Leon was just falling asleep when the shout rang out.

Even after going up to his room, his father was unable to calm down for a while and caused a commotion.

“Leon, the princess of Gillenois is coming. That woman is coming to kill your elder brother! Then the throne will be mine, understand? Then you will become the crown prince too. You’re a hundred times better than that sinister fellow Nigel! Aren’t you?”

As his father’s remarks became increasingly extreme, Leon sent away all the guards and servants and stayed by his father’s side alone.

As the night deepened, the sound of fierce rain and wind beating against the window grew more intense. Occasionally, a flash of lightning would reflect off his father’s crazed face with an eerie blue glow.

Leon seriously observed his father as he paced around the room, muttering incoherent words.

‘Could he have been exposed to drugs or poison?’

Since becoming the crown prince, his father’s condition had been unstable, but it wasn’t this bad until recently. As his father was an imperial family member to the bone, he was someone who staked his life on elegant speech, behavior, and keeping up appearances.

But now this slovenly attire and violent, impulsive actions like a drunkard…

It was clear his father was not in his right mind.

Grand Duke Osilot was still only in his late forties. He was not yet old enough to be senile.

‘It’s not impossible that he was truly exposed to a mind-destroying poison or curse.’

Especially considering the weight of what his father had done.

Even while Leon was so lost in thought, his father did not stop his odd behavior, trying to open the window and escape into the pouring rain outside.

In the end, his father only fell asleep after summoning a servant to bring brandy and drinking it.

Leon quietly left his father’s room and took a deep breath. The terrible odor from his father had left him in a daze the whole time.

‘I thought the side effects of the curse had almost disappeared.’

A horrible stench was emanating from his current father. The smell of fear and desire mixed together haphazardly.

Leon sighed and descended the stairs.

It was already late into the night. As he headed toward his own room, he briefly looked down the second floor corridor where Kasha would be sleeping.

Seeing two guards going back and forth between Eve and Kasha’s rooms was a small relief.

‘…She must be asleep already.’

If she wasn’t asleep, then what were you going to do?

‘Since my father seems to have gone mad, would you beg her to forgive his rudeness…’

Why did all the facades he had worked hard to maintain always crumble so pitifully in front of Kasha?

His own appearance was unspeakably miserable.

With a self-mocking smile, he climbed the stairs to his room. Even after that, he tossed and turned for hours before finally falling asleep.

“Catch that fellow! It’s an intruder!”

When the urgent shout first rang out, he thought it was a dream.

“Lady Eve, the young lady…!”

But the moment the second cry was heard, he reflexively lifted his body. And he leapt out of bed just like that.

“What’s going on!”

By the time Leon reached Eve’s room, several guards and servants were already gathered in front of the door. Confirming that Eve’s door was wide open, Leon’s heart began to pound like a drum.

“Who was on guard? Report what happened at once!”

At Leon’s thunderous shout, one soldier stepped forward hesitantly.

“Well, that is… A little while ago, I thought I heard a small scream from inside the room. So I knocked and asked if everything was alright, but there was no answer… I opened the door and entered just in case, and what do I see but some man jumping out over the balcony!”

“…What did you say?”

Leon felt his blood run cold. Pushing past the servants, he entered the room.

The room before dawn had fully begun was engulfed in perfect darkness. But he could at least make out that no one was lying on the four-poster bed covered in white sheets.

“Ah, the young lady… has disappeared, Your Grace. A few guards did go to chase the intruder, but…”

The one reporting this was the butler. His face had also turned pale.

As if he had heard enough, Leon quickly turned his body.

Just as he stepped onto the stairs to go retrieve his weapon, it happened.

“Elder brother…?”

An innocent voice that was startling rang out from behind him.

“My word, Lady Eve! You’re safe?”

“Yes. Why is everyone out here?”

Leon slowly turned around, trying to calm his crazily pounding heart.

Right next to Eve’s room, the door to Kasha’s room was open. And Eve seemed to have just opened the door and emerged from that very room, rubbing her eyes in her sleepwear. She even opened her mouth wide to yawn.

“What’s with everyone? Where’s Kasha unni?”

The moment his heart had returned to a normal rhythm, it seemed to drop heavily again.

Leon approached Eve in a flurry and knelt down to embrace the child. Having confirmed the warmth of his younger sister, he asked in the calmest voice possible.

“Eve. I’m sorry for waking you. But why are you coming out of Lady Kasha’s room?”

“Um… about that.”

Eve fidgeted as if hiding something. Leon slowly patted her small back to reassure her.

