Mason immediately agreed to Blair’s words.
“I shall have the documents prepared by tomorrow so that you may review them directly.”
“I’m sure you’ll find that I am lacking in many ways. Please teach me well from here on out.”
Mason was inwardly surprised by Blair’s attitude.
He had expected that, having been raised as the apple of the Emperor’s eye, she would refuse to touch anything complex or difficult. Moreover, unlike those raised in such luxury, she did not feel ashamed of her own shortcomings and was willing to learn.
Some might consider such an admission to be behavior that lowers one’s standing, but in his eyes, it only made her appear all the more noble.
“I look forward to working with you as well, Your Grace.”
The Mason whom Blair knew was a man who rarely revealed his emotions. Yet, for a fleeting moment, she felt as if his gaze had softened.
After finishing his greetings, Mason withdrew, and Blair returned to her bedroom after her bath. It was still too early to sleep.
Blair decided to organize her future plans.
She had proposed a one-year contract marriage to Headrin, but in truth, the time she had conceived Aziel was around early summer.
Headrin must not discover Aziel’s existence, so everything had to be wrapped up by the early stages of pregnancy at the latest.
‘Half a year left.’
There were three things she had to resolve before then.
First, finding the memories of the Empress’s Palace fire incident.
Since Headrin would be taking the lead on this, she had nothing to plan separately.
Second, divorce preparations.
In the Empire, one needed the Emperor’s consent to divorce. However, would Ivan Ardel, who had pushed for this marriage with the intention of targeting Headrin, really agree to their divorce?
At the very least, he would never agree to a divorce based on Headrin’s flaws.
‘I must make it so that it is forced by my own fault, and furthermore, that he has no choice but to agree due to public opinion.’
The clever trick she came up with was a “scandal.”
To trigger a scandal with an outside man.
But if such a scandal were to break, that man would face punishment. So, Blair decided to scale up the scandal.
If there were only one man, the arrows of criticism would be aimed at him—but what if there were many?
Then, people would naturally shift their arrows away from the men who committed adultery with the Princess, and toward the wanton Princess who frolicked with multiple men while having a husband.
That was the sequence Blair desired.
In the off chance that things went sideways and Aziel’s existence was revealed, she could pass him off as one of their children.
‘To do that, I must first bribe several men.’
After divorcing due to a sordid scandal, she would not be able to live in the Empire—or at least, not in this Capital. If she were unlucky, she might even be imprisoned by Ivan or Katrina Ardel.
However, as long as she was legally the Duchess del Marc, even the Imperial Family could not touch her, so she had to leave the Capital the moment the divorce was finalized.
Thus, she needed a new identity and a place to stay in preparation for that time. Somewhere no one would know.
The place where she could obtain all of this was the Guild.
‘I must stop by the Guild before long.’
And finally, the third task: finding the person behind her death before the regression.
The probability that an assailant killed her out of personal vendetta was low. There was surely someone behind it.
She had to find the mastermind and discover why they had killed her. Because in this life, she would never leave Aziel alone.
‘For now, let’s start with what is closest.’
Blair made plans to visit the Knights’ Training Ground the next morning and lay down in bed. Just then, the memories of last night and the contract came to mind.
Blair got out of bed and pulled out the contract she had tucked away in a drawer. The signature line of the contract was still empty.
* * *
Having finished his bath, Headrin was reviewing documents in his office with a cigar clamped between his teeth.
Since he had already taken care of important paperwork before the wedding, there was nothing urgent, but he chose to work instead of rest. It was to forget the thoughts that had been tormenting him since that morning.
It was when only the sound of rustling pages echoed in the quiet, shadow-filled study.
Knock, knock—
The sudden sound of knocking shattered the silence.
‘Is it Mason?’
Ruth had complained about “suffering from excessive work throughout the wedding preparations,” so he had sent him home early; he wouldn’t be lingering around the office on his own.
“Come in.”
However, the one who entered the office was not Ruth or Mason, but Blair.
Headrin’s eyes froze as he looked at the unexpected visitor.
Blair held a rolled-up piece of paper in her hand.
She coughed lightly at the cigar smoke permeating the room, and only after her coughing ceased did she approach him.
“I was so preoccupied yesterday that I remembered I hadn’t finished the contract.”
Headrin looked at the paper she placed in front of him with a rather incredulous expression.
As if this scrap of paper meant anything.
She acted as if this paper would guarantee everything.
A naive and persistent woman.
Headrin picked up his quill, thinking he would sign it quickly and send this naive wife back to her room.
Just then, Blair caught his hand and stopped him.
“Just a moment, Headrin.”
The hand of the woman holding his was cold. Annoyingly so.
