Despite it being a dark night, curtains were drawn throughout the entire house. The lavishly decorated bedroom was no exception. Curtains covered the entire wall to prevent any light from leaking outside.
Glenoa affectionately wrapped her arms around the waist of the man sitting with his back to her. When her sweaty, sticky skin clung to him, Coral brushed her arm away. It was a gesture telling her to let go.
The man who had been entangled with her and moaning just moments ago was now so cold. Glenoa pushed out her lips in a pout.
“Coral, are you really going to be like this?”
“Don’t whine. Do you know what I went through to come here?”
“I know. I do know, but…”
Glenoa swallowed her complaint of ‘won’t you look at me?’ He had mentioned canceling his scheduled meeting with his fiancée to come here.
Recalling those cold black eyes from the salon, an unpleasant feeling welled up inside her again.
Barely twenty-two, younger than Glenoa. Despite being the Young Duchess of Igraine, she was a woman raised preciously like a greenhouse flower. Glenoa had thought it wouldn’t be difficult to shake her.
However, Ashika’s cold face presented a wall more solid than any mask. As if those pure black hair and eyes had swallowed all emotion.
‘Is she stupid or just dull?’
Or perhaps her status was so high that she looked down on an opera singer?
After attending the salon with great tension, she had turned away feeling miserable at Ashika’s unwavering expression.
As a fallen noble who had come to the capital alone just over a year ago, meeting Coral at the gentlemen’s club managed by her relative was the luck of a lifetime.
For someone in the position of a ruined provincial noble, he was a high nobleman she wouldn’t have dared to even think of meeting. Though he had a fiancée, Glenoa had no honor to protect anyway.
Rather than her nominal noble status, she wanted money and power that she could wield freely, even if only as a mistress.
When she first met Coral, that was all she had wanted. The status of his fiancée, the Young Duchess Igraine, was so extraordinary that she hadn’t dared to think of competing.
But as their meetings continued, her thoughts changed. The relationship between Coral and Young Duchess Igraine was worse than expected, and Coral’s antipathy toward his fiancée was beyond imagination.
‘Well, with that ice-cold face of hers, it’s understandable. Looking like a crow and all.’
Glenoa snorted thinking of Ashika. She had already forgotten that she had dyed her own hair crow-black. And that it was Coral who had wanted it.
Coral pushed away Glenoa’s hands and rose without hesitation.
“By the way, one of my cufflinks is missing. Did the maids say anything about it?”
Glenoa turned her gaze away while covering her naked body with the disheveled blanket.
“If they had found it, they would have told you. They’re all your household staff anyway.”
“So they haven’t seen it?”
“How would I know when I don’t even do the cleaning myself?”
Glenoa’s voice naturally became sharp.
‘Why are you looking for that now?’
Hadn’t he tossed it aside in disgust? Or had Young Duchess Igraine asked about its whereabouts?
‘Acting like you don’t care, but that’s not true, is it?’
Perhaps he was trying to control his fiancée belatedly. Thinking that made her blood boil.
‘You said you’ve been nothing more than strangers for two years.’
Not wanting to have it himself but not wanting to give it to others either. Is that his mentality? Spiteful thoughts arose.
“Weren’t you going to stay the night?”
Seeing Coral reach for his coat, Glenoa sat up.
“My brother has arrived. I should at least greet him in the morning.”
“The Marquis has come? I thought he was staying at the estate?”
Glenoa’s voice rose. Seeing Coral’s face crumple, she realized her mistake.
“Father called for him. Said a Marquis shouldn’t distance himself so much from social circles.”
What little gentleness remained in his attitude disappeared. Coral roughly threw on his coat.
Coral was the second son of the Marquis Oclein family and a talented individual who had graduated top of his class from the Academy. However, despite his outstanding abilities, it was not Coral but his brother who was chosen as the family’s heir.
Thus, the alternative opportunity given to him was marriage to Young Duchess Igraine. Through this marriage, Coral was to receive a portion of the Igraine duchy’s territory.
