Chapter 6
The Clebania Dukedom was a leading family that moved in the shadows of the Empire, manipulating information and investing in all sorts of industries and technologies to amass immense wealth.
However, the former Duke of Clebania was a scoundrel who recklessly wielded his power and wealth, seducing women, and the Duchess was a woman who, having grown tired of her husband, replaced her lovers on a weekly basis.
The Duchess eventually became pregnant from an irresponsible affair. Naturally, the child was not the Duke’s.
“This goddamn bastard!”
And so, Ash—Aston Clebania—was born as the shame of the Clebania Dukedom.
“I told you to stay out of my sight!”
Every time the Duke came home drunk, he would hit or yell at Ash.
His birth mother, the Duchess, also ignored Ash as if he were an inconvenience. She made no attempt to hide her annoyance at being held responsible by the Duke for his existence.
“Mother…”
“Don’t call me that, you filthy thing.”
“…”
“If you had at least looked like me…”
Unfortunately, Ash resembled neither the Duke nor the Duchess.
Nor did he resemble his biological father.
“Where on earth did a hair color like that come from?”
His naturally ash-grey hair and red eyes were simply a form of genetic mutation, but in this world, they were seen as a symbol of ill omen.
“How utterly disgusting.”
“…”
“Your real father, he didn’t come with some curse, did he?”
“…”
“You’re repulsive.”
These were all the words the Duchess ever gave Ash whenever their eyes met.
And so, Ash was denied any affection, and he withered away.
‘I’d rather.’
I’d rather have been kicked out of the Dukedom.
I would have been more comfortable living on the streets than here.
‘It’s not like the food or clothes are any different, anyway.’
Even while living in the Dukedom, Ash was given food worse than trash and worn-out clothes.
The servants, who saw him as being lower than them, looked down on him and tormented him.
“You should have never been born in the first place.”
“Then why were you born to suffer like this?”
He heard those words so often that they no longer hurt him. The violence also became something he took in stride.
Ash simply sank deeper into himself. His resentment grew, but he also learned how to hide it.
“Damn it! That filthy bastard!”
Meanwhile, there was a reason the Duke didn’t kick Ash out, despite his fits of rage.
“If only I had a proper heir!”
The Duke was a man with problems producing an heir.
Even if all the women he had been with had given birth to just one child, they would have been enough to fill the Dukedom’s training ground. Yet, none of them bore him a successor.
This was a critical weakness for a great Dukedom like Clebania, and it was a difficult truth for a proud man like the Duke to bear.
The Duke was obsessively fixated on the technology of having children and solving male infertility.
But the technology he sought never materialized.
“Damn it!”
The Duke finally gave up on having a successor of his own and officially adopted Ash, the Duchess’s child, into the Clebania family.
And to show others that his masculinity was intact, he declared Ash to be his biological son.
He claimed that his heir had been too weak to be formally introduced but was now healthy enough to be presented.
However, Ash’s treatment within the Dukedom did not change.
“How dare this filthy thing eat at the same table as us!”
He was not allowed to join the Duke and Duchess for meals.
He was also forced to receive his education from low-level, rude tutors.
Even though he had no choice but to declare Ash his son and heir, the Duke recklessly spent money as if he didn’t want to leave anything to him.
The Duchess was no less extravagant than the Duke, so the family’s fortune quickly became precarious. One-third of the Clebania family’s assets, one of the pillars of the Empire, was on the verge of disappearing due to their lavish spending.
Despite the circumstances, Aston did his best.
His tutors were terrible, but he had access to the library during his lessons, and Aston was a smart boy.
He absorbed all the knowledge in the library as if it were his own.
He would sometimes pick up on current affairs by listening to the guests who came and went, and he learned about business and commerce by secretly looking at the Dukedom’s ledgers, which the servants were embezzling.
When Ash was fifteen, having grown up in neglect and abuse…
“Extra! Extra!”
“The Duke and Duchess of Clebania have died in an accident!”
Their carriage had slipped on a rainy road and overturned.
The couple, who had been on their way home from a social event, died on the same day, making a mockery of their constant bickering.
“The Clebania Dukedom’s wealth is ours now!”
“What can a mere child do!”
As they shouted this, relatives who had come to claim the remaining assets were greeted by…
Clank!
