CH 6

Lariana’s contemptuous gaze turned toward Cain. This time, even he found it difficult to maintain composure. He roughly brushed back his fallen bangs.

“Lari, I’m not so audacious as to force myself on a woman who doesn’t trust me.”

Relieved by his firm denial, Lariana let out a sigh of relief and slowly surveyed her surroundings.

The bedroom, larger than the Duke and Duchess of Isis’ chambers, had several golden tapestries hanging on the gray stone walls. Wool carpets covered the floor expansively. The bedroom, adorned with mahogany furniture, seemed like it belonged to a lord or lady from decades or even centuries ago.

While Lariana wandered around the bedroom, her eyes caught sight of an object. She unsteadily approached the bedside table.

At the end of it was a golden incense burner adorned with a large ruby. As she approached and opened the lid of the incense burner, the smoke inside slowly dissipated as if it had just finished burning.

It was a familiar scent.

“It’s a sleeping incense.”

When she lived in Duke Isis’ mansion, the sensitive owner often used sleeping incense.

Lariana herself would occasionally receive expensive sleeping incense from the generous Sorelle and use them to calm the crying Kalix.

It was because of this sleeping incense that Cain could undress her, bathe her, and she remained unaware, falling into slumber.

To calm the surging waves of her turbulent emotions, she tightly closed and opened her eyes.

“It seems that you’re surprised.”

“Well, you struck a nerve.”

Lariana didn’t miss the nonchalant expression on Cain’s face.

“As a maid, one must become more perceptive to survive.”

“No, you were always good at understanding others’ feelings.”

“Don’t speak as if you know everything about me.”

“I don’t know everything about you.”

“All you know is Lady Lariana Heliosen, a noblewoman, not the maid Lariana.”

Cain approached Lariana as she gave a resolute response. Startled by his sudden approach, she took a step back. As a result, the incense burner, where sleeping incense had been burning, made a loud noise as it fell to the ground, the ashes inside scattered.

“Uh, I’m sorry.”

The ingrained habit of a maid instinctively moved her. Lariana, who was about to reach out her hand toward the ashes, was gently lifted by Cain.

She was wearing thin negligees and long-sleeved tunics, and the sensation of the thin fabric between them was more sensuous than bare skin touching.

It had been less than a day since Lariana reunited with her ex-husband, but there was one thing she had grasped. That was Cain wouldn’t let her go easily if she tried to escape.

Having experienced several failures, she looked around, contemplating how she could effectively free herself from his embrace.

“You don’t have to move.”

“Your Excellency. I understand, so please let me down.”

“Cain. Call me Cain.”

Fortunately, he didn’t torment her further and gently lowered her onto the bed, where she sat at the edge. He then knelt down, facing her.

What was he playing at?

Observing Cain, Lariana felt inexplicably embarrassed and nervously wriggled her foot. Then, Cain’s large, elongated hand landed on her delicate ankle.

What was he doing?! Startled, Lariana jerked her leg restlessly.

“Your Excellency!”

“Cain, it is.”

“Right. Cain. Cain, please let go of my leg.”

No matter how hard she tried to resist, she couldn’t overcome his robust strength. Cain carefully lifted Lariana’s small and soft foot with both hands.

“I should caution the servants to pay attention. The floor is dirty.”

On the soles of Lariana’s feet, which had been briefly bare, there was a small amount of black dust.

It doesn’t make sense to have this little dust. As a skilled maid, she was about to protest, but Cain casually brushed the dirt off her feet with his hand. It was embarrassing and ticklish. Strangely, not only her feet, but also her belly button area felt itchy, and her body temperature rose.

She bit her lower lip, wondering why it was taking so long to remove the dust… While Cain meticulously caressed and fiddled with her foot, he carefully slipped on a slipper with feather decoration on her.

She couldn’t resist this absurd action any longer and reluctantly allowed him to do the same to the other foot.

“Your Excellency, please stop.”

“Cain.”

Cain insisted on the address.

“Right… Cain.”

When Lariana mustered up the courage to mention her ex-husband’s name, barely able to utter it, he smiled satisfactorily.

“Stop.”

“I don’t want to.”

Ha! Even four-year-old Kalix listened better than Cain. Was she meeting her ex-husband or a lost child?

Lariana took several deep breaths, trying to contain her boiling anger, and stubbornly held Cain’s hand that was reaching for her ankle.

“I can’t become an elegant noblewoman.”

“You don’t need to be perfect. You just need to be my wife.”

