At those words, his previously calm eyes shook greatly.

It was the first time I had seen him look so flustered.

Suddenly, as if feeling stifled, he roughly loosened the necktie constricting his throat.

His force was so strong that several top buttons came off with it.

His movements froze for a moment upon seeing the buttons that had fallen to the floor.

He hesitated for a while, clutching the unbuttoned shirt hem.

‘…What is he hesitating about?’

Could it be… he’s hesitating to take off his shirt?

The man, his eyes blurred with desire, forced a smile and said:

“My lady. You’ve seemed quite depressed lately. Is something…”

But he couldn’t finish those words.

Because Delphine slowly approached and placed her hand on his chest over his shirt.

No matter how firmly she had resolved herself, approaching a man first to seek affection was a very unfamiliar and embarrassing thing for her.

With slightly reddened eyes raised unavoidably, Delphine hesitated before murmuring:

“…Do you dislike it?”

The man’s patience was ridiculously short.

At those words, the mask he had been wearing instantly fell away.

His elegant and noble face suddenly changed, like a beast baring its teeth, in an instant.

He made a sound like boiling from his throat, then roughly pulled her to him.

After that, unfamiliar sensations crashed over her endlessly like great waves.

Delphine felt as if she were floundering submerged in a fierce storm.

The thought of maintaining reason against his frenzied advances burned away like wet paper set aflame.

The man who had removed his mask was something she had never experienced in her life.

Vulgar, rough, beastlike.

A noble never kneels. Even with a blade at their throat.

But that man knelt before her without any hesitation.

He even licked various places like a dog.

Her head spun at these barbaric acts she had never experienced or even imagined in her life.

“This, this kind of thing…”

“Didn’t you say you were prepared, my lady?”

Licking his lips with a red tongue, the man who had cast aside his noble’s mask kept uttering vulgar words.

Even in the midst of his terrifying excitement, the man still had not removed his shirt.

‘I need to, I need to regain my senses…’

Even in her fading reason, Delphine tried to undo his shirt buttons one by one.

But her bewilderment did not end there.

“Ah…”

At some point the man laid her on the bed and firmly pinned both her arms above her head.

This was something even Anna had never told her about…

Delphine, flustered, struggled to pull her restrained wrists free.

“Wait. This, I don’t like this. What are you…”

The man brought his body close, breathing heavily.

Delphine gasped in shock, holding her breath.

No.

She couldn’t give her body like this without even confirming the man’s identity.

Delphine cried out urgently.

“…I want!”

“Hmm?”

The man replied languidly in a voice boiling with excitement.

Delphine hastily added:

“I, I want to do it for you.”

Only then did the man’s movements stop.

Quickly turning her head back, she saw his brown eyes shaking greatly.

…Surprisingly, even his earlobes and nape had turned bright red.

But that was only for a moment.

“Ah… Delphine, Del. My Del…”

At last, her restrained hands were released.

Delphine slowly raised her upper body and pulled the man up.

For a moment, the two sat facing each other with their bodies pressed together.

Just like when they had exchanged marriage vows gazing at each other during the wedding ceremony.

Delphine just sat there like that, ignoring his heated urgency.

The man kept panting like a starved beast before a piece of meat.

She could sense that filthy mask dangling precariously on his face, about to fall off.

Finally.

Unable to contain his boiling desire any longer, he roughly urged:

“Hurry… Del, what are you doing?”

Now is the time.

At last, she could see that he had completely lost his reason.

The moment the man tried to raise his body.

Delphine seized the opportunity, grabbing his shirt and pulling it down as if tearing it off.

And.

As expected…!

An electrifying sensation struck like lightning from head to toe.

His back, finally revealed, was grotesquely whitened as if not human.

There’s no way a noble’s back would look like this.

She was right.

She hadn’t gone mad from shock.

Lord Pryde? Marquis?

How ridiculous.

Ioan Pryde. How dare you try to deceive me, your master. With that family name I gave you.

Delphine reached out to his disfigured back.

Then she stroked that back with her soft palm devoid of any calluses.

Just like when she had applied medicine to the bloody back of the slave boy back then.

All of this occurred in the blink of an eye.

“Ugh…!”

The man moved with unbelievable swiftness for someone who had been so limp and melted just moments ago.

In an instant, Delphine was thrown onto the bed, pinned beneath his solid thighs once more.

His right arm, having lost all reason, suddenly raised into the air.

She’s going to be hit.

Delphine instinctively squeezed her eyes shut at that threatening gesture.

But no matter how long she waited, the expected pain did not come.

Instead, she felt the rough touch of a calloused hand gently caress her cheek.

Delphine opened her tightly shut eyes.

“Del… Delph…”

The man who had been a dog, then a cow, definitely not a cat, a horse, chicken, turkey, and only after all that a human, was crying.

Even when his back skin had been completely flayed off and his flesh mangled, not a single tear had appeared in those brown eyes.

“Del. Del… I, I really thought you… wanted me…”

He buried his face in her neck, leaving it damp.

Like a furry beast begging something of its master, he nuzzled that neck.

If it’s now, she might be able to get what she wants from him.

There were mountains of things she needed to ask while his mask was off.

Why did you pretend not to know me all this time?

Did you really have to cut off my father’s head right before my eyes?

Why am I the only one who remembers your past self, that slave boy?

How could you, a commoner, become the captain of the emperor’s guard?

…But his tears soaking my entire shoulder seem to have a numbing effect.

Delphine remained lying beneath the man, unable to move even a finger.

From the moment he could trace his memories, his world was entirely red.

So perhaps it was inevitable that when he saw the girl with fiery red hair, he felt she was his world.

“They say redheads are stubborn.”

Although she usually wore a wig, the woman who bore him had hair with a reddish-brown tinge.

“It would have been better if you were born blonde.”

The woman sighed deeply as she tied up her hair and placed a shabby, cheap blonde wig over it.

It was a wig that looked even more unsightly after being clawed and torn off by ‘guests’ several times.

Though she lamented the hair color, the woman was beautiful.

When he was still young, there were times when he was proud of her beautiful appearance.

That is, back when he still sought his mother’s warmth, lingering around her, hoping that just once she might hug him, might call his name.

What should I do to make mother look at me?

Young Ioan, lost in thought, carefully observed the scenes where ‘guests’ would embrace and roll around with his mother, then toss a few copper coins before leaving.

And so the child spent days and days roaming the streets, collecting coins.

Sometimes he was lucky enough to pick up ones dropped on the ground, other times he earned them by doing errands others were reluctant to do.

The woman paid no attention to whatever he did or where he wandered outside.

Finally, after successfully obtaining a few coins, the child dropped several in front of his mother and stretched out his small hands.

Please hug me.

Please call my name.

Please smile at me.

Slap−.

A harsh hand struck across his young cheek.

He could clearly feel the unkempt nails scratching his tender skin as they passed.

“Mo, mo, moth, er……”

Ignoring his pitiful plea, several more slaps came flying.

You dare disrespect me too?

Who do you think you are?

My life ended up like this because of you!

Cries filled with resentment poured out one after another.

The harsh words tore the young heart to shreds.

It hurt more than the pain from his battered body.

Because he realized that was the reason why his mother never called his name.

After that day, Ioan never again begged the woman to call his name or for a hug.

The innocent child’s face became shadowed and lost its smile.

“At least you won’t starve.”

Then for some pocket change, the woman sold him to a slave trader in District 1.

As he remembered, these were the woman’s last words:

“…Forget about this damn District 3 and live on.”

While his wrist was held by the slave trader, he stared blankly, but the woman never once looked back at him.