My mouth felt like it was drying up in an instant, but I nodded as if nothing had happened.
"Yes. Your Highness, it is as you
said."
I heard laughter from above, but I didn't have the presence of mind to figure out if it was laughter or something else. The servants were approaching from the other side.
"Ariana, I have prepared a bath."
Wedding, first night, bath. The meaning of that list of words was obvious. I froze for a moment, then Dante pulled my waist closer and whispered.
"If you're tired, you can just come up."
"I'll take a bath first."
I answered reflexively. Dante chuckled and only then released my waist. Feeling my breathing clearer, I ran toward the servants as if I was running away. I bit my lips as I soaked myself in the bath with flower petals floating around. Of course, it wasn't that I wasn't prepared for the first night. Dante had already made it clear from the beginning that he wasn't interested in a fake marriage that was just 'pretend'. But to be exact, it was a half-assed resolution. Because five years from now...
'There's no one in the system who doesn't know that the Duke of Heigenberg can't hold a woman.'
It was a scandalous scandal for a man, but Dante never denied it. If he had tried to hide it from the beginning, such a rumor wouldn't have even begun to stir.
'But that doesn't mean he couldn't kiss.'
I couldn't help but know, having experienced it twice myself. Dante knew how to kiss. And he knew how to do it very well. I instinctively thought of two kisses and unconsciously curled my body.
"Madam, are you cold?"
"I'll pour you more bathwater."
The servants poured more water with perfumed water. My heart pounded like someone being chased by the strong rose scent that wafted out.
***
A little later. I was sitting quietly on the bed, wafting the scent of roses.
'I feel like an herb soaked in rose oil.'
After soaking in a bath full of rose scent and washing my entire body with rose oil, no place in my body was not filled with the scent of roses. It was so strange to see such an overtly seductive scent flowing out of my body that my chest kept tightening.
'I of only had the wedding today, but I've been staying in this mansion for quite some time.'
The garden seen from Dante's bedroom felt unfamiliar as if I was seeing it for the first time.
'By the way... It's really spacious.'
The guest room was spacious enough to have a bedroom, living room, and dressing room attached, but it wasn't like this place. Every single place I looked at seemed to have been meticulously designed. It was the first time in my life that I had seen such elaborate and elegant reliefs on the fireplace mantlepiece.
As I was blankly looking around...
Click.
I heard the door opening. And then footsteps began to approach. The room was so dark that even the moonlight was hidden behind the clouds I couldn't see an inch ahead of me. However, the owner of the footsteps approached without hesitation, as if he could see everything clearly.
The more I did that, the more my heart raced. At the same time, I felt a childish urge to not let anyone know that I was agitated. So I impulsively opened my mouth.
"I'm sorry today. My brother interrupted the reception."
"Well, you're sorry, but that's okay."
As Dante sat down on the bedside table, that part sank. The moment the unique body scent reached my nose, the rose scent that had been bothering my sense of smell lost its presence.
"You seem to be enjoying it. I can see it."
I said, moistening my dry lips.
"I thought Elena would move, but I didn't know she would use the wedding as a stage."
It was also unexpected that she had brought Adolf on board. Elena's struggles were a bit more violent than I had expected in many ways. However, struggling with a weight only made her sink faster. I couldn't help but be amused when I saw her willingly putting on that appearance.
"It doesn't matter. The most important event at the wedding is..."
His fingers lifted my chin.
"Isn't this the first night?"
I let out a slow breath. Whenever I'm with this man, I'm always conscious of my breathing. The sound of my heartbeat, the blinking of my eyes. Everything that I took for granted loses its naturalness and creaks.
"Do you know? The most interesting thing about you is that you keep showing unexpected sides of yourself."
Dante suddenly approached me and said. His red eyes licked every corner of my face.
"You seemed like a skilled instigator in front of people... but now."
He patted my stiff cheek and twisted his lips.
"You look like prey about to be eaten."
"..."
My heart was beating fast, and I couldn't move my fingertips rashly. Dante came a little closer to me. Now, I could see his face despite the darkness.
"That's why you keep making me curious."
His face, illuminated by the dim candlelight, was so beautiful that it didn't feel real. He whispered, moving his perfectly shaped lips.
"If I embarrass you even more, what will you do next?"
