◇

“Get down.”

A cold voice rang out.

Rosetti didn’t even acknowledge Lin Ge’s greeting. Her icy stare made it impossible for him to refuse—especially with his already precarious future as her kept man hanging by a thread.

Lin Ge jumped down from the tree, rubbed the back of his head, and flashed an innocent, goofy smile.

“Well, well, what a coincidence! I never thought I’d run into you here. Come to think of it, we’ve never actually introduced ourselves properly. How about we grab a drink together?”

Lin Ge held out a friendly hand, wearing the kind of sunny smile no normal person could possibly refuse, and made his invitation.

“……”

Rosetti didn’t answer. She didn’t reach out to shake his hand, either.

Her sharp, icy gaze grew even darker. Lin Ge’s mouth twitched. He swallowed and quietly pulled his hand back.

“If you’re busy… then I won’t keep you. Let’s get together another time… Bye.”

“Stop.”

“……”

Her voice echoed through the air, just as cold as before. It felt as if the air around his feet had frozen solid, and Lin Ge didn’t dare take another step.

It wasn’t that he was afraid of Rosetti. He just couldn’t bear to refuse a beautiful woman’s request. Yeah, that was it. He definitely wasn’t chickening out. Definitely not!

“I-is there something else, darling wife?”

Lin Ge rubbed his hands together, turned around, and gave her a fawning smile.

There was no pause. A deafening boom rang out, and the tree he’d been in moments earlier exploded behind him.

His legs gave a little wobble. Lin Ge quickly cleared his throat and changed his tune:

“Is there something you need, Miss Rosetti?”

“How much of what I just said… did you hear?”

It sounded like a question. No, it was an interrogation with no way out.

Cold sweat trickled down Lin Ge’s face. His mouth twitched as he replied:

“How much do you want me to have heard… Ahem. Pretty much all of it.”

Seeing that the next magic bolt was about to hit him in the face, Lin Ge didn’t dare get cheeky.

Rosetti’s three-tier magic probably wouldn’t do him any real harm, but getting blasted still hurt.

“Don’t go spreading this around.” Rosetti shot Lin Ge a cold glance. Seeing how scared he was, she lowered her staff. “Especially not in front of Lady Alice. I don’t need to tell you what’ll happen if you do, do I?”

“Got it, understood, crystal clear…”

It’s not like I was planning to get involved in your business anyway.

Lin Ge grumbled inwardly, then put on a smile, rubbed the back of his head, and pointed away.

“So, can I go now?”

“……”

Rosetti said nothing, but her eyes gave him permission.

Lin Ge breathed a sigh of relief. But he hadn’t even taken two steps when—

“Wait.”

“I-is there something else?”

Lin Ge stopped in his tracks, his smile starting to crack.

Usually, when someone called you back at a time like this, it could only mean trouble.

And sure enough, trouble was exactly what it meant…

A spell murmured like the buzz of a mosquito. A crimson ring appeared above Lin Ge’s head, dropped around his neck, and left a red mark that sank into his flesh. The same thing happened to Rosetti.

The moment he saw it, Lin Ge understood what it was.

“A forbidden curse… Soul Link? You know forbidden magic?”

“Hmph. I never thought an ignorant fool like you would know about this.”

Rosetti gave a scornful snort. There was a little less hostility in her voice now, but she still looked at Lin Ge with utter disdain.

But Lin Ge couldn’t worry about her disdain right now. Even across the entire Empire, no normal person would ever touch a forbidden art—and his second wife… a girl who didn’t even look twenty… knew how to use one.

Forbidden magic was just what the name suggested: magic that people were expressly forbidden to learn.

A sword can protect people, but it can also kill them.

Forbidden magic was the same.

For one thing, learning it was exceptionally difficult. And while these spells were undeniably powerful, they also inflicted severe backlash on the user.

