[Lucielle’s POV — One Week Later — Ashcroft Manor]
"Still no reply?"
I leaned sideways across the couch in Cassian’s office, my legs dangling over one armrest while I lazily stuffed another bite of strawberry pie into my mouth.
Munch.
Munch.
Beside me, my little white fox cub was happily chewing on a tiny piece of chicken I had given him. Honestly...at this point, I had completely forgotten that this was supposed to be the Grand Duke’s office.
I had basically moved in; there were maps on the walls. Military reports on the desk. Stacks of parchment containing enough words to make my previous office job look like kindergarten.
And me?
Eating pie like I was on vacation, and Cassian doesn’t mind it.
He sat behind his enormous desk as he examined another report; his voice was calm. "No, still nothing."
I swallowed my pie, dangling my legs, and asked, "So...the bald man is ignoring us?"
Cassian’s eyebrow twitched. "You mean the Baron? Right, the Baron is ignoring us."
I nodded solemnly. "That’s what I said."
Cassian looked at me for a moment, and I smiled innocently, and he smiled very softly, as he should not as a villain, but I am used to. He leaned back on his chair, saying, "Due to Imperial backing, Baron Eisenhart has apparently lost whatever fear he once possessed of the other noble houses."
I nodded in agreement.
"Of course, when a loser gets backed by the king himself, he starts thinking he’s the final boss."
Cassian stared at me. I pointed my fork toward him. "You know I’m right."
"...Unfortunately."
I grinned. "Thank you."
Then I looked toward the enormous windows. Snow, more snow, and even more snow. It had been falling for days.
Actually...weeks. At this point, I was beginning to suspect the weather itself had a personal grudge against House Ashcroft.
I narrowed my eyes at the sky and shoved another bite of pie into my mouth. "Seriously...what did you people do to the weather?"
Cassian finally looked up from his report. "What?"
"The snow," I pointed toward the window. "It hasn’t stopped."
He glanced outside; the snowfall continued relentlessly, blanketing the courtyard in another layer of white as I stared at him suspiciously.
"Did you offend a snow god?"
Cassian paused. I was completely serious. I had a fox god living in my territory now. At this point, asking whether my husband had offended another deity wasn’t even a ridiculous question.
I took another bite of pie with one hand while using my other hand to feed the fox sitting beside me.
"Think carefully; did you insult anyone?"
"No."
"Steal anything?"
"No."
"Refuse to marry someone?"
Cassian’s gaze slowly moved toward me very villainously. "That last one was hypothetical."
A faint smile appeared on his lips. "Of course."
. . .
. . .
SHIIIIIVERRRR.
A cold shiver ran down my spine. Why did this man smile like that? Seriously, his smile should come with a warning label.
CAUTION: May cause sudden heart failure.
I quickly stuffed another bite of pie into my mouth. Cassian returned his attention to the documents. Then he sighed, a long, deep sigh.
"..."
I stopped chewing. That sigh...that wasn’t a normal sigh; that was the sigh of a man who had just opened his bank account and discovered that someone had stolen his future.
I slowly lowered my fork. "Why did you sigh like that?"
Cassian leaned back in his chair; his expression became thoughtful. "We may have no choice."
"No choice for what?"
"To purchase the Heat Mana Stones."
I blinked and waved my fork casually.
"Well... just buy them. We’re rich. We can afford to buy a few mana stones."
Silence.
Cassian stared at me for several long seconds.
Then, in the calmest voice imaginable, he said—
"My beloved..."
Uh-oh.
Whenever he called me my beloved in that calm voice, something financially, politically, or otherwise catastrophically terrifying usually followed.
And, unfortunately...
I was right.
"We may lose nearly half of our assets in a single transaction."
. . .
. . .
. . .
My fork stopped halfway to my mouth, and I stared at him with a deadpan expression as my whole existence trembled with shock.
"...What?"
Cassian calmly rose from his chair and walked toward the window, slipping his hands into his pockets.
"Baron Eisenhart knows that Ashcroft has no practical alternative. If the Imperial Palace continues supporting his position, he will likely raise the price considerably."
He gazed out at the endless snow covering the Northern Territory.
"Perhaps far beyond what he currently charges the Palace."
I stared at him.
My brain slowly processed his words.
Half. Ours. Assets. Gone.
. . .
. . .
My fingers loosened, and the slice of strawberry pie slipped from my hand.
CRUNCH.
It landed directly on the floor; the little fox immediately looked down as my soul had already left the manor as my voice came out as a tiny, devastated whisper.
"Half...Half our assets?"
"Lucielle."
"HALF?!" The little fox startled so violently that it immediately jumped onto the couch. "DO YOU KNOW WHAT HALF MEANS?!"
Cassian glanced at me, saying, "It means fifty percent."
"I KNOW WHAT HALF MEANS!"
I began pacing around the office. "We have to do something."
Cassian’s expression remained completely blank, and somehow he looked more amused. He returned to my chair, picked up another piece of pie, and calmly took a bite and fed to the fox.
"I CANNOT LET WINTER STEAL MY MONEY!"
The little fox yipped.
"Exactly!"
I immediately pointed at him. "You understand me!"
The fox wagged its tail. "At least someone in this house understands my financial suffering!"
Cassian stared at the two of us, then he took another bite of pie as I nearly collapsed. "What if we become poor?!"
Another bite.
"FOR THE GODS’ SAKE, STOP EATING THAT PIE AND DO SOMETHING!"
