“Kaison Faust, your future husband. Though, it sounds like you aren’t even aware of the power my name alone wields, so I’ll draw you a diagram.” The stranger, now known as Kaison, responded as he got back up. He took a step back and with a singular motion of his hand a piece of paper appeared and in the other was a pen.

He took a minute to write a bunch of lines and scribbles on the paper, a foreign language to her she couldn’t read, but the drawings made things easier to comprehend. Though she would definitely not consider him an artist, other than the handwriting this was the work of a child’s. “At the top, here’s the royal family, and beneath them are five connected lines, representing the five houses of the kingdom.”

“In order of priority, House Vernati, House Faust, House Vehr, House Haase, and House Laurence. You don’t need to remember much else other than only the Vernatis and royal family rank higher than your status as duchess, understood?” He asked her as he handed her the paper to observe the crests of each family as she squinted and raised a brow at him, did he genuinely expert her to comprehend the crests of whatever he drew?

“That still doesn’t explain how you know so much,” She responded, folding the paper and crossing her arms, glaring up at the man who laughed, sticking his tongue out and claiming to be winking despite wearing an eyepatch. “That’s a secret.” He replied, while in that moment she regretted ever coming to this foreign land, and she felt bad the people had him as their duke of all people.

“I’m not marrying you,” she said with a face of a mixture of disgust and annoyance. “Do you really expect me to trust a man who tells me it’s a secret to how he knows my identity despite never meeting?” She asked him as he seemed serious for a minute, thinking and contemplating on something as he spoke to her.

“Well if none of that convinced you, there’s also the fact you stole my virginity, grabbing me out in the middle of the street, bringing me to your inn room, and then..” before he could finish she cut him off, hands on his mouth as her cheeks dusted the faintest bit of red by his directness.

 All of what he said was true, she did initiate, but she was never supposed to actually deal with the consequences. “Enough,” She said, pulling back as he smiled, knowing he was right on that argument. “Wait.. first time?” She mumbled to herself, shocked. 

He had to be lying about that at minimum, his tongue was skillful, she could vividly recall the feeling of it trailing along her neck, biting down and marking her skin, moving lower and lower. Besides that, he was certainly handsome and a person of high status, too, so there’s no way he were a virgin, and if so why was he just walking amidst the streets and allowed her to do that with him?

“Just because I’m a duke doesn’t mean I’m sleazy, you know. Besides, I’ve only ever had eyes for you.” He smiled brighter, as though reading her thoughts. He was definitely suspicious and she had no idea where he’d gotten any information on her from, but he seemed to be quite adamant on staying zipped on the subject.

With a sigh, she weighed her options. Option one, dying. Option two, being taken as a hostage for that man. Option three, marrying a strange man who definitely knows more than he lets onto, but at the benefit of using him for all that he’s worth. There was one clear answer, though she was very against the very thought of him getting to be smug, or feeling like he’d won.

“I’ll do a contract marriage, for two years only. I don’t intend to stay with you, but I fully intend on using you, somehow within these two years I’ll figure out a way to solve my problems with them.” She said, half expecting him to decline after her brute honesty that she had not an ounce of interest in him as a person.

He laughed, for a solid minute straight. “Please, marry me for those two years. Though, let’s make this a fair marriage, for both our sakes. We can discuss the terms after we arrive at my estate, for now those forged documents.. I mean your paperwork should be arriving any minute now.” he made his way over to the floor to pick up his clothes.

Kaison was an enigma, she couldn’t understand. He was hiding secrets but there was no malicious intent behind him. He agreed to her terms, and seemed genuinely panicked when she jumped. Even right now it seemed things fell into his hands, as though he anticipated this conversation to happen, almost like he had a prophecy. He apparently had a false identity readied for her without the need for her to ask, why?

“Though I really would like to explain everything now, things will be a lot messier since this is their problem to explain, you’ll meet them eventually.” He said, breaking her out of her muddled thoughts as he fixed his belt, arms slipping on into his coat which stuck to his flesh begging him to not move so much lest he want to break the seams and free his body from constraint, a miracle his clothes still fit. “Also he’ll murder me for talking, and I can’t die just  when I’m about to get married.”

