Mercedes looked at him and smiled softly. Warm eyes with a kind tone. It was embarrassing and made her heart race.

It was a feeling she had never experienced before in her life. She didn’t… dislike it. No, she liked it.

“…I always feel it. Where did you learn to say such things?”

“I learned it from my heart. You like it when I talk like this too, don’t you?”

It was true. Mercedes closed her mouth, about to jokingly rebuke him further.

Then she swallowed and looked up at him.

He slowly approached her. Eyes accustomed to the darkness made his face clearly visible. He was beautiful. Yet also masculine.

Which god had molded him so diligently?

As she was thinking, Carlos approached. The moment his breath reached right before her lips.

“Do you like my face?”

Carlos whispered without touching his lips to hers. Mercedes was startled like a child caught stealing and tried to make an excuse.

“Oh, no. That’s-.”

“Your eyes are so clear and transparent, they hold many things.”

“Ye…es?”

“I like it when only I am reflected in those eyes.”

Carlos murmured. With his lips almost touching hers as he spoke, it tickled her lips.

She wished his breath would touch her. It was evident that he was teasing her.

“Mel. Now tell me what you want me to do for you.”

“…You’re mischievous.”

As Mercedes spat out the words that had been lingering in her mouth, Carlos laughed. But that laughter didn’t reach its end.

Perhaps she was sulky from being teased by him, or perhaps she was desperate.

Because Mercedes clumsily clasped her arms around his thick neck and crashed her lips against his.

Carlos, who had not expected her to approach him first like this, was momentarily surprised, then accepted her clumsy kiss.

Breath, in and out in that moment.

She liked that moment. It felt as if she was completely devouring Carlos inside her.

Worries about whether she should answer today flew away.

When he lifted her up and walked through the red curtains, faint scented candles, and lights turned on here and there, continuing to kiss her.

When they felt each other’s body heat without a single thread of clothing. She felt that they were not two separate individuals, but becoming one person. Her hands were his hands, and his heart was her heart.

That’s how they became one.

Without a single word, they could feel it fully. When hands touched, when soft lips touched.

And finally, when he reached the deepest place.

The night was very long. Long and even longer. The two could not stop. They didn’t want to care about anything.

Mercedes thought.

It was a night where even the revenge she had set as the meaning and compass of her life was out of sight. Then, if this night and these hands that preciously embraced her took precedence over what was most important to her.

Couldn’t this be love?

Her entire body and mind were filled with Carlos. At the end of that fullness, she finally uttered.

“I… love you.”

Love.

Carlos stopped moving for a moment.

Then he slowly lifted his hand and stroked her hair.

“I… love you too. I love you.”

He answered in a slightly trembling voice.

“Carl, your expression… What’s wrong?”

Mercedes had no choice but to ask, seeing Carlos’ face illuminated by the light. He looked pained and joyful. Distorted yet smiling.

“I’m moved. When a person is moved, they can’t control their face.”

Realizing that he had failed to manage his expression, he brushed it off as if making a joke and just embraced her.

“…So such an expression exists.”

It was a new expression for Carlos. While finding it fascinating, Mercedes felt an even greater sense of discomfort than before.

The discomfort felt in that moment consumed by love made it seem as if distance had suddenly opened up between them.

“Yes, Mercedes. Thank you for answering me.”

But when Carlos nuzzled her head and whispered affectionately, her heart melted.

“…Yes. That’s right.”

Mercedes whispered softly.

Carlos held her for a long time.

A love confession.

To Carlos, it was no different than a signal of the end.

Yes. What could be more certain than a love confession? He couldn’t drag it out any longer under the pretense of confirming love.

This was enough. If the curse wasn’t lifted even after drawing this much out of a person who was insensitive to emotions and hurt, then he was simply cursed.

No. In fact, he had already lost.

The moment he ran away from her, the moment he cared about her. The moment he struggled not to acknowledge it. The curse had already stolen his life, so to speak.

He had fallen in love with Mercedes. It was clear that it would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Even if his body healed, he would think of Mercedes. Every single day. Painfully.

He had tried to end it quickly without hurting her further, but in fact, if a confession hadn’t been returned from her, he might have given up.