“Wh-what is this!”
“You, do you even know who we are?”
“Please leave.”
“Hey!”
“That’s the order of the Duke of Clebania.”
“Wait. This… Heeek!”
A pile of bodies of the corrupt servants who had been abusing Ash and sucking up to the Duke.
Since then, Aston retreated into the shadows. And he controlled everything from there.
He didn’t want to go out in public. Social events were tiresome and exhausting. Most of all, having to look in the mirror and dress up for those trivial events was a chore.
‘It’s useless, anyway.’
He knew he was objectively handsome, but it didn’t register. He had grown too used to the stares of people who saw him as disgusting and filthy. He only saw a hideous face.
He hated meeting people, and the only time he felt happy was when he was adding his own achievements to the work of the previous dukes.
Aston sponsored more people than any other Duke of Clebania and amassed more wealth than all of them combined.
And he set new records for every feat, all under the name of a mere bastard.
“How do you like it, Father, Mother?”
And every time he did, he would go to their family crypt and let out a hollow laugh.
He had deliberately buried them in the same coffin.
So that they would be in hell together in death, just as they were in life. So that they would be trapped in that narrow coffin, unable to escape from each other.
“The filthy wretch you both despised is cleaning up after you.”
And with that, his life’s only joy was to pour liquor on their neglected graves.
“You both lived a disgusting life.”
And to spit on their graves to finish it off.
His life was one where the shadows were more familiar than the light, and it was more comfortable to navigate the darkness, running an information guild in a dirty back alley, than to control the social scene under a magnificent chandelier…
It was in this life that a strange piece of information came to him.
“A contraceptive?”
“Yes. She’s looking for a sponsor.”
“…”
“The Duke sponsors all sorts of artists, scholars, and engineers. I thought you might be interested.”
After he had purged his followers, only the most loyal servants remained by his side.
One of them brought him this new information.
“There were people who were already researching contraceptives.”
“Yes. But they have had little success, often failing or having a low efficacy.”
“I wonder how long this one will last.”
Aston decided to sponsor her with a light heart.
However, as he was stamping the sponsorship document, he heard a shout he thought he had long forgotten.
“You should have never been born in the first place.”
“Then why were you born to suffer like this?”
He thought that at least if that drug existed, there would be fewer children who would have to grow up hearing those words.
His interest went no further than that.
***
“There’s been progress?”
His interest grew a little more a while later.
To his surprise, she had made progress in her research.
“What was her name again?”
“Baroness Erin Reshamore. I’m told she was the valedictorian of the Alchemy Department at the academy.”
Erin Reshamore.
Ash began to grow more and more interested in her reports than in anyone else’s. Sometimes, he would receive reports about her messy laboratory.
About the cramped room filled with moldy, falling-apart walls, and beakers scattered all over the floor, along with the ingredients he had sponsored.
“She’s doing well to make progress in a place like that.”
“She’s using most of her sponsorship money for ingredients and research on the new drug.”
“Hmm.”
It was around that time that he started to tighten the deadlines and pressure her for results.
He was curious to see how far she could go.
How far she could continue a research that others had given up on after a while.
He acted maliciously, demanding a report by the next day and sometimes even reducing her funding, claiming that her progress was not enough.
Still, Erin didn’t give up. It was as if she had a strong belief in her own research.
But since her workload had increased, she said she was looking for an assistant.
It was around that time that Aston volunteered for her lab.
“Are you sure about this?”
“Well. It will be a suitable diversion, won’t it?”
“…”
“I will continue my duties as the Duke. And as the head of the information guild and businessman, as well.”
“I thought as much.”
“I need to find a hobby for myself eventually.”
Although he said that, he was just making empty promises. It was just a fleeting whim after a very long time.
“Are you… Mr. Ash Hamilton?”
And a few days later, on a summer afternoon, Ash met Erin.
Aston, or Ash, regretted his decision.
‘I was too careless.’
The hood he always wore outside, which he had even worn to his interview with Erin, was old and a torture device in the humid, poorly air-conditioned lab.
So he had taken it off for a moment…
“Oh? Mr. Ash? You came to work early… Gasp.”
He was caught by Erin, who had entered without knocking.
Ash immediately became guarded.
