“Cassel, Cassel!”

Cassel’s friend hurriedly grabbed him as he walked with a murderous face. Then he spoke gently to Cassel, who was glaring at him as if he would devour him.

“Remember, Ariate is under the protection of the tower.”

Cassel hesitated at that advice. But it was only for a moment, he asked back with an even darker smile.

“Why, are you afraid I might hit the girl?”

Cassel’s friends couldn’t bring themselves to answer. His eyes were half crazed.

Cassel glared at his foolish friends and then laughed, grinding his teeth.

“No one follow me. I’ll kill anyone who does.”

Cassel didn’t want to be disturbed.

So he sharply cut off all those who were supporting him, and headed alone to the hydrangea garden where Ibi Ariate was said to be.

.

.

.

Unlike the wisteria brightly lit by lanterns, the hydrangea garden was asleep under the shallow moonlight.

Beyond the hydrangeas shrouded in darkness, a faint light could be seen.

It was light leaking from the circular pergola placed in the center of the garden.

Cassel strode towards it. But as he got closer to the pergola, he heard a small singing voice. It was a gentle, breathy hum.

Cassel immediately recognized that sweet voice as Ibi’s. So the anger that he had barely cooled during his walk here flared up again to the top of his head.

Feeling the urge to crush everything, he ran towards the pergola. But a few steps away, he was momentarily stunned by the sight before him.

Ibi was under the lantern-lit pergola.

Wearing a pure white dress with her long hair loosely braided, sitting on the bench and humming, she looked like a goddess who had briefly descended from the moon.

“Ha…”

So Cassel forgot his anger and let out a hollow laugh.

It was still an absurd situation no matter how he thought about it.

That she dared to stab him in the back with that pretty face, and instead of running away, she was sitting there as if asking to be eaten.

Cassel barely restrained himself from rushing in and shouting at her.

Ibi is under the protection of the tower. So he must never lay a hand on her. Moreover, Cassel was certain there was someone behind Ibi. So he put on his gentleman’s mask again to try to coax her.

When Cassel stood in front of the pergola with his usual elegant face, Ibi finally stopped singing.

“Why are you alone?”

“I thought it would be better for conversation this way.”

“I see you know you’ve done something to be scolded for.”

At Ibi’s small reply, Cassel took another step with a twisted feeling. But suddenly he felt dizzy.

Damn, is it because of the alcohol? Cassel hurriedly tried to regain his balance as he felt his vision spin.

“If you’re dizzy, sit down there.”

Though Ibi told him to sit, Cassel ignored her and leaned against a pillar.

Then he took out the paper detailing his misdeeds from his pocket and asked,

“Did you write this?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you do it?”

“An example was needed. To show what happens when someone messes with me.”

Cassel burst into laughter at the unexpected answer.

So she can even say such insolent things.

Cassel thought Ibi was scared but putting on a brave front. So he pressed more kindly.

“So who told you to do it?”

“No one told me to. I did it on my own.”

“You fool, what are you trying to do? Don’t get involved in things like this carelessly. It’s dangerous. Tell me now, if you say who told you to do it, I’ll let you off.”

Of course, saying he’d let her off was a lie. Cassel had no intention whatsoever of letting Ibi off easily after she had shown her claws to him.

Moreover, even if he didn’t act, Ibi had already crossed a river of no return.

Now that she had left her handwriting on the letter, it would soon be known that Ibi had participated in slandering him.

The conservative noble class of Tienda would never tolerate such insubordination from a commoner girl who was no different from an ornamental flower daring to meddle in the power struggles of the nobility.

So Ibi’s downfall was all but certain, but Cassel urged her again to find his political enemy.

“How much I adored you, how could you do this to me?”

“I could and then some. A bastard who acts so obscenely and then calls it adoration deserves to have his body and head separated and placed in Bis and Tienda separately.”

But what came back was a peaceful verbal assault.

Ibi spoke in her usual gentle voice, so Cassel understood the meaning of those words a beat late and belatedly widened his eyes.

“Obscene?”

“Yes, you, Cassel Montra, are an ugly and vulgar bastard. You’re trash that no one would associate with if not for your well-born family, and you’re a hooligan who cuts down your family’s prestige three times a day even with that good birth. You’re an impudent fool who thinks it’s smart to hit others from behind, a half-baked human who knows neither loyalty nor manners, and in the midst of that, you’re a shallow and base person obsessed with your own inadequate showing off.”

Ibi thoroughly tore down Cassel’s character without mixing in a single vulgar curse word.

So Cassel forgot even to glare and was dumbfounded. Being born a high noble, it was the first time in his life he had been so meticulously denounced.

“You, you’re crazy?”

“No, I’m perfectly fine. I felt like I might go crazy earlier, but I’m really okay now.”

Ibi smiled brightly at Cassel, who was so surprised he even stuttered.

So Cassel stared blankly at Ibi as if he had seen an illusion, and only after a long while did he laugh as if gasping.

“Huh, you were really a scary kid. Have I been completely fooled all this time?”

Cassel exclaimed as if genuinely surprised.

