Maximilian Calypse nervously paced around the drawing room.

She was so tense that she didn’t even recognize that she was biting her nails until the Duke of Cross came inside. When she heard his cane hitting the floor, Max hurriedly hid her hands behind her back.

“Didn’t I warn you a thousand times about that nasty habit?”

“Sorry, sorry...”

Max bowed her head at her father’s cold voice. The duke clicked his tongue as he looked at the scene.

“Don’t embarrass me. You’ve got more luck than you deserve. I won’t forgive you if you cause trouble to our family with your dirty behavior.”

Cold sweat dripped behind her back. She stiffened in fear and opened her mouth with difficulty.

“I will do everything that you say father. I will... he, as soon, as he comes...”

She could tell what her father’s face was without looking up. When she spoke, he always had a disgusted look directed towards her. Max tried to carry on with her words as calmly as she could.

“Father, I’ll try, I’ll try. This, this marriage, this....”

“Stop!”

The Duke of Cross hit the floor firmly with his cane.

“Even for today... but no. Can’t you just be calm for a few hours? Who the hell would want a wife like you who stutters like a horse!”

“I-I...”

“Riftan Calypse is no longer a low-ranking knight! He has become one of the sword masters on the continent, and the ‘bold warrior’ who has defeated the Red Dragon! If he wants to, the temple will consent to a divorce permit.”

Just imagining it was horrible, and he breathed loudly, his forehead creasing.

“For the spirit of the Cross family you should not be divorced by a knight from the heavens! You can’t let the family become a laughingstock because of their stupid daughter.”

She bit her lips. The objection that it wasn’t her fault soared to her throat. She had never wanted to marry Riftan Calypse and she knew he felt the same way. Wasn’t it the duke himself who pushed ahead with the marriage that no one asked for?

Whether he had read her rebellious thoughts or not, her father remained icy.

“If you were half as beautiful as Rosetta...No, at the very least as normal. I wouldn’t have taken this road to please him!”

When she remembered her half-sister, whose beauty was comparable to a rose, her arguments faded away like sand. Looking down at her pale, weary face, the duke of Cross added ruthlessly.

“Even if King Ruben wants to welcome him as his son-in-law, he’ll be fine even if the other party refuses! It’s all because you couldn’t win his heart!”

“B-but...he-he, on the wedding, the-the next day he’s gone....”

She was about to argue it was not about capturing his heart butt that she never had the chance to have a proper conversation with him. Before such words could be uttered, Max was struck on the side with the cane, and she crouched with a gasp. She reeled from the immense pain, unable to release a scream.

“Don’t even think about talking back to me. Just thinking about your horrible habit makes me incensed!”

She nodded hurriedly for fear of the wood flying a second time. The duke, who had his lips pressed as if to pour more poison, withdrew at the sound of a knock on the door. The quiet voice of the maid could be heard.

“Lord, the Knights of Remdragon have arrived.”

“Guide him to the drawing room!”

Max looked up at his father in terror. He threatened furiously with his gnashed teeth.

“Make it clear to Calypse that you can’t annul your marriage! Once again, if you insult the family, you’ll pay heavily!”

Then he went out of the drawing room leaving behind Max. She stood up with difficulty and leaned back against the window, waiting breathlessly for the pain to pass.

The pouring autumn sunlight pierced her eyes in her painful state. Still, she managed to swallow her tears. Her situation never improves even if she cried. Instead, it will only make her look more miserable than she already is.

Max clasped her trembling hand tightly. She had to keep her head straight. For a woman in this society, divorce was tantamount to a death sentence. It was not just a matter of being ridiculed, but it was an irrevocable disgrace to the family.

To clean up the taint, a man from her family would have to challenge Riftan Calypse to a duel. But her father had no son, and none of his relatives or knights in service could ever hope to match him.

After all, who can fight against the swordsman who has defeated a dragon? Eventually, it could only lead to the family’s honor being tarnished and her father never, ever forgiving her. Perhaps she would suddenly face death even before the process of the formal divorce would take place. This was her father she was talking about...

‘So somehow...’

‘But will he listen to me?’

She bit her lips, her mood as if she was standing at the tip of a cliff. Their marriage was made solely for the convenience of the Duke of Cross and his knights.

Three years ago, when news spread across the continent that Red Dragon, hibernating in Aranthal, had opened its eyes, Elnuma Ruben III ordered his vassals to arms with stringent action.

Naturally, the Duke of Cross also had to lead his knights on the expedition. But his father passed on the duty by marrying Riftan Calypse to her.

She shivered at the thought of the insulting remarks that the guests had mumbled on the day of the wedding day. The low-ranking knight, Riftan, had to be dragged out of the ceremony as he could not disobey the order of the Duke. The anger and humiliation he would have felt was unthinkable. His expression of restraint was just as fearful.

‘If only I were half as beautiful as Rosetta...Maybe he will feel much better and would not think of divorcing me.’

Ideas drifted in her head in self derision. Despite his low status, Riftan Calypse was a man with breathtaking features. Even Rosetta, who was mocking him for his origin, blushed at the sight of the knight.

Riftan could have enjoyed a lot of romantic relationships with beautiful ladies. Such a man could have escaped having a stutter as his wife. Furthermore, his status was no longer a hindrance.

