Chapter 2: Siegfried Roam

‘When the husband is injured, his wife heals him without asking anything.’

It was a mentality that had been steadily engraved in my head for two years. For both short and long periods of time, I did not neglect to take care of his wounds. Despite his indifference right now, he is seriously injured and he needed help. Him coming to me now is the result of my hard work in the past.

I had to do what I’ve been doing.

Even if my husband’s mother died, I had to postpone any kinds of changes so that it does not change our situation[1]. I had to pretend as if nothing had happened. As if he wouldn’t kill me a week from now.

I walked with him down the empty hallway to our room. The light from the lantern in his hand danced through the darkness of the hallway. As I sat on the bed, he took off his shirt. The damp air felt tight because I was still not used to seeing him half naked.

Even on the first night of our marriage he had been hurt.

He came into the room covered with blood and said nothing but to call a doctor, and slept like a dead man after he got the first aid.

There had been no communication between us since then. My husband did not return to the mansion even late at night, and when I asked the butler, he just said that he was ‘busy’.

The sharp sneer that the butler had shown that day was still vivid in my mind.

I secretly buried my nose in the shirt my husband had taken off because I thought my husband was seeing a woman, but there was no scent of women’s perfume. Rather, the sharp scent of ammunition[2] and the minty body scent of my husband permeated my nostrils. The shirt had a few drops of blood instead of lipstick.

I regret not reading the full story and not finding out what the hell happens in the end, but it’s no use now. I just have to heal him.

While I was thinking about something else for a moment, his shirt fell to the floor with a rustling sound and in the subtle darkness, his muscular back was revealed. His tanned skin was full of scars. And most of all, what stimulated the eyes was tattoos that were very different from his usual upright self.

I felt suffocated for some reason. The knife’s deep cut was elongated vertically, the blood dripped and soaked his pants. It was as if someone had ripped his back violently with a dagger.

‘Fatal wound.’

He turned his head and looked at me.

It was rare for him to get hurt like that. Did the fact that his mother died distracted him? He had the same work. It was the same outing, but as of today, it was clear that something had distracted him.

I shuddered when our eyes met. Somehow I felt like a very small person in front of him. I’ve been trying so hard to make myself look bigger but in vain.

A virtue that must be faithfully fulfilled as a wife of a nobleman is to help by maintaining a reputation in the social world.

I remembered how much I struggled in the social world.

Still, I never collapsed, but it was always difficult in front of my indifferent husband.

He came up next to me and flopped down.

‘If I don’t cure him, he’ll die. Then I won’t die either.’

Did he see through my heart? He called my name once again.

“Milena.”

As if to coax a beloved pet bird.

I felt his touch for the first time.

A rough hand brushed the face of the young woman who didn’t have a single scar on it.

It was the first time I’d ever felt a man’s hand so close to my skin and I never knew because he always kept his distance from me. Even if he received what I gave, he was always indifferent to me.

He came closer and made eye contact with me. My eyes shook in the dark, avoiding his gaze.

I was afraid that my feelings would be conveyed in this small distance where we could feel each other’s breath.

Then he kissed me briefly. I looked at him in the dim surroundings, trembling with only puzzlement. It was the first time I heard what sound was made when one’s lips fell off after the kiss. He watched me closely until I swallowed my dry saliva. My heart was beating like crazy, but he looked calm as if it were nothing.

“Do you want more?”

The person who drew a sharp line at me all the time with his characteristic cold eyes and cynicism— is so kind when he needs help. To the woman who is thirsty for his affection, he tells her that he will give her what she wants in return for the treatment.

As he drew nearer, I quickly reached out to his back because he was about to lay me on the bed.

Something damp like the rain and sticky wrapped around my hand. It’s his wound.

Just by touching his back, I accurately got the location of his lesion[3] and was able to pinpoint that part. He let out a painful groan, and I took a deep breath and poured out healing magic with all my might.

As expected, I was not skilled, so my heart felt like it was being cut. I poured all my healing energy into his wound even though I knew that my body would not be able to withstand it if I used my ability like this.

