My face has always been like this.”
Damion casually deflected the comments from the men who had gathered around him, as he sank comfortably into the sofa. However, the men who had flocked to the center of attention continued to make a fuss.
“So now the Rubella lady has become Madame Orfe?”
“What should we call her? The young Madame Orfe?”
“Come on, can’t we just call her Lady Ansi?”
“But then we can’t call her Orfe!”
The woman who became Ansi de Orfe through marriage to the Orfe ducal family. While it seemed excessive to make such a fuss over sharing the same surname, it was a favorable discussion about her. Damion casually added a comment.
“That’s right, Orfe. Now all the seals that woman stamps will bear the Orfe name.”
Damion smirked as he brought the wine glass to his lips.
One of the men listening spoke cautiously.
“I say this out of concern for you, so don’t take it too harshly. Is it alright to give her the authority of the mistress of the house so soon? If she were to misuse it…”
“That woman?”
Damion burst out laughing. Interest flashed in his languid eyes.
“She’s a pure woman with no talent for such things.”
Damion shrugged. Confident in his response, Hopley, who had been excited from earlier, laughed even more excitedly.
“Haha! What amazing trust! You’ve really fallen for her.”
Trust, is it.
That word was correct.
It was trust that came from knowing that woman was wearing a mask.
Ansi is hiding her face behind a mask of ‘a woman who can accept his love.’
But her touch is so clumsy that it becomes transparent instead.
Her pretense of accepting him into her heart is amateurish at best. When she merely chose him to find peace in her unhappy life.
Unable to wear the mask properly, she trembles and stiffens with tension whenever Damion takes a step closer.
The teary kiss under the fireworks.
What about that?
The tears Ansi shed then tormented Damion for a while.
He was consumed by the thought that he had forcibly kissed a woman who didn’t want it. If she hadn’t embraced him, speaking of salvation, when he felt like he had become a filthy man, he might have gotten up and run away right then.
So…
That woman who became Ansi de Orfe truly has no talent for deceiving anyone.
He prided himself on knowing Ansi well.
The determination to protect her life by using that pure woman’s heart. As much as the guilt rising from it.
The Villainous Demon Lord Laid an Egg for Her (Female-Dominated)
Several months after transmigrating into a book, Yu Wu found herself facing the demon lord Li You, who could no longer conceal his dragon horns. With one hand on her aching waist and the other gripping a sharp sword, she stared at him.
The demon lord’s eyes were red with fury:
“This is all your doing! Today, I won’t rest until I kill you!”
Yu Wu rubbed her temples. Putting aside the taboo against bloodshed during pregnancy, wasn’t it this very man who willingly walked into her trap that day?!
Warnings:
- Male pregnancy.
- Height ratios are set to mirror typical male-female height proportions.
- Characters include a foot-loving demon lord and an eldest daughter from an immortal family’s concubine lineage.
