A seaside area on the outskirts, far from the capital.

Adeline had dyed her pale wheat-colored hair, which clearly indicated her status as a member of the marquis family, to brown.

Although rumors would spread slowly being far from the capital, it was a precaution just in case.

Having finished her makeshift disguise, Adeline began searching for the duke’s villa said to be in this remote village.

‘How do I find it?’

Adeline, who thought she could easily find a duke’s villa, was struggling.

Nowhere in Horn could she see a building that looked like a ducal mansion.

Horn was certainly the only place in the Soltarius Empire called the “end of the world village”.

‘It should be here somewhere…’

Adeline, who had fled to Horn trusting a single comment, began to feel anxious.

As she was walking aimlessly, lost in thought,

“Young lady. The path ahead might be dangerous at night.”

Adeline stopped abruptly at the quiet voice from behind. While she had been pondering, the sun had set and darkness was falling.

“Grandmother, you say this clearly visible road is dangerous?”

Adeline was puzzled. Even though night was falling, the path she was walking on was well-laid.

“If you go far that way, it’s all forest except for one house! You’ll just become food for beasts if you go on the road at night.”

“There’s a house over there?”

“It’s a place where noble gentlemen haven’t set foot for over 10 years. Hurry back before it gets darker, young lady.”

At the words of the passing old woman, something flashed through Adeline’s mind.

The duke’s villa in the remote village that she couldn’t find no matter how much she searched suddenly seemed to loom before her eyes.

The next day.

Adeline, who had opened her eyes, was bustling about from early morning.

‘This is it!’

Adeline, who had found the path she walked yesterday, began to walk deep into the forest path.

How long had she walked? Finally, at the end of the long forest path, a tranquil mansion unfolded before Adeline’s eyes.

‘No wonder I couldn’t find it.’

A large mansion in the remote village, bearing the traces of time, seemingly without any visitors.

It was clearly the duke’s mansion.

Adeline walked through the door that opened with a loud noise.

Light began to seep through the gap of the closing door into the lobby covered in pitch-black darkness.

Dust that had accumulated for a long time without being touched sparkled in the light and scattered in the air.

“Cough. Ugh. I need to clean first.”

Adeline decided to transform the mansion into a livable place.

If the duke came to this mansion as per the novel’s comment, he would become her lifesaver, and if he didn’t come, she planned to hide and live in this forgotten mansion.

* * *

Inside the study late at night.

Several days had passed since she tidied up the mansion.

Adeline was beginning to doubt whether this mansion really belonged to the duke’s family. Throughout her cleaning, she hadn’t seen a single emblem representing the duke’