He was staring at me as I pulled my hand covered with his blood off. My heart ached from exhaustion of my abilities, but I did not express it.

“You don’t have to.”

I got up from the bed after saying that. I didn’t want to fit in with this bad deal.

“Take a rest.”

It just so happened that the day this man asking me for divorce will be tomorrow.

And for the divorce to be easy, it was important that we didn’t have the first night. There is no reason to get caught up in useless things and complicate the divorce process.

Because he was the one who could make the procedure simpler by shooting me.

Therefore this variable of his fatal wound, which was not in the original novel, should not directly block the divorce he wants.

“I’ll go to the guest room because it must be uncomfortable for you.”

He who achieved his goal didn’t catch me.

Thinking it was good, I came out without looking back and leaned on the closed door. I took a deep breath.

I thought it was fortunate that I didn’t show such a weak side to the maids.

As I staggered away and tried to take my steps, the door opened. A firm man’s body wrapped around me, who was trembling and I was unable to balance myself.

His body was hot. Unlike his chilly eyes.

“Are you going to turn your back on your wife’s duties?”

A cold voice came from behind. He bowed his head to my ear.

“You’ve been working so hard on social activities, so it seems like you’ve caught an eye with another bastard?”

In the meantime, my brain fell into calculation. Divorce is easier if spouses are not faithful to each other.

I thought this was an opportunity.

A chance to say that I won’t be obsessed like the original “Milena.” The divorce he wants, the opportunity to say I’m willing to accept it.

I’ll admit to him that I have a crush on someone other than my husband.

It is not too late to think later about the issue of living alone in isolation from aristocratic society, and being stigmatized as a socialite.

I had to live first.

“…if so.”

As soon as I said that, he hugged me very easily from behind.

There was no time to resist. The sound of the door slamming echoed into the empty hallway. He strode and laid me on the bed.

Without hesitation, he pushed himself between the legs. He positioned himself and looked down at me. I felt like I was going to sink endlessly under the soft quilt. I felt like a heavy decoration immersed in the whipped cream cake.

My blonde hair, which had been neatly turned up, was disturbed, and my pearl-red eyes captured him.

“Milena.”

He called my name while fiddling with my lips

“What’s your name?”

“…….”

“Is it Milena Rochester?”

It was a very sarcastic tone. As I was calming my surprised heart, he came close to me, holding my face.

“It’s wrong.”

He gave a cold answer.

“You’re not Rochester, you’re the owner of Roam.”

His hot tongue swept my lower lip lustfully.

As he swept the outside of my thigh, the feeling of his arm tearing apart the soft fabric between my legs downed on me helplessly.

“You are mine, Milena.”

My shoulders shrunk as I felt him piercing my bottom. My lips parted and a hot tongue rushed in, distracting my mind. I felt dizzy. I couldn’t understand why this man was doing this all of a sudden.

Is it annoying that his healer who wouldn’t dare to betray him is out of his control now? Does he have an internal enemy who’s so great that he has to cling on to my healing powers? But the people of Roam—to my husband, no. More than that, after two years to have him come out like this….

The man bowed his head and stroked the nape of my neck. When I opened my eyes, I could see his smug smile. Tears streamed down my temples.

“You should know your subject.”

You are Roam, not Rochester.

My heart sank at the threatening voice.

The late night was very painful.

.

.

.

.

The man tenaciously engraved marks on my skin through the night.

The process was so painful that when I tried to push him away, he whispered vulgar words in my ear and stopped me.

“Why? Because only he can see it?”

The slender wrist was very easily crushed under his grasp. Even though I groaned in pain, he seemed unwilling to let me go.

“What a handsome man he must be.”

Siegfried let go of the skin on my neck that he was biting on, and talked about my unrequited love.

“Are you going to save him like this, huh?”

Someone who doesn’t even exist.

“Who is it?”

During the night, Siegfried tenaciously asked the name of the one who stole my heart, and I did not answer. He sarcastically said, “What a tearful love.”

