54. Discovery (2)

She grumbled inwardly but continued to call out to Darius, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

‘Damn it. If I’d come just one day earlier to appease him in advance……’

“Hey, that wasn’t what it looked like. He’s, he’s…… Anyway, there’s absolutely nothing between us. Or are you upset because I kept refusing your invitations to go out? My busy schedule is over now, so shall we go out together? Hmm? Hmm?”

Somehow her lines sounded like those of a middle-aged person who had actually cheated. Memories of adulterous middle-aged couples in hiking clothes encountered on the subway overwhelmed her. No, she was still too young to be eating ginseng chicken soup in a valley with a lover.

Though she shuddered, her hand became even more affectionate as she tried to appease Darius.

“How could I possibly cheat? We made vows and signed a contract.”

“Then who is that man?”

“Sir Donau’s half-brother.”

This time she answered immediately.

“Why haven’t we had our couple portrait painted?”

“If you really want one, we should do it. Which painter should we call? Since we’re painting it, should we do several instead of just one? With the four seasons of Castle Inkheart as backgrounds, how about that? It would be a masterpiece!”

“Do you remember the mirror?”

Darius asked with a sad expression. But a mirror? She couldn’t remember.

Finally, Darius sat up groggily. She felt a cold wind from his eyes as he looked at her.

“Without the contract?”

“Pardon?”

Could you please speak more clearly?

“Anette, our marriage contract. The one that you and I personally signed.”

“Of course I remember it. Very well. Is there a problem with it?”

“You haven’t fulfilled your obligation.”

“Me? I’ve never once done anything shameful to you, I swear.”

“Anette, you don’t like me.”

“……My, what are you saying?”

“Answer me.”

“……I married you because I like you, didn’t I?”

Darius stared at her with a persistent gaze. His resolute black eyes penetrated through her lie and looked at her.

“That’s a lie. We married according to our mutual benefits. In that situation, your best option was to marry me.”

Yes, she had lied. What nonsense about marrying for love. Their marriage was a political arrangement and a contract.

Despite knowing she would die if she married Darius, this marriage was something she couldn’t refuse. From the moment she possessed this body, her marriage had been predetermined.

She didn’t marry him because she liked him.

She proposed the contract to him to survive.

But so what? Was she the only one who had entered into a political and contractual marriage?

“I thought you had come to love me. You came all the way to this cold and desolate place for me. And you took care of this castle for me. You came to this castle filled with only gloomy memories of my parents’ deaths…… You became my family.”

Darius continued, as if throwing a tantrum.

“So you should love me.”

“Why?”

Really, why? Even if the first line of their marriage contract was ‘Darius Inkheart and Anette Pochet hereby vow to love each other from now on’, why?

“Because we became husband and wife. And spouses love each other.”

“……Do spouses in political marriages necessarily have to love each other?”

“It doesn’t matter how it started. Spouses inevitably fall in love.”

My goodness, Lady Maude would snort at such a statement.

Ah, since when had he become such a romantic?

But she couldn’t refute him like that. He was born to be the male lead of a romance novel.

A moral, exemplary, and excellent male protagonist.

Yes, she had chosen the wrong husband.

“Because I’m your wife?”

“Because I’m your husband and you’re my wife.”

Then if someone other than her had been the wife arranged for the Inkheart grand ducal house……

Darius would have loved that woman too.

“Anette, my only wife.”

Darius whispered as if engraving the words.

“It’s not about being a man or a woman. As long as you’re my wife, I don’t need the fair attention you give out as if distributing it.”

If Evangeline had been here instead.

“I’m looking forward to it. You already treat me well enough, but I wonder how much better you’ll treat me when you fall in love with me?”

Would Darius have confessed his love with these same shining eyes?

She felt like she was holding a bomb.

His eyes, pretending to be innocent while smiling, seemed a bit unhinged.

It felt as if the walking death flag had finally been planted in her.

Darius smiled. Good for you that you can smile. Right now, the future I’ve been avoiding has hit me straight on.

“Liar. You married me because you like me? You always lie whenever you open your mouth.”

Let’s make time to go out below the castle tomorrow, Darius added nonchalantly.

He acted as if he wasn’t particularly shocked despite confirming that she didn’t love him and throwing something like a confession seeking her love. On the surface, at least.

