Chapter 1

0. Major Accident

As soon as she woke up, a throbbing pain struck her from head to toe, as if her whole body had been beaten. It felt like the muscle aches that hit after overworking a body that doesn’t usually move much.

A groan escaped her lips from the pain.

“Ugh……”

‘What on earth happened yesterday?’

Her pounding headache interfered with her thoughts. As she struggled to lift her heavy eyelids, sunlight poked at her eyes. And when she turned her gaze to grasp the situation through her blurry vision, the first thing she saw was……

“Kya… Huff.”

A man’s broad chest. And it was completely bare!

Even she was n*ked, held in that man’s arms. After hesitating about what to do, she carefully removed his arm from her waist and quietly slipped out of bed. Only then did she notice the state of her body.

“Gasp……”

Her whole body was covered with reddish marks as if flowers of heat had bloomed. Even though she had no experience, she knew well enough what such marks and the pain in her waist and thighs meant.

No matter how she looked, she was clearly someone who had spent the night with another!

So who was this man? As she cautiously turned her head to check, she saw a familiar face. Very familiar, in fact.

It was none other than Raihan Elvirtein, the chief of the Elvirtein Empire’s diplomatic mission and the 4th prince, who had come to the Essen Empire for friendship not long ago. He was sound asleep on the bed, completely unaware of the world.

‘Am I insane? Was I really possessed by something yesterday?’

Alcohol. Yes, she remembered drinking.

She recalled that Raihan had brought an expensive wine from the Elvirtein Empire, which her mother liked, so she drank it happily.

She remembered almost nothing after about ten glasses. Not completely nothing, but her memory was fragmented. And in those few shards, all she could recall was bare skin.

“Hng, mm……!”

“Ha, Dione……”

“Ah! Hng, ah!”

His manhood kept pressing in, relentlessly, and as she gasped from the pleasure he gave, he kissed every part of her flushed face as if finding it adorable.

Her cheeks flared hot at the shameful remnants of those memories. Fanning her face with her hand, she let out a small sigh, and the burning sensation finally seemed to cool a little.

No, she could accept her own behavior, but why did His Highness act that way? And those eyes, dripping with honey……

‘Anyway, I’d better get out quickly. Or… should I wake him?’

She carefully reviewed the current situation. She was the sole heir of the Estellon Marquisate, and for her own reasons, she was in charge of diplomacy with the Elvirtein Empire.

Recalling His Highness’s attitude last night, she judged that this incident was unlikely to cause diplomatic trouble.

Moreover, for the past three weeks, she had been serving closely with him and had come to know his character quite well. Still, since it involved diplomacy, she had to be careful.

‘So… should I get dressed first, then wake him and apologize? No, but after drinking and doing such a thing, greeting each other like lovers seems a bit much, doesn’t it?’

‘……Then it would be better to leave a polite note and leave.’

After wavering, she made up her mind, quickly tidied her messy black hair, and hurriedly put on her dress.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the dress she wore yesterday wasn’t a complicated, fancy design for a banquet, but one that was relatively easy to put on and take off.

But perhaps because it took longer than expected to get dressed, the moment she turned to leave a note, the man’s closed eyelids opened.

“……”

“……”

His green eyes, backlit by sunlight, glimmered drowsily. They blinked a few times as if grasping the situation, then widened instantly when they met her gaze.

Him, sleeping n*ked; the slightly damp feeling of the bed; the mottled marks all over their bodies.

“Um……”

“I’m sorry!”

She quickly bowed her waist and shouted.

Her composure from moments ago vanished, and as soon as their eyes met, all she could think was that she needed to apologize and disappear before he said anything.

Faced with this situation for the first time in her life, embarrassment surged. Usually, such drunken ‘mistakes’ only happened in books.

So, naturally, she had never imagined something like this would happen for real.

“I drank… and I seem to have done something disrespectful to you, Your Highness, by mistake. If any further issues arise, I will handle it myself.”

“……Lady Dione.”

“If you have anything to say about this, please send it to the Estellon Marquisate. Well then, I’ll be going.”

Leaving those words behind, she quickly left the room without looking back.

Last night, the meeting with the diplomatic mission had taken place at the royal palace, so the bedroom she left was one of the rooms in the palace. More precisely, it was one of the palace rooms assigned to the Elvirtein Empire’s delegation.

She couldn’t remember how she managed to escape that complicated palace.

When she got home by carriage, she felt as if all her energy had been drained. What on earth had happened? Even though she had just experienced it, it felt like a story from beyond a painting.

“So I……”

She had made a mess.

……A major mess, at that.

* * *

But regardless of whether she had made a major mess, time passed and the world kept turning.

The delegation was supposed to leave two days after the party where she drank. Today was the day after the delegation left the Essen Empire.

So it had been three days since she made her major mistake.

Normally, as the person responsible for the delegation, she should have handled the farewell… but after returning to the marquisate, a letter arrived.

It said, ‘You don’t need to come out to see off the delegation.’

Well, the content was fine. There was a chance things could get diplomatically complicated, but the Elvirtein Empire had already blocked it by saying, ‘We’re sorry for overdoing it with our country’s wine at yesterday’s banquet. Please take care of yourself.’

But she thought that was just an excuse.

‘His Highness probably feels awkward because of me.’

So she could only let out a hollow laugh upon reading the letter.

Honestly, she would have felt the same. Who could act normal and say ‘Ha ha, goodbye’ to a woman they spent a drunken night with?

For reference, she had spent all day yesterday either shaking her legs when sitting or restlessly pacing around when standing. Her personal maid Mary even asked if she’d made a serious diplomatic mistake.

……She probably had, but she shook her head and insisted otherwise.

Anyway, things seemed to have settled, and fortunately, her major mistake seemed to pass without incident.

“Mary, what about today’s newspaper?”

“Ah, just a moment. The butler said he’d bring it, but he seems to be running late.”

Mary left to check, and Dione sat on the terrace, looking out at the well-kept garden.

Her day always started around 10 a.m.

After a simple breakfast, she spent tea time reading the delivered newspaper. Unless something special happened, this was her routine.

How long had she been tapping her toes, waiting? Normally, the newspaper would have arrived by now, but Mary hadn’t returned.

‘What’s going on?’

Wondering if something had happened, she went downstairs to the first floor and saw the butler Hugo and Mary in the hall, arguing.

“What are you two doing?”

“So, Young Heiress.”

The one who answered was Hugo, the butler in his mid-to-late forties who managed the Estellon mansion.

But the expressions of the two as they looked at her were unusual. One seemed to be trying hard to compose his face, while the other looked like ‘What should I do…….’

“……Why do you both look like that?”

“Well, um, it’s just…”

“Why are you hiding the newspaper? Give it here.”

“Today’s newspaper is… not very reliable. Maybe I should bring another one……”

Hugo tried to sneak the newspaper behind his back, but she quickly snatched it from him.

And on the front page of the newspaper now in her hands…….

[Breaking News] Heiress to the Marquisate, Dione Estellon, revealed to be in a secret relationship with Raihan Elvirtein, the 4th Prince?!

Her major mistake was splashed across the headlines.