Renard’s voice cracked with bewilderment. His face was still hidden beneath the mask.

The room visible over his shoulder felt bare despite its size. The furniture was minimal, and as expected, there was not a mirror in sight.

Vivian turned her gaze back to Renard. He seemed to have been looking over documents until just a moment ago. Papers lay scattered across the desk, and a pen he hadn’t set down yet rested between his long, thick fingers. Unlike having washed and changed into something comfortable, he apparently had no plans to sleep.

“It’s our wedding night.”

Vivian didn’t mince words. Today taught her well enough that taking the roundabout way was a waste of time. He was not the kind of man you could coax and sweet-talk into bed.

“……You must be tired today. Get some rest.”

Sure enough, Renard stood frozen at the door handle, rigid as stone. The voice that came after a long pause was precarious, like a man standing at the edge of a cliff. Vivian didn’t let it bother her. She would have been more surprised if he hadn’t refused.

“What about tomorrow?”

“……You don’t have to do any of that. The Grand Duchess has already suffered enough……”

“Grand Duke.”

Vivian cut him off. She stepped forward and the distance between them closed naturally.

“Come inside and talk. The corridor is cold.”

Renard could have held his ground. But the moment he heard the word cold, his body moved as though something instinctive compelled it. Through the wide-open door, Vivian stepped into Renard’s space.

Leaving Renard standing there uselessly, unable even to close the door in his own room, Vivian crossed to the fireplace where a fire burned vigorously. In this bleak space, fire was the only thing with any color. Which also meant the firelight was not enough to erase the bleakness of the space.

“Why not?”

Renard was still standing by the door. In his own room, he looked like a man searching for somewhere to flee.

“You know why. I’m not someone you should keep close. Spending the night in the same room is too dangerous. Aren’t you afraid of the curse?”

“I already received that curse.”

Vivian loosened the shawl slightly from her shoulders. Fortunately the bed was wide enough that it could comfortably hold one more person.

“Before the wedding. They say looking at the cursed mark brings a terrible curse without fail. So I can’t be cursed any further now. What is there to be afraid of? If I’m already cursed, it’s not really a concern anymore.”

Renard clenched his fist. The logic reached him. But the cold from the corridor still crept in through the half-open door.

“……Even if you’re already cursed, it could get worse. No one knows how far the curse will go, or how deep it will reach. You’ve already seen my cursed mark. Aren’t you afraid? Something even more dreadful than that may be waiting for you.”

Something more dreadful than that face would be welcome. Vivian kept the thought to herself.

“I already sinned against you the moment I accepted this marriage. Before the wedding, I caused you to receive the curse. I don’t want to add any more of my wrongdoing onto you.”

Renard’s voice strained out like something wrung from deep inside him. The words that reached her were exactly what she expected. A battle of wits where he built his shield out of logic would actually be easier. Break the logic and the fight was over.

But Renard was building his shield out of a desire to protect her. A shield built from tenderness was usually difficult to break through.

But Vivian reached the top of the capital’s social world. Difficult was not the same as impossible.

“Then let’s talk about something else.”

Vivian shifted half a step to where the firelight would cast the most flattering shadow across her face and turned her head. She lowered her voice to a tone, rich and full of quiet longing. The same technique she used to persuade Renard throughout the day.

But now Vivian could no longer deny it. Her voice did not carry pure calculation alone. The words that followed, of course, were entirely calculated.

“Grand Duke, you know what happens to a marriage that isn’t consummated, don’t you?”

Renard went still.

“It becomes grounds for annulment.”

“……That……”

The steadiness in Renard’s voice blurred again. If he built his shield from tenderness, then she needed to make that shield work against his tenderness. Just like this.

“A marriage like that can be erased with a single document if someone sets their mind to it.”

“No one will know.”

“No. You made it so obvious, Grand Duke. Who in this castle would believe we spent the night together?”

“My servants are discreet.”

“The imperial family doesn’t rely on persuasion alone as a weapon. Do you truly believe every servant in this residence would be safe from all of those weapons?”

“……”

“If the marriage is annulled, I can no longer remain in the North. I’d return to Petrasia. You don’t think the imperial family would welcome me back with open arms, do you?”

“You could stay in the North even without……”

Renard’s voice, barely pulled up, was swallowed by Vivian’s clear, ringing one.

“In the North, where I have no ties, with no husband, how would I survive alone? On top of that, I’ve already seen the Grand Duke’s face. If even that fact came to light, what person in the empire would want me near them? Without even the title of Grand Duchess, I’d be nothing but a cursed thorn in the imperial family’s side.”

She knew bringing up the cursed mark was playing dirty. She was sorry for it, but Vivian was someone who used every card available. And that card worked.

“You said it to me today. That you would do everything you could. Physicians, priests, whatever it took, you would do it all to protect me.”

Vivian lifted her gaze. Renard, unable to meet her eyes, dropped his head.

“Then protect me. Can’t you stand against the imperial family?”

This question was also a test. The final weight that could tip the scales completely was hidden behind Renard’s lips.

From the moment she first knocked on the door, Vivian was certain Renard genuinely had no intention of spending the night with her. Men who didn’t want to hold her generally fell into two categories. Either they were hiding a secret that made it impossible, or they weren’t drawn to women.

Thinking about it carefully, annulment was unlikely. Who would actually want this marriage voided? Even the nobles who opposed the imperial family didn’t want their daughters falling into the arms of the North’s cursed war hero on some plausible pretext.

So no one would even wonder whether the two of them consummated the marriage. No one would pry, and even if rumors spread, the imperial family was exactly the kind of power that would silence those voices and falsify the documents to say the wedding night took place. Vivian understood very well what power wanted and what it was capable of.

If Renard was concealing the truth and putting on an act out of political or personal ambition, he couldn’t possibly be unaware of this. If sharing a bed with Vivian interfered with his goals, he would have no choice but to point this out without hesitation. No one trades their own ambitions for the slim chance of another person’s danger.

“……”

Renard stood there for a long time. His fist clenched and unclenched several times. His gaze moved from Vivian to the fireplace, from the fireplace to the floor, and from the floor back to Vivian. When he finally spoke, he looked resolved.

“That won’t happen. As long as we don’t act against it ourselves, no one will try to annul our marriage. So you can rest easy. I have absolutely no intention of placing you in the imperial family’s crosshairs.”

“But the possibility exists.”

Vivian answered evenly. Renard’s words stopped again. At last, with a deep breath, a quiet voice came through.

“……I.”

The words broke off once. Renard visibly struggled to continue. Vivian swallowed. Depending on this answer, the direction of her life could change significantly. She was braced for it.

“What to do, and how……”

But the sentence Renard wrung out with such effort didn’t match any direction she anticipated.

“……I don’t know. What I need to do so that you won’t regret it……”