I Will Become the Ex-Wife of the Beast - Chapter 41

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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I inched a little closer to the edge of the bed. If I had to put a figure on my share of it, maybe five percent. I never imagined I’d come to understand, firsthand, what it’s like for a small nation groaning under an alliance of great powers.
“Big sis, are you scared of His Highness the Grand Duke, brother-in-law?”
“…Scared? Of course not.”
Not in the way you’re thinking, anyway. And judging by how things are going, it’s looking like that particular road is open too.
I let out a big, deliberate yawn and pretended to be sleepy. Right. When you yawn, your eyes water, and when your eyes water, you lose moisture, and then maybe you’ll get exhausted and drowsy, won’t you?
…Idiot. Idiot.
Just how much of my biology class did I waste being a fool? I felt pathetic. But with no other option, I threw myself into my sleepy act with everything I had.
“Haaah! I’m really tired, huh.”
“Big sis, I’m not scared of Brother-in-law, the Grand Duke at all! Rose isn’t scared!”
“…Yeah. Good for you.”
My answer was perfunctory at best.
I deliberately answered a beat late and strained to sense Kiers’s presence behind me. I wanted to turn and look, but I had a feeling that if our eyes met now, I wouldn’t be able to slip away so easily.
“That’s odd? I really am not scared, though?”
“Lady Rose.”
At the sound of his voice calling Rose, I got goosebumps all over. No wonder: I’d assumed he would call me by that very voice. Of course, it wouldn’t be my real name.
“….”
A tightness in my chest made me curl up even more on my side. Yawning wasn’t going to put me to sleep, it seemed. All I could do now was hope to collapse from exhaustion.
Come on, Bella. You can sleep. You can do this.
“That’s strange? Why are you scared? Is it because you think Brother-in-law, the Grand Duke, will eat you?”
“Ha-ha.”
At the sound of Kiers’s laughter, which I was hearing for the first time, my tightly pressed lips tensed. I wanted to see for myself, but I had to hold back, because right now I was supposedly deep in sound sleep.
“Brother-in-law, the Grand Duke, are you going to eat Rose?”
“No. Why would I eat you.”
Hehe. I shut my ears even to Rose’s innocent giggle, the one that poured out from behind her hand.
Rose, you naive little thing! The only reason that man isn’t eating you is that you wouldn’t even make a mouthful!
I grumbled like a loser, but I couldn’t keep eavesdropping on their conversation and look like I wasn’t. I put every last ounce of effort into pretending I was sinking into a deep sleep.
“Hmm… mm.”
“What about my big sis? You won’t eat her either, right?”
“…Well.”
“Hup.”
Why is it ‘well’?! Why is it only me he’s ‘well’ about, making me so anxious?!
Still in mid-yawn, I was jolted fully awake. No, I had never really fallen asleep to begin with, so it would be more accurate to say that pretending had become too hard.
Tensed up as tight as I could be, I lay there, while Kiers calmly soothed Rose, as if I didn’t matter.
“Hm, then don’t eat her, our big sis.”
“Depends.”
“…But.”
“Lady Rose, in the Grand Ducal House, we do not tell lies.”
“Oh, I see.”
“….”
‘Oh, I see’ my foot! Rose! You should have stopped him right there, not just nodded along like that!
Her big sister was holding her breath at the crossroads between life and death, but Rose just bobbed her head at once. Well, it was past bedtime. Unlike her usual self, she had been chattering excitedly, and falling asleep came in an instant.
“….”
Click.
The moment Rose began breathing softly in sleep, Kiers tugged the cord hanging from the gas lamp. The sudden darkness made my little patch of bed feel even smaller. Compared to the nights when Rose and I used to sleep wrapped tightly around each other, I couldn’t hide a faint emptiness in my heart.
I wonder if our Rose is sleeping with her blanket on.
She was such a frail child that my thoughts kept drifting in that direction. If she so much as coughed, with her little body of three or four years, I wanted to take it on for her. It was utterly pitiful.
“….”
I wondered how much time had passed.
When a perfect silence settled in, I was the first to turn over. Afraid the rustle might give me away, I carefully pressed myself against Rose’s back.
Just as I thought. What would she do without her big sister?
No matter how close Rose had become with that man, he couldn’t take care of such delicate matters for her. Somehow I felt relieved and, at the same time, a little proud.
Hm?
I was about to grab the end of the blanket that had slipped down to Rose’s ankles when I suddenly lifted my gaze. Kiers, lying propped on one elbow, was watching me, his crimson eyes clear even in this darkness.
“…Your Highness.”
I was so startled that all I could manage was to call out to him.
I couldn’t make any louder sound than that. Even though Rose was breathing softly beneath me, my heart pounded so loudly, thump-thump, that I could hear it in my ears.
“….”
The moment I met his dark gaze, I realized again: if I looked into his eyes once more, I wouldn’t be able to run away easily.
“…Eliya.”
Just like this.
He pushed aside the arm he’d been resting on and gently tugged my hand. As if he had read the tremor in my fingers, his lips curved silently.
He must have been stunning. No, maybe he still is.
I gazed at the features beyond his mask as if spellbound, but before long his lips met mine. As though he had been waiting for this very moment, his large hand cradled the back of my neck.
“Hmm.”
My head pressed into the mattress, as if it meant to sink right through it, but I couldn’t make a sound. My reason, which had been clinging to Rose, gradually scattered the more his kiss deepened.
…Your Highness.
I couldn’t even tell whether I’d managed to call his name with my lips pressed together. But Kiers, his mouth fully covering mine, took that as a signal and pressed in even deeper.
I never imagined a kiss face to face could be this sweet. This time, unlike at the temple, it didn’t end on a knife’s edge. The gentle curl of his tongue, the breath he drew in as though he meant to take everything as his own, every detail was so vivid it made my head spin.
“Haa.”
With a rustle, Kiers drew his hands away from me, and before I knew it he had pulled the plush blanket up to Rose’s neck. I had no idea when that long kiss had finally ended; in the perfect darkness, I couldn’t get a sense of it at all.
“……”
One thing was certain: when I opened my eyes, thinking it might be a dream, his crimson eyes were fixed on me.
In those eyes, which glittered beyond compare, lingered a desire he hadn’t yet let go of. Even in this deep darkness they flickered red, and even I could do nothing about it. Swallowing a heavy, simmering sigh, Kiers was the first to sit up.
“…My lady, please get some sleep.”
“What about you, Your Highness?”
Seeing him look as though he might vanish, I reached up toward him without thinking. Something in Kiers’s eyes seemed a little surprised, and I snatched back the hand I had stretched out, flustered.
“No, that’s not what I meant. It’s just that if the master of the room leaves, I’ll feel terrible about it.”
“It’s fine.”
As expected, Kiers did not let himself be caught. Tying the sash of his robe as he rose, he lowered his gaze, which flickered red.
“I doubt I’d be able to sleep anyway.”