She wanted to ask who they were, but her eyes drifted to his fingers as he put on gloves, using his teeth. Her eyes lingered as they were pulled up, now running through his hair before putting on his shoes, admiring the curve of his ass as he bent over. “Hopefully one day they’ll explain, but it’s not my place to force them after everything.” He continued, as she took all her nasty thoughts about him from earlier back, his body made up for his terrible and annoying personality. She could barely focus on his husky voice, too distracted by his figure.

“Would you like help for changing back to your clothes?” He asked, staring her up and down, admiring. “They say a merfolk’s beauty rivals the stars, and I’ve got to say that’s true. Merfolk have beautiful eyes, though a bit too golden, they’re not that rare in certain lands, and your new identity’s family have that recessive gene.” He ignored her lustful eyes staring at his chest in order to take in her figure, her skin was smooth and her hair was a long and silky bright blue. She was of good height, only a few inches shorter than him and carried herself confidently, he had no doubt she could adjust to the role of duchess and win over nobles.

“Thank you, and as for your offer no thanks, I can change.” She said, finally prying her eyes away from his chest to focus on changing her own clothes. It was nothing fancy, a long silk dress with a pair of heels, she didn’t want to draw too much attention to herself nor was she an extravagant person. It took only a minute for her to change and as she turned around he had his hand outstretched waiting for her to take his.

She stared at it before taking his hand, as he begun rambling about how happy he was all the way out of the inn, where the cold breeze hit her. A bit passed midnight with a sleeping city, there was little lights and only Kaison’s words could be heard. He guided her with ease, as though he knew the streets like the back of his hands, only for a man to rush out an alleyway, frantically panting with his hands on his knees.

“There you are, Master Faust. Please hurry, the carriage has been ready for an hour and I had been walking all over the streets trying to find you, please stop acting on whims.” The man said. It was hard for her to make out his features, but she could predict he had grey hairs just from his tone and occupation, someone who likely dealt with Kaison often.

She felt herself abruptly pushed into the alleyway, eventually ending out near a carriage and shoved inside abruptly, the man briefly apologizing, returning to the front of the carriage after closing the doors with the two of them inside. She was now stuck with Kaison whether she liked it or not. “So you’re irresponsible with everyone.” She commented.

“Hard to not be distracted when you’re spending the night with a beautiful woman.” He responded flirtatiously. On his sides were a few prepared items presumably by the man from before. A lamp, some papers, and a sealed envelope. He sat opposite to her and set it beside her after turning the lamp on with magic, handing a stack of papers beside him to her.

For once his face were oddly serious. If only he stayed that way, he’d be more attractive. “The best place to explain would be my estate on the morning after rest, you already look tired and worn out from earlier, I don’t want to force you into listening and having a information overload.” He said, crossing his arms.

“For now, those are just the rundown of the information you need to know before entering the estate, before we leave I’ll burn the evidence.” He finished, looking out the window, giving her some time to read at her own pace, it’d be a bit before they managed to return to his duchy.

She took a look at the papers, Eve Claes, maiden name, the Claes family worked under the Faust family for generations, followed by written physical descriptions of each member of the family, making it easy to pinpoint and adjust to who they were, and to the conclusion that he wasn’t the only one colluding in this, but multiple different people.

“Just how many people know of my identity, truly?” She asked, flipping to the back side of the paper, he even had written down some childhood memories about key events if she were ever questioned about them, he was quite the thorough man.

Closing his eye, he thought for a moment. “Four people, to be exact. Myself, your knight, along with two others,” He responded, not giving her anything more than that to work on who the others were. “Those are the only ones who know your real identity as the sea priestess. Everyone else listed on your paper has no knowledge on your former name or background, just that you’re Eve Claes, and they will never question that.” He reassured her, his people knew how to keep their lips shut and not question things.

That was slightly better to hear, though she would of preferred to know just who the other two were. She continued reading the paper, her eyes tired but still wanting to finish it first, spending nearly a half hour going over and double checking the information before handing the papers to him to burn, discussing with him for a few minutes before drifting to sleep after a rough and long night.

Kaison opened his eyes, burning the papers into ash, pushing aside the curtains of the carriage and blowing it away into the night, softly closing the curtains shut and reaching for the envelope beside him now that she were asleep. The next week would be a long one, but he were committed to the task at hand, just hoping she wouldn’t get too overwhelmed.