Come and Cry at My Funeral - Chapter 281

The child in the womb was born dead while Izar was away.

It was the worst period the ducal house had ever faced.

The relationship between the woman and him was at its worst as well. Because there had once been a brief, precious time between them, now that the fleeting spring was over, only a bone-chilling cold remained.

And ironically, the first to fall apart during this time was Izar.

“Duke.”

In fact, after the stillbirth, the woman picked herself up, desperately trying to live on. She became brazen enough to even reach out and try to stop him as he drank, fumbling at his arm.

“You… shouldn’t drink this much. I’m worried it’ll ruin your health…”

“……”

Izar stared silently at the woman with faded eyes. Just how well had he managed to shut his ears to her words all this time, that he could still pretend not to know?

Meanwhile, ever since the day he fetched her wild berries, he had been tormented daily by reports from those around him. They were the same people he had trusted for a lifetime.

A suspicious man lingering near the woman while he was away suppressing an uprising.

A secret rendezvous.

A belly swollen out of proportion to the weeks of pregnancy.

Would a single drop of water falling on a rock cause the rock pain?

But if the drops fall in the same spot, repeatedly, ceaselessly, in time the rock will develop holes and cracks.

“…And what business is that of yours?”

“Duke—”

“You didn’t even cry when the child died.”

At his accusation, the woman’s face went pale. She must have recalled what he had said.

〈To be born to parents like us. Happiness would forever elude that child anyway.〉

Just before that, he’d received a report claiming the woman had deliberately thrown herself down the stairs, afraid her infidelity would be discovered.

That was why he wanted to see her get angry.

‘Please, just argue back. Strongly deny it.’

He wanted to see her throw a fit, to see her cry, asking how he could say such a thing. He hoped she would sob, insisting that their relationship was different.

The more fiercely she denied it, the more he would have believed it was the truth.

But the woman, in the end, did not cry, and instead, she was resolute.

“But, that’s only because you asked the question, Duke—”

“Do you even know what the world says about you?”

“…What?”

“Every day, people come to me and whisper that you’ve been unfaithful behind your husband’s back.”

At last, the woman’s eyes trembled with bewilderment. Just from that, she looked entirely innocent.

“W-What are you saying?”

But was that truly bewilderment? Or was she only flustered because her lie had been found out?

“Duke, I… I really don’t understand what you’re saying—”

“Hah, so that’s why you hurriedly buried the child before I could return? Did you try to hide it, afraid it would be found out to be another man’s seed?”

“……”

“Damn it. And yet, I—”

No matter how much the woman insisted on her innocence, what could she possibly do in a fight of one against a hundred?

His trust in the woman had been shallow to begin with, and so it shattered all too easily.

〈Don’t let yourself be deceived by a woman, Izar.〉

The old curse came to mind on its own.

But even if he’d been deceived, he could not help but keep the woman by his side. If he didn’t, his heart would wither away.

“Every day I argue with my retainers just to keep someone like you by my side. Why?”

“……”

“I’m so damned set on getting an heir from you, I—”

The woman, as if stabbed in the heart with a sword, staggered back, then silently collapsed in a corner of the room.

After that, the woman made no sound at all.

From that point on, the woman began to change. Perhaps her memory began to falter, as she often made mistakes, dropping things or failing to recall what had just happened.

Even when he lost control and held her, only broken moans spilled from her lips.

“Ah, aah.”

The naked woman panted pitifully on the floor. Having already been bitten and marked by him like an animal, her body was covered in bruises and fluids.

Her insides were still tight, but after countless nights and days spent together, no matter how hard he thrust his manhood in, she could now take it.

By then, Izar had learned exactly what made her cry out so plaintively when stimulated. Wanting to hear her cry even more, he deliberately targeted only her sensitive spots, moving his hips with purpose. Unable to handle his physique, the woman sobbed as if she might die from lack of breath.

“Ah, ahh!”

“Did you always feel it this deep inside?”

“Uhn!”

“How indecent.”

He roughly taunted her, groping her lower abdomen. Pressing firmly on the spot outside that matched where he was mercilessly pounding her inside, her slender shoulders trembled as if struck by fever.

“Haa, ah, ah.”

Izar bit her round shoulder hard. She whimpered in pain and curled up, but he clung to her stubbornly from behind.

When he rammed in again, a slick sound leaked out from their joined bodies.

“Hngh, ah, huuh…!”