I Was Tricked Into A Fraudulent Marriage By The Obsessive Villain - Chapter 1 Part 8

Chapter 1 Part 8

“…….”

The boy looked up at her with teary eyes, just like in those days. 

It felt like his tears would fall immediately if she touched them. 

As she stared at those large eyes filled with tears, something inside her crumbled relentlessly. 

Without realizing it, she reached out and wiped his eyes. 

“……”

Then the boy leaned his cheek against her hand like a cat. 

Soon, the boy held his hand with trembling hands. 

As if grabbing a savior who was one of a kind in the world. 

“I only have you…….” 

The boy’s hoarse voice tickled his ears. His heart tightened at that voice. 

Then his vision flickered again, and a man appeared in front of him. 

“Who…….” 

For some reason, the man’s face didn’t seem blurry.

She was being held tightly in the arms of a man she didn’t know.

She couldn’t even flinch because of the thick arms wrapped around her waist. 

“What form do you want me to look like?”

This form? 

In an instant, the man’s appearance changed. The blurry mist disappeared, and his face was revealed. 

The face of the villain covered in blood.

“……”

Drip, drip. His eyes, darker than the dripping blood, locked with mine. The piercing gaze was impossible to avoid. 

“Or this form?” 

In the next moment, the man’s appearance changed to that of a boy. 

As the boy looked at her with a sad expression, it felt like her heart was melting away. 

“Or…….” 

In the next moment, the man’s appearance changed again. 

“This form?”

“……”

A familiar man appeared before her eyes.

It was the veiled man who had kissed the back of her hand a few days ago.

“I see you like it.”

The man smiled, revealing his red eyes.

His strong arms pulled her closer by the waist.

The man’s head came close as if it could touch her at any moment.

The distance between them was so close that they could feel each other’s breath.

“What form do you like the most? What pleases your heart?”

The man took Iona’s hand with his large hand and placed her hand on the veil he wore on his own face.

The veil brushed against her fingertips. The touch of the soft fabric was exquisite.

As she held the black veil and pulled it down,

“…ss.”

Everything beneath my feet crumbled, and I fell deep into somewhere. The moment I crashed into a bottomless abyss.

“Boss!!”

“Ah!”

“Ah! What the hell, why did you scare me!”

It was my bedroom.

‘Could it be… a dream…?’

I looked down and examined my hand.

The sensation of the veil brushing against my fingertips and the arms wrapped around my waist was too vivid to be a dream.

And the man’s face.

“…… Why.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“…… Why now. Why did you wake me up now, you XX? Why at this moment!”

“Ah! Ahh, why! Why are you doing this! Explain yourself or I’ll beat you up!”

Iona picked up her pillow and slammed it down on Runkel for waking her up.

If only you had waited a little longer, I could have seen the man’s face.

He must have been incredibly handsome!

“AAAH!”

Nothing has gone well since this morning.

“Ah, it hurts! Someone’s here! Ah, wait! They said they’d wait for you at the cafe downstairs!”

“So you wake me up!?”

“Ow! It hurts, Boss! Ah, don’t bite me! Aah!”

After mercilessly retaliating against Runkel, who dared to wake her up at the most crucial moment, she headed to the cafe.

The cafe owner, Rosen, gestured towards the secret room with a nod.

‘Who could it be that we had to meet in the secret room?’

The secret room of the cafe was a place they rarely revealed unless it was an important guest.

Even for Iona herself, it was a place she hesitated to enter… 

She changed her footsteps and headed towards the location of the secret room.

Soon, she arrived at the front of the secret room, opened the door, and went inside. And there…

“Um, Shwishto.”

“……Swallow everything and then speak.”

Isaac was piling up desserts on the table and eating them like a mountain of sand.

It seemed that he didn’t look like a commoner, so he had been brought into the secret room.

“Stop stuffing your face.”

“……”

Isaac, who was stuffing his cheeks like a chipmunk, said.

Iona shook her head while looking at her embarrassed younger brother.

“Why did you come?”

She asked as she sat across from him. Isaac gulped down the food he had been holding and spoke.

“Because… Big sister said I should go and see you. This is for you.”

Isaac handed her a letter.

It’s probably just a nag.

Iona took it casually and crumpled it into her pocket.

“Right, sis. This time, the imperial palace chef developed a new dessert.”

“Oh.”

“Soft dough… …”

Isaac’s excitement grew as he saw Iona after a long time, and he stuttered.

Iona was lost in thought as she gave a cursory reply to Isaac, who was telling him a story.

The dream from earlier kept lingering in her mind.

The only thing that puzzled her was why, in a dream that showed the figure of the villain, the veiled man from a few days ago suddenly appeared.

…Well.

He was so handsome, even in my dreams, even though I only saw his eyes.

— What form do you like the most?

The voice of the veiled man whispered in her ear.

A human who can melt even demons.

Like a cunning fox.

“…Carvain Tenebres.”

“Huh? Carvain, the Ninth Prince?”

She asked Isaac without realizing.

“It’s nothing. So, what about the dessert?”

“So, there’s a new dessert… Oh! Right. Sis! That person appointed me!”

“What…? Who? The Ninth Prince?”

Iona’s eyes widened at Isaac’s strange words.

“No… Did the Ninth Princess dispatch you for something on the battlefield?”

