Asha was speechless.
Although what he said seemed to be true, she honestly felt a little wronged.
'When did you ever treat me like a wife?'
However, he was the master and she was his subordinate.
Moreover, it was he, not her, who had stipulated that she should perform the role of a wife properly.
According to the contract, it seemed like she was obligated to act as his wife better, as he said.
Carlyle smiled, seeing Asha's expression mixed with absurdity, embarrassment, resentment, and understanding.
"It seems like you're having a hard time, so I decided to help you. It was a coincidence that I brought you back yesterday, but thanks to that, it seems like a pretty plausible picture will come out."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean, let's spread the rumor that we've become a real couple. You slept in my room yesterday. It's not a lie, but don't explain more than that to others anyway."
Asha was not so naive as to not know anything about relationships between men and women, just because she had never been in a relationship before.
She could more or less predict what kind of rumors would spread in the castle.
"If we say that we slept in the same room now... Wouldn't everyone think it's strange?"
"It would be strange if it were normal times. But isn't there something that gives plausibility to this ridiculous story right now?"
Carlyle pretended to take a sip from his glass. It was just a pretense, but it was clear that the glass he was holding was not a water glass.
"Ah...."
"Everyone was drinking and drunk yesterday. Everyone saw you drunk, and I also drank quite a few glasses of wine offered here and there.... Even if you say that such an accident happened, no one will think it's strange."
"That's true... but...."
"Anyway, that's why we're a couple who have become a little closer since today. And we're going to pretend to be getting closer and closer, so that the Empress has no room to find fault."
Asha couldn't understand whether she was not fully awake and couldn't understand, or whether Carlyle was just talking nonsense.
"I really... I don't know why we have to do this."
Then Carlyle lifted Asha's chin slightly and spoke with a stern face.
"We have to. I just received news that Matthias is trying to get me kicked out of Pervaz."
"Is that... something he can do as he pleases?"
"No. Matthias is an incompetent bastard. He ran to his mother and whined, asking her to do something. And that mother is the problem."
Even so, Asha had a hard time understanding.
"If it's the Empress, what is she going to do? Is she going to seduce the Emperor and raise an army?"
Carlyle shook his head.
"Unfortunately, there is an easier way than that. It is very, very rare, but there are times when the marriage document is destroyed in the temple."
"Yes?"
"It means that the marriage is invalidated because it is an impure marriage. And if our marriage is invalidated, I will have to recover as much of the money I invested in Pervaz as possible and return to the Imperial Palace."
Carlyle thought that the Empress would have already made a move to invalidate the marriage between him and Asha.
[This marriage is nothing more than His Highness Carlyle buying Countess Pervaz with money to avoid his duties. This marriage must be invalidated.]
The Empress's appeal to persuade the Imperial Family and the Temple seemed to ring in his ears.
'In fact… it's not entirely wrong.'
That's why it was even more of a problem. If he was really careful, he might end up in a situation where the marriage was declared invalid and he had to leave Pervaz.
Asha laughed in disbelief at Carlyle's explanation.
"But it was His Majesty the Emperor who said he would give me the right to choose my marriage partner, and I simply chose Your Highness, and Your Highness simply agreed to it. And now he's going to invalidate it…"
"Isn't it ridiculous? But I think Matthias is half-turning back now because he doesn't want to go to war? I think he's determined to destroy this marriage by whatever means necessary."
"What...?"
"You know. It's funny. But that Empress is also… Her son will be in a lot of trouble if he goes to war and accidentally dies…
Carlyle winked and omitted the rest of his words as if to say that their circumstances were obvious.
"Anyway… if it becomes known that we are a real married couple who have even slept together, it will be difficult for that marriage invalidation card to be played. The guests from Zyro are here, so it's a good time to spread rumors. What do you think? Can you do it?"
"Well..., yes...."
Asha nodded, though she was a little embarrassed.
It wasn't like they had actually slept together, and it wouldn't be difficult to pretend.
"The rumor has probably already spread. I had the maids on our side put you in that nightgown last night."
"My aides must have been… very surprised."
"Is that so surprising? In the Imperial Palace, it's not unusual to wake up in the same bed as a stranger after a banquet."
