Kaella had no expectations. Because she didn’t expect anything, she could accept and retreat from whatever happened. Even if she was scared, surprised, dumbfounded or felt wronged, she could retreat. She was good at it from having done it so much.

So when she opened her eyes, she wouldn’t be shaken no matter how Peon reacted. Isn’t that how it is for someone with a terminal illness waiting for death?

“You can sleep more.”

But among the reactions Kaella had prepared for from Peon, sitting next to her wearing only a loose robe, looking at her and smiling wasn’t one of them.

Wasn’t waking up alone in an empty room the most desirable and likely scenario?

Peon, dressed carelessly unlike himself just like yesterday, sat on the bed and shattered all the possibilities Kaella had selected based on the Peon she knew and the general life of noble couples.

“Did you sleep well?”

If you don’t expect, you won’t be disappointed or hurt. And if you don’t expect, you can also be surprised even more. Kaella realized this just now.

Last night, Peon was clearly not quite in his right mind. A little, no, perhaps very much not in his right mind. Because his eyes were exactly the same as that night Kaella had stolen a glance at before she died.

There was no reason in the vertically condensed pitch-black pupils and the dark purple irises. So even if he distanced himself from Kaella when he woke up, or pretended nothing happened like after that night, it wouldn’t matter.

“It’s time for lunch though.”

But Peon was caressing her cheek and smiling. His eyes were affectionate, his touch gentle, and his lips curved in a smile – was this a dream?

Ah, right. Kaella sometimes thought there was a possibility that every day unfolding anew since she woke up in the Ostein family townhouse after dying was a dream.

It wasn’t bad to fulfill in dreams all the things that had been forbidden to her. If she couldn’t do it this time, that would be unfair. The duchess who had been desperately proper and never strayed was committing her own form of deviation.

If something went wrong, there was a solution. There was the ultimate method she had already experienced. So it’s okay. If it’s not a dream but reality, she should run away. But right now it felt like too sweet a dream.

“Shall we eat and sleep more?”

She had slept deeply, perhaps because her body was so tired. She had supported the battle from the rear for five days straight, and then been ravaged by the returned Peon, so she had slept very soundly.

It was strange how she had never slept so deeply in Lucenford. As Kaella thought she should move her body a bit, Peon kissed her face again out of habit and gently pressed his forehead against hers.

Having bathed first it seemed, Peon with his fresh scent stared intently at her. With their foreheads touching and his gaze not wavering, Kaella shyly averted her eyes out of extreme embarrassment.

She didn’t know what to do at times like this. Beatrice would probably skillfully handle men so they couldn’t look away even at times like this, but Kaella didn’t know how to do such things and didn’t have that kind of charm to begin with.

So even if she wanted to hold on, she couldn’t. Since trying would only make the situation worse, just staying still was the best option.

“Let’s get up for now.”

Drinking her in with his eyes and kissing her incessantly, Peon murmured with his lips pressed against her cheek.

She had to get up and start the day as the duchess anyway. Kaella barely managed to nod and hurriedly tried to get up. Or rather, she tried to get up.

“Ah…!”

But she had to lie back down with a groan. The aching and pain in her body was only now becoming apparent.

“Can’t get up? Where does it hurt? Where?”

Large, warm hands immediately supported her. While doing so, he firmly pressed on her aching thighs and waist. Kaella curled up, covering her face with both hands.

“You’ve been so busy lately, my lady.”

Having been aflame all night, and even briefly waking up at dawn to reignite as soon as their eyes met, the newly used muscles were thoroughly stiff.

“I’m sorry.”

At the unexpected apology, Kaella peeked at Peon through her fingers. He was meticulously working out each tense muscle while looking very apologetic.

“I should have kept my senses until the end, I’m sorry. It must have hurt a lot.”

Kaella unconsciously shook her head.

They say a woman’s first time is painful, but even the one time she had experienced before dying hadn’t been that painful, and this time it had hurt much less than then. And the pleasure had been frighteningly greater. She thought she had done well to commit to it. She didn’t regret it at all.

“If I may excuse myself, it was my first time too so I didn’t know well. I just tried based on what I’d heard, how was it?”

The most reticent man she knew asked an embarrassing question while even looking sheepish.

“Was it not good?”

“Why…”

As soon as her voice came out cracked, Peon quickly brought water from the bedside table and held it to her lips.

Kaella had no choice but to get up as he lifted her and drink the water while nestled in his arms. Her whole body ached that much.

Peon couldn’t even lift his head in front of the groaning Kaella. He was so nervous and anxious that the claim of it being his first time seemed like it could be somewhat true.

