Chapter 18…
The Husband Isn’t Leaving?
After the ceremony ended, Aileen returned to their room with Lloyd. She couldn’t remember how many hours she had been standing, but the event finally wrapped up only after she’d drained every bit of her energy. Still in the same outfit she had worn to the reception, Aileen collapsed onto the sofa as soon as she entered the room.
Though this was her second wedding, the exhaustion was incomparable. Maybe it was because the scale was much larger than before, or maybe because the number of people she had to greet at the reception had multiplied several times. It wasn’t until dawn that she managed to escape the crowd.
Either way, now that the wedding was over, it felt like she had crossed a huge mountain. Once the Grand Duke left for the battlefield, Aileen would have to endure life as the Grand Duchess for a year. She thought, Even if I don’t do everything perfectly, they won’t kick out a newlywed Grand Duchess, right?
For now, she was simply satisfied that the day had passed without incident.
Aileen glanced up at Lloyd.
He had stayed by her side the whole time, and when her legs gave out, he had offered his arm for her to lean on. Thanks to that, she had managed to hold herself together.
Once he left for the battlefield, she’d have to manage on her own.
“Between Grand Duchess lessons and keeping a research journal in between… I’m going to be busy,” she thought.
Life as the Grand Duchess would be hectic, but Aileen was also determined to prepare for her future.
“And if possible, I want to keep the family stable…”
“Are you feeling better now?”
“Huh?”
Aileen didn’t quite understand what he meant and asked back. Lloyd, who had just pulled out some glasses, turned to her.
“I mean your body. You were swaying earlier, remember?”
“Oh, I’m fine,” she said with an awkward, embarrassed smile.
In the meantime, Lloyd came over with a bottle of wine and two glasses. He sat across from her, still in his formal attire.
The navy blue evening suit he had worn to the reception fit his body perfectly. Finding the buttoned-up collar stuffy, he undid a few buttons and draped one arm over the sofa. Then, almost lazily, he popped the cork and poured the wine with one hand as if the other were unnecessary.
Aileen found herself oddly fascinated watching not a single drop spill. She stared in silence until he pushed a glass toward her, and then a thought suddenly hit her.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Seeing her quietly staring, Lloyd asked.
“Did you forget something?”
Aileen looked at him as if he were the strange one.
“Forget something…?”
Lloyd glanced over the table. Normally he drank straight from the bottle, but since Aileen was here, he had brought glasses. Was something missing?
“Should I bring some fruit?”
“No, that’s not it,” she said firmly, studying his face. Something felt off. Really off.
‘Why isn’t he leaving for the battlefield?’
She clearly remembered that he was supposed to leave late at night after the wedding. So when they entered the room together, she hadn’t thought much of it. When she glanced at the bed earlier, her only thought was that it was a bit too big for her to sleep in alone.
But something had felt strange ever since Lloyd brought out the wine.
Why wasn’t he leaving?
Aileen looked back and forth between the door and Lloyd. She didn’t know the exact departure time, but he shouldn’t be sitting around this leisurely.
She stared intently at him, and when Lloyd met her gaze, an odd tension filled the space between them. After a long moment of eye contact, he shrugged.
“Are you trying to say we should just go to bed? Then you could’ve just said so.”
He started putting down his glass as if to go to bed right away, and Aileen quickly waved her hands in panic.
This was absurd.
She tried to think of a way to explain but nothing came to mind. The weight of his shadow looming over her made her shrink back. In the end, the simplest way was to ask directly.
“Aren’t you supposed to go to the border?”
“The border?”
“The territory where the war with the Kingdom of Sihar is happening.”
Lloyd paused mid-motion with his wine glass and slowly lifted his head. His gaze traveled down Aileen’s face, thoughtful, as if choosing his words carefully.
The longer he stayed silent, the shorter Aileen’s patience grew.
‘What is he trying to say?’
Finally, his expression shifted—his already heavy gaze sharpened, making Aileen’s heart pound.
“I didn’t realize you were so interested in me.”
“I heard it somewhere, that’s all. I didn’t look it up or anything.”
She had actually overheard it by chance. Everyone was curious about the Grand Duke’s every move, so the story had spread quickly. Especially since people had mentioned that he’d left on the very night of his last wedding.
