Chapter 1: Marriage, Bedroom, Wedding Night
The man flung open the door before him.
“This is the dining room. Feel free to order anything from the chef. Expensive sturgeon roe, expensive shark fins, expensive salamander eyeballs, expensive monkey skull. The prices might make you sick, but don’t worry about that.”
Edela thought the nauseating part wasn’t the price but the disgusting items he listed that came to mind. She could somehow accept shark fins, but who would eat animal eyeballs or skulls? Besides, she couldn’t understand why the dining room wallpaper was such an appetite-killing color, like algae from a polluted river.
“This is your dressing room. It’s empty now, but you can go shopping to fill it. Just don’t buy too much.”
Edela had no such intention. She never liked shopping in the first place and had forgotten how to do it long ago. For a fallen noble without money, shopping was truly a luxury. Ignoring the strange eyeball-shaped wallpaper and mirrors that would suit a constellation of hell, Edela looked away.
“And this is the study. Well, you probably won’t have much reason to come in here.”
Except for the window area where bright light poured in, the study walls were filled with tall bookshelves packed with books. Thanks to this, neither the strange wallpaper color nor the interior decorations were visible, making it look quite normal. Contrary to his words, Edela thought this was precisely the place she would definitely visit again. She didn’t have a taste for shopping, but she loved books. It was almost her only hobby. Because the national library lent books for free. Whenever she had time, she always visited the library, and on leisurely days, Edela spent her time reading books.
“Now, next is…”
“What kind of books do you have?”
The man was about to continue with large strides, but stopped briefly at Edela’s question.
“Who knows? I’ve never read them.”
“What?”
“I just bought books because having a study in a mansion like this looks good. I don’t know what’s there. Besides, who reads such dull things as books?”
The man spoke as if it were nothing. He proudly stated that he didn’t know what books were in his own house, in his own study, and that he never read them. No, he was brazen.
“Now, here’s the bedroom.”
Ignoring Edela’s dumbfounded expression, the man opened the door opposite.
“Ah…!”
When she faced the bedroom, an exclamation escaped Edela’s lips. Hearing this sound, the man wore a satisfied and confident smile, but in fact, the exclamation from her lips was not one of admiration. The interior decoration of that room was the worst of all the corridor, dining room, and study she had seen so far. The dark blue wallpaper contrasted with faded wine-colored curtains, looking as if her great-granduncle had been using it until yesterday—such a color combination painfully struck Edela’s eyes. The very expensive-looking antique decorative cabinet placed in the center was pink, which completely clashed with the dark blue wallpaper and wine-colored curtains. Moreover, Edela could never understand why a large hunting trophy of a stag was hanging on the bedroom wall. The only thing that seemed decent was the bed in the center of the room. The huge bed, which could easily accommodate five people rolling around, even had beautiful white lace curtains. Although it completely clashed with the overall interior design of the room,
“Well then.”
As Edela was surveying the bedroom, which was filled with large, expensive-looking, luxurious but completely mismatched items mixed like an abstract painting, the man grabbed her wrist and pulled her. Then plop. He laid her down on that somewhat acceptable bed.
“Now we need to do what’s necessary, right?”
The man raised one corner of his mouth in a crooked smile as he took off his jacket and dropped it on the floor. The bright blue jacket that he said was expensively tailored at a high-end clothing store, which didn’t suit him at all.
“What do you mean by ‘necessary’?”
Before Edela’s question was even finished, the man had already loosened his tie and carelessly thrown it, where it caught on the antler of the stag with its dull gaze.
“What’s necessary between you and me.”
The man looked straight at Edela and began unbuttoning his shirt. One, two, three. As he unbuttoned his shirt halfway, his firm chest muscles were visible between the collar. It wasn’t the pale, skinny chest that noble young men might develop from fencing as a pastime. It was the firm muscle that only swordsmen who train daily might possess, and a tanned chest like a laborer working under the blazing sun. Seeing a man’s bare skin for the first time in her life, Edela’s face quickly turned red.
“Um, excuse me…”
Before Edela could say anything, the man had already thrown off his shirt. Before she could even think it was fortunate that he hadn’t taken off his pants, the bed sank with a thud beside her. With one leg placed on Edela’s right side and one arm propped next to her face, the man was looking down at her, almost pouncing on her.
He was too close. Close enough for Edela to feel the warmth of his sun-tanned skin, close enough for his breath from his lips to touch Edela’s lips. And so she could see it all clearly. His dark red eyebrows, reflecting his stubborn personality. His black eyes, greedy as if they wouldn’t be satisfied until they had everything. His sharply protruding nose bridge. His red lips that looked like they would swallow Edela cleanly at any moment. Edela’s gaze didn’t stop at his face but went further down. His thick neckline and protruding Adam’s apple emphasized his masculinity, and his broad shoulders looked very solid. The firm chest she had seen earlier needed no further mention. When Edela’s gaze reached his well-defined abs, as if sculpted meticulously by a sculptor, she forgot the modest lady’s mindset she had been taught until her ears were calloused, and even felt a slightly naughty feeling.
