Chapter 35

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 35

Chapter Title: How to Survive as the Wife of the Monster Duke

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Ilrin stared quietly down at the contract, pen in hand.

Something felt off.

Unlike the viscount, she immediately grasped what this contract signified.

The moment she approved this deal, it would be like slipping a collar around Viscount Arlen's neck.

"……."

Ilrin hesitated without realizing it.

Borrowing Aden's words, it seemed she couldn't sink any lower.

"How was it earlier?"

Aden didn't press her.

Instead, he asked something else.

"In the room."

He murmured softly.

Ilrin recalled the viscount in the room—and him.

Aden's ever-reliable presence, contrasted sharply by the viscount's pathetically shabby appearance.

Why did he look so small and insignificant through the veil?

As if he were nothing at all.

To the point where she couldn't fathom how she'd lived so crushed under such a man.

Compared to Aden, he truly seemed wretched.

Aden reached out and gently stroked her silver hair.

Her hair, pinned up all day, now cascaded in softer waves than usual.

Full of life... unlike the viscountess.

As their eyes met, he smiled.

As if he knew exactly what she was thinking.

"Ilrin, do what you want. Take what you desire. I'll make the Winter Lands your tool."

Don't hesitate.

From the day you married me, you had everything.

His whisper was always sweet as honey.

He drew closer and pressed his forehead to hers.

Warmth enveloped the space between them.

Aden tilted his head back slightly from their gentle forehead touch and descended to her lips.

As always, he knocked lightly at her mouth.

When she parted her lips just a fraction, as if granting permission, and drew in a breath, he smiled and slipped inside at once.

From teasing her lower lip, he plunged deep within her in an instant.

"Leave the north wind to me, and stay forever the warm sunfolk, Ilrin."

Aden pulled back slightly and brushed over her eyes, closing them gently.

His eyes sparkled.

Viscount Arlen would lose everything he possessed.

Even the value of the Arlen name he'd staked his life on.

It all hinged on Ilrin's hands.

The contract between the Esid Merchant Group and House Arlen was successfully sealed.

Viscount Arlen stamped the document with great satisfaction.

"I look forward to working with you."

Even as they shook hands, the viscount beamed broadly.

"If any issues arise with the trade, please contact us separately."

"I can reach out to you directly?"

Viscount Arlen gave a slight bow toward the woman in the black veil.

The woman watching them from afar showed no reaction.

The viscount hesitated before asking.

"Might I have the honor of your name...?"

Ilrin was briefly flustered when the question turned to her.

There had been no discussion on coordinating stories, so as long as she didn't give her real name, it should be fine.

"El."

Ilrin gave the meaningless name curtly.

She worried that speaking at length might make the viscount recognize her familiar voice.

Whether misfortune or fortune, her voice came out slightly hoarse from prolonged silence.

The viscount nodded without a shred of suspicion.

"Understood. I'll contact Lady El directly."

And so, the contract was sealed to the mutual satisfaction of both parties—for entirely different reasons.

Aden had never left the Winter Lands.

Thus, he had no idea what transpired there when the Winter Duke was away from Biplten.

Of course, records and witnesses abounded from his father, the previous duke, who had frequently visited the Sunlands.

They all said the same thing.

"There'll be no issues in winter."

Ijis felt the same.

Still, they couldn't be absent for too long.

So the group hurried their return.

"The snow here melts so fast?"

"For real?"

That said, it wasn't as if the maids had no time for fun.

Ilrin watched the excited maids from afar.

She'd noticed it before, but Crimson Delroz maids were quite different from Sunlands maids.

She didn't know about the other three houses, but Delroz was certainly distinct.

Having dealt only with maids steeped in the viscount's house's rigid sense of hierarchy, Ilrin found Delroz maids far more friendly—almost beyond mere lord-servant relations.

Of course, both maids and she knew their boundaries, so no real issues arose.

But sometimes, the maids had their adorable moments.

Especially here in the Sunlands.

"……."

One maid glanced around furtively.

Her sneaky behavior made Ilrin duck behind the building.

Peeking out moments later, she saw the maids with skirts hiked up, prodding the snow barefoot with their toes.

"Wow, you try it too!"

An excited voice rang out.

It was the kind of prank unimaginable in the Winter Lands.

Ilrin couldn't help but laugh.

"What are you finding so amusing over here?"

Just then, a blue cloth draped over Ilrin's head.

The familiar warmth wrapping her neck.

"Den."

"Yes."

Aden gazed at the maids while embracing her from behind.

His eyes narrowed.

"Neglect of duty."

Aden said in mock sternness.

They weren't attending Ilrin but playing among themselves—what excuse could they possibly have?

"It's fine. They're just excited since it's their first time in the Sunlands."

Me butting in as their superior would just kill the mood, wouldn't it? Ilrin smiled softly.

As she watched the maids, she tentatively reached toward a snowdrift herself.

