Only then did Yuan look directly at Boloniko’s face.

Standing at a proper distance with his hands behind his back, unlike usual, he smiled coldly under the shadow of his slightly disheveled short hair. It wasn’t his usual artificial, painted-on smile.

Yuan felt a chill from that smile.

She was afraid of the man who unhesitatingly said he had poisoned her husband.

It was a condescending attitude that meant even if you know, nothing will change, and at the same time it sounded like a declaration of war saying he had come to kill her now.

His icy blue eyes slowly scanned her blood-stained chest and solar plexus.

Though it belonged to the beheaded servant and Yuan, he didn’t seem surprised, as if he thought it was Clard’s.

‘Don’t trust Boloniko. Don’t get close to him. That’s the way to extend your lifeline.’

‘Don’t let him know about your ability. For some reason, he’s obsessed with digging into our family. The moment he learns of your ability, he’ll do anything to use you.’
‘He’ll promise you treasures and wealth. But what use is that when you’re dead? Even if you survive, you’ll just be his toy. That’s the kind of man he is.’

The voice of her uncle, who had earnestly implored her until the very end, swirled in Yuan’s mind.

‘See? You can no longer escape death.’

Amidst the swirling, oily voice, Boloniko’s brightly smiling face from before suddenly popped up in her mind.

‘Who said I’m running away?’

Yuan’s eyes, which had been sunk like an abyss, suddenly flashed with light.

I’ll uproot it.

I’ll climb up the stem of these strange and frightening situations and finally behead it with my own hands.

My husband.

I’ll protect my family.

“I can’t express how delighted I am by your visit, First Prince Boloniko, Your Highness.”

“Your warm welcome is unexpected. I recall you were upset with Boloniko for the rudeness last time.”

“…I’m getting tired of this life full of crises. Being in front of the prince, I feel as if I’ve become safe.”

At her words, Boloniko gave that painted-on smile of his from before.

Yuan felt her rapidly beating heart gradually slow down, as if surrounded by a silence that made her feel like she was alone in this world.

The trembling and fear began to disappear.

“That sounds quite good to Boloniko.”

“If I were to ask what Your Highness wants from me, would you answer?”

Boloniko raised his eyebrows as if surprised.

Yuan stood firm like a fisherman facing the waves.

“That proposal to escape from that terrible mansion… to run away to Your Highness. Is it still valid?”

“If you tell Boloniko an interesting story.”

“…”

“If you do, Boloniko will tell you what he wants. And that proposal to run away to me will be eternally valid. Lady Yuan Peliesse.”

Boloniko spoke with a smile, like someone who knew very well that he had the upper hand in this battle of wills.

There was no way he couldn’t read the fear filling her large eyes, though she appeared calm.

His nose was tilted high towards the ceiling, unlike when he was in front of her father.

And at that moment.

– Slap!

The hand of the woman, who looked incapable of killing even a single bug, forcefully struck his cheek.

His cheek, instantly marked red, trembled slightly.

‘What just happened to me?’

Boloniko, unable to believe what had just happened to him, stared blankly at the face of the woman who had stepped closer, his head still turned.

The woman, without a single change in expression, slowly reached out to his cheek like someone giving medicine after inflicting pain, the thought of retaliation completely bleached from his mind.

Yuan’s cold hand touched Boloniko’s cheek, which had flinched for a moment.

Yuan absorbed the pain from the dumbfounded prince’s cheek.

The more the tingling sensation violently stirred her cheek, the more foolish Boloniko’s face became.

“Quite an interesting ability, isn’t it?”

Boloniko’s blue eyes sparkled white like a child who had just completed the final puzzle piece.

It was the first time his eyes had sparkled like that since the day in his childhood when he heard the news that his father had become emperor.

Smiling back at Boloniko who was grinning like a child.

Yuan vowed with her eyes wide open as if they would never close.

‘The enemy of my sister. You who will kill my husband. I will surely erase you from this world before I leave.’

I absolutely.

Absolutely will not die just like that.

The deposed imperial couple boarded the patient carriage that Duke Mosan Lev had urgently procured.

It was the first time Clard, who had woken up, and Yuan, who had collapsed onto the bed without even changing her clothes after exhausting herself dealing with Boloniko, had met.

‘Do you know whose sickbed visit your wife was receiving while you were lying here like this?’
‘Eddie Lev! Your Highness needs to rest! Shut up!’
‘First Prince Boloniko. No matter how much I try not to suspect. He keeps doing suspicious things. What should we do? Why did I have to receive Boloniko, who came carrying a flower basket, in your wife’s bedroom?’

Clard stared for a long time at the face of the woman hiding a secret, following the worried black gaze scanning him.

Yuan was much quieter than usual.

The beautifully arranged hairstyle was disheveled, and the dried bloodstains on her disheveled collar were quite striking.

Was it so shocking that she couldn’t even change her clothes?

That wasn’t why they came to the capital.

All sorts of unpleasant memories danced with Yuan, fully revealing themselves like back alley food waste.

Among the people crowding in to enjoy the second day of the party as if yesterday, stained with blood, had never happened.

