Mercedes opened her eyes. Sunlight was pouring in through the window. She quietly gazed at the scenery for a moment before opening her mouth.

“The curtains… Can you close them for me?”

Her voice, hoarse from lack of water, scattered pitifully.

“Ah, Lady Mercedes, you’re awake?”

“Should you sleep some more? You need to get up and eat. I’ll bring you a glass of water.”

“It’s fine. I want to… sleep a little more, Rhonda. Patricia.”

“Yes… I understand.”

Rhonda and Patricia nodded with drooping eyebrows and closed the curtains for her. Darkness fell once again. The maids swallowed their sighs as they looked at Mercedes, and leaving a sliver of light at the edge of the curtain, they went about their tasks.

How much time had passed since that day? Mercedes did not count the days and remained holed up in the darkness.

These days, Rhonda and Patricia always stayed in her room instead of the adjacent one. It seemed there were even knights standing by outside the room.

Moreover, a doctor had come to examine the wound on her palm from the dagger.

‘What is he trying to do…?’

The sensation of gripping the dagger that night was still so vivid.

It was as if he had assigned guards to prevent her from dying.

Ah, Leopold had also visited once. He seemed a bit surprised to see her condition, and he informed her of what had happened to the count in Sheim.

In order to kill Richard’s bastard child, because Count Cromwell was a nuisance… the king had set fire to it, he said.

It seemed the last secret letter she sent had dealt a big blow. Of course, it was also easy to invade the Cromwell estate, which had lost its private soldiers in the defeat of the territory war.

Her thoughts had been well received. But… strangely, she felt no emotion at all.

The king just seemed ridiculous to her.

He had let her family, who killed the number one candidate for the throne, live, and now he was trying to get rid of them on a whim.

It was not befitting of a king of a nation.

She felt that the revenge in Sheim was complete for now. Cromwell had lost everything and would never be able to chase Mercedes to Loom.

Because Carlos’s people were blocking everything. No, should she ask them to kill him to prevent future troubles?

‘Carlos…’

Even in this moment, when she could clearly see a future where she would meet her death at his hands, she was thinking of seeking his help.

Indeed, it was a one-sided relationship.

Come to think of it… was this revenge truly accomplished by herself? Did she actually do anything?

And the report that the count had lost everything also felt like a lie. Even though she knew Leopold was not that kind of person, it did not feel real to her.

Was it because she could not confirm it for herself? Would she feel pleasure in seeing the ruined estate?

No, in fact, she knew. Ever since the night Carlos tried to kill her, she had lost all will to live. That was why even the news of her successful revenge could not stir her heart.

Mercedes burrowed deeper into the blanket and closed her eyes. She forgot about her hunger. She just wanted to sleep.

When she was awake, that night kept coming to mind, and she hated it so much.

But there was a limit to how much she could sleep, so she had to spend more time lying awake in the darkness with her eyes open.

Then, Carlos’s face, contorted in pain as he gripped the dagger, would appear in the void.

The number of lives he had taken on the battlefield must exceed tens of thousands. Yet his face as he was caught trying to pierce her throat was unbecoming of his reputation, his emotions fully exposed.

‘…Why did he hold the blade himself?’

Even though she wanted to think of nothing, perhaps because thinking had become a habit from the six months of education, her mind was working well.

If he simply found Mercedes bothersome and regretted bringing her here and wanted to kill her, he could have ordered his subordinates to do it.

Yet he gripped the dagger himself and wore a pained expression. Despite trying to kill her. As if he was the one hurting more.

‘Is it a sense of responsibility? Or… is there a reason he had to kill me himself?’

Was it because he wanted to handle it personally due to the rumors spreading about the newly crowned empress? Or was there a reason?

‘Why, with his own hands? Like that…’

Until the next day, Mercedes had been in a daze, absorbed in shock and helplessness, but now questions began to creep into her mind and consume her.

Why was he trying to kill her? And why would he do that bothersome task himself? In fact, she was not even curious about the reason. She had no energy to be curious.

‘He… had such a difficult expression.’

Why was it hard for him to kill her in the first place?

As if he truly loved her.

‘That can’t be.’

He must have just grown a bit fond of her. After all, they had spent some time together… Or he felt guilty about killing a frail woman.

Even the emperor known as the Blood Demon may have never harmed a defenseless woman on a whim. Isn’t war the domain of men?

Mercedes curled up even more. She hugged the pillow tightly and took a deep breath.

If he was going to kill her anyway, it would be nice if he did it quickly.

Once again, Mercedes could not take her own life.

She didn’t have the courage to do so. As always. Just like how she killed Richard because she couldn’t end her own life.

Four months… or five months.

At this point, it had been almost half a year since she arrived here.

She had returned to the state she was in when she first arrived. It was as if the six months of effort had vanished.