Her slender hand, as if it might freeze at any moment, touched the pile.

Aden instinctively reached to stop her.

Then he paused.

"……."

Was Sunlands snow even weaker than he'd thought?

Under her slight pressure, the drift crumbled effortlessly.

The powdery snow melted instantly on her hand, dripping away as water.

Sparkling droplets fell onto the snow.

A sheen of moisture colored the white mound.

But what truly captivated Aden was Ilrin's fingertips.

Gazing at her hand glistening in the sunlight, he slowly lifted his eyes.

The bright morning sun poured down on her.

Her vibrant silver hair shimmered even more brilliantly under the Sunlands light.

Of course, the Biplten estate had bright lighting too.

And once, in childhood, he'd seen light in Luminous Ello's domain.

They said it mimicked the Sunlands sun.

"Ah……."

Aden unconsciously brushed her sparkling tresses.

Even a light touch made the strands sway, flashing with light.

The brilliance stung his eyes, and he blinked shut.

"Den?"

Ilrin, rubbing her eyes, turned to him.

Another small snowball melted, trickling from her hand.

Aden seized her hand, which was growing chill.

Her cooling fingers quickly warmed, absorbing his heat.

Even as he held her hand, Aden couldn't tear his gaze from her face.

Her violet eyes tinged with puzzlement, her long silver lashes—they shone far brighter in the sunlight.

It wasn't like artificial light.

She, a true child of the Sunlands summer, gleamed dazzlingly under its rays.

The Sunlands might be stark winter now, yet beside her bloomed the fresh scent of verdant foliage.

Aden had never visited a meadow teeming with life.

A place brimming with green vitality.

Having never seen it, he could scarcely imagine it.

Yet he dared to feel as if he stood in its midst.

His woman shone so radiantly.

In the Sunlands' sun-drenched natural garden, there she stood at its heart.

Even though it was still winter here.

For the first time, Aden understood why his father had wanted to gift his mother the Sunlands.

He understood his mother, who had yearned for it.

Sunfolk must shine this unforgettably beautifully under the sun.

For the first time, Aden coveted summer.

He wanted it.

You, dazzling in brilliance. You, happy in the warmth.

Aden pulled Ilrin into a tight embrace once more.

Preparations for Aden and Ilrin's return wrapped up swiftly.

Even as Delroz's maids, new to the Sunlands, paused in wonder at every novelty, things progressed smoothly.

Thanks to Milo quickly assessing the Winter Lands maids' states.

He promptly directed his Sunlands-born Esid members to assist.

Thus dawned the final day in the Sunlands, one the Delroz maids especially regretted ending.

「Ilrin.」

Ilrin thought she'd just fallen asleep.

The resonant voice made her open her eyes.

What she saw was a familiar yet strange room.

The ceiling and wall decorations were familiar, but the furniture arrangement felt quite alien.

More precisely, like a place she hadn't visited in ages.

Ah...

Ilrin's mouth fell open unwittingly.

There was only one person in the room.

Breathing shallowly with clouded eyes—it was her mother.

The lustrous silver hair, full of life and sheen from her childhood, had long lost its vigor and hung limp.

It was the viscountess's form she hadn't even seen when leaving the estate.

—!

The door flew open with a sharp bang.

Ilrin watched herself enter.

And spotted the mobile by her mother's bedside.

A precognitive dream.

「Ilrin.」

The viscountess's voice was faint.

She stared straight not at the Ilrin in the dream, but at the dreaming Ilrin.

Her limp body, shallow breaths, pallid complexion—Ilrin saw the same as she'd witnessed in Syd before his death.

Her mother was dying.

She wouldn't last beyond tonight, at longest.

Ilrin knew it instinctively.

Her eyes widened hugely.

「This is a dream, dear.」

I know.

Ilrin wanted to reply, but wasn't sure her voice would reach.

She clamped her mouth shut.

Strange emotions welled up.

Her mother, whom she hadn't properly seen since age seven.

Her father detested the two clinging together, and after foreseeing Syd's death, her mother was resented until she went mad.

Before Ilrin turned ten, the viscountess sometimes failed to recognize her.

Confusing dream and reality, she spouted cryptic words to people before her, unknowable as prophecy or not.

But not now.

Ilrin was certain.

Her mother spoke with utterly clear mind.

The same lucid, warm voice from before Syd died.

「Come here.」

The viscountess barely turned her head toward the window.

Ilrin looked up at the full moon outside.

Ilrin jolted awake from the dream. She shot up from bed.

Flipping off the covers, she flung open the thick blackout curtains.

Startled by her movement, Etra knocked.

"Madam, is something wrong?"

But Ilrin's ears didn't register it.

Her vision filled with a clear sky.

Unusually cloudless, it held a perfectly round full moon.

The exact sky, the exact full moon from the dream.

Good heavens.

Her mother's death... was today.