“Are you discussing business by the lake?”

However, those were the words that escaped her mouth.

In the end, she couldn’t ask. Today too, she pretended not to know about that time. For the sake of her revenge, she turned a blind eye to the man’s pain.

Suddenly, she felt revulsion towards herself.

It was an unnecessary emotion.

“I’m glad he’s not asking to swim together. I learn every day that there are many people in the world with unique tastes.”

Damion laughed. Ansi followed suit, laughing and nodding.

As if the expression was hypnotizing her brain, smiling actually made her heart feel a bit lighter. Perhaps it even felt somewhat enjoyable.

He glanced at his watch and asked.

“Are you free now?”

It was still too early to sleep. Ansi nodded.

“I have something to show you.”

“What is it?”

“Come with me.”

Damion extended his hand to Ansi. As if entranced, Ansi approached him and took his hand.

They started walking together. As they went down to the first floor and passed through the corridor, they encountered several servants.

The servants were smiling, and Ansi realized their gazes lingered on the clasped hands of the master and mistress even as they bowed their heads, making her face flush.

She had become used to holding hands with him now. Recognizing this fact made her feel light-headed, yet somehow uncomfortable.

“It’s here.”

They entered a room located on the first floor.

It was a space Ansi had never been to before.

Damion turned on the light bulb. As the surroundings brightened, the interior of the room came into view. Numerous objects were covered with white cloths. It wasn’t difficult to guess that they were paintings.

“I thought the paintings were only in the gallery.”

Damion’s mansion had a separate gallery. There were quite a few paintings there, so she thought that was all. But to think there were this many unhung paintings as well.

“The paintings in the gallery are rotated regularly. When they’re rotated, the paintings are either sold or stored here. There are also some that I’ve bought but haven’t hung yet.”

Damion removed one of the white cloths, showing the paintings.

Nodding, Ansi suddenly realized why Damion had brought her here. She clapped her hands enthusiastically.

“You really love paintings. That’s amazing.”

It seemed he wanted to boast about having so many paintings. Elize had said that. All men are children, so they’ll surely like it if you praise them.

“That’s not it.”

Damion cleared his throat. Even as he denied it, a smile lingered on his lips.

“This is a painting I acquired from the Spring Hall exhibition three years ago. This one is a painting by the master Serpio during his study abroad in Silonia…”

Damion’s ears turned slightly red as he showed her the other paintings. His tone was no different from usual, but somehow he seemed subtly excited.

Does he really like this kind of praise? Elize was right. Ansi didn’t quite understand, but she continued to applaud.

Well, it was applause with some soul in it. Even to her untrained eye, these paintings looked valuable. It was worth praising his ability to recognize such things.

Finally, all the cloths covering the paintings near them were removed. However, Damion didn’t remove the white cloth from one large painting leaning against the wall. What could that be?

Ansi stared at that painting intently. Damion, standing beside her, whispered in an excited voice.

“You should see that painting yourself. That’s what we came here to see.”

“Ah, it wasn’t these other paintings?”

“I didn’t originally intend to show those.”

“…”

Ansi approached the large painting. She carefully pulled at the white cloth. With a swish, the cloth fell away, revealing the painting.

“Ah…!”

In front of the large painting, Ansi let out an exclamation.

A black sky mixed with purple. An overwhelming grandeur unfolded before her eyes.

Ansi’s eyes sparkled as she took a step back. Her gaze followed the stars, moving from left to up, then to the right. In this way, she traced the constellations filling the sky with her eyes.

“This painting…”

It was clear. Such an accurate and intricate arrangement of stars was only in that painting she had seen before.

The night sky painting they had seen together at the art exhibition held at Spring Hall before her marriage to Damion.

“Why is this here?”

It definitely had a tag saying it was sold to someone. Though she didn’t know who…

“Could it be that Damion was the one who bought this painting?”

“I was planning to give it to you right after the wedding, but I missed the timing.”

Damion smiled sheepishly.

“Is this… a gift for me?”

“Yes, it is.”

