Chapter 131. Forever Mine
2024.01.09.
Herdin let out a hollow laugh, utterly dumbfounded by his wife's first words.
He had wondered what she would say with such a grave expression.
Her sudden declaration that she would take off her clothes was laughable, and the sight of her thinking of nothing but finishing the purpose of this night like some homework soured his mood.
"You are more impatient than you look."
Herdin pulled out the chair beside him and added,
"Sit down for now. I'll be the one to unwrap the packaging."
Blair blinked, not understanding what he meant, but followed his instruction and took a seat anyway.
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. At the contact, Blair flinched and shrank her hand back, pulling away quickly.
However, noticing that her hand was trembling faintly in that fleeting moment of contact, Herdin narrowed his eyes.
Moistening her lips with the wine, Blair seemed to ponder something for a moment before cautiously broaching the subject.
"I may still be lacking and inadequate, but I will learn a lot and become a wife you won't be ashamed of."
At her words, Herdin sneered.
Her declaration to strive as a wife was laughable, as if she had completely forgotten what had happened between the Imperial family and Delmark.
When Herdin gave no response, an awkward Blair began to drink her wine again.
He drank his wine alongside her, openly observing her. Blair desperately kept her lips to the wine glass, trying to avoid meeting his eyes.
Herdin, who had been quietly staring at her red lips wet with wine, finally opened his mouth.
"Do you handle your alcohol well?"
"Um... I don't think so."
"Then let's stop the wine here."
Herdin snatched Blair's glass. He had no desire to hold a woman who was so drunk her intentions were unclear, as if violating her.
Deprived of the wine glass she had been clinging to like a lifeline, Blair looked quite flustered, her eyes widening.
Herdin leaned his body toward her and whispered.
"Let's start by fulfilling your first duty as a wife."
At the same time, Herdin's lips swallowed hers, which still held the wine. Then, lifting the frozen Blair, he laid her straight onto the bed and continued with a devouring kiss.
The sweet scent of the wine she had just been drinking lingered on her lips. Even though he didn't particularly like sweet wine, he couldn't tear his lips away from hers.
That sweetness made his mind go hazy, and heat surged through his body in an instant, as if a fuse had been lit. Even though the wine he drank wasn't highly potent, he felt as if he was drunk.
It was the moment he grabbed her breast that Herdin, who had been exploring Blair blind with desire, finally came to his senses.
"Ah...!"
Startled by his ruthless touch, Blair shrank back in terror. She was so shocked that she trembled violently, exhaling sharp breaths.
The eyes looking up at him were filled with dread, reddening as if she might burst into tears at any moment, and precarious breaths leaked from between her teeth, sounding as if she might stop breathing altogether.
Watching her quietly, Herdin let out a scoffing laugh.
"...Hah."
The seductress rumored among the men to keep several male concubines was nowhere to be found.
What was before his eyes was undeniably the figure of a woman spending her first night with a man.
The fact that the rumor was mere hearsay gave him a strange sense of relief, but at the same time, it put him in a difficult position.
His body was already completely heated up just from kissing her. Her terrified eyes only stimulated his desire further.
His swollen lower abdomen was now tormented by an ache close to pain.
The sight of himself getting aroused by the terrified daughter of his enemy, who looked as if she might stop breathing, made this situation laughable.
Swallowing a groan and suppressing his desire, Herdin lifted his body that had been pressing down on Blair.
The woman had become his wife anyway, and there was plenty of time even if it wasn't today. There was no need to take her tonight.
However, it was impossible to just cool down his overheated body like this.
"...Sleep first."
As he was about to head to the bathroom, leaving Blair behind, a slender hand grabbed his.
Even that cautious touch felt like a huge stimulus to Herdin, and he frowned as he turned back to look at her.
Blair, still with terrified eyes, parted her quivering lips.
"The first night... is something a married couple spends together, isn't it?"
"...So you want to sleep together?"
She gave a small nod. At her reaction, Herdin swallowed a sigh.
This woman doesn't know men.
She doesn't know how desperately he is holding onto his sanity right now so as not to violate her like a beast.
"But what should I do."
