Yuriella dashed from the drawing room to the Duke’s bedchamber without even catching her breath. It was frustrating that her feet couldn’t keep up with her anxious heart.

She should have been more attentive.

With a patient whose seizures from the demonic poison were unpredictable. It was only natural that his body would be strained after the consecutive ordeals from the honeymoon to preparing for the high nobility council meeting.

“Your Highness!”

As she burst open the bedchamber door, the royal physician and attendants who had arrived first were struggling to undress Frost and cool his feverishly hot body with wet towels and ice packs.

Could the demonic poison have penetrated his blood vessels?

It was a poison that had never existed in this world, so there was no known cure.

The lethality of the poison flowing through the blood vessels was also unknown. As was how long a person could endure it.

It could be a day. An hour, no, it would not be strange if he stopped breathing right this moment. That’s how deadly this poison was.

There was no guarantee that he would overcome the crisis well this time, just because he did last time.

She shouldn’t have taken her eyes off him.

Separate chambers or shared chambers. It wasn’t the time to leisurely ponder such things.

“Everyone, please leave.”

Yuriella took a deep breath and walked to the bed.

As the royal physician and attendants all stepped back, Alexis brought the silver needle case from the table and handed it to Yuriella.

“Queen…”

Yuriella accepted the silver needle case. And smiled at the loyal head butler, unaware that she herself was crying.

“Save your tears for good days. Today is not a day the head butler should cry.”

As she had done to her subordinates in her past life on battlefields tainted with the color of defeat, Yuriella spoke resolutely of victory.

“Yes. Yes, Queen!”

After the head butler answered loudly and left the room, Yuriella approached Frost’s side.

Touching his forehead, it was scorching hot like a ball of fire.

The wounds that had been slashed by the demon sword Flama and had melted away crimson red were all healed, leaving only scars. But the demonic poison that had taken deep root in his body still seemed to threaten the Duke’s life.

Even though she had unfailingly administered acupuncture treatment almost every day…

“Ugh. Ugh.”

Frost’s body, gasping for air in the throes of fever, began to convulse.

Yuriella’s body, which had been trembling like crazy all the way to the bedchamber, rather calmly settled down.

It was a habit from her days as a knight, becoming composed in the worst moments.

Yuriella quietly reined in the swirling anger and anxiety.

Even the heartbreaking self-reproach that she herself had inflicted this wound.

Then, she took out a silver needle from the case and began to accurately insert it, stitch by stitch without trembling, into the wound and infuse it with healing energy.

One second felt like an eternity.

The life and death of her beloved hung in the balance of that one second.

Huff. Huff.

As the number of silver needles stuck in Frost’s body increased, Yuriella’s breathing also quickened.

Beads of sweat formed on her forehead and bridge of her nose, then fell with a plop, plop onto Frost’s chest and abdomen where the green light was gradually expanding its area.

How many times had she repeated the process of removing the needles from the wounds and inserting new ones again?

Before long, the blue light of dawn poured in through the window.

Confirming that Frost’s breathing was slowly stabilizing, Yuriella collapsed by the bedside as if a taut string had snapped, burying her face and losing consciousness.

When Alexis and Rosalinne, who had been pacing restlessly in front of the bedchamber door, couldn’t stand it anymore and opened the door.

They witnessed His Grace the Duke gently stroking the hair of the unconscious Duchess, cradled in his lap.

“Your Highness…!”

Shh.

Frost put his index finger to his lips and shook his head, indicating for them to be quiet.

As the head butler and head maid withdrew, Frost gently brushed his wife’s sweat-dampened bangs.

‘Can I leave this woman and die?’

It would be nice if it were a matter of choice.

Frost’s blue eyes darkened.

It had been a life that was never easy since losing his parents at the age of nine.

In the cold, barren land, he had constantly faced the relentless threats from the imperial family.

When assassins were scarce, he had to be even more on guard, worrying if they were plotting something worse.

Repeatedly returning alive from the battlefields where he was sent to die was by no means easy.

