Ansi slowly opened her eyes in the room where dawn had already broken. She was lying on her side, resting her head on Damion’s arm.

The human body is truly amusing. Until she entered this room with Damion yesterday, it seemed like she would never fall asleep. But as dawn approached, her eyes closed on their own from fatigue.

Ansi placed a hand on the bed to get out, but she couldn’t lift her body.

“Where are you going?”

A low question tickled her ear. Damion’s arm, draped over her waist, firmly wrapped around Ansi.

Judging by his clear voice, Damion seemed to have been awake for a while. Or perhaps he never fell asleep at all.

“To get water…”

“Just lie down.”

Before she could finish her sentence, she was cut off. His tone was gentle, but somehow it gave the impression of a command.

Damion got out of bed instead of Ansi and headed to the table where the water jug was placed. He poured water into a glass and handed it to Ansi.

Only then did she sit up and quench her thirst before opening her mouth.

“Do you have any separate schedules today?”

Damion stared at Ansi without answering. His blonde hair sparkled beautifully in the dawn light. In contrast, his gaze was chillingly still.

It was hard to meet his eyes. Ansi lowered her gaze and stared at his jawline.

But no matter how long she waited, he didn’t move. Ansi gripped the glass and opened her mouth again.

“If it’s alright with you, Damion, I’ll stay with you today.”

From the moment she returned to this mansion yesterday, Damion never left her side for a single moment. It was the exact opposite of what she expected, that he would no longer see her.

That she was still the purpose of his life.

Ansi couldn’t understand how that was possible. But it was clear that Damion wanted to be with her. So Ansi decided to spend as much time with him as possible while he was at the mansion.

However, it seemed that what Damion wanted was more than that.

“That’s not for you to decide, Ansi.”

Along with his low voice, his gaze sank and turned towards her. Ansi raised her head. Though her eyes were filled with questions, he continued speaking, paying no heed.

“You’d better give up on the idea of going anywhere recklessly. Not just today, but from now on.”

“What do you…”

“I don’t mean to confine you only within this house. However, when you go out, I’ll have to accompany you.”

Damion spoke as if it were a very simple and obvious matter. But even after hearing it, Ansi couldn’t understand and was stunned. No matter how much he wants to be together, this is…

“Anything you need can be brought to this house, and if you want to go out, you can come with me. There won’t be any inconvenience.”

“But that would be troublesome for you too, Damion.”

“I don’t mind.”

“Aren’t you uncomfortable being with me, Damion? Why…”

“You asked me before, Ansi. If I was monitoring you.”

Ansi’s gaze wavered.

Some time ago, when she still didn’t trust Damion, she had asked him that. It was when the suffocating and pressuring feeling of being buried alone underground was eating away at her.

“I intend to monitor you now. I can’t let you do such an impudent thing again.”

Damion’s eyes as he spoke were cold.

Ansi felt her heart sink.

Damion was trying to forbid Ansi from leaving his sight.

Not because he wanted to be with her, but because he was anxious that she might do something reckless again.

She bit her lower lip hard. A mixture of sorrow and shame enveloped her.

How foolish of her to think that he wanted to be with her because he desired her, when he was so blatantly telling her that he couldn’t trust her.

Damion’s eyes holding her felt like sturdy chains. The image of the man who had smiled purely at her just a few days ago came to mind.

Ansi admitted it. It was natural for him not to trust her. She would do the same if she were him. After telling lies and betraying him so many times, it made sense for his trust in her to hit rock bottom.

“About that, I’m sorry. But…”

“Let me make this clear, this isn’t a matter where you have a choice. The choices given to you, Ansi, disappeared the day you called me to the hotel.”

His voice was resolute. His words about monitoring her were not just empty talk.

“How long… do I have to stay like this?”

“Until you give up that damn revenge and change your purpose in life.”

“I told you. I’ve already given up on revenge.”

Damion let out a dry laugh.

Returning to the bed, he gently cupped Ansi’s cheek and caressed it. It was a touch so different from the cold voice and chilling gaze with which he spoke of surveillance.

“I no longer believe your words, Ansi.”

