I Healed my Husband, the Leader of the Underworld

“It’s a joke.”

Before I could even answer, Siegfried chuckled softly and released me.

He looked at me for a moment, and then kissed me on the cheek.

“If I make this joke one more time, I’m afraid my delicate wife won’t survive.”

Siegfried was a hunter.

He knew when to approach stealthily and when to retreat.

Whether it was determination or whatever else, every time the thought of escaping this place and leaving him behind arose, he willingly took a step back with a smile on his face.

Is there any other bastard like him under the sky? I wondered.

My chest was rising and falling irregularly, so I took a deep breath and tried to put some distance between us; his scent, just like that of a wild beast, evoked instinctive fear in people.

When I finally managed to look up at him, he gave me a charming smile.

He even lowered his head and skillfully kissed my forehead.

“I’ll bring you some wine.”

I quietly watched his confident departing figure.

Everything about him was perfect.

From his broad, well-defined shoulders to the sophisticated vest without a single crease he was wearing, and the long legs extending beneath, everything was impeccably superior.

Something was boiling inside me.

Even though I knew nothing had happened, I was afraid that saying so would make me appear anxious.

“Yes,” I finally replied.

And his footsteps halted at my words.

The impact of that gesture was tremendous. Everyone who had been focused on Siegfried’s every move reflexively held their breath and turned their gaze in our direction.

I couldn’t even begin to imagine what expression he had on his face. I just felt that cynicism would suit his surreal face well.

The hand holding the fan trembled.

Trying to steady it, I adjusted my grip on the fan, and in an attempt to stop the shaking, I squeezed the hand holding the fan tightly with my other hand. Then, as I took a deep breath…

……he turned around.

“What did you say,” He asked then paused to scan my scarlet eyes. “… my wife?”

“I’m sick of it,” I said.

My gaze remained fixed on him as my lips spit out the words.

It was terrifying.

I was as afraid of him as the people holding their breath right now. As Siegfried took a step toward me, I could feel the gravity around me distort.

Like a massive force bending the space around him, Siegfried exuded a strong aura and had complete control over this place. People’s gazes were irresistibly drawn towards him.

Withstanding such weight, I stood upright in front of him. Then, he parted his arrogant lips and said:

“Say that again,” he demanded.

His voice was overbearing and icy. Even his eyes seemed to have frozen, making him appear like an entity beyond the limitations of human imagination.

“With those pretty lips of yours.”

His thumb pressed against my lips as if threatening to crush them.

“… Say it again, my wife.”

I feel like I was choking.

There was a hint of madness in his piercing blue eyes as they dived into mine.

Thud!

 The fan fell on the floor, landing near his expensive shoes.

“It’s a rock.”

Looking into his eyes, I spoke as calmly as I could. However, my throat creaked strangely, and quivered. In the face of overwhelming terror, the human body was unable to follow the brain’s orders. It simply submitted to fear.

Only reason remained, standing alone like a captain in a sinking ship.

“A rock?”

“Diamonds….”

The ‘Eternal Abyss’ hanging around my neck and weighing me down resembled his beautiful eyes.

“No matter how beautiful, in the end, they are just stones.”

“…….”

“But paintings are different.”

His thumb gently traced my lips.

Very slowly.

Yet intensely.

And my whole body twitched in response to that gesture.

When his fingers left my lips, I finally took a breath. Exhaling heavily, I lowered my head focusing on his neat cravat and firm chest.

I couldn’t bring myself to meet his gaze.

“… They leave a new impression every time you look at them,” I continued but…

“Tell me, Milena,” Siegfried cut me off.

The back of his hand against my cheek felt cold, sending shivers down my spine. And as he grazed his hand against my skin, he added,

“What you desire….”

“…….”

“Is it a painting?”

“……”

“Or a man?”

As my lips were quivering, Siegfried whispered to me with such harshness, it seemed as if he was about his tongue into my ear.

“Do you now have the courage to take him to bed if you want to?”

“No,” I replied, keeping my eyes fixed on the people standing behind him as I spoke, “Have you ever seen someone paint while their arm was bleeding?”

Ershayne looked completely consumed by his art.

His physical pain seemed inconsequential as he crunched his nose and relentlessly moved the hand holding the charcoal.

His obsession with life, revealed in that moment, fascinated me.

The man wanted to live to draw. He wanted to breathe life into his paintings. I could see it in his eyes, the pure obsession of someone who wanted to live on through their art, even after death.

“It was beautiful.”