The carriage galloped in the opposite direction, squeezing past them and leaving the grand and splendid imperial palace.

“I don’t like this carriage.”

Clard was the first to break the silence.

Yuan listened to his low voice, holding onto her tattered heart.

“My terribly injured father was brought in this carriage, suffering before he finally passed away.”

His voice, seeping in like gently flowing water, neither trembled nor faltered.

His perfectly clean face softly shone whenever it caught the sunlight pouring in from the window at an angle, and his amethyst-like eyes, beautiful in their cut, gazed steadily at the splendor outside.

Yuan listened as Clard slowly swam through his wounds and past, letting them flow to her.

When she closed her eyes, it felt like scattered rain was soaking her.

His low voice was like the sound of sweet music.

“I at least exchanged a few last words with my father, but I couldn’t even hear my mother’s last words. She died from poison on the way to the capital. Maybe that’s for the best. If I had seen my mother dying in front of me, that scene would have tormented me as a recurring nightmare for the rest of my life.”

“…”

“I lived thinking it was her way of considering me until the end. Although I’m sorry to my mother. Because I couldn’t breathe otherwise.”

Why are you saying things you’ve never said before?

As if you think of me as family too.

As if it’s no big deal to tell me such things.

As if sharing your painful wounds with me makes you feel better.

As if I’m a great comfort to you.

“My younger sibling. I buried Apollini too, but I didn’t see them dying. I thought even that was fortunate. If I had seen Apollini dying before my eyes, I probably wouldn’t have wanted to live either.”

– Rustle.

The sound of Clard burying himself into the bedding he had placed on the spacious seat in advance was heard.

Only then did Yuan slowly open her eyes.

Her gaze was caught by Clard’s long eyelashes as he closed his eyes as if trying to sleep.

Yuan’s dry lips, which had been tightly closed, carefully opened after the sound of hoofbeats had continued for a while.

“…I’m the same.”

Beneath the shadowed eyelashes.

The amethyst eyes, twinkling like stars or looking like delicious candy, were gently revealed.

“I hate snow. My parents returned dead on a snowy day. My elder sister also returned as a corpse on a snowy day. I… didn’t hear last words from any of the three. I only remember their last faces as corpses. But hearing your words… it doesn’t seem like such an unfair thing. If I had seen my family dying before my eyes, it would have been even harder for me too.”

Clard stared at her for a long time without answering.

Yuan did not avoid his eyes.

Finally, his mouth opened again.

“There was an unusually large amount of snow this year.”

“…”

“We’ll increase the number of servants too. If it snows, we’ll just clear it every day.”

Saying that, Clard quietly closed his eyes.

Unlike his straight and cold-looking face, as if carved, his cheeks seemed a bit flushed.

Yuan was pierced by his clumsy and brief comfort.

It pierced, and pierced again.

Her whole face tingled and the tip of her nose stung.

It was painful.

‘You comfort me like that. But now I can’t even tell you the only thing I can do for you.’

I won’t die.

I absolutely won’t die before you.

She couldn’t even say that one thing anymore.

She crumpled and crumpled again the words she couldn’t say into her torn heartstrings.

“Did you say something unpleasant to the madam?”

“Why would I do that?”

“The madam doesn’t look well. Is it because of what happened at the imperial palace after all?”

“…”

Clard looked down at Yuan, who had left her desk in the study and joined the procession heading to the well as usual today.

Since returning from the capital, although he was the one who nearly died from poison, Yuan’s complexion was worse.

The reason he didn’t ask what was wrong was because he already knew that the fragile little being had seen her husband poisoned and the head of the servant who brought the poison rolling on the floor at the debutante ball, which was said to be every girl’s dream.

Normally, it would be natural to become somewhat depressed after experiencing such a thing.

Clard watched until the carriage carrying Yuan and the servants disappeared into the distance, becoming a dot.

“Is she eating well?”

“She does eat, but… not satisfactorily.”

“Work?”

“As you ordered, Hille is taking care of it.”

“Budget?”

“It’s sufficient. She hardly spends money. The only things she buys are books-”

“Call the dressmaker and jeweler. Also increase the number of gardeners, and hire some strong men who can clear snow in advance.”

“Snow? In spring?”

“It snows here occasionally even when it gets a little cold.”

The butler thought hiring such servants was a waste, but since the treasury had been plentiful for a long time due to the cleaning potion profits and increased taxes, he silently nodded.

“…Bedchamber visits?”

“You know the harmony between you two well enough without asking me. Are you subtly bragging to me who doesn’t have a partner?”

Clard had now escaped the pain enough that Yuan no longer needed to enter the bedroom every day.

He could endure one day easily, and from the second day, pain would come but it was bearable.

Now that it didn’t hurt, he could have told her to come to the bedroom only two or three times a week.

Although he acquiesced to bedchamber visits he couldn’t even remember and faced her in the bedroom every night, he didn’t want to tell Yuan, who had become noticeably pale since returning from the capital, not to come.

Not because of fear that the pain might return, but because that evening time was the only time he could see Yuan, who had strangely shut herself in her room since that day.