‘Love?’

Adeline hesitated for a moment at the sudden confession.

After a brief thought, Adeline soon assumed that the Duke asked such a question due to anxiety.

She had pretended to be lovers, and the Duke who lost his memory had only Adeline to rely on.

‘He might mistake it for love.’

Adeline thought the Duke was mistaking his feelings due to his memory loss.

Adeline was also confused about her feelings for the Duke.

From the moment she was reborn as the daughter of the Credion Marquis family in the Soltarius Empire, Adeline’s life had been a series of loneliness.

The desolate mansion of the Credion Marquis family.

Even her father, Severus, did not give Adeline affection.

It had been a long time since Adeline had received someone’s kind gaze or felt affection.

Perhaps that’s why she enjoyed the time spent with Mel, but.

Adeline couldn’t call her feelings love.

Adeline didn’t believe in love. Or rather, it was more accurate to say she didn’t know what it was.

Adeline had never felt parental love in her previous life or in her current one.

The abstract word ‘love’ didn’t fit with her life as an orphan.

“I like Mel too.”

Therefore, she couldn’t speak of love to avoid the situation.

Because she didn’t know what love was. But her words of liking the current Mel were sincere.

‘Can’t you bring yourself to say you love me?’

Casius was not unaware that Adeline had subtly changed “I love you” to “I like you.”

He wore a bitter expression.

Adeline, unaware that his memories had returned, thought he was just anxious due to his memory loss.

She sent Mel a sympathetic look.

But to the Duke, who was no longer Mel, her gaze seemed like mere manipulation.

“Then. Will you never leave me?”

He asked again, still pretending to be Mel who had lost his memories.

“Why would I leave Mel? We’re lovers, aren’t we?”

Adeline’s answer was merely intended to calm Casius’s anxiety, assuming he was mentally unstable due to Hailo’s sudden appearance.

Adeline sent a gentle smile to further reassure Casius.

But Adeline’s smile only amplified Casius’s sense of betrayal.

To make such a detestable expression while spouting nothing but lies.

‘Lovers? How ridiculous.’

There’s no way we could be in that kind of relationship.

‘You intended to deceive me until the end, didn’t you.’

Looking at Adeline gazing at him with innocent eyes, he felt his blood rushing backwards.

Feeling his heart boiling as if stabbed by a dagger, he closed his eyes.

‘Is there anything you wouldn’t do for the Marquis family?’

The reason this woman was at Torpeo’s unknown villa was probably because of Severus, the Crown Prince’s closest confidant.

Her father had volunteered to be the Crown Prince’s lackey. Now it seemed he was trying to use his only daughter as well.

‘There was never any sincerity from the beginning.’

It was a moment when the situation became clear and concise.

As the last strand of hope he had been desperately holding onto snapped, his patience ran out as well.

If she would deceive him to the end, even if he couldn’t have her heart, he would mark every part of her as his own.

She would never be able to escape from him.

The Duke pressed Adeline further. To see how far she would allow him for the sake of her family.

The Duke grasped both of Adeline’s hands with one of his.

Just like when he had tried to kill Adeline in the past.

His lips, descending hotly once again, lost control and delved deeper.

“Then. Prove it.”

With those words, his lips continued to refuse to leave hers.

Was it due to the thirst of not being able to have Adeline’s heart? The Duke tormented her relentlessly as if trying to substitute for that unfillable thirst.

His lips, having lost control, made her lips swell and redden.

His caressing touch was very careful at times, but would suddenly turn rough.

As if Mel, who had only looked at her, and Casius, riddled with betrayal, were mixed together.

Finally, hot heat began to bloom throughout Adeline’s body at his yearning touch and breath.

Flowers continued to bloom where his lips had passed.

Her moist eyes became the catalyst that stimulated him.

The Duke was terribly displeased with the scraps of cloth blocking the space between them. His hands were already undoing the strings at Adeline’s waist.

“St-stop. No more…”

As clothes came undone one by one, Adeline seemed to come to her senses and grabbed Casius’s wrist.

