Chapter 2

Judith did nothing but be continuously stone cold, and Derrick refused to yield in his flirtations. It stayed that way until the day of the wedding ceremony, where his unyielding spirit reached its peak.

'You appear as an extremely outstanding lady. Since you've gotten married to me, you'll also have to spend the night with me starting tonight, wouldn't you?'

'Having to have children is the responsibility of a married couple, so I will not refuse.'

At this, Derrick's face broke down for the first time. It was the face of a man with his unshakeable pride all crumpled up.

The wedding was held magnificently with the blessings of both families. However, neither party made eye contact with the other during the ceremony. The air surrounding the two was quite chilly and cold throughout the ceremony.

After the wedding finished safely, Judith entered the ducal mansion where Derek stayed. She went into the bedroom first, washed up, sat on the bed, and waited for him. But no matter how long she waited for the huge bedroom door to open, she didn't think it would. Tic toc tic toc ― There was only silence lingering from the flowing pendulum.

The night was gradually becoming late, and, losing her patience, she opened the bedroom door and went outside.

In front of the bedroom, where she thought no person would be there, was a knight and a maid, who shuffled her feet, not knowing what to do.

".......Where is the Duke?"

Since they were as surprised as, if not more than, Judith, she asked them while not betraying any emotion. Contrary to her expectation that they would answer immediately, the maid hesitated for a long time and wouldn't open her mouth. As she continued to hesitate with her response, Judith looked back at the knight standing behind the maid. He was an escort knight who was always following behind Derrick.

Why was he here right now?

All of a sudden, anxiety struck Judith's chest.

"Take me to the place where the Duke is."

"Madame, that's....."

"Now."

She was helpless to Judith's firm gaze. The maid dragged her feet and led her to the place. Actually, truth be told, she wanted to find the Duke by herself and send them back downstairs, but she was unable to as she didn't fully know the structure of the mansion.

Not long after, the maid stopped walking. It was in front of some door that was no different from the bedroom door.

"It's here?"

"It is - it is Your Grace's office."

After explaining, the maid quickly stepped back.

Judith carefully put her hand on the door knob to open the door. At the same time, a harsh sound grazed her ears and her fingertips flinched. With the door only slightly cracked before her, the sound leaked out into the cold hallway.

'.......Ah, De, Derrick! Haang, ahng!'

What she was hearing from the inside was clearly the moaning of a woman.

And the name the woman's coquettish voice was calling out was the same name of her husband's, whom she performed the wedding ceremony today with.

There could never be two people called 'Derrick' in this ducal mansion, so it was clearly expected that the man who was doing things inside of there was Judith's husband. That clear fact before her made her feel dizzy. The hand that was holding onto the doorknob wrapped itself tightly on it.

She never loved Derrick. Be that as it may, there was no way she would be happy suffering from his disregard of his vows through such candid methods. As though the fact that she was unhappy was not enough, his contempt, which he didn't restrain, poured out, while his debauchery that he didn't suppress, even today, the day of their wedding, made her shudder.

She didn't open the door and turned her body back around, directly returning to her and her husband's spacious bedroom.

Unlike Derek's office, which was frequently noisy, this place was so quiet. Judith sat slightly on the bed. It was cold on top of the large bed, but it was warm compared to Judith's heart, which had become completely cold.

She sighed deeply as she stroked the duvet.

Never having her pride hurt before, she felt a sense of humiliation, as though she was crawling up from the bottom of the ground for the first time in her life.

As she laid on the bed by herself, she felt the bed space was particularly large and empty.

On the first night that the new bride was looking forward to, she was nothing other than deserted.

The marriage life that began like that could never be smooth.

The marriage between the ducal family of Vaisil and the marquis family of Lipis was only for show. In that formal union, Derrick and Judith's relationship was so dull that there was no emotion at all. It's safe to say that they probably were business partners linked under the embellishment of a 'business deal'.

In the process, Derrick happened to fall deeply for a young lady. Her name was Silvia Wirell, the young lady of the Viscount family of Wirell, who recently came to the capital and was starting to run a business.

At first, she thought it was just some shallow curiosity, but no! Silvia didn't relinquish for one month, and lasted as long as three months beside Derrick, who had changed.

Judith received reports on Derrick whether she liked it or not. It was to prevent a problem from causing a setback in this empty marriage. Although they had no feelings, it was clear that their marriage was a great help to the Marquis Family, and Judith had to continue with this marriage.

