Chapter 16
Consummation Proof
Klaud strode to the console on the wall, took out some medicine from a drawer, and swallowed it.
He tilted his head a couple of times, then gripped his head with a trembling hand, as if he were anyone taking medicine, and glared fiercely at Yuan.
"Just because my body's a wreck doesn't mean I'm a complete idiot."
His bloodshot eyes stared at her as if to pierce through her.
As if asking if she still wanted the Consummation Proof after seeing him in this state.
White teeth were visible between his long, torn lips.
When the pain is too great, laughter comes out like that of a madman.
She knew it all too well.
"Go ahead."
The man, who was like the black, burnt mansion itself, suppressed his pain and stretched the corners of his lips into a longer smile. He looked like a fallen angel.
Yuan paused her momentary admiration and placed the candlestick she was holding on a nearby table.
"Keep going. Whatever you can do."
She tensed her jaw and carefully approached him.
Hardened, tangled dark brown skin.
His face, suppressing the pain that rose every moment, and his tightly clenched jaw came into view in turn.
'I can fix it.'
That is pain itself.
It wasn't that he had some disease that made him like that, but the pain itself was visibly rising.
She was sure she had read about similar symptoms somewhere.
Klaud heard her scrutinizing gaze, as if examining someone with a skin disease, and laughed as if it were ridiculous.
"What are you doing? Should I take it off for you first?"
"Ta, take it off."
"What?"
It was time to check if that hideousness had spread all over his body.
Yuan, who had been visually groping the skin between the loosely opened nightgown, mustered her courage.
"...Take it off."
Klaud, whom she cautiously looked up at, wore a face that had been overwhelmed with the shame he had been suppressing.
The Deposed Emperor, who had been frozen for a while, began to laugh, shaking his shoulders.
He chuckled so much that his hair, which had turned like faded autumn leaves, shook, then suddenly raised his head and threw off the nightgown that was already half undone.
As soon as his body, blackened by pain, was revealed, he strode towards Yuan. And when Yuan didn't avoid him, he raised an eyebrow.
Yuan had that subtly flickering look in her eyes that she had seen in the carriage that day.
"You're holding up pretty well?"
Yuan stared at him without answering.
His pain-distorted eyes were sparkling as if he had found a new source of interest.
"How about it? Should we do more? Do more for me?"
The Deposed Emperor urged her more fiercely.
Yuan passed him and approached the console littered with medicine packets. A crystal glass, seemingly drunk to forget the pain, was carelessly placed. It was more than half full of yellowish liquor.
Yuan grabbed it and abruptly held it out to the Deposed Emperor.
Yuan was trembling so badly that the contents of the glass sloshed.
Her heart felt like it was about to burst.
"Drink it."
The Deposed Emperor approached and took the glass as if amused.
"Yeah. Just kill me."
His face was convinced that Yuan had put something in the glass.
But he didn't throw the glass or throw away the liquor, but looked straight into her eyes and brought the glass to his lips.
"With this petty poison, you..."
Klaud spat out a groan and a sneer at the same time, as if the pain had come as soon as he drank the liquor.
Yuan carefully approached and reached out her hand.
Following his head, which paused for a moment and retreated as if refusing, she reached out further and wiped his lips with her hand.
At the same time, she absorbed a very small amount of his pain.
Following the trajectory of Yuan's fingers wiping away the liquor droplets, a slightly smooth and white skin like marble was revealed.
Yuan blankly stared at his face, where the pain had subsided.
An unbelievably sparkling and beautiful face was revealed before Yuan's eyes.
It was also a moment when his red eyes, which had been glistening with pain, found their color and revealed clear purple pupils.
Yuan had met the eyes of the most sane Klaud Euphris for a fleeting moment.
"This is..."
Klaud was also aware of the momentary change.
Since she had absorbed the pain from his face, that is, his head, his mind would have been clear and his head clear as if he had taken a cold shower.
His eyes, which had been glistening with madness, widened and stared at Yuan like a ghost.
And soon, his huge body tilted forward. It was the same reaction as those who had received secret treatment for the past 10 years.
If Yuan, who had taken away the pain, wanted, the other person would briefly lose consciousness or fall asleep instead of pain. It was also the reason why the treatment method had not been revealed to people for 10 years.
Yuan quickly caught the unconscious Klaud, groaned, dragged him, and laid him on the secluded bed.
And soon, she burst into a suppressed groan.
"Heok-!"
Pain as if the brains were twisted and pulled at each other.
Headaches that struck like shallow lightning every moment.
Pain came as if her whole face was burning and her skin was peeling off and being sanded.
