Chapter 0. Prologue

In the quiet dawn.

Delphine silently gazed down at the sleeping man beside her.

The man who destroyed her family and personally cut off her father’s head.

The face of her husband, wed in a sacred ceremony.

He had fallen into a death-like sleep from the poison she had fed him with her tongue.

His half-naked sleeping face looked strangely peaceful, unfitting for the situation.

Likely due to having poured out all his desires on her throughout the night.

As he had done every single day without fail since that first night he took her.

Delphine absently recalled the past half year as she ran her hands over her body, marked with red traces.

This man always made love to her as if in worship.

Of course, that doesn’t mean his actions were imbued with holiness or any sort of carefulness.

Rather, it was the opposite.

Every night, he would shed the mask of a refined nobleman and become a beast.

Like a werewolf facing the full moon.

Delphine had never even imagined such raw and explicit acts.

He always devoted his entire mind and body to meticulously savoring every part of her, as if engraving her.

The feeling of worship in that obscene form came from his eyes.

The man always looked at her as if gazing upon an object of reverence.

As if he couldn’t believe her existence before him. As if his very existence was because of her…

After gazing at her sleeping husband’s face for a moment,

Delphine slowly raised both hands high.

The dagger in her grip gleamed a brilliant blue in the dawn moonlight.

Delphine’s hand holding the cold, shining metal shook with anguish.

Should she kill him?

Or should she let him live?

“4 AM. In front of the candy store in District 2. You can’t delay even a minute. Remember, if you miss this chance, you’ll never be able to leave.”

The words of Lin, her helper who agreed to assist her escape, echoed in her ears.

There was no time for hesitation.

As planned, she had intended to slit his throat with the dagger and quietly leave the mansion.

Just as he had done to her father half a year ago.

However…

Clang-.

The dagger fell from Delphine’s hand.

The clear sound rang through the bedroom, but the man with bat-like sharp hearing didn’t stir at all.

“Why… why can’t I stab him…”

Delphine backed away from him, her face pale.

One of her hands was unconsciously placed on her belly. As if protecting something.

Delphine opened the door of the inner chamber with trembling hands.

Let’s leave.

Yes. Run away.

Far, far away.

I’ll decide what to do with this child, the seed of a sinner, in my womb later.

Escaping from this empire where I was born and raised as a nobleman’s daughter, from his devilish grasp, is the priority.

Delphine left the sleeping mansion and rushed towards District 2, facing the cold dawn wind.

In that sharp breeze, the ill-fated bond that had so cruelly entangled that man and her shattered into pieces like glass.

The enemy of her family, and husband.

A man who had lived a wretched life as a slave, then returned as the most glorious hero.

And.

The murderer of her father, and the father of the child conceived in her womb.

By the time Delphine, fleeing from him, reached the northern wall near District 3, dawn was already breaking.

Ioan Pryde woke up at dawn, as the day was just beginning to break.

It was two hours earlier than Lin, who had prepared the poison, had expected.

The cold, empty side of the bed.

The blue dagger fallen on the floor.

His own figure, sleeping as if drugged, completely unaware of all that had transpired.

It wasn’t difficult to deduce the course of events that had unfolded in the early dawn.

He rose from the bed as if he had never slept and immediately headed for the Imperial Palace in District 1.

The captain of the knights, recognizing him, rushed out and saluted, asking:

“Lord Pryde? What brings you here at this hour…”

There was no place within this Astrax Empire where his power did not reach.

She must have realized that fact by now, so if she decided to run away from him, she must have resolved to leave this empire.

But the empire is surrounded on all sides by high walls.

Beyond the southern wall lies the sea.

Beyond the east and west are mountains teeming with monsters…

“Prepare the troops. We’re heading to the northern wall.”

Pryde muttered lowly as he buttoned up his neatly pressed uniform.

The knight captain raised a sharp salute without raising a single question and rushed out of the office.

She would surely plan to cross the northern wall to another city.

What expression would she make when she found him standing guard at that path?

Would she tremble in fear? Or would she straighten her back and look at him defiantly as she always did?

Recalling her intense gaze, like pure emeralds, sent a shiver through his body.

The lust that hadn’t been fully quenched despite indulging all night threatened to raise its head again.

As he finished dressing in his uniform, he recalled the events of last night, no, until this dawn.

For the first time, she had kissed him first.

Throughout the night, she had completely lost her senses, sobbing and clinging to his neck.

