Clea stared blankly at the intense chandelier light that could be felt even from the terrace.

Aria Hersher was having a happy time laughing with the people inside the banquet hall.

Surrounded by numerous people who loved and cherished her.

‘Among them is my fiancé Lloyd as well.’

As her thoughts reached that point, Clea swallowed the bitter taste in her mouth and shifted her gaze.

She wanted to get away from this lonely and desolate terrace, but there was no place for her inside.

She was the infamous Clea Odoi, after all.

Being there where no one welcomed her would only result in uncomfortable stares.

Rather than that, it would be better to be alone here. She smiled, then bit her lip.

“I’m going to die soon anyway, so what’s the point of making each other uncomfortable?”

Clea thought, furrowing her brow due to the pain near her heart.

She didn’t have much time left anyway.

Do they even know?

That she was terminally ill.

There wasn’t much time left. It was better to spend time with people she wanted to meet rather than those she didn’t want to face.

If there was no one she wanted to meet, she thought it would be better to have time alone.

Just as she was thinking this, she suddenly felt a presence and looked around to find an unexpected figure there.

“What brings you here, Your Highness the Crown Prince?”

“Why are you alone here?”

“I was here because there was no place for me.”

The Empire’s Crown Prince, Admund Wilhelm.

One of the very few who wasn’t swayed by rumors even when looking at her.

Although he should have hated her more than anyone for Aria’s sake according to the original story, he approached with a calm expression.

‘Originally, he should be dancing with Aria over there. Why are you here?’

Clea wasn’t pleased with his approach, but she still smiled at him.

Thinking that if she didn’t smile on such a blessed day as the Emperor’s birthday, when would she? But even to herself, it felt like a forced smile.

“You are the young lady of the Odoi ducal family. There’s no way you don’t have a place.”

‘Why is someone who should know better saying this?’

The usual venomous, snake-like look in her eyes was gone.

Admund reached out his hand to her, thinking that she looked like she might disappear at any moment.

Clea’s expression momentarily hardened then relaxed as she looked at the hand he extended as if inviting her to enter together.

If she thought this gesture was the leisure of a victor, she could have accepted it as such.

Because he was Admund Wilhelm, the male lead who would eventually end up with the female protagonist Aria Hersher.

But Clea looked once at the scene visible beyond him, then shook her head.

If she returned to the banquet with him, there might not be anyone to criticize her immediately, but who knows what she would hear as soon as she separated from Admund.

It might be unpleasant for the victor, but at least she didn’t want to roll into a den of people badmouthing her.

Because she didn’t have much life left.

“Admund, I have one last request.”

A last request.

The two weren’t close enough to be making requests of each other.

But neither Clea, who spoke first, nor Admund, who quietly listened, pointed this out.

Admund silently looked down at Clea in front of him.

Clea met his gaze and smiled.

“Could you have a drink with me?”

What would he say?

Before speaking, he had already made a decision in his head.

That he should refuse, not knowing what tricks she might pull.

However, unlike usual, Admund couldn’t make a decision right away.

Seeing that Admund couldn’t make any decision, Clea took a step closer to him.

As the distance narrowed, their faces became more clearly visible to each other.

“I’m feeling very lonely right now.”

She pointed to a spot with her hand.

In the place she pointed to was Lloyd, clinging closely to Aria’s side in an irritating manner.

Admund sighed at the sight.

It was incomprehensible how his one and only friend could neglect his fiancée and cling to another woman.

“Wait a moment. I’ll bring him myself.”

He thought he should bring Lloyd over and tell him to take good care of his fiancée. Thinking that was the only thing he could do, he was about to move.

“I see Your Highness dislikes me like everyone else.”

“What?”

But Admund stopped in his tracks at the bitter voice he heard as he was about to turn around.

There was disappointment in Clea’s voice, but she quickly composed her emotions.

Because they weren’t close enough for her to feel disappointed in him.

“I’m fine, so you don’t need to call him over. We probably wouldn’t have a good conversation anyway.”

With those final words, she erased even the smile on her lips and looked down at the floor.

To think that Clea, who was called a villainess, would show such a weak side.