“That’s right, that base nature couldn’t have gone anywhere. But you worked hard to act docile because there was something to gain, hiding that vulgar tongue. I really couldn’t have imagined. I should give you a round of applause for this.”

Cassel shook his head, snickering. Then he suddenly turned serious and sneered coldly.

“You lowly thing must have lost your mind, how dare you…”

Cassel growled with a demonic face.

“Kneel and beg for forgiveness right now, before I strip you naked and drag you around.”

He meant it. In his current mood, he felt like he could do anything, whether she was under the tower’s protection or not.

So he barked fiercely, but Ibi just sat still. Seeing this, Cassel became even more enraged.

“Can’t you hear me?”

“I can hear you well. Though it doesn’t sound like words.”

Ibi’s voice was still gentle, and Cassel finally lost it.

Unable to hold back any longer, he strode across the pergola and reached out to Ibi.

But before Cassel could grab Ibi’s hair, Ibi caught his arm first. Then she twisted it behind his back.

“Argh!”

Cassel’s strong arm turned too easily. And with his arm suddenly twisted, Cassel unknowingly fell to his knees.

Surprised, he struggled to shake off Ibi. But for some reason, he couldn’t break free from the small hand gripping his wrist.

“You, you’re not letting go? Do you really want to die!?”

When Cassel barked at her, Ibi casually replied, “No, I don’t want to die,” and plopped down on his back.

“Eek, you…!”

Cassel, pinned down by Ibi, flailed his still free hand. But that arm was soon caught too and pulled towards his spine in the same way.

“You crazy! Get off me right now!”

Cassel yelled while kneeling and bent over.

He couldn’t believe it. Despite the difference in build, he was completely subdued like this.

Moreover, Ibi’s body crushing him was light. Yet for some reason, he couldn’t lift her at all.

Was it because of the alcohol he had downed earlier? He couldn’t muster any strength in his body. He felt dizzy and had trouble breathing.

His weakened upper body leaned more and more forward, and eventually Cassel’s face touched the ground.

As he settled into the posture of a martyr or prisoner, Ibi, sitting on top of him, suddenly began a self-confession.

“It feels good to say everything I wanted to say. I guess people should really live honestly.”

Ibi spoke as if she had put down a heavy burden. Then she greeted Cassel, who was glaring at her with his neck twisted.

“So I’m really grateful to you, Marquis. Um, it’s not polite to say this while sitting on you, but since you’re a man without manners too, I’ll just talk like this.”

Ibi smiled with her back to the lantern.

So Cassel, who had been grinding his teeth, flinched despite himself. The atmosphere of Ibi looking down at him while backlit was quite different from usual.

“Thanks to you, Marquis, I realized a lot. Earlier, you asked who told me to do it, right? How little must you think of me to not even suspect that I did it myself? But I was the same.”

Ibi said leisurely, crossing her legs on Cassel’s back.

“On the contrary, I was overestimating. I thought that the Tienda nobles, born so nobly, would all be difficult people. That they were all fearsome beasts, beings I could never approach.”

Rabbits live as rabbits, lions as lions, and crows as crows, but for some reason, people live as emperors, nobles, and pitiful commoners.

It’s truly strange, but I thought I had no choice but to endure it. Blaming myself for having drawn such a bad lot in life.

“But watching you, Marquis, my thoughts changed. I began to think that Cassel Montra, born so well and living so easily yet thinking that makes him great, is much closer to a domestic pig than a beast.”

“Do, domestic what? You really…!”

“Stay still.”

“Urgh!”

When Cassel struggled again, Ibi slapped his back hard. Cassel’s eyes widened at the unexpected physical punishment, and Ibi scolded him sternly.

“That’s so I can finish talking before you pass out.”

Pass out? Only upon hearing those words did Cassel realize his consciousness was hazy. His breathing became even more labored. His forehead was already drenched in sweat.

“You thought it would be okay, right? That you could play with me and throw me away.”

Ibi’s voice penetrated Cassel’s foggy ears.

“But it’s not. You messed with the wrong person. What happened today is just the beginning, and from now on you’ll keep getting punished by me. Until you’re completely ruined.”

“Someone like you, saying you’ll ruin who…!”

“Do you know how I’ve lived until now?”

When Cassel retorted while gasping for breath, Ibi asked back with a smile.

“While you were born as the heir to a marquis family and automatically became a marquis, how do you think I got here?”

For once, Ibi waited for an answer.

But Cassel only breathed heavily, unable to open his mouth.

Because in his dazed state, he realized something had gone wrong.

As Ibi said, he thought it would be okay. He thought nothing would happen.

But in the blink of an eye, an important aide had left, he had formed even worse bad blood with old lovers, and earned the enmity of his cousin. All were painful situations.

As if that wasn’t troubling enough, the person who did this was threatening that she hadn’t even started yet.

Cassel wanted to shout at her not to be so arrogant. At the same time, he felt an eerie sense of crisis from Ibi’s unfamiliar expression and tone as she sat on top of him.

Cassel groaned in humiliation and dismay as he felt his vision growing increasingly blurry.

He may not want to admit it, but the pitiful animal he had carelessly pushed off a cliff turned out to be a lion cub.

And now it was completely enraged, determined to tear him apart mercilessly.