A gift? Did that mean he had bought it thinking she would like this painting from the start? Ansi stared at the painting with a blank expression. Not knowing how to react to the unexpected gift, she just clasped her hands together, fidgeting.

“That’s the Leo constellation, and that’s Virgo. Am I right?”

Standing behind her, Damion reached over Ansi’s shoulder to point at the lights in the painting. Feeling his presence so close, Ansi held her breath.

When Ansi didn’t respond, Damion lowered his hand, seemingly disappointed.

“Am I wrong? I studied for this.”

“…You even studied?”

“To impress you. Only the brightest ones.”

At those words, Ansi let out a laugh. The thought of the man hurriedly studying to find the brightest constellations made her smile.

“You’re right. If you connect Denebola in Leo and Spica in Virgo, it forms a large triangle. You know well.”

“But the best one is Arcturus. Because Ansi taught me about it. The one who protects the bear, no, the family.”

Damion’s words made Ansi’s heart ache once again.

Roma’s words came to mind. It occurred to her that the family Damion spoke of protecting that day might not be his parents or brother. Perhaps, the only one Damion could call family now was his wife, herself.

“Um…”

Ansi opened her mouth, turning slightly to look at Damion standing behind her.

But in the end, she couldn’t say anything.

About Geris, or anything else… really nothing at all.

“What is it?”

“…Elma was saying we should change the curtains now that it’s summer. What color do you think would be good?”

“Whatever you like.”

Damion laughed as if it didn’t matter. Feeling his cool laughter up close, Ansi forced herself to smile.

“Can I hang that painting in my room?”

“It would be an honor.”

“Then I should choose curtains that match the painting.”

“I’ll have to visit your room often. To see the painting.”

Ansi nodded.

They gazed at the painting silently for a moment. As if they were really looking up at the night sky together.

In the stillness, Ansi somehow felt her heartbeat was louder than usual.

Although not a hair’s breadth of her was touching Damion, her hair stood on end precisely because of that. The presence felt behind her raised a strange tension. To the point where she found it odd that she was feeling such tension.

To forget that sensation, Ansi focused on each star in the sky.

She didn’t know if bringing this cascading night sky into her room was the right thing to do.

She just wanted to do so now. She wanted to keep that spring sky they had seen together that day, this moment, by her side.

Blink, bright natural light entered her vision.

Blink, she saw the large back of a man moving forward.

Blink, light yellow hair like sunshine. A dignified and neat gait. A faintly perceptible, captivating musk scent.

Ansi shook her head vigorously and squeezed her eyes shut before opening them again. As she cleared away the fog clouding her consciousness, the scene before her eyes became clear.

Damion was walking in front of her. Under the clear sky, the green-filled path was somewhere she had been before.

‘Damion, where…’

Ansi trailed off. A chilling sensation crept up her spine. The mark on her waist, which showed no change despite daily checks, seemed to be burning.

It was clear. Again, it was that dream.

The future where Damion de Orphe dies.

Suddenly, Damion stopped walking.

Silence enveloped him.

However, Damion alertly scanned his surroundings as if sensing a presence from somewhere. He abruptly threw himself to the ground.

Bang!

Simultaneously, a loud gunshot rang out. A bullet flew from behind a tree in the distance.

‘…!’

Ansi froze, unable to even scream.

The place where the bullet passed was where Damion’s head had been. If he had remained standing as before, he would surely have been shot in the head.

Fortunately, Damion had dodged in time, and the bullet didn’t penetrate him. Avoiding like this seemed to be ingrained in him. How fortunate it was that this man had been a soldier.

‘Quickly, run away, Damion.’

She didn’t know who had fired the gun, but he needed to take cover. He needed to get to a place where the opponent couldn’t see him. With his quick reflexes from earlier, he could surely dodge.

But something was strange.

Damion remained motionless in his prone position.

‘Damion?’

Thankfully, he slowly raised his body from the ground. However, he didn’t run away.

With his head bowed low, he knelt down. Damion covered one ear, his face contorted in pain.

Very slowly, and even slower.