At a late hour, Blair stood in front of the door.

Today was her wedding day, and this room was where she would spend her first night with her husband.

After standing still for a while, she covered her thin nightgown, which revealed the curves of her body, with a shawl and knocked.

"..."

Her husband didn't seem to have come to the bedroom yet.

Blair let out a small sigh of relief, then entered the room and sat on the sofa.

And waited for her husband.

Ten minutes passed like that.

Thirty minutes, and then another thirty minutes.

Even after an hour, her husband didn't come. Unlike in the past.

'Is he not going to come?'

As Blair stared at the tightly closed door, she suddenly remembered how this marriage came to be.

'Well, this time it's not a real marriage, but a one-year contract marriage.'

A marriage formed purely for each other's purposes.

There's no need to fulfill the duties of a real couple on the first night, is there?

'Perhaps it's better this way.'

If she faced that handsome face again, if she shared her body heat with him again, she might fall into the delusion that he loved her.

Just like her past self did.

'Spending one night with him is enough, just that day when Asiel was conceived.'

Today wasn't that day, so it didn't matter.

Blair concluded that her husband wouldn't come to her room tonight, and took out paper and a quill pen from the drawer.

And she began to calmly write out the contract that would prove this contract marriage.

It was then, just as she finished the last sentence of the contract.

Suddenly, she felt warmth behind her back, and a man's large hand appeared, resting on the desk.

Startled, Blair turned around to see a man who had approached behind her at some point.

A height much taller than ordinary men, a masculine body tightly built, visible through the robe he wore.

Cool eyes like the blue summer night sky under softly fluttering black hair.

A man with a face so beautiful that it would momentarily take the breath away of anyone who saw it, man or woman.

Duke Herdin Delmark.

From today, officially, he was her husband.

He asked, as if reading her mind from the surprised look in her eyes.

"Why do you look so surprised? It's our wedding night, so it's natural for a couple to spend the night together."

"…I didn't think you would come."

"Even though you've been waiting up all this time?"

At his words that hit the mark, Blair pursed her lips tightly.

"I was just waiting in case. It wouldn't be polite to be asleep when you… when you came."

Herdin's gaze deepened at the word "you" that flowed from Blair's lips.

"That sounds like you were prepared to spend the wedding night."

Blair flinched at his touch caressing her cheek and his low voice resonating in her ear.

But what surprised her more was his words.

'Why on earth?'

In her past life, Herdin had accepted the unwanted marriage proposed by her brother to uncover the truth from her.

The wedding night, the affection, it was all just an act to trap Blair and extract the truth.

So in this life, to avoid being swayed by his act, she had proposed to him before the marriage.

'If you accept my proposal, I will cooperate to the fullest in finding out 'the truth of that day'.'

I will give you what you want without you having to deceive me.

So she thought he wouldn't put on an act to seduce her anymore, but why.

'Wasn't it enough to just find out that truth, with no more business with me?'

Just like you did in the past.

But he showed a reaction completely opposite to Blair's expectations. It was a somewhat bewildering situation for Blair, who had thought he wouldn't even come to the bedroom.

"There's no need to necessarily consummate on the first night—"

"I want to."

His gaze, whispering lowly, was fixed on her red lips. His hand cupping her cheek stroked those lips with his thumb.

Her heart began to beat rapidly at the heat felt from his fingertips.

At that moment, Herdin, who had been staring at Blair's lips, raised his gaze and their eyes met.

"Right now."

In his blue eyes, unrefined intense desire was swirling.

Before Blair, surprised by the raw desire, could pull back, his approaching lips devoured hers.

Blair suddenly remembered that he too was a man.

'They say men can join bodies even with someone they don't have feelings for.'

Yes, this isn't love. It's not even pretending to love for another purpose.

It's just a moment's desire.

Thinking that way made her feel rather at ease. Blair gathered her confused feelings and closed her eyes as if resigned.

In the past, she had trembled in fear at the unfamiliar and intimate act with him.

His large frame felt like a beast trying to devour her, or a prison trapping her.

Yet she liked his gaze that looked only at her, liked the warmth of his firm embrace, believed it was love and fell for him in an instant.

'But now I won't be deceived by that warmth.'

Spending the night with him is only to meet the child.

'Asiel, my baby.'

If only she could meet the child she loved more than her own life again.

She could spend the night with the husband who might have killed her before her regression, over and over again.

The Second First Night

Today was the day Herdin was returning to the townhouse after nearly a year.

It was the first time since Asiel was born.

Blair personally chose the dress and accessories she would wear today. It had been a while since she'd done so.

Blair, having finished her preparations, entered the room connected to the bedroom. There was a small cradle there.

The child in the cradle was playing alone without even whimpering once, clumsily moving its tiny hands towards the mobile.

Blair reflexively smiled softly as she picked up the child.

"Our baby, you were playing well without crying or waking up?"

"Ung. Eueu! Ububu!"

The child in its mother's arms smiled brightly and kept babbling incomprehensibly. It seemed to be in a good mood, as if knowing it was the day to meet its father.

But Blair's eyes, looking out the window while holding the child, were sinking with bitterness.

Herdin had left for the main castle of the Delmark duchy in the north not long after Blair became pregnant.

On the surface, he put forth the pretext of subjugating the magical beasts that were rampant every summer, but Blair knew it was to escape from the wife he had obtained through an unwanted marriage.

Nevertheless, she stroked her growing belly day by day and prayed that Herdin wouldn't get hurt.

Her husband was renowned as the continent's only magical swordsman blessed with divine power and a war hero, but she couldn't help but worry.

Blair sent letters every night she couldn't sleep due to worry, every day he appeared in her dreams.

That the child in her womb was growing healthily. That she hoped he too would return safely without any injuries…

But a reply never came back.

She thought no news was good news. He was the lord of the vast northern region, so it was natural for him to be busy.

…She had to think that way.