Chapter 65
Hic.
Lucy nearly hiccuped at the force of it but held it down with sheer will.
Then, with both hands clasped tight, she looked up at Edward with the most pitiful face she could manage.
“Please. Yes?”
“…”
So, the day Edward and Lucy dropped the bomb of a marriage announcement on the priest.
The ducal castle, naturally, was turned on its head.
“Marriage?! So the duke is finally marrying Lady Sepina…”
“No! They say the duke’s bride isn’t Lady Sepina!”
“What? Then who?!”
“Well, the woman he brought back that time…!”
“And that’s not all! He’s already got a little duke on the way!”
“What?!”
Before she could even correct them, the rumor that Lucy was already with child had swept through the castle on Tepe’s mouth in no time.
“You mustn’t go about like this, not with the young duke in your belly.”
“I said we did the sort of thing that could lead to one, not that there is one… Tepe? Why are you suddenly speaking formally?”
“Let me assist you.”
“Wait. Gorgo. I can walk, you know. Why are you holding your arms out like that…”
For a while, Lucy had to bear the stares of the servants, Tepe fussing over her as if she were carrying the young duke, and Gorgo making a silent scene with his actions.
“A piggyback from another man? If you’re to be carried, shouldn’t it be by your husband, darling?”
“…”
“What are you all standing around for? You’ll tire my darling.”
Of course, the two soon got their marching orders when Edward appeared and scooped Lucy up.
Lucy broke out in a cold sweat.
“Your Grace. Everyone thinks I’m already carrying the young duke. What do we do?”
“Enjoy it.”
…With Edward answering like that, the explaining fell on Lucy.
For days after, she’d had to go around making the rounds herself, explaining that she wasn’t pregnant, only that she’d done the sort of thing that could lead to it. Even saying it made her face burn.
‘Though in truth, it was only a kiss.’
The embarrassment was all hers.
She’d somehow managed the cleanup, but there was one thing she couldn’t give way on.
This clause, the one going into the marriage contract.
“Why is this even needed?”
“You may not understand, Your Grace, but this clause is truly important!”
Over the past few days, because of this one clause, Lucy and Edward had been locked in a silent war. They hadn’t even signed the marriage papers, even after announcing the marriage to the temple.
“Why is it important?”
Edward asked, not bothering to hide his annoyance.
The reason this clause mattered was, of course…
‘Because I need a safety net!’
Lucy, too, was starting to brace for “what if.”
‘…Honestly, I don’t trust myself!’
She didn’t trust herself not to fall if Edward came at her with that face.
She’d told herself she wouldn’t go near his bed, not even if the male lead turned into a eunuch. And yet…
Lucy looked at Edward’s eyes, still so terribly tempting, and admitted defeat.
What’s more, the temple was watching with fire in their eyes. She couldn’t claim they were married and skip the things a married couple would naturally do. They’d even have to share a room.
‘That doubles my chances of being seduced!’
And wasn’t the first night of marriage meant to be something grand and thrilling?
In the novels, when the male and female leads entered the room, rose petals were scattered over the bed, and the maids prepared alluring lingerie for the bride.
In that kind of mood, if Edward brought up purification, Lucy would end up pretending she couldn’t help it.
‘…And what if that turns into a kiss?!’
The two kisses she’d shared with Edward still flickered in her mind.
One peck, and one real kiss.
‘It did feel good…’
Was she going to get tangled up with the male lead or not?
She’d already kissed him deep and tangled tongues. And worse, it had felt shockingly good.
As expected of a man whose encounters with Sepina had made her own hand burn so.
Maybe it was the R-19 setting, the purification through contact.
Every time Edward’s tongue swept fast through her mouth, she could feel her reason leaving in real time. Lucy remembered it vividly.
The ache that had spread between her legs on its own, the wetness, the sudden wish for more.
She’d even caught herself hoping those large hands would touch not just her thighs, but the stiff peaks on her chest and the wet cleft between her legs.