“…….”

“The obsession with life.”

My voice trembled as I said that.

“Because it reminded me of someone else’s.”

The form might be different, but the desire to live would stay the same.

It’s said that even a decapitated goose flaps its wings and tries to escape until the very moment it dies because it wants to live. Why would it be different for a breathing and living human being?

“Roam is strong and has a lot of money, so fix it….”

By fixing that person.

“I wanted to see. I wondered what kind of paintings someone with such a tremendous obsession draw …I got curious.”

With those words, I took a step back from Siegfried. And the eyes that stared into his then no longer wavered.

Maybe it was because my eyes had become as red as blood, cluttered with the same obsession I just mentioned.

“That’s what a hostess does. She beautifies the mansion; with the finest things in the Empire.”

Upon hearing this, Siegfried no longer looked at me with a cold expression. as he burst into, and the awkwardly observers followed suit, lifting their trembling lips into smiles smile. And when he stopped laughing, they stopped as well.

“Right. I was foolish.”

Siegfried took my trembling hand and kissed it.

“You are sweating.” [my girl was stressed out loll]

The gaze that had met his eyes quickly turned away at his casual remark.

Just then, Andrew Harrison appeared out of nowhere, pulled a handkerchief out his pocket, and handed it to Siegfried.

Siegfried accepted the tissue and used it to wipe both of my hands.

At that moment, the lipstick mark on his sleeve caught my attention one again.

“My wife is always right.”

His blue eyes scanned me as I anxiously gulped.

But I spoke my next words without avoiding his gaze.

“Your Excellency has neglected me for two years.”

This was a massive blow for me to throw at him. And as soon as those words left my lips, a wave of murmurs noisily spread through the party hall.

I had just revealed, with my mown mouth, the truth everyone had been trying to get me to admit but had failed to do so.

“Your Excellency?” Siegfried repeated with an evident displeased tone, as if he didn’t like the title, one of his eyebrows forming an arc.

“Yes.”

“…….”

“I’m drawn to people who give me what I want.”

Even though I said it, the word felt so foreign. Was it accurate to refer to him as a “person”? He seemed so inherently different from everyone in here, including myself.

“When I needed love, my heart was stolen by someone who could give it to me.”

Although such a person didn’t exist, when love became a game, skill became necessary. And in a poker game, a bluffer might be a useful companion.

“Now I’m saying that I need art.”

“Are you saying that you were seduced by some struggling artist?”

“Well, an artist is someone who creates art.”

I took a step closer to him and continued.

“But a husband…” I trailed off as I boldly tugged on his cravat before looking up at him. “……could be the one who provides the art.”

For a while, a profound silence filled the hall.

It was morbidly quiet.

As if everyone present had died and disappeared.

It wasn’t until a long while later that Siegfried finally opened his mouth.

“You….”

He laughed as he squeezed my chin with his slender fingers, exerting enough force to make me look at him.

“You know too well how irresistible you are in my eyes.”

“…..”

“Kiss me.”

In a low, and soft tone, he added in a seductive manner.

“Then I’ll do whatever you want.”

If there are multiple purposes for a kiss, this one was to show-off.

Now that I felt more relaxed, I bit my lip, briefly glanced down at the floor, and then met his gaze once more.

“Again?”

“Yes.”

There was not a moment’s hesitation in his response.

“It was just conversation,” I explained.

“I know”

Hearing him say that he knew wasn’t surprising at all.

Siegfried Roam knew everything.

Always.

“But that bastard is going to fall in love with you, isn’t he?”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Of course, I can,” he said with a murderous smile. “I don’t think there’s anyone who wouldn’t fall in love with you.”

“…..”

“It was hard even for me.”

It was almost impossible to ignore the thumb that was running along my lips, as if it could easily slip into my mouth.

“You really make me anxious.”

“…….”

His piercing eyes scan me intensely.

“It infuriates me that I can’t do anything against someone as beautiful as you. I….

Siegfried didn’t look close his eyes when I suddenly pressed his chest and kissed him.

But the collision of our lips, or the skillful intertwining of our tongues, felt raw and primal, almost like a display of dominance as he slowly scanned our surroundings, showing off.

And when I tried to push him away, displeased with his actions, his hand wrapped around my waist.

He pulled me close, blending our breaths together.

As our eyes met again, he slowly closed his eyes this time, and with a gentle tone full of consideration, he softly kissed my lips.

And as my body pulled back once more, his arms firmly held me.

So that I couldn’t go anywhere.