At those words, Ophelia, who had been bowing her head with her face covered, raised her eyes.

Between her fingers, a pair of bright blue eyes flashed. Idren paused for a moment at the sight of those glacial, chilling eyes. It was a blue that seemed to freeze his entire heart.

Soon, Ophelia spoke.

“I hanged myself.”

“…Pardon me, what did you say?”

“Are you deaf? I said I hanged myself.”

And Ophelia removed the hands covering her face. She wiped her face, which was covered in cold sweat and blood.

She had definitely hanged herself from the bedpost. It was the perfect height to die.

But.

But when she opened her eyes, she was in this damned room.

The moment she saw herself sitting at the dressing table and her maid brushing her hair in the mirror, Ophelia screamed at the top of her lungs.

She picked up a bottle of perfume from the dressing table and threw it at the mirror. Oil and fragments splattered.

The maid, trembling, backed away from her and screamed that she was possessed by a demon.

Ophelia thrust a basket filled with drooping flowers into the girl’s arms and dragged her out the door. If she had left that noisy thing any longer, she felt like she would have done something.

She already had a history of driving several people to their deaths.

The room, now alone, was just as she remembered it. Familiar curtains, familiar bed, familiar dressing table, familiar, familiar.

That familiarity was like finely cut glass. It was as sharp as it was stinging, and it permeated every corner.

So Ophelia picked up a chair. She swung what she held in her hand and shattered the damned familiarity.

The chair leg broke and the fragments tore her flesh and clothes, but no thoughts came to mind.

Ophelia, who had been wielding irrationality, put down what she was holding because she heard a familiar voice.

Idren Sigrasal’s voice salvaged the sense of reality that had been eroded. There was urgency in his voice. It was a sound that proved she had not gone mad.

Realizing this, Ophelia put down the broken chair. She hurriedly let in the only evidence that she was not insane, the man who had opened the door.

But letting him in was just more despair.

Idren was so different from her, but what he knew was not much different from what she knew.

In other words, it was neither comforting nor helpful.

Ophelia shook off the hand of the man who blinked his starry eyes. It was when she staggered towards the bed that had ugly marks etched from being hit against a pillar.

“…Are you saying that you took your life again just now?”

It was a voice full of cracks. Ophelia paused for a moment, but that was all. She neither looked back nor answered.

But that seemed to be enough for the other person.

She heard the sound of the remnants of familiarity being crushed under the man’s feet. As the noise got closer, Ophelia sensed that he would soon cause fatigue.

Idren did not betray her expectations. He grabbed her wrist.

“How could you do that!”

He spun her around and screamed as if he was shouting.

Ophelia faced dilated golden pupils, trembling lips, and a pale face. Everything was a clear sign of pain. Something she could not understand.

While Ophelia tried to recognize that information, Idren continued to pour out screams.

“Didn’t we agree to talk again tomorrow! We said we’d have another conversation!”

But how, how could you… as soon as I left the room…

Idren bowed his head deeply. Something fell with a thud between his feet and hers.

Ophelia realized that what had fallen down his fine jaw was tears. At the same time, annoyance surged up.

What on earth was the problem?

Ophelia pushed away the man holding her. She really disliked the type who piled up emotions without agreement, and the type who got hurt and cried alone, and Idren Sigrasal was acting just like that.

Teary golden eyes looked down at her. The shock and hurt in them were so vivid that Ophelia felt the urge to completely chop up his heart with an axe.

Idren was tormenting her by pushing expectations on her that she had no reason or will to bear.

It was unfair. She had clearly been kind to him. She had carefully explained why they had to be strangers.

But Idren Sigrasal was acting as if he had not heard any of her words.

Ophelia, who let out a shallow sigh, said to the man whose eyes might seem pitiful.

“I clearly said there was no need for that.”

“You, is that what you…”

Ha, the man laughed as if he couldn’t believe it. Ophelia held back the emotions that were about to burst out towards him erratically. If she spoke more sincerely here, she didn’t know how the other person would react. She was already tired, and she didn’t want to add tension about uncertainty on top of that.