I’m such an accismus[4] and I didn’t have the ability to lead him to bed so I gave myself to him without saying a word. With my eyes closed, he kissed me roughly and I didn’t stop him.

Because of this marriage, the relationship with my family had already broken down, so I could not return to my parents’ house.

The eldest brother thought Milena, who insisted on getting married, was a stubborn child. The second brother hated Milena for killing their mother. There was no news about my father because he was having fun while doing business abroad. Milena would have known him, but I do not know her biological father very well.

If I divorced and went home, I would be pressured down by my two brothers and ignored by the employees like a disgrace to the family. I’ll be ridiculed and isolated from society forever.

I’ll be sent to a monastery to at least not be a blasphemy to the Rochester name, so that I can’t be a further disgrace to the family.

I didn’t even have a friend to look after me. The glitters[5] of the society was Milena’s dear friend, but Milena was always lonely among people. Milena had nothing but the empty-shell friendships I had managed for only two years. Unless it’s fancy jewelry and dresses.

Even for the socialites who are waiting for me to fall, I must have been a very tasty snack. I didn’t want to show kindness by throwing funny gossip on people whose job was to talk.

My husband was my only option, so I lived quietly in this house, holding my breath.

I have always prepared to stand alone, but I am afraid that the strong fence called home will disappear. This is not even a foreign country. It’s a strange world.

And now my husband is creating reasons to prevent me from getting a divorce.

I had no experience in my previous life or in my present life, so I just gave myself to his touch and trembled helplessly. It was still vivid. I raised my head to avoid him, and he dug into my chin and left a kiss on my skin. Each time, memories of him over the past two years were getting blurred.

It was as if he was trying to make sure that there were no places on my body that his lips had not touched. I was swallowed up by him relentlessly.

Eventually, it hurt and I pushed his shoulder away with my slender arm. But he clasped my arm and said it as if it was funny.

“What are you going to do with that weak arm?”

My husband who has always been neat but somehow felt that there was a sense of incongruity.

He is my husband, but a man that is difficult to meet in the mansion. I thought it would be really scary if this person showed me his real face one day and my guess was correct.

His blue eyes in the dark were like shackles that bound me. He laughed at me and thrusted in. Even then, my husband was very elegant and beautiful.

“Milena.”

He whispered my name and wrapped his tongue around mine once again. A rough grip clasped my deer-like neck. I felt like my neck would break if he put a little force on it.

The blood-stained beast smiled beautifully in the gloomy darkness of the rain.

“You’re a young woman who doesn’t know anything.”

His seductive lips drew a cold mockery.

“Stepped into my realm.”

His hand caressed my face.

“You’ll grow tired of me the same way you get tired of pretty jewelry.”

I closed my eyes because I couldn’t bear to see his face.

My legs were wrapped around his waist, and he put his finger into my lips in a travesty in the stark darkness and pressed my tongue.

“You’re mine.”

He thrusted in strongly and I shook my shoulders. He lowered his head and lifted my chin to look into his eyes.

“And I belong to you.”

A damp and seductive voice creeps into my ears.

“We are a married couple.”

He hugged my body with his ripped muscles and gently thrusted inside me for a long time.

The same scent as when I secretly picked up his well-groomed shirt and sniffed his scent hit my nose.

***

[1] Okay, now this is a tricky line, she’s saying, even if his mother died she had to postpone any kind of changes (for example: consoling him, asking for divorce or anything that would differ from the mechanism that she built in the past two years) so that he doesn’t know she’s is having plans or anything as such.

[2] a supply or quantity of bullets and shells.

[3] a region in an organ or tissue which has suffered damage through injury or disease, such as a wound, ulcer, abscess, or tumour.

[4] A form of irony in which a person feigns indifference to or pretends to refuse something he or she desires.

She is being sarcastic that she is hating having sex with him but she’s actually liking it.

[5] here the glitters means the beautiful young ladies but they are just shallow people just like the phrase, all that glitters is not gold