The officers who respectfully escorted Cassian inside disappeared quickly outside without any restraint, unlike before.

When the door closed with a click, Cassian boldly entered through the bars to where Yuriel was inside.

Yuriel’s frail body trembled miserably as she looked at him.

Hadn’t they said he had collapsed?

She thought he might never get up again.

As if all those rumors were nonsense, his appearance now was as unwavering as ever.

Though his face seemed pale at a glance, Yuriel, who had been watching him closely all this time, could tell. That he looked no different than usual.

Was she going mad and finally seeing things?

Even hearing the footsteps approaching one by one, it didn’t feel real.

Yuriel trembled as if she had seen a ghost.

Her body instinctively backed away.

But in a space enclosed on all sides, escape was meaningless.

Cassian grabbed Yuriel as she tried to flee and effortlessly gripped her face with one hand, finally turning her face towards him.

She was faintly etched above his red eyes.

Disheveled red hair, swollen cracked lips, a face streaked with tear stains.

All of it was captured in detail without missing anything.

Cracks spread across Cassian’s face as he looked down at her.

It was ridiculous. To have asked the officer about that silver-haired woman in this state.

She had been collapsed ever since learning her mother would suffer such a fate.

Of course, Cassian had heard about every detail of this child’s past few days.

Despite that, she still didn’t seek him out in the end.

And now she’s looking at him as if he’s a living ghost.

This wasn’t what he wanted to see.

This wasn’t in the picture he desired.

Even though it was a foregone conclusion that this child would end up begging him, what was so unsatisfying?

A whirlpool of emotions he couldn’t grasp himself tore through his insides.

An inexplicable displeasure swirled and distorted him.

Veins bulged over his clenched fist.

Well, what could be wrong with you?

In the end, it’s him who came here again like a sucker.

Cassian’s red eyes met Yuriel’s in mid-air.

The beautiful green eyes, lovely whenever he saw them, held the low, deep ripples of a dense forest.

Yuriel instinctively realized.

That the young master was her last hope. That he would be her last chance.

It didn’t matter how he had woken up or why he was here.

Only then did Yuriel’s soul, which had been absent, slowly return.

At the same time, the young master’s hardened face came into her view.

What words should she say to pull her mother out of that pit?

Would this young master believe in her innocence?

Even if he believed, would he step up for her, who had nothing to do with him?

Numerous thoughts muddled her mind.

Those thoughts evaporated like steam when his long, white fingers brushed her lips.

That hand pressing down on her chapped lips didn’t lift for quite a while.

Yuriel saw through her lowered lashes that his gaze was fixed on her lips.

At a distance of less than a step, only the young master’s breathing echoed.

The patter of rain layered over it.

The memory of him caressing her lips like this before was still vivid.

Though her body trembled at the unfamiliar sensation, Yuriel simply waited quietly, letting him do as he pleased.

In this situation, she was thoroughly the ‘subordinate’.

If even he, her last lifeline, were to leave her…

Everything would be over.

The world, except for him and her, seemed to flow slowly as if at a standstill.

His face, seen up close, sparkled even under the torchlight.

Long eyelashes, eyes flickering intensely beneath them, a smooth bridge of the nose below, tightly closed lips…

Yuriel, who had been unconsciously scanning Cassian, suddenly stiffened.

He wore an expression clearly different from before.

That look seemed exactly sad, or as if he were thoroughly angry about something.

Had she done something wrong?

If that was the case…

Desperation tangled and churned in her chest once again.

Only at the end of it did he meet her gaze.

She had been so determined just moments ago…

Yuriel couldn’t speak, her breath caught by his quiet gaze.

It was the young master who broke the silence first.

“Don’t you have something to say to me?”

The languid whisper spreading to her ears brought a ticklish fear as intense as the sensation that had touched her lips.

An eerie heat spread from Cassian’s hand, still holding one side of her face.

Yuriel had no choice.

“Please… help me just once.”

A suppressed sob escaped. Knowing what would happen if she lost this person too, fear swept over her trembling body.

Her voice, too, was the same, as if bearing the chill of midwinter all alone.

“With what?”

“Please release me so that my mother doesn’t become the lord’s mistress.”