“What do you like?”
“Pardon?”
At the sudden question, Edela hastily raised her head. That intense gaze she had seen earlier was now even more stained with desire as he looked at her. Somehow her heart was pounding.
“I’ll do whatever you want.”
At first, Edela didn’t understand what this man was saying. She just frowned slightly, not knowing what he was asking now.
“If anything is fine with you, then our tastes are exactly the same.”
When the man put his hand on Edela’s skirt and slightly turned her to the side, she finally realized what he was talking about. And at the same time, her slightly fluttering heart grew cold. This was the kind of man he was. Hadn’t she seen, heard, and felt it on the day she first met him? Just a man with money, lacking refinement and rude. A man without an ounce of shame.
“S-stop it!”
Edela hurriedly sat up.
“What?”
The man, who was about to kiss Edela’s face, looked at her with a bewildered expression when his target disappeared.
“It’s troublesome if you act like this.”
As if he couldn’t believe it, the man snorted while looking at Edela. With his head slightly tilted, that appearance was absurdly sexy. Good heavens. Even after hearing that rude remark, the man’s frowning face looked sexy? Edela doubted if something was wrong with her head.
“Aren’t we in a clear contractual relationship?”
The man was right.
“It’s our wedding night today, isn’t it?”
The man and Edela were in a contractual relationship. Just a man with lots of money, lacking refinement and rude. This brazen man was desperately needed by Edela.
“Come here, Edela de Yeronia.”
Edela of the fallen Yeronia family had entered into a contract marriage with Teravis Baneleio, Luzenta’s notorious nouveau riche. Edela was Teravis’s wife, and Teravis was Edela’s husband. Starting from today.
***
“Damn it!”
Teravis put down the document he was holding, almost throwing it on the desk. The words visible at the bottom of the scattered papers contained very polite and euphemistic words of rejection. – While the proposal sent by your company is excellent and attractive, unfortunately, there are disqualifying factors that prevent us from establishing a partnership as our company’s business partner…
“Damn!”
When his eyes caught the offending words, Teravis cursed again. He knew exactly what they meant by “disqualifying factors.” It was the fact that he wasn’t a noble. They couldn’t use Teravis’s Red Wind Company, run by a commoner upstart, to trade items for the noble lords and ladies. Otherwise, there would be no reason for Luzenta Jewelers to maintain their business with Viera Company, run by the Viscounty of Viera, which charged more than the price Teravis had offered.
“Stupid fools! What’s so great about being nobility!”
Unable to contain his anger, Teravis slammed his fist on the desk with a bang. His hand should have been painfully numb, but Teravis didn’t care. His anger was hitting him harder than the pain in his hand. The Red Wind Company was currently the most successful trading company in Luzenta, a small port city in the Paynel Empire, and could supply goods at the most affordable prices and most reliably. But in trades involving luxury goods targeting nobles, they frequently got snubbed like this.
“De! De! De! What’s so great about that damn ‘de’!”
Teravis’s year-long efforts to do business with Luzenta’s largest jeweler had ended in failure again. Simply because he was “Teravis Baneleio” and not “Teravis de Baneleio.”
“Damn it! I should go somewhere and buy noble documents out of frustration!”
Even knowing it was impossible, Teravis shouted. At least it was impossible in Luzenta, where everyone knew he was a commoner. To pretend to be a noble elsewhere, he would have to abandon the Red Wind Company that he had built with blood, sweat, and tears in Luzenta over the past eight years. Even such assumptions were only possible assuming Teravis wouldn’t be executed for numerous counts of blasphemy if caught illegally trading noble documents.
“Damn it!”
Just as Teravis shouted in frustration—knock knock. A clear knocking sound was heard.
“What is it?”
Needless to say, when he was angry, no one in the company dared to disturb him. This knock was unusual.
“Um, there’s a visitor?”
“A visitor?”
There were no scheduled visitors today. Since it was the day the results of his proposal to Luzenta Jewelers would come out, it would be either a celebration or a binge, one of the two. The result was the latter, and Teravis was definitely not in the mood to receive visitors. But the fact that the visitor who came without an appointment was being announced to Teravis at this timing meant that the visitor outside the door was not an ordinary one.
“Show them in.”
Teravis forcibly suppressed his anger and pretended to be composed, preparing to greet the visitor. Shortly after, the door opened, and when he saw the visitor, Teravis’s eyes widened slightly.