Asha glared at Carlyle with a heated expression, but he completely ignored her and explained the course of action from now on.
Although she didn't like it, when she thought of the money he had poured into Pervaz, she felt like she could do anything. Asha nodded and listened to him.
At the end, Carlyle added a warning as if to come to his senses.
"But don't get me wrong, Countess Pervaz. No matter how affectionate I may seem on the outside, you shouldn't take it to heart."
Asha almost snorted at the words telling her not to have any strange expectations about pretending to be a married couple, but she managed to nod with a serious face.
"There's no chance that I'd do that, so don't worry."
The two people, who were still in an unfathomable stage, did not doubt the words they had spoken in the slightest.
***
The second day of the Harvest Festival, which was a little calmer than the first day due to yesterday's hangover, the rumor that Asha, who had disappeared last night, came out of Carlyle's room in the morning quickly spread throughout the castle.
"Oh my god, the Lord spent the night in the Prince's room."
"Oh my, oh my! Finally...?"
"Wait a minute, what's going to happen now?"
The people of Pervaz Castle, who had been worried about the relationship between Asha and Carlyle, were excited to see if Asha might finally become the Prince's Consort.
And the servants on the second floor were trembling at this fact.
"If Countess Pervaz really becomes His Highness'... will she leave us alone?"
"Maybe… it was just a one-night stand?"
"How can it be a one-night stand between a married couple who have even exchanged vows?"
"Then what do we do?"
"What do we do? We have to show her our best from now on."
Although everyone was feeling various emotions based on confusion, no one was as confused as Cecilia and Dorothea, or more precisely, Cecilia and Dorothea's father.
"She pretends to be demure and uninterested, but what the hell is this?"
Cecilia's maid, Angie, was so angry that her hands were shaking as she squeezed the pillow.
Cecilia felt the same way.
"That's right. She acts so high and mighty...."
Cecilia bit her lip as she recalled Asha, who had been indifferent and nonchalant in front of Carlyle the whole time.
Although she had told her brothers that she was "just a woman who would warm his bed a few times," she had been convinced that nothing had happened between the two of them since they arrived in Pervaz, and that nothing would happen in the future.
Especially, Asha had barely even glanced at Carlyle until the banquet the other night, so how could she have thought of throwing herself into his arms after drinking a few glasses of alcohol?
"Isn't she surprisingly a vixen? Did she use some kind of strange potion? Otherwise, no matter how drunk she was, how could His Highness Carlyle have fallen for her?"
That was what Angie was most curious about.
According to rumors, he was a "profligate who doesn't stop women from coming or going," but Angie had learned from Cecilia that this was a false rumor.
If that rumor had been true, her young lady would have been by his side.
But how could Asha Pervaz, who looked like a countryside bumpkin, have managed to conquer that man whom even her young lady could not conquer?
Cecilia was just as curious.
"They say His Highness Carlyle was also quite drunk... but I know that he holds his liquor very well, so I can't believe that. But if His Highness was not drunk, then why on earth did he... with Countess Pervaz...?"
In a normal married couple, there would have been no reason to have such a question, but Cecilia was confused because she believed that the relationship between the two of them was very dry.
So she asked Angie again.
"Is it true that that woman spent the night in His Highness Carlyle's room?"
Angie had no choice but to tell her mistress the disappointing news.
"I heard it from a maid who went into the room yesterday on His Highness's orders…."
"Yes, what is it?"
"They say that His Highness ordered them to change the clothes of Countess Pervaz, who was asleep, and that… it was a very 'revealing' nightgown."
At those words, Cecilia asked as if she had caught an important clue.
"Then it means it wouldn't have been a big deal if they had just changed his clothes?"
"Ah, that's…."
Angie's cheeks flushed.
"His Highness Carlyle was only wearing a nightshirt. And the maids said that Countess Pervaz woke up while they were changing her clothes…."
"So?"
"Well, so… by the time the maids came out, the two of them were in the same bed…."
There was a brief silence between Cecilia and Angie.
"Ha, but don't worry too much, My Lady! These things are just a one-time fling!"
Angie comforted Cecilia, but it didn't change the fact that this was something that was completely unplanned by Cecilia.