Kalion doubted his ears for a second.

“Come again…?”

“I said let’s do it. Isn’t that what you came here for?”

Erna didn’t say exactly what, but he couldn’t help but know. This place was the couple’s bedroom. Here, weren’t there only a handful of things for a married couple to do? At this time at least, it was obvious from her attire that she wasn’t asking him to play a card game.

What made Kalion feel embarrassed was Erna’s attitude.

Kalion knew very well that if it weren’t for the letter telling him to have a child within a year, she would have never come into this room no matter what and would never have rolled around in bed naked with him. Was that it? Most of the time Erna left her body for Kalion to do whatever he wanted.

She once moved her waist on her own, but that was because of Kalion’s urging her to do it first.

At that time it was obvious that she had not been willing to do it, so Kalion had stopped requesting it from Erna. Because rather, he had thought that it was better to finish as fast as he could. But this time she was the first to say it. For the first time ever.

The second that Kalion, who had frozen for a moment, realized what was going on his face turned red hot. With his ears burning, he didn’t know how to respond, so Erna made the first move while he was hesitating.

Click. Click. She was now unfastening her buttons. He peered through her pajamas without making a sound.

What is happening right now? Is this some kind of joke?

He questioned what exactly was going on in front of him, but obviously, everything was real. Each time Erna’s fingers moved, a button was slowly unfastened. It became obvious that Erna had come here not wearing any undergarments, because when the bottom button was unfastened, her full bre*sts were exposed.

The red marks he had left on her the other day seemed to tell him that what he was seeing now was not an illusion. Erna’s pajamas were still slightly open, covering most of her bre*sts, even though the buttons were all loosened. Kalion, lifting his hand, almost pulled off her clothes, but the moment his hand moved, Erna had no choice but to sit still as it seemed like his hand would stop.

He swallowed hard. Though the movement wasn’t anything special, now not just his neck but his entire body was in pain. At the same time, Erna, with all of her buttons loosened, hesitated for a moment before reaching out and grabbing Kalion’s shirt. Eventually, he couldn’t take it anymore and grabbed her wrist.

“Why… are you doing this?”

Not only his neck but also his lips were very dry due to tension, creating a terribly low voice from his mouth.

Erna had been in the Grand Castle all day long, so she couldn’t have been bit by a demon before coming here. But he didn’t know why she was showing such different behavior than before.

Erna’s face became redder when Kalion’s questionable eyes gazed at her. To her, his words “Why are you doing this?” had sounded like “What is wrong with you?”

“Uh… I’m just…”

She wanted to say, “Since you’re eager, I’ll put in that much effort,” but her lips were frozen.

Up until now, it was Kalion who had spoken slyly to her. If she said what was on her mind, she wouldn’t know what else to do. On top of that…

Thinking that she might be burning, Erna cooled her red cheeks with the back of her hand. She felt ashamed. Extremely ashamed.

Never in her life had she once thought about reaching out and undressing someone. The fact that it was Kalion made it even worse. The way he looked as if she was attacking him because he didn’t want to do it made her feel ashamed. Kalion had a reason that it was because of the demon’s poison, but wasn’t she perfectly normal? This was why… she really seemed to attack Kalion, because she wanted him.

The heat rose and her head was spinning, but Erna clenched her teeth and began to unbutton Kalion.

“Hey, you…”

As soon as Kalion tried to throw some words at her when she still didn’t take her hand away, she looked him in the eyes and said, “Just shut up.”

Because of her trembling voice, she didn’t have much force to her, but Kalion didn’t say a word and obediently shut his mouth like she had told him to.

He just blankly stared down at the pale hands unbuttoning his pajamas. He thought that her hands would retreat if he said at least one more word. That’s not what he wanted. So all he did was stare at her fingers.

All that was heard in the still room was the cracking sound of wood in the fireplace, the rustling of pajamas, and Kalion’s rough breathing. Feeling the warm air winding around him, he suddenly remembered something from this morning.

Without realizing it, he had told Marquess Canavan, who had come looking for him at dawn, that his wife was sleeping. The short word wife had given him a restless feeling that lasted all day. They have been married for ten years, but never once had that word passed through his lips.

Whether it was a gift or a curse, Erna was in a position to be addressed as Grand Duchess of Hessenguard rather than wife. That’s why Kalion and others did not use the word either. Still, Erna was obviously his wife.