She, too, might have a strange reaction to his eyes and hair. The people of the Dukedom had always been like that. His close followers were loyal, so they didn’t show anything, but…
However, the expression on Erin’s face made his heightened senses all disappear like dandelion seeds in the wind.
“Wow.”
Erin, who had gasped in admiration, quickly closed her mouth.
Erin’s expression was truly honest. The awe and words she couldn’t utter were all visible in her eyes.
‘She looks like she’s head over heels for me.’
It was a fresh sight, as he had never seen an expression like that before.
After he became an adult, the people Ash met were either those who gasped and trembled in fear when he looked at them, or those who admired his beauty but were too afraid to show it.
It would have been even more so since his face being revealed usually meant a bad situation for the other person.
But this woman, not knowing who he was, just smiled foolishly at his face.
She even…
“No, why do you cover it up?”
“…huh?”
“You’re really beautiful.”
“…”
“Oh! I’m sorry. Um… I wasn’t trying to rate you or anything, you’re just really beautiful!”
She looked like a terribly gullible woman for saying such things.
‘I thought she would be a difficult opponent since she kept up with her research with such tenacity.’
She didn’t seem as difficult as he had thought. Just her kind, round face was enough to tell him that.
‘A foolish woman who is easily swayed by pretty things.’
Ash, having come to that conclusion, smiled good-naturedly.
“…Should I say thank you?”
“No, I didn’t say it to get a thanks or anything…”
“And ‘Mister’? As I said, please just call me Ash.”
“Ah, o-okay!”
“And you can speak informally, too.”
“…Okay, Ash!”
And at the sound of his name coming from her lips, his throat bobbed.
***
While it was not his intention, assisting and taking care of Erin became a more enjoyable routine than he had ever expected.
“Doctor. I told you not to sleep in a place like this.”
Erin was truly high maintenance.
Even though she was long past adulthood, she sometimes came to work with her buttons buttoned wrong, her meals were irregular, and she would lounge around in the lab in an awkward position instead of going home to sleep properly.
But when Ash woke her up, she would act like a puppy nuzzling its owner’s hand, burying her face in his palm or clinging to his arm in her sleep.
At first, he just thought it was quite cute.
“You have to eat properly.”
“Mmm…”
“Eat this, too.”
“You’re the only one who takes care of me, Ash.”
Before he knew it, he was making sure Erin ate every meal and watching her as she ate. He would watch her eyes light up as she did her experiments.
“Ash! Ash! Look at this! The color of the potion just changed…!”
“It looks like it’s about to explode.”
“What?! Aah!”
She was often clumsy, and when a bug appeared in their dilapidated lab, she would cling to him, saying she was scared.
‘She’s an annoying and amusing woman.’
But Ash knew. At some point, taking care of her was no longer a chore.
In fact, when Erin would take care of her own meals or remember to do her work, he felt a sense of disappointment that he couldn’t take care of her.
One day, as time passed by in a flash.
Erin handed him a gift.
A small cupcake with cream and a candle on top.
It was an expensive limited-edition menu from her favorite bakery, one she always ate sparingly.
“Thank you so much, Ash.”
“…What is this?”
“I just realized that it’s been exactly one year since you came.”
For a woman who was usually so careless.
“It would have been so hard without you. I always worked alone.”
“…”
“I’m so happy you’re here, Ash.”
“…Doctor.”
“Thank you for coming to me.”
She would say such things so easily.
It was the first time he had ever received something as a person named Ash, not Aston Clebania. It was also the first time he had ever received anything back for the interest he had shown.
It caused a quiet ripple in Ash’s heart.
That was probably when it started.
Taking care of Erin became the most important part of Ash’s daily life.
Sometimes even more important than his duties as a Duke, and more important than the duties of the information guild he had so successfully run.
At that point, Erin’s research progress was no longer important.
Erin had become an incredibly important person to him. She was no longer just a person he observed out of curiosity and interest.
Whether she succeeded in her research or not, Ash had no intention of letting Erin go.
‘I have to keep her.’
Researchers move on to a different research project when one is finished, and in that process, they move their base of operations or even go abroad.
Ash, who knew this all too well, wanted to give her a lifetime position so she would never have to leave.
So that she could do whatever research she wanted for the rest of her life by his side, even if it meant giving up on her current contraceptive research.
