Duke Ashillean’s Contractual Marriage - Chapter 25

Chapter 25

“…!”

She was suddenly awakened from her senses. Rubiana averted her eyes from Louismond. The mere thought of going to the Imperial Palace tomorrow morning and meeting Callena cooled down the desire of a thousand years.

‘I can’t do this. Calm down.’

Huu. Rubiana sighed and pulled herself together.

‘No!’

It wasn’t the same with Louismond. He realized it out of instinct. That if he missed this moment, he would never have another chance again.

“Duke.”

Recalling his past lives, Louismond smiled as alluring as he could. Rubiana, who came back to her senses thanks to a fleeting auditory hallucination, felt bad when she saw it.

‘Where did you learn this?’

You were very skilled. He had a very clean past from the report she received about him.

[– He was famous in the society for his radiant appearance even before he had his coming-of-age ceremony, but he had no direct relationship with the opposite sex.

– Count Graham managed him thoroughly with his desire to make him the King. The engagement was delayed because he was trying to determine which family he should have a relationship with.

– Ran away to the House of Scholars.

– He was handed over to Count Graham after the House of Scholars was destroyed. He stayed at home after that. He didn’t meet any woman.

– Conclusion: No dating of the opposite sex.]

And so, this guy in front of her is a virgin. But why does he look as if he was used to seducing women? As if he had done it not once or twice.

Rubiana imagined Louismond, who was below another woman besides her, with a smile to seduce her. She felt annoyed for some reason. She was somewhat annoyed. Retch.

“You seem very familiar with it.”

Her words came out bluntly.

“Yes?”

Louismond’s eyes widened in an instant, who was trying to seduce her with a smile. He was like a startled rabbit.

A rabbit. When she thought of him as a rabbit, everything about him became those of a rabbit. Even when he was showing off his white body without any clothes on.

‘Rabbit, it’s delicious.’

She suddenly had cravings.

‘Come to think of it, didn’t they say rabbits are good for one’s stamina?’

(T/N: Uhm, I have yet to prove that hehe [runs away quickly])

When they caught rabbits while hunting in the North, his men burst into laughter and fed it to the man who had just recently married for a treat. They told him to work hard during the night. Rubiana didn’t have a husband, so they didn’t even give her the neck, asking her why she should eat them and where she would use it for stamina at night. How dare they eat in front of me? She resisted her urge to hold them in their necks for insulting their superior with a broad heart.

Such a charming rabbit rolled in front of her now. As expected, the capital was richer and better to live in than in the North. She suddenly wanted to brag about it to her subordinates in the North who barely caught a hare or two.

See this? It couldn’t even compare to your rabbits, right? I’m not going to give it to you guys. I am going to eat it alone.

So she was very, very dissatisfied that another woman might have kissed this rabbit before her.

“I said you seemed very familiar with this kind of thing. Are you used to this kind of thing?”

She said it out loud. Because beating around the bush doesn’t suit her personality.

“….”

Knowing how to respond skillfully, Louismond just shut his mouth. The glint in his black eyes, is it sadness? No, disappointment? Coldness? His lips tightened, and tears filled his eyes. it wasn’t that, but Louismond was disappointed.

‘Who do you think wants to get used to it!’

He had always dreamed of an ordinary life, ordinary happiness.

He would chance upon a handkerchief someone had dropped, and with that intoxicating scent, he would turn around and see a certain Lady’s back. He had danced with that Lady during a masquerade ball wearing masks, but she ran away shyly when he asked for her name. After suffering from the fever of first love and searching for that love, they would finally meet each other, formally greet each other and say their names. When he participated in the horse racing competition, he hung the Lady’s handkerchief by the window, making him win the competition, and offered the Lady the wreath of flowers for the winner.

A normal life where he could get married, live happily, have children, and grow old together with everyone’s blessings. It was also the plot of the novel ‘The Young Lady Run Away Today As Well’, which Louismond kept on reading deeply during his second life. In the novel, the female lead kept on running away, and the male lead who was obsessed with her tried to lock her up.

Anyway, the beginning was so fresh and sweet. He liked it, so he reread it more than a hundred times. And he dreamed of such life. But it soon broke into pieces. Still, he hugged the last fragment and didn’t give up. Even after seven lives and this eight life.

If I could escape in this d**n place without being decapitated, wouldn’t I be able to meet a woman who would like me and love me? What do you mean, ‘You’re used to sleeping with, rolling around with, and seducing women?’

‘I don’t care about anyone else, but I don’t want to hear it from this woman.’

He was sad that Rubiana saw him like that. Louismond lifted his head and looked straight at Rubiana.

“This is my first time, and I, I am not such a loose man. Because you are the Duke, that’s why I am doing this.”

It wasn’t a lie. Because this is the first time in this life.

“Ah, this.”

Rubiana was perplexed. She said it because she was annoyed for a moment, but it was too much of her when she looked back at it.

‘First time?’

She liked Louismond’s answer. So the hand holding Louismond loosened.

“…!”

Louismond didn’t want to miss this opportunity, apart from his disappointed heart. He twisted his wrist, pulled out his arm and wrapped it around Rubiana’s neck.

“Oh?”

Before Rubiana had the chance to be surprised, he grabbed her neck and kissed her. It was a light, very light kiss.

