I Became the Villain’s Wife

Eun-woo opened her mouth wide open, when she saw his reliable forearms gently but thoroughly dividing the gap between her and Count Briton.

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“Ah…”

The man who was dancing earlier, wearing his silver mask, invaded the two.
Eun-woo recognized the man who suddenly came out of nowhere, who also succeeded in blocking Count Briton.

“Ta, Tashian…!”

Strangely enough, Eun-woo felt her mind, which had been calm like a midsummer lake, suddenly shook as if a large stone was thrown inside.
His familiar scent was filled and lingered with the smell of wine at the tip of her nose.
The body temperature of the man’s familiar and hot hands touched her light dress.

On his chest, where she put her hand on it, she could feel a strong heartbeat that he couldn’t hide even with his soft suit over it.
Eun-woo’s heart began to beat so vigorously that it was incomparable to before.

Count Briton also glared over the mask as if he recognized the uninvited guest who came in out of nowhere.

“Duke Verk.
What is this…?!”

Eun-woo thought that Count Briton’s face somehow looked pale even with a mask.

When asked by him, the duke, who suddenly intervened in the dance procession, spoke.
It was not a low yet robust usual voice, but a slightly annoying day of pre-voice.

“….
Count, what are you doing? It’s unfair to monopolize the most beautiful lady in the ball alone.”

Eun-woo opened her mouth wide at his words.
The silent anger of the man who wrapped his arms around her waist seemed to flow into her.
Eun-woo dyed her cheeks red.

“Du….
Ke…! What are you doing?!”

Eun-woo chewed her words and touched Tashian’s arm, who couldn’t take his hands off her waist.

 

However, Tashian did not blink and said to her.

“Shouldn’t dance opportunities be distributed equally to everyone? Like when the Count here danced with you, you should also give me the same opportunity.“

Eun-woo was speechless by his nonsense logic.

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While she was staring at him with her mouth open like a scarecrow in the field, Count Briton clenched his fist and opened it.
It was a curious voice as if hiding a slightly trembling voice.

“But how can you steal someone else’s partner like this in the middle of dancing?“

The Count’s eyes were in the hands of him, holding her waist.

Eun-woo swallowed her dry saliva.
She knew Count Briton was drunk, but suddenly that fact hit her hard.

Eun-woo wanted to tell Count Briton to stop the act of saying something unusual, but Tashian was a little faster.

“…….
Since when did Miss become your partner?“

Tashian’s lips were parted in a cunning way, as he spit out his words to him.
It was a completely different tone than when he talked to her earlier.
He was hidden in a mask, but he was definitely staring at Count Briton as if he would chew him up.

Tashian opened his mouth with a very upset voice.

“Obviously, I know it’s me who has the honor of escorting Lady Miller for the whole night.”

At that moment, she felt that a flash permeated his eyes through his covered mask.
He opened his mouth once again, staring at Count Briton with a daunting look.

“From Count’s Briton manners… You seem to be teaching people that it’s okay to steal the first dance of someone else’s escort.”

No one has ever mentioned it at the Hellasium Night Ball, but there was a basic common sense that was known to everyone.
The first dance of a Lady should be with her escort during the banquet day.

 

As it is called a place of love for young male and female aristocrats, the ball meant a lot to each of these small actions.
Sharing the first dance with a person who is not her escort partner, meant that she was willing to develop feelings of love with that person.

Eun-woo, who had never dreamed of it, accepted Count Briton’s dance request without any doubt.

Tashian gritted his teeth.

In the distance, when he found her moving toward the middle of the ballroom holding Count Briton’s hand, he felt an indescribable feeling as if blood was rising surfacing from within.

She’s a woman who can’t even dance properly, and even stepped on Count’s Briton feet.
But how dare he reach out for her first dance in front of Tashian?

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Tashian’s sturdy body, staring at Count Briton, stiffened as if it would bounce forward at any moment.
Whether Count Briton felt it, his slender body felt uneasiness.

The Count answered with a big cough.

“Oh… I guess the two of you haven’t shared your first dance yet.
I didn’t know.“

“Isn’t it too impossible for the Count to not know that? As soon as the ball started, you approached Miss.
I didn’t know you were such a quick person.“

As if Tashian knew clearly what he was thinking, he laughed with a face full of bitterness.

Upon hearing that, the face reflected under the mask of Count Briton, was slightly distorted with shame.
It was because he noticed the hidden meaning of the Duke’s words.

Count Briton was also obligated to serve in the match against Great Genova as a young nobleman of the Empire.
Of course, as with most aristocratic children, he did not participate in the battlefield himself.
However, like other soldiers, he had experience in military training.
Naturally, it was commanded by the Duke of Verk, the commander-in-chief.

“It would have been nice if you were so fast during military training.”

At the time of training, Tashian spoke in a cold voice, recalling the Count’s performance who showed his restraints of any noble person who grew up well.

However, the Count did not back down even when his face was red to his ears.

“The duke must still be mistaken for himself to be the commander-in-chief.”

It was a spirit that could not have been compared if it had been the normal Count Briton.
However, the dance he had shared with Lady Miller earlier and the spirit of alcohol that he had been drinking added to his curiosity twice as much as usual.

