She felt like she’d had this thought before too.

But the chance to think was soon swept away in waves of pleasure. Only the heat shaking her whole body remained.

“Ah, nngh! Aaah!”

“…Nelie, Annelie.”

“Your Grace, Your Grace……”

Calling Annelie’s name like in a fever, Elroy desperately sought her lips. Amidst their tongues tangling repeatedly, he whispered.

“Tell me.”

“Haa, nngh……!”

“What you told me then.”

“I-I’ve told you so many times.”

“Tell me again. Hmm?”

Annelie looked at him with narrowed eyes, now acting spoiled. This man who acted like a demanding child yet was like a wild beast below.

“Hurry.”

But the desperate longing and affection filling those green eyes always stirred her heart.

“I love you, Your Grace.”

“……”

“I love you.”

Nelie spoke clearly between heavy breaths. Feeling her love for him grow impossibly larger each time she said it.

Hearing those words, Elroy trembled and closed his eyes before opening them again. He felt the same. He loved Annelie Heich so much he couldn’t bear it. She was his first and would be his last.

The confession flowed freely.

“I love you too.”

“……”

“I love you.”

Hearing those words, Annelie smiled happily. Then she wrapped her arms around Elroy’s neck, asking him to say it again and again. Elroy kept whispering those words endlessly. He could always do so if she wanted, as he would never do what she didn’t want.

The moment their sticky love confessions mixed between pressed lips, thick white fluid that he had been holding back for so long shot deep inside Annelie. Foam bubbled up from their joined parts. Elroy kept moving his hips afterward, pouring deep affection inside her again and again.

“Ah……”

Nelie trembled as she happily received it. Though her consciousness flickered momentarily from the overwhelming sensation, her body continued rocking up and down. Between her legs, spread to their limit, solid flesh bloomed with red spots. Nelie closed her eyes with a shiver, expecting those marks to burn for a very long time.

“Annelie.”

She heard the whisper. A voice containing honey instead of poison. Nelie sobbed helplessly and reached out to embrace the duke’s head buried in her nape.

Meeting with the designer today seemed impossible.

* * *

The wedding was held modestly in its own way.

There was no traditional couple’s parade in the city square, no grand public wedding in the cathedral standing not far from the Grand Park.

Just distributing food and bread generously to the poorhouse and orphanage—that was all. It was the Duke’s consideration for his bride, who was unaccustomed to public exposure and disliked becoming the subject of gossip.

Even rumors spread that they would honeymoon abroad rather than domestically. Some even claimed the duchess would enroll in some academy there and the ducal couple would spend years there.

However, everything about the wedding remained veiled in secrecy, so there was no way to confirm if those rumors were true. Editors, reporters, and presidents of gossip papers in Tevant bit their handkerchiefs in distress and repeatedly got chased away by guards after severely burning their noses while sneaking around the duke’s residence. Voices of complaint quickly disappeared with the generous press sponsorship funds.

That’s how this modest wedding was completed.

Though modest for the Duke of Tevant’s standards, to Nelie, it was the grandest, most splendid wedding imaginable.

Flower petals swirled from all directions and magnificently decorated banners wrapped around the villa lobby arranged as the wedding hall.

Befitting the duke of Tevant, the city of art, even the villa was as beautiful as a carefully designed artwork. Sunlight reflecting off the white roof made the building gleam like a pearl as it flowed. The marble mosaic on the floor contrasted with that whiteness in brilliant colors.

Any other time, Nelie would have carefully observed such a beautiful space, but now she only stared nervously at her fingertips. Grand bell sounds echoed from far away. The corridor where the bride waited to enter was filled with a strange heat and tension.

“My lady.”

“You’ll enter soon.”

The servants, already regarding Nelie as the duchess, rushed in one last time to adjust her appearance in the wedding dress.

A soft brush swept away small dust particles from her shoulders and waist, while delicate hands carefully fixed her slightly twisted veil and hair pins. Finally, the servants fluffed up the hem of her dress. The perfect bride emerged.

“You look truly beautiful.”

The servants’ admiration continued, but Nelie still felt awkward about everything. Her reflection in the mirror before leaving the bride’s waiting room didn’t feel like her own, the cloud-like dress wrapping her body didn’t feel like hers, and even this place where she stood didn’t feel like hers.

Suddenly, she thought of the countryside printing house that had now disappeared. Looking back, it was quite small, but in her childhood it seemed so big. The type blocks scattered on the floor were like pebbles to play with, and the pages of books lining the walls were Nelie’s picture books. A place smelling of oil-soaked pigments and ink. A place where Nelie’s unfinished charcoal sketches lined the corners.

Remembering the time when her dream was to meet an ordinary husband there and have children, she felt scared.

She wondered if she harbored vain greed again, if this too would burst like a bubble in an instant. She felt this even more strongly because she had to overcome so many things to get here. She feared someone would stand up and denounce her lack of qualification to be a duchess.

‘I deliberately avoided all newspapers for this reason.’

It had been quite a while since Nelie avoided not only gossip papers but all regular newspapers published in Tevant. Yet even without reading them, she could imagine what people said about her. A humble country girl who lucked into becoming a duchess.

Was this really beyond her station? Was this her overambition? The moment such thoughts suddenly struck her, Nelie anxiously shuffled her feet.

“The bride will now enter!”

But before her worries could swell and roll around, a servant’s booming voice rang out. The doors at the corridor’s end opened, and the wedding aisle decorated in sky blue spread before Nelie like a path of clouds. Her heart raced wildly.

“Nelie.”

“Father.”

Her father, looking no less nervous than Nelie, approached and slowly extended his hand. Seeing his wrinkled, trembling hand made her smile unconsciously. Even while shaking like an aspen leaf, her father joked with her.

“Don’t cry on this happy day.”

“The one who shouldn’t cry is you, Father.”

“……You must be happy.”

His trembling stopped when she placed her hand over his at his whisper.

“I will be.”

The moment she raised her head while answering her father, all the noisy thoughts about undeserved greed that had filled her mind until just now shut their mouths, flew away in all directions, and vanished.

He stood at the end of the wedding aisle.

Under his combed hair and precisely fitted formal attire, he shone so brilliantly it felt sacred. He had always been a beautiful man, but today even more so. What made Nelie more dazed was something else.

His eyes, usually sharp like summer leaves, now looked dazed like her own. A gaze entranced by the beautiful companion before him. An expression that parted his lips quietly, nothing else mattered, like only two people remained in the world.

Seeing that, her other worries quickly fled. She simply wanted to hold his hand now.

When she reached him after slowly walking down the wedding aisle, her father handed Nelie’s hand to the duke and stepped aside. Throughout the formal officiation, their eyes remained fixed on each other.

“Nelie.”

When his quiet, gentle voice fell between the officiant’s words, Nelie smiled more brightly than ever. The duke smiled back like he could see that smile clearly through the veil. The last flower petals fell from the garden, scattering like rain.

“Please complete this marriage with a kiss.”

The moment the priest’s unhurried voice rang out, Elroy lifted the veil and gazed at his bride’s face. The face of his beloved, always lovely and gentle.

Sweet fragrance spread everywhere when their lips met. Both felt certain: This day would truly be beautiful. Throughout their lives together, this memory would remain in their hearts countless times, making them join hands again even when they turned sharp edges toward each other.

The guests’ laughter, unable to contain themselves at the endless kiss, scattered with the flower petals.

It was truly a brilliant late spring day.

『I Was Only Trying to Avoid Defamation』 The End