Rub, rub, rub, rub, rub, rub…
“…Lord Blanchard?”
Rub, rub, rub, rub, rub, rub…
Wow, this bedding feels so nice to touch. I wonder what it is made of, it is so smooth. So smooth. Wait, with this silky feeling, won’t all the bedding fall off because of how I sleep? That will be a problem in the cold season.
“Lady Deborah.”
Rub, rub, rub, rub, rub, rub.
Ugh, my hand, my hand just will not stop moving. What is this silky texture?
Oh, let me pick up the pillow too… Oh, this is fluffy too. Let me put my head on it for a moment… Oh, it’s so soft~. I can sleep soundly anytime with this.
After looking at me with suspicious eyes for a long time, the Duke sighed and walked out of the room. Iris, who is supposed to be his mistress, follows after him.
Before leaving the room, she looked back at me and chuckled.
Wow… how enchanting.
That’s nice, I want to be a beautiful woman like that too. Though I lack the bust.
She is probably laughing at me for being a decorative wife, but she was such a pretty person. When someone is that much of a beauty, their mocking actions don’t even look mocking. That’s nice.
Or rather, the Duke is a piece of work too.
Why doesn’t he just marry that person? If outsiders are making a fuss about differences in status and stuff, he should work hard to shut them up. If she is enough for him, he should just get married already. Since he refuses to get married forever, young ladies get their hopes up and swarm around him, and His Majesty the King will go bald from worry… well, he is not bald yet, but he will go bald in the future. That’s why I am being singled out.
“Madam.”
“Ah, yes, I’m doing well!”
Called by Sebastian the butler, I snap out of it with my head still pressed against the pillow.
That’s right. The Duke and Iris left the room, and Sebastian showed me to the room assigned to me.
It seems pretty far from the Duke’s room, but it is a very large and beautiful room.
The furniture is nice and the carpet looks expensive. Look, the cliché is that you get led to a narrow, dark attic-cum-storage room with spider webs and running mice. Doesn’t the Duke’s mansion have a room like that?
Even though it looks nice, maybe there is some kind of trap.
Ah, could it be the classic method of putting a frog inside the bed!
Thinking that, I started touching the bedding, and I just couldn’t stop.
From Sebastian’s perspective, I must have looked like a woman who, upon being shown the room, suddenly started stroking the bedding and trying to go to sleep.
Oh no, I look like a total weirdo.
“What is it, Sebastian?”
Pulling myself together, I turn to face Sebastian.
“No… I am just glad that you like the room.”
“Yes, I love it.”
Though I lift my head up, I accidentally stroke the bedding again and quickly hide my hand.
“I thought there might be a frog in the bed, so I just checked.”
I make an excuse for Sebastian’s indescribable expression, but his expression doesn’t change so it doesn’t seem very effective.
“My Lord says he will contact you later regarding the money. In that case, I suppose we need to draw up a contract.”
“I understand.”
Well, of course that would happen. He probably hadn’t heard from the King that I was positive about being a decorative wife. He himself had said, “I understand, but I will check.”
Still, I hope he lets me know as soon as possible. I went and bragged to Edil before marrying in. I would feel a little sad for my sister if my younger brother turns into a stingy man who only thinks about making money.
“I just need to spend my time like air, right? This marriage was decided by royal decree, but please rest assured that I have zero intention of getting in the way of the relationship between that beautiful lady and the Duke. I won’t socialize either, so the Duke can just attend evening parties with that lady. It would be nice if you two have a child together as well. You can just register the child as mine.”
When I chatter on about things I couldn’t say in front of the Duke, Sebastian wears that “Eh…” kind of expression again.
What on earth did His Majesty report about me, I wonder?
“Um… what about the ceremony?”
“Ceremony? What ceremony?”
“The wedding ceremony. As for my Lord’s intentions…”
“Ah, we won’t have one. Sebastian, you heard the conversation earlier, didn’t you? I am an invisible wife. A wedding ceremony is the exact opposite of an invisible wife. Enemies and allies shouldn’t get along happily all of a sudden, though wars are of course better avoided.”
“I, is that so…”
Oops, when I let my guard down, my hands start touching the bedding all by themselves. This won’t do.
It’s too fluffy and smooth, which is the problem. It might look like I am trying to seduce the butler on the wedding night, so it’s dangerous.
I hurriedly step away from the bed and go toward the curtain this time.
The curtain is high quality too. Even the tassels are pretty. From the window, I can see a lovely garden where a gardener is working. As expected of a Duke’s house.
The Duke agreed to this marriage by royal decree, and he prepared this room for me, so it doesn’t seem like he is going to treat me coldly right away. He doesn’t seem that stupid.
“Um, are you really sure about no ceremony?”
Sebastian asks timidly. Is the Duke telling him to probe me, I wonder? He has noticeable gray hair even though he is young, he must be having a hard time. His hair is still thick, though.
“Is it bad if the Duke’s family doesn’t have one? But, considering Iris and everything… The Duke probably wants to have a wedding ceremony with the woman he loves, too. If we need a reason not to have a ceremony, we can just say we showed consideration for the war that was going on until recently.”
“However, people will say that the Durtal Duke’s family has no money and cannot even afford a wedding ceremony. My Lord said it would be fine if it’s just close relatives.”
No, with that attitude, the Duke definitely wouldn’t want to attend a ceremony.
He said he only needs his mistress.
The Duke inherited his peerage at a young age, so don’t most of the Duke’s relatives not even show up? His mother, the former secondary consort, has passed away… so like, His Majesty?
Ah, I see. He will put on a good front in front of His Majesty! He plans to pretend that he granted my wish and held a ceremony, and act all lovey-dovey in front of His Majesty! He will probably fake the vow kiss by barely touching lips, for sure! Well, not that I want to kiss him anyway, but I don’t need to play along with his act.
“Isn’t it rude to God to make someone swear a false love when he told me ‘I will never love you’ at our first meeting? Well then, why don’t you donate the money for the wedding instead? You can donate it to the towns near the border that suffered damage, instead of holding a ceremony. You can issue a statement saying you decided not to have a ceremony considering the current situation.”
Also, I’d like a little bit for my family too. I wonder if I can at least get enough for a wedding dress. If funneling money from the Duke’s house to my family is bad, I’ll just invest it on my own!
“Say, by the way, what is the ‘Silver Devil’?”
I continued my questions to Sebastian, who looked wide-eyed and surprised.