The more you learned and the more you used, the more your cultivation regressed and the harder it became to advance. Those were minor concerns… In serious cases, it could drive you insane, reverse the flow of your blood, and make you explode on the spot…

He couldn’t imagine why a young woman like her would choose to practice such a bizarre art…

“Don’t tell Lady Alice about this… Well, even if you wanted to, you can’t say anything now.” Rosetti gave a cold snort.

With the curse on them, the moment either of them tried to mention even a single word, the other would know. They’d both feel unbearable pain, and unless Rosetti lifted the curse, they would keep suffering together.

It hurt your enemy, but affected you too. That was why forbidden magic couldn’t be easily undone—and why it was forbidden in the first place.

“Uh… You could at least have a little more faith in your husband. I’m one of the nation’s ten most honest young m—Ahem. Never mind. I definitely won’t tell anyone.”

Lin Ge shut his mouth and gave her a goofy smile, not daring to tease her again.

“From now on, don’t stick your nose into our business. As long as you behave, we won’t interfere even if you spend your days in a brothel and die in some woman’s bed. Got it?”

After delivering her final warning, Rosetti walked away without waiting for Lin Ge to nod.

Lin Ge wondered what he’d done to make her dislike him so much. How could her starting opinion of him be this bad?

He shook his head helplessly and touched his neck. It looked and felt exactly as it had before.

Honestly, it was a good thing Rosetti hadn’t mastered the spell yet. Even though it was forbidden magic, Lin Ge could easily undo it—and he could just walk away, too.

But…

“Forget it. I’ll let my wife save face.”

It’d be rude to undo all her hard work so easily. Besides, you don’t often get the chance to experience having your life tied to someone else’s!

He shrugged and decided to leave it in place for a while.

With nothing better to do, Lin Ge could only keep lazing his days away.

Little did he know that his lazy days… were already numbered…

……

Disaster!

A massive disaster was hanging over Lin Ge’s head.

On the morning after Rosetti ordered him to keep quiet, Lin Ge finally couldn’t stomach eating nothing but dry flatbread twice every three days. So he decided to borrow something to eat from his own lord wife’s bedroom.

Yes, borrow. Don’t judge.

The territory might be in a terrible state, but surely the ruling class ate reasonably well.

That wasn’t prejudice talking. The facts spoke for themselves. He didn’t know about the nobles in other territories, but the ones back home—and the nobles they had dealings with—were all like that.

Alice must have had at least a little something stashed away.

But after searching the room, he found no secret stash. This woman lived even more frugally than he did.

Was she really the lord of a city?

The room held only the most basic table and bed, with not a single luxury item. She had only two or three changes of clothes and spare underwear… and that was it.

She lived so frugally even the mice wouldn’t come around…

He couldn’t help feeling sorry for her.

But just as Lin Ge decided to give up and leave, the room’s owners, Alice and Rosetti, came back.

He was so startled that he could only duck into the wardrobe. And that was how he ended up in his current predicament…

After a bout of nosebleeds and a whole lot of ‘so white, so round, so big, so pink…’ followed by the rustle of clothes against skin, the air in the wardrobe slowly ran out, and Lin Ge’s HP dropped to half…

But the real trouble came afterward…

“Lady Alice, you have to make a decision soon… At this rate, we’ll either be trapped in the city and starve to death, or the army led by the beastfolk will breach the walls. The only way to end this war is for me to learn even stronger forbidden magic!”

“How many times have I told you? You can’t learn forbidden magic! Why won’t you listen? There’s nothing to discuss. Leave. And don’t you dare touch forbidden magic again, or I’ll have you punished under military law!”

“Lady Alice!”

The two argued back and forth. In the end, Rosetti agreed not to touch forbidden magic again and left.

Wait, it hadn’t even been a whole day and she’d already been found out? Did things really have to move that fast?

And what did she mean, the city might fall? Was that for real…?

Hiding in the wardrobe, Lin Ge felt it deep in his bones: the days of doing nothing and clinging to a rich, beautiful girl were no longer just hanging by a thread… They were well and truly over!