“It’s alright. You can just tell me. No one will say anything.”

Perhaps slightly reassured by Leon’s serene tone, Eve rolled her eyes and scratched her head.

“But Kasha unni told me not to say anything.”

“Say what?”

“Actually… I’ve been switching rooms and sleeping with unni all this time.”

“What in the world does that mean?”

Leon was even more flustered by the unexpected confession. At the same time, an ominous premonition made the back of his neck stand on end.

Eve and Kasha had been switching rooms to sleep all this time. Then the small scream the guard had heard earlier, could it possibly be Kasha’s?

As his thoughts reached there, Leon entrusted Eve to a maid’s hands and dashed into Eve’s room like the wind.

It was still pitch-black darkness.

The balcony window was wide open, creaking. Since it was still raining lightly, the sound of pattering rain and moisture filled the room.

With each step toward the balcony, the sound of his loudly pounding heart rang in his ears like a drum.

But that tension turned into complete terror the moment he saw the bloodstains on the balcony railing.

Although slowly being washed away by the falling rain, the size of the bloodstain was by no means small.

Leon clenched his fists without realizing it, feeling a dizzying sensation as if all the blood in his body was draining to his toes in an instant.

“Kasha!!”

Leon leaned his body out over the balcony and shouted into the pitch-black darkness without knowing it himself. It felt as if his heart would burst.

But all that returned was cold silence.

“Elder brother. What’s wrong? Is unni gone?”

Eve’s bewildered voice was heard from behind, but the thought of reassuring his sister did not even occur to him.

He impulsively lifted his foot onto the balcony railing.

“Oh dear, Your Grace!”

Leaving behind the startled cries of the servants, he was about to jump off the balcony that very moment.

“Sir Leon…?”

‘Is it an auditory hallucination?’

Leon doubted his ears. Then he signaled to the servants to be quiet, putting a finger to his lips.

Rustle.

“Sir Leon.”

It was not an auditory hallucination. A frail voice came from below the balcony where Leon was standing.

With his foot perched on the railing, Leon jumped down without hesitation. The motion was as nimble as if he had wings.

Thump.

Upon landing, Leon surveyed his surroundings. And the moment he turned around, he met the disheveled hair and deep pink eyes of a woman poking her head out of the bushes right below the balcony.

“Kasha!”

Something hot seemed to rise in his chest.

The moment he met her transparent eyes, Leon realized. If something had happened to Kasha, he would never have been able to forgive himself for the rest of his life.

Right then, Kasha, who had been crouching, slowly stood up. Her slender body and long hair were soaked from the rain, and twigs and dirt were stuck here and there.

But that sight was so beautiful it was overwhelming.

Leon wordlessly walked over to her. And just like that, he pulled her into a tight embrace.

“Sir Leon?”

Kasha’s startled, rough breathing tickled his chest.

Burying his face in the top of her head and inhaling her clean scent brought a tingling sense of relief down to his bones.

“I was worried. Truly.”

“…Sir Leon.”

The fact that this woman with small shoulders that seemed like they would crumble at any moment had been in danger drove him mad.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes…”

He was about to be reassured by her slightly shaky but strong answer, when a fishy and ominous smell completely different from Kasha’s clean scent stimulated his nose.

Leon hastily separated her from his embrace and checked Kasha’s condition.

She seemed to be in sleepwear, as if she had run out while sleeping. He hurriedly averted his eyes from the flesh-colored silhouette visible through the thin fabric wet from the rain.

But in that instant, he noticed that the area near her left sleeve was completely stained red.

At the same time, the bloodstain he had seen on the balcony came to mind. Leon demanded as if screaming.

“Are you hurt? How badly?”

‘What was I thinking, embracing her out of nowhere when she’s in this state.’

Biting his lip with the realization that he was still just a pathetic animal even with the curse lifted, he urgently examined her left arm.

“That’s…”

The smell of blood made it hard to breathe. He was so angry he felt like he would go insane. If that intruder was in front of his eyes right now, he definitely would not have been able to preserve his life.

Leon’s hand immediately glowed a deep gold color. He had summoned his divine power without a second thought. But the moment he began to inject his divine power, Kasha stopped him.

“I’m fine.”

“Fine, you say. When your arm is like this… What in the world happened? How did you get down here?”

He held Kasha’s arm even more firmly as she tried to pull away, recklessly pouring in divine power.

In an instant, color returned to Kasha’s face that had been pale and shivering from the rain.

But then she suddenly shook her head and pushed him away with strong force.