Through the report, she came to know of Silvia's existence. They had been meeting under the pretext of 'management". Derrick, whom she thought as fickle, didn't come to his senses because he had fallen in love with her, as though he had become "sincere". He often went out early every morning and came back late in the evening, and instead of the scent of cigarettes, his body strongly gave off a certain fragrant scent of perfume.

Judith just left them alone and watched for the time being.

She thought she didn't have to trouble herself and meddle because she didn't even love him. She also didn't want to get involved because, even though he had really liked her at one point, she had seen too often how easily he changed between women, and waited for it to occur again, as well.

However, when reports began to show that the two were frequently seen dating in the capital city, she could not just sit back and watch.

So far, rumours of the discord between the ducal couple was a topic that had often followed the two, but would be passed off as no more than a false rumor. However, his behavior would leave a bad impression on Judith.

No matter how little affection this relationship held, though, there was still a line that must not be crossed.

"If you want to have an affair, how about doing it while hiding it, please?"

Judith visited her husband and threw the documents with the whereabouts of their dates onto his desk. Derrick dark eyebrows knitted together discontentedly.

"What are you doing?"

"You've been doing well to hide your affair until now. What's changed all of a sudden?"

He stared at the face of Judith, who was asking, with his arms crossed. Realizing that she wasn't being sarcastic, but was asking from the bottom of her heart, Derrick burst into laughter.

The moment Derrick titled his head slightly to the side, she noticed the trace of a kiss mark on his neck. He came in past midnight last night. It was clear that the one who probably imprinted that mark was her, Silvia Wirell, who had been with him all night.

Judith could only feel disgust at the shameful proof of his nightly activities.

"Behave yourself properly. Unless you want to suffer through a divorce."

No longer pleased to be in the same space as him, she turned her back on him. Before she could take a step forward, something touched the back of her head. Flutter flutter ― She heard the sound of papers flying as they fell messily by her feet.

"I really hate you so much. Do you know that?"

She responded, firmly biting her lower lip,

"It's the same for me, as well."

"I shouldn't have married someone like you. Why the hell did I marry a woman who is as emotionless and unaffectionate as you, and...."

Judith slowly turned her head to her husband. At some point, Derek also couldn't hide his contempt for his partner as much as she did. He hated her calmness to the point that it would cause him goosebumps, and she was disillusioned of him being prodigal.

Judith, who was glaring at him, giggled, and gave him a twisted smile.

"Silvia Wirell. You wish to "get married," as well, with her, right?"

"That name, do not mention it as you please."

Derrick reacted more sensitively than she expected to her provocation.

That's funny. Seeing him, who usually looks down on women, came out seriously like this. Wasn't he a man who thought nothing of something called "emotions" more than anyone else?

Unlike her husband, whom she ended up easily cutting off her relationship with, Judith knew a great deal of women who couldn't forget him and also still stayed up all night in tears.

"Dream on."

Judith whispered with a lovely and beautiful smile, only looking at him. She heard the sound of Derrick gritting his teeth from afar.

"Because unless Silvia Wirell is reborn as an esteemed young lady of a Marquis like me, it will never happen."

Leaving behind a pretentious sneer through her laughter, Judith left the office.

As soon as she took a step outside, the sound of something being smashed occurred terribly inside ― Bang! Bang!

As she walked away, her hatred only deepened.

* * *

Only

The thing was, the relationship between the couple, which was already at stake of teetering off a cliff, had become completely strained since Judith's direct warning.

Dereck hated her enough to avoid eating together now. But behaving like that did not hurt Judith. Their relationship, which had no emotion of "love", was simply worse than anybody else.

In the midst of all this, something strange happened. Derrick's health immediately began to deteriorate as if he had caught some "disease".

T/N: I bet Silvia had the virus.

PR: HAHA

At first, she thought it was a simple fever, but his condition didn't get any better even when he took some medicine, and even if the most famous doctor in the capital city was called in, he only said that he was unable to comprehend the symptoms at all. Amid the efforts of many people, Derrick Vaisil's condition continuously deteriorated.

Judith calmly accepted that his condition began to deteriorate.

This was because she fully expected this as a possibility. Derrick enjoyed all sorts of bad things, including aphrodisiacs and cigars, from the time he joined society. Naturally, she hadn't known it would be serious to the point doctors would give up though.