Meanwhile, there was a heated argument in the Duke’s office.

It was because Eric, who had arrived late at the Duke’s mansion after finishing his duties in the duchy, was present.

“Your Grace. She’s from the Credion family.”

“Who doesn’t know that?”

How surprised he was when he heard the news from the duchy.

Although there were always things that troubled him, he had never caused such a big accident.

Eric seemed to be going through the biggest crisis while serving the Duke.

“Now I know. It would be easier to understand if she were a commoner.”

“The lady of the Duke’s family being a commoner rather than a Marquis’s daughter. Lord Eric. This is amusing today.”

“Isn’t it a problem since it’s the Credion family? Have you forgotten, Your Grace?”

“Isn’t it that Marquis family that always interferes with every business we expand?”

“I see.”

The Duke was giving only perfunctory answers, indifferent to what Lord Eric was saying.

“They are the Empress’s forces. How can a woman from the Marquis family, who is no different from the Empress’s dog, become the Duke’s wife? With the fire at the Duke’s mansion, Lady Emilia…”

“Enough.”

As the word ‘fire’ came out, the Duke turned his gaze from the window and coldly looked at Eric.

“You’re running your mouth carelessly about things that aren’t certain, my Lord.”

The Duke’s eyes were filled with killing intent. Eric, realizing his mistake, immediately knelt down and apologized.

“I misspoke. But, Your Grace. Is there a need to openly antagonize the Imperial family like this?”

Although prostrated, Eric continued to say what he had to say.

“She was to be the Crown Prince’s fiancée. It’s suspicious that she pretended to be a commoner and deceived everyone to come to Your Grace.”

“Lord Eric. Do you think I’ve fallen in love and lost my reason, unable to see anything?”

At the Duke’s words, Eric raised his lowered head. Eric felt a chill.

The Duke’s gaze was cold, without a trace of warmth.

How dare you. Who are you speaking carelessly about?

If you had seen her behavior and expression when meeting the Crown Prince, such words could never come out.

There was a need to calm the rising anger.

He turned his gaze and poured a full glass of brandy placed next to the desk.

Casius, who downed the strong brandy in one gulp, continued speaking.

“She’s the only daughter of the Credion family. It must have been quite a difficult situation for the Marquis. Whether putting his daughter in the Duke’s family will be the Marquis’s move that harms us, or whether we can reverse-utilize it for our benefit, that’s for me to decide.”

After finishing his words, the Duke, as if feeling somewhat stifled, emptied another glass of brandy in one go.

“Then are you saying you’re just using your wife?”

“Do I look like a man mad with love?”

The Duke rhetorically asked in response to Eric’s question, once again pouring brandy into the empty glass and gulping down the strong alcohol.

The scent of brandy lingered around Casius’s nose, and he quietly closed his eyes, recalling the past.

When his memories first returned, the emotions he felt were disappointment and anger.

So he mixed his anger and took her, then left the villa.

Returning to the Duke’s castle, he was very displeased that she wouldn’t leave his mind in just a couple of months.

Later, when she was brought to the Duke’s castle, she continued to tell lies.

The always calculating and meticulous Marquis Severus wouldn’t have put his daughter in the Duke’s villa for no reason.

But with Adeline’s pretentious behavior, Casius began to regain his senses.

“I’ll stay quietly and then leave.”

But at her words of leaving him, an inexplicable sense of betrayal and possessiveness flared up simultaneously.

“How about becoming my mistress?”

Adeline was a woman who drove him crazy with every word.

It was unacceptable to be swayed like this by her words without even realizing it.

He would keep her by his side and not let her go.

He had every intention of tormenting her.

Before long, whether it was obsession or possessiveness towards Adeline, these things gradually changed their form.

Yes. When Adeline left the Duke’s castle at that time.

He felt like he would really go mad. Worried about what might happen to her.

It was no longer just obsession and possessiveness.

But his pride wouldn’t allow him to admit these feelings even to Eric.

All those words about whether Adeline would be the Marquis’s move being his choice were just reasons he found belatedly to rationalize his impulsive actions.

“Lord Eric. You may leave now…”

Before he could finish his sentence, there was a knock on the office door.

The one who appeared through the half-open door was Adeline.

Casius, his eyes slightly relaxed from the consecutive glasses of brandy, raised the corners of his mouth when he saw Adeline. No, it should be said that they moved on their own.

With just her head peeking in, looking back and forth between him and Eric, she looked just like a puppy.

“Duke? If you’re busy, I can come back later.”

It was when Adeline was about to close the door again after looking at Casius, who didn’t answer.

“No. We’re done now. So, did you enjoy the tea party?”

At the Duke’s voice stopping her steps, Adeline entered the office.

Eric looked at Casius and Adeline, then let out a low sigh.

“Please talk comfortably, you two. I’ll take my leave.”

