Side Story 4.2 - DAILY LIFE OF THE DUCAL COUPLE(2) (1/2)

DAILY LIFE OF THE DUCAL COUPLE(2)

Katherine was buried in her imagination for a bit, then suddenly, she exclaimed and stood up.

“Wait a minute. I have something to give you.”

Katherine left for a while then she returned with a small box in her hand.

“This is something I bought a while back, but I never wore it.”

Lucia took the box Katherine gave to her and opened it. Inside, was a bunch of white lace that appeared to be lingerie at first glance.

Lucia tilted her head then she carefully lifted out the contents to check what it was. Her face gradually turned red and she hurriedly dropped the contents with fright and slammed the box shut.

“Wh…What is this?”

“I bought it for a once-in-a-lifetime experience but when I got home after going through with the purchase, I found it wasn’t actually to my taste.”

“You want me to wear this? This kind of thing…”

“Thinking that only prostitutes wear this, is a stereotype. There are very few noble women who don’t own an underwear like this.”

“No way…”

It was hard for Lucia to believe that most of the noblewomen who liked to act lofty, actually owned something so indecent.

“I knew it’d be like this.”

Katherine clicked her tongue. The fact that Lucia had been married for over 10 years and never even seen an underwear like this was a problem.

“Younger sister. How many years have you been married? The times when fire is ignited once your eyes meet has passed. In a relationship, both sides should put in effort.”

“…What does this have to do with effort?”

“Of course it had something to do with effort! Do you know what the scariest this is in a marriage? It is marital weariness[1]. That kind of thing has no sign. You don’t even know when it’ll come. By the time you come to your senses, you’re already in that state. It’s at times like this, that the man cheats. Their wife is no longer something new, so their eyes turns to another fresh woman.”

“…”

“That’s why a stimulation is necessary. Show him a fresh, new charm. Men are originally visually weak creatures.”

Katherine tried her best to persuade Lucia, who was still hesitating.

“The lingerie is definitely not something abnormal or strange. I have a few myself. Plus, for your information, the designer of that lingerie is Antoine.”

“An…toine?”

“I might not like Antoine’s dresses but there’s something different about the lingerie she makes. They’re very popular too.”

Lucia had no idea. Antoine had never brought up such a topic to Lucia.

Antoine already had a headache from trying to design a dress that adhered to the Duke of Taran’s standard of a ‘decent dress’. She was afraid of saying something useless to the Duchess and getting on the Duke’s blacklist, so she didn’t even think of mentioning underwear to the Duchess.

* * *

‘Marital weariness?’

Lucia felt oddly uneasy.

‘Now that I think about it, it’s already been years since we got married.’

Enough time had flown by for the world to change. It had already been some time since the freshness she had at 20 disappeared. Soon, another 10 years would go by in a flash, and she would get wrinkles around her eyes.

However, even when she imagined her husband 10 years later, he was still splendid. On the contrary, because he had grown more stylish and imposing, the noblewomen were busy stealing glances at him at official occasions. For some reason, she got angry.

‘He comes back late a lot lately too.’

Lucia looked at the empty space beside her on the bed. He came back late yesterday as well. Even though she knew this time was usually the busiest time of the year, Lucia blamed him as if he was fully responsible for coming back late.

She lay down to sleep, but her mind became even clearer and she kept breathing hard. Then she felt a twinge of pain in her lower abdomen and caressed her stomach. It seemed quite strange, so she went to the bathroom and found a blood smear on her underwear, signifying that her menstruation had begun.