She felt uneasy.

How could he possibly dispatch Isaac when he was already rolling on the battlefield by now?

“No. I heard he’s already back?”

“…What?”

“You didn’t know yet? Ah, I guess the news of the Ninth Prince’s return hasn’t reached the knights yet?”

Her ears rang like she was hit with a hammer when Isaac blurted out those words.

She was so surprised that she stood up and then collapsed on the floor.

Thump.

“Sis…? What’s wrong?”

“…….”

It felt like the ground was crumbling beneath me. It felt like I was being pulled to the end of the distant horizon.

Her violet eyes trembled like cedar trees.

I thought there was still plenty of time before the villain returned from the battlefield.

I hadn’t even found a new way to divorce him yet.

I can’t believe he’s already back.

“Sister…?”

“My God.”

Iona called out to the Creator in a hoarse voice.

It seemed like God had abandoned me.

“Co-conversion…!”

“Sis!!”

I lost consciousness just like that.

***

“…….”

She opened her eyes as she felt her body shaking.

She blinked my stiff eyes a few times.

“A carriage…?”

“Hey, boss. You’re awake?”

Runkel said through the carriage window.

“Everyone was surprised when you suddenly collapsed, you married woman!”

“I told you not to call me a married woman. Anyway, where are we going now…?”

“Ah, Solar! We’re going to catch that wayward wife! We’re supposed to leave today. I hope hitting your head didn’t make you crazy…? If your head gets any worse, that’ll be a problem…”

Runkel continued his bullshit. She pulled the curtains to cover the window.

“Hey, boss! Are you still there?”

A muffled voice came through the curtain that pierced her ears.

This cozy carriage seemed to be for one person only.

Normally, Iona would ride a horse when traveling, but it seems like they hastily arranged for a carriage since they couldn’t leave her collapsed body behind.

“Huhh…”

I sighed and washed my face dry.

“Tidy up. Let’s get organized.”

Or not. Actually, there’s nothing to tidy up.

Her situation was, in a word, ‘fucked.’

The Ninth Prince. The ultimate villain has already returned.

The original novel begins with the villain returning from the battlefield and getting involved in the pit of chaos.

With his newfound power, he enters the battle for the throne in earnest.

And in the process, the woman she possessed, ‘Iona Hardin,’ witnessed the villain killing the crown prince and was killed herself.

“…If I get dragged there, I’ll die.”

It was as clear as day what would happen to her if she went to the palace.

As in the original, it was obvious that she would either be falsely accused of being the crown prince’s murderer or, even worse, she would be used by the villain and killed.

Besides, unlike the original, weren’t they already involved in a marital relationship.

She had no way of saving herself.

The villain in this novel, Carvain Tenebres, is…

“…Should I run away.”

Should she go into exile? No, can nobles even go into exile?

If divorce was impossible, running away was the best option.

Even if she lived hiding her name like now, she couldn’t guarantee how much longer she could avoid the villain’s eyes.

But. If she ran away, what about Johanna and Isaac?

“…….”

A chill ran down her spine in an instant.

Would the villain, who lost himself, leave the Hardin family, alone?

In the novel, the villain was a cruel person who wiped out everyone from the enemy who surrendered and those who remained neutral.

Would such a cruel person really leave her family alone?

Besides…

“…That damn contract.”

She was already bound to the villain by a contract.

If she runs away like this, the Hardin family, who contributed to founding the country, would be completely bound to the villain.

She wanted freedom, but she didn’t want to sacrifice her beloved family for it.

She didn’t think that the time she had spent walking and living in this world, was all for nothing, just because she’s a transmigrator. Whether she transmigrated or not, Johanna and Isaac were precious family to her.

She couldn’t turn her back on such a family.

“…Hooh.”

Iona ruffled her hair. She wanted to scream out loud.

Iona, who tried hard to stay calm and organize her chaotic thoughts, finally came to a conclusion.

The reason she hadn’t been taken to the palace until now was because the villain was on the battlefield.

Now that he had returned, it was inevitable that she would be taken to the palace. The question was when.

She couldn’t escape, and at the moment, divorcing was also impossible.

In that case…

Since it had come to this…

“…Before I get captured, I’m going to do XXXXXX with a man!”

Vulgar words spilled out of Iona’s mouth as she declared that she would do all sorts of things.

If she wasn’t in a sealed carriage, her guild members would have covered her mouth to stop her from saying such vulgar things.

“So what!”

Since it had come to this, Iona resolved to solve the commission at this festival and fulfill her desires.

“See the forest and pick mulberries¹임도 보고 뽕도 따고 means accomplishing two things at the same time.! Good, great.”

While reassuring herself for a while, her beautiful wrist caught her eye.

But she quickly shook her head.

Is my wrist the problem right now. I’m going to have a knife to my throat for the rest of my life!

If she was going to die as a single woman since birth in this life, there was nothing to be afraid of.

“Hey, Boss! We’re here!”

In the next moment, Runkel shouted from outside.

Iona pushed aside the curtain and looked outside.

“Whoaa…”

She burst out in admiration.

The blazing golden sunlight was shining down on the ground. Below it, a picturesque and beautiful city stretched out.

The City of the Sun. Solar.

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  임도 보고 뽕도 따고 means accomplishing two things at the same time.