“……I was envious of you.”

That’s why I envied Rude even more. When he returned to the castle, everything seemed to fall back into place and things flowed smoothly.

Even if there were those who criticized Rude as vulgar, the power he possessed silenced them.

That in itself was proof of who he was.

You are different from me.

You’re not an impurity that doesn’t fit in anywhere like me, but an essential piece that has found its rightful place.

So unlike her, I hope you become overflowing with happiness.

I hope that Rude has all the happiness and peace that I could never enjoy in my lifetime.

“Don’t talk like you’re about to die. Do you think I’d just let you die? Absolutely not. You have to live until you become a cranky old hag. You have to grow old by my side. Don’t try to run away like this on your own.”

“……I’m so sleepy.”

“No, if you close your eyes now, I swear I won’t let you off. Sleep when you’re dead! Merche!”

Although Rude’s voice was loud enough to crack, Merche leaned on the arm holding her and wandered elsewhere.

Genovefa hurriedly cleaned up the scene, and Torben was dragged away by the hands of the knights.

Torben’s disgustingly loud laughter and Elizabeth’s pale, bloodless face flashed by.

When something hot started to fall drop by drop on her cheek, Merche looked up at Rude one last time.

He was crying with that terribly distorted face.

Eyes that always looked angry, closed lips, a jaw clenched tight.

Ah. This is how this person pleads. This is how he silently pours out his sorrow.

The hand that tried to wipe away his tears slid down powerlessly, and Merche’s eyes closed.

“You call yourselves doctors? You bastards who take money claiming to save lives, what’s the point of living if you can’t save someone? Save her if you don’t want to die!”

“This, this isn’t our fault, it’s the nature of the wound that’s the problem…!”

“That’s right. The injury is too fatal, there’s nothing else we can do!”

“So you want to die, is that it?”

Rude, who came to harass the doctors like catching mice every day, made his appearance without fail today as well.

Despite all kinds of renowned doctors being brought in under the Lupinus name, Merche still hadn’t woken up.

As one doctor was grabbed by the collar and dragged away, another doctor, afraid he might really be killed, shouted:

“Sano! If someone from the Sano family comes, they can save her!”

Among the six noble families of Ifero, Sano was the family with the power of healing.

The power of healing was unique to Sano alone even if you searched the entire continent, so their influence was also famously great.

Immediately, Rude, with his eyes rolled back, ran to Genovefa and mentioned that name, but Genovefa narrowed her eyes and immediately refused.

“Not Sano.”

“Why not? I told you I’ll die if Merche dies, didn’t I? Does my word sound like meaningless nonsense to you?”

“The head of the Sano family died a few days ago. When the family head dies, they don’t engage in outside activities for three months after. That’s their rule.”

“What does it matter if their family head dies or not? Having such power and not being able to save one dying person?”

“Haa….. I’m telling you this because you’re pushing so hard. Son, to them, isn’t Merche just another person they don’t care about whether she lives or dies?”

Even as Rude continued to throw a fit, Genovefa had her subordinates forcibly drag him out.

Although Rude raged, smashing everything in the castle and yelling at the top of his lungs, the family head’s office remained firmly closed, and meanwhile, Merche’s condition only worsened.

And on a day when the first snow was fluttering. The doctors approached Rude with dead eyes and pronounced:

“The young lady doesn’t have much time left. Say your final goodbyes.”

Even though he lunged at the doctors threatening to kill them right then and there, the resigned doctors knelt down, telling him to go ahead and kill them if he wished.

In front of them, Rude felt an ominous foreboding beyond just creepiness.

For the first time since the incident in the banquet hall, Rude became as quiet as a mouse.

He slowly approached Merche, who lay with her eyes closed.

“…Merche.”

Answer me. Look at me with those damn pretty eyes of yours.

Merche gave no answer.

In the chilling silence, Rude finally began to tremble.

This is the smell of death.

A smell he couldn’t possibly mistake, having seen slaves die by the dozens and hundreds in the arena.

The unpleasant odor that he had only brushed past before now clearly tickled his nose.

“Is it… is it because I tormented you too fucking much? Is this how you’re trying to get revenge on me?”

How do you crush me every time? Why are you always so cruel, only to me?