"I’m already working on it."
"No!"
I rushed over and grabbed his arms, shaking him dramatically. "Do something more!"
Cassian looked down at my hands, then at me. "Such as?"
"I don’t know!"
I released him and spun around, desperately scanning the office as though the solution might be hiding underneath the furniture.
"Call someone!"
"Who?"
"Doraemon!"
Cassian went silent. "...Who?"
"A blue magical creature! He pulls impossible things out of his pocket!" Cassian stared at me. I continued, completely serious. "He has a pocket that’s basically a bottomless dimension! Surely he has a mana stone!"
"...I have never heard of such a creature."
I clenched my fists. "Then summon a genie!"
Cassian stared at me. "They’re supposed to grant wishes!"
A long silence followed. Then he sighed. "There are no genies."
I froze.
"...What? Then what’s the point of this world?! There’s magic! There are divine beasts! High mages! Teleportation! Those ridiculous heating pads...mana stones. So WHY CAN’T WE HAVE ONE USEFUL WISH-GRANTING BLUE MAN?!"
Cassian slowly rubbed his temple. I could practically see the last remaining fragments of his patience evaporating.
I was still huffing and panicking then.... My eyes brighten up as I lean closer to him, saying, "How about we dig?"
I stared at him; he stared back. "You want the Grand Duke of the North to personally dig through the ground?"
"Of course!" I nodded enthusiastically. "Mana stones have to be somewhere underground!"
Cassian’s expression remained utterly deadpan.
"Maybe there’s a giant one underneath Ashcroft! Maybe we’re sitting on a mountain of mana stones right now! Maybe the entire Northern Territory is one giant mana deposit and we’re just too stupid to dig it up!"
"You’re suggesting that I personally dig up my territory in search of a mana stone?"
"Yes."
"With what?"
I blinked. "...A shovel?"
His eyes narrowed, and the little fox yipped. I pointed at him triumphantly. "See?! Even he agrees!"
Cassian looked at me with that same deadpan expression, but this time, something faint and dangerous stirred beneath it. For the first time that evening, the corner of his mouth twitched.
He slowly stood with that expression. I knew that expression. That was the expression of a man who had just decided to make my problem his entertainment.
He walked toward me. I instinctively took a step backward until my back touched the edge of the desk.
I swallowed.
"...Why are you coming closer?"
Cassian stopped before me, his blue eyes lowered to mine. "I was considering your suggestion."
"My...shovel suggestion?"
"I can dig the world for you, my beloved..." I swallowed. Cassian’s gaze dropped to my lips for the briefest moment before returning to my eyes.
"...but there is a condition."
I frowned, suspicion immediately blooming in my chest.
A condition?
Whenever a rich villain says "condition," someone’s wallet or dignity is about to disappear.
Before I could ask what he meant, he suddenly placed both hands firmly on my waist and pulled me toward him.
YANK.
I stumbled forward with a startled gasp, and the world seemed to tilt all at once as my chest collided against his. My hands pressed lightly against his shoulders; his body was warm, too warm.
"W-what are you---"
Cassian lowered his head until his forehead nearly brushed mine, his breath quiet against my skin.
"How about," he murmured, his voice deep and maddeningly calm, "we start living in the same chamber first?"
My brain stopped completely.
System error. Minato.exe has stopped responding.
"...What?"
Cassian’s expression remained perfectly calm.
"If we are to travel together, attend Imperial functions together, and appear before the nobility as husband and wife...it is unreasonable for us to continue maintaining separate chambers."
Cassian did not move, nor did I. The entire room seemed to go silent around us.
I could feel the steady beat of his heart through the thin distance between our bodies. Or perhaps that was mine, pounding so loudly I was sure he could hear it too. His hands remained at my waist, firm and possessive, as though he had no intention of letting me retreat even an inch.
. . .
. . .
WHY...WHY...WHY DO I FEEL LIKE THE VILLAIN IS SEDUCING ME?
My lips parted slightly.
"...You."
He lifted a brow, still holding me close.
"Me?"
I stared at him, flustered beyond reason. "You—you cannot just say things like that so casually!"
"Why not?" His tone was maddeningly composed. "Because I was discussing money!"
"And I am discussing efficiency."
His gaze flicked over my face, then dropped again, slow, deliberate, infuriatingly intimate, his fingers pressed more firmly at my waist, and I realized far too late that I had forgotten how to breathe properly.
"The capital watches everything. If we continue living separately, they will question the state of our marriage."
Oh, that was annoyingly reasonable.
"Rumors will spread. The Palace will use them, and I have no intention of giving them another weapon against you."
My ears felt warm. My heartbeat was far too loud, and the way he was looking at me...calm, steady, deeply intent...made it impossible to remember whether I was supposed to be angry, embarrassed, or alarmed.
Perhaps all three.
Cassian leaned in just a fraction more, until the soft edge of his breath brushed my lips. "If my beloved co-operates, I promise we shall never be out of our assets."
My throat tightened; for a second, I could only stare at him. At the man who had just turned a discussion about mana stones into something that felt suspiciously like a declaration.
My fingers slowly tightened on his shoulders, and he looked entirely unrepentant, and that was the worst part, but somehow...the idea of sharing a chamber with Cassian didn’t feel terrifying.
It felt strangely normal.
Which was probably more terrifying because I had a much bigger problem now. I wasn’t running away from him anymore.
I was starting to wonder... When did I become so comfortable staying beside my villain husband?