“If you’re going to hold on like this, you should’ve done it before I disappear.”

Her sharp words caused a slight crack in Cain’s expression.

“Do you… remember anything?”

Cain watched Lariana closely, his eyes searching for her reaction. She didn’t miss that look.

Well, of course. It seemed that he hadn’t done anything wrong to her. However, the duke of the Great Empire acted like a slave to his ex-wife, who lost her memory. What secrets were hidden in those fragments of unknown memories?

What kind of divorce did they have? Her first memory was rolling and struggling outside, dressed in shabby clothes…

‘But now… it’s too late.’

The more she thought about it, the more twisted Lariana’s heart became. Unconsciously, she started chuckling, forgetting that her counterpart was a duke.

“No, not at all.”

He knelt as if he was a knight and was about to swear an oath. She crossed her arms and looked down at Cain.

“If you’re going to kiss my feet like that…”

“There’s nothing I can’t do.”

While Lariana let her guard down, Cain kissed the other sole of her foot. Soft and tender, the lips clung to the sole, almost dampening it. When he slowly pulled his lips away, a hot stickiness remained.

Startled, Lariana straightened her back. She felt a tingling sensation as if every sense in her body was on edge. Her thighs trembled. Cain smiled slightly as if pleased with it.

He was ready to fulfill any demand. If he had to lick her feet, he would gladly do it while regarding her with lustful eyes. No, not only her feet but he seemed ready to devour her entire body.

“Your Excellency!”

“Call me Cain.”

“It’s dirty!”

“There’s not a single dirty spot from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. I washed every inch of you perfectly.”

With a lustful gaze, he looked at Lariana’s feet as if savoring a delicacy. This man was insane. He was out of his mind.

“Are you crazy?”

“Hahaha, it’s been a long time since I heard that phrase. Did I also seem crazy like when I proposed to you?”

“Me?”

It was fascinating that there was at least one commonality between her past self as a noblewoman and her current self as a maid.

As Cain was about to do something even more dangerous, Lariana swiftly slipped her other foot into a different slipper.

“You use sleeping incense on Kalix, don’t you?”

“…How do you know?”

Cain couldn’t hide his surprise.

She could already guess why he used a sleeping incense on Kalix. He treated their son as a nuisance, an unwanted presence. She had sensed that from the beginning.

“You used it. I’ve been using sleeping incense on Kalix since before the ball. But to use it again… I have to go see him.”

“Lari, I wanted to spend time with you. We’ll have countless moments with our son in the future. Can’t we have today just the two of us?”

Anger sprouted within Lariana. It was difficult for her to hear his words.

“Why me?”

“We are husba–”

That d*mn word, husband. Husband. Husband! It was tiresome.

“Your Excellency, please! We’re not a married couple.”

“We are a married couple.”

Suddenly, Cain’s eyes became moist again. Those damn eyes were the problem. Like Sorelle’s sapphire earrings, his shimmering eyes were moist and radiating light once again.

Not only his eyes, but his entire body was in that state. It was as if he was quivering.

Perhaps her past self had fallen head over heels for that handsome face and lost her senses.

She couldn’t be deceived again. She couldn’t. She couldn’t… Lariana repeated to herself.

“Sorelle said so. You and I are divorced.”

She needed to know why her life had fallen apart. Lariana tried to calm her mind.

She headed towards the tea table by the bedroom window. She sat down on a chair and waited for Cain to approach, but he didn’t come closer.

It didn’t matter whether he took a seat or not. That wasn’t important.

“Your Excellency, why did we get divorced?”

However, the words that came out of Cain’s mouth were completely unexpected.

“…You abandoned me.”

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

To the west of the Cardenia continent, there existed the Martessen Empire. Martessen bordered different countries to the south and east, standing at the forefront of the continent.

There were three small kingdoms in particular: the mysterious land of Rindell, the beautiful land of Serren, and the sacred land of the Holy Kingdom. And then there was the massive Davask Kingdom, which vied for dominance within the continent and engaged in small-scale regional conflicts for decades.

Moreover, with the collapse of Rindell in the northeast, resulting in frequent uprisings by its displaced people, the border regions had been in a state of unparalleled chaos for decades.

In light of this, renowned knights received titles and became lords, heading towards the northeastern gate. One of them was the current Count Heliosen. The territory he was assigned was named Heline, after his own name.

“Lariana! Have you seen Lady Lariana?”

A maid, who hurriedly exited the lord’s castle with quick steps, frantically searched for the young lady. A young servant girl followed closely behind her.