…So all of that was an act and a ploy for today’s escape.

Shring-. His hand unconsciously tightened on the blue sword as he sheathed it.

“Fine. Try to run.”

Having completed his change of clothes by fastening the sword to his waist, he muttered lowly through gritted teeth.

“Delphine. To have you, I would sell this worthless soul a hundred times over.”

Before morning had fully broken, orders to seal all wall entrances were issued.

A search order for a young woman with red hair and emerald eyes was distributed throughout the empire.

The empire’s hero, Ioan Pryde, set out towards the northern wall of District 3 with a battalion-sized force.

All of this occurred just as his wife, Delphine Pembrook, had arrived near the northern wall.

#Chapter 1. The Devil-like Husband

She was sometimes Del. Other times, Delph.

But most often, she was simply Delphine Pembrook.

“Del, try these raspberries. They’re delicious.”

Her loving mother always called her Del.

“My daughter, Delph. I bought you a pony.”

To her father, she was Delph. Until she was 8.

At some point, her father began calling her ‘Delphine Pembrook’.

“Delphine Pembrook. Look at your father properly.”

It was from when she started taking formal imperial etiquette lessons.

When she couldn’t hold a knife properly at 9, or couldn’t memorize the etiquette properly at 10, her father would say “Delphine Pembrook” with a disapproving look.

“They say the daughter will become the empire’s greatest beauty, so a father can’t help but be ambitious.”

People whispered at social gatherings.

Her father was the head of the ancient Pembrook Count family, but far from the imperial family.

He often returned with a humiliated face from imperial banquets, after going wearing extravagant jewels bought beyond his means.

And the more this happened, the more tyrannical her father became and the more oppressive the mansion’s atmosphere grew.

It was even worse after her mother passed away.

No one called her Del or Delph anymore.

The only comfort for her in this environment was the lowliest commoner slave in the Pembrook mansion.

“Young miss… Are you happy in this mansion?”

That impertinent and strange, yet so beautiful slave boy who used to ask her that.

“Young miss.”

Delphine snapped out of her reverie at the voice calling her and raised her head.

Anna, her nursemaid, entered her room with a knock. She had a perplexed expression.

“What’s the matter?”

“Well, I thought you should know. Ioan is in the hall right now. With the master.”

Delphine couldn’t comprehend Anna’s words for a moment at the sudden news.

“…What did you say?”

“You know, that commoner slave who disappeared before. Dirty blonde hair and brown eyes.”

Of course she knew.

She was the one who applied medicine to the beaten slave boy’s back and occasionally sought comfort from him.

He suddenly disappeared from the mansion 3 years ago, on the day her engagement was announced.

She hadn’t heard any news of him since then.

“You’re saying Ioan is in the hall now? With Father?”

“Yes. I’m not sure what’s going on either. I happened to pass by and saw the master, and to my surprise, Ioan was with him.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Such features are rare, after all.”

…But why hadn’t anyone informed her of his visit?

It was also a bit strange that Anna, not the butler Wilson, had brought the news.

Delphine glanced at the desk clock.

4:34 PM.

An odd time for visitors.

“…I’ll go see.”

“Yes.”

Delphine slowly descended to the hall, accompanied by Anna.

“Young miss. Where are you going?”

Wilson, who was supervising the cleaning in the corridor, asked kindly.

“Ah, Wilson. I heard there’s a guest in the hall. Have you not heard anything?”

“A guest?”

He made a puzzled expression. The servants cleaning were the same.

“To reach the hall, one must pass through this corridor. None of us have seen anyone.”

“…What’s going on?”

Could Anna have been mistaken?

Anna, following behind, also looked troubled, wondering if she had made a mistake.

Let’s just check.

Lightly, Delphine opened the hall door very gently.

There were two men in the spacious hall.

Her father with the same red hair as her, and a man standing next to him.

It was Ioan, indeed.

Though his back was turned, she could recognize him at a glance.

While his height and build seemed to have grown even more magnificent over the 3 years, that distinctive dirty blonde was not a common color.

Delphine felt a surge of mixed emotions along with gladness at seeing him after so long.

Why did you suddenly disappear from me? I thought you were dead, where have you been and what have you been doing?

As she was looking at his broad back, lost in thought,

Suddenly, Ioan raised a long, large sword.

What happened next was instantaneous.

There was a chilling sound she had never heard before, and something fell to the floor.

It was a head with the same red hair as hers.