Of course, he would receive the territory as a vassal who had sworn loyalty to the House of Igraine.
‘Swearing loyalty to one’s wife.’
It couldn’t help but wound the pride of the high-minded Coral. Before Glenoa could collect her thoughts, Coral pulled the bell cord.
The maid who entered the bedroom after knocking showed no surprise at seeing the naked Glenoa. As usual, she simply placed the steaming teacup on the table.
As she rose from her seat, Glenoa’s eyes met the maid’s. The maid slightly avoided her gaze and quietly withdrew from the room.
The pungent scent of lovemaking clashed terribly with the fragrant tea aroma. Coral handed Glenoa the medicinal tea that the maid had brought.
“What, interested in my brother?”
“Coral, how can you say such things!”
Glenoa’s spine chilled at his sarcastic tone.
“I’m just frustrated. With all these curtains drawn in the house and everything. I just want to spend more time together.”
“Once the wedding is over, we won’t have to hide anymore. Just be patient a little longer, okay?”
Once the wedding ceremony is over, it can’t be undone. Coral would only need to fulfill the marriage contract. By then, he planned to pay back Ashika who had made him a laughingstock for two years.
Coral thought this as he stroked Glenoa’s black hair.
A dull black as if faded. Even Glenoa’s black eyes, upon closer inspection, were closer to dark brown. No matter how similar they might seem, they were different from the black of the woman in Coral’s memory.
A woman with pure black hair that shone because it contained no impurities, and black eyes. A woman as intense to him as those deep colors.
‘Ashika Igraine.’
Though his eyes were on Glenoa, it was another woman’s face that occupied Coral’s mind.
Glenoa pouted her lips and brought the teacup to her mouth under his gentle caressing. While soothing his sulking lover, Coral didn’t take his eyes off her. Finding his gaze burdensome, Glenoa hurriedly emptied her teacup.
‘How awful.’
The mansion Coral had bought her, the servants sent from the House of Oclein. The cup of tea she must drink after every intimate encounter. Glenoa wasn’t naive enough not to understand its meaning.
‘He thinks he’s so clever.’
But he’s just a young master who knows nothing of the world. Glenoa smiled, lifting the corners of her mouth. She wasn’t going to just offer her body and let it end there.
The man and woman smiled artificial smiles at each other while harboring different thoughts.
****
The documents crumpled with a rustle in her white, delicate hands.
Clatter.
The chair fell backward as she stood up hastily. Her white hands gripped the small table set up in a corner of the garden.
Her actions betrayed her flustered state despite her calm expression. Unlike her composed face, Ashika was shocked. She quickly made her way toward the mansion, leaving the table behind.
“My lady.”
Equally hurried footsteps followed behind her. It was Julma, her aide who had just delivered the report documents.
But Ashika couldn’t hear the voice calling her. She was trying her hardest not to show her disturbed state to the passing servants. Trying desperately to process the shocking news she had just received.
Her fiancé had taken a lover just two months before their wedding.
Though she had considered it a possibility, when the fact was confirmed, her vision went dim.
It wasn’t because she loved Coral or had any feelings for him. It was just a political marriage arranged by her grandfather Weive.
She had thought it didn’t matter who her partner was, as long as they couldn’t overpower her with authority. Someone loyal to the family who could provide healthy heirs would suffice.
‘But to not only keep a mistress before marriage but to give her a house?’
This was not just a betrayal of her, but practically throwing the House of Igraine’s honor to the ground. She couldn’t give territory to such a person as a vassal.
‘To share my bed with such a man to have children?’
The mere thought made her shudder to her very core.
A man who had always whispered sweet words and acted like a tongue in her mouth. She had kept him at a distance because she disliked it. She had also disliked the inexplicably clingy feeling.
Yet she had always felt guilty. Having never been close to men, she couldn’t judge whether it was natural to feel fearful and uncomfortable.
