“Who is it?! How dare you come here now…!”

As the man in the robe slowly revealed his face, silence fell upon the bustling square.

Around the time when even the breeze brushing the tip of her nose felt as cold as a blade.

‘What’s going on?’

Leah slowly opened her eyes, sensing a distinctly different atmosphere.

Before she closed her eyes, everyone had been staring at her. Now, all the spectators’ gazes were directed at the man standing in front, not at her.

‘Who is he…?’

Perhaps it was because of the dazzling sunlight. The man’s face was not clearly visible due to the deep shadows cast upon it.

The man began to approach closer, step by step, with the sun at his back. Only the sound of his footsteps treading on the dirt ground echoed through the execution grounds.

A heavy silence that weighed down on everyone. Overwhelmed by the mysterious man’s imposing presence, everyone held their breath and focused on his every movement.

‘Who on earth is that man….’

As the shadow obscuring the man’s face disappeared, his brilliantly shining golden hair was revealed.

The all-too-familiar golden hair, as if pure gold had been pulled out and placed there. And under the scorching sun, the man’s faintly visible red eyes.

“…Duke?”

Leah’s hands and feet trembled like a leaf, as if she had seen a ghost.

Could it be that she was already dead and had come face to face with the man who had come to greet her in the afterlife?

After all, he should have been buried in a cold pile of dirt, his body already frigid.

“W-what in the world is going on…!”

Someone shouted in Leah’s stead. Looking up, she saw Viscount Rodrigo, who had been sitting next to the judge, standing up from his seat.

The viscount’s mouth gaped open, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Then, a few people who knew the duke’s face let out gasps of astonishment. Only then did Leah realize. The duke, who had been dead, had come back to life.

‘He wasn’t dead…?’

No matter how many times Leah blinked, the scene before her eyes did not change.

At that moment, when a very faint smile seemed to flash across the duke’s lips, as if he found Leah’s reaction amusing. Someone’s outcry caused the hall to stir once again.

“The duke! Didn’t they say he had passed away?”

“That’s right. Wasn’t that why they were executing that pharmacist?”

“But wasn’t Duke Hyderne said to be sickly? For someone who died and came back to life, he seems somewhat…”

Everyone uttered their own remarks towards the duke, but Leah couldn’t hear any of them.

She was simply overwhelmed with emotion at the fact that this man was not dead.

‘…The duke.’

Leah’s eyes quickly welled up with tears. And soon, the tears that had gathered in the corners of her eyes flowed down her cheeks.

‘He’s alive…! He didn’t pass away…’

The fact that Akkia was alive meant that he had not died because of the new drug.

Just that alone was enough to free her from the terrible guilt that had been suffocating her. Leah’s stiffened face loosened with a deep sense of relief that had come belatedly.

‘Thank goodness… Really.’

As if responding to the duke she faced, Leah showed a faint smile. But perhaps it was because the tension that had been weighing on her for so long had been released.

While looking at the duke who was saying something. Simultaneously with the feeling of all strength leaving her body, Leah’s body collapsed.

‘It’s cozy.’

It had been a long time since she felt such warmth. She could feel the soft and fluffy bedding enveloping her body.

‘Who is it?’

As a hand gently brushed over her earlobe, an embarrassed moan escaped Leah’s lips.

As if annoyed by the touch, Leah buried her face deep into the pillow.

‘Is this a dream.’

It seemed like a sweet dream where someone caressed my face with a tender touch filled with affection.

The heavy breath tickling the tip of my nose. And the ticklish touch of a hand sweeping back my hair.

‘Why does it feel so real?’

The vivid sensations were too real to be a dream, and Leah’s mind gradually awakened. As she gently opened her eyes, feeling that something was strange, what she saw before her eyes was.

‘The duke…?’

Finely sculpted features, brilliant golden hair reminiscent of the sun. And even the blood-red eyes.

She blinked her eyes as if she had seen a ghost.

Was she still dreaming? Leah carefully pinched her skin with her fingers.

“Ouch! It hurts…”

Judging by the pain when she pinched her skin with her fingers, it wasn’t a dream either.

“Are you really alive? W-what in the world…”

But Leah still couldn’t believe this reality, and she gingerly touched the man’s face.

The unfamiliar sensation of skin felt on her fingertips was telling her that it was not an illusion.

As Leah was fumbling over the man’s face like that. He grabbed her wrist and murmured.

“You’ll wear out my face.”

‘Ah.’

