Kaella covered her mouth as indecent sounds spilled uncontrollably from her lips. But Peon, who followed right after, removed the hand covering her mouth.

“No, don’t. I said I want to hear everything.”

“But, it’s not proper…”

“What’s wrong with a husband being unrestrained?”

Literally, his eyes were crazed. Throwing away all the self-control and self-reproach he had been maintaining until the very end, Peon gently devoured his wife, calmly pulling Kaella closer without even his breathing becoming irregular.

Completely intertwining her small hands so she couldn’t cover her mouth, he pleasurably admired the pretty face that trembled and fell backwards.

Placed on the bed still dripping with water, Kaella was soft, moist, and sweet.

Peon, who had only been tough, dry, and desolate, couldn’t help but crave her with his eyes rolled back. He left many marks on her fair skin that turned red when grabbed, and made the calm and quiet duchess moan deliriously.

“Beautiful.”

Peon muttered as he looked down at her, licking her lips with his thick tongue.

“You, you are too beautiful.”

What to do, you’re too beautiful. Holding even her small foot in one hand and kissing her ankle, he seemed out of his mind. Kaella recalled the night she had stolen just once. Back then, Peon had said the same thing.

You’re as beautiful as a fairy.

It was a painfully made confession, trembling and barely recognizing who was in front of him in his dazed state. It must be his habit.

“Everything is beautiful. How did it come to this…”

No. The man who admired every part of her body, exclaiming how beautiful even the parts that couldn’t be called beautiful were, while simultaneously worrying they were too small, was completely different from that man back then.

Unlike the Peon back then who was severely ill and pickled in alcohol and drugs, slipping in and out of consciousness, the current Peon seemed to have his reason intact while being crazy.

Kaella wanted to say something. She wanted to utter words like “Just a little slower”, or “Don’t do that there”, or “That’s enough”.

But the man who gently melted Kaella, who was on the verge of dying from embarrassment at the indecent sounds, and ultimately made her crave him to the point of tingling, didn’t even allow the chance to say such things.

It would have been better to beg and plead. It felt like her brain would melt from the heat.

“Stop, please…!”

He wasn’t a very skilled person. Rather, he seemed afraid of making a mistake. Gritting his teeth, he cherished her clumsily and roughly, patiently waiting until Kaella fully accepted him. He was so patient that Kaella felt like she would rather die.

“Give me a little more.”

Peon murmured, pressing his lips tightly against her hot skin. Smooth black hair scattered between her fingers.

The small hand that couldn’t quite grasp it and was forcibly removed twitched in the air. Peon let out a laugh tinged with strange tension. Kaella shuddered as she felt all of it through her skin.

“Why. You can pull my hair.”

Do it to your liking, grab and threaten me.

The voice teaching such nonsense was muffled. Her reddened heels scraped against the bed sheets. Peon, once he got the hang of something, quickly became accustomed to it and ingeniously applied it. It was the same now.

Kaella gasped for breath. Even though Peon wasn’t kissing her right now, a small pain in her chest swelled.

Peon had already mastered how to kindly regulate Kaella’s breathing with every kiss. So her labored breathing was entirely her own fault.

It was the fault of her who trembled violently in ecstasy at even the slightest stimulation. Kaella’s clear eyes became hazy and tears welled up. She tightly grasped his hand that was too big to the point of pain until her bones showed white, then finally let go.

“Kaella.”

More than any other stimulation, the fact that he clearly called her name gave her such intense pleasure that it was almost frightening. He wasn’t mistaking her for someone else. Peon wanted Kaella, not Beatrice.

As he raised his head and lifted his body to come up, she did something bold she had never done before, sobbing.

Slender arms embraced and pulled Peon. He gladly let himself be pulled by the weak force. His handsome face glistened with moisture. He wiped away the wetness falling from Kaella’s eyes with his hand.

“Are you scared?”

The once brusque and indifferent man checked on her very carefully. Kaella shook her head slightly in his hand.

“Okay.”

“Please…”

Between gasping breaths and melting consciousness, Kaella barely managed to form some words.

“What?”

“Your Highness, ah…”

The man worshipping her with his whole body gently stroked the lines of her body with his long fingers at the unwelcome title. He had been so attentive for so long that even the slightest touch made her body jump. Peon was also at his limit of endurance, but he disliked that title.

“I don’t know who you’re calling, Kaella.”

“Hng…”

Kaella cried. It felt like her head would burst. Should I just embrace him?