Ansi’s gaze trembled. She, who was no longer trusted, had to pay the price for the betrayal he had determined.

Kardian quietly walked and stood in front of Derl’s room. The man sitting on the bed keenly sensed the presence and raised his head. Kardian looked at him through the iron bars.

“Have you been doing well?”

Derl furrowed his brows as if he didn’t understand. When the guard showed him the written words on paper, he finally nodded.

And then he asked Kardian.

“When can I meet my younger sister?”

“Well…”

Kardian pondered for a moment, then smiled and answered.

“There are still some matters to take care of. But don’t worry, you’ll be able to meet her soon.”

The guard raised the paper again to show it. Derl bowed his head and turned his body. Watching his staggering back as he walked to the bed, Kardian muttered.

“If your sister listens better, you might be able to meet, but… as of now, there’s a high chance you won’t see her for the rest of your life.”

Derl, who couldn’t hear, didn’t know what was being said behind him and just laid down on the bed. Kardian turned his steps with satisfaction.

The people who used to at least shout when the guard passed by couldn’t say a word to Kardian. Afraid that their lives might be cut short, they all held their breath in silence.

The tense silence continued for a while even after Kardian disappeared.

How long had passed like that?

Derl, who had been lying on the bed as if dead, finally sat up. He brushed back his disheveled hair.

“…”

After focusing on the sounds around him for a while without a word, he soon bent his waist. And with a neat motion, he unfastened the shackles binding his ankles.

Ordinary people might not know, but as someone who had been in the military, it was the type of shackles he had learned to unfasten in case he was taken prisoner.

But getting out was a more difficult problem.

Derl approached the door and ran his hand over the iron bars. The lock on the iron door could only be accessed from the outside, and even if he escaped, there was a high risk of being caught without knowing the structure of the building.

So for now, he observed the situation for a few days.

The place where the guards used to chat was in front of Derl’s room. It was at the end of the corridor, and since Derl couldn’t hear, it was perfect for conversation.

But there was one thing they didn’t know.

Right now, Derl could hear.

It was true that he couldn’t hear at first due to the aftermath of the bombing. Thanks to that, he spent a few months in peace without even knowing his father had died. But as his hearing gradually returned, he faced a terrible truth.

His father had told him that Kardian de Orphe would attack them in Parma. But the information known to the public was the exact opposite. It seemed like they had fallen for Kardian’s scheme.

He couldn’t find out how Ansi and his mother were doing. Derl, who was captured as a prisoner of war, spent about a year and a half without being able to do anything. The only reason he was still alive was that he had to meet Ansi and his mother again.

But… it seemed that Kardian had reached out to Ansi as well.

‘Ansi needs to listen better?’

Derl’s face distorted fiercely.

Staying here any longer won’t allow him to meet Ansi. Rather, it will only be a hindrance to her.

‘I have to get out.’

Derl stared at the corridor through the iron bars.

What he learned from the guards’ conversations was that there was a gambling den above. If so, there would be more people and noise at night than during the day. That would be the perfect time to escape from the prison.

There was no clock, but the time could be inferred through the intervals at which meals were brought.

‘Ansi, Mother…’

Derl, clenching his fists tightly, walked back to the bed and shackled himself with his own hands. A chilling aura emanated from him as he glared at the void without a word.

In the dark room, a stifled groan escaped from Damion.

In this dream, his mother was strangling his neck. It was agonizing and suffocating. Damion tried his best to loosen that hand, but his neck only got tighter and tighter.

“Haa…!”

The moment he grabbed and pulled his mother’s hand as if to tear it away, he finally opened his eyes.

Sitting up, Damion breathed roughly. Grasping his fiercely pounding heart, he looked around. This was the marital bedroom, and dawn was just breaking.

He hadn’t had nightmares for a while. It had been like that since he married Ansi.

But for the past few days, every day had been a nightmare. He couldn’t easily fall asleep, and when he did doze off, he unfailingly had bad dreams.

But it was okay. Because when he woke up, that woman was next to him. Just that alone allowed him to have a hundred, a thousand more nightmares.

Damion reached out to the side. But a strong sense of discomfort came over him. He turned his head.

There was no one beside him.