The Debauched Marquis’s Midnight Hours - Chapter 1

『With this, I solemnly declare in God’s name the establishment of the engagement between Marquis Rockwood and Princess Leoni.』

The wedding preparations proceeded hastily. The king spoke as if he had some urgent reason to rush, saying they should hold the wedding ceremony just one month after the engagement.

Princess Leoni was a beauty. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call her the kingdom’s greatest beauty. Her honey-colored blonde hair seemed to catch the light of a full moon, her snow-white skin looked as if it would stain at the slightest touch, and her violet eyes were fantastical, as if she were walking through a dream. Her lips were full, her waist was so slender it could fit in one arm’s embrace, and her b*****s were voluptuous.

Her character was good too. Despite being such a beauty, she wasn’t arrogant. She was always kind and affectionate to those beneath her, enjoyed embroidery, and looked after palace affairs meticulously.

People considered her only flaw to be her introversion, which kept her from socializing much. However, she had a nature that stepped up decisively when needed, always taking the lead in charitable activities and educational endeavors.

When the king chose Marquis Rockwood as the princess’s husband, every man in the kingdom let out a sigh. Some nodded their heads saying Marquis Rockwood was sufficient, while others complained, asking why it had to be someone like Marquis Rockwood—that he wasn’t worthy of her station.

The marquis himself also sighed.

“Why do you look so dejected? You’ve gotten your hands on the woman every man in the kingdom dreams of.”

Baron Rondel asked while lighting the pipe the marquis was holding. The marquis puffed on his pipe and blew three smoke rings.

“Right. ‘Almost’ every man dreams of her.”

“You sound as if you didn’t want this yourself, my lord.”

“Marriage is the grave of life. To be forced to dedicate my life to one woman starting at this age—how pitiful. And with my wife being a princess, I can’t even keep a mistress.”

“Haha. Indeed, for someone like you, my lord, being satisfied with one woman would be quite difficult.”

“But it is Princess Leoni we’re talking about. Such beauties are rare.”

“Heh. She truly is a beauty, the princess. Men would line up saying they’d die right now if they could just bury their face in those b*****s once.”

“They might actually suffocate to death.”

“You could probably bury objects between those b*****s.”

“And what about that waist? Women with such slender waists usually have full hips and killer tightness too.”

“Her voice is pretty too, so she’ll definitely cry out as sweetly as a canary.”

“She’s a virgin.”

Marquis Rockwood spat out those words in the middle of their lewd talk. The men exclaimed as if they hadn’t thought of that.

“Ah, right. You dislike virgins, don’t you, my lord?”

“Your tastes are quite unique. I understand finding it bothersome to handle virgins, but…….”

“How am I supposed to go through the tedious process of coaxing and taming a young girl, especially one raised so nobly? When would I ever finish?”

“True, how could a nobly raised virgin ever handle you, my lord?”

Raucous laughter erupted here and there. In the men’s minds, there was undoubtedly an image of the princess naked on the bed, sobbing in pleasure in all sorts of shameful positions according to the marquis’s tastes.

Marquis Rockwood knocked the ash from his pipe and stood up.

“Where are you going? Tonight is your bachelor party. The real fun is just beginning.”

“I’ll be back soon. There’s a woman I’ve been keeping. Start without me.”

Saying that, he slipped out of the party venue.

Naked dancers brushed past as they entered the party hall. The marquis didn’t even glance their way as he strode out of the building.

The night wind brushed coldly against his face.

‘The problem isn’t the princess—it’s that I’m the virgin here.’

Would those men ever guess?

Marquis Rockwood put his pipe back in his mouth.

Marquis Rockwood Richard’s real name was Richelle, and she was actually a woman.

Originally, the one who should have received the title of Marquis Rockwood was her older brother Neil, who was five years her senior. Neil was a genius swordsman who became a Sword Master before turning twenty, saved the kingdom, and led them to victory in war.

The king wanted to give Neil the highest title a non-royal could receive. However, Neil refused. Being naturally free-spirited with wanderlust, he thought creating a family line would be useless even if he received a title. Instead, he only accepted the title of Friend of the Royal Family and a medal of merit.

Richelle had expected Neil would do that. And she thought he was insane. Didn’t he think about family at all? (Though there were only the two siblings anyway.) She argued that she should receive that title. If it was a title being given to Neil’s bloodline anyway, there was no problem with her receiving it, right? Neil clearly wouldn’t leave any descendants. He claimed he simply had no intention of marrying, but Richelle knew Neil was gay.

She was already cross-dressing at that time. As a commoner girl without parents, with her brother wandering outside for more than nine months of the year—essentially living alone—there was no way to guarantee her safety.

Neil readily agreed. He actually did anything Richelle wanted to do, except for impossible things.

「Living as the marquis’s brother would be good too. As long as you’re happy, I don’t mind.」

He said that and told the king he wanted to give the title he would receive to Richelle so she could continue the family line.

