After Laurel left, only the two of them remained, wholly alone in the bedroom.
“Lucent, today must have been very hard for you.”
Aeplin said, her verdant eyes sparkling.
“No.”
He answered in a deeply sunken voice.
In truth, whenever Lucent looked at Aeplin, there was a thought circling in his mind.
‘I like that woman.’
A storm of emotion that only Lucent felt, unknown to Aeplin.
As if to calm that unfamiliar feeling, Aeplin drew a little closer to him.
“I was not troubled either, because you were there.”
Whatever the reason, having come to know the wounds and despair her companion had suffered, Lucent looked different to her.
Just by having shared the human anguish hidden behind his perfect exterior, she felt as though she herself had become someone special to him.
“Aeplin.”
Lucent could not govern the emotions surging toward Aeplin.
This uncharacteristic change was unfamiliar and awkward, but it was hard to deny that he felt a far greater intimacy with Aeplin than before.
“Tonight, I want to be with you.”
By then, his eyes, too, were burning with complicated emotion.
Of course, it might be a temporary disturbance of feeling.
Like a mirage that appears to those wandering the desert, it might toy with him to its fill and then cool as if it had never been.
But this moment was so desperately earnest.
The two lay side by side on the bed, but both stared silently at the ceiling.
Aeplin was agonizing over whether to mention what had happened on the island, and Lucent, his heart aching unlike before, kept touching his left chest.
The Lucent of old had been a man difficult to approach easily, but now, even lying beside him was not uncomfortable.
Then Lucent said something unexpected.
“I hoped I would have at least one person, too.”
As if by agreement, the two turned their heads and gazed at each other’s faces.
They had not deliberately spoken aloud of the wondrous thing that had happened today, but they could understand the meaning of these vague words.
“Would I be all right?”
When Aeplin asked with an innocent face, he nodded without a word.
In all his life, Lucent had never shared his emotions with anyone.
When night came, he would be consumed by an inexplicable emptiness.
That there was no one in this world who would acknowledge his efforts and hardships wore a person down.
But that did not mean he had tried to find someone.
Struggling desperately not to collapse, and gathering up his shattered resolve, was also his own burden alone.
But now he was not alone.
In truth, even after marrying Aeplin, he had not considered her a very trustworthy being.
He had merely believed that having the background of the Hapen family was enough.
Aeplin was no more than someone to protect, like Monica and Marie.
But she had been with him in his hardest, most painful moment.
Even if that was an illusion, it came to Lucent as healing and deep meaning.
It could be called forcibly attaching meaning to something already past, but to him it had been like an illness that visited him every time.
Yet thanks to Aeplin, his memory had been changed.
“I am thinking of making a vow as well…….”
“A vow?”
Aeplin’s eyes went round.
Surely he did not mean he had vowed to love her?
“That is right. That.”
Lucent answered as if he had read Aeplin’s inner thoughts.
“I have also vowed to love Aeplin. Only then will the family we have built succeed. For that, our relationship is very important.”
‘This man has changed.’
Aeplin found the man before her unfamiliar—still the same, yet entirely different.
Before, he had been stiff and excessively rational, but the cold light that had hung over his blue eyes had vanished, and only warmth lingered in her husband Lucent.
“Aeplin, I would like to maximize the efficiency of our relationship.”
“Pardon? What do you mean by that…….”
His lips had already covered the puzzled Aeplin.
With soft eyes he drew her in, then released at once the emotions he had suppressed until now.
Aeplin was startled by his sudden action, but soon was swept into his strange whirlpool and gently closed her eyes.
Their lips crushed together, their breaths tangled into one, growing rough and desperate.
They moved fiercely to take each other in deeply.
Soon, when Lucent’s lips brushed Aeplin’s earlobe and neck, she moaned low and trembled.
“One month seems too long.”
He whispered in a desire-laden tone at Aeplin’s ear.
His voice, slightly hoarse and cracked, was intensely sensual.