Even if his limbs stiffened, he might have looked forward to waking up and falling asleep with this woman like this every night.

But he was a man with many burdens.

He was a man who had never even imagined not carrying out his goals.

Carlos tightly embraced her, who was infinitely small compared to his physique, and whispered.

“I love you too.”

Mercedes smiled softly at his confession repeated back to her.

“I’m suffocating.”

“That’s my heart.”

“Haha.”

The rest of the night continued. At some point, an exhausted Mercedes fell asleep first.

She seemed to be in a very deep sleep.

Rhonda had reported with delight that while she used to sleep lightly, these days she slept through him tidying up the room beside her, as if the quality of her sleep had improved.

“I will… see the revenge through to the end.”

Carlos muttered as he stroked Mercedes’ hair. Her chest was rising and falling steadily.

“Yes, I’ll do that.”

Continuing the revenge would be the only atonement Carlos could offer Mercedes.

At dawn. In about two more hours, morning would break. He had to stop buying time by gazing at her.

As a descendant of Ellawe, it was dangerous to kill her while she was awake. There was a risk of a counterattack. Wasn’t it a tribe that absorbed life just by touch?

Carlos gave up on hesitating and took out the dagger he had hidden under the nightstand next to the bed.

Then he stroked the sheath and looked at her. The sharp blade of the dagger revealed from the leather sheath seemed to shine blindingly, as if an illusion.

After brushing the blade with his hand once, he straddled her, supporting himself with his thigh strength so that his weight wouldn’t press down on her body. Being careful not to wake her.

Then he raised the dagger high.

In fact, when using a dagger, it was better to move quickly from below.

His current posture was one that anyone could see was easy to counter. It was by no means the appearance of one called the Blood Demon of War.

As if he wanted Mercedes to wake up and stab him instead.

His hand drew a line from top to bottom. It went towards the breath in her neck.

And…

“Damn it…”

It stopped right in front of her neck. He couldn’t stab her. Not at all.

It was painful. What should he do? He had decided to survive. So, he had decided to overcome it.

He moved the dagger precariously above her neck, then finally tried to hide the blade back in his possession. Let’s rest for just a little, a very little bit, and try again. Or there are other nights, right?

All sorts of thoughts dominated him. Knowing that it had to be now.

Knowing, yet… at that moment when the sharp blade was about to be put away.

“Carlos…?”

A cold hand grabbed his hand.

“…!”

From beneath him, Mercedes opened her eyes.

The beautifully shining green eyes were void like an inorganic substance. They just held his hand and looked at him as if assessing the situation.

Carlos’ heart sank with a thud.

He had thought she was in a deep sleep…

He was not a warrior dull enough to miss such signs. When had she woken up, had she heard his monologue?

Thoughts filled his mind and he couldn’t say a word. Carlos just looked into her eyes.

The eyes of two people with different colors clashed, cutting through the green dawn. Both Mercedes’ and Carlos’ eyes were dilated with a mixture of surprise and bewilderment.

Mercedes slowly opened her mouth.

“I… had a bad dream. No, did I? I don’t… remember very well. Anyway, I had a dream.”

Mercedes mumbled in a voice hoarse as if she had just woken up. Perhaps because of the silence? Carlos felt her voice resounding particularly loudly.

“So I woke up.”

Mercedes now slowly moved her eyes that had met his to grasp the surrounding situation as well.

Carlos’ posture straddling her was strange. It was as if he was intimidating her and pressing down on her so she couldn’t move.

Through his body, she saw the dagger precariously placed, barely touching the end of her neck.

‘Ah.’

She had wanted to die before, and had endlessly faced death threats while living.

There was even a time when the daughter of Count Cromwell, who had gone insane, caused a disturbance and injured her with a broken piece of porcelain.

Mercedes, who knew too well about violence, had no choice but to immediately realize what this situation was.

He had tried to harm her while she was asleep.

No, with the dagger touching her neck… he had tried to kill her.

‘Why on earth?’

The last thing she remembered was exchanging words of love and falling asleep. But when she opened her eyes again, he was pointing a blade at her.

“You’re… doing this.”