YNSYM 14

Chapter 14

At my question, a faint crease appeared between the brows of the otherwise composed man.

Perhaps because I had left out too much of the context, he looked as though he had no idea what I was getting at. So I hurriedly elaborated.

“To put it simply, someone like you could easily find a much better bride. Someone prettier than me, for instance, or someone from a better family. Or someone who could bring a huge dowry. Maybe even someone who has all three…”

That was when it happened.

“Because it’s you.”

For a moment, I was completely speechless.

His answer had come so clearly, without even the slightest hesitation.

Of course, I liked hearing that again. But somehow, that only made me even more puzzled. No, by now, it had gone beyond puzzlement and turned into suspicion. After thinking it over, I finally voiced that suspicion.

“By any chance… do you have some sort of unusual preference?”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, you know. Like having a fetish for women covered in freckles, or…”

I hesitated for a moment before taking a deep breath and cautiously adding,

“Or maybe you like… being tied up, or something like that?”

Of course, I never particularly wanted to know that such preferences even existed in this world.

But I remembered the Marquess saying that he preferred being tied up rather than doing the tying, so I cautiously asked, just in case.

At that moment, a faint chuckle escaped between the man’s lips.

I had been asking quite seriously.

Yet, despite my solemnity, his laughter continued for quite some time. After laughing for a while, the man finally composed himself and asked,

“I’m curious. Exactly where did you come up with such a theory? Did I happen to show any such preference last night?”

“Th-That, I wouldn’t know. I don’t remember anything that happened that night. But still, it’s a fact that I was the one who attacked you first, and the fact that you even accepted someone like me as your wife… could perhaps mean that you have a preference for that sort of thing…”

“Now that you mention it, I suppose your theory isn’t entirely without merit.”

What?

It wasn’t without merit?

Did that mean he really did have that kind of preference?

I had only asked because I thought it was a ridiculous possibility, but his perfectly casual admission left my mind even more confused.

Meanwhile, the man’s eyes fixed firmly on mine, which were trembling with confusion. Amid the tangled emotions in his gaze, he slowly opened his mouth.

“Regardless, it’s true that I enjoyed that night very much. How should I put it…”

His eyes suddenly narrowed.

“To the point that it sent shivers throughout my entire body?”

The one who had said something embarrassing was the man, yet it was my face that instantly caught fire.

He had enjoyed it enough to feel shivers throughout his entire body.

It was such a direct way of putting it that I had absolutely no idea how to respond. Still, I had to say something. With trembling lips, I asked him,

“D-Do you really mean… you decided to get married over something like that?”

But once again, his answer was perfectly clear.

“It wasn’t just ‘something like that.’ Realistically speaking, it’s not easy to be that compatible.”

So… when he said we were compatible, he meant physically, right?

Not emotionally.

My face grew even hotter. At the same time, I was a little dumbfounded.

Just how many women had he been with to know something like that?

‘Well, with a face like his, it would be stranger if he hadn’t been with women.’

Even if he had wanted to keep to himself, women probably would have thrown themselves at him.

‘And I’m living proof. I did exactly that.’

Just as a sudden wave of self-reproach caused my face to flush again, the man, who had been quietly looking at me, said something else that left me flustered.

“Oh, right. How about having the wedding on the 24th?”

The 24th?

I counted the days in my head and was horrified.

“If it’s the 24th… that’s next Wednesday. That soon?”

But once again, the man sounded completely unconcerned.

Of course, while his tone was indifferent, what he said was enough to make me panic.

“We slept together the first time we met, and became engaged the second time we met. If anything, isn’t getting married now rather slow?”

He wasn’t wrong.

Logically speaking, his argument was so painfully accurate that my face grew even hotter.

By now, the heat had spread beyond my cheeks, all the way down to my neck and earlobes.

Yet his expression remained unchanged.

Instead, he simply demanded one thing from me.

“Then that’s when we’ll do it. It doesn’t matter whether it rains or snows.”

No, wait.

It seemed as though the date had already been decided, without even needing my answer.

“Absolutely. That day.”

Fortunately, it neither rained nor snowed.

At last, the day of our wedding had arrived.

The sky was crystal clear, without a single cloud in sight.