◇ ◆ ◇

Kiers tilted his head as if he meant to drink in every last breath of the woman’s soul. Cecil shuddered as though she could barely bear it, but he paid it no mind at all. Gathering both of her slender wrists in one hand, he slowly pressed in on her. The heat sweeping through his body gradually engulfed the two of them.
Ah. Cecil thought that she would gladly sink right down to the bottom of this, even if it meant falling all the way to hell.

Strange. I’d read it and enjoyed it so much, I’d read it closely, even.
But somehow, reading it again, it doesn’t stir anything in me. Hell, my foot, I scoffed, savoring that passage once more. First of all, the male lead passes. There’s hardly anyone who can match that level of skill in that department, no matter how many books you dig through. The poses are good, the passion is good, and if everything else is fine too, then, yeah.
How should I put it? Honestly, if I swapped the name ‘Cecil’ for ‘Bella,’ it would be so much…
“Eek, oh my!”
So it really was a dream.
The moment I opened my eyes, I jerked upright, flailing my arms. Who dreams something like this when they’re not even frustrated? I felt pathetic with myself, yet the feeling clung to me vividly.
You’ve really lost it, Bella.
Setting aside everything else, how did I even come up with the idea of putting my own name in place of the heroine’s? It’s not like I’m going to forget what kind of man that is. I should’ve just watched it with some popcorn, so I have no idea what bothered me so much.
“…You’re awake.”
“Your Highness!”
I had no idea anyone else was in the room. Kiers, seated at the table by the window, lifted his head indifferently and fixed his gaze on me.
“Ah…”
Why are you sitting here, sneaking around without a sound like some sly creep!
I was about to argue hotly, but belatedly realized this was his room. And what we had done last night, too.
“What sort of dream made you talk in your sleep like that?”
“Talk in my sleep? Me? Ha, ha.”
“……”
The way I stammered in confusion must have looked suspicious even to me. What had I been thinking right before I woke up! Had I blurted out something about Cecil, or the kiss, or whatever? My tongue went stiff.
“N-no way. I don’t talk in my sleep. Nobody’s ever said anything like that before, have they?”
“Who.”
“…M-my siblings, I think.”
Sensing a sudden killing intent from him as he came unhurriedly toward me, my tongue loosened up in fright. While I rubbed my smarting lips, Kiers had already come to stand in front of me.
What do people usually say to greet a man they saw this morning? He’s older than me, a high-ranking person, someone I’ll need favors from, so surely…
“…Did you sleep well?”
“Not really.”
Guess that wasn’t it.
I resented his answer, which was honest to a fault. And why is he staring at me so intently? Unable to endure his prickling gaze, I fumbled at the empty space beside me.
“Oh my, Rose. Time to get up, dear. Aren’t you a sleepyhead? Hmm?”
“……”
She’s not here, my Rose isn’t here!

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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