She had always glared like a fierce cat and been wary whenever anyone approached. The only person she had allowed close was her fiancé, Duke Lloyd.

Admund, who had seen Clea look as happy as if she owned the world when Lloyd was by her side, slightly furrowed his brow.

“With one word from me, Lloyd could stay with you until the end today.”

“As I said just now, even if you did that, he would only blame and glare at me. I’d rather be alone than that.”

“…Have you given up on Lloyd?”

Admund asked a question that could be rude to the other person.

She had no obligation to answer, but thinking that she didn’t have much time left, Clea shook her head.

For a moment, Admund’s gaze turned cold, but.

“We weren’t suited for each other from the beginning.”

He turned his head after hearing her next words.

As Clea had thought, Admund was no fool. He knew well what position Clea was facing now.

But his heart wavered at the vulnerable side she was showing for the first time in her life.

Although the rational thought that the villainess might have some scheme came first.

His wavering heart couldn’t easily turn cold.

She had always shown a cold face in front of others.

He thought she would get through this calmly too. He thought she wouldn’t be discouraged by such wounds because she was a woman with strong pride.

But now she looked different from usual.

She who he thought knew nothing of loneliness now seemed to have given up on everything.

Admund asked her.

“But you want to be with me?”

At Admund’s words, Clea lifted her head for a moment to look at him.

Clea smiled as she saw his red eyes shining charmingly like the moonlight in the night sky.

“Your Highness was the only one who came looking for me in the banquet hall.”

She had been alone and lonely until now. It was a familiar solitude as it had always been that way.

But Admund approached her. At this unexpected moment, Clea’s heart was shaken.

“So now I want to drink with Your Highness, who was the only one to come find me.”

Admund hesitated for a moment as he glimpsed a bright smile from her, unlike before, when she said she wanted to drink.

It didn’t take long for him to decide.

He liked seeing that smile he had never glimpsed during their entire time at the academy. He wanted to see her smiling face a little more.

“Don’t regret it.”

“What regret? My fiancé is leaving me alone over there too.”

She wasn’t her usual sharp self. The silver hair and blue eyes approaching with a relaxed smile seemed out of place.

Looking at her, Admund felt drunk even though he hadn’t had any alcohol.

Opposite from before, she reached out her hand first this time. Admund took that hand and followed where she led.

People they passed by whispered about the two, but since they were in a remote place, it hadn’t reached other people’s ears yet.

Of course, it was only a matter of time before that happened too.

However, neither of them cared about that at all.

One person was living day by day, and the other was a man who would reach the pinnacle of the empire.

They had no reason to care about others’ gazes.

“I told you not to regret it.”

“I won’t regret anything.”

“Even though you have a fiancé?”

The two continued their conversation with the distance between them narrowed even more as they arrived at the Crown Prince’s palace.

They were quite drunk by now.

“That person is openly cheating, so why can’t I?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

The drunken Clea couldn’t think clearly.

Even though she knew she shouldn’t cross the line, she couldn’t move rationally.

If it was the Clea from the original story, it might have been different, but in truth, the man before her eyes seemed more attractive than Lloyd.

A height about a head taller, neatly styled hair like black velvet, and red eyes that looked like they were made of bright red blood.

His appearance was truly enchanting and classic, reminiscent of a vampire.

But because he was destined to be the husband of the female lead in the future, she hadn’t dared to approach him closely.

‘But now he’s right in front of me.’

Clea swallowed, clinging to what little reason she had left.

Through the gap in his shirt that he had slightly loosened due to his body heating up from drinking, she could see his snow-white neck.

She approached closely with the urge to leave a mark on that snow-white nape.

Admund didn’t move at all even as she approached with fierce, beast-like eyes.

Rather, he looked forward to it.

‘I wonder what expression you’ll make tomorrow morning.’

With the sight of her biting, licking, and kissing him, he too let go of his reason, unable to resist the effects of alcohol.

But Clea didn’t particularly care.

‘What does it matter when I’m already cursed?’

Whether it was tomorrow morning or the day after, she thought it wouldn’t change the fact that she was terminally ill waiting for death.

So she thought even more simply.

That this was just a one-night happening that occurred by chance.