Ludmila felt dismayed when she saw Kedilen wake up. But she didn’t lose her composure.

While maintaining as much calmness as possible, she put on a mask of concern over her face.

“Are you alright, Kedilen? I was surprised when you suddenly collapsed.”

“…What are you doing right now?”

At his slightly delayed question, Ludmila pulled the corners of her mouth into a faint smile.

She overlaid a gentle expression on her face to prevent him from noticing her intentions.

“I was trying to give you some water.”

“Water?”

Kedilen rolled his eyes slightly to stare blankly at the glass of water in the hand he was holding.

“The doctor said it would be good to replenish your fluids.”

“…Is that so?”

Kedilen, who had been silently watching Ludmila nod with a smiling face that carefully hid her tension, let out a long sigh.

Kedilen, who brushed his hair back with his empty hand, remained silent for a moment.

From this, Ludmila hoped that her excuse might have worked. To an outsider, it would have seemed like nothing more than an attempt to give him water.

“Well then, Ludmila.”

But the moment he assigned meaning to her actions, hope was no longer relevant.

“You drink it.”

The suggestion thrown out in the stillness pierced Ludmila’s heart.

Ludmila clutched her sinking heart and tried to smile, but Kedilen didn’t miss it.

He meticulously closed the distance while pushing away Ludmila’s hand with piercing eyes.

There was no trace of sleepiness to be found, making it hard to believe he was a man who had collapsed after taking sleeping pills.

“Why? Can’t you drink it?”

What flowed out between his crooked lips was poison.

At the voice that seemed to already know all about her plan, Ludmila’s body slowly crumbled.

But Kedilen still gripped her wrist tightly, as if he wouldn’t let her go.

The force was so strong that the pressure turned into pain.

Kedilen picked up the fallen glass and brought the remaining water to Ludmila’s lips, pushing up the corners of his mouth.

“Drink it, Ludmila.”

“…”

“Hurry. Drink it right now-!”

The eyes of the man who had lost his reason gleamed with betrayal and anger.

The struggle between Kedilen trying to twist her lips and push the liquid into her mouth while shaking the glass, and Ludmila pushing him away, continued for a long time.

“Just what…”

Kedilen’s coercion stopped when the sound of a clock striking the hour was heard from afar.

He released his hold on Ludmila with a dejected face.

Kedilen, who placed his hand on his forehead, looked at Ludmila lying on the floor with eyes full of confusion.

The Ludmila who he had welcomed as the mistress of the Erdi Marquis household and molded into what he wanted had returned completely changed in just two months.

The memory of his shameful plea to Ludmila, asking her to stay by his side because he needed her while killing his pride, made him feel even more miserable.

When Ludmila said she wanted to meet Ferington, he thought she just wanted to confirm something.

She might want to question the man who had tried to kill her.

Not doubting – that was his mistake.

Ludmila’s suspicious behavior, the medicine bottle in her hand, and the plan she tried so hard to hide.

Despite everything being clearly visible, his stupidity, blinded by the illusion that Ludmila had returned to him and that it couldn’t be possible, had ultimately led the situation to this point.

Whatever he had done to Ludmila in the past no longer mattered.

The past was the past, and Kedilen was tired of Ludmila’s recklessness.

“It’s time to give up and resign yourself, Ludmila. Isn’t it about time you admit it? That I’m the only one who can embrace you.”

“…”

“If you really can’t stand being by my side, then have a child. I’ll let you go then.”

Ludmila, who had been clutching her chest and breathing heavily, flinched and raised her head.

“As I said before, if you have a child, we can make appropriate excuses and it will help form the public opinion I need. When that time comes, I can let you go. So, have my child.”

“…You’re crazy.”

Despair, or anger.

Ludmila, who was struggling to speak with a trembling voice rippled with indecision, bit her lip hard.

“No. I absolutely can’t do that.”

What Kedilen wanted was a sacrifice. A sacrifice to fall into the pit in her place.

“Then you can’t leave me. If you don’t want to have a child, stay by my side.”

“Why are you so obsessed with me? Isn’t it enough without me now?”

The public opinion that had been driving him had turned favorable again, and his business was regaining stability.

If he divorced at the right timing, he wouldn’t suffer any damage.

After all, what he needed was just an image.

If he attached a scandal to her and pretended to be the victim, he wouldn’t need Ludmila, the Marchioness Erdi.