“You must review the contract carefully.”
“Did we not do that yesterday?”
“You never know if I might have changed it to something entirely different in the meantime.”
Is the mouse worrying about the cat?
The woman seemed to think she possessed the power to cause him significant harm.
Despite having wrists that looked like they would snap if pinched.
‘I thought she was a naive princess. She won’t ever be swindled by anyone, it seems.’
Headrin thought to himself and examined the contract again.
“There is an added clause.”
Blair pointed to a clause in the contract with her slender finger.
“Once this contract ends, please write a letter of recommendation so that Lina can find a good job elsewhere.”
“Are you referring to the girl you brought from the Imperial Palace?”
“Yes. She is sociable and works well, so she will do her part well anywhere.”
Headrin’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Blair.
‘Does she intend to leave even after casting aside her only confidante?’
Is she planning to run away with a hidden lover?
About twenty years ago, in the neighboring Derant Kingdom, a princess fell in love with a knight, rejected the marriage arranged by the king, and fled.
Because of that, the knight was executed, and the princess, having lost her lover, refused all food and drink until she died by suicide.
While scandals arising from noble marriages between high-ranking women and low-ranking men were not exactly common, they weren’t unheard of, either.
It was possible that Blair was the protagonist of such a scandal. Though, seeing as last night was her first night spending it with a man, that might not be the case.
‘…Either way, it has nothing to do with me.’
As long as he could achieve the purpose of this contract marriage, it didn’t matter.
Headrin finished signing the two copies of the contract and returned one to Blair.
“It seems quite late. If you are done with your business, please return and rest.”
It was a polite dismissal.
However, it seemed Blair still had business left.
“As you would surely know, there is a luncheon at the Imperial Palace tomorrow.”
On the first day of marriage, one eats with the groom’s family, and on the second day, with the bride’s family. It was custom, and a fact Headrin was well aware of.
“I am aware.”
“You don’t have to go to every other banquet or appointment. But I would like you to accompany me to appointments related to my brother or the Imperial Family whenever possible.”
It was a request based on the memories of her past life.
After he had distanced himself from her in her past life, he had attended almost no banquets or meals with the Imperial Family.
“If you have no failings as a husband, my brother will have no choice but to agree to the divorce when this contract ends.”
Even if Headrin del Marc was a war hero, he was, in the end, a subject of the Emperor.
Without the Emperor’s permission, he could not dare to drag the Emperor’s only younger sister from her position as Duchess.
Thus, the end of this marriage had to be knotted with Blair’s absolute fault. For that, it was best for Headrin not to show a single flaw.
He added one more thing to his impressions of Blair—beyond pretty, small, naive, and persistent.
A shrewd woman.
“That is a reasonable point. I shall keep that in mind.”
As her business concluded, Blair withdrew her body as if she had been waiting for it. She remembered his dismissal from just a moment ago.
“Then… sleep well, Headrin.”
Blair clutched her contract tightly and quietly left the office.
Headrin chuckled as he looked at the contract his fake wife had left behind.
“Ha.”
He had come to his office to shake off the thoughts that had been scouring his mind all day, only for the source of those thoughts to seek him out of her own volition.
That source was Blair.
All day today, his mind had been occupied by his fake wife.
Her snow-white, soft skin, her teary face and voice, her voluptuous breasts that didn’t match her slender frame, and…
The dizzying pleasure her body gave him, plunging him into a bottomless, sweet mire.
Unlike him, seeing her visit him at this hour without fear, as if she had completely forgotten what happened last night, left him dumbfounded. And in pajamas that revealed her figure so candidly, no less.
Without even knowing what kind of profane thoughts were occurring in his head regarding her.
Yet at the same time, a filthy desire to make that clear face cry again and soil her incited him.
He wasn’t exactly a dog in heat, was he?
He had thought that if he bit, sucked, and held her to his heart’s content all night, his thirst for the woman would be quenched. But it was a misunderstanding.
He hadn’t drunk water; he had drunk seawater. The more he drank, the more he craved.
It had been like that last night, too.
At first, it was curiosity. He was curious what expression that doll-like woman would make in bed.
But the moment he held her, the curiosity vanished, and only the desire for pleasure remained.
He had messed her up all night long, and only regained his senses when he saw the dawn breaking. He had been so appalled by the sight of himself harboring such lust even after seeing her collapse in an exhausted sleep that he had fled the room.
She was a woman worthy of being hated. The daughter of an enemy worthy of being loathed. He must never, ever forget that fact.
Yet, even in this moment of ruminating on that fact, the body heat that had spontaneously recalled last night would not cool.
“…Am I insane?”
Headrin let out a pained breath and stood up. And he headed toward the bathroom once more.