“Let’s make children together.”

He whispered to her. Why do I feel nervous saying this?

‘This is something I don’t know that well, that’s why.’

Contrary to what he was confident at doing what at night, his reproductive ability was unknown.

‘But if we work hard every day, we might be able to conceive two children in no time.’

(T/N: I guess Louismond doesn’t need the rabbits. He is stamina himself fufu)

He is confident that he will do well.

Anxiety and anticipation – Louismond’s fingertips slightly trembled. His trembling also transmitted to Rubiana. She became dizzy.

“Sister~? What are you doing now?”

Her younger sister’s voice within her auditory hallucination that was holding onto her reason, became more distant and distant. It was as if the beauty tonight was closer to her than the Emperor tomorrow. Anyway, his teary black eyes – those eyes were the problem.

‘I think it will somehow work out.’

She suddenly had an irresponsible thought. With the confidence that she had the Emperor’s favor? No, it was because she didn’t want to let go of this rabbit-like younger man. Perhaps, it had already been decided ever since she saw Louismond crying for help in Count Graham’s mansion.

(T/N: Wait, I am confused. There was a chapter that says Louismond was 15 years old when he was first harassed by Countess Illiana in his first life, and Rubiana at that time was also 15 years old and had just lost her parents. So how is Louismond younger? Maybe Rubiana is older than Louismond if we go by the month they were born? What do you think?)

Rubiana lost interest but didn’t push Rubiana away.

And when Rubiana didn’t push him, Louismond got more courageous and got up. Squeak. He changed their positions. This time, Rubiana’s back was touching the bed. Louismond was above her.

“I will take care of everything. So….”

Louismond ran his fingertips across Rubiana’s lips. Dry, cold lips. Rubiana moved her lips and laughed.

‘I’m glad I’m not the Emperor.’

She had never coveted the Emperor’s seat once, but she was even more relieved that she wasn’t sitting on the Emperor’s seat. If she had been the Emperor, she might have been attracted to this beautiful man and willing to give up her position.

Rubiana no longer turned down Louismond, who pounced on her. The fire on the candle shook, and their shadows tangled on the bed.

(T/N: Anyway, that’s all [#bunny_smiling_through_the_thirst])

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Caw, caw. There was the sound of the crows cawing outside.

‘Not even a sparrow, but a crow in the morning?’

All her drowsiness faded in an instant. The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was the ceiling. She could also hear the sound of someone sleeping peacefully beside her. Her body was lying flat on the bed and facing the ceiling, and she was so exhausted that she didn’t want to lift a finger.

That’s strange. I just woke up, but I felt so tired. Rubiana turned her eyes towards the window. It was already bright. The sun is blazing too. It seemed that time had passed after the sunrise.

Usually, this was the time for her to wash up and finish eating, and then sit in the study and spin the pen in her hand, determined to finish all the work the Emperor gave her. Then she would spill the contents of the ink bottle and hear the Head Maid scold her. Or she would decide to do the work tomorrow and go to the training hall to relax to her heart’s content. That’s when the Emperor noticed that she wasn’t doing any work, called for her and was dragged to the Imperial Palace by Cadric.

She just opened her eyes and lay in bed. I overslept.

‘I overslept?’

She was surprised that she overslept, so how much more surprising would it be to the employees of the mansion? Rubiana would wake up every day before sunrise and go to the dining room alone to eat with a loaf of bread and drink a bottle of wine even before the chef yawned and rolled into the kitchen. Such an early bird employer was sleeping in her bedroom until late, and the Head Maid didn’t even come in to wake her up.

Rubiana wondered if the Head Maid was expecting for her to suddenly die in the middle of the night. Maybe by now, she was on her way running to an undertaker and building the coffin even before they were sure of her death. If they happened to see the will on her study, they might have done so.

She wrote that if she died childless, she would give the mansion to the Head Maid. She also wrote that she would pay a lifetime pension with interest on the money she had invested and deposited on the Feltharg Family’s merchant business.

‘I need to fix my will.’

That is, once I can move my body a bit.

Rubiana rekindled the trust and friendship with her Head Maid as she enjoyed the feel of the bedsheets against her naked skin. It was strange but also quite pleasant. And then she realized something was strange late.

‘Naked?’

She doesn’t have any habit of sleeping naked.

She had been wandering on the battlefield for several years. It was her daily routine to swing her sword and roll on the floor under the attack of an enemy even in her sleep. There were more days when she slept leaning on trees than she was laying down properly. It was even more so because it was North. She would be very thankful if she could sleep without her armor on.

‘Am I sleeping naked now?’

Unless I’ve gone crazy enough to die, how can I possibly do that? It was too strange of her history to do that.

Unless someone else took it off her. No, it was unreasonable to say that when she slept so soundly and let someone take off her clothes.

‘Ah.’

Just then, memories of last night flooded in. She remembered everything that happened last night. Thanks to that, she understood why there was the sound of someone breathing next to her, which had been bothering her ears for a while.

‘I certainly didn’t take off my clothes.’

He took it off for me. Rubiana struggled to turn her body in order to look at ‘him’ who ‘took it off for her.’

(T/N: In the manhwa, Rubiana was completely dressed, I just remembered that now)