“Oh my, goodness, what do we do! Help!”

“Save me!”

“Who fell in!”

In an instant, a scream of “Aak!” was heard. Peon looked at the spot right next to where the scream came from. He noticed when Kaella’s body touched the water surface, but by then it was already too late.

“Help! What do we do!”

When the gentlemen started to take off their outer garments and prepare to enter the water, Peon just ran. He ran, pushing people aside. Into the pitch-black river water that had swallowed his wife, he ran, forgetting everything.

*

Fires flickered on the wavering water surface. Lanterns came and went, and boats passing by could be seen reflected in the light of those lanterns.

But Kaella was rapidly moving away from that light. The cold water choked her breath.

Instinctively, she flailed her arms and legs, but it was futile. The dress wrapped around her entire body, even though it was light chiffon, had absorbed a lot of water and was pulling her down.

‘It hurts…!’

It was painful and scary. The pitch-black darkness swallowed her. Is this how she dies? With each passing second, the pain grew worse.

Her breath was choked. Fearful eyes frantically looked around. Her eyes stung, her nose stung, and her lungs felt like they would burst. Even as she struggled, something like a limp dress wrapped around her ankle, constantly pulling her down. Is this the end?

‘So suddenly?’

Is this the death she had been longing for again? If she dies here, will it be a proper death? Kaella closed her eyes tightly and tried to endure for now. Enduring was the one thing she was relatively good at.

She had to grit her teeth and wait for death. There was nothing else she could do. The coldness swallowed her in one bite. It’s familiar. Death is always cold, painful, aching, and also frightening.

She knows. But even knowing, waiting for death to come while enduring was too scary. She hated the pain even more. Kaella endured, wishing it would end quickly.

She endured, and endured again. Holding her breath tightly, she waited for the most painful moment to come. The strength in her arms and legs that had been flailing so hard was all gone. Kaella closed her eyes tightly as she was sucked into the darkness.

Kaella!

A voice that shouldn’t be audible was heard. It wasn’t a voice calling out loud, but a sound shaking her consciousness awake. Before she could open her eyes, something grabbed her arm and pulled. With that strong force, Kaella barely managed to force her eyes open.

It was a very brief moment. But it was enough to confirm who it was and what expression they wore.

Peon, who had cut through the cold water to reach her and finally snatched her away, had such a desperate look on his face. He cupped her face and immediately shared his breath with her.

Peon’s pale face filled her hazy vision.

Kaella, wake up. Please don’t give up here.

The voice trying somehow to shake and awaken her consciousness pleaded, full of fear.

No, Kaella. I was wrong. I’ll never do it again. If you don’t like it, I won’t even love you anymore, so please.

Peon begged as he breathed warmth into her body that had instantly turned cold.

Please live, Kaella. Your father is over there too. Kaella, look at me. Open your eyes.

It was no longer painful, nor cold. Kaella blankly watched her husband, who was desperately crying out while tightly holding her and climbing up to the shore.

Ah. She was happy. Her whole body was filled with warmth. In the face of the fear that death first wields, Kaella finally understood. Her blue-tinged lips smiled faintly.

Kaella! No! Please, please! If it’s because of me, I’ll never love you again. I won’t even appear before you for the rest of my life. I’ll disappear without doing anything. Please, please don’t give up.

Where else would you find such a confession of love? It was quite foolish of her to hear that as a confession, but that’s how she had always been.

Even before regressing, she had worried about Peon rather than hating him to the end, and after regressing, even amidst the emptiness of the affection he poured out, it was a secret joy.

‘I’ll just accept it.’

If he’s going to give the love she never received now, she’ll take plenty of it. She’ll selfishly receive it and enjoy it wickedly.

She’ll just receive everything without doing anything, take it all, enjoy it all, and then when there’s nothing left. When he says he’s tired of it. When the love is all gone and she’s abandoned again, then she can die.

Her death would at least be an unforgettable wound to that man. She was also glad to have a proper weapon to wield against Peon.

Kaella!

Kaella, who had smiled faintly, closed her eyes in Peon’s arms. It was too hard to endure anymore, but she would open her eyes again this time too.