Yuan gasped for breath and buried her face in the blanket next to Klaud. Only after putting the hem of the blanket in her mouth and wailing for a while did the pain gradually subside.
A very small taste of pain was this much.
Yuan looked down at the sleeping Klaud with a sweat-soaked face.
Under the moonlight peeking through the curtains, a handsome man, as beautiful as a delicately crafted jewel, was sleeping with a peaceful face.
The black aura of pain, which spread like an epidemic, was about to rush back to his face from his neck, but tonight would be peaceful.
Yuan stroked the face of the man who had lived in pain every night as much as she had.
The man's skin, which had erased the hideous appearance from earlier, was smooth and white to the point of being transparent.
She couldn't believe that she had entered the tiger's den with a momentary sympathy when she was in a situation where her own nose was three feet long.
But considering the previous situation where she would have been kicked out even if she had stayed still, it might not have been a bad choice.
Yuan, who was breathing heavily, stared at Klaud's face for a long time and tried to regain her fading mind.
'I have to go back...'
Her body collapsed like a paper doll from the terrible pain she had experienced in days.
He didn't have a nightmare.
It was the first time since the ninth bride had entered the mansion.
Klaud shook his strangely lightened head and frowned at the sunlight pouring directly onto his face.
...Did I draw the curtains?
As he sat blankly, groping for the memories of the previous night, the bedroom door burst open without warning.
There was only one person who would dare to do such a thing in this mansion.
"What's all this noise? Klaud. What the hell happened?"
It was only Lancelot Lev.
Judging by his pale face, he must have tied a horse in the stable and seen a rat the size of his forearm.
Behind Lancelot, who rushed in flustered, came Eddie Lev, Lancelot's older brother and the eldest son of the Marquess Lev family.
Eddie Lev, who was as tall as Lancelot, had his arms crossed and his mouth tightly shut.
Judging by the caramel-colored eyes in his rimless glasses, which were quite hardened, something must have happened.
"What's the commotion?"
"Hey, you look good? Huh? When were you pretending to be coy, and now you're hugging a woman?"
"What?"
Klaud frowned and got out of bed, wondering if Lancelot's sudden fuss was directed at him.
He nervously closed the curtains again and looked around the darkened room.
The things that were always messy in the morning were in their place. In an instant, cold blood ran down his spine.
"You had the Consummation Proof last night, and you proved it to the Imperial Family early in the morning? Your ninth wife has decided to settle down here for good?"
"What?"
"Instead of looking for a tenth bride, the Imperial Family will fully recognize the ninth bride. The answer came back so quickly, it seems like everyone was just waiting for your call."
The day after the nightmare that had started again after the ninth bride came in ended.
Klaud was faced with a situation more like a nightmare than a nightmare.
"The butler pretended not to know the sounds coming from this room last night and even moved all the servants who were sleeping in the room near the stairs, so how great of a night did you have?"
Klaud paced around the bedroom for a long time while Lancelot smiled and teased him.
Eddie had been silently watching Klaud with a serious face since he entered the room.
The mind and stabbing headache that seemed to be wandering in a fog every day were significantly reduced in intensity and frequency this morning. So it wasn't difficult to recall last night with that sane mind.
As he recalled the familiar night filled with pain, he remembered that the door suddenly opened, and a black and white woman in a very defenseless outfit came in from outside.
Yuan Pellieresse. An uninvited guest called his ninth wife.
'I, I waited a long time because it was the Consummation Proof period, but you didn't come.'
-Bang!
Klaud's fist slammed down on the table.
Now memories were starting to come back.
Coming into his room in such an unforgivable outfit, even offering him liquor...
What did she do?
The blurry memories were starting to mix haphazardly.
The image that came to mind was the woman's outfit, which was as good as naked.
The woman's frightened face.
Himself throwing off his nightgown.
And...
'Prove your worth.'
'Take it off.'
'You're holding up pretty well?'
'How about it? Should we do more? Do more for me?'
Outrageous lines that supported the absurd rumors.
"Gustav!"
At the sharp shout, the face of the butler Gustav, who rushed in, was flushed enough to be unpleasant.
Lancelot started whistling from the side.
Klaud growled with an even more sensitive face.
"Why is the old man's face so red?"
"Yes? No. Not at all."
The experienced old butler's flushed face bothered Klaud.
"Explain. What's going on?"
"What explanation..."
"Consummation Proof."
Gustav blinked for a moment and lowered his voice.
He glanced at Lancelot, who was starting to hum from the side, and Eddie, who was frozen stiff, and hesitated whether to say these words in this place or not, but the words that came out were a sight to behold.
"You two slept together last night. In the morning, Madam handed me the bedding stained with blood, and I reported it to the Imperial Family as it was."