Cassian quietly watched until Yuriel stopped crying.

Dark emotions of indiscernible shape twisted inside Cassian.

As if this wasn’t really the kind of words he wanted.

“Not that.”

Yuriel’s eyes filled with bewilderment.

The young master’s face, whose thoughts she couldn’t fathom, held determination.

As if he had no intention of listening to anything if she gave the wrong answer here.

“You said you knew I had collapsed.”

“…”

“Isn’t it courteous to ask after someone’s well-being before making a request?”

Yuriel swallowed hard and looked up at the young master positioned high above.

His figure blurred through her wet eyes, then became clear as the tears scattered.

What kind of game does this young master want to play with such a desperate person’s heart?

Resentment welled up, but she couldn’t dare show it.

As the young master said, she was the one making the request, and he was the only one who could grant it.

But no matter how much she thought, she couldn’t find the answer he wanted. Suddenly asking after his well-being.

Cassian gently lowered Yuriel’s face, which had stopped with a bewildered expression, and narrowed his eyes.

“You should have at least pretended to be glad I came back alive.”

“…”

“If you keep trembling like you’re seeing a ghost, won’t even my desire to save you disappear?”

Yuriel’s mind raced quickly.

Should she ask if he was alright? How he had woken up?

Or should she say that she had actually been worried?

Would the young master listen if she said such polite words now?

But who was she to be choosy?

“I was very worried.”

“…”

“Are you alright now?”

The pitter-patter of rain soaking in was the only disturbance etched into the blank space.

Cassian didn’t show even the slightest movement.

As if he hadn’t heard the answer he wanted.

Or as if he would watch to see how far she would go.

Yuriel painfully bit her lip.

“I’ll do anything you tell me to. Please…”

Cassian, who had been watching Yuriel gasp for breath, soaked in tears once again, rose from his seat.

He no longer felt like sitting face to face with such an expression.

The sight of her lying so blatantly while trembling at the mere sight of him, pale as a sheet.

If she was going to lie, she should at least do it without being so obvious.

Prickly thorns sprouted and tormented him.

Even though everything had gone according to his wishes.

The culprit will soon be revealed anyway.

That servant named Matil has already confessed everything before Raenode.

Tomorrow, this investigation too will move towards the truth.

As Lady Catherine’s staged act.

And he would leave this place.

Yesterday, Cassian received a letter from Lady Blanchet.

The main point was that she was coming to Alphonse herself, and that this time they should leave for good.

Something about a cure being developed.

There had been a time before when they said a cure had been developed, only for it to fall through.

He knew there were several who had died in clinical trials in his stead.

This would probably just be another one of those instances.

If he left Alphonse like that, there was a high chance he would never return.

He could tell by the dark red blood pouring out and the troubled looks on the doctors’ faces.

That he didn’t have much time left.

So it was time to wrap everything up now.

Come to think of it, it was a ridiculous thing.

To go to such lengths for a wench who trembles like she’s seen a ghost at the mere sight of him, when he’s going to leave anyway.

What a sucker he is.

In reality, all her clinging and wailing is just an act of a dutiful daughter, so he’s just being used.

He knows, but decides to bury such uncomfortable truths far away.

They’re just troublesome truths that would scratch at his mood.

Just as Cassian was about to exit through the door.

A pale Yuriel grabbed him.

Her slender hand trembled.

Yuriel stared directly at Cassian as he slowly turned around.

His eyes, red like well-polished rubies, pierced through her.

Yuriel looked at him and wrapped her arms around Cassian’s neck.

The trembling sensation traveled along her arms to Cassian.

Amusingly, Yuriel’s eyes were tightly shut even as she made this provocative move.

Finding her actions laughable, Cassian left Yuriel be. With the intention of seeing how far she would go.

For an instant, a rough sensation pressed against his lips.

Sweet air mixed with his inhalation seeped into Cassian’s lungs.

The lips that bit down as if to devour left only a moment’s warmth before creating distance.

Cassian held back an incredulous laugh at the faint contact, which could hardly be called a kiss or even something like an accidental collision.

His large hand gripped her head, fixing it in place.

So she couldn’t distance herself from him.