“W-What did you say?”

Lucas’s shoulders jerked violently.

“Over? What suddenly ended so quickly?”

What else could it be?

‘Your bizarre and pathetic desire, that’s what.’

“You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?”

As I spoke with a faint smile, Lucas’s eyes slowly widened.

Those eyeballs glistened as they looked me up and down.

I could almost hear the thoughts tumbling around inside his head.

Doubt, anxiety. Confusion and nervousness. And irritation towards me for daring to evoke such emotions in him.

“Um, Duke. It’s really time for the ceremony to begin now.”

Edward, who had been watching blankly, cautiously spoke up.

At those words, Lucas glanced at his watch and clicked his tongue.

“Damn it. Let’s move, Ariana. We can’t keep the guests waiting!”

With that, he strode ahead towards the ceremony hall.

A servant of the Duke’s household, who had come running from afar, hurriedly approached Lucas.

“There you are, Your Grace. Please enter quickly. The Duchess has just woken up!”

“What? Mother collapsed?!”

I chuckled as I walked past Lucas.

My destination was the wedding arch visible in the distance.

The maw of hell that had pushed me into the abyss five years ago.

“Hmm, hmm.”

Elena hummed lightly as she styled her blonde hair.

Though the man’s rough gestures had messed up her carefully done hair, she wasn’t particularly annoyed.

‘As expected, the Duke is in the palm of my hand.’

A few teasing glances and tantalizing touches.

That was all it took for men. Even the head of a noble family like Duke Fedegrin was no exception.

Recalling his gaze, full of excitement and desperately wanting only her, despite being on his way to marry her sister, sent shivers down her spine.

Enough to instantly recover the mood that Ariana had ruined.

As she finished brushing, her platinum blonde hair shimmered with dazzling luster.

Elena, satisfied with her reflection in the mirror, stood up.

As she walked down the corridor, she spotted Ariana and Lucas heading towards the ceremony hall ahead.

Lucas’s face was contorted like an ogre’s, unbefitting a groom about to be married.

“You, what did you do to my mother?! I heard she collapsed because of you!”

Pfft.

Elena swallowed her laughter inwardly.

‘A bride being scolded like that right before the wedding.’

Poor sister.

When they were young, she seemed to have everything, but now I’m the one who has it all.

Even her sister’s man.

As she entered the guest seating area, the eyes of the seated guests turned towards Elena.

“Is that the lady? The soprano who’s been causing such a stir lately…”

“She is pretty.”

Enjoying the attention naturally pouring in, Elena slowly looked around the guest seats, pretending to find her place.

It was to stay in the center of attention a little longer.

As she deliberately dawdled, her gaze suddenly stopped at one particular spot.

‘…Huh?’

It felt like her breath caught in her throat.

‘Why is that person here…’

She wasn’t the only one who seemed taken aback; there was an empty space around the man as if an air barrier surrounded him.

The man existed in the center of that alien clearing.

With a relaxed and natural attitude as if the entire wide space was his rightful place.

The only people seated near the man were all those who never lacked in status or rank.

However, they were all huddled up like small animals encountering a predator.

Elena felt her heart tremble finely.

People said he was a human butcher in all but name, despite being called a war hero.

That he had slaughtered hundreds and thousands of those terrifying barbarians like pieces of meat.

That the smell of blood wouldn’t wash away, as it had seeped deep into his skin.

He was a dangerous man. Moreover, wasn’t he the one who had inflicted such humiliation on her?

And yet…

Elena bit her lip as she pressed her chest.

She had to admit. The fluttering of her heart wasn’t just due to shame.

‘Why on earth did he come here?’

The Fedegrin duchy had no friendly relations with the current Duke Heigenberg.

Rather, the duchy was one of the factions that opposed the current duke, an illegitimate child, inheriting the title.

So it was unnatural for the duke to attend the wedding of the Fedegrin family. At least, when thinking rationally.

Then, perhaps, maybe…

‘Did he come to see me?’

He was the one who had watched the same performance several times from the front row at the opera house.

Although he had rejected her invitation, maybe there was a reason he had to do so at that time.

After pondering, Elena made up her mind and moved.