“I bathed you, do you remember?”

Kaella shook her head as she pushed away the empty water bowl. Come to think of it, her body did feel clean and soft apart from the aches.

“I applied medicine too.”

Applied medicine? Why? Kaella wondered as she unconsciously lifted the blanket to look underneath, then understood. Medicine should be applied. It should be applied so it will disappear.

“I’m sorry. I pounced on you like a child.”

He had acted exactly like a virgin with eyes rolled back for a woman. Though he had lived to 32 in his past life, so his mental age was early 30s, he had lost all reason upon finally embracing the woman he had desperately wanted for the first time in his life.

His body, left with only instincts due to the battle and that pathetic poison Beatrice had used, knew no restraint.

In truth, it was now impossible to hold onto reason in front of Kaella. So he was belatedly anxious. He had pounced like a beast, so what if Kaella, who valued propriety even in bed, was disgusted and scorned him?

Though he had resolved to treat her as tenderly as possible, he couldn’t help feeling anxious.

“If you tell me how it was, I can improve.”

Before regressing, he hadn’t said anything. A husband who didn’t communicate and only let others push him around was the worst. So this time he wanted to try harder to talk. Even if Kaella didn’t allow it, he intended to make desperate efforts.

This time, he had to be the one to make an effort. The young duchess who had lost everything – her inheritance, title, and only family – and was left with nothing had struggled with all her might, and he had ignored it all. So this time, he had to be the one to make an effort. If he tried, perhaps…

Hiding his poor hope, Peon whispered as he pulled the cord to call a servant.

“You seemed to enjoy it though… If you tell me in detail, I can do better, so tell me. How was it?”

He smiled as he saw his wife, who had been flushed red all night, turn red again. She was so beautiful.

Peon, who had been smiling happily while looking at her, briefly excused himself and disappeared towards the door. Then he returned carrying a large bowl with food.

“Shall we talk while eating?”

Placing a tray on the bed and setting the bowl on it, Peon took her in his arms and began feeding her various things himself.

“I-I can do it myself…!”

“Alright.”

As a well-bred lady, being fed by someone goes against etiquette. Peon immediately removed his hands and watched her intently. It was quite a lavish meal for breakfast.

There were two soft egg dishes, toasted white bread, well-done chicken and salmon, cream sauce, and Kaella’s favorite new chef’s special potage, along with fruit preserves and wine to boost energy.

Wondering what to eat first, Kaella picked up a spoon to try the potage.

The silver spoon trembled. It dipped into the potage and managed to scoop up a spoonful, but trembled again. In the end, the potage dripped back into the bowl. Why is this happening? Kaella looked at the spoon suspiciously.

“Are you taking inventory of the silver tableware?”

“No.”

“It’s too heavy. I think it’s mixed with something other than silver.”

The spoon is too heavy to lift. Why is it like this? As she blinked and stared at the fallen spoon in confusion, laughter was heard from above and a large hand picked up the spoon instead.

“It’s because all your strength is gone. Let’s not do anything today and just rest. I’ll feed you.”

All her strength is gone? That’s absurd. As she lifted both hands with a dazed expression and observed them seriously, the laughter grew louder.

Kisses rained down on her forehead, brow, cheeks and temples again. Why is this person acting like this? When she looked up, he kissed her on the lips this time.

“Why?”

“Why? Because you’re so beautiful.”

The clear purple eyes, free of black poison, looked at her for a long time and smiled. So this is how pretty and lovable she was.

Kaella, seen in this refreshing state without distorted vision or noise in his head, was alluringly sensual to the point of not wanting to show her to others, and at the same time so beautiful he wanted to boast about her.

So he just wanted to bury everything and pretend not to know. He didn’t want to break this peace. That’s why he kept putting things off to the next time. Next time, I’ll do better, so just one more time.

Now Kaella held all the power in this relationship. He could only try his best to look good in front of her and hope not to be pushed away. Though he knew he shouldn’t ask for more after brazenly achieving this much, he kept looking back, hesitating, and sitting down.

But the situation would not let the sinner stay complacent.

*

As soon as the battle ended, Peon, who had stayed in the same room with the duchess for a long time without coming out, emerged with a clean and refreshed face and began the aftermath.

Most of the orders he had quietly given while still in the room with Kaella had already been carried out or were in progress. As soon as he was separated from Kaella, he again faced the weighty matters, and the guilt hidden between them.

“Brother. Though it’s not my place to say, it seems overall repairs are needed.”

Even Isidore, the emperor’s investigator, carefully spoke without his title, indicating how terrible the situation was at Fort Pueten and Lucenford.