*

“It’s the Grand Duke!”

“Throw a rope or something!”

“Your Highness!”

The Grand Duke, who had jumped in first, surfaced holding his limp wife just as the gentlemen were splashing in to jump in as well.

He climbed onto the dock relentlessly, still tightly holding his soaked wife. Despite the enormous weight of his wet clothes, the Grand Duke had saved his wife with remarkable strength.

“Kaella!”

Why do these things keep happening to his fragile daughter? Duke Austein, who had turned pale, hurriedly wrapped his outer garment around his daughter.

“Get the people back. There must not be any additional accidents!”

At Duke Austein’s order, the gentlemen quickly helped him shout.

“Everyone, please step back safely! It would be terrible if you fell!”

People murmured as they stepped back. The fireworks display was as good as over now. Peon laid Kaella down on the dock for a moment, not taking his eyes off her.

“Are you alright?”

“She just needs to cough up the water. Her breath is holding for now.”

“No, I mean you.”

He could see his daughter’s condition at a glance. While constantly massaging his daughter’s pale arms along with his son-in-law, Duke Austein indicated Peon with his eyes.

“I’m asking if you’re alright!”

Peon was momentarily at a loss for words. If he was alright? He always had to be alright and always had to be fine. Peon had to go through battles as if he had lost all sensation, and there should be no injuries or aftereffects.

So there were very few people who asked if he was alright. Only three people ever asked if he was alright. His mother, Kaella, and Kaella’s father.

“I’m… alri…”

The habitual response started to come out. But it wasn’t completed. He wasn’t alright. He wasn’t alright at all.

Just then, Kaella suddenly coughed up water. Peon, who checked her pulse out of habit, made sure his wife coughed up all the water, not even minding his own completely soaked appearance.

“Let’s move her.”

Peon wrapped Kaella, who had lost consciousness, well so that no one could see her, and then immediately stood up carrying her.

He started walking briskly off the dock. Of course, even in the midst of his panic, Peon never forgot what needed to be done. Forgetting once when he first jumped into the river was enough.

“Oh my, what should we do.”

It was when everyone was whispering worriedly. Suddenly, there was another loud splash from the direction of the river.

“Kyaaak!”

“Goodness!”

“A boat has capsized!”

“How many people fell in?”

The boat that Beatrice had boarded with some gentlemen, which had been floating just fine, suddenly capsized. People screamed again and rushed to help, but the Grand Duke of Lucenford walked on without looking back even once.

His eyes looked straight ahead but were unfocused. He seemed to hear no sound at all. Everyone turned to look in surprise at least once at his expression as he carried his unconscious wife, water dripping from them.

But Peon wasn’t properly aware of any of it. He barely responded only when his father-in-law spoke and when treating Kaella.

“My dear, you need to be examined too. Even though it’s summer, the water temperature is cold and how exhausting it must have been to rescue someone.”

Peon didn’t move at all, but when Duke Austein rubbed his face with a towel while saying something, he finally came to his senses.

“I’m… I’m fine. Kaella will be fine too. Please don’t worry too much.”

Even now, he was counting Kaella’s heartbeats and checking her body temperature. That was all he could do.

“Go soak in some hot water at least. Hurry. If at least you’re alright, I can go take care of the banquet cleanup with peace of mind.”

“Yes, father-in-law. I’ll do that.”

He answered well, but Peon was actually not alright. It was exactly like when Kaella voluntarily drank poison in Lucenford.

The sight of Kaella he saw in the river wouldn’t leave his mind.

The moment he realized his wife was in danger, he was just a powerless human. Forgetting even the great power he had gained through awakening, he recklessly tried to save her with his whole body.

In the cold river water, Kaella looked like a pale water spirit. Entangled in a dress that resembled her eyes, with her loose platinum blonde hair billowing, Kaella was constantly being dragged away by something.

Peon angrily cut off the crude black magic spell caught on her slender ankle, and breathed air into her.

“Please warm up Her Highness the Grand Duchess.”

“Light the fireplace!”

“It would be terrible if she catches pneumonia.”