“Then I guess you didn’t hear the whole story. The official deployment is a month from now.”
“You… follow those kinds of rules?”
She knew he wasn’t the type to. Surely he won’t stay here for a few more weeks? she thought nervously.
“There’s no need to leave before the official departure,” he replied.
“But…”
Aileen trailed off. She was sure he had left early last time, so why not this time?
“To be honest, I thought you’d leave after the wedding today.”
As if reading her mind, Lloyd tilted the bottle and refilled his glass.
“If you were an Omega, I would have.”
The hypothetical answer nearly made Aileen drop her glass.
“…Why?”
If she were an Omega, he would’ve left? So that’s why he left so quickly when he married her brother? But why?
Her patience, like a burning candle wick, was wearing thin. Lloyd’s answers were maddeningly slow.
“More importantly, let’s think about our heir.”
He changed the subject easily. She wanted to press him for an answer, but the word “heir” caught her off guard. She tried to act calm, but it wasn’t easy. Then a thought occurred to her.
A child between a Beta and a Beta would almost certainly be Beta—99% odds.
“What if the child I give birth to is Beta? Wouldn’t that be a problem later?”
“What kind of problem?”
“When you divorce me and your new wife gives birth to an Alpha. The firstborn would be a Beta, right?”
But Lloyd hadn’t seemed to care about traits at all—just about having an heir.
For the first time, a crack appeared in his calm expression. His brows furrowed slightly before he replied casually,
“I’m tired of obsessing over traits.”
He raised his glass and gently tapped hers. The clear sound of clinking glass filled the air, but Aileen didn’t have the presence of mind to enjoy it.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Exactly what it sounds like.”
He offered no further explanation. But she understood the implication—he didn’t care if the heir was a Beta. She closed her mouth, unable to read his intentions.
From the moment of his proposal, Aileen had never imagined things would unfold like this. Her plan was simple: spend the wedding night apart, let him leave for the battlefield, live as the Grand Duchess for a year, then divorce. But that plan was already crumbling.
The thought that she might actually end up pregnant made her stomach twist.
She fiddled with her wine glass. One thing was clear—Lloyd wasn’t going anywhere tonight.
“I thought I’d be sleeping alone…”
She hadn’t even considered the wedding night. Feeling stifled, she grabbed the bottle and filled her glass to the brim. She tilted it a little too quickly, and some spilled over the edge, but she didn’t care.
Because Lloyd had been drinking steadily, the bottle emptied without even filling her glass completely. She set the bottle down with a thud and downed the wine in one go.
The wine burned down her throat, spreading heat through her chest.
“You’ll get drunk drinking like that. Don’t tell me you’re drunk already?”
She slammed her glass onto the table and glared at him.
“I’m not drunk. And I thought you were leaving for the border today. You could’ve at least told me you weren’t. I thought I’d be sleeping alone tonight.”
“…Am I being scolded right now?”
Lloyd let out a baffled laugh, sounding almost wronged.
“Was I supposed to get permission not to go tonight?”
“It would’ve been nice if you’d told me in advance,” she shot back.
He looked at her as if questioning whether she was drunk. Then, replaying her words in his head, he scoffed openly.
“At this rate, I’ll need to get permission to kiss you too.”
“I’d appreciate it if you did,” she replied without hesitation.
“…How far do I need permission for?”
“From start to finish, preferably,” she said, clutching the sofa tightly in frustration.
She just wanted to go to sleep, whether he left for the battlefield or not. Now that she knew the official departure was a month away, she had nothing more to say.
“Alright. I’ll match your pace,” he said.
Her vision was starting to blur a little as the wine hit her. She lifted her eyes to interpret his words—and their gazes met.
No, not quite. His eyes lowered slightly, toward her lips.
“I want to kiss you right now.”
“…I’ll think about it,” she said evasively.
She wasn’t ready to accept, but she couldn’t reject him outright either. Yet ever since he’d mentioned “kiss,” she couldn’t ignore the word. Once the thought took root, she kept noticing his lips.
Even when she looked elsewhere, her eyes kept being drawn back to them.
And then—
