Feeling something was twisting within, he sarcastically remarked.

“Now that I look at it, you were a completely useless woman.”

A string of words that he deliberately used to hurt her continued to come out.

Calix knew he was acting low. Still, he hoped to elicit a reaction from her in this way. He wanted her to get angry and yell back at him.

That way, he could manage to suppress these unexplainable and heated emotions.

“To think that you wouldn’t even fulfill your responsibilities.”

Asella quietly bit the inside of her mouth.

People of nobility do not marry for love.

Political marriages came with obligations, and most were bound by some kind of contract. Due to Philip’s daily boasting, even Asella knew that Calix had paid a high price for this marriage.

But on the other hand, she did not know what he had demanded from this marriage.

She could only assume he had a request or two, perhaps even more. Because they had received that much from him.

“…”

In any case, her refusal could not be explained by any reason. That was why Asella had not even opened her mouth under Calix’s sharp word. She didn’t even dare to look him in the eye.

She was already so used to the words that wracked her self-esteem and muddled her mind that her head began to ache. Frankly, she was just…. 

…Scared.

‘Useless.’

She cannot afford to be of no use to this man.

She had to somehow prove her usefulness to him, because only then would she and Mariel be able to survive. She had to demonstrate her value in order to sustain her life here for even a little while longer.

It was obvious with a woman who had nothing to offer in a union arranged between aristocratic families, Providing a successor, was in some way, the simplest and most certain way to do so.

‘But…’

No matter how much she thought of it, she didn’t see him wanting to share a child with her. Would he really want an heir with a woman he would soon kill by his own hand?

Perhaps all Calix Benvito had wanted from the start was a body for momentary pleasure.

But even knowing that didn’t change the fact that it is what it is. Refusal was not an option she was allowed to make, and she had to comply with his desires whenever and wherever he wished.

‘So…’

It was not too late. If she went ahead and clung to him and begged…

“You won’t even say a single word, is this it?”

However, as much as Asella’s hope was lost on her face, Calix was the first to get up. The pressure on her body was lifted in an instant.

“Okay, sure.”

Calix chuckled.

The thought that she would react in any way when she heard his awful words was crushed. His wife didn’t even flinch. It was as if nothing he ever said would generate any sort of reaction out of her.

And he was not generous enough to put up with such a blunt refusal.

“Let’s do whatever you want.”

At the threatening tone of his words, Asella shuddered and although he noticed her fingertips trembling slightly in fear, he pretended to be ignorant of his wife’s fears. He turned his body without much delay and fled out of the bedroom.

He did not even pay attention to the greetings of the knights who were guarding the door as his state of mind was completely disturbed.

“Damn it.”

Although he didn’t realize it, there was an increase in the pressure in his steps as he walked down the dreary, dark corridor, and his hands remained clenched tight throughout the entire way.

Trying not to think about it, but his mind was busy contemplating her behavior, which he didn’t understand at all. Then, absurdly irrational assumptions crossed his mind.

‘No way.’

She didn’t have another man in her life, did she? Or was there someone else she cared about? Maybe because it wasn’t even a marriage she wanted in the first place. She might want to leave him in the future and go back to the other man…

Calix halted with a chatter.

‘That’s ridiculous.’

It was an outrageous presumption. His informants, who boasted of their thoroughness and efficiency, had infiltrated everywhere in the Chartus family.

Her usual human interactions were so limited that he could count them on his fingers, a fact that Calix himself knew with more certainty than anyone else.

Still, the reason why he even came up with such an outrageous idea was because there were so many things about her behavior that he couldn’t comprehend.

After pondering for a reason for a while, Calix eventually stopped thinking about it.

“There is nothing to think too deeply about.”

He even said it out loud, although there was no one around to hear him, it was as if he was trying to convince himself.

She was a person with the title of a grand duchess. A successor was needed, but if Asella refused, then there were plenty of other options. It meant that it was not worth the trouble to bother with it in detail. If this and that didn’t work out, he was fine with ending the family line with him, and that would be the end of it.

But of the many ways Calix could think of, there was no such option of him having a child with someone other than his wife. But this fact was something he was not even aware of himself.

“…There is no need to worry about it.”

Calix murmured as he roughly brushed a stray strand of hair from his forehead.

Clack, clack. The footsteps that had stopped for a while began to thud through the corridor once again.