A hot palm wrapped around the back of my neck and his head suddenly came closer at the same time. I shut my eyes tightly. The feeling of my lips being swallowed was so unfamiliar that it made my spine shiver. The hot breath mixed in with it. My trembling fingertips grabbed the poor blanket. A strange thrill ran through my stomach and the feeling of my sensitive, moist inner skin touching.
Everything was so unfamiliar that it made my mind dizzy. As soon as the kiss that felt like an eternity ended and our lips parted, I let out a breath.
"Ariana Lopez."
The voice scratching my ear was rough, unlike usual, and I couldn't find any composure. I bit my wet lips. I've heard the name thousands of times, but why does the way that person pronounces it feels so unfamiliar?
"No. Now it's Ariana Heigenberg."
Dante smiled faintly as if he was pleased with the combination.
"Listen carefully. Revenge sure is fun. Its sweet taste is..."
His thumb came up and gently bruised my lower lip.
"It's so addictive that it's hard to bear. I know that too."
You know that?
At those words, information about Dante suddenly listed in my mind like a dictionary. A person who won a terrible war as an illegitimate child defeated his half-brothers and eliminated all the elders who opposed him to take the title of Duke.
Yes. You are the one who can discuss what revenge is.
'How would you have felt?'
When you trampled on those who despised you and reached the top, did you look down and rejoice? Did you tremble? Or...did you writhe in the emptiness of having lost your purpose?
"However, after you finish venting all your anger about the past..."
The hand that had been caressing my lips left and he suddenly brought his head closer again. Was he doing it again?
As I was about to close my eyes without realizing it, a low whisper tickled my lips.
"You have to realize. Your reality is here. Next to this Dante Heigenberg."
Dante raised the corners of his mouth.
"That's where our calculations begin."
"..."
He dug into my gaping lips. The second time was shorter than the first, but it was just as intense. Feeling the unfamiliar flames rushing to my heart, I gave in to him helplessly. Dante suddenly fell away as he approached me.
"This won't work."
Dante muttered softly and suddenly got up from the bed. I blankly watched him straighten his slightly disheveled shirt collar.
"Where... are you going?"
Dante reached out and lightly patted my cheek.
"I don't think I can stand it."
"..."
A deep smile appeared on his beautiful lips.
"But my pride would be hurt if I hugged a woman whose mind was completely elsewhere."
My mind was... elsewhere?
Only after hearing those words did I realize. Since I entered this bedroom, my brain had completely forgotten about revenge for a while. This had never happened since I lost my life and returned to the past.
... Ah. How could that be?
While I was speechless from the strange shock, I heard the sound of the door closing. I realized a beat later that I was truly left alone.
'Did I get dumped...?'
Since the groom left during the first night, it definitely fits the definition of 'get dumped'. During my confusion, I suddenly remembered Dante's last words.
"I don't think I can stand it."
My face heated up. It was a line that blatantly reminded me of what would have happened by now if he hadn't held it in. No. It must have been a bluff. Even as I thought that goosebumps ran down my skin, I unconsciously pulled the blanket closer.
'...But is he really not going to come?'
As I lay in the vast bed that was too wide to be alone, various thoughts kept popping up. Thoughts about Elena splashing around. Thoughts about Lucas who was still asleep and unaware of anything.
And...
"The reckoning between us will begin from then."
Those words came as a strange shock. My only goal was to make the people I loved pay for their sins. To make them pay for all the debts they owed me. I had never even thought about what would happen after that...
'I ended up in debt.'
A new debt relationship had arisen. I thought of my relationship with Dante as a transaction. In which neither party gained or lost. But Dante didn't ask anything of me. So all the help I received became a debt.
'When everything is over... What will happen to me after that?'
A thought I had never had since returning to time. As I pondered that thought, dawn grew white. At some point, I fell into a deep sleep.
***
"Master, master!"
The butler of the Marquis of Pedegreen came rushing into the office. Lucas looked back at the butler with furrowed eyes.
"Why are you acting so rashly?"
"I, I think you should come out right now!"
Lucas' face hardened at the butler's fuss. He was already in a bad mood. His heart, which had been irritated by not being able to contact Elena, plummeted to the bottom the moment he saw the wedding news that had graced the front page of today's <Empire's Morning>.
'Ha, by all means...'
Lucas ground his teeth and tore the newspaper to shreds. The photo of Ariana smiling beautifully was torn to pieces and scattered on the floor. Lucas was still angry and took a deep breath. He couldn't believe it.
Ariana had married another man. Abandoned him.
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