The king also gladly permitted it. Neil was a Sword Master considered a strategic weapon, a one-man army. If he himself refused, it was right to make even his family into nobles loyal to the royal house to solidify their connection.

‘Actually, brother should have been the one to marry her.’

The king’s decision to marry Princess Leoni to the marquis must have come from the same context. He probably didn’t consider marrying her to Neil because Neil was gay.

Unfortunately, while her brother believed he was hiding it well, to the marquis it was perfectly transparent.

「You have to get married eventually anyway. Didn’t you decide you wanted to build up House Rockwood?」

Neil said with an innocent laugh through the magic communication. It wasn’t wrong. To build up a family, one had to marry and produce an heir.

The marquis had her own plan. She intended to secretly buy a healthy, intelligent but poor man to get his seed, then feign illness and go down to the countryside to give birth.

Then she would buy a daughter from an equally poor family with money, marry her, and register that child as legitimate—done.

The princess absolutely didn’t fit these conditions.

「It’s fine. That princess has special reasons why she can’t marry another man. After His Majesty the King and I discussed it, we both agreed you’d be the perfect match. Meet her first and have a serious conversation.」

Such were Neil’s words, as if he lived above the clouds. Agreement and serious conversation, my a*s. The marquis didn’t trust Neil one bit when it came to practical matters.

Why the king wanted to make the marquis the princess’s husband was too obvious. It was because of Neil. But he probably made various excuses to Neil.

A match suited to her. Perhaps Princess Leoni had dreams of maintaining chastity for God until death. Or maybe she disliked men, or couldn’t bear physical contact with them. If so, she would indeed be the perfect wife material.

In any case, this was a big problem.

Marquis Rockwood was a cold-blooded man with business talent who loved gambling and womanizing—a piece of trash. She had been steadily building that image for over ten years since becoming marquis.

She always participated when men went to buy prostitutes as a group, and when high society ladies seduced her, she didn’t hesitate to bite their b*****s behind ballroom curtains and lead them to ecstasy with her hands. To cover for the bedroom, she bought all kinds of s*x toys and used toys soaked in warm water on blindfolded one-night lovers as if they were real.

She had never once undressed, preferred using tools, always covered women’s eyes and faces during relations, and rarely kissed women tenderly—earning quite a reputation as a sadistic libertine.

She didn’t do this because it felt good. She was simply too focused on making herself into a man because she didn’t want to be discovered as a woman. Her reputation among virtuous ladies became trash, and even decent men frowned at her. The marquis felt safe each time this happened. No one would think such a man was actually a woman.

But what kind of situation would unfold if such a man married and then immediately divorced the beautiful Princess Leoni?

Just thinking about it made her feel suffocated, so she sighed several more times and returned to the party to drink herself into a stupor.

* * *

Princess Leoni’s dressing room smelled of lilacs.

And the marquis’s body reeked of alcohol. The cigarette and opium smells that had permeated her hair and skin were finally removed after soaking in fragrant water in the bathroom all morning, but the alcohol smell—whether it came from her organs or what—wouldn’t go away. She had kept mint leaves in her mouth for hours, but couldn’t hide the smell of decomposing alcohol every time she exhaled.

The marquis yawned while holding her breath. She didn’t want to smell her own breath either. Her bachelor party had been going on for four days straight. She would have liked to spread out the schedule leisurely, but with only three weeks until the wedding, there was much to do and many people to meet. In the midst of this, dividing her male acquaintances into various groups for parties and dealing with naked women every night had exhausted her.

The marquis was definitely not a woman who liked women. Having no feelings herself while using every technique she had to make women writhe in a performance was simply tiring. Just because she had chosen this life didn’t mean it wasn’t exhausting. The hangover was exhausting too.

“You drank quite a lot last night, didn’t you?”

Leoni asked gently from behind a thin curtain. The marquis sullenly closed her mouth.

“When a man enjoys the last of his life, that’s how it goes.”

She could see the maids flaring up with indignation. Rumors about what he’d been doing lately were already widespread. While it wasn’t uncommon for men to act dissolute right before marriage, Marquis Rockwood renting out entire brothels for four straight days of debauchery was definitely excessive. Especially when the bride was Leoni, the kingdom’s most eligible maiden.

Whether Leoni didn’t know these rumors or was magnanimous enough not to care, she smiled brightly and said:

“Excessive drinking and smoking aren’t good for your health. Lily, bring what I mentioned earlier.”

A maid brought over a cold glass cup. Leoni said gently:

“I had them put honey from lilies with an herb called alota steeped in water. It should help settle your stomach, and alota removes alcohol odor. I used to make this for Father whenever he drank too much.”

“Ah, thank you.”

“I did it for myself.”

The marquis gulped down the honey water that had a cool yet bitter-sweet fragrance. It definitely seemed effective. Her stomach still churned, but the bad breath was certainly gone.

Maids moved about carrying lace, hair ornaments, and jewelry. Leoni said:

“May I ask one favor?”

“Please speak.”

“Could you tie my dress strings? The ribbon on my back seems to have come undone, and everyone happens to be away.”

