The Grand Duke removed my mask.

“Your Highness…?”

“You started it first.”

Hot breaths came first. Then, something cold and soft touched my lips.

His lips that devoured me as if we were one from the beginning.

Like two perfectly fitting pieces, his lips and mine touched.

Those lips caressed me so softly. An indescribable tingling sensation pierced through my whole body.

Then gradually… his lips pushed me away roughly.

I couldn’t say anything. I couldn’t even breathe. He gently delved into my mouth, filling me up inside.

‘Ah…!’

I could hear the sound of rain hitting the ceiling.

The rain falls from the dark sky.

Would there be stars in that dark sky above me right now?

If not, all those stars must have fallen inside me.

The stars that had been submerged in my veins turned into a Milky Way, ravaging the inside of my body.

The cluster of stars trembled as it flowed to my fingertips touching his shoulders, my slightly quivering toes, my cheeks caressed by his hands, and into my belly.

Our breaths, not knowing if they were his or mine, intertwined and swallowed the sound of the rain.

For a moment, he pulled his lips away from me.

I looked at him. He looked at me too, with a passionate and earnest gaze.

“Your Highness.”

He opened his mouth.

“Esther. I have… daringly come to love you.”

He looked down at me with sad eyes.

‘Love… he loves me?’

Sion Belfast loves me?

I can’t believe it.

‘Is this reality?’

His hot breath touched my cheek. His hand held mine ever so carefully.

My small hand fits entirely in his large hands.

Ah…

I am underneath him.

You are raising your body to be on top of me.

The Grand Duke’s other hand cupped my cheek.

‘Why do you speak of love with such sad eyes?’

I feel like my heart will burst.

Because of our breaths filling the space, did I mishear his words?

Love. He loves me?

Deep and blue eyes were checking my expression, my breathing, my trembling.

What would I look like in his eyes right now?

“Esther.”

He calls my name again.

My name exhaled with a hot and rough breath.

“I love you.”

He said it once more.

My heart sinks with a thud.

Why does my heart ache so much at your words of love?

Do I even deserve to receive those feelings?

‘This must be a dream, or maybe a fantasy.’

The cluster of stars that became the Milky Way pounds as if to burst my heart.

“Are you alright? For me to…”

His eyes wavered as if anxious.

Without knowing, I raised my hand and brushed his wet hair back. His body touching mine trembled.

In an instant, he swallowed a low moan and pressed down on me, on my lips, once more.

More intensely than before. He began to move more softly, more warmly, more roughly.

I accept him.

His long fingers delved into my hair. His other hand caressed my cheek and moved down to my neck.

Even though I had never experienced these gestures before, I could instinctively understand the meaning of these motions. The meaning of the breaths we shared.

You come inside my mouth, ravaging it. You leave. You enter.

The sound of the rain gradually fades away.

‘Your Highness.’

His arm wrapped around my waist. The tingling sensation climbed up my spine, making my mind hazy.

His lips that had been ravaging mine slowly moved down to my neck.

I barely managed to swallow the embarrassing sigh I almost let out.

I opened my eyes and looked at his face above me.

I kissed his forehead where light sweat had formed. I couldn’t resist because he looked so beautiful when he was concentrating.

Then he pressed down on my lips again without giving me a chance to breathe.

It was hard to breathe.

That’s when it happened. He pulled his lips away from me. In the brief gap, he spoke.

“Ah… Esther. My white butterfly.”

‘!’

White… butterfly?

I froze.

The sound of the rain that had been distantly fading away suddenly struck my ears.

I came to my senses as if cold water had been poured over me.

‘White butterfly?’

The name of the assassin who had destroyed the North and driven him to his death in the previous life. How do you know that name?

The being that doesn’t even exist in this life, the White Butterfly of the South.

The foolish assassin who didn’t even know who she was until she died from Rucella’s stab. That was me.

Why is the Grand Duke bringing up that name now?

I have never told the Grand Duke that name even once.

When we reunited at the Southern Grand Duchy, I introduced myself as a ‘bug’. I never added the word ‘white’.

