CH 22

“Isael!”

“I-I feel so dizzy!”

“Are you okay?”

As planned, Dylan quickly pulled me into his arms.

I stumbled and found myself embraced in Dylan’s firm and solid body.

His sturdy and thick frame supported my fragile shoulders.

“Are you okay?”

“…Ah.”

Crying?

How cliché.

I might as well just collapse for real.

“What’s wrong with you, sis?”

“Why are you acting like that when someone has fainted?”

“Because it looks real.”

“Wow, you really are a despicable person.”

As I saw the public opinion turning against Soldika, I smirked inwardly.

Destroying Soldika’s reputation.

Turning her efforts to marry into a noble family into nothing but a laughingstock.

Those two things were enough.

Soldika  must be feeling like she’s walking through hell right now.

I still pretended to be weak, burying my face in Dylan’s chest and blinking my eyes.

“Huuuk.”

Pretending to cry was just an extra touch.

Soldika,  who had fallen for it, bit her lip.

Fortunately, it seemed that she hadn’t anticipated my sudden collapse.

At that moment, when Soldika couldn’t say anything, Dylan, who quickly grasped the situation, whispered softly to me.

“Ishael, shall we begin?”

I nodded my head towards him.

As rehearsed the day before, Dylan performed an effective act.

“You, what did you do to my wife?”

He seemed genuinely angry.

With each word he uttered, it felt like the temperature in the ballroom dropped by one degree.

I could sense the fear in people.

Nestled in his arms, I swallowed my saliva.

“Wow, he’s even angrier than I thought.”

His solid muscles were on a completely different level from Pedro’s flabbiness!

Because he held me so tightly, his firm body pressed against mine.

There were people who went mad just like me, if not more.

They were the knights and officials.

They were overwhelmed by shock and despair.

“What nonsense! If he’s calling her his wife, then she must be.”

No, the examples are completely different.

“Does that mean the rumor was true?”

“I wonder, I work right beside Ishael! It seemed like they got married!”

The officials of the Family Management Division mumbled as they received the marriage certificate.

Good, I need to drive the wedge deeper.

I pretended to bury my face in his chest and said gratefully,

“Thank you, my love…”

As he held me tightly in his arms, he whispered in my ear.

His cheek reddened, and the news spread throughout the ballroom.

“He must be turning into an ogre soon. Dylan seems furious.”

“Oh, no. That’s the face of a man in love.”

“That’s absurd…”

Especially Soldika’s face was a sight to behold.

With a face that couldn’t find reason, she screamed in anger.

“…Does it make sense? You didn’t even have a wedding, you cut off ties with your family…”

Her voice resounded with bitterness.

“It doesn’t make any sense. It hasn’t been long since you broke up with Pedro. What kind of absurdity is this?”

As she spoke, Soldika seemed to be losing her sanity. 

“Ha! Is it true that you got married?”

I looked at Soldika and buried my face even deeper into Dylan’s embrace.

“Darling, I’m scared.”

Dylan’s body twitched, but he didn’t pay attention.

Playing the victim role, I glanced around.

Emmanuel had his eyes wide open, watching us.

It was clear that the romanticist’s suspicion was aroused.

“It would be inconvenient for us to think of us as a fake couple. I have to protect my home.”

With a trembling voice, I clung to Dylan’s chest.

“Yes, we got married. We didn’t have a wedding because we wanted to live together as soon as possible.”

That wasn’t a lie.

If Dylan and I didn’t live together… I would become a homeless person…

He slowly nodded as he listened to my words.

“After seeing Ishael, I became too dizzy to even think about having a wedding.”

That statement was also true.

I must have seemed dizzying enough, proposing while heavily drunk.

But these words clearly made a big impact.

“This is real.”

“Hearing Dylan say it like that, it feels genuine.”

“Wow, this is insane. Could this really happen?”

The tide quickly turned in our favor.

I didn’t say anything more to Soldika.

Instead, I focused on the people around me, especially Henry, who was so shocked that he accidentally shattered a glass while eating.