“I know how hard you’ve worked. The Duke said he’ll make sure you’re well compensated for all your efforts…”
“You never know. It’s a payment from Duke Aston Clebania, of all people.”
“He might give you enough to live a life of ease forever.”
“Or maybe he’ll give you a lifetime research position at his research institute, or even hire you personally.”
All the words he had said at the time were sincere.
‘Stay by my side.’
Life without her would be too boring. No, he couldn’t even bring himself to imagine it.
The final deadline pressure he subtly applied with that thought in mind…
Only seemed to fuel Erin’s competitive spirit.
‘Well, that’s how it’s always been.’
She was a person who always fell down but got right back up. A person who wouldn’t be discouraged by any adversity, who would struggle to find another breakthrough. And ultimately, a person who would make things happen.
But when she said she would do those things with other scoundrels, he couldn’t bear it.
Even if the best men, like the Crown Prince, came to her, he would be furious. But those low-life scoundrels?
As he hit the face of the scoundrel he couldn’t even remember with a menu, Ash’s insides boiled.
‘How dare they?’
How dare these filthy things lay a hand on his Erin?
He couldn’t stand the sight of it.
“Please don’t tell me you put yourself forward as a test subject just to find some guy like that.”
When he spoke coldly, Erin stuttered out a flimsy excuse. Ash didn’t even want to hear that anymore. He just…
He just hated the thought of her getting involved with any man other than him.
“Then I’ll do it.”
So, he volunteered to be the test subject himself.
The thought of other men laying their hands on Erin made him sick to his stomach. He couldn’t let that happen.
‘She’s mine.’
This soft, fluffy pink hair, and her beautiful blue eyes.
Her soft cheeks, which had filled out more than before, and her eyes that always sparkled, and her clear voice calling his name.
‘I took care of all of this.’
And the relationship that started like that, truly…
‘Damn it.’
It was so good that he had a hard time holding back a swear word.
“Ah, ugh!”
“Hah, Doctor.”
It wasn’t just her cheeks that were soft. Her whole body was supple.
Her breasts, which were large for her small, thin body, were as soft as dough. Her opening, which gushed with a lot of fluid, wrapped around Ash like melting cream.
Truly, she was like cotton candy.
Every time he pushed himself in and out, Ash felt his sanity shatter.
“Ah, Ash…!”
“Breathe, Doctor.”
“Hmph, hmph, mmm!”
He found it endearing that Erin would cry, laugh, and feel pleasure because of him.
Every time her inner walls gripped him and wouldn’t let go, he felt a thrilling sensation of falling into an endless abyss.
The flesh he bit and licked smelled sweet. She was a woman whose tears, shed from pleasure, felt sweet.
Again, the thought of other men tasting this body was too unpleasant. He couldn’t even allow the possibility of that.
As he monopolized Erin, Ash felt his satisfaction being completely filled. The thirst he didn’t even know he had when he was just taking care of her was now being quenched every time he touched and held her.
His heart, so uncharacteristically, was melting.
And then, one day, he let his guard down.
“If that existed, babies wouldn’t be born, you know.”
He said something that had only been in his heart.
“Because children who would only live a miserable life wouldn’t have to be born.”
Unlike the usual heat, the atmosphere of that moment, as they lay face-to-face, made him honest.
The air was so comfortable, as if he could say anything.
And because of that…
He ended up saying things he never intended to, his true feelings that he had planned to hold on to for a lifetime.
“Don’t you think there are some children who would have been better off never being born?”
After he said it, he wondered if it was too crude and cruel.
Even though it was his own story, it was definitely not something good for a woman like Erin to hear.
But Erin answered as if it were no big deal.
“But that’s not the child’s fault.” She affirmed.
“And there’s no child in the world who ‘shouldn’t exist,’ Ash.”
As if she were speaking to the young, wounded boy he once was.
“They’re just born into a slightly wrong situation, or maybe… they were in the wrong place at the wrong time?”
She whispered that to him.
“That’s not a reason for them to be cursed or abused.”
“…”
“That just makes the adult a coward. Someone like that would have abused the child even without a reason.”
Why was it?
Even though it was just a few words, the moment he heard them, a shimmering halo appeared in Ash’s vision. A light with all sorts of colors. Something he had never felt in his childhood.