But… why…!

The Grand Duke’s movements stopped.

Perhaps feeling that I had stiffened up, he raised his face that had been buried below my neck and looked at me.

“…Esther?”

I looked up at him.

His hand that had been in my hair stopped its gentle movement.

…What should I say?

Should I ask if he remembers what he just said?

Should I ask if he misspoke when he said White Butterfly?

Ah… I…

Without knowing, I slightly curled up. He pulled away from me as if surprised.

“Esther? Are you alright?”

I sat up. His arms that had been embracing me fell away from my body as if pushed.

I couldn’t look at him.

I walked to the closed barn door.

“Esther!?”

The Grand Duke who had sat up approached me. But I couldn’t turn to face him.

He called my name again.

“Esther.”

His voice mixed with worry and fear.

“…”

“Did I… make some mistake? Did I perhaps scare you? Did I hurt you?”

He asked desperately.

‘That’s not it.’

“Let me see your face, Esther.”

“…It’s not that.”

“Esther.”

He comes closer to me.

I opened the barn door. Outside was still a dark world with pouring rain.

“Esther!”

He stood behind me.

I’m afraid, Your Highness.

“Please stop calling my name.”

“!”

The Grand Duke stopped at my sharp words.

With my back still turned to him, I opened my mouth again.

“I apologize. I… made a mistake. I did something I shouldn’t have to Your Highness.”

“!”

“It was entirely impulsive.”

“What do you mean by that?”

His voice sank to a deep bottom.

Even in this intense rain, why is it that only your voice, Grand Duke, reaches me so clearly?

“I asked what you mean.”

“It was a mistake. Kissing Your Highness.”

“!”

My heart aches as if it will tear apart.

From the happiest moment, I’ve fallen into the abyss. Ah… I am the sinful White Butterfly.

Your Highness, I mistakenly got ahead of myself.

‘There is no such thing as a previous life. You deceived yourself, Esther.’

It’s the same life. A single life that briefly turned back and will continue. I am the White Butterfly.

What I believed to be a previous life was just my own greedy wish to believe so.

I, the woman who took everything from you and had you hung in a torture ground without a drop of water, dared to desire you.

I audaciously harbored feelings for you.

“I must be crazy.”

I muttered without realizing it.

At the same time as those words, the Grand Duke’s trembling was conveyed through the cold air.

How much time passed?

Breaking the long silence, the Grand Duke spoke.

“Esther, after I became burdened with the role of Grand Duke, I have never lain next to anyone to sleep.”

“!”

“Feeling the desire to kill someone for someone else’s sake, teaching someone to dance, saying unbecoming crude words because I wanted to see someone smile, wanting to live as a man, not as the Grand Duke, for someone’s sake…”

“!”

“It was all a first for me. Wanting to touch and embrace someone, thinking I want to follow my current feelings without considering the future… you were the first for all of it.”

‘Ah…’

Is it tears or raindrops flowing from my eyes right now?

“Please… don’t say anything more.”

“Was it not the same for you?”

“…”

“Was it not?”

“I…”

“It would be fine even if it wasn’t me for you?”

Your Highness, please don’t forgive me.

“That’s right.”

“!”

“I told you it was a mistake. It was an impulse in the deep night.”

“…Do you mean it?”

“I mean it.”

Hot tears poured out.

“I will go to the stable. Your Highness, please rest more here.”

I walked into the rain.

I couldn’t turn back until the end.

Please let this rain hide my tears.

In the end, I couldn’t ask.

The reason you mentioned the White Butterfly, the reason you called me the White Butterfly.

If only you would tell me it’s because I resemble a butterfly, I would be happy as if I had the whole world. I would be able to bury my past again.

But I can’t ask. Regardless of your answer, the conclusion is one.

I am the White Butterfly who drove you to death.

[This is the timeline separator]

‘He must be very tired.’

Sion thought, looking at Esther’s complexion that had become darker than before they departed.

But the innkeeper who had gone to see if a room was vacant showed no sign of returning.

