Marriage Problems (1)
Dana stared at Hyunwoo with a sullen expression, while Hyunwoo quickly shook his head as if the words had come out of nowhere, spreading both palms outward. “I’ve never slept with Adelia.”
“Can I believe that……?”
“We’ve only kissed a few times. But we really haven’t slept together.”
At Hyunwoo’s honest confession, Dana frowned in displeasure and pinched his chest. “If that’s true, it’s quite something!”
The hall erupted into unprecedented chaos. Everyone’s eyes widened as they glanced back and forth between Hyunwoo and Adelia. Some nobles hurled every curse imaginable at Hyunwoo. Amid the deafening uproar, King Mikelan drained his cup in one long gulp and rose from his seat.
“I don’t even know how many times I’ve been shocked today!”
He looked at Marquis Espera and Marquis Gregory. “My head is pounding. I can’t stay here any longer. Handle the complicated matters among yourselves and report the results to me tomorrow morning.”
King Mikelan left the hall clutching his throbbing head. The queen gathered her long skirts and followed without a word. The princes, princess, and attendants trailed after them. Once the royal family departed, the nobles who had packed the banquet hall quickly dispersed, leaving the vast space feeling empty and cold. Thus, tonight’s banquet ended abruptly without ever properly beginning, dissolving into nothing but idle talk.
The only people who remained were Hyunwoo, Dana, the Hildegrart and Penclau families, and their respective supporters.
“Go fetch my sword at once! I must cut that bastard’s head off right now!”
Marquis Gregory was seething with rage. “How dare he make my daughter an unwed mother! My one and only daughter has become an unwed mother! She’ll never be able to marry now—this is enough to drive anyone mad!”
The knights of the Hildegrart family surrounded Hyunwoo and Dana in a tight circle. Hyunwoo cried out with an aggrieved expression. “My lord! I have never laid a hand on Lady Adelia! I swear it!”
“Shut your mouth! Scum like you always act on impulse and then spout petty excuses! Who would believe a single word you say, you damned bastard!”
Hyunwoo frantically looked toward Adelia. He wanted to shout for her to tell the truth, but from the look of things, she had no intention of listening. Adelia was ordering Sinclair and the soldiers to arrest Hyunwoo. She looked just as terrifying as her father, as though she couldn’t wait to capture Hyunwoo.
“Mind your dignity, Gregory.”
Marquis Espera stepped in front of Marquis Gregory, turning his back on Hyunwoo and Dana. “This isn’t like you. Calm yourself.”
“Would you be calm if it were you? Some nobody I’ve never even heard of got my daughter pregnant! Pregnant, I say! And that nobody already has a fiancée he’s about to marry! What a disgrace! That bastard has ruined the Hildegrart family! He’s committed an unforgivable atrocity that even death cannot atone for! Get out of my way! I’ll tear that bastard limb from limb!”
Marquis Gregory’s fury was so intense that it made onlookers tremble, yet Marquis Espera did not budge.
“I cannot step aside. From now on, Kang Hyunwoo will become the heir to our family. I must protect him.”
The moment he finished speaking, the knights of the Espera family came rushing out from somewhere. All of them drew their swords, shielding Hyunwoo and Dana while facing off against the Hildegrart knights. Both sides had roughly equal numbers.
Marquis Gregory snorted in disbelief. He flashed a menacing smile and glared at Marquis Espera.
“Well, aren’t you lucky. If you take Kang Hyunwoo as your son, you’ll gain a foreign princess as a daughter-in-law and swallow up Adelia—who’s carrying his child—and even our Hildegrart family. As long as you protect Hyunwoo, your house will prosper and you’ll lose nothing. That’s why you’re so desperate to keep him.”
His eyes gleamed as he added, “Unfortunately, I’ll have to crush that cunning dream of yours.”
Marquis Espera replied calmly, “Don’t escalate the situation. I’ve never entertained such thoughts even once. I decided to adopt Hyunwoo because of our daughter Olivia’s request. That’s all. Please don’t test my patience with baseless suspicions.”
“And don’t test mine either.”
Marquis Gregory smiled viciously. The atmosphere grew increasingly explosive. Hyunwoo stepped forward and passionately denied ever getting Adelia pregnant, but the enraged Marquis Gregory refused to believe a word. In the end, fearing a clash between the two marquises, King Mikelan returned to the banquet hall just in case, preventing the worst from happening.
King Mikelan roared at them, demanding to know what they thought they were doing, and stepped in as mediator. He immediately ordered the soldiers of both houses to stand down and commanded Marquis Gregory and Marquis Espera to return to their estates and cool their heads with cold compresses. The explosive situation came to an end just like that.
Hyunwoo and Dana could not return home. With the Hildegrart family sharpening their blades against him, it was impossible to wander outside without worry. They never knew when an attack might come. Thanks to Marquis Espera’s consideration, they were allowed to stay at his mansion for the time being.
Olivia personally guided Hyunwoo and Dana to their room, then said as she left, “If you want to marry Dana, who is of royal blood, you’ll need a noble title to match. It would be best if you joined our family.”