But now she understood. Her instincts had detected her fiancé’s deception before her reason could.
“My lady, just a moment.”
At her aide’s urgent call, Ashika stopped and turned around.
“What? Is there more to report?”
It was only natural. Julma had only handed over the documents without giving any explanation. Julma quickly composed his surprised expression at Ashika’s unusual demeanor.
“I didn’t include this in the report because it wasn’t confirmed, but they say Glenoa Schwern will be attending the Empress Dowager’s palace banquet.”
“What? How could she? Where did you hear this?”
She was the daughter of a fallen noble family without even a single mansion in the capital, let alone a title. How did she manage to get invited to the palace banquet hosted by the Empress Dowager?
“I heard it at the gentlemen’s club. Lady Schwern regularly visits there because her relative is a manager. She apparently only told a few close acquaintances.”
Ashika blinked her wide eyes slowly. She felt dizzy from the shock.
‘Surely Coral isn’t taking her…’
Coral was supposed to attend as Ashika’s partner. Hadn’t he just had a set of evening clothes tailored for that purpose?
‘This woman, what is she plotting?’
Not content with flirting in front of her, she now plans to appear at the same banquet as Coral. It took extraordinary nerve.
“Shall I find out who she’s attending with?”
“No, never mind. We’ll find out when we meet at the banquet anyway.”
Being an opera singer, she probably knows quite a few people. Among them must be one or two nobles with titles. It would be better to focus on Coral’s issue rather than investigating his mistress’s private life.
“Then, will you meet with the Duke right now?”
“Ah.”
Only then did Ashika realize where she had been heading. She was on her way to her grandfather Weive’s office.
“If you wish to report to the Duke, I can do it.”
It would be better for a third party to step forward rather than the person directly involved. No matter how composed one remains, it’s humiliating to report about a wayward fiancé with one’s own mouth.
Suddenly, Ashika came to her senses.
“No.”
“My lady?”
“This probably wasn’t the first time.”
There had been rumors in the past as well. But Coral had strongly denied them, and they were just rumors without evidence or witnesses.
Ashika, who could never get close to Coral, had used that opportunity to bring up the topic of breaking off the engagement with Weive.
‘When I told him about it, grandfather didn’t seem very surprised.’
He had admonished her not to lose sight of the original purpose over emotions, saying it was just a temporary indiscretion.
After being reprimanded by Weive for lacking gravity, she never mentioned Coral again. No matter how much she disliked Coral, she had silently endured this relationship.
But now, the revulsion she had suppressed for two years had risen to her throat.
‘I don’t want… to marry. How can I marry such a man?’
Yet she couldn’t defy Weive’s will either. Unable to do either, she felt like she had hit an insurmountable wall.
Their only family. The direct line of the House of Igraine consisted of only her grandfather Weive and Ashika.
When Weive steps down from his position as Duke, the responsibility for the family will fall entirely to Ashika. She had lived under strict control and education solely for this purpose.
The heir’s position she had endured so fiercely with patience. How could she escape this marriage without shaking her position?
“The rumors haven’t spread yet, right?”
“No. It seems they only moved around Palmred Street. It would be difficult for commoners to recognize a high noble’s face.”
But it was only a matter of time before rumors spread. Judging from what happened at the salon, Glenoa didn’t seem intent on hiding her affair with Coral.
‘Rather, she seemed to want the rumors to spread.’
That woman has her own agenda. Both times she encountered Ashika, it was clearly intentional.
Ashika straightened her back while exhaling a long breath. Her trembling body calmed down and her dizzy mind cooled.
“This isn’t enough.”
She needed a reason that Weive absolutely couldn’t refuse.
‘I need to find a way. If there isn’t one, I’ll have to create one.’
At the landing of the stairs leading to the second floor, Ashika turned back again.
A warm breeze blew in through the open window. The fragrance of flowers blooming in the garden subtly permeated her nose.
Despite Ashika’s unsettled mind, it was a bright and beautiful season.
