Chapter 10

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Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: A Mark of Passion
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“……What kind of proof?”

At my question, the woman looked up at me brazenly.

“Anything. As long as it can serve as proof that you spent the night with Duke Argenta.”

At her words, I tilted my head slightly, pretending to think.

“Proof?”

Do people normally leave proof on their first night?

I furrowed my brow with a troubled expression.

This was a crisis.

If we had truly spent the night together, there would have been some kind of trace, but we had literally just held hands and slept.

This was a crisis… or it would have been.

If I hadn’t asked Diello to prepare for this in advance.

“Ah.”

I held out my hand as if I’d just remembered something.

The memory of Diello’s flustered face from last night came to mind.

His slightly flushed face and his troubled expression.

And that strangely sensual feeling.

*Click.*

I undid the top button of my dress.

My face grew a little red, as if the feeling of last night was returning.

To the spy’s eyes, this would probably look like the shyness of a new bride thinking about her wedding night.

*Click, click.*

After undoing a couple more buttons, I lifted the fabric slightly.

She would surely be able to see it.

The undeniable mark of passion, imprinted on my collarbone.

“Is this… enough?”

I spoke as if I were confident, but I didn’t forget to feign embarrassment.

This mark was in a place I definitely couldn’t have made on my own.

The spy stared intently at the spot I had revealed, then nodded.

“I have confirmed it.”

Then she whirled around and used the artifact again. She transformed back into a child and ran out into the clearing.

“Yay! I found the way!”

Her childlike act was positively chilling.

Before I could even straighten my clothes and follow, the child darted off and threw herself into the arms of an Alloje maid.

“Oh, my!”

The Alloje maid’s eyes widened as she lifted the spy into her arms.

She then gave me an apologetic bow and left the area.

“I figured they’d send someone to check.”

But I never imagined it would be like this.

Watching them leave, I brushed down my dress.

In the original novel, there was no scene where someone checked how the wedding night went.

The story had focused entirely on the scene where the original Croire tricked Diello into spending the night with her, so I couldn’t even remember how the aftermath had been glossed over.

‘I have a favor to ask.’

I turned, thinking of last night.

I had thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to prepare, knowing Duke Alloje’s thorough nature.

‘I need you to leave a mark… right about… here?’

Diello had looked genuinely startled when I pointed to my collarbone.

‘Are you… truly all right with this?’

‘Of course.’

You’re only doing it because I asked, right?

Of course, it wasn’t as if I didn’t feel a little strange about it myself.

But a mark of passion, when you got down to it, was nothing more than a bruise.

It would heal and disappear with time.

And so, I gently cradled the back of his head and drew him toward me.

‘We have to be thorough.’

Pressing down on me, deliberately.

I whispered to him again as he hesitated.

‘You said it was either do it, or don’t.’

Besides, don’t we need the practice?

My words ended his hesitation, and he finally let out a short sigh.

‘Ah.’

In an instant, he was on top of me, his warm breath washing over me.

Because I was only wearing a gown, my collarbone was exposed, and I tensed as his breath touched my skin.

He must have felt me flinch, because he laced his fingers with mine.

Then he gazed at me with gentle eyes.

‘Then, Croire.’

I’m sorry.

After whispering those words, he leaned his body over me.

He placed a light kiss on the tip of my nose, then pulled me into an embrace, pressing deeper and deeper against me.

The sensation of his breath on the tip of my ear, his lips gently pressing against my neck, and his fingertips trailing softly down my skin still felt vivid.

As did the memory of my bare shoulder, exposed when my gown was pushed aside, soon flushing with heat.

And his body, which soon grew so close that not a sliver of cool air could get between us.

“How on earth…”

Recalling that moment, I fanned my face.

The way my face was now burning was definitely not part of the act.

Whenever I thought of last night, fanning myself did nothing to cool the heat in my cheeks.

“……How on earth.”

The question I hadn’t dared to ask yesterday echoed in my mind.

‘Why is he so good at this?’

* * *

“The fences of Argenta are sturdy.”

Diello murmured lowly, his chin propped on his hand as he stood by the window.

The view below was visible through a slight gap in the curtains.

In his line of sight was Croire Alloje, returning to the flower garden.

*Tap, tap, tap.*

His fingertips, which had been tapping a steady rhythm on the windowsill, stopped.

Yes, the fences of Argenta were sturdy.

To those outside, they were an unforgivingly high and solid wall. To those within, they were a reliable shield and a source of support.

“Croire Alloje…”

She was one of the Allojes.

She had come on Duke Alloje’s orders and had become the Duchess of Argenta according to Duke Alloje’s plan.

Although she had revealed that she was a fake Pero and proposed a contract marriage until the real one arrived.

“……”

Diello’s eyes narrowed.

The eyes she had compared to the sea last night were now submerged in a cool shadow.

He still didn’t fully trust Croire.

Even though they were married.

To completely trust someone was a foolish thing to do.

Even if Croire Alloje seemed to have laid all her cards on the table, there was no telling what other thoughts she might be hiding.

The histories of the three great families were filled with those who would stab another in the back with a smile on their face.

And Croire Alloje was one of them—a member of one of those three families, the Allojes.

The blood of Alloje, skilled in schemes and trickery.

People who wouldn't hesitate to use even the guise of a child to make their opponent lower their guard.

“……”

That was why Diello Argenta had let her further inside the fence.

Within the sturdy fences that moved solely for the sake of Argenta, any discordant action on her part would naturally stand out.

And if it did, all he had to do was weed her out.

There were already some who were beginning to waver, hearing that the current head of the family was weak and had even taken in a Pero from the Alloje family.

Such fickle people were not needed for the future of Argenta.

Once the real Pero arrived, those people would be dealt with according to the laws of Argenta.

“Do it, or don’t.”

*Tap, tap, tap.*

He resumed tapping the windowsill with his fingertips.

Croire Alloje would have to make her position clear.

If she was an Alloje agent sent with a mission, she would have to deceive him completely.

And if she had truly come to join hands with Argenta, she would have to become one of them completely.

‘I have a favor to ask.’

Diello tilted his head, thinking of Croire Alloje’s words from yesterday.

The Croire Alloje who had audaciously asked him to leave a ‘mark’ had said she was ‘preparing for a potential situation.’

‘What if Duke Alloje becomes suspicious?’

And today, just as she had predicted last night, a spy had indeed come.

Diello had watched in silent admiration as Croire, while feigning surprise, naturally thwarted the spy.

Duke Alloje’s method of directly confirming the consummation of the marriage was utterly repulsive, but Croire, who had seen through it ahead of time, piqued his interest.

“I do hope your proposal of a contract marriage was truly sincere.”

I hope this will be a clean transaction, free of betrayal.

He decided to watch Croire Alloje a while longer.

From very close by, in the guise of a shy husband.