“Besides… it’s not like children born in those environments are fated to be unhappy.”
When he looked again, it was a halo of light radiating from the deeply sleeping Erin.
Ash stared at Erin, who was breathing softly with her eyes closed, for a very long time.
And he realized a new emotion.
An emotion that had always been there, but which he had deliberately avoided acknowledging.
“You.”
“…”
“You do this to me with just a few words.”
‘Even though nothing has changed.’
She made it seem as if the whole world had changed, and everything seemed a little more beautiful.
She saved him with just a few caresses and a few unconscious gestures.
So now, he couldn’t let go of those gestures, or this soft embrace.
Just like a newly hatched duckling imprints on its mother, Ash held Erin in his arms.
Now that things were like this, he couldn’t hand her over to anyone.
Erin was his.
And he was hers.
***
Apart from his own realization, Ash knew very well how much effort Erin had put into this experiment.
He had personally moved on the day of the presentation to separate her results from the reports of the other sponsored researchers for that very reason.
‘I can’t let her be evaluated the same as the others.’
Ash at least knew which people were doing proper research and which were being lazy.
He also had the thought of weeding out such people on this occasion.
He planned to give those who had spread bad rumors about Erin at the academy a taste of their own medicine before kicking them out.
‘Those guys wouldn’t be able to pay back the research funds they received, anyway.’
Of course, in addition to that reason, he couldn’t let Erin’s report be read by others.
‘How dare those other scoundrels?’
He couldn’t let them pry into his and her private life under the pretext of evaluation, could he?
What was written in that report? What part of Erin was in it?
Although the report was written as objectively and calmly as possible, Ash could easily recall the sight of Erin trembling in pleasure under him just by looking at a single number on the paper.
How she had gotten wet by his hands, and what kind of moans she had made from his kisses.
Would the evaluators be any different?
The mere thought of them imagining Erin in such a way made him feel disgusted.
‘I can’t let that happen.’
So, he naturally intended to keep the report and hand over only the vial.
Even though he thought the experiment was a success, it still needed to be verified.
The secretary who received the vial spoke cautiously.
“You’ve worked hard, Your Grace. It’s time for you to come back now.”
It was a statement befitting someone who knew that he had temporarily set aside his duties as a Duke and as the head of the information guild to focus on Erin.
“Yes, it is.”
He answered calmly, but all he could think about was keeping Erin by his side.
‘I need a reason to hold her back even more.’
Since the experiment was coming to an end, and she had promised to write him a letter of recommendation…
Erin might be thinking of terminating her contract with him and moving somewhere else. She might even leave the country as soon as she received her stipend.
‘But she won’t be able to disappear that easily.’
In preparation for that situation, Ash had already put a ring on Erin’s finger.
Just then, his secretary, who was tidying up the vial, tilted his head.
“Your Grace. Now that I think about it, where did you put the Dukedom’s signet ring?”
“I used it as a shackle.”
“A shackle?”
“Something like that.”
The Clebania Dukedom’s signet ring had a tracking spell on it.
So that he could find it no matter where it went. So that he could immediately know the location of the person wearing it. It was that important of an object.
And his prediction was right on the money.
“Erin has disappeared?”
“Yes. She hasn’t returned to the lab, her inn, or the barony.”
Only it was faster than he had expected.
When Erin disappeared without a word, Ash’s insides were a mess.
‘I can endure this.’
I can endure this for a few days.
He didn’t know why she had disappeared without a word, but since her long-term experiment was over, she might just want to rest.
He didn’t want to be a petty partner who couldn’t wait for just a few days. After all, if he was with Erin for the rest of his life, this sort of thing would happen often.
However…
“Your Grace. We just got a message from the information guild.”
“What is it?”
“Baroness Erin Reshamore has bought a train ticket.”
To just leave without even telling him.
Ash couldn’t tolerate that. Not ending their relationship in this way.
‘That’s not allowed.’
She wasn’t allowed to do that to him.
Even as he was filled with feelings of betrayal, anger, and sorrow, he moved as calmly as possible. He couldn’t allow for even a single mistake. If necessary, he would block off the entire train station and capture Erin.
‘Wait there for me, Erin.’
And so, Aston Clebania, Ash, came here without delay.
To get back his Erin Reshamore, who had run away so freely.
***
“…So that’s what happened.”
