“When your husband is cute, you’re completely powerless.”

A marriage in which I was never happy—not even for a single day.

When a rebellion broke out, my husband, the Emperor, abandoned me and fled.

As I gave up all hope and waited for the death that was surely coming, a man appeared before me.

“Why didn’t you run away?”

“Duke Vallestein…?”

“There is no time. Escape the palace through this path.”

A barbarian of unknown origins. A man known as a ruthless war hero.

He had nothing to do with me, yet he tried to protect me—and in the end, he died a miserable death.

“We found the Empress. Kill her!”

And that very night, I lost my own life as well.

I thought I had died…

But I had returned to two years earlier.

And at a banquet held in the Imperial Palace, I met him again.

“Oh my, that man is the Duke Vallestein?”

“Even if he is a hero, isn’t the title of duke far too much for a barbarian whose origins are unknown…?”

“Is there really any noble lady who would want to marry a man like that?”

The nobles looked down on the duke who had returned after ending a long and brutal war.

Unable to stand by and watch him be humiliated, I ended up doing something reckless.

“Will you marry me?”

“That joke has gone far enough.”

The result was a complete rejection.

However, by the Emperor’s command, he was destined to marry anyway.

“There is no love in this marriage, so I have no intention of sharing a bed with you as husband and wife.”

Thus began their contract marriage.

But this man… his words and actions don’t match at all.

Despite his cold words, whenever it concerns me, he throws himself into danger without hesitation.

When I fall ill, he secretly comes to my room at night and stays awake to take care of me.

What use is that terrifying expression of his?

His ears turn bright red every single time, as if they might burst.