“How many times are you trying to kill me? I’ve already died dozens of times because of you, Merche.”

A heart I didn’t even know I had would die black and come back to life. Just as I was barely holding on, Merche would grab it and kill it again.

With hands that wouldn’t stop shaking, he caressed her cheek, which was only white unlike his own.

Soft and warm. Merche’s, which he sometimes wanted to pounce on like a beast, lick, press skin to skin, just touch in any way possible.

Rude kissed her closed eyelids.

“You’re telling me to be happy? ……Stupid Merche. After you die, I’ll be miserable until the day I die. Come to think of it, you’re smarter than most of those scholar bastards, but you don’t know this?”

If only it were me instead of you. If only I could die in your place.

For the first time in his life, he understood the value of sacrifice.

Once, a slave he met in the arena said he had come here in place of his younger sibling, and Rude had mocked that slave as an idiot at the time.

But now Rude was that idiot.

“Please. …Please, Merche.”

Kill me and you live. I’ll die for you as many times as it takes.

He whispered in a hoarse voice. And at that very moment, an immense pain struck as if it would burst his heart.

“Kuhk…!”

Rude clutched his chest and staggered, collapsing.

Damn it. What is this? It was an unbearable agony.

Then his heart began to beat so violently it shook his entire body.

Would it be an illusion if the blood flowing through his body was getting hot for just one person?

Damn Lupinus. That wretched tradition. Rude laughed with broken laughter, filled with ecstasy.

So this is that thing called imprinting or whatever.

They say you know without being taught, and that was exactly right.

Rude instinctively crawled towards Merche.

Even though the sharp pain that made him want to just die gripped his ankles, even though his vision went pitch black.

Without stopping, he dragged himself somehow and grasped Merche’s hand.

“My mate. Mine.”

If this is imprinting and Merche is my mate, then save this woman even if it kills me.

He muttered, not knowing who he was speaking to. Along with his hazy vision, his consciousness snapped off.

On the day when Rude collapsed inexplicably and Elizabeth fainted at the news of her son, Merche opened her eyes.

“…Gasp! H-how is this possible!”

“Q-quickly inform the family head! Tell him the young lady has woken up!”

The doctors who saw Merche were shocked and rushed out.

Until then, Merche was busy trying to grasp the situation.

I was struck down by Torben’s sword, but I survived? How?

I thought I would certainly die. That’s how it should be.

I had received such a fatal wound that it would be stranger not to die.

From the beginning, when Merche embraced Rude, she had foreseen that she would die.

“…So the doctors’ words were true.”

Genovefa, who came to see her not long after, said ominously.

His face was surprisingly gaunt.

Genovefa’s true face, revealed after throwing off his usual mask, was frighteningly intense.

Creating a heavy silence, he silently scrutinized Merche’s face.

Especially her eyes. After examining her blue eyes over and over, Genovefa finally spoke.

“You have two choices. One is to stay in this castle by my son’s side. The other is to leave this castle forever right now.”

“…What conditions are attached to each choice?”

Even if there are two choices, one of them must be what Genovefa truly desires.

He must have attached conditions to make Merche choose that one.

Although her body still ached, having just woken up, Merche coldly calculated Genovefa’s move.

Seeing her like this, Genovefa let out a laugh mixed with a sigh.

“Yes. I forgot for a moment that you were such an intelligent child. …As you said, each choice has different conditions attached.”

Licking his dried lips, Genovefa said.

“If you choose the former, you will live, but I cannot guarantee your younger sibling’s life. No matter how desperately you’ve hidden them, they cannot escape the power of my family. If we turn this land upside down and search every corner, your sibling will eventually fall into my hands.”

“……And if I choose the latter?”

“I will let both you and your sibling go. I won’t track you no matter where you go, and there will be no threats in the future. But you must never set foot in this place again, nor appear before my son’s eyes until the day you die.”

“…You want me to leave, don’t you?”

“Whatever my intentions may be, the choice is yours. However, I cannot give you much time to think, so choose here and now. Well. What do you want?”

Regrettably, if information is sought and a search is conducted with the power of the Lupinus family, there’s a high possibility that the location of her sibling will eventually be revealed.

So Genovefa’s threat is likely not just an empty one.