The meaning of her life was death, that was all. Why should she live when everyone was trying to kill her?

Mercedes closed her mouth, shut her ears, and closed her eyes.

Death, huddled in the darkness, was covering her like a blanket.

With her heart in hell, the darkness was welcome.

It was then.

“Open the door.”

A voice she had not heard in a long time came from outside.

Patricia glanced at Mercedes and quickly approached the door to open it. Sunlight streamed in through the gap. Mercedes squinted and slowly sat up.

She had no strength, but she had to show proper etiquette in front of the emperor. It was a habit she could not help.

“Open the curtains just a little. It’s so dark I can’t see in front of me.”

“Yes.”

After politely welcoming the emperor, Rhonda and Patricia opened the curtains partially and discreetly left the room.

And the door closed.

“…Mercedes.”

Carlos called out to her in a hoarse voice.

Her heart sank at that voice.

Was it because it had only been a week? No, it was simply… the voice she had longed for even though she knew he would kill her.

Mercedes slowly adapted to the light entering the room and turned her eyes to him.

Carlos’s face was noticeably haggard. The eyes that always overflowed with healthy vigor and the confident lips were nowhere to be seen, replaced by a rough face as if he had stayed up several nights and marched.

‘What on earth…?’

A distressed face, and even becoming haggard.

‘Why on earth?’

Everything was a mystery, but. Well, did the reason matter? When she was about to die soon.

She slowly greeted him.

“…You’ve become. Haggard, *cough*, *cough*… sir.”

But due to her dry throat, coughs spilled out, making it difficult to understand her words.

“Mercedes. You should drink some water.”

Carlos spoke while avoiding her eyes, and Mercedes smiled faintly at him.

“Have you finally… come, *cough*. to kill… me?”

At the voice that seemed to welcome the grim reaper, Carlos tightly closed his eyes. He slowly took the glass of water from the table and sat by the bedside.

“…Have some water. I heard you’re eating as little as a bird and not drinking either.”

“For someone… who’s going to die, *cough*, isn’t that… a luxury, sir?”

Mercedes was still smiling gently. Like someone who had given up on everything.

Carlos clenched his fists tightly and turned his gaze away from her for a moment.

Guilt. Fear. Pain. Adorableness. Pity. Compassion.

He forcibly suppressed those feelings. He couldn’t apologize to her right now, nor could he kill her. That’s why he had been avoiding it.

But now he could no longer avoid it. That was the reason he had hurried here even while hesitating.

He slowly supported Mercedes’s neck and back and helped her sit up. Unable to rise due to lack of strength, she ended up leaning against him with her back straight.

Mercedes thought this position was quite suitable for him to kill her, but when his hot and strangely familiar body heat touched her, her foolishly beating heart felt absurd.

Had she come to love him this much?

“Drink the water for me.”

Carlos whispered above her head. Mercedes did not resist. She placed her lips on the glass he held and slowly drank the water.

It was refreshing but not sweet at all. Rather, it tasted bitter.

“Now, are you going to kill me? I’d prefer it to be sooner rather than later.”

Mercedes asked weakly in a much improved voice. She had also become haggard. Her hard-earned weight seemed to have all disappeared, her wrists excessively thin.

Carlos silently stared at the thickness of her wrists for a moment before speaking in a low voice.

“Something has come up. Mercedes.”

“Is it something… I need to know before I die soon?”

She laughed self-deprecatingly. Carlos took a moment to steady his breath before opening his mouth.

“Count Cromwell has left Sheim. And somehow, he took a ship and landed at a port in Loom, according to the news.”

Mercedes’s eyes flashed open for a moment.

“…What?”

Count Cromwell.

The one who had only looked at her with contemptuous eyes since childhood, her blood relative.

He had never even wanted her to receive gentle touches.

She had only wished for the violence to stop. For the treatment of her wounds to end. To be able to eat a little more food.

After realizing those wishes would not come true, she had become a doll for the count to manipulate as he pleased.

“It seems the empress dowager helped your father cross over to Loom.”

After assigning Duke Lucas, things had been quiet, but she must have been planning this.

Mercedes bit her lip.

She was a bit surprised that the empress dowager had reached out to the count, but it was not surprising that the count was desperately crawling to Loom.

‘Yes, that’s the kind of person Father is…’

Even if he had received the emperor’s help, she knew all too well that her father was not someone who would give up easily. She had thought too simply that her revenge was over.

“I don’t know when exactly, but the empress dowager formally sent an invitation and he entered Loom with a seal, bold as brass. So… we can’t send troops from this side.”

Carlos sighed and looked at her.

“I’m sorry.”

“…For what, sir?”

There was a truly apologetic emotion in his eyes. Mercedes could not understand his apology.