Chapter 7
Chapter 7
While Vivian floundered in the swamp of marriage, Aslan wrapped his arm around her shoulders and stroked them slowly, as if coaxing her.
“It may seem sudden. But I hope you understand that we are already engaged, and we are simply moving up the wedding date a little.”
Aslan dismissed her objections with the single phrase, ‘already engaged.’
The man’s touch on her shoulders was as careful as if he were handling delicate flower petals, but Vivian couldn’t take his words at face value.
Of course not. How could she believe a man who disliked even making two expressions at once? A man more sensitive than a glass fish!
‘Could he be trying to keep me by his side to monitor me? To see if I’ve figured out Aslan’s true identity?’
The fact that Aslan was afflicted with The Curse of Astaroth was a top secret.
In the original story, anyone who discovered his transformation into the Black Lion was killed without exception, regardless of their status. She wouldn’t be an exception.
Vivian handed the Marriage Certificate back to Aslan.
“It’s too sudden. I need time to think.”
“I thought you would also want to marry me.”
“I have to get permission from my father too…”
“I’ll send someone to the capital. Using the fastest horse, they should arrive within a week.”
Cold sweat trickled down Vivian’s back. No matter how hard she racked her brain, she couldn’t come up with a good excuse. Any excuse she made was quickly blocked.
Vivian earnestly appealed to her brain, which was on strike.
‘Please, please give me a good idea!’
Of course, no such miracle occurred.
It was at that moment, as Vivian was inwardly wailing in despair, that Aslan, biting his lip as if suppressing his anger, ordered a servant.
“Everyone, leave.”
“Yes.”
Don’t go! If you’re going, take this guy with you!
Of course, the miracle of Vivian’s wish being granted also didn’t happen. All the servants bowed their heads and silently left the bedroom like the tide receding.
With a click, the door closed, and only Vivian and Aslan remained in the spacious bedroom.
But unlike when he confidently dismissed the servants, he couldn’t easily open his mouth.
He moved his lips several times as if choosing his words, and then finally called her name.
“Vivian.”
Vivian immediately looked up. After only hearing ‘you’ or ‘Miss,’ hearing her name for the first time made her spine tingle like a student about to be scolded.
Aslan, who had met her gaze, also didn’t look too good.
His face was flushed red, and he even avoided her gaze first, uncharacteristically. She didn’t know why, but he was definitely angry.
Aslan, sitting on the edge of the bed, lowered his gaze darkly.
“Judging by how you’re avoiding the answer, you don’t want to marry me. Is that right?”
Unfortunately, the shirt Aslan was wearing was very thin, revealing his tall, muscular physique very well.
Broad, firm chest and bulging biceps…
‘I’m definitely not scared, not at all.’
The brave Vivian revised her original plan to resolutely refuse and decided to try to gently persuade him.
“Your Highness knows, I only have a short time left…”
“I don’t want to hear it.”
“Please listen. Your Highness doesn’t see it, but my body has already reached its limit. I cough up blood with the slightest exertion, and I even faint.”
Aslan had encountered this side of her before. But at that time, he was in his Demon Hand state, so he probably didn’t remember.
Vivian deliberately emphasized the words ‘cough up blood’ and ‘faint.’
“I’ll admit it. I wanted Your Highness. So desperately and urgently, so much that I would do anything if I could just marry Your Highness.”
“Yes, I know.”
Since the original heroine hadn’t appeared, she hadn’t done ‘anything’ yet. Nevertheless, seeing Aslan immediately agree made her mouth bitter.
“So you don’t want to marry me because you’re going to die soon?”
“Yes.”
“You’re going to give up on everything because you’re about to die.”
That’s exactly it. You’re quick on the uptake!
Just as Vivian nodded vigorously, relieved that she didn’t have to make excuses, it happened.
“Vivian, you can’t reject me for such a reason. Don’t you know? I’m a man who is more greedy than you. I have a personality that must get what I want.”
“Yes…?”
Aslan, approaching quickly, wrapped his arm around Vivian’s shoulders and firmly grasped her right hand. With his other hand, he quickly pulled over the discarded Marriage Certificate.
It was a strange thing. Both she and he were human, but she couldn’t move an inch, as if she were caught in a steel frame.
“Don’t reject me. I don’t want to see you go crazy…”
Aslan began to move, putting strength into her right hand. The first letter of Vivian’s name was written beautifully.