Sion Belfast entered the rain without hesitation. This much rain was nothing compared to the hardships on the battlefield.

But then.

Before his returning eyes, he saw a man harassing her. The one who dared to curse at Esther and tried to touch her.

For the first time, he felt the desire to kill someone for someone else’s sake, to kill someone without drawing his sword.

“If it’s alright, there’s an unused barn that I happened to clean yesterday. How about there? I’ll give you plenty of my bedding. There’s dry hay laid out too, it’s not bad.”

When he heard the innkeeper’s words, his heart began to race without his knowing. The thought that he could be alone with Esther relentlessly shook his heart.

‘Was I this kind of man?’

“It can’t be helped. Esther, will it be alright? I’ll rest outside.”

“What? Your Highness, I can’t be the only one resting comfortably. I’ll be outside.”

“No. You’re still a patient.”

“Your Highness is also a patient.”

After bickering, they ended up deciding to rest thinking of the barn as a sickbay.

When he actually stood in front of the barn with her, his heart was already beating like crazy.

He was even grateful to his knights, Moby, Ergo, and Yora, who slept well even in that narrow room.

‘Shamefully, in this situation, I feel happiness.’

When he was left alone with her in the barn, his heart went beyond crazy and pounded as if it would burst out of his body.

The sound of rain incessantly pounding on the ceiling was simply a relief.

Sion deliberately turned his back to her and fell asleep.

No, he pretended to sleep, for her sake.

If he was awake, she wouldn’t be able to rest comfortably.

And it was for his own sake too.

It was hard to suppress the desire rising up as a man. The longing that surged up because it was her, but…

He tried to fall asleep, even though sleep wouldn’t come.

Even without looking, he could feel her every single movement.

‘She’s quietly listening to the sound of the rain. She likes the rain.’

– Rustle

‘Ah, Esther lay down.’

Sion felt her lying at the far end of the bedding, away from him.

The sound of the rain gradually intensified.

After a long time, she finally seemed to fall into a deep sleep and didn’t move.

He turned his body and quietly looked at her. Esther had fallen asleep lying on her side facing him.

At that moment, the sound of the rain grew louder.

The rain pounding on the ceiling brought a chill that was hard to endure as the night deepened.

Perhaps feeling the cold, she tossed a little and burrowed into the bedding. Then she wrapped the bedding around herself and went inside it.

That sight was extremely cute and pitiful.

If it were up to him, he wanted to go close, cover her entirely with the bedding so she wouldn’t be cold.

And then he wanted to gaze at Esther’s sleeping face all night.

But he had no confidence to approach. If he went close, he might not be able to suppress the desire to touch her.

That’s how great his desire was.

But then she rolled towards him while curling up more and more.

Esther’s soft and thin breath touched Sion’s face. Now his heart was beating to the point of pain.

He listened to her breathing.

The small and delicate breath told him that she was alive.

How much more time passed?

Esther showed signs of tossing a little and opening her eyes.

Sion closed his eyes.

He closed his eyes and subdued his breath as if in deep sleep.

But then!

She kissed his lips.

‘Is this a dream?’

Sion opened his eyes.

No.

She was lowering her head as if embarrassed, as if sad.

‘No, Sion.’

She is a princess, no, someone who might be a princess.

My… butterfly, whom I have temporarily caged and may have to send far away someday.

‘No, Esther. Don’t look at me.’

But she slowly raises her head.

She looks at me. When our eyes meet, her small body trembled finely. Her eyes confirm me.

Esther.

“You started it first.”

Making a cowardly excuse, I pressed my lips to hers.

Lightning swept through my whole body.

I couldn’t stop.

Ah… Esther.

I realized.

Now it doesn’t matter to me.

Whether you are a princess or an assassin or whatever else.

The soft and warm sensation splits my whole body as it goes down.

Your lips that keep pulling my lips. Your breath touching my ears.

I want to confirm you more. More deeply, I want to feel you.

In the previous life, the cold water soaked in cotton that you gave me on the execution ground. The sip of life you gave to me who was dying.

Your lips now are sweeter than that water then… So I can’t stop.