Late in the evening, Lea came to the church. The place where her funeral was held. As wandering the night streets alone was practically suicidal for a woman, she sought the safest place.

Since there were people who came to pray even at dawn, the church doors were not closed, allowing Lea to enter.

Lea closed her eyes with her hands clasped together.

‘Why did I leave the duke’s mansion?’

As her plan fell through, the vengeful feelings that had filled her heart dissipated like smoke. She should have ridden that momentum to Galdensia.

‘Will it all end if I die with Allen?’

Lea began to doubt her revenge.

She questioned whether this was truly the revenge she wanted.

Shouldn’t she reveal Allen and his group’s schemes to the world, make the truth known, and clear the Hamilton Trading Company’s name?

‘Killing Allen is one thing, but what sin has Grace’s body committed?’

She had promised her. That she wouldn’t tarnish her honor.

‘I think I rushed too much.’

At this rate, how was she any different from a moth blindly flying into a flame? Losing her reason at the news of the Hamilton General Store being sold was the root of the problem.

‘Allen spent years plotting to take over the Hamilton Trading Company.’

Yet she couldn’t understand why she thought it would all end just by killing Allen.

Nothing would change even if Allen disappeared from the world. The Hamilton Trading Company would still be a family accused of treason.

‘Why aren’t you making an effort? How can you let emotions take the lead?’

Lea felt pathetic. At the very least, she should have let Allen know why he was dying before killing him.

If she went to him in Grace’s body and shot him, he would die. But until his dying moment, he would neither realize nor repent his wrongdoings.

‘Is this the revenge you wanted, Lea Hamilton?’

Lea sobbed with her hands still clasped together.

‘Father, I miss you.’

Today, she missed him achingly. And she felt ashamed. To think that her method of revenge was merely to borrow a stranger’s body and shoot.

Without even knowing how to load bullets, she had acted rashly, consumed by anger.

‘What should I do now?’

Lea felt utterly lost. While her desire for revenge still burned like lava, there was nothing she could do.

The situation was even worse since she couldn’t reveal her identity to anyone.

Tears flowed endlessly from Lea’s eyes.

‘Father, I can’t live without avenging you against Allen.’

But she didn’t know how to carry out that revenge.

Allen was no longer the poor noble man from before. He was now a tycoon who had seized the massive MacDowell Trading Company.

She couldn’t see a way for a woman like herself, with nothing, to fight against someone like him.

* * *

Terran tapped his fingers on the desk and glanced at the clock.

At that moment, the bells chimed midnight.

He immediately stood up, and Luke brought his cloak and helped him put it on.

“There will be an uproar if the imperial family finds out we damaged the railroad.”

Luke grumbled.

The instructions Terran had given him yesterday afternoon were so absurd that he was still dumbfounded.

To keep Grace from leaving, not only had they damaged the railroad, but they had also put Rebon City under alert.

“If the imperial family finds out, it means your skills are lacking.”

“How could that be?”

Anyway, the result of damaging a few rails was significant.

There would be no trains departing from Rebon Station for several days. Of course, the same applied to carriages.

Terran passed through the lobby to board a carriage.

“Do you know where the lady is?”

“It’s obvious.”

He replied curtly and boarded the carriage.

Luke shook his head as he watched Terran leave the duke’s mansion alone in the carriage.

“He could just catch her.”

But this time, he truly understood.

What Terran’s feelings for Grace were, that is.

And that he too had an unimaginably strong obsession and possessiveness towards the woman he desired.

At that moment, James approached Luke.

“For someone like the duke, it’s only difficult to start. Once he becomes aware of his feelings, he’ll pursue love like he does war.”

“That’s right. I had a bad feeling about this ever since he mentioned blowing up Rapha’s building.”

Luke felt sorry for Grace.

Did she know? That she would never be able to escape from Terran.

* * *

As the carriage stopped in front of the church, Terran got out without hesitation.

The Grace he knew wasn’t the type of woman to spend the night in a hotel or at a station.

Of course, if it were the Grace from before, she wouldn’t have acted so recklessly in the first place.

As he opened the church doors and entered, he saw the familiar back of a woman.

Why did she look so fragile and small today? Terran slowly walked towards where Grace was. But he stopped after a short distance.

‘Is she crying?’

Hearing Grace’s heartbreaking sobs, his feet seemed glued to the floor.

He couldn’t understand why she had tried to leave his side and was now crying with such remorse.

That was the big question. It seemed Grace had a secret.

And the doubt he had initially harbored resurfaced, bursting out.

Whether she was the Grace he knew, or if another soul had entered Grace’s body, making her a completely different person – such an impossible suspicion.

Was such a thing really possible?

In fact, he had shaken off all such worries when he went to meet Aiden. He had decided to like her as she was.

He had intended to make her realize that leaving his side wouldn’t be easy when he faced Grace again.

But Grace’s sadness pained his heart, making it difficult to approach her carelessly.

‘This is quite challenging.’

Watching a crying woman, especially the tears of the woman he liked, was hard to bear.

