Startled, Nora slowly turned around. Arasila was standing there. In a perfectly normal state. From head to toe, completely intact.

Seeing her expression slightly distort, Arasila smirked.

“What did you expect? To see me together with Smith Young-sik?”

“……I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

For now, Nora feigned ignorance. Seeing her obviously racking her brains to grasp the situation, Arasila raised her lips in a crooked smile.

“Then why did you come here?”

“……”

Nora’s lips quivered, unable to answer immediately. Only after a few seconds did a forced excuse spill out.

“Just… came out for some fresh air to sober up.”

“Ah, I see. By any chance, didn’t you receive a note from Smith Young-sik?”

“……”

“It should have contained a secret request for help, saying everything was exposed to me and it’s all over.”

Nora bit her lower lip hard. She had wondered why he sent such an ambiguous note, but it seemed the foolish man had been completely found out by Arasila.

While deeply regretting not ignoring his note, Nora maintained the most brazen attitude possible.

“Well, I didn’t receive any note. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m busy……”

“Why are you going to such lengths?”

Arasila’s low, serious voice caught Nora’s ankle as she was hurriedly trying to leave.

Wiping the smile from her face, Arasila stared at her with a pensive gaze.

This incident went beyond the level of understanding that she could do this because she liked Demian. To try to bribe a strange young man to do such a vile thing.

“What benefit do you gain by trying to smear me with a dirty scandal?”

“……”

“It’s not like I would be ruined by it anyway. Demian loves me too much to divorce me just on suspicion of an affair.”

More precisely, they were bound by contract and couldn’t divorce.

Unaware of those detailed circumstances, Nora’s eyebrows twitched. Seeing the turmoil rippling across her flushed face from the alcohol, Arasila laughed inwardly.

As expected, mentioning Demian is the best.

Of course, knowing this well, she had deliberately stood next to Demian at the party entrance to greet guests from the start, and displayed bold skinship in front of Nora.

Nora’s lips trembled. To provoke her further, Arasila spoke with exaggerated gestures.

“Actually, Demian followed me around saying he liked me since we were dating, so I had no choice but to be with him. I wasn’t really interested, but he kept courting me. It was troublesome.”

“……”

“Well, I didn’t mind having a man who only looked at me, so I ended up marrying him. Sometimes he loves me so much it’s almost scary, you know?”

“……”

“It made me feel sorry for the others who liked Demian. No matter how much they liked him, Demian only looks at and loves me.”

Nora learned for the first time that when anger exceeds its limit, the inside of one’s head turns completely white.

Reason was lost and emotions dominated her entire body.

She glared at Arasila with bloodshot eyes and muttered.

“Lies.”

“Pardon? What did you say?”

“Stop lying. Duke Vandermir never followed you around saying he liked you.”

“How would you know that? Did you open Demian’s head and look inside?”

At the blatantly mocking tone, Nora’s eyes completely rolled back.

“I liked him for 4 years, how could I not know!”

Her furious shout shook the quiet garden.

“Duke Vandermir wasn’t even interested in witches like you in the first place! You seduced him. You deliberately tempted him knowing he was the man I liked! You did it on purpose to get back at me!”

“You have quite a severe victim complex. I’m telling you, Demian liked me. Oh! Don’t tell me, Lady White. You’re not doing this because you still like Demian who married me, are you?”

Arasila put both hands to her mouth with a surprised expression, then lowered them and curled up the corners of her mouth mockingly.

Of course, that sight provoked Nora even more. She strode up to Arasila, grabbing her collar and shouting.

“Yes, I like him! Just watch, I’ll definitely save Duke Vandermir from a vicious and cunning woman like you! Just you wait and see!”

“I’m watching right now.”

“Eek, you really…!”

Just as the thoroughly agitated Nora reached out to grab Arasila’s hair.

A strong force seized her wrist.

“Don’t you dare lay a hand on my wife.”

“D-Duke Vandermir…?”

Nora opened her eyes in surprise at his sudden appearance. Demian coldly knocked away her hand and brought Arasila behind him.

Then, as if she didn’t exist, he fixed Arasila’s disheveled collar. Nora stared blankly at him doing this.

To some extent, she had done this for him. Because it seemed Demian had been deceived without knowing what kind of woman Arasila was.

Because she wanted to let him know that she was the one who truly loved him sincerely.

‘But why… are you looking at that woman with such eyes?’

Seeing Demian looking at Arasila with slightly furrowed brows and worried eyes, Nora was greatly shocked.

In the current situation, that one gaze felt more significant than physical contact between flesh.

As she stood there in a daze, feeling her mind grow hazy, the sound of people whispering suddenly drifted to her ears.

“Did you hear just now? Lady White said she likes Duke Vandermir? Even if she liked him for a long time, it’s not right to like a married man now, is it?”

“Ugh, of course not! It’s completely crazy unless she wants to break up someone else’s family!”

“Lady White is really scary. To spout such harsh words to his wife because she likes a married man. It reminds me of an opera I saw recently.”

“Sigh, how on earth did Duke and Duchess White raise their daughter to be like that. Tsk tsk, she’s disgracing her family and womanhood!”