With my face buried in Dylan’s solid chest, I whispered to him.

“Henry, I’m sorry I haven’t told even my dearest friends. I’ll send out wedding invitations soon. Once things settle down.”

“A-uh!”

Henry barely caught the glass that was about to fall to the ground and nodded his head.

Dylan looked at me for a moment and then turned his gaze back to Soldika.

While she kept targeting me with her gaze, when she looked at Dylan, her mouth slightly curled up.

I knew those eyes very well.

They were eyes that looked at the man she desired.

Ignoring Soldika’s passionate gaze, Dylan spoke.

“Yes, that’s correct. We will definitely have a wedding.”

With a red mark on his cheek, like an apology, Dylan opened his mouth.

“Now we can go home. I don’t want to see any more trash.”

Dylan grabbed my wrist with a firm expression.

It seemed like he had something else to say.

“What is it?”

I pressed down on Soldika and Pedro’s arrogance.

We had already announced our marriage.

Was there anything else to do?

At that moment, he solemnly whispered.

“…B-baby-“

No. Is that ‘baby’ by any chance?

I really can’t listen to that.

So…!

“Dylan! Baby, let’s go!”

I took the initiative.

And it became a complete chaos.

“Did he just call him ‘baby’?”

“That Dylan is a fake!”

Everyone was buzzing with noise, and then I heard a strange voice in my ear.

“This… This is the development of the romance I’ve dreamed of!”

Emmanuel’s face turned as mushy as cotton candy.

That was the moment.

Soldika, who couldn’t control her anger, pressed herself against my back and shouted,

“You will regret it, sister. Father will come soon!”

At the mention of father, my body instinctively tensed.

“Ishael, you must yield everything to Soldika.”

“Why should I? Why do I have to do that?”

“You should know that when our father speaks, it’s necessary. You’re being arrogant. Submit to him.”

I had been struck to the point where bruises appeared on my calves.

“From now on, any regrets will be yours, not mine.”

Let’s see about that.

Who will be laughing in the end?

“We were truly the best partners, weren’t we?”

Leaving the ballroom, we walked through the palace gardens for a while.

I held Dylan’s hand and feeling excited, I asked,

“There’s something I’m really curious about.”

“Yes, please tell me.”

“How did you recognize me at first?”

You always see strange disguises…

Dylan calmly whispered as if it was nothing,

“Because Ishael is Ishael.”

His voice was somewhat heavy.

His gaze met mine as if it was only natural.

While everyone was surprised by my changed appearance, Dylan was different.

He didn’t see just my external appearance but seemed to see my inner self.

I felt a warm sensation at the tips of my fingers and a gentle fluttering at the back of my neck.

So, I playfully met his gaze on purpose.

“Yes? You think I’m beautiful?”

When I said that, the man who didn’t understand jokes like Dylan…

He lowered his reddened eyes and chuckled softly.

Isn’t that unfair?

How can such a perfect being exist in this world?

Seemingly indifferent yet delicate, he matched my changing emotions and occasionally showed an adorable shyness.

“He’s too perfect for me. It’s like looking up at a towering mountain.”

But I had already crossed that excessive mountain, so there was no going back now.

What remains for us now!

“Well, since we’ve already sold out everything, we should talk about preparing for our wedding, right?”

I said provocatively, revealing that we were going to have a wedding.

And that’s when it happened.

From the grassy area near the palace garden where we were walking, we heard murmuring voices.

I smirked and placed my index finger on my lips, signaling Dylan to keep quiet.

But…

“Wow, Dylan seemed quite intimidating today.”

“It wasn’t a joke, he was freezing and gave off an icy vibe.”

“He seemed like he could kill someone.”

Dylan wasn’t that intense.

It seemed like those people had a negative bias.

“Dylan is surprisingly cute.”

I was worried that Dylan would be hurt by those bad rumors.

I no longer listened to the rumors and purposely made noise to quicken our pace.

However, their gloomy conversation caught my ear first.

“If that winter castle’s Crimson Lord, Grand Duke Castilla, makes his debut in high society, would it feel like that?”