Despite the clear calculation of gains and losses, Kedilen refused to let her go.

As if Ludmila were his treasure, he tried to wrap her up beautifully while simultaneously monitoring and hiding her.

“Spread rumors that I ran away crazy for a man. Wouldn’t that be more beneficial for you? I, stained and bruised, can no longer be a noble lady of high society. Rather than keeping me, wouldn’t it be better to sell me off and maintain your image? Why are you doing this to me?”

“Why am I doing this? You don’t know?”

Kedilen, who had lowered his hand from his forehead, let out a dejected laugh and then furrowed his brow.

“It’s because I love you!”

“…Love?”

“Yes, love. It’s because I damn well love you that I’m doing this. Look!”

Kedilen picked up the fallen glass from the floor and shook it.

“Even though you did something like this, I haven’t laid a hand on you or punished you, have I? Even though you tried to kill me, I’m not getting angry but trying to understand you. If this isn’t love, what is it?”

“How can that be…”

Kedilen, who had risen from his seat, approached Ludmila, who was slowly muttering.

His steps, with a clear purpose, drew closer to her.

Kedilen smiled at Ludmila, who was hesitantly backing away.

“I love you, Ludmila.”

“That’s not love.”

The definition of love might differ from person to person, but at least what he was showing wasn’t love.

It was a craving for what he had to obtain by discarding his self-esteem, which he cherished like his life.

Buying and hanging an expensive painting was not much different.

“No, this is love. If not, why would I crave you like this?”

Ludmila’s back, which had been retreating while sitting on the floor, finally touched the wall.

She looked back in surprise, swallowing her breath, and when she looked forward again, Kedilen had somehow approached and was looking down at her.

“Ludmila.”

Kedilen, who had recited Ludmila’s name in a low voice as if catching his breath, reached out his hand.

From her head, down to her hair and cheeks, nose and lips. And following that line, when it finally reached her shoulder.

“Come to your senses, Kedilen!”

Ludmila’s desperate cry rang out as she struck away his hand.

Kedilen silently looked at his hand that had been pushed away with a slap sound, and soon realized that he had been rejected.

Then, as if he had let out a rough laugh, he looked at Ludmila.

As if he had lost his reason, the moment she felt his eyes cloud over with momentary anger.

“Ke, Kedilen…!”

Kedilen’s hand roughly grasped Ludmila’s slender neck.

Even as Ludmila’s hands clawed at her own body, unable to breathe, he smiled widely, tearing his lips to both sides.

“It’s love, this is. It’s love. If me begging and pleading to someone like you to stay by my side isn’t love, then what is it?”

“Please… please come to your…”

“I love you, Ludmila. I can give you more than that shabby duke. Jewels and dresses. I can give you anything you want. Just say it, Ludmila. So stay by my side. Be my woman and have my child.”

“I can’t… I can’t breathe…”

As the rough grip choked her neck, it became increasingly difficult for Ludmila to breathe, and the light in her eyes gradually faded.

But even in that situation, Kedilen did not loosen his grip.

Ah, in the end, fate cannot be changed.

In her fading consciousness, Ludmila suddenly recalled the day she had died.

When she returned, she didn’t want to die again, so she left her husband and finally found a place to stay.

In the end, only after driving the man she came to love to death did she realize that fate could never be changed.

Ludmila let go of her hands at the emptiness brought by that realization. She didn’t want to die, but perhaps fate couldn’t be changed.

That fact was sorrowful and resentful, but on the other hand, it was fortunate.

Aden.

Because you’re alive. Because I found out that you didn’t die and are alive.

In her consciousness turning pure white, the face of one man appeared.

The kiss they shared sitting face to face in the sunroom where calm moonlight fell had stirred and excited her heart more than any other time.

She was satisfied with the kiss from the wonderful man who had loved such an insufficient and lacking woman and had staked everything on her.

The only regret was that she couldn’t take his outstretched hand and tell him that she loved him too.

In the continuing flow of consciousness, Ludmila smiled at the indifferent figure that had turned his back on her last.

I’m really glad you didn’t get stuck in this mire.

I hope the rest of your life will be the same.

May you live freely without any oppression on that beautiful and vast plateau.

As her consciousness broke off, her body collapsed to the side in a view turning murky.

“…mila!”

Leaving behind the voice of one person she missed so much calling her in her fading consciousness.

Ludmila’s consciousness was dyed in darkness.