The deep, bass voice echoed in Leah’s ears. It was all too familiar… It was the voice she had longed for so much.

“Is it really you, Duke…?”

Leah, who had gotten up from the bed as if she would bounce off from the shock, looked the man up and down. Yes. There couldn’t possibly be another man with a face like this.

“Oh my goodness.”

She had clearly witnessed him drawing his last breath with her own two eyes. As she stood there with parted lips, stunned, he murmured.

“What, are you not happy? That I’ve come back alive.”

This wasn’t a matter of being happy or not. Leah just stood there, frozen, as if she hadn’t fully grasped the situation yet.

Seeing her like that, the man took her hand and led her.

“I’m disappointed.”

Then he brought her hand up to cup his cheek.

“When I died, you cried and made such a fuss.”

After pressing his cheek against her hand for a long time, the man growled.

“It must have all been a lie.”

Before she knew it, his lips were touching her palm, and she could feel his breath on it.

“That’s not it. You definitely drew your last breath then…”

“I did.”

The man smiled as if he found Leah’s reaction amusing.

“But thinking about you flirting with other men while I was gone.”

A chilling light flashed in the man’s red eyes.

“It makes my stomach churn.”

‘What?’

It was mind-boggling enough that the duke, whom she thought was dead, had come back to life. And the first thing he says is exactly…

Swallowing her saliva without realizing it, she began to carefully examine the place where she had been lying.

Inside an unfamiliar room. Due to the thick darkness, she couldn’t see properly, but one thing was clear. It was dazzlingly luxurious.

At that moment, the man murmured her name. In a very gentle voice, unlike before.

“Leah.”

His fingers grasping her chin, as if telling her not to get distracted, were hot.

‘Was the duke originally… like this?’

Leah examined the man one by one with a strange gaze.

From his skin that seemed to overflow with a healthy glow, to the firmly built chest muscles visible through the opening of his gown.

Against her will, her gaze began to slowly descend past the solid abdominal muscles.

– Gulp.

Leah, who had forcibly lifted her gaze that kept drifting downward, raised her head.

As if finding Leah’s reaction amusing, the man chuckled lowly and gently brushed over her earlobe.

“I apologize for calling you a quack all this time.”

A deep, bass voice brushed past her ear, as if from a cave.

“Because thanks to you, I feel like I’ve been reborn.”

The man’s long fingers caressed her cheek. As if even this moment was unbelievable, he murmured.

“From now on, everything will be different.”

In the darkly shadowed room. The gazes of the two intertwined in the air.

“…Pardon? What do you mean…”

It happened in an instant. He had climbed on top of her body. Before she knew it, the duke was positioned above Leah, who had her back pressed against the bed.

“D-Duke?”

“I thought you’d be a little happier.”

He replied softly, untangling the strands of hair stuck to Leah’s cheek one by one.

“Didn’t you wish for me to become healthy?”

Yes. She had wished for it.

Perhaps in this entire mansion. No, in the entire empire, there was no one who wished for the duke’s health as much as she did.

‘But this is too healthy, even for being healthy!’

Wasn’t he a man who was on the verge of death just a few days ago, no, had actually drawn his last breath? The Akkia she knew was definitely not such a masculine man.

He was a duke who had received a terminal diagnosis, being so sickly that he wouldn’t live long. And now he was pressing down on her so imposingly.

She began to find the unfamiliar sensation that had been pressing against her stomach uncomfortable. Hoping it wasn’t what she thought it was.

However, before she could find an answer, a voice mixed with heavy breathing came from Akkia.

“Leah.”

Swallowing her dry saliva once more, she pushed against his shoulders.

“Uh, Duke…? Let’s talk calmly first…”

“It’s strange.”

“…Pardon?”

“Strangely, I feel an overflowing strength in my body.”

The thick desire in the man’s eyes weighed down on her.

“To the point where I can’t control it.”

The red eyes that seemed to devour her were burning with passion, making her feel as if her soul would leave her body.

– Thump.

– Thump.

– Thump.

Her heartbeat pounded loudly, asserting its presence as if beating a drum. To the point where she thought she might die if her heart kept beating like this.

“So Leah.”

He drew closer, his lips almost touching hers, and a heavy breath escaped from him.

“Take responsibility.”

Then, gradually climbing up Leah’s slender wrist, he intertwined his fingers with each of her fingers.

“Because you’re the one who made me like this.”

As if he wouldn’t give her even the slightest chance to escape.

The sickly duke had become healthy. A little too much.