“You won’t refuse this time, right? Your true feelings have been exposed anyway.”

The male protagonist’s love—how honored she felt. She felt like immediately returning it with the excuse that she, as a commoner, was too honored to accept it.

She would have definitely done so if Darius hadn’t interlocked all ten of his fingers with hers. Because she had no intention of receiving a duel challenge from the female protagonist who would be furious at her for flirting with the male lead in her absence.

“You have time for a while, right? You should.”

“It sounds like you’re saying you’ll make me have time if I don’t.”

“If that’s how it sounds…… that might be my true intention.”

Wow, now he’s not even denying it! I at least played along with the pretense!

Haha, hahaha.

She could only laugh in dismay as the situation she had desperately tried to avoid suddenly appeared before her.

‘No. Let’s think positively about this timing.’

Not wanting to do anything stupid that would provoke the male lead who was already dangerously close to crossing the line, she obediently left her hand in Darius’s and started thinking about other things.

‘With Lady Ygret’s betrayal from the original story gone, is the story being replaced with me emotionally betraying Darius? Like, the wife he thought was good to him was actually just putting on a show?’

From ‘There are no reliable relatives in the world’ to ‘There is no reliable Anette in the world.’

‘Even though the content has changed slightly, the main thread of him feeling betrayed remains the same.’

Yes, I haven’t deviated from the original story.

So maybe it doesn’t matter if Darius likes me? Since the “original wife” who wasn’t in the original story is firmly in place, he might naturally develop feelings in this situation.

He might hastily conclude that this feeling is love since I’m the first person of the opposite s*x he’s gotten close to.

And above all, the true female protagonist of this stage hasn’t appeared yet.

Evangeline—when she appears, everything will naturally fall back into place.

Just as Rose went to the Ash Tree Forest and Barbarossa took the path of a mercenary.

A soul-stirring love will begin.

When Darius meets Evangeline.

Only then.

“You’ve prepared a lot of date courses, right?”

So I can smile. All of this is just a temporary phenomenon.

When she composed herself and smiled again, Darius also smiled. As if he knew what she was thinking but would let it slide for now.

“I’ll sleep alone tonight, Anette.”

Darius got up abruptly.

“That’s welcome news.”

“Don’t cry because I’m not there.”

“Would I cry?”

She snickered, but she was curious about the psychology of the male protagonist who confessed his love and then left.

“Now that I know you  don’t like me.”

He glanced at her with a voice still filled with resentment.

“I’m giving you space because I know you hate having me around.”

“Since when did you become so considerate?”

This distance is more than welcome!

Without warning, he poked her cheek.

“Ouch.”

“Don’t be too happy because you don’t know when I’ll come back to sleep. It was you who told me to come sleep often to make us look ‘plausibly’ like a couple.”

“Come to think of it, I feel a bit more at ease these days since I’ve been taking up a lot of space.”

“Anette. Do you want to know another reason why I’m giving you space?”

He gently caressed my face. Though he noticed she was trying to escape this conversation, he didn’t press her.

“I’m staying away from you so I don’t get used to it.”

“Get used to it?”

“So that there won’t be any more moments when you fail to see me as a man and let your guard down around me.”

“When did I ever……”

Since their wedding night, she had never stopped worrying about what might happen between them when they shared a bed.

“Did you actually think about it? That’s even better. It seems unfair if I was the only one feeling tense while sharing a bed.”

“If you’re going to leave, leave quickly.”

“So I think I should at least see your blushing face to break even.”

Even as he was pushed out by her, he didn’t stop talking. That mouth. The Northern Grand Duke should have silence as his default setting.

“See? You don’t even blush.”

After driving him to the door, she returned to the bed and pulled the covers over her head.

“But Anette, you know.”

Despite his call, she didn’t answer with the covers over her head.

“Actually, I’m also not sleeping next to you because I feel hurt.”

‘What’s he saying?’

“I was hurt today, so remember that. Today was a really sad day.”

With those strange words, he closed the door and left.

She quietly listened to the sound of him leaving. Until the footsteps grew faint and she was finally certain that Darius had truly gone to his room.

Her chest felt a bit tight. Well, that was because she had pulled the covers all the way over her head.

There was no other reason for her chest to feel tight, right?