“Episode 25”
Ricard politely withdrew his hand from Aris’s touch and finished dripping blood onto the pristine white sheet, leaving behind crimson stains in strategic places. It was only then that Aris realized what he was doing.
“Now, I will call you by your name.”
He pressed the cloth against the wound and looked at Aris.
“Aris.”
Ricard’s blue eyes were full of sincerity.
“Coming from the imperial culture, the North may seem strange to you. You might find their expressions barbaric or uncivilized.”
Aris firmly shook her head, and Ricard’s eyes softened even more at her gesture.
“I will protect you.”
Ricard’s tone was firm.
“If, in this lifetime, I hold you, it will be because you want me to. …And for that, I will do my best.”
He would prove it with actions before words. Even if it meant shedding his own blood.
“Why are you going to such lengths?”
Since they had agreed to the wedding, he had the right to claim the nuptial night. Yet Ricard insisted on pretending to conduct the nuptial night by shedding his own blood.
“I’m not a fool. Even though I may be the only one close to the Grand Duke… isn’t this giving too much?”
In reality, Aris was the one with no time to spare in this wedding.
“You knew. I was the most desperate one.”
Ricard also knew this fact, and if he had used it a little, better negotiations could have been possible. However, he paid no attention to such methods.
“Aris.”
He called her name again. At some point, Aris’s pupils had become misty.
“If His Majesty had delayed even a little, I… even without any promises, I would have come here.”
That was Aris’s position. Ricard must have secretly noticed it.
“Why are you negotiating with me as an equal? Why… did you make plans to save someone like me, who could easily be obtained with just waiting and even sent an excessive dowry?”
On the day the dowry from the Grand Duke’s family arrived, the king and queen were ecstatic, spending the entire day counting the treasures. But that was not all. Ricard’s consideration was countless.
“Well…”
Ricard’s dark gaze stared at Aris. Hesitantly, he took Aris’s hand.
“Aris, I fell in love with you.”
Once again, her heart skipped a beat.
“I…,”
At first, they needed each other.
“Besides being the only one immune to my poison, I have another reason.”
Ricard wanted someone by his side, and Aris wanted someone who could change the fate of the Empress.
“When you ask me when, I don’t know.”
He was honest as ever.
“But I wanted you. Even if, in the end, I couldn’t win your heart.”
Ricard’s warmth continued to envelop Aris’s hand. His fingers were thick, and calluses were etched into his large hands, as if they were revealing the life he had lived.
“At least, I can try to win that heart.”
That desire was different from what Aris knew. In the past, her desire had been to obtain anything, even if she had to twist it.
“Is there any value to me other than the fact that your poison doesn’t affect me?”
Once again, Ricard called her name, calmly and softly.
“You can stay as you are.”
In the moonlight, Aris’s shimmering platinum hair glowed. Ricard cautiously touched the ends of her hair before retracting his hand.
“I did say that I would make the effort.”
Ricard smiled faintly, still holding her hand.
“…I’ve talked too much.”
He concluded first.
“This room has been the bridal chamber for generations.”
Aris nodded.
“So… there must be a secret passage to escape secretly.”
“What?”
She still didn’t understand this man.
“No one else has been unharmed after touching me. Not even in the past… It must have been the same.”
Aris’s blue eyes flickered.
“That’s why there must always be a secret passage in the Grand Duke’s chamber.”
As Ricard rose to his feet, his shadow loomed over her.
“When you remove this cabinet, there are stairs leading down.”
It was a long-standing secret of the Albertus Grand Dukes.
“It’s a place where you can sleep alone without anyone bothering you.”
Ricard muttered to himself as if speaking an incantation. Then, as he cleared the cabinet, a hidden space was revealed.
“May you have sweet dreams.”
Indeed, the man she married was the right one.
“In the morning, our marriage will become consummated.”
The blood he had shed would serve as proof of the nuptial night.
“Well then.”
Ricard turned swiftly and descended through the secret passage. As he did, the cabinet covering the passage returned to its original position.
“Is this… the nuptial night?”
After the wedding, the vows, and the sharing of the marriage contract, the Duke immediately sought the bridal chamber. Above all, the perfect nuptial night, but it felt like a night where someone’s loneliness deepened.
