II. `The best trash`

What followed was a swift, unstoppable turn of events.

“Roger, we’ll have to withdraw from the marriage talks with Baron Elzen.”

Herman, who had barged into the middle of the reception room where Roger and Baron Elzen’s messenger were conversing—dragging Esina along with him—dropped the bombshell without warning.

“What on earth are you—”

While Roger made a baffled expression and the baron’s messenger floundered in shock, Herman threw out another remark that turned the entire room upside down.

“Because your sister will be bearing my heir.”

Not “she might be able to,” but a definitive declaration—”she will.” It was nothing short of a shocking proclamation. It was practically a public admission that the two had slept together.

“When the hell—?”

While Roger’s pupils trembled, Esina, pulled along by Herman’s grip, had no room in her mind to care about the explosive reactions around her.

“It’s bothering me.”

Though Herman had wiped her down and dressed her again, he hadn’t scraped out the s***n left inside.

They had done it so much that she felt like his seed would spill out between her legs at any moment. Every time Esina moved, white froth bubbled between her thighs. Drip. The sensation of fluid trickling down her inner thighs was vivid.

No matter how bold she had been in seducing Herman first, she had no intention of publicly leaking s***n in front of others. Her face burned as she clenched her legs together.

“……”

Though she was neatly put together, the disheveled strands of hair and the marks on her neck that her collar couldn’t fully hide made it all too obvious what had happened. To onlookers, Esina looked every bit like a naive young noblewoman squirming in post-coital shame.

Only then did the surrounding people, finally grasping the reality, become colored with shock.

“Herman, what on earth is all this… out of nowhere?”

“T-This is an insult to Elzen!”

“Wait! Hold on!”

Before Roger could even attempt to mediate, Baron Elzen’s messenger, face flushed bright red and seething with anger, stormed out of the room.

After that, a heated exchange ensued between Roger and Herman, and soon enough, even Viscount Lehier came rushing in, flustered.

And that argument came to an end when Herman, with Esina tucked under his arm, settled the matter with Viscount Lehier using nothing but his silver tongue.

“Young Duke! To ruin another family’s marriage prospects in such a manner—and even after taking the lady’s purity…!”

“Ruin? Didn’t I just say I’d marry her? If anything, this should be an even better match, connecting our noble houses.”

“Hah! As if Telloien would ever align with us—and with a bastard, no less!”

“Ah. So the Lehier family is that far beneath us? I hadn’t realized.”

“……!”

“How unfortunate. Though, I suppose… compared to Telloien, Lehier is…”

Having thoroughly applied what he’d learned from Esina, Herman left Viscount Lehier no choice but to spit out his words in furious defeat.

“Fine, take her! Take her, then!”

“Father!”

“Yes. That was my intention.”

With the marriage permission finally secured, Herman swiftly took Esina to the chapel, where a simple wedding ceremony and marital vows were carried out without delay. Not forgetting to ensure the legality of the union, he even summoned a priest to officiate their oaths.

All of this took barely a few hours.

“Father. I’ll have to withdraw from the marriage talks with Princess Cloe.”

“What?”

“I doubt she’d want a married man, either.”

“What nonsense is this?!”

Naturally, the Duke of Telloien flew into a rage at his eldest son, who had rushed through such an important marriage as if baking bread over lightning—

“Withdraw at once! Immediately! If you don’t, I’ll cut off all support and sever ties with you for good!”

“Revoke it? I swore a marriage vow in the name of God. It can’t be undone.”

“Do you intend to sever ties with the family?!”

“If you’d allow it, I’d be even more grateful.”

Without hesitation, Herman purchased a newlywed estate for them and settled everything with lightning speed.

…And so, barely a few days after their bodies had first intertwined, Esina found herself seated as the lady of the house at their wedding celebration.

Considering that noble engagements typically took at least a month—or even half a year—this was an absurdly rushed affair.

“Congratulations, Duchess of Telloien.”

Esina sat demurely, as befitting a new bride, receiving the guests’ well-wishes.

Of course, the “congratulations” showered upon her were little more than thinly veiled curses wrapped in pleasantries.

“How lovely. Did you win the heart of Telloien’s heir with that face of yours?”

“Though I hear Telloien is cutting ties over this?”

“My, they didn’t even hold a public ceremony.”

Some barely concealed their resentment—How dare someone like you marry Herman Telloien?—while others sneered, What kind of fool skips a grand wedding?

But most of their barbs flew over Esina’s head, unfamiliar as she was with high society’s subtleties. Even if she had understood, she would have answered honestly, her mood unshaken.

“Yes. I’m actually glad we didn’t.”

“……”

“I didn’t want to drag it out.”

Better this than a drawn-out spectacle, where delays could have led to the marriage collapsing—and the engagement with Baron Elzen being forced upon her again.