Living a Scheming Marriage with a Mad Villain - Chapter 14

Contrary to my nervous expectations, Reus gently lifted my foot and placed it on his hand. I saw the bandage hanging loosely over his fingers.

“Oh, because of the bandage.”

Then, without a word, he calmly rewrapped the loosened bandage, even though it didn’t seem like something he would usually do. I relaxed a bit at the unexpected kindness.

But even after finishing the bandage, Reus didn’t get up. He stared at me as if he had more to do. Then, all of a sudden, he reached his hand out to me.

“Is he asking for my hand? Why?”

Unsure of his intentions, I hesitated for a moment before carefully placing my hand on his.

Then Reus’s thumb lightly tapped one of my fingers.

It didn’t seem to mean anything. It felt like an unconscious gesture. He probably wasn’t even aware of it himself.

He did the same earlier in the parlor. It seemed like a habit that came out when he was lost in thought.

What could he be thinking about so deeply? Reus stayed silent for a long time.

Just as I started to feel awkward in the growing silence and began to pull my hand back, Reus gently held it.

When I looked at him with confusion, he raised my hand to his eyes.

I was startled by the sudden gesture.

“Why can’t I remember?”

With just that one sentence, I understood what he was trying to do.

I had stayed silent all day, doing everything I could to avoid getting pulled in but in just one unguarded moment, I walked right into Reus’s trap.

“I don’t intend to hurt you. So please don’t move.”

The words Reus recited.

[“I… I don’t intend to hurt you! So please don’t move.”]

They were the exact same words I had whispered into Reus’s ear that day.

The memory of that moment came rushing back, and my body stiffened.

“I see. Judging by your reaction, it must have been you.”

“D-Duke…”

“Why do you have no intention of telling me?”

Reus let go of my hand.

As it dropped, his blue eyes, now uncovered, came into view.

Like the clear sky, his eyes were pure and calm. There wasn’t the slightest trace of anger only softened frustration.

“I think it’s time to stop trying to persuade you.”

“What?”

“I think it’ll be quicker to make you want to talk instead.”

What trick is he planning now?

I looked at him, tense, but Reus did something unusual. He smiled briefly and stood up, smoothing out his wrinkled clothes.

“You may not realize it, but that sentence is the only thing I remember from that day. Just one line, spoken by someone I couldn’t even identify.”

Someone he couldn’t identify?

‘Did I make a mistake that day?’

Reus had spent the whole day pressuring me to admit that I saved him. Yet now he says he couldn’t even tell who said those words?

Something doesn’t add up.

“So at first, I believed the man at the cabin. It would’ve been easier if I had kept believing him. But someone told me. That it was actually you who saved me.”

Even though I heard his words clearly, I kept replaying them as if I hadn’t fully understood.

‘Who told him? What does that even mean?’

My mind was frozen, but my body reacted quickly to the shift in atmosphere. A chill ran down my spine, and I sat up straighter.

“Now you look like you want to talk.”

“Duke—”

“I appreciate your change of heart, but as you said, the night is deep. It’s time to rest.”

“Wait, Duke…”

As I stood up, Reus gently guided me back toward the bed.

“Duke…!”

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow, Lady Ivelle.”

Without a hint of regret, Reus left the room.

I didn’t sleep at all.

“Who could’ve seen me? No, how was that even possible?”

The Forest of Silence was like a void, dark as if magic had swallowed it whole.

Even I hadn’t recognized Reus when he was right in front of me that day!

So the idea of someone seeing me from a distance didn’t make sense. If someone really did, they must have been near Anas.

“That’s even worse! If they recognized me, they must’ve seen me go into Anas!”

I had no idea who could’ve known me, how they recognized me, or why they told Reus.

But one thing was clear I couldn’t stay silent anymore.

“Haah…”

I was about to rest my forehead on my knees and think when a knock came at the door.

“Yes, come in.”

I straightened my posture, thinking it might be Reus. But it was a maid from the Duke’s estate.

“The Duke has asked for Lady Ivelle to come to him.”

I followed her to where Reus was waiting. The walk felt unusually long.

Like someone suffering from anxiety, I couldn’t keep my hands still. Before I knew it, I was standing in front of Reus’s office.

Knock knock—

“Your Grace. Lady Ivelle has arrived.”

A warm baritone voice soon allowed entry.

When I stepped into the office, Reus looked up from his documents and greeted me cheerfully.

“Good morning, Lady Ivelle.”

He looked completely refreshed, as if he’d had the most peaceful sleep.

Meanwhile, I had spent the entire night too anxious to even close my eyes!

I was irritated, but I wasn’t in a position to complain. I quietly took a seat across from him.

Reus set down his papers and leaned back comfortably.

“I’m glad to see you’re still willing to talk.”

His attitude was very relaxed. I wished I could be that calm.

But I’d waited all night for this. I got straight to the point.

“Duke… Who was it that said they saw me?”

But the answer I got was not what I expected.

“Lady Ivelle. I’m truly grateful that you saved my life. But that’s a separate matter. I still haven’t decided whether I can trust you.”

“So you’re saying you won’t tell me?”

“That depends on how you answer my next question.”

He has a question for me? I couldn’t imagine what it would be.

Then Reus spoke.

“I heard you sent a letter of annulment to Marquis Ersian.”

‘How does he know that?’

Shocked, I asked with a pale face,

“Your Grace, how much do you know about me?”

“Well, from beginning to end.”

“Beginning to end?”

“Anas. Your identity. Your birth. Those are the three things that come to mind.”

So he already knew that I had no choice but to surrender.

Reus had simply been waiting for the right time.

“Then it’s my turn to ask. Lady Ivelle. Was the annulment something you had to do in order to leave the Empire?”

Why is he so interested in my annulment?

Still, I had no room to dodge.

I quickly grasped the direction of the conversation and replied a beat later.

“No. The annulment was a separate issue.”

“That makes things easier.”

What Reus said next caught me completely off guard.

“Lady Ivelle. How about marrying me?”

His tone was as casual as suggesting a meal. That made it even more confusing.

Marriage? Who? With whom?

“Weren’t you trying to get a new identity and move to another country?”

“Well… yes, but…”

What did that have to do with marriage?

“I’ll give you enough money to settle down in another country.”

‘He even knows I was planning to leave the Empire with nothing.’

How did he know that? I was shocked by his level of information. But I quickly calmed myself.

After all, the main reason I wanted to leave the Empire was to avoid my engagement with Reus.

‘But this man, not knowing that, is now asking me to marry him.’

Reus must have his reasons, but still this wasn’t an engagement. It was marriage!

There was no point in hearing more. I shook my head and tried to speak firmly.

“Your Grace, I don’t think marriage is—”

“The Ivelle family.”

“What?”

“I’ll give you the Ivelle estate.”

I stood frozen, and Reus repeated himself.

“I’m offering you everything that belongs to the Ivelle family.”

“Of course, that would require us to be married.”

He just said he’d give me the money to settle in another country.

‘So that money meant the Ivelle estate?’

That’s not money, that’s a fortune!

Every word this man speaks is more shocking than the last.

“Do you have any lingering attachment to the Ivelle estate? If so, it might be difficult both for the one giving and the one receiving.”

Reus looked genuinely troubled. But who should really be the one feeling troubled here?

I stared blankly at him, overwhelmed, and then a thought hit me.

‘But would he really give me the estate just because I married him?’

Judging by the way he asked if I had any feelings left for it, it didn’t seem like a clean or positive way of giving it to me.

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