When his tongue pushed deep, to the narrow back of her throat, sliding in and out, it hadn’t even felt like kissing.
And that was her first kiss, in both lives.
‘I don’t think… I was the only one who felt that.’
Edward hadn’t seemed unhappy about it either.
If anything, thinking back to his red eyes gone hazy, he’d seemed to like it.
Her chest gave a small flutter at the thought, but it only made her more sure this clause was needed.
If he liked it and she liked it!
‘Then crossing the line while purifying is bound to happen!’
Even if, as Edward said, it was only purification.
Once reason flew off, who could say what would happen between them?
If this pretty rake of a man came at her with another kiss, how was a nobody like her supposed to refuse?
Not that she was hoping for it…
‘…Is that right?’
The real problem was what came later, when the female lead appeared.
‘Whether she’ll appear at all, I don’t know.’
In the original, the female lead and Edward only ever crossed paths, barely.
Thinking on it, running into her wouldn’t be easy. But…
‘Since I’ll be the one to step in.’
To find her.
Now that she was set to become duchess, she wasn’t trying to set the broken story back on course.
It was more…
‘…Like a feeling one victim has for another.’
With their last test subject gone, the temple would be frantic to find a new one.
She couldn’t ignore the chance that the female lead might get caught in that net.
Lucy, at least, didn’t want her to live the life she had, locked under the temple, suffering.
‘I know how terrible that life is.’
In the shelter, and under the temple.
Shut in a dark, moldering cell, drained and dying.
Never eating or sleeping right, beaten and cursed at.
A life that ends in the dark underground, with no freedom to go anywhere.
‘…Anyone, not just the female lead.’
No one should go through that.
‘So I’ll pull her out.’
So she planned to ask Rosendal, or the information guilds tied to Edward, to keep watch on whether any new test subjects entered the temple.
They’d have their own intelligence networks. Surely.
And since she’d resolved not to look away, the chance of Edward meeting the female lead wasn’t zero either.
What if, when that time came, Edward’s dark romance male lead tendencies kicked in? The obsessive, only-her type?
What if he suddenly wanted to kill off every woman who’d come before the female lead?
Lucy had prepared herself to give him a clean divorce if he wanted it. No clinging, no mess.
Prick.
She pushed away the strange sting that grazed her chest.
She mustn’t think about Edward’s hands around her shoulders and belly. Or those pretty lips that had scattered her senses.
‘Anyway, if I hold legal ground for that time, I’ll at least keep my life.’
She could buy time to run before the temple came chasing.
Edward had quietly allotted Lucy a generous share in the marriage contract. With that, she could divorce and flee to another continent.
He’d even agreed to most of the clauses she’d asked for.
And yet, after all that cooperation.
Edward was now digging his heels in over the added clause.
“Think about it. This isn’t bad for you either…”
“Why is it, Lucy.”
It was then.
“Yes?”
“Our darling…”
Edward slowly ran his tongue over the inside of his cheek.
Like something had soured his mood.
“Seems to be planning for us to part before we’ve even married.”
“That’s…”
Wasn’t it obvious?
Lucy swallowed down the words.
She had enough sense to know this wasn’t the time to say that.
‘No, he was the one who jumped at marriage on impulse.’
Edward had decided on the spot too.
In fact, it was a wonder he’d gone this far.
Having a full safety net was fine for her, but honestly, even just playing lovers would have been enough.
‘Was purification really that urgent for him?’
But somehow, that didn’t sit right either.
Lucy was rolling her eyes, dodging an answer, when Edward fixed her with a bright, dark smile.
“I like greedy people.”
At that, Lucy’s instincts made her nod along.
“…Oh, then he’s a total greedy climber!”
“A climber?”
“Yes! So ambitious that…”
“Then shouldn’t you be saying you’ll cling to me forever and bleed me dry?”
“…W-What?”
Lucy’s eyes went wide at the unexpected turn.
“That you’ll sink your teeth into me and suck me dry till the day I die.”
Edward’s smile deepened.
“Say it, Lucy.”
The words caught in her throat.