It was always the worst situation. His daily life was simply tempering his body and heart with coldness, assuming even worse worst-case scenarios.

The sacred sword Iello had not chosen him as its master from his mother’s womb without reason.

Frost Ielheim himself was the sword of ice.

‘Is it time to become cold now?’

It seemed he now had to consider a possibility he had never thought of before.

‘If I happen to die. Can this woman bear it?’

Frost gently pressed his lips to his wife’s forehead and temples.

Yuriella’s long lashes slowly lifted. Her red eyes, catching the sunlight, found him and shone brightly.

“Sleep some more.”

Frost’s thumb gently caressed Yuriella’s cheek, which had a slight dimple.

Yuriella shook her head and put her ear to Frost’s left chest.

“Your heart is beating strongly.”

Reassured by the regular heartbeat, Yuriella buried her face in Frost’s chest and hugged his waist tightly.

“No matter how much you tempt me, it’s no use. I’m a patient who narrowly escaped death, so no matter how hard you try to seduce me, I can’t give in.”

“Sob. Sob.”

Yuriella began to cry with her face buried in Frost’s chest, her shoulders heaving.

Frost tilted his head slightly as if perplexed, watching his sleeping robe get soaked with his wife’s tears.

“It’s troubling if you cry when I tell you to laugh.”

As Frost patted her shoulders to comfort her, Yuriella’s sobs grew louder.

Now that she was completely relieved, Yuriella wailed like a child.

“Yuriella.”

“Do you know how shocked I was? Sob. I thought… my heart was being torn to shreds. To get to the bedchamber, to Frost… the sky was yellow, and my insides… were all queasy.”

“Calm down. It’s all better now. You healed me.”

“My feet… needed to run… but the solid marble floor felt just like a swamp… my legs kept sinking in. Trembling, not feeling like my own legs… I thought I was going crazy… Sob. I’ve seen many people die… if you die right in front of me… I’ll really kill you. Sob.”

She expressed her wish for him to live in quite a fierce way.

‘How can I be more greedy than this…’

Frost slowly stroked the head of Yuriella, who was openly crying like a child.

He had imagined seeing his wife smiling more brightly than sunshine.

How would it feel if this woman cried for me? Would it be this beautiful? It would be very touching. Would I end up crying together, moved?

It was none of those.

It felt like someone was squeezing and bursting his heart. Blood flowed from his heart torn to shreds. He simply froze cold, unable to shed a single tear.

If the moment came when this woman, now shedding tears of relief because of him, shed tears of despair before his death. Who could wipe away those tears then?

“Yuriella.”

Frost’s long fingers tenderly caressed Yuriella’s tear-stained cheeks.

“Where will you go when our contract ends?”

And he keenly felt that if not now, he would never find the courage to say the words he had to.

“Pardon?”

Yuriella lifted her head and blinked her tearful eyes.

“I think you once said you wanted to go far away from the empire when our contract marriage ended.”

“Ah. Yes…”

“Indeed. It would be very inconvenient to live within the empire while bearing the label of the Duke’s ex-wife. No matter how remote the countryside, where would there be anyone who doesn’t know who the master of the sacred sword Iello is? You’re right. Don’t live in the empire.”

Yuriella looked up at Frost with tears still brimming in her eyes, unable to follow what he meant.

“It will be difficult for our marriage to be invalidated as you wish. It’s already been consummated.”

“Frost. What are you talking about right now…?”

“Please, accept the alimony I give you. So that even if you’re far away from my sight, I can feel a little reassured.”

“Your Grace. Please speak so I can understand.”

“Let’s draw up the divorce papers as soon as the high nobility council meeting ends.”

Yuriella’s eyes widened and she gaped before finally finding her voice.

“The divorce… after your demonic poison is completely cured-.”

“What if it can’t be cured? Will you live with me forever?”

Yuriella couldn’t answer.

“Shall I rephrase the question? Do you love me?”

Again, Yuriella couldn’t respond. How could she have the nerve. His Grace had been on the verge of death all night because of the wound she had inflicted.