With a red face, he raised his voice toward his surroundings as if to let everyone hear everything.

“Indeed, it must be very difficult for Your Highness, the Duke, who is favored by His Majesty the Emperor and Crown Prince Ikshid alone, to be humble!”

He smiled loudly at what he said.
However, no one around him sympathized with him.

However, Count Briton did not think about whether there were considerable complaints against the Duke.
While staring at Tashian as he bared his teeth, he spit out the words he chewed out.

“The Duke, who took over the vacancy of being the Duke, just because he had a good brother in a position that others could not climb even after their death, may just be floundering in the vain delusion that he was part of that noble lineage.”

The count’s face, exposed under the mask, was roughly distorted.

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Eun-woo was frightened to see the expression on his face and grabbed Tashian’s hem without realizing it.

“He, hey… You seemed to be very drunk.“

There was a slight movement around him, but the Count rejected it.
He shouted with a vein around his neck.

“Put this down! I am not drunk at all! Am I wrong? Think about it.
What brother in the world would let his brother suffer in a hellish battlefield for three years? Haven’t you ever thought that if you were a brother with a real vein, you wouldn’t have just watched him be sent to a dangerous battlefield?“

This was a term referring to Tashian’s half-brother, Chief Reinhardt.
Eun-woo nervously looked up at Tashian’s face hidden in the mask.
He surprisingly remained silent.

Eun-woo stomped nervously, alternating between the quiet Tashian and the count who suddenly became insensitive and shouted at him.
She decided that she should stop the situation before it got bigger.
She eventually confidently opened her mouth.

“Count.
That’s too much to say.
Apologize to the Duke right away.“

In a determined tone, she conveyed her intention to the Count to stop.
But it was rather counterproductive.

The Count’s face, which was restrained by her, was not red, but turned dark red.

Count Briton momentarily let go of his hatred, when the woman he had in his mind for a long time took the side of another man in front of him, to be exact Tashian Verk, who he usually hated.

Thus, he spoke out what he should not have said to a man who holds a higher position than anyone else here except for his former superior and crown prince.

“Damn …! What makes you cover your interest so well ? Tashian Verk, why aren’t you answering me? Why? I can’t just say that you wanted to be recognized by your family?”

The Count’s mouth twisted bitterly.
He staggered and made exaggerated gestures.

“The Crown Prince didn’t even call you for the victory celebration banquet even after making such a remarkable achievement… well, you must be unable to do anything else other than using your body with your mother….”

At that moment, there was a noticeable thud sound around him.

Before he knew it, the music that was calmly flowing in the hall stopped.
In the middle of the wide hall, the people who were dancing and the musicians who were playing music, were all keeping their eyes fixed on them.

In the suffocating silence, the noise of an unconscious violinist creaked once and quickly died down.

Count Briton shouted briefly after.

“What is this….!”

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Eun-woo was facing Count Briton’s absurd gaze, with one arm raised high in the air and looking at what she had done in disbelief.
A brown mask barely hung at the end of his ear, fell on the floor with a sound.

Lady Miller slapped Count Briton in the middle of the ballroom.

“La… Lady Miller…?”

Although Count Briton was much taller than her, it was so weak that only his mask fell.
However, the Count was opening his mouth as if he couldn’t believe what had just happened, perhaps because he was shocked that he was slapped by Lady, rather than the pain that touched his cheek.

Eun-woo was conscious of the way everyone looked at her and heated up from her toes to the top of his head.
Her one hand, lifted in the air, trembled.

It was the first time in her life that she raised her hand to a person.
But most of all, the fact that the person who even danced with her until just now, was a person who uttered such nonsense words pierced in her, as the biggest shock to her.

“Count Briton.
H-ho-how could you say t-that?!”

Eun-woo screamed at Count Briton, engulfed in unexplained anger.
She was so overwhelmed that she was even unaware that she was stuttering.

“H-how can a -per-person… like you… say su-such things…?!”

The moment Count Briton openly ridiculed the origin of Tashian, Eun-woo felt a violent feeling inside her like a volcano.
She felt like she had been laughed at, even though it was for Tashian.

Her heart fluttered and her whole body trembled with anger.

“La, Lady Miller…”

Some people around her who knew her name approached and talked to her, but she couldn’t hear a word from any of them.

Count Briton was looking at her with one cheek clenched as if he had been beaten in the back of his head.

The Duke also looked at the small back of the woman’s head standing in front of him with a rare expression.

Eun-woo stared at Count Briton with her eyes wide open, as if she couldn’t see such people.
She forced herself into her tangled mind like a thread and said whatever came to her mind.

“The duke is very… Thoughtful, polite………! He, he’s a very, very diligent person! He works so hard for his family and country.…! He even wakes up early in the morning and trains with his sword… he’s a kind person who quietly swings a sword alone in the backyard of the main building so as not to wake up his servants.…! He’s a little cranky, but…… It’s not because he doesn’t like people, it’s because he doesn’t know how to treat them very well!”

Eun-woo felt her hot cheeks as if she was on fire.
Her eyes began to tear up.
However, with the determination that she would never shed tears, she gave her eyes a lot of strength and held it in.

“Apologize to the Duke right now!”