His lips sought her again, and there was a savoring and dense desire clearly different from the rather rough caresses he had once performed as ‘insurance.’
Feeling his breath, Aeplin unknowingly reached out her hand.
Soon the warmth steeped in his firmness was conveyed to her.
Lucent’s breathing wavered faintly, and his heart beat irregularly.
He no longer held himself back from Aeplin.
Hesitation and desire for her were mixed together, but the earnestness could not be shaken off.
“Beautiful.”
His voice was endlessly sweet.
“You sound sincere.”
“I have no hobby of flattering uselessly.”
The closer his presence came, the more Aeplin’s heart fluttered as if it would burst.
As if a garden frozen all winter were melting in a warm spring breeze, her nerves reacted sensitively even to a single word from him.
The vague fear she had felt toward him disappeared, and at last she felt that he was her husband.
Far from rejecting Lucent as he boldly approached, Aeplin fell into a strange bliss.
An unfamiliar sensation she had never felt once in her life.
His kiss was pure itself, without anything sinister or ulterior.
The closer he came, the more their relationship as husband and wife seemed to solidify.
‘It is strange—I do not dislike him.’
More precisely, she felt no aversion to his actions.
She had heard that even great gentlemen often became vulgar in the bedroom, but Lucent had a stylishness in restraining a man’s desire.
His behavior, treating his wife as precious and handling her very carefully, was instead a great charm.
“I will keep the promise of one month.”
He whispered low.
“Lucent…….”
He approached Aeplin boldly, but in the end kept the line.
Within the permitted range, he sweetly captivated her.
Like an explorer, he examined every inch of the unknown island that was Aeplin.
At times he was unhesitating, but he did not climb to the summit and plant a flag.
“Why?”
Aeplin asked, puzzled by his suddenly halted action.
“This is as far as we go tonight.”
‘Ha……. He really was a man who kept his promises well.’
She felt a slight regret, but perhaps that was why he was all the more trustworthy.
Aeplin, held in his arms, no longer guarded herself.
“Lucent. Are you not disappointed?”
“Hm, it seems Aeplin is the more regretful one?”
“Not at all.”
Lucent replied mischievously to Aeplin, who had turned her head with a reddened face.
But why did he not feel regret? He was also a man in the prime of his vigor.
Still, as a married couple, there were many days ahead.
“Look forward to it.”
“To what?”
“When the time comes, I will show no mercy.”
* * *
The article about Aeplin and Lucent’s wedding appeared in every newspaper in the empire, causing a great stir in noble society.
The image of the union between a distinguished family’s daughter and a vicious banker was still strong, but everyone showed keen curiosity about the choice of the young lady of the Hapen family.
The day before departing for the capital, Lount, the Blackakson couple was invited to a dinner.
The people invited to the couples’ party were all famous figures whose names alone were recognizable.
The one who had invited the two tonight was the couple of Johannes Branner, owner of the Lount Times, the empire’s leading newspaper.
The one who welcomed this invitation most was, of course, Lucent, but a slight problem arose during the preparations.
“Wear it. Lucent.”
“The blue bothers me…….”
“Look, it is a white linen jacket and trousers, and only the shirt is blue—more precisely, close to sky blue.”
Lucent frowned and shook his head repeatedly.
The dress code written on the invitation was blue, and Aeplin had naturally prepared her own and Lucent’s shirts in a pale blue that matched the scenery of Haven.
But for Lucent, who always wore black suits, it was an outfit difficult to overcome.
“Lucent, do you know? Your eyes are like blue diamonds. This shirt color is exactly the same, so it will make your handsome face stand out.”
“Madam, the president never wears anything but black and white suits.”
Leon, apparently thinking Aeplin was making an unreasonable demand, offered sincere advice.
The Lucent he knew was a man who moved only according to the rules he had set.
Even if she was his wife, it was impossible to break his firm convictions.
But as if firm convictions were meant to be broken, Aeplin struck with a single decisive word.
“Can you not do even this much for your wife?”
