TGLWM 10

Chapter 10 

 Please Think Well of Me

It felt as though she were having a conversation with a foreigner. She had clearly refused him, yet his response had been that they should go to bed.

“No, ah!”

Her vision suddenly spun. When she came to her senses, she was already being held in the Grand Duke’s strong arms. Wearing the face of the happiest newlywed groom in the world, he left a light kiss on her pale, rounded forehead, as though a flower petal had gently settled there.

“……!”

Still dazed, Florence touched her forehead, where the sensation of his lips lingered. Then she realized that he was actually heading toward the bed!

Florence twisted her body in surprise.

“Put me down!”

“I will not do anything you do not want. Please trust me.”

Then what was that kiss on her forehead just now? Seeing the distrust in her sky-blue eyes, he tightened his arms around her and continued.

“I will respect you, so I hope you will find true love in me. Isn’t that fair?”

‘Fair?’

While Florence mulled over that strangely unsettling word, he moved his long legs and reached the bed in an instant. He carefully set her down as though she were a delicate glass sculpture, then immediately brought over a tray prepared with simple food and drinks.

“It must have been an exhausting and bewildering day. You should at least eat something.”

“……Thank you.”

His words reminded Florence that she was hungry, so she decided to calm herself down for the moment and fill her empty stomach first.

Just as he said, it truly had been a day in which she hadn’t known what was happening from one moment to the next. She had gone from being a bridesmaid to a bride, then a Grand Duchess, and now she was sitting on a bed eating with a man notorious as the Emperor’s hunting hound.

It felt as though everything that should have happened over several years had been crammed into a single day.

Even in the middle of all that, the Grand Duke kept trying to feed her, which was incredibly burdensome. Watching him smile with his eyes and pick out only the things she liked before offering them to her was utterly absurd. She even began to wonder whether he had secretly investigated her preferences beforehand.

“I have hands of my own.”

She repeatedly refused him, but he merely murmured, “My wife is truly adorable,” saying something completely ridiculous. It was the first time in her life anyone had called her adorable, so she didn’t know how to react.

“Will you really respect my wishes?”

She pushed away the hand that was once again trying to put food into her mouth, this time with a hint of irritation. She asked because she intended to make absolutely certain the Grand Duke wouldn’t try anything foolish.

“I swear on my honor. I will do my best until your heart opens to me, so please think well of me.”

Just listen to the way he talked. The Grand Duke of the Empire was sitting there saying things that sounded like something a personal attendant for the night might say.

Perhaps she should first make him stop calling her ‘my wife.’ Florence was seriously considering how to handle that when he once again offered her a glass of red-colored liquid.

“……Thank you.”

Thinking it was the same drink she’d had earlier, she casually downed a mouthful. But the problem was that this wasn’t the delicious drink from before. Its color was similar, but the tingling aftertaste that spread through her mouth was distinctly unusual.

“……Is this alcohol?”

“Rather than alcohol, you could say it is a drink with a single drop of alcohol added.”

Apparently, ‘drink’ was a matter of perspective for him, because the alcohol was affecting her at an alarming speed. Perhaps it was because she had spent so long soaking in hot water and had already been through so many stressful things.

As her face grew hot, her vision began to spin.

“This is too strong to be called a drink.”

Suddenly, the thought flashed through Florence’s mind that perhaps the Grand Duke had deliberately made her drink this.

He had sweet-talked her into coming to the bed by promising that he wouldn’t do anything, only to pull a stunt like this. Anger surged inside her.

Were his words telling her to trust him, his promise on his honor, all nothing more than passing wind? No, perhaps he hadn’t had any honor worth staking in the first place!

“I won’t let you get away with this. You said you’d stake your honor, didn’t you? You bastard, I’ll kill……”

As she heard his hateful voice asking if she was all right gradually sink into the depths along with her consciousness, Florence slipped across the boundary into sleep.

“You’re still just as weak to alcohol.”

Edelston smiled as he looked at Florence, who had fallen asleep before she could even finish saying she would kill him. He could guess what misunderstanding she had fallen into, but it had been absolutely necessary for her safety, so he had no choice.

And ‘bastard,’ of all things. Even an insult sounded unbearably cute when it came from her lips.

Florence had always been right. Because he truly was a bastard.

“But this is a little unfair.”

He had endured a difficult life and come all the way here for this very moment. He hated that he had practically forced the woman he worshipped so dearly that even kissing her instep would never be enough into bed, but the hostility and murderous intent that had begun creeping closer had left him no choice but to hurry.

“Apparently, our former Black Antler hasn’t been able to let go of his ambitions. He should retire and live quietly, but what good is an old man running wild because he can’t forget the glory of his younger days?”

Being the king of the underworld had always been a position in which one could never truly feel safe. But as the youngest person ever to become Black Antler, he had even more enemies than usual.

In particular, the Luat family he had wiped out was as persistent as hyenas. They kept desperately gathering their forces and coming after him, which was extremely troublesome. That was why he had already carried out a thorough cleanup before the wedding, just in case, but apparently some remnants still remained.

“Fog, protect the partner of Black Antler.”

At Edelston’s quiet command, a group dressed in gray clothes and masks appeared from somewhere and surrounded the bed in layers.

‘Fog’ was a guard organization whose mission was to protect Black Antler. They were his hands and feet, possessing formidable martial strength and exceptional skills in concealment.

“I’ll deal with them myself. Since my bride is about to get the wrong idea about me, I’ll make sure they die as painfully as possible.”

He gave a cold smile as he looked at the assassins who had appeared before him.

The wedding night was certainly the perfect time for an assassination attempt. It was a method he himself had used before. Still, the fact that they had managed to infiltrate the Grand Duke’s castle meant they weren’t ordinary men. Even the weapons in their hands were designed to end a life in a single strike.

He had been in need of somewhere to vent his pent-up desires anyway. He willingly accepted the sword handed to him by one of his subordinates.

“I would like to torture you until the moment you die, but today I’ll let you pass cleanly into death. Consider it a wedding anniversary gift.”

Whoever had commissioned the assassination must have been truly desperate, because there were more than ten assassins.

They had gone so far as to hire first-rate assassins of this caliber, as though their very lives depended on it, but they were no match for Edelston.

The Fog members’ eyes shone with awe as they watched their master move with effortless grace while dispatching the attacking assassins in an instant. His footsteps were light, while every slash aimed at an enemy’s neck was decisive and clean.

The title of Black Antler had not been given to him for nothing.

It hadn’t even been ten minutes, yet he had already dealt with every assassin who had attacked him.

“Pathetic.”

Edelston casually threw away the sword, now soaked red, and wiped the blood splattered around his eyes with an irritated expression. But his hand was covered in blood as well, only adding more blood to his face.

While the newlywed groom had become a figure straight out of a nightmare, the newlywed bride slept peacefully, completely unaware that a massacre had taken place.

“……Ah, how happy I am.”

A smile appeared on Edelston’s face.

Who could have imagined that simply being able to watch her sleep peacefully would bring him such overwhelming happiness?

The Fog members were so shocked by the sight of their master covered in blood and murmuring about how happy he was that their eyes nearly shook in disbelief.

But their master had always been a little crazy.

“The sacred bedroom of a married couple is a mess.”

When Edelston pulled the bell cord, Miranda immediately appeared with a group of maids.

They, too, had apparently dealt with the minor enemies scattered throughout the area before coming here, because they all had bloodstains splattered across their clothes.

“Clean this place quietly and quickly so the Grand Duchess doesn’t wake up. Make it look as though nothing happened.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

He desperately wanted to stay there and watch her sleep peacefully, but the work was not over yet.