Calmly listening to his story while wrapped in his arms, Erin felt her mind go blank.
So, this was all…
“…Your doing?”
“To an extent.”
“You only approached me because…”
“I told you. I approached you out of curiosity, and now…”
As he said that, Ash held her with a desperate look and fiddled with her hand. Erin suddenly noticed the ring on her finger and looked a little sick.
“…Is this really the Clebania Dukedom’s signet ring?”
“…Yes.”
Click.
As Ash confirmed it and pressed the gem, it opened like a locket, revealing the family’s crest inside. Seeing it, Erin was horrified and asked.
“You gave me something like this?”
“There are no harmful spells on it. It’s truly a magical tool with only a tracking function.”
“…Then, what about you lifting bathtubs and stuff?!”
At that, Ash’s eyes widened, as if it were a matter of course.
So he really was that strong. He was so strong that his touch always felt so overwhelming.
As Erin’s cheeks flushed with a newfound realization, Ash parted his lips and rubbed his forehead against hers.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”
“Hmm.”
Erin hummed and scratched her cheek. She felt as though she, too, had missed a lot.
‘No wonder.’
She understood why Ash could confidently hit people without a single article being published.
Those kinds of people would have to bow down to the Clebania Dukedom.
‘And that’s not all.’
Ash’s seemingly luxurious house, and him forcing clothes on her, claiming he had savings.
He must have bought all the furniture in the lab, too.
Compared to the immeasurable wealth of the Clebania Dukedom, those expenses wouldn’t even have made a dent.
“Wait. But with all that wealth, why did you have an apartment with a leaking roof…”
“…I made it leak.”
“What?”
“So I could be with you.”
Her mouth instantly shut.
For some reason, her face burned with embarrassment.
‘Duke Aston Clebania, of all people, pulled a dirty… trick like that.’
And all to seduce Erin.
What’s more, she felt relieved that she wasn’t the only one who had been attracted to him.
That the fluttering she felt with Ash wasn’t just a delusion of her own. That she hadn’t been in a one-sided love with Ash.
‘He likes me, too…’
What a relief.
As Erin enjoyed the newfound sense of fulfillment, Ash continued to speak.
“After a while, I couldn’t find the right time to tell you, so I planned to propose to you formally after the presentation was over.”
Erin slowly blinked at his words.
‘Propose?’
She looked up at him in a daze, and Ash’s eyes were filled with seriousness.
Erin couldn’t help but ask.
“…Do you really want to marry me?”
“What have you been listening to this whole time?”
“Um…”
Right. He had confessed that he wanted to keep her by his side and be with her.
‘It wasn’t just as a researcher.’
He wanted to keep her by his side as his wife.
Erin’s cheeks flushed with heat again.
“I’m telling you again, you better not use me and throw me away, Erin.”
Ash, growling, held her even tighter, as if he might lose her at any moment.
“Don’t do that, not after coming all this way.”
“…”
“Don’t do that to me.”
It was an incredibly desperate confession.
“…I can’t help it if you’re angry about my lies, but please think about it once you’ve calmed down.”
“Think about what?”
“…Becoming my wife.”
Erin, in turn, patted Ash’s back as she thought to herself.
‘Wow. This is a change of pace.’
She felt a new kind of feeling from this side of him, which was so different from his compliant and diligent assistant persona.
‘His face is the same as it was before.’
Maybe this was his true self as Aston Clebania.
And the charming Ash she had known until now was a persona he had created just for her.
Anyone else would have been disgusted the moment he acted like this. Erin didn’t like people trying to control her.
But Ash felt a little different.
‘The reason I don’t feel bad, even when he’s talking so domineeringly, is because…’
She glanced up at Ash’s eyes, which were filled with desperation. The look in his eyes, which lovingly gazed down at her, was one of pure sincerity.
An innocent, blind sincerity.
‘…An infant.’
At that moment, Erin thought about the young Ash.
The Ash who was treated like a filthy thing. The Ash who was told he shouldn’t have been born and whose very existence was denied.
‘Are they all out of their minds?’
A feeling of indignation rose within her.
‘How can anyone say such things to such a beautiful child?’
Of course, no child should have to hear those words, no matter how they seemed. That was child abuse. This depressing, fleeing while pregnant fantasy world was so messed up.
