My Husband Hid His Regression, So I Hid Mine Too Chapter 64

“Then, let’s start acting for real. Like a man who’s madly in love.”

After speaking, Ludville naturally pulled the tips of Odely’s fingers toward him and kissed the back of her hand.

It was a polite and elegant gesture.

Yet his gaze was so serious that it almost seemed as if this act were genuine.

“…Your Highness.”

Odely’s eyes widened in surprise.

She quickly pulled her hand away and instinctively took half a step back.

But Ludville moved even closer, wrapping his arm more firmly around her waist.

“If we’re going to act, we should take it seriously. Look, the Cardel family is watching us.”

“…”

“What if they realize our relationship is nothing more than a contract and try to kill you?”

He was smiling.

His tone was playful, and his gestures were casual.

But his eyes, dark as the deep sea, held emotions far deeper than his words suggested.

“…I never asked you to go this far.”

“People are watching us, Odely.”

Ludville held her hand firmly.

Trapped in his arms with their fingers intertwined, Odely couldn’t move at all, like a butterfly caught in a spider’s web.

She could feel his body heat through her thin silk dress.

‘It’s only a contract. It’s only a contract.’

She kept repeating those words in her head, but her senses refused to be fooled so easily.

Her heart kept reacting on its own.

“If you can’t even handle this much…”

He lowered his head and whispered into her ear.

“What are you going to do on our wedding night?”

“Wedding…”

“Don’t tell me you were planning to sleep in separate rooms?”

Oh, right. She had been so busy worrying about the Cardel family that she had forgotten to discuss sleeping in separate rooms.

But for a couple who had fallen in love at first sight and rushed through their marriage at lightning speed, sleeping in separate rooms from their very first night together…

Wouldn’t that be far too suspicious?

Anyone would suspect that they were simply disguising a political marriage as a love story.

‘Ah.’

It wasn’t enough to just get through the wedding ceremony. Now, there was no turning back.

In front of both the Cardels and Castia, they had to look like a couple who couldn’t live without each other.

‘It’s not just that things will become difficult if I don’t pretend to be in love…’

This could completely ruin the five-year plan Odely had left.

Odely shot a resentful glance at Ludville, the one who had proposed this plan in the first place.

“…Why are you looking at me like that?”

“…”

They had even gone so far as to add a clause requiring them to completely set aside their personal feelings.

Even if it was supposed to be acting, for Odely, it was impossible to treat it as nothing more than a performance.

‘No. Get a grip.’

Ludville couldn’t remember anything.

As long as Odely kept her composure, nothing would happen.

She tried to calm her heart, which kept getting carried away on its own.

“You don’t have the eyes of someone who’s in love.”

Looking down at her flustered face, he curled up the corners of his lips. As if to remind her to pay attention to her gaze, he gently brushed the corners of her eyes.

When his rough fingertips touched the delicate skin around her eyes, her eyelashes trembled.

“…”

Ludville seemed to forget the playful remark he had been about to make. He froze for a moment, staring blankly at her.

Her features were so finely shaped, as if they had been woven from silver threads.

Shadows fell across her pale, glowing skin.

Her delicate movements resembled the fluttering wings of a pure white butterfly.

That brief tremble stirred the fog that had been lingering vaguely in his mind.

For an instant, the noise of the banquet hall seemed to fade into the distance.

Her gaze, even the slightest breath she took, captured all of his senses.

Everything seemed to move slowly.

As if time itself revolved around her.

Ludville’s gaze briefly fell on the scar resting along Odely’s collarbone.

The scar she must have made up when she first tried to enter the Grand Duke’s castle, pretending to be the “blue-eyed woman.”

‘Why does she feel so…’

Like she belongs to me.

Why does it feel as if she has always belonged to me?

Ludville was seized by a feeling he couldn’t understand.

The thought that he alone should be able to see her, that he should protect her and have her for himself, kept…

Ludville kept his eyes fixed on hers and murmured,

“…You suit this role better than I expected.”

What did that mean?

Odely blinked, unable to understand for a moment.

Just then, the music playing in the hall suddenly stopped, and an elegant waltz began to fill the banquet hall.

When they looked toward the musicians, it seemed they had noticed the Grand Duke and Duchess standing so close together and decided to change the mood in their own way.

Doing things without being told…

While Odely clicked her tongue inwardly, Ludville chuckled and spoke.

“It seems our acting is working better than expected.”

“…”

“Then, shall we go… show everyone how affectionate we are?”

He naturally led her toward the center of the banquet hall.

As the two, who were about to get married soon, approached, the crowd naturally cleared a path for them.

Before she knew it, Odely was waltzing in front of everyone.

Their first movements were cautious.

But they quickly found their rhythm.

Their bodies moved so naturally that it seemed they had been dancing together for a long time.

As if they had danced this way hundreds, even thousands of times.

And only with the person standing before them.

Come to think of it, Ludville was the only person Odely had ever danced with.

Throughout his thousands of regressions, Ludville had never once allowed Odely to dance with another man.

Not only that, but Ludville himself had never danced with another woman, either.

Not even once.

Odely pressed her lips together for a moment before speaking in a low voice.

The words slipped out before she could stop herself.

“…You can dance with another woman for your final dance, at least.”

“Are you joking?”

Ludville suddenly stopped dancing and gave her a stern look.

“It seems you’ve forgotten Article 10. During the contract period, emotional or physical intimacy with others is prohibited.”

“…”

“And what kind of husband dances with another woman the day before his wedding?”

“No, I don’t mean right now…”

Odely hurriedly added, flustered.

“I mean someday. It’s a five-year contract, after all.”

At those words, he narrowed his eyes and looked at her suspiciously.

“I don’t understand why you’re suddenly talking about the future right now.”

His gaze seemed to be trying to uncover something.

Then, he frowned slightly and said,

“…You’re a better dancer than I expected.”

“…”

“I doubt the Cardel family ever taught you how to dance.”

Of course they hadn’t.

They wouldn’t go to the trouble of teaching her to dance while refusing to let her leave the family estate.

Ludville seemed to realize that, too, because a different light suddenly appeared in his eyes.

An intense, possessive light.

“Who taught you?”

…You did.

“That man you said looked like me?”

No, I mean, you did.

“You said you’d never left the family estate… So you must have met him while you were with the Cardel family.”

“…”

“Was he a knight assigned to guard you?”

You were once a knight of the Cardel family, too.

Lu, a low-ranking knight who had once been a slave and was employed by the Cardel family.

‘He wasn’t exactly my guard.’

Officially, his role wasn’t to protect her but to keep watch over her.

He had stood silently beneath the dark staircase, in front of the secret underground room where Odely had been imprisoned.

Of course, even that had been part of his plan to help Odely escape…

“That man. You said he was definitely dead, right? Did he die protecting you?”

“…”

“So you still remember him? Enough to marry a man who looks like him?”