The Survival Strategy of the Contract Duchess - Chapter 85

“How, how can Kyler prove that?”

Sasha asked him, still unable to leave his embrace. If she left his arms, she would have to look into his eyes, and if she read any reproach or blame in them, she felt like she would never recover.

Perhaps sensing her feelings, he didn’t push her away. He slowly stroked her small body in his arms, calming her down.

“Who am I? I am the one who hears the empire’s dangers as sounds. And the most frequent warning sound is about the appearance of monsters. Yet, here I am holding you like this.”

“Ah!.”

There was such clear proof, but she was lost in her own thoughts and showed an ugly side of herself. If only she had thought a little more.

The heat started from her neck and quickly rose to her face, making her unable to lift her head even more.

“Even when I first met you in that attic, you calmed my ears. Because the Marquis’s residence is right next to the mountains, and because I was there during a monster hunt, my ears were at their peak of pain. But when you grabbed me to hold me back, that tremendous painful sound completely disappeared.”

It was a memory she didn’t have but what was important was that his ears had been calmed ever since.

That alone was a relief.

“Back then, I was thinking of using you.”

Following his confession, he suddenly began to confess about that day.

She didn’t know about that time, their first meeting. And now the reality of their arranged marriage was about to come out. Sasha stiffened slightly and listened carefully to what he said.

“When I saw you grabbing me and asking me to take you away from here, I strangely didn’t feel unpleasant. And I soon knew why. The noise that had been gnawing at my ears had completely disappeared.”

Ah, I, or rather the original Sasha, had grabbed him. How painful must it have been for her to ask a man she had never met to take her away, to escape this place?

Shouldn’t that child be enjoying the comfort now? Unfortunately, there was no way to know where that Sasha was now.

For Sasha, who was afraid, Kyler continued to murmur words he didn’t usually say.

“So, I made a contract to marry you. I would get you out of the Marquis’s residence, where they only wanted to lock you in the attic and neglect you, and I… would be able to reach you at any time.”

That was all there was to it? That was all I could give him in the contract.

“You grabbed me, so it might seem like I saved you without any conditions, but in the end, I gained so much too. Even to be loved like this, and to be loving you too.”

As Kyler said those words, he hugged her in his arms even more tightly. Unlike his solid embrace, his heart was beating rapidly.

“Kyler!”

“This is the proof. You are not a monster tormenting my ears, but someone who brings peace to my ears like a god.”

A god…

Sasha couldn’t lift her head and gripped his clothes tightly in his arms. She held on so tightly that her fingers hurt, holding on and holding on.

“That’s absurd. I’m the one, who has received so much from Kyler. And still am.”

He brought her here for his own desires, but he didn’t forget her treatment as a duchess. He was completely different from the people who had locked her in the attic and didn’t even take care of her.

Food and clothing were so basic, and he also took care of her position in the mansion. He warmly filled her empty heart and watched over her with affection, even though she couldn’t fill his heart.

“The first coming back every three days, then…”

Only then did she remember misunderstanding him at first. When she was rather dazed and didn’t have any particular thoughts, the maids working in the Duke’s mansion were saying that she had married for her body, and she had overheard it by chance.

The words reminding her of the contract conditions while spending the first night were added, and she realized, ‘Ah, I married for my body, for that relationship.’

Thinking about it now, it was such an embarrassing thought.

“When I’m away from home for a long time, it’s obviously when I’m out working, so my ears are noisy and painfully loud. I can’t help but miss your embrace.”

No, what I want to ask is more than that But I don’t think I can say it too explicitly, so I was biting and mumbling my lips. He noticed the subtle difference in her words and cleared his throat.

“Well, just holding hands would have been enough. That was…”

Kyler, who had been explaining without hesitation until now, suddenly stopped talking. He cleared his throat, swallowed dryly, and his heart was pounding.

Sasha realized that Kyler’s hesitation was what she was curious about, and she silently waited for him to open his mouth.

Perhaps he was waiting for her to do something, Kyler, who had been taking slow, deep breaths, felt Sasha’s body, which was resting comfortably unlike him, and let out a sigh of relief.

“Do you remember being caught by me while running away on the wedding day?”

Ah, that was when Sasha wasn’t the previous Sasha. I was in chaos, thinking, ‘What’s with the wedding!’ and tried to run away, but I was caught by the person in question before I could even go far.

Ah, how should I explain this? While she was thinking, he opened his mouth again.

“When I saw you after leaving the Marquis’s residence, I wondered if you hated my conditions that much but something was different from then. Your eyes, your feeling were different.”

I didn’t think he would notice it right away but I thought he might. Even if only your eyes change, a person looks different, but her soul had completely changed.

“You know why I had to get married urgently, right?”

“Um, I know.”

He nodded at Sasha’s answer and said.

“Yes. It was a desperate measure taken by His Majesty the Emperor to avoid the Empress’s feelings. And I had a certain idea of spending the first night on the first day of the wedding to create my own proof that I had properly fulfilled it.”

Wow! What a rigid man. He must have felt burdened by the Empress’s feelings and even had a sense of guilt about it.

If he thought that much, he might have thought that the first night was nothing.

“After seeing your changed appearance before the wedding, and holding you that night, my heart completely changed.”

“Ah, so you fell for my body.”

Sasha pushed his shoulder, which she had been leaning on, and got up from his arms. As she tried to get up with an emotionless voice, she felt him hesitating and awkwardly releasing his arms that had been wrapped around her.

She barely managed to hold back the laughter that seemed to burst out inside and looked at him from a distance. It would be perfect if some tears came out, but I guess I’m not destined to be a natural actor.

“That… that is.”

Kyler stopped talking as if he was embarrassed by her reaction. He stared at her eyes, which were supporting his shoulder and making eye contact with him without any expression on his stiff face, and then rolled his eyes away.

“That,  that might be the case. That night greatly moved my heart that’s true.”

“Okay. So, you just need my body.”

She threw it out there one more time on purpose. He continued to fidget and didn’t even dare to touch her, not knowing what to do.

Maybe I’m the first person he’s ever shown this side of himself to in his entire life? I’m the only person he doesn’t want to let go of to the point of fidgeting at every word.

Whether it’s because of this body that closes his ears, or because he loves even the heart inside, of course, it’s an important part, but I really didn’t care. So, it was a happy thing that his eyes were shaking now.

This man, who doesn’t know how to properly convey his feelings, was actually conveying his sincerity with his whole body if you looked closely.

Sasha looked down at Kyler for a moment and felt tears welling up in her eyes. The tears that welled up in an instant quickly rolled down her cheeks.

His eyes widened even more, and he looked noticeably flustered.

Sasha cupped his cheeks with her hands and moved closer as she was.

She pressed her lips against his lips, pressed down on them as he had always done to her, sucked on his lower lip, and licked her tongue over his lips.

There were times when I was comforted by these movements, times when my heart fluttered with excitement is he feeling what I felt now?

He didn’t move. Nevertheless, I, who was getting impatient, continued to kiss his lips deeply and hugged his head.

And a moment of excitement resonated in my heart and penetrated into his lips. As if he had been waiting, he opened his lips and welcomed her smooth tongue inside.

Instead of the stiff Kyler, the soft and hot him welcomed her.

In the quiet sound of water and the pavilion where the wind swirled through the pillars, the two were embracing each other without a gap, melting into each other.

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