As she thought about how to most efficiently end the situation, he asked her.

“Is that what you’re going to say to me now?”

Idren was really, unbelievable.

He was dumbfounded by the woman who was treating him in an absurd way, and he laughed hollowly at how pathetic he was for rushing to worry about such a woman.

He knew she was this kind of woman. But he had been blinded by a moment of gentleness, that kindness, and acted like a fool.

Anger rose at his own ignorance and the other person’s cruelty. Idren distorted his face.

“Do you not have any emotions?”

Ophelia looked at him with her characteristic cold eyes.

Before Idren realized that anger had settled in her blue eyes, she sneered.

“No emotions, how could that be? What else would this annoyance I feel towards you right now be if not an emotion?”

And Ophelia realized that her words had dealt a decisive blow to him. Because the man’s face had instantly turned pale.

He backed away from her with a look that showed no will to hide the hurt he had received. It was a reaction as if looking at someone who was fundamentally flawed from birth, but Ophelia did not even blink an eye.

Idren seemed to be even more shocked by her attitude. He muttered as he looked at her with shaking eyes.

“How did I end up falling for a woman like you…”

In the first place, Ophelia had never told him to like her.

But before she could say anything, he stormed out of the room.

As soon as Idren opened the corridor door, he was faced with countless eyes.

His stomach churned at those swarming gazes. Penrel approached him as he looked at some members of the Leden royal palace with a disgusted face.

“Your Majesty, what on earth happened…”

And the loyal knight seemed to have noticed that there were many eyes and ears around. Penrel closed his mouth.

Idren suppressed the urge to curse that was rising from within and passed through between them. The knight tactfully followed him as he retraced his steps.

As he walked quickly through the palace corridors, Prince Mahanas approached him. The man, who resembled his father more than his sister, had an anxious expression.

“Are you leaving now? Without further discussion…”

Idren saw the displeasure etched between the man’s brows and the smile meant to package his overall attitude as favorable. It was disgusting as expected.

The prince must have known what state his sister was in right now.

But he didn’t care at all. All he cared about was the deal with the other party being damaged.

At the same time as feeling nausea at her family’s attitude towards Ophelia, Idren realized that he was once again doing something foolish. Worrying about such a cruel woman.

If time had not turned back, Idren knew well what position he would have found himself in. He would have been left alone, struggling in despair.

Trying to figure out what he had done wrong.

He wouldn’t have been able to stop even though he knew it was a stupid thing to do.

Because he had already experienced how exhausting it was, Idren hated the woman who had tried to push him into hell again as if it were nothing.

How could she do that?

As if he had been beaten hard, the contents of his stomach surged up. In order not to accidentally let that emotion, resembling resentment, out of his mouth, Idren stopped. He had known since long ago that he should not show any reaction when being hit.

When he stopped, both the prince and Penrel stopped with him. Idren realized that he was standing in the royal garden, which was filled with the scent of spring. Lush flower petals came into view.

In the landscape of pervasive warmth, he thought about what would happen if he pushed the prince away and left. Then his engagement with Ophelia would break, and Leden would have to return half of the bride price they had already received from him.

Idren knew that Leden would suffer a huge blow because of that. Perhaps, as Ophelia said, the country could be ruined.

Ophelia said that was what she wanted, that she could get everything she wanted just by that.

But what would he gain?

And for the first time, Idren felt the desire to interfere with what Ophelia was doing.

Until now, he had tried to be on her side. He had tried to give her everything she wanted.

Even if it went against his desires, he was willing to give up his share if only he could make the other person happy and keep them alive.

Ophelia did not show him the bare minimum of courtesy. The fact that she had thoughtlessly taken her own life again proved it.

Ophelia did as she pleased like that.

But was he not allowed to do as he pleased?

Soon, Idren realized what he had to do. He turned to look at Prince Mahanas, who was standing beside him with an anxious expression.

“I was hasty. Let us go back and finish our discussion.”