They had been through battle, and those who came from Kline had witnessed it, so there was a clear justification. But when it came to execution, the past was stepped on. Stepped on to the point of fear.

We need to expand the castle.

The castle people with white eyes stared at the duchess who first said those words. Peon had thought it was the right thing to say.

After all, Peon was the one who felt the need for expansion most keenly. He was glad to have met someone who agreed when Kaella said such things.

He was so glad that his brainwashing started to go awry. He wanted to believe that Kaella’s advocacy for expansion was purely as the Duchess of Lucenford, not as the emperor’s spy.

No, he just believed it. That’s why Beatrice, Beatrice who pretended to be Peon’s Kline spy, made such a fuss and sent evidence that Kaella was leaking information to the emperor so diligently.

Beatrice must have judged that it would be difficult without evidence created by almost completely unraveled brainwashing. He shouldn’t have fallen for such evidence.

“It’s collapsing too quickly.”

“It was built hastily to begin with.”

This is a neighborhood that has seizures at the mere mention of expansion due to money concerns. How much care could have gone into a hastily built castle? They must have cut corners on money, labor and time.

“If an evil dragon came and just breathed on it, it would melt. This isn’t a joke, it’s really true, brother. I’m sincerely worried.”

Peon smirked. Well. It seems we don’t need to worry about dragons. As long as the son is here, the father won’t come to create a sea of fire, right? The emperor who placed Peon here knowing this was the most vicious one, but still.

When the son who couldn’t even understand words due to the taboo raised his sword against his father, how must the father have felt?

“Are you not afraid of evil dragons, brother?”

Isidore looked at Peon as if he found him very strange. Peon, who wanders around that area with just one horse even though the border overlaps with the dragon’s territory.

“There are things I fear more than evil dragons.”

“Are the foreign tribes worse? Well, seeing how they formed an alliance this time, it really could be disastrous.”

“When you return, report it quietly to His Majesty the Emperor.”

“Of course!”

But Isidore didn’t offer to help beyond that. That’s all there was to this cousin relationship originally. In the Dakiten family, Peon was a being better off not existing.

“When are you going back?”

“Staying longer would just be a nuisance. Coincidentally, many of the investigation targets died in this battle.”

They died crushed and torn apart at the left castle wall of Fort Pueten without even being able to scream.

“However, as I mentioned yesterday, the butler…”

Isidore’s voice lowered, and Peon quietly nodded and listened. A few minutes later, Isidore left as well and Peon was left alone.

Human senses are terribly dull. The field of vision is narrow, unable to see far, and hearing is limited. Though he had lived his whole life with limited senses, right before regressing, as Beatrice pointed out in the north tower, ‘beings that are not human’ were different.

His senses had developed to the point where thinking of before the regression was so frustrating that he never wanted to go back. So he noticed the ominous beginnings. He had no choice but to notice.

It always started with the drink the duke had every afternoon. Usually it was tea. Peon looked down at the properly steeped tea in a proper teacup.

Before regressing, Kaella had tried to improve the quality of that tea and the brewing method even further. The castle people, including the butler and head maid, had mocked the ruined southern noble girl for being pretentious with the poor household, unable to let go of old habits.

Those gossiping mouths should have been dealt with first. But the brainwashing grew stronger and more solid along with those words, those mouths dripping with the poison Beatrice had already planted here several times. It was embarrassing how stupid and pathetic he had been.

Crack, a teacup developed a fissure. Peon quietly looked down at the teacup. The tea only he drank was barely touched. The tip of his tongue stung.

‘Poison.’

Not poison in the magical sense, but real poison that would harm a human body if ingested. However, this amount wasn’t enough to seriously harm someone. At most it would cause stomach pain and mild illness.

Someone wishes for Peon to be in pain until just before death.

“…How tedious.”

Speaking it aloud, he realized it truly was. This was something he had experienced before. There was poison in the tea the duchess personally prepared, the duke drank it, so the duchess was a wicked woman again, and the duke was enraged.

It was repeating according to a predetermined script. Everyone lacked even a shred of imagination or creativity.

Or perhaps, having no memories, they don’t know how to apply things. Peon, who had his memories, impassively watched the tea seep out through the cracked teacup. The tea in that teapot must be poisoned.

He knows everything now. However, what he dared not claim to know was the sense of injustice felt by the duchess who poured her heart into even small things.

Peon bowed his head deeply. The tip of his tongue that automatically distinguished poison still stung. It was telling him that last night was a dream, this morning was a distant fantasy, and now was reality.

It was striking the back of the head of the sinner immersed in sweet dreams, saying he must face the sins he had been ignoring.