The small white chapel perched on the cliff, along with the vast sea stretching out beneath it, was beautiful enough to look like a painting.

The transparent waves that occasionally rolled in with splashes glittered like finely cut crystal, while even the breeze that gently fluttered the white veil over my head was filled with the warmth of spring.

It was truly the height of spring.

And at the very peak of that beautiful season, a broad, wave-like smile spread across Anne’s face as she finished dressing me.

“What a beautiful place! And the sea outside the window is so gorgeous! When I saw the chapel while we were coming here by carriage, I wondered if it might be too small. But now that I’m actually inside, it’s quite spacious!”

Only yesterday, Anne had looked so gloomy at the thought of holding the wedding in a tiny seaside chapel in the countryside instead of the capital.

Now, however, she seemed even more delighted than I was, making me smile.

“I’m glad you like it. You were looking so miserable just yesterday, saying it was such a shame that I had to get married in the middle of nowhere, without a single guest, as though we were having some kind of secret elopement.”

I teasingly imitated the gloomy expression Anne had worn, and her face immediately turned red.

“M-Miss, honestly! I only said that because it was such a shame that we couldn’t show everyone how beautiful you look! Just look at you! You’re absolutely gorgeous! If the people who were always comparing you to your late mother could see you right now, I’m sure they’d all be speechless!”

Anne even brought a mirror over and held it in front of me as she spoke, making me smile once again.

Of course, I knew she was exaggerating just to make me feel good.

No matter how much effort I put into dressing up, how could I possibly compare with my late mother?

‘That would be ridiculous. Though I suppose I do look better than when I was wearing those outdated dresses my uncle borrowed for me.’

Still, I felt happy.

The warm scent of sunlight was as soft and comforting as freshly dried blankets, and even the salty smell of the sea seemed sweet.

Actually, the fact that we couldn’t invite any guests because we were holding the wedding in such a remote countryside location was fortunate for me.

‘I never liked being around places crowded with nobles, even when I was young. Besides, if we had gotten married in the capital, reporters would have been falling over themselves trying to photograph the wedding of the “Millionaire Shoeshine Boy” and the “Noble Lady Who Humiliated a Marquess.” Even if there was no chance the murderer had seen my face, there was no reason to expose it to the public like that.’

Thanks to that, I actually preferred having a quiet wedding in such a secluded place.

Even so, there was one face I couldn’t stop thinking about.

My gaze unconsciously settled on the painfully blue sky.

‘If Father were still alive, I wonder what it would have been like? He would have been so happy to see me like this today, wouldn’t he?’

But I soon shook my head.

‘No. Perhaps Father would have hated it. He was always saying that I was too precious to give to any man, and asking whether I couldn’t just stay unmarried and live with him forever.’

Remembering the things Father had always said, half jokingly and half seriously, brought a small laugh to my lips.

‘Father really was impossible. He was the only one who thought I was too precious. Other people certainly wouldn’t have seen me that way, yet he always looked so heartbroken whenever he thought about the day I would get married.’

I was lost in those old memories, smiling faintly, when a rich, familiar fragrance suddenly drifted to the tip of my nose.

‘Could it be…?’

With a hopeful suspicion, I followed the scent.

Sure enough.

He was standing there.

As always, he looked striking, but today he seemed especially radiant.

Beneath his dark navy frock coat, the silk waistcoat gleamed as white as the breaking waves. The cravat in the same pristine shade further illuminated a face that was already impossible not to look at.

But more captivating than any of that were his eyes.

Perhaps because of the bright sunlight, his irises seemed to carry an especially vivid red hue today, shining like deep rubies. Even the beauty mark beneath his eye looked more sensual than usual.

‘He’s seriously unreal.’

His face was breathtaking enough that I even thought my father, who had always stubbornly insisted that his daughter was too precious for any man, might have changed his mind if he had seen him like this.

Just then, the lips of that dazzling man slowly moved.

“Looks like you’re almost ready?”

The question was directed at me, but his gaze was fixed on Anne.

Anne quickly nodded and answered,

“Yes. I was just finishing up. Then I’ll step outside and let the two of you talk.”

Taking the hint immediately, Anne withdrew.

And now, the only people left inside the chapel were the two of us.