“Your Highness, please…”

No, I don’t like it. His wife was someone who raised her speech and titles to put up walls and draw lines.

“You don’t call me that, Kaella.”

My wife. He softly kissed her while granting none of her wishes. Kaella kept leaning into him while crying. Peon whispered as he embraced her.

“Call me like you used to.”

It was a plea. Stroking her lower back, he pleaded. Peon was not spending this night as the Grand Duke.

“What did you call me?”

It was such an old memory for him. Unfortunately, it was the same for Kaella. She tried her best to move her foggy mind.

What did I call him? Her small pursed lips barely formed the old title. He could tell just from the shape of her lips.

“Yes. That’s right.”

Only then did he answer. As he answered, he tightly embraced his wife whom he loved deeply but dared not confess his love to, without a gap.

In Kaella’s tears, which should have been filled only with joy, other emotions were mixed. Perhaps today would be the last. Both of them knew well that this relationship might have an expiration date, so they were more desperate.

If today was the last, they couldn’t let go even more. Kaella made an effort to reach out with clumsy, shy hands to pull him closer.

“…Oppa.”

Peon oppa. She called him as the new bride who had lost her father once sweetly called her husband, her only new family. Kaella called out the title that barely came out as if it would break, in a state of delirium.

“Oppa, ah…”

“Does it hurt?”

Blue eyes lost focus. The lips that kept colliding and moving repeated the same word. Peon smiled.

“Ah. You’re whining.”

How can she be this pretty and cute too? He lowered his body more and kissed every corner of Kaella’s whimpering face.

Small hands carefully felt and clung to his thick forearms that came closer. She could just hug him tightly, but even in her state of lost reason, Kaella couldn’t approach Peon as much as she wanted.

Does she still think I’m someone else’s man?

“I’m yours, Kaella.”

I’m sorry I still haven’t given you enough trust. His heart ached painfully. The small face that had been thrashing about mindlessly suddenly stopped, and her eyes opened wide. A silent moan burst from between her luscious lips.

From the beginning, Kaella was too small compared to Peon, and Peon was objectively too big.

So he was considerate again and again to the point that sweat beaded on his forehead, but at some point, all reason had completely evaporated from his condensed pupils, leaving only wild instinct.

The small hands that couldn’t even pull strongly gradually moved up to pull him, and eventually raised their nails to leave scratches on the fiercely splitting back muscles.

Bright red, small marks. They were the first marks she had ever left on him. The muscles that had stiffened then trembled, contracted, then moved more violently.

The veins bulged on the back of the large hand placed beside her round shoulder. Bestial moans filled the room.

*

As soon as the battle ended, the Grand Duke returned and shut himself in the room with the Grand Duchess. Only instructions came out of that room, and only food and water went in. No people even entered or left.

Cecil and Denise walked around with bright smiles on their faces, Marie was excited along with her sisters’ happiness even though she didn’t know why, and Mrs. Sirensster energetically led the work in the castle.

Renard, who could be said to have made the greatest contribution, wore a constant grin. Except for the families of the fallen, there was no one to be sad about since they had also won the battle.

But there were people with dark expressions in the castle.

“There’s no other way.”

Last night, after suffering a great humiliation that shouldn’t have happened, and confirming that she had no influence on Peon at all, Beatrice gritted her teeth.

“Th-then what should we do?”

The butler asked with a pale face, then squeezed his eyes shut.

Last night, as soon as he returned, Peon had a long conversation with the emperor’s investigator.

Why did the investigator, who had to report the incident to the emperor, have a long talk with Peon? Anyone could see it was because the investigator, having nothing else to do during the past five days while the battle continued, only looked at the butler’s ledgers that had been confiscated.

He had hidden it well enough. Materials, costs for buying materials, received budget, military funds, last year’s remaining settlement, there were all sorts of numbers that could be touched and even if discovered, there were plenty of excuses to cover up.

However, everything was too suspicious to be glossed over with such excuses. Everything was pointing at Butler Rolf Anderson, who should be embraced and respected for his endless devotion to Lucenford, from all directions.

The Southern-born Grand Duchess, who didn’t even know much and wasn’t from a well-known family, had suddenly appointed Mrs. Sirensster as head maid and arbitrarily changed the chef, and was now controlling the Grand Duke.

“His Highness has been bewitched by the Southern woman.”

Beatrice frowned deeply. It was too unpleasant to hear.

“Yes. That’s the problem.”