As she sat down in the seat next to the duke, where no one dared to approach, she heard small murmurs around her.

“Hello, Your Grace,” Elena greeted in a coy voice.

“I’m Elena Lopez. The younger sister of today’s bride, Ariana.”

The duke’s gaze flickered towards her.

Just that was enough to make her heart race rapidly.

“Ah.”

The man, turning his gaze back to the front, said with a slight curl of his lips.

“‘That’ younger sister.”

He knows me.

Elena’s heart leaped even more intensely than before.

‘As I thought, he came here to see me!’

Her fingertips tingled and the corners of her mouth kept twitching. She had never felt this way even when she was with Lucas.

Surely, he must have been unable to accept the invitation back then due to unavoidable circumstances.

Seeing how he came to this unrelated wedding just to see her now.

Sitting close, the duke’s body scent permeated her nostrils.

There was no smell of blood or anything like that.

Rather, it was a refreshing scent like a forest, yet with something heavy… a dizzyingly alluring male fragrance.

‘Now is the perfect opportunity to get closer.’

Just as she lifted her hips slightly to move a bit closer to him.

“Next, we will have the entrance of the groom.”

The priest officiating the ceremony solemnly announced as the boring opening speech ended.

“Please welcome the groom with applause.”

Cutting through the shower of applause, Lucas made his appearance.

Dressed impeccably in a suit, Lucas looked tense, befitting the protagonist of the day.

However, Lucas’s face, which had always been handsome and had been so even during their tryst just moments ago, now somehow seemed bland.

Walking down the wedding aisle with confident steps, Lucas smiled leisurely while receiving the attention of all the guests.

“Next, we will have the entrance of the bride. Please welcome her with applause.”

From far away, the bride appeared, stepping on the pure white carpet.

Luxuriously cascading platinum blonde hair. Elegant and delicate features adorned with lilies in her hair.

The guest seats stirred lightly at the appearance of the beautiful bride.

“That lady is the eldest daughter of the Lopez Count family, isn’t she? The last time I saw her was when Count Eduardo Lopez carried her out as a child…”

“She hasn’t shown her face in society at all, so it’s been a long time since we’ve seen her. Hmm. She’s grown up much more beautiful than expected, hasn’t she?”

“Indeed. I thought she might have grown up to be ugly since she was so secluded. But not at all.”

“Well, I suppose that’s why she was lucky enough to become the daughter-in-law of the Fedegrin duke family, despite being the daughter of a fallen count’s daughter.”

Voices quietly appraising the bride. Gazes scanning the bride up and down.

Amidst all this, Ariana silently walked on the carpet.

Elena pursed her lips in displeasure.

The attention that she always monopolized when they were together was focused solely on Ariana today.

‘Well. It’s just for today.’

As Elena glanced at the duke out of habit, she slightly widened her eyes.

His red gaze was fixed on Ariana.

The leisurely look in his eyes, like a bored beast just moments ago, was nowhere to be seen.

What was flickering in those red eyes was impatient irritation and displeasure. Something unresolved seemed to be condensed in that gaze, ready to explode at any moment.

‘Why is he looking at my sister like that?’

Elena thought blankly.

Could it be that Ariana had done something to offend the duke?

No matter how socially inept she was, how could she have done something to be caught by Duke Heigenberg…

Just as she thought this, the bride finally reached the altar.

The priest began to recite the wedding vows.

“…May God’s blessing be upon the newlyweds forming a new family, receiving the blessings of all the guests…”

As the priest almost finished the vows, the bride looked at the groom.

“Groom Lucas Fedegrin, do you swear eternal love to the bride?”

“Yes. I swear.”

Lucas’s hand, holding Ariana’s, tightened.

Perhaps the heat from the earlier quarrel hadn’t subsided yet, as the muscles in his jaw were visibly clenched.

The priest turned to Ariana with a businesslike gaze.

“Then, bride Ariana Lopez, do you swear eternal love to the groom?”

But the expected answer didn’t come.

“…”

“Ahem.”

As the silence lengthened, the priest cleared his throat uncomfortably and asked again.

“Bride Ariana Lopez, do you swear eternal love to the groom?”

Ariana finally opened her mouth slowly.

“No.”