With that, Eric turned around and left the office, leaving the two of them alone.

She watched Eric quickly disappear, then narrowed her eyes at Casius.

“You seemed to be quite close with Lady Larie.”

“Larie?”

At Adeline’s abrupt question, Casius merely repeated the name once, as if not understanding. To Adeline, however, it didn’t sound so ordinary.

“La.ri.e? Were you on a first-name basis?”

“Adeline.”

At Adeline’s thorny words, Casius called out to her as if to soothe her.

Extending his large hand, gesturing for her to come here.

Adeline, seemingly more displeased by Casius’s nonchalance, stood there with her arms crossed and continued speaking.

“Was Lady Larie very interested in you, Duke, or was she so interested in me that the tea party was extremely enjoyable?”

Adeline was glaring at the Duke.

“Don’t you have anything to say to me? An explanation, or perhaps a full account of what happened?”

Adeline, who had approached close to the chair he was sitting on, was looking down at him with her eyes narrowed into slits.

Casius gazed at Adeline obliquely with his chin resting on his hand. His half-closed eyes were languid and decadent.

“Why is my wife so irritated? Just like a jealous woman.”

After staring silently for a while, he murmured softly.

‘Jealous?’

Adeline burst into a laugh as if encountering a word she had never imagined.

She was dumbfounded.

“Jealous? Come on. I’ve been tormented throughout the tea party. And by your ex-fiancée, no less.”

Larie had cornered Adeline in front of all those young ladies. Quite rudely, too.

Recalling what had happened just moments ago, Adeline’s brow furrowed deeply.

“But seeing how you call her so affectionately by name, it seems you weren’t just ordinary acquaintances. If you had at least given me a hint, I could have prepared…”

It was when Adeline was continuing to speak in a thoroughly disgruntled voice.

Casius, who had been watching her, reached out his arm and wrapped it around Adeline’s waist, pulling her in.

“…!”

With a strong pull, Adeline’s knees touched between Casius’s legs.

— Creeak.

As the center of the chair he was sitting on slowly moved backward, Adeline’s knees touched the chair.

When she came to her senses, she found herself practically sitting on his lap.

“What, what are you doing?”

Just as Adeline, belatedly regaining her senses, was about to straighten up from the chair.

Casius strongly gripped her waist. To prevent her from moving.

Adeline’s and Casius’s eyes met at close range, helplessly drawn to him.

“What else, it seems that what you’re feeling now is the emotion called jealousy.”

“…”

“You seemed not to know, so I’m trying to tell you, wife.”

They were so close that if either of them turned their head even slightly, their noses would touch.

“What! Stop talking nonsense. I’m just annoyed because of your ex-fiancée…!”

“Not ‘your,’ but your husband’s.”

Casius pulled on the ribbon tied neatly around Adeline’s neck.

Adeline, who had been trying not to move, was drawn in. Just as she was about to collapse onto him, Adeline stretched out both hands.

Two hands touching the Duke’s shirt. It felt as if the Duke’s hot body temperature was transmitted directly through the thin dress shirt.

Adeline’s face turned bright red.

Because she could imagine what was beneath this shirt that she was gripping.

“Adeline, there’s only one way you can address me.”

“…”

“Casius.”

The Duke gently held the two wrists Adeline had placed.

Adeline swallowed hard at his straight gaze looking at her.

“It’s a name I’ve never allowed even to Lady Estillen.”

Casius’s gaze looking at Adeline seemed to be asking, ‘You know what this means, right?’

That although Larie had allowed him to use her name, he had not allowed her to use his.

Yet such a man told Adeline to call him by name.

For married couples, this might be a natural progression, but the two of them were a bit different, weren’t they?

They were in a relationship somewhere between a married couple and a business arrangement.

“Come on, try calling it. Say Casius.”

Strangely, Adeline couldn’t bring herself to call that name. It felt like the moment she allowed that name, she would be acknowledging that she had truly become his wife.

Under Casius’s urging gaze, Adeline bit her lower lip.

“I don’t want to.”

It was the principle that the more one is told to do something, the less one wants to do it.

“If you want to be called by that name, then the Duke should also fulfill the Duke’s duties.”

There was no reason for her to be helplessly overpowered like this. Wasn’t it this man who hadn’t cleanly resolved matters with his ex-fiancée first?

Adeline raised the corners of her mouth while looking down at him.

“I hear there’s a welcoming celebration for the Duke and Duchess in three days. The Empress herself is preparing it, they say.”

“…”

“If you don’t want to be at the center of a scandal in front of people, settle things with your former lover.”

Casius let out a sigh — huh — at her provocative gaze.

It seemed she had now concluded that he and Larie were former lovers.

Adeline, who had boldly whispered in front of him, straightened up and moved away.

“Until then, that form of address won’t exist.”

With those final words, she left the office.