The marquis hesitated. Why not ask a maid? But looking around, she noticed the maids weren’t in the dressing room. While it was possible for several people to coincidentally be away on errands, shouldn’t at least one remain?

“You speak imprudently, Princess. Just being alone in the same room with a man like me could damage your reputation.”

“You’re going to be my husband anyway, so it’s fine. And I heard this is what everyone does.”

It wasn’t wrong. In dressing rooms where women called men they fancied for flirtation, helping with garter belts or putting on stockings was quite common, not just tying dress strings. Marquis Rockwood had often done such things.

It seemed the well-behaved princess wanted to try some transgression before marriage. And with her future husband, where no ethical problems would arise.

‘She should be grateful it’s me.’

The marquis yawned as she approached Leoni.

She went behind the curtain and froze in shock. What had come undone was the underdress string, but inside, the chemise and corset that should have been covering her body were missing.

Leoni turned her back and bowed her head slightly. Since her hair was already up, her downy white nape and back, cut low to the waist, were exposed. Good heavens. Her waist was just a handful even without being cinched. As she bowed her head, the dress slipped forward, revealing half the line of her voluptuous b*****s.

Wasn’t this too bold for something a virtuous princess would do, even as transgression with her future husband?

The marquis hesitated but couldn’t retreat. Marquis Rockwood would never refuse such an opportunity.

She lightly brought her hand to stroke that back. It was velvet-like skin. Should she slide her hand down to those b*****s? Those b*****s were truly magnificent.

While playing the libertine, the marquis had undressed countless women. Among them were courtesans who could earn gold just by letting a man bury his face in their b*****s once, but compared to Princess Leoni’s b*****s, those were just large in size while shaped like squashed peaches.

“My lord.”

The prompting voice was clear and innocent. Maybe she wasn’t thinking of transgression at all but truly didn’t know better. The marquis quietly stroked that back with her fingertips and slowly pulled the strings. The dress settled into place, half-covering her b*****s. She tied the strings firmly so they wouldn’t come undone.

Leoni’s body gave off a sensual fragrance like sweet milk mixed with flower honey. The marquis was seized by a strange feeling. She had never felt lust toward any woman before. Marquis Rockwood’s libertine nature was all acting. But she was seized by an impulse to touch more of Leoni’s soft skin. The marquis thought this sensation might be similar to wanting to pet a doll or puppy.

She slyly wrapped one arm around Leoni’s slender waist. Leoni seemed caught in similar sensuality. Though she didn’t know the marquis was actually a woman. And it seemed the marquis’s judgment about attempting transgression with her future husband was correct.

The body that came into her arms was supple and soft. It really made her feel strange. Leoni’s beautiful eyes looked up at her quietly.

“My lord…….”

A sweet sigh escaped her parted lips. The marquis hesitated very slightly, then pressed her lips to those lips. Leoni wrapped both arms around her neck. B*****s not bound tight with a corset pressed soft against the marquis’s chest. At that sensation, the marquis’s lower belly tingled.

The lips opened without any resistance, but when the marquis sucked greedily, they hesitated and fled as if distressed.

She seemed to know about kissing intellectually but had no experience. The marquis impulsively held her tight and rubbed chest against chest. She sucked Leoni’s lower lip fiercely and pushed her tongue into her mouth.

“Mmm~ my lord, mmph~. Breath.”

Leoni made delicate sounds. She panted, unable to catch her breathing rhythm. The marquis put her hand on Leoni’s exposed back. Seized by savage feelings, she embraced that slender waist and swallowed greedily. Leoni’s waist, held tight and unable to escape, bent backward.

“Ha~a, mmm.”

Did men usually feel these emotions toward women? She had always thought kissing was rather dirty, but Leoni’s saliva felt almost like an aphrodisiac. The marquis unconsciously moved her legs. She was soaking wet below.

That’s what allowed her to stop. After lightly sucking Leoni’s tongue one last time before releasing her, she tried to compose her expression. She put on the face of a cold libertine who had just sampled his future wife.

Leoni panted heavily while clinging to her.

“Ah, my lord.”

“No need to rush. On our wedding night, I’ll make you faint with pleasure.”

The marquis said this carelessly while pushing her away. Then she realized she actually wanted to do that.

Good God. To a woman.

She had never even imagined such a thing. Considering she had never been attracted to men either, maybe she was like Neil—that type of person.

Or perhaps Leoni was magically attractive.

That was possible. Her neatly arranged hair was disheveled, her eyes were tinged red, and her lips were wet and flushed. Her flushed face looked seductive. The marquis unconsciously felt herself getting wet again below.

“Well then, excuse me. If you want to please me, Princess, you’ll need to do a lot of research.”

Saying that, she fled. It was literally an escape.

That night the marquis dreamed of consummating their marriage. No matter what she did to Leoni lying beneath her, she couldn’t satisfy her. Because she had nothing to put inside. Then suddenly she saw a huge p***s hanging between her legs. Delighted, she pierced Leoni’s body dozens of times, making her cry out in joy.