But Casius had no intention of stopping. Bringing Adeline’s delicate hand that had blocked his actions to his mouth, he fidgeted with it as he spoke.

“How far will you allow me?”

Adeline, meeting his red eyes, felt like she would be devoured by his burning gaze.

He approached Adeline’s ear and whispered seductively.

“Shh.”

At the hot breath that suddenly came in, Adeline flushed hotly.

Her body, thoroughly heated up, could no longer recall how to refuse Casius.

Adeline’s mind grew hazy at Casius’s hot lips that were fidgeting all over her body.

One, two. The thin cloths began to fall helplessly to the floor beneath the bed. Soon, nothing existed to block the space between the Duke and Adeline.

Adeline wanted to cover everything, unbearably embarrassed by this situation where all of herself was exposed.

However, his large hands binding her two hands only gripped them more tightly.

Adeline twisted her body at the weight of fear that felt like she would be crushed. But the beast did not know how to let go of prey it had already caught.

His hot breath devoured every corner of Adeline persistently. Adeline felt like she would wear away under his persistence. The body heat they exchanged further fueled each other’s heat.

Adeline’s mind gradually became distant, as if unable to overcome that dense temperature. She felt like she would melt away at the heat spreading deeply inside her body.

The long night that seemed like it would never end could only end with Adeline losing consciousness.

“You’ll have to keep that promise not to leave me.”

The night at the end of summer was unusually hot.

And as if to offset that heat, the Duke’s red eyes were piercingly cold.

“Now that you’ve come to me. I have no intention of letting you go. Adeline,”

With those words, the Duke left the villa, leaving Adeline alone.

It was late afternoon when Adeline finally managed to open her eyes.

Waking up after the intense night before, Adeline found it difficult to steady her body properly.

She turned with difficulty to lie facing where the Duke should have been.

The space beside her was cool without a trace of warmth, as if long vacated.

‘Mel…?’

Adeline could tell from the sunlight streaming through the window that it was well past lunchtime.

A time when his absence was expected. Yet she felt lonely at the empty space beside her.

‘Where could he have gone?’

After leaning against the bed for a while, Adeline decided to go look for him.

Even if he had gone far, he would be within the mansion.

She recalled him making soup when she was ill.

Adeline left the bed and slowly went down the stairs to the first floor. Contrary to her expectations, she couldn’t sense any presence on the first floor.

‘Could he be in the garden?’

Adeline wandered around various parts of the garden, searching.

But she couldn’t find Mel anywhere.

‘Or maybe the study?’

After searching outside for a long time, Adeline re-entered the villa towards the one place she hadn’t looked yet.

The study.

Adeline was shocked when she entered the study.

The furniture that had been hiding the basement was no longer fulfilling its role.

As if it had never been hidden by furniture, the basement was fully exposed.

‘Could he be in the basement…!’

Adeline hurriedly went down to the basement.

The basement still only contained the portrait of the affectionate mother and son, and the cloth-covered frames.

Adeline began to feel uneasy.

If the Duke had discovered this basement, he would surely have seen this frame in front of her as well.

A black-haired boy with red eyes and a woman who appeared to be his mother holding him.

‘Did he remember something after seeing this picture?’

Adeline couldn’t even begin to guess what might have happened while she was unaware.

Adeline came back up from the basement.

Her mind was in turmoil.

She didn’t know who had moved the furniture, but he might not have seen the basement.

“That would be fortunate… I’m worried he might have remembered if he saw it.”

Adeline moved the furniture back to cover the basement door.

Leaving the musty space of the basement and breathing the air of the study, Adeline calmed herself.

An uneasy feeling began to bloom in a corner of her mind, but nothing could be determined yet. It could just be her excessive worry.

She thought that if the Duke’s memories had returned, he wouldn’t have left her unharmed like this.

Looking out the window, she saw the sun was setting.

‘He’ll probably return before it gets too late.’

Adeline decided to compose herself and wait for the Duke. Still hoping he was Mel.