Only then did Nora look around in shock. She hadn’t noticed earlier because it was dark, but the garden where she had been talking with Arasila was connected to the hall’s balcony.

People had thrown open the curtains and come out onto the balcony to watch her as if she were a spectacle.

“N-no… No, everyone. This isn’t what……”

Nora desperately waved her hands and approached the balcony to explain, but people only frowned more.

Feeling her heart sink at the vivid contempt on dozens of faces, Nora felt her heart plummet.

It goes without saying, but she had no intention of publicly revealing her feelings just because she liked Demian.

No matter how much she hated to admit it, Demian was a married man who had wed Arasila. Even in common society, there wouldn’t be a crazy woman who would publicly confess to a married man.

In aristocratic society, one had just been created because of her.

‘Th-this isn’t what I wanted……’

It should have been Arasila receiving such contemptuous looks, not herself.

As the situation flowed in the exact opposite direction of what she had originally intended, Nora’s body trembled.

As she turned around to avoid the gazes pricking her skin, she saw Arasila quietly watching her from behind Demian.

Nora glared at Arasila with tear-filled eyes. A vivid light of resentment rose in her pupils.

“Duchess Vandermir, you…… You deliberately lured me here, didn’t you?”

Arasila shrugged without answering.

She came out from behind Demian and approached the balcony where people had gathered.

“Everyone, I’m sorry but please go back inside. I beg you.”

At the polite request, the muttering people turned to leave one by one. Even in this situation, they each added a word of praise for Arasila who was considering Lady White’s face.

After instructing the maids inside the hall to draw the curtains and see the guests off, she returned to Demian’s side.

Nora was looking down at the ground, transparent tears falling drop by drop.

“Now that the spectators are gone, shall we talk more honestly?”

“……What more do you want from me? Do you want me to kneel and beg?”

Nora spat out in a voice coated with defiance and resentment. Arasila sighed and said.

“You think I stole Demian from you, don’t you, Lady White?”

“It’s not just what I think, it’s the truth!”

At the sharp cry, Arasila raised both hands and stepped back a couple of paces.

“Alright then. I’ve provided the opportunity, so confess your feelings to Demian.”

At those words, Nora opened her eyes wide, while Demian frowned as if to say ‘what on earth are you doing’.

“If Demian accepts your feelings here, I’ll acknowledge your relationship and step aside. Of course, we can’t divorce right away, but I’ll write a statement promising to definitely divorce. How about it?”

“……”

Nora swallowed dryly. She was already standing on the edge of a cliff anyway. She had no choice but to cling to even the faintest hope.

Since she had publicly confessed her feelings for Demian in front of people, it would be much better to have mutual feelings than a one-sided love.

‘If Duke Vandermir doesn’t accept my feelings, I’m really finished.’

Nora approached Demian with a tense face. Her palms were wet with sweat.

After carefully choosing the prettiest words in her mind that could fully convey her feelings, she cautiously opened her mouth.

“Duke Vandermir, actually I confessed before too—”

“When did you confess?”

Demian cut off Nora’s words and questioned in an indifferent voice. Nora’s heart, which had just started to swell like a balloon being inflated, cooled chillingly.

During the 4 years of her unrequited love, she had followed Demian around to the point of being sick of it. Wherever he appeared, she chased after him and revealed her feelings directly and indirectly.

She had sent passionate love letters, and even confessed her love fervently face to face.

Since she had done each of those multiple times, Nora had in fact already been rejected countless times by him.

But……

Demian, looking down at her with an impassive face, seemed to have no recollection of such facts at all.

Not a single confession where Nora had carefully packed her feelings and conveyed them tenderly had left even the faintest trace on him.

Unable to accept that fact right away, Nora grasped his clothes and said.

“I-I sent letters and told you I liked you several times, didn’t I?”

“It seems like that might have happened, but I don’t really remember. More importantly, don’t touch my body carelessly, my lady.”

Demian took out a handkerchief and brushed off Nora’s hand as if removing dirty filth.

He was of course aware that Nora liked him. But he didn’t remember specifically how many times she had confessed to him or what she had said.

He hadn’t bothered to conscientiously store it in his mind, considering it unnecessary information.

“Ha……”

In the end, Nora, who had fallen in unrequited love for 4 years with a man who couldn’t even remember her confession and was about to ruin her life, burst into bitter laughter.

At least, at least she thought he would remember her confession……

She thought he would remember, since he had rejected her so coldly.

Nora asked desperately one last time.

“Really…… You truly don’t remember? I told you I liked you several times!”

“There were many such people, so I’m not sure. You were probably one of them.”

That indifferent reply completely shattered Nora. She finally realized that her feelings meant nothing to him.

Not at all special, not at all impressive. Just lumped together with others as insignificant and worthless enough to be grouped together.

There was no way to denounce Demian’s words as lies, as Nora had never felt any favor from him all this time.

With all strength drained from her body, Nora staggered. Even though he was right in front of her, Demian did not support her.

As she stumbled, tears welling up from the bitterness, someone supported her back from behind.

Nora reflexively leaned on that strength, then soon stiffened as she realized who it was.

“If we’re done here, shall we two have a talk now, Lady White? I have some things I’d like to ask you.”

Arasila fixed her posture and smiled brightly.