Peon had said he would raise Kaella’s child even if she went out and had an illegitimate child, and coincidentally, only the butler here and Beatrice had heard those words.

“So we have to go hard on our side too.”

“Pardon?”

Go hard? The butler looked with fearful eyes at Beatrice, who must have learned something scary in Kline.

Though fearful, those eyes were full of hope. Beatrice, who had a tight grip on Kline’s social circles that the people of Lucenford openly and secretly admired, might be able to somehow resolve this situation well.

She held out two crystal bottles to the butler, one slightly larger and the other half its size. Both contained liquid inside.

“What is this?”

“Poison.”

“Pardon?”

Beatrice frowned again and glared at the butler.

“We’ve come this far, so stop saying stupid things. There’s no time. If they strike first, it’s over for the butler. Don’t you get it? Even Doris almost died, but was only exiled because Kaella said not to kill her. Do you want to be exiled too? Think about being thrown out with nothing, today or tomorrow.”

In an instant, the butler was at a loss for words. Looking at his aged face that had turned ashen, Beatrice snapped.

“Do you understand now? If you just stamp your feet wondering what to do, you’ll only end up being victimized. If they’ve already moved, we have to move too. It’s already late, so there’s no choice but more vicious and extreme methods.”

More vicious and extreme methods.

The butler gulped. The former head maid might be alive or dead now. No one cared about her.

She might have barely survived with the help of relatives in a cold place, only to lose her life to the foreigners who came south during this battle.

The butler didn’t want to end up like that. There was no greater humiliation than him, the pillar of the Anderson family that had been protecting the North for generations, being driven out because of a woman from the South with a strange accent. Even if he died, he shouldn’t end up like Doris Windgood.

“What’s in the crystal is evidence. Don’t even think about touching it. Just hand it over as evidence as is. And use what’s in the small bottle.”

“How?”

Beatrice looked at the butler with an expression that said it was obvious.

“You drink half and Peon drinks half.”

The butler was too shocked to even answer. Beatrice slapped the butler’s cheek. The sound of the slap echoed, but no one heard it.

“Wake up! The investigator is leaving for Kline soon. Once he leaves and reaches Kline, it’s over. Do you understand?”

No, he didn’t understand. The butler was looking at Beatrice with a dazed expression. Why doesn’t he understand right away? Lucenford is crawling with idiots. Beatrice was about to die from frustration.

“What’s in this crystal bottle is poison. Say that Kaella brought it from the South. It was included in her dowry. But the chef has changed, right? If there was even a little poison in the food that Peon or you ate, who could we blame?”

Only when explained in such detail does he barely understand. Beatrice was displeased with everything here, not knowing why they couldn’t move on their own.

“B-but, that’s too risky…”

“So, do you want to be exiled? It’s the same whether you die this way or that way. If we do well, Kaella dies by Peon’s hand, and if we fail or do nothing, the butler is exiled or dies.”

The butler couldn’t say anything.

“Don’t say nonsense like the situation can’t be that serious. You already know it is. I’ll help you, so it can work out.”

Saying that, Beatrice grumbled. The humiliation she suffered from Peon last night added fuel to the bedroom issue she had with Kaella when she first arrived here.

Not only kicking her out, but kicking her leg to prevent her from closing the door! Beatrice could not forgive Peon at all.

“I’ve already taken some steps.”

Even while enduring that humiliation, she diligently poured poison into Peon’s ears. Beatrice, who had instinctively clung to Peon since childhood, gradually learned and perfected the art of lacing her words with poison as she grew older.

Honestly, it’s nonsensical for an adult man to be captivated by constantly repeated phrases like “You must not betray me” and “We are one body.”

But when enchantment was added to those words, it was a different story. Moreover, since the emperor actually had a tight grip on the empress as well, Peon had no choice but to comply given the circumstances.

How dare that thing, not even worthy of being an easy plaything, which she had manipulated so well. Beatrice could never forgive this.

First, she intended to make him deal with Kaella, whom Peon was now fawning over, with his own hands, and then have him crawl on the ground and lick Beatrice’s feet. If that stupid dog dared to resist, proper education would be necessary.

“Start from today. If not now, it’s over.”

Beatrice pressed the weak-willed butler.

“Isidore isn’t a fool, he’s the heir to the Viscounty of Alemich. Do you think he can’t properly examine a single ledger? How many investigators did he bring? How dare you take a noble for a fool? You’ve already fallen out of Peon’s favor. Move quickly.”

If you stay still, Peon will cut off your head.