“I will save you. I will save you no matter what.”
He muttered as if vowing to himself, not to Vivian. A chilling light flickered in Aslan’s golden eyes.
Vivian, who had been struggling to escape Aslan’s embrace, finally gave up trying to escape and shook her head urgently.
“Even if Your Highness says that, it’s already too late. The doctor said so too. There’s no cure for Consumption!”
“I’ll cut out that bastard’s tongue. For the price of talking nonsense to you…”
“It’s not nonsense!”
She felt like she was going crazy.
In the original story, Aslan clearly hated Vivian terribly. The only reason he was pushing for the marriage like this, no matter how she thought about it, was one thing.
‘He’s still suspicious of me. He thinks I saw Aslan transform from the Black Lion into a human!’
If the Marriage Certificate was completed, she would definitely become a prisoner.
Under the pretext of serving the mistress, a supervisor would follow her everywhere, and she wouldn’t be able to say a word or do anything comfortably, even in the bedroom where she should be most at ease.
‘I have to stop it. Marriage is not allowed!’
In the meantime, Vivian’s middle name began to be inscribed on the document. The safety of her neck became very precarious.
Vivian shouted desperately.
“I, I’ll tell people that I unilaterally broke off the engagement. I’ll take care of everything so that Your Highness’s reputation isn’t tarnished!”
“I don’t care about that in the first place. I’m more curious about something else. It seems like you’re avoiding my proposal for another reason.”
Another reason? Did he realize that she knew his identity?
Aslan muttered something about another man, but Vivian, blinded by survival, didn’t hear it.
“No? No, absolutely not. Why are you suddenly thinking such ridiculous things?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
“I just, I just thought that Your Highness would have a much better match than me. For example, I, I would be happy to congratulate Your Highness even if you remarried my father!”
She had made some mistakes in her words because she was speaking in a hurry, but she was sincere.
Even if Aslan remarried Duchess Eleonora instead of the heroine, it didn’t matter. She could even host the wedding and sing the congratulatory song if necessary.
But it seemed that Vivian’s sincerity wasn’t conveyed to Aslan. The first reaction he showed was-
“Duchess Eleonora and I? Vivian, are you serious?”
A look of surprise crossed his face. It was an expression that said he couldn’t have imagined she was thinking that.
“Let me take your temperature. I don’t think you’re in good condition.”
“No, I’m perfectly normal…!”
Vivian shook her head vigorously, but Aslan’s attitude was firm.
He forcibly tucked Vivian into the blanket, put a cool towel on her forehead, and then stepped back with a satisfied look.
“I realized that you’re not in a state to think rationally. We’ll talk about this issue again in a few days.”
Is this guy for real?!
“It would be good to prepare yourself in the meantime. I’ve already sent someone to the capital, to formally receive permission from the Emperor for your marriage to me.”
“……”
“Well. It’s just a formality.”
Aslan leisurely kissed the forehead of the horrified Vivian and left the room.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Damn it.”
Aslan, who had left the bedroom, walked down the empty hallway and roughly ruffled his hair.
His face was burning and his heart felt like it would explode. He couldn’t calm down without swearing.
The moment his lips touched her forehead, and her gaze lingered on him.
“I’m going crazy.”
In just a few days, Vivian would become his wife.
Yet, wherever her gaze touched him, it burned as if he had been burned, and he couldn’t quite come to his senses. An indescribable heat consumed him.
Aslan suddenly stopped walking. He couldn’t bear to think that he was having such thoughts about a patient with a clear illness.
Wasn’t this something that only a dirty beast would do?
‘Yes, I’m not human from the beginning.’
A hideous and disgusting Demon Hand in human form.
If you peeled back the thin shell, all that lurked inside was a seething instinct and a desire for destruction.
But now was not the time to wallow in self-pity. He had to save Vivian at all costs. If there was no doctor in the south who could cure Consumption, he would search the entire continent.
He didn’t want to see Vivian accepting her predicted death so calmly anymore.
“My lord.”
At that moment, a vassal who was looking for Aslan bowed his head before him.
“The repairs to the mansion are complete. We bought the southern mansion so urgently that we couldn’t renovate the entire thing, but it should be sufficient for the Miss to stay and recuperate.”
“Vivian is not a Miss. Be careful with your titles.”
“I apologize, I misspoke to the Madam.”