Looking at Ash’s face, which seemed so pitiful, compassion swelled within her.
‘They were such terrible people.’
Ash was a kind and good person. He didn’t deserve to be treated like that.
Her nose tingled, and Erin slowly reached out and ran her hand through Ash’s hair. His pupils trembled at her touch, and he parted his lips again.
“…If you want, you can do anything you want.”
“Mmm.”
“I’ll support any experiment, and I’ll get you any ingredient you want…”
“Hmm. That does sound tempting. I mean, honestly, I’d rather have you invest in me than have a guy like Viscount Talven hitting on me…”
“…That bastard hit on you?”
Ash, who picked up on her words, instantly gave off a chilly vibe. The moment she heard him grind his teeth, Erin quickly wrapped her hand around Ash’s jaw.
“Anyway, people like that aren’t what’s important.”
At that, Ash avoided her gaze as if he were trying to read her mind. Erin stared at him and asked.
“Ash. Why do you want to marry me?”
“That’s…”
“Do you like me?”
Ash’s lips trembled at her direct question. His expression was pale, but Erin, like a ghost, noticed his ears turning red.
“Hmm? Do you like me?”
As she pressed him, the heat moved to his pale cheeks. It was a sight that would have made anyone sigh in admiration.
Ash, who was hesitating, finally opened his mouth.
“…No.”
“…”
“I…”
Ash whispered, then slowly tilted his head and pressed his lips to Erin’s mouth.
Amidst their mingled breaths, a small but clear voice resonated in Erin’s ears.
“…I love you.”
Only then did a clear laugh escape her lips. As Erin laughed in the middle of their kiss, Ash looked at her with a displeased expression.
Erin kissed him back and whispered.
“Yes, me too.”
“…”
“Okay. Let’s get married.”
Ash’s long eyelashes fluttered.
“Oh, right. I want to keep researching even after we’re married. No taking back your promise to support me. And about the lab… Gasp!”
Her words were swallowed by his hot lips.
His wet tongue swept across hers—urgent at first, then slowing to savor her.
But even that was enough to make her feel full.
‘Is it because our hearts are now connected?’
As she closed her eyes and focused on the kiss, feeling a sense of overwhelming fullness, she felt something wet on her cheek.
‘Wait, wet?’
Blink.
‘Ash?’
She opened her eyes, and Ash was crying.
Tears were dripping from his red eyes, wetting her face. Startled, Erin reached out to wipe them away…
But she stopped when she saw his sweet, curving eyes.
A sense of admiration and goosebumps ran through her as she realized they were tears of pure joy.
“Erin, Erin…”
His lips finally parted. Ash, who had been calling her name in a heated voice, buried himself in her arms like a spoiled child.
‘How cute.’
Erin, who hadn’t thought that in a while, gladly hugged Ash.
‘This time…’
She thought to herself that this time, she wouldn’t need to take the contraceptive.
For a long time, the room they were in was filled with warmth and wet sounds.
***
A while later, a grand event was held in the Empire: the marriage celebration of the veiled Duke Clebania.
Although the wedding ceremony itself was a small, quiet affair between them, the celebration held to commemorate it was enormous.
It was an event that seemed to boast of his marriage and his bride to everyone. Despite this, the identity of the bride remained shrouded in secrecy.
The people thought it was a very unique event, but they enjoyed the festivities to their heart’s content. They marveled at Duke Clebania’s generosity and wished the newlyweds happiness.
The only people who were not happy at the event were the reporters who had written bad articles about the contraceptive and got nothing out of it, and the men who had pestered Erin and lost their families as a result.
***
Some time later, a contraceptive called “Prepared Love” was released.
The contraceptive, which had improved on all the existing side effects and showed an excellent effect for a cheap price, saved more women than expected and became the best contraceptive on the market.
And on a certain moonlit night, the contraceptive was secretly delivered to the woman who was imprisoned in the Crown Prince’s palace.
And so, the woman avoided her death, and instead, was caught with the contraceptive, which infuriated the Crown Prince. But her confession led to him confessing his love, and all the misunderstandings that had accumulated between them were resolved…
And that they had found their own happy ending was a secret known only to two people in the world.
[The End]
Well this was a very short story but I hope you guys liked it. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would in all honesty.
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