She’s a woman who’s always trying to die at any chance she gets. She looks so fragile and precarious that she might break if grabbed carelessly, yet she fearlessly throws herself towards death.

She drank poison, and even though she hates being in pain, she ate all the food that made her body swell up frighteningly, so there’s no way she would try to live after falling into the river.

In the faint firelight and pitch-black darkness, swaying gently, she smiled weakly at her husband who was begging as he carried her to shore. As if to say his begging was useless, she smiled softly and closed her eyes.

It seems only death can make Kaella smile. No matter what he did, he couldn’t make his wife smile. It was something he had given up on entirely, but he saw his wife finally smile when faced with death.

“Kaella.”

Somehow, the doctors and maids who had been crowded around had withdrawn, and he was sitting by Kaella’s side, who was lying quietly, dressed in dry clothes he couldn’t even remember putting on.

That doesn’t matter. Peon had lost all meaning in life.

If only Kaella hadn’t smiled at the last moment, if she had shown even a little will to live while suffering, it wouldn’t have ended just with capsizing Beatrice’s boat in the same way.

But Kaella was happy even in such a painful drowning, so what’s the point of him raging? Does he even have the right to rage?

“…I wanted you to live. I thought you might find something interesting while living, and if you were happy for a moment, that would be enough.”

Because he could bring those momentarily happy things to her endlessly without rest.

“Does my effort make you unhappy?”

Your life already ended when I confined you to the North Tower. I knew it, but I just hoped you would live somehow. Even if blandly. But that’s not it, living is unhappy for you.

All causes ultimately point to just one person. Tears fell drop by drop below his roughened chin.

*

The banquet ended in a fizzle after the unfortunate accident of six people falling into the river. Among them were the Grand Duchess of Lucenford and the famous Lady Lavalle.

Princess Kerujan returned after finishing the engagement ceremony, but for some reason, Prince Elkanan did not return and remained in Kraine.

He announced that he would take his hands off Kerujan’s internal affairs for a while and leisurely travel Krania, but no one believed those words.

This was because even after celebrating the joyous occasion of engagement, Kerujan and Krania did not become closer.

Since the confidential information about the construction of the Bayetta Naval Base came out through the Crown Prince’s mouth, Kerujan couldn’t completely trust their in-laws. For now, they were turning a blind eye since the engagement with the Crown Prince was successful.

Because of this, the Emperor of Krania instructed the newly appointed regents to stay in Kraine for the time being. Kraine was overflowing with rumors.

Monde Castle seizure request! Creditor requests to the court! Will the Monde Ducal family lose their ancestral home like this?

Boring politics is less enjoyable and less sellable than someone else’s downfall. The day after the banquet ended, the merchant guild holding all the debts of the Monde Ducal family started seizing real estate again.

“I heard the Duke of Monde died?”

“People who were there all heard the Duchess of Monde blabbing about it while drunk. Everyone who was there heard it!”

The rumors they had hoped would be buried by other commotion absolutely refused to be buried, and began circulating around Kraine city along with the articles.

Meanwhile, Lady Lavalle, who had fallen into the water, was barely rescued, but unfortunately, she lost several jewels she had been wearing, it was said.

“Oh my, that’s a shame. It could have helped pay off the debt.”

“If she hadn’t been so extravagant while getting into debt in the first place, it wouldn’t have been this bad.”

Everyone feigned sympathy while not actually being sympathetic at all.

Amidst all the talk in Kraine, strangely, there was no news at all of the Grand Duchess of Lucenford waking up.

“It’s a pity. The Grand Duchess is the only woman playing her role in the imperial family, and at such a young age she’s acting as regent and even cleaning up after Countess Schroze. She’s already weak in health.”

“I heard the Grand Duke has gone mad since such an accident happened during their newlywed period.”

“Oh dear, what should we do…”

Flower baskets wishing for her recovery were delivered to the Lucenford Grand Duke’s townhouse several times a day.

It was three days later when the Grand Duchess opened her eyes, around the time when the first flowers that had been delivered were starting to wilt and were being moved to the inner room.