He sat down next to Grace and watched her for a while.

Lea didn’t believe in God. But at this moment, she wished for guidance from anyone, even if it was divine help.

She raised her head to look at the cross.

That’s when she felt someone’s gaze beside her, and Lea immediately turned her head.

“Terran!”

How did he know she was at the church?

Lea looked at him with a surprised face, and Terran gazed at her intently.

He had no intention of leaving a woman crying so sorrowfully, but Grace, wet with tears, looked as pure as a rain-soaked wildflower.

Her crying face was not only radiant but also painfully stirred one’s heart.

In that moment, the thread of his reason snapped. Terran’s hand brought Grace’s face close and kissed her right there.

“!?”

Lea struggled with all her might to break free from Terran.

The more she tried to reject his kiss, the more she felt trapped like a lamb, unable to move.

Instead, she unconsciously gave in and closed her eyes to the warmth of his lips.

His kiss was warm and comforting, like reaching out a hand to her when she was filled with nothing but despair.

Grace’s tears seeped between the two gently entwining lips.

As she slightly parted her lips, a hot fire rushed in. It was a passionate and sorrowful kiss.

His hand caressed Grace’s lush golden hair, and she placed both hands on Terran’s broad shoulders.

Then Terran pulled her body close, ensuring she couldn’t move away from him.

After the sudden, unexplained kiss ended, the two felt the lingering sensation of the kiss gently washing over them with their eyes closed.

Then Lea spoke first.

“I don’t like being forced like this.”

“If it was unpleasant, I regret it. I only wanted to comfort Grace.”

“That’s…!”

Lea felt regretful. She had ended up relying on him because she was too exhausted and weary.

“How did you know? That I was here?”

“How could the duke not know the circumstances of Rebon City?”

Terran avoided giving a precise answer.

‘You trying to leave my side, that’s something that can’t happen, Grace.’

“I see.”

Terran reached out to Grace, who looked like she might collapse at any moment. He wouldn’t need to tell her the truth about today with his own mouth.

“We should go back.”

“But I told Terran…”

She had demanded to break off the engagement and declared she would leave. Was he suggesting to act as if nothing had happened?

“That was your one-sided request, I never agreed to break off the engagement.”

“But when I said I was leaving, you told me to do so.”

“You didn’t leave, did you?”

“There were circumstances.”

“Grace, I think we have some serious matters to discuss, don’t you?”

“I’m not qualified to be Terran’s fiancée.”

That much was true. Terran knew nothing about the tremendous events that had happened to her.

“Let me ask the opposite. Am I qualified to be Grace’s fiancé? Of course I am.”

He didn’t give her a chance to respond. At that moment, Lea’s eyes sparkled. A man who asks questions and immediately answers them.

When she had demanded to break off the engagement, he had been surprisingly calm, even providing a carriage for her to take to the train station.

While partly puzzled, she had thought things were going too smoothly. But too many contrived events happened simultaneously to be mere coincidence.

The train didn’t come, and Rebon City was sealed off. Like a farmer’s trick to prevent sheep from escaping their pen.

If today’s events were someone’s meticulous plan, it would have to be a person with tremendous influence.

Someone like Terran Courtois, the First Duke of Rubeck.

Could it be his doing that all trains and carriages were stopped today?

He posed the question, but the answer was already decided. Terran took Grace’s hand and boarded the carriage as they left the church.

“Was it you, Terran? Stopping the trains and sealing off Rebon City?”

“That’s right.”

“My goodness!”

It was something she couldn’t have imagined at the time. She was astonished by the fact that he had stopped an entire city just to keep her from leaving.

Only then did she finally realize that she was nothing but a small bird trapped in Terran’s cage.

“Why did you go to such lengths?”

“Because your heart was wrong.”

“Pardon?”

“Didn’t you realize it yourself? That your will and methods were all wrong from the start.”

Lea held her breath for a moment. It was as if Terran had looked right into her mind.

His next words made even the last shred of her self-esteem disappear.

“If you wanted to leave so desperately, you should have come back to me and asked for help. The fact that you had room to assert your pride means you weren’t that desperate.”

Terran’s words were neither perfectly right nor wrong.

If she had the determination to put a bullet in Allen’s head no matter what, she should have asked Terran for help instead of going to the church.

She should have said she absolutely needed to go to Galdensia and asked for his help.

But she had doubted her own plan first.

Terran didn’t know that it’s not easy for humans to act so simply.

“Whatever you dream of and try to achieve, it must all happen within my boundaries.”

Terran spoke threateningly and said no more.

Lea didn’t ask anything until the carriage arrived at the duke’s mansion.

Finally, as the carriage stopped in front of the main building, Terran looked at Grace with a markedly different gaze.

His hand cupped her face.

“If there’s anything you want, I’ll grant it all. No, I can even be your strength. But you must remember one thing.”

“What is it?”

“I’m not breaking off the engagement with Grace Bizac. No, we’ll be getting married soon. And…”

“!?”

“There must be only me in your heart.”