“How long do you expect me to rely on a woman who neither loves me nor abandons the thought of leaving? I’ll have you know, I’m quite a moral man with a sense of decency.”

“You have no other alternative besides me. Even renowned priests and mages couldn’t heal you.”

“I’ve never avoided a war just because there was no alternative. I won them all.”

“Your Grace.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t die.”

“Did I do something wrong? Was I… lacking? I don’t understand why you’re suddenly-.”

Frost gently pushed Yuriella away and smiled softly.

“Yuriella. You’ve already done more than I thought I would get from this contract marriage. Desiring more is just my greed. So feel free to leave.”

Yuriella frowned, not understanding, and tightly grasped the front of Frost’s sleeping robe.

“No. No. What have I done…! The demonic poison is still the same. We don’t know when you’ll have another seizure.”

Frost placed his hand over Yuriella’s and smiled.

“The demonic poison and Flama are my problems to solve.”

“No. No.”

“What are you denying?”

‘I’m the one who hurt you. Because of me… Because I couldn’t protect Flama…’

But in the end, Yuriella couldn’t spit out the words that rushed up to her throat. It was her last lingering attachment, not wanting to be hated.

Frost’s blue eyes gazing at Yuriella gently curved.

He knew she wouldn’t be able to answer.

The self-reproach of not knowing or protecting the sacred sword Flama that had been one with her body as it turned into a demon sword.

And the guilt of slashing him with that sword. Added to the fear she must have felt last night, she would not be able to bring herself to reveal who she was.

“If it’s a fate that’s destined to end anyway, what’s the point of dragging it out?”

“We still don’t know what the Emperor and Empress Dowager intend to do with Flama…”

“That is also my problem. The Emperor has long been my old enemy, and I’ve been preparing for a fight with him for a long time. It’s better that you’re not here. The more the Emperor becomes obsessed with you, the more variables arise in the schemes Lewis and I have been preparing.”

Frost clenched his fists tightly to suppress the desire to embrace Yuriella, who looked lost.

He had desperately wished for his wife to love him.

But he hadn’t considered that the deeper her feelings grew, the deeper her wailing would be.

Yesterday, he had narrowly returned from the brink of death by sheer luck, but he knew well how fortune capriciously betrayed fervent beliefs.

He was preparing with utmost readiness, but he could also be defeated in the fight against the Emperor, who had not yet revealed his full fangs. Insisting that he would unconditionally win was simply arrogance.

He had to keep in mind the worst-case scenario where things could go wrong, even one in ten thousand.

Having someone he wanted to protect at all costs made all the difference.

“I sent Airy to the east. If Airy can just find my sword-.”

“I can’t rely on your kindness every time the demonic poison acts up. There’s no guarantee Airy will find the sacred sword either.”

“But divorce all of a sudden-.”

“I’m looking for a fundamental solution. The spirit of my sacred sword.”

“The ice dragon? But no one has seen the ice dragon except the first master…”

“I will become the second master of Iello to meet the ice dragon. I will find the ice dragon and eradicate the demonic poison. Do you not trust me?”

It wasn’t something he had made up just to push Yuriella away.

After being afflicted by the demon sword, Frost had sent people all across the empire to search places the ice dragon might appear. There were no significant gains yet, but that work was still ongoing.

“I didn’t know you were thinking of such a method…”

“Is that the only thing you don’t know about me?”

How much courage did it take to bring this up?

How much he didn’t want to let her go.

How much he already missed her.

“Still, it will take time. At least until then, if I stay by your side-.”

“I didn’t properly prepare the contract marriage documents, but I’ll meticulously prepare the divorce papers. If it’s quick, I’ll show you the draft in three days, so review it carefully too. Tell me if there’s anything to add or remove.”

How desperately he wanted to just close his eyes and give in to her offer to stay by his side… Did she have any idea?

“Wherever you are, I’ll make sure news reaches you that I’m enjoying a long life. I’m a man who keeps his promises very well.”