‘In the event he marries the king’s daughter...I won’t be able to change his mind even if I begged him.’

They spent only one night together. The very next day, Riftan left with the army without saying a word of farewell. Even after that, he did not send her a single telegram. She felt doubtful whether he had even regarded her as his wife.

As she clasped her face in a dismal mood, a gloomy voice penetrated her ears.

“What a sight worth seeing.”

Max looked up in surprise. Since when had a giant man been standing by the door staring at her?

“My wife trembling, waiting for her husband to come back from the dead.”

The man walked up slowly, his sarcasm dripping. She looked at him, forgetting even to breathe. Riftan Calypse, wearing a dark blue tunic and silver armor, reminiscent of a monk, looked much larger and overbearing than she had remembered.

“I didn’t expect a warm welcome, but there’s no reason to shiver like you’ve seen the plague.”

The cold words finally brought Max to her senses. The blood drained from her face at the thought that she had offended him in less than a minute after their reunion.

“Y-you’ve come, safely, back safely....”

‘What should I say? I don’t know what to call him.’

Riftan? It seemed too much of an endearment. Lord Calypse? She thought she’d be laughed at. As she mumbled back her words, she suddenly felt an intense gaze looking at her and took a step back.

She couldn’t figure out why he was looking at her like that. As if it couldn’t get worse, the man’s face became colder for some reason. He snatched her arm and uttered harshly.

“At least pretend to be happy in welcoming me.”

She froze as their bodies met within a hair’s breadth, the smell of leather, horse, and of faint sweat piercing the tip of her nose. His masculine odor flashed across her mind, and a memory that had been buried for three years.

Mysterious heat blossomed from his hard, penetrating gaze. He looked down at her like one looking at a raw meat, like a hound on the brink of biting its meal.

She dropped her eyes in a hurry, her face burning as if she was under the unforgiving heat of the sun.

With her heart beating faster with every second, memories of their marriage slowly flooded her thoughts. Her husband was finally back home. How would she deal with him now?

“Take off your clothes.”

By the end of the wedding reception, she was led into the bridal chamber by a nanny. With the help of the maids, she washed herself clean and sat on the bed, and after a while her husband followed her into the room. Then he, who was hardened by tension, said so to her.

Max didn’t know his intentions, but her eyes were wide open. She couldn’t understand why the man, who had completely ignored her presence throughout the wedding, had made such a demand out of the blue. She had no specific knowledge, though vaguely aware, that something secret happened between couples.

The nanny said, “You have to obey your husband unconditionally and accept whatever he asks in silence.”

How can such unconditional obedience involve taking off her clothes? She was at a loss on what to do, but the man who threw his top over his head gave her a hard look.

‘Do I have to take it off?’

She took a breath of surprise. Riftan Calypse was like a giant made of twisted steel. His shoulders were twice as wide as hers, his neck was long and thick, and his waist was lean and straight, akin to an elegant hound. She was ridiculous in comparison.

She knew at first that he was a man of unique physique among the knights, but it was overwhelming to see him face to face. She swallowed hard.

It hurts when his father hit her, what more if he is the one to hit her?

“You look terrible.” His cold voice made Max tremble. The man strode up to the bed and openly stared at her. His huge body, purring golden at the fireplace light, blocked her vision.

“You don’t like me very much, do you?”

“Ah... I, I...”

He bent over her. On the face of near perfection, his black eyes held an eerie glow. The man’s tight lips twisted with cynicism.

“Of course, a duke’s daughter would never place in her heart a low-ranking knight.”

There has been an uncontrollable tremor in her body when she heard his voice is full of hostility. A wife belongs to her husband. If he desired, she could be beaten and a harsher corporal punishment was tolerated in her society. Max sweated with fear in the situation where she was forced to cling to his husband’s generosity and that at this moment, she might have angered him.

“Come here. You know what you have to do.”

Max couldn’t urge to ask what she had to do and instead, looked down at her toes. A dark shade fell over her head. The man raised her chin with his long, rough fingers, sending an indecipherable gaze.

“If we don’t do it on the first night, this marriage is considered invalid. Do you want an annulment?”

Caught in his dark pupils of unknown depth, she shivered. The man twisted his mouth.

“If you want me to go out, tell me,” he said.

“...”

“Once we start, there’s no stopping in the middle.”

Max’s throat constricted and she swallowed hard a second time. If she went away like this, her father would surely not forgive her. She had no choice in the first place. Max closed her eyes and loosened her belt with trembling hands.

The fear of being beaten by her father was much greater than the fear of being humiliated by a stranger. No. She would not end up being beaten. Perhaps, a more severe punishment would be, her father would even be back with another knight in a few days. She was nothing more than a tool for her father’s convenience.

In the punctuating silence, Max took off her ornaments one by one and placed them down beside the bed. Only the sound of the fire cackling could be heard through the room. She could feel the man’s stinging gaze as she pulled down the strap of her linen dress and pulled her arm out of the sky-high sleeve.

The cold night air swept across her naked back and shoulders harshly, making her flesh erupt to goosebumps. She clutched her clothes to her chest, unable to lift them further down. Then the man put one knee on the bed and pulled the hem of her skirt in one motion.