Prologue

“Let’s get divorced.”

The words that flowed from those well-shaped lips were quite natural. It had the smoothness of something practiced thousands of times. Except that the voice was as cold as ice and sharp as a needle.

“No, I request a divorce.”

The wife before him wouldn’t know. What thoughts led Maverick Phlox to say these words. Well, wasn’t she a noble woman? It didn’t matter anymore. He no longer cared what she thought or what expression she wore.

The hatred he once held, and the countless malicious feelings, it was simply time for them to come to an end.

“……”

If one were to personify the Queen’s Rose, which only blooms in May, it would look like the face before him. It was a face that the Empire’s finest poet praised, saying ‘I don’t want to close my eyes for even a second while standing before it.’

Blood-red hair, snow-white skin, and a slender neck. Above that neck, on that small face, densely arranged eyelashes seemed to flaunt nobility to their very tips. However, the coolness in her seemingly proud eyes suggested that she was no ordinary character.

Indeed, like thorns on a stem, her eyes were rather sharp. Her straight yet elegant posture and dignity; her deep green eyes, contrasting with rose petals, also contributed to making her unapproachable.

Of course, the fact that she was none other than the Crown Prince’s cousin and the only heir and daughter of the Clematis ducal family couldn’t be overlooked.

Rose Clematis, his wife whose name and appearance matched perfectly, continued to maintain her silence.

A wrinkle formed on Maverick’s handsome face. He felt irritated. This wasn’t the first time he had brought up divorce.

“Are you listening?”

Just as Maverick was feeling his patience reaching its limit and about to leave,

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

Rose’s eyes slowly rose. She had been staring at one spot all along. As if she hadn’t heard anything.

His figure overlaid her green eyes. More precisely, it was closer to her recognizing his entire presence again after only looking at a ‘part’ of her husband.

“I was looking at your chest.”

“……”

Rose marveled anew.

‘Wow, sh*t. That chest is a killer.’

It was a vulgar but honest feeling. No, for someone who had already made her name playing around in this capital, this level of vulgarity didn’t even count as vulgar.

She had been regretting it lately. Very much so. Quite deeply. In a fairy tale her mother gave her when she was young, there was a story about a traveler who devoted his entire life to catching a ‘rainbow’. When she first heard the story, even though she was young, Rose thought there couldn’t be anyone more foolish.

‘Mother, the ending where the rainbow ends up being next to his house seems to drive children into pointlessness. It’s not a good ending.’

‘…Oh, Rose. Mom wishes you could be a baby who sees fairy tales as fairy tales.’

‘But it’s foolish, isn’t it? The treasure was at his home all along.’

Yes. But who would have thought she’d end up like that foolish traveler.

Rose was weak to visual things. Handsome things, beautiful things, pleasing things. It’s natural. Aren’t humans animals made to instinctively pursue beauty? How ecstatic is the pleasure that sight gives?

Thus, she unhesitatingly delved into the vast social world, and further into the underground culture below. What did it matter if she became a notorious loose woman? But when she came back, she found the most beautiful thing in the world was in her own home.

‘Oh God. I repent. No, I regret.’

It was none other than her ‘husband’ right in front of her.

“…Did you hear what I said?”

An angry face was three steps away. She knew he was tall. She knew he was big. My, how could he have such a good body without ever joining the Knight Order? Though her neck was getting a bit stiff from sitting and looking up, she was satisfied.

That’s not all. Even his golden hair, neatly styled but with a strand falling loose due to heightened emotions over that angry face, looked lovely. As someone who loved yellow gold, gold was her favorite color. His equally golden eyebrows were handsome too.

A neat, cold, intellectual, and classically handsome man. His posture was so straight it seemed almost impossibly proper, which she also liked.

People proclaimed the Crown Prince, her cousin, as the most outstanding man. However, such a face couldn’t compare to the nobility fully present in her husband’s face. If social status were determined by faces, her husband would be the Emperor.

Above all, Rose liked her husband’s chest.

Ideally broad and ideally flat.

‘It felt firm when I touched it.’

Rose stood up from her seat.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you angry.”

Ah, this again. Her husband would look at her suspiciously when Rose responded docilely. Well, it couldn’t be helped. It was her karma after all.

“I really couldn’t hear anything because I was focusing on how amazing your chest is.”

“You’re joking until the end, I see.”

Instead of responding, Rose strode forward. Her husband’s face remained cold and unmoved. That face, handsome as if carved from ice, was quite appealing. She wanted to possess it. It’s strange that she’s feeling possessive despite knowing he was her husband.

“Divorce is not possible.”

“You’re making me repeat myself again. Fine.”

She quietly took in the sight of her husband’s twitching eyebrow. She wanted to see it twitch while he was lying in bed. While she was at it, she’d like to see something twitching down below too.

‘Let’s not think that I’m a pervert. It’s my husband who’s making me into one.’

“I’ll handle the procedures myself.”

After quietly realizing her self-justification, Rose reached out her hand. However, her hand was firmly caught before it could touch the smooth satin fabric. Though there was a dull pain in her wrist, Rose simply stared at the face that had grabbed her hand.

How many times had he requested divorce now? She didn’t know because she hadn’t counted. No, she hadn’t counted because she had no intention of letting her husband go.

“…Again, with those eyes.”

Her husband’s blue eyes blazed with anger. Hmm, was he angry? He could be. After all, even if Rose did her best from now on for the rest of her life…

To her husband, she would forever remain ‘the daughter of the enemy who killed his parents.’

Still, she didn’t want to let him go. She knew it was an obsession. But what could she do?

‘Live, survive.’

‘……’

‘That is your punishment.’

Weren’t you the one who saved me on your own and then died?

Therefore, the responsibility lies with him. No, with the ‘previous life’s husband’ who died in her place despite never having been intimate.

While she was briefly lost in thought, her hand was suddenly pulled.

“Do you think doing this will change my decision?”

“……”

“No, it won’t change. It won’t change.”

Suddenly the man’s face was right in front of her. From his protruding brows to his sharp nose bridge and sunken eyes. As always, his sapphire-blue eyes were filled with hatred.

Rose focused on her hand that had somehow made its way to her husband’s chest. Thump-thump-thump. She could feel the steady heartbeat. And the firm yet slightly soft sensation.

‘Hmm, this is a killer chest indeed.’

It was indeed a satisfying chest. A texture she wanted to keep touching. In the whole world, Maverick here would be the only man who made her want to handle him this way.

Maverick’s eyes narrowed as he felt Rose’s fidgeting hand. In those eyes, there was a flame-like anger and intensity. They were eyes filled with both fury and excitement mixed with rage.

His face suddenly came closer, his nose bridge painfully pressing against hers. Rose didn’t even flinch.

Instead, she curved her lips prettily.

“I even like that you can’t kiss properly.”

In response, a kiss that seemed about to tear her lips began.

As expected. She knew he would pounce if she provoked him like this. Rose naturally wrapped her hands around his neck.

Maverick flinched for a moment but continued the kiss.

It was a kiss full of desire to devour, or rather, only the desire to devour.

That’s what Rose thought.

Though he said that, he had actually improved quite a bit.

‘Yes, definitely.’

Compared to their past kisses where he would just move his tongue around inside her mouth or painfully bite, this was much better. He knew how to suck inside her mouth without hurting and could even intertwine tongues.

‘…I wonder if he practiced with someone.’