Chapter 19

“How tedious.”

Leon rose to his feet, placing his hands on his knees, his eyes already stripped of interest as he tugged at his tie and loosened it. The thick Adam’s apple was revealed through the parted collar pulled open by the force.

“I’m exhausted, so I’ve no intention of laying a finger on you. Don’t make a fuss over nothing.”

“…Really?”

Adeline’s face lit up before she hastily schooled her expression and asked again.

“You were the one who made a joke of me before, saying I was only there to warm your bed.”

“That’s the sort of crude joke ignorant soldiers are always making. And I do have my own tastes. Compared to the rumors of a peerless beauty, what I saw was rather disillusioning. A princess caked in mud, for instance.”

At the man’s barb, dredging up that night, heat rushed to Adeline’s face. It was true she had acted without thinking, but she hadn’t expected him to throw it back at her like this.

If he truly had no intention of consummating their first night, then it was more than welcome news for her.

“If you say so, I have no objection.”

“I’ll be using the bed, so the princess may come in or not as she pleases.”

Her surprise at his declaration that he had no intention of sharing a bed lasted only a moment. Seeing the man calmly move toward the bed, Adeline hurriedly rose to her feet.

“Wait a moment. Are you telling me to sleep on the floor?”

“I don’t see why I should be the one sleeping on the floor when I’ll be busy cleaning up this country starting tomorrow. As you know, I arrived and immediately had to deal with the mess your country left behind, so I’m thoroughly exhausted.”

At the look that seemed to ask whether she had any complaints, Adeline bit her lip. She found it disagreeable that the man lacked even the bare courtesy of a gentleman toward a woman, yet it irritated her all the more that there was nothing incorrect in what he said.

“How utterly discourteous you are.”

She was forcing herself to ignore the sting gathering at the corners of her eyes and was about to head toward the sofa when the man, who had seemed on the verge of going to sleep, suddenly cast a glance at the closed door and hardened his expression.

“Ha. Damn it.”

Muttering the curse under his breath, he moved with surprising swiftness and switched off every light in the room.

“Wait, if you suddenly turn off the lights…”

Thrown into sudden darkness, Adeline lost her sense of direction and was about to blurt out words in a rush when her mouth fell silent. The man had already closed the distance; standing before her, he lifted a hand to his shirt and began unfastening the buttons.

“W-Why are you suddenly taking your clothes off?”

“I’ve changed my mind. We’ve already had the wedding, so we should spend our first night together.”

At the unremarkable tone of his voice, her wide eyes opened even further.

“What kind of change of heart happens in less than a few seconds…”

“I’ve never been much for consistency. No time.”

Leon flashed a crooked smile, tossed aside the shirt he had already stripped off, and gave Adeline’s shoulder a light shove. Her body, thrown off balance, fell heavily onto the bed.

Before she could even gather her thoughts, the man’s face came into view above her as he climbed over her.

“W-Wait a moment. I’m not mentally prepared yet…”

“You should have finished that sort of thing long ago, Princess.”

Lying on the bed almost without realizing it, her field of vision filled with the man’s bare upper body as he tossed his shirt aside.

Confronted directly with the physique that had been hidden beneath his uniform, Adeline’s eyes trembled faintly.

The well-trained, solid muscles were finer than anything her common sense had prepared her for. His smooth body, free of any excess flesh, bore sharply defined abdominal muscles, and his broad shoulders showed the marks of long years of discipline and training.

Even for a soldier’s body, it seemed excessive.

Rather than the physique of a duke of a nation, he looked like a man who had spent his life as a mercenary. As if to prove it, traces of wounds, like old blade scars, were visible here and there across his body.

“Enough with the staring. You undress as well. Now.”

“When did I ever stare… What?”

Realizing belatedly that she had indeed been looking, Adeline’s face flushed, but her mouth fell open when a hand reached out and unhesitatingly pressed against her chest.

“No, wait. Don’t touch me.”

“Ha… what are you wearing to bed?”

“Even so… ugh.”

She even struggled, flailing against the man who was stripping her clothes off as he pleased, but the difference in strength was unmistakable. Of course. He had lulled her into lowering her guard, only to change his attitude now.

At the man’s brazen shamelessness, Adeline bit down hard on her lip.