"..."
"If we sleep together, I don't think I can just quietly go to sleep."
Herdin gave her his own warning. He thought she would understand the meaning and back down. Since she was so terrified and all.
But what flowed from Blair's mouth was an unexpected answer.
"I can do it. Because I learned everything..."
As she said that, her hand was desperately holding onto him. As if she was anxious that he might leave her behind.
At her unexpected reaction, feeling as if he had been suddenly struck on the back of the head, Herdin burst out loud into laughter.
Blair seemed unable to interpret the meaning of his laughter and was still looking at him with anxious eyes.
She provoked him first with that innocent face, so this was her fault. Whether she cries and resents me in the middle of it or not.
Herdin soon wiped the smile off his face and leaned toward her.
"Then, show me what you learned."
After hesitating for a moment, Blair took off the nightgown that had been outlining the curves of her body.
Herdin, who had been watching her movements intending to follow her lead, lost all composure and pounced the moment he faced the pure white naked body revealed before his eyes.
Just for that moment, he completely forgot both his purpose of using her to uncover the truth behind the fire incident, and the fact that she was the daughter of his enemy.
* * *
My wife was innocent, pretty, and comfortable.
She generally obeyed my words, provided mind-melting pleasure in the bedroom with her pretty face and body, and crucially, she loved me.
"Herdin."
My wife's eyes looking at me sparkled more than anything else in the world, so it was impossible not to know that the emotion contained in them was love.
Looking into those eyes made me feel as if I had become a greater existence than I thought I was.
So occasionally, I deliberately treated her coldly and hurt her.
'Herdin. If you have time, could you go see the clock tower in the plaza with me?'
'I will tell the knights. It's cold, so dress warmly.'
Whenever I saw Blair sticking by my side despite being hurt by my every word and action, I felt a sense of fulfillment from completely owning her.
That was how Herdin confirmed Blair's love.
Not only that, but she also served her usefulness externally.
Even though she was the daughter of his enemy, once he brought in a mistress of the house, the elders no longer nagged him to marry, and the women who had been trying to create some connection with him mostly disappeared.
She was a perfect wife, except for the fact that she was Katrina's daughter.
Occasionally, when I became aware of whose daughter she was, I remembered that I had to ask her about the fire incident, but I soon forgot in the pleasure she gave me.
Anyway, this woman is my wife.
Since the innocent girl believes my warmth is affection and loves me, she was bound to stay in my arms for a lifetime.
Forever, as long as I don't throw you away.
So there was plenty of time, even if it wasn't today.
...That was what I had thought.
Until one day, when a priest he had encountered a few times during demonic beast subjugations came to visit.
"You must stay away from the Duchess. If you stay by her side, you too might run out of control, Your Grace. Just like the previous Duke..."
After hearing Mielah's words, he checked the sleeping Blair and discovered a black magic circle on her collarbone. He also learned that it was an imprint that surpassed the second constraint of the family's power, which had disappeared in the ancestors' generation.
The discovery of the black magic circle one day upended his daily life entirely.
He hid the truth about the black magic circle from Blair. He was afraid that if she learned the truth, she would be terrified and leave his side. He was afraid of losing the daily life that had now become so natural, of returning to a life without her.
Terribly selfish as I am, it was only after facing the fear of losing you that I finally acknowledged my feelings for you.
However, ever since the day he realized how precious she was, sleeping by Blair's side inevitably plagued him with horrific nightmares.
A nightmare where the face of the father he killed with his own hands changed to the face of the mother killed by his father's hands, and ultimately changed to Blair's face.
Tormented by nightmares, Herdin eventually distanced himself from Blair. And he wandered in search of a way to undo the black magic.
I thought that by doing so, we could return to our daily life.
I believed it was for Blair's sake.
I had no other thought but to solve all of this as quickly as possible and return to her side. Without knowing how many bruises were forming on the heart of the girl who waited for me every night.
"Herdin, I want to talk to you."
Then one day, Blair, unable to bear his neglect that had begun at some point, came to find him.
And that day, Herdin, unable to contain his emotions, made an irreversible mistake fueled by alcohol.