“Becoming an adopted son feels burdensome.”
Honestly, he didn’t dislike the idea of becoming a noble, but he wasn’t keen on abandoning his own surname and taking the Penclau name.
“You’ll gain far more than you lose. I don’t see any reason to hesitate.”
Olivia smiled and gave a short reply before leaving the room. Perhaps because it was late, she looked quite tired as well. Hyunwoo and Dana were exhausted too. They decided to postpone worrying about the complicated events at the banquet until tomorrow and immediately lay down on the bed.
“Today was exhausting.”
“Yeah.”
The two of them talked for a long time without noticing the hours passing. Hyunwoo apologized and explained why he had rejected Dana back then, revealing everything—including the fact that he came from Earth and the existence of Sohee.
“You must have been very lonely……”
After hearing everything, Dana pulled Hyunwoo’s face into her embrace and rested it against her chest. As he leaned against her soft, plump breasts and thought of Earth, his eyes grew moist. When he lifted his head, his gaze met Dana’s. A special emotion he had never experienced before suddenly welled up. In an instant, they began sharing passionate embraces and kisses, stripping each other’s clothes away.
“I’m scared you’ll leave again……”
Dana suddenly shed tears during their caresses. The tears wouldn’t stop, and she kept sniffling and asking several times, “You won’t abandon me, right?” It seemed that Hyunwoo’s previous refusal to continue their intimacy had left her with a deep trauma. Throughout the act, he had to tightly embrace and reassure her.
“That won’t happen again. Believe me. If I ever do something like that again, kill me with magic.”
“I really will kill you……”
After laying the naked Dana down, he carefully spread her legs. At the sight of her most private place that no one had ever touched, he couldn’t help but swallow. Her beautifully shaped petals glistened with arousal. When he thrust his erect member all the way to the root in one go, Dana flinched in fear. Hot breath escaped her lips.
“Ah……!”
In the end, they ended up spending their first night together at someone else’s house, quite unintentionally.
Negotiations between the two families over Hyunwoo continued every day. Marquis Espera wanted to adopt Hyunwoo, while Marquis Gregory strongly insisted that since his daughter was pregnant, Hyunwoo must become his son-in-law and could not be given away. While both sides remained locked in a tense standoff without yielding an inch, the negotiations suddenly gained momentum when a proposal emerged to marry Marquis Espera’s adopted son to Marquis Gregory’s daughter, thereby forging a strong alliance between the two houses through marriage. After lengthy discussions, both marquises agreed to the idea.
Once one problem was solved, the next issue surfaced. Marquis Gregory stubbornly insisted that his daughter could never enter as a concubine. His intention was to delay the wedding with Dana and marry Adelia first. He argued that since Adelia had become pregnant first, it was only natural for her to become the legal wife, and that if she entered as a concubine despite having given birth earlier than the legal wife, the Hildegrart family would become a laughingstock.
This time, no conclusion could be reached. Marquis Espera strongly argued that because Dana’s status was higher, it was only proper to marry her first, while Marquis Gregory firmly refused, saying his daughter could not become a concubine in order to protect the family’s honor. Just as the negotiations hit a wall, Adelia—who had finally calmed her anger—confessed the truth.
“The claim that I was pregnant was a lie……”
Upon hearing Adelia’s confession, Marquis Gregory pressed his forehead and sighed. “That wasn’t like you.”
He then met with Hyunwoo, shared drinks, and apologized for what had happened at the banquet. As a gesture of apology, he promised to give his daughter away. “Since things have come to this, take my daughter. It’s tiring to keep saying she wasn’t pregnant.”
However, Hyunwoo avoided giving an answer on the spot. In truth, even if he gave his daughter to Hyunwoo, it wouldn’t be a losing deal for Gregory. It was to the point where people suspected he was using the apology as an excuse to expand his influence.
The next day, the negotiations concluded smoothly. The results were that Hyunwoo would become the adopted son of the Penclau family, marry Dana afterward, and Adelia would remain his fiancée before officially marrying one year later. Of course, all these matters were unilaterally agreed upon by the powerful high nobles without Hyunwoo and Dana’s consent.
At the same time, it was an uncomfortable development for the royal family. The fact that two of the kingdom’s largest houses—ranking second and third in power—were uniting around Hyunwoo was something the royal family found unsettling. It meant the loss of a force that could keep the second and third powers in check, which would clearly result in the weakening of the royal family’s influence.
One day, a secret letter from King Mikelan arrived for Hyunwoo.
Reject the proposal from both houses. I will arrange your marriage to Dana and grant you a title and territory. Become a lord and form a contract with our royal family. If you cannot trust us, you may keep our youngest princess as a hostage for the duration of your lifelong contract with your liege. If you have any blood relatives, it would be fine to send her to marry them. I await your favorable reply.
The offer to hand over the youngest princess as a hostage made it clear that even the king was in a desperate situation. By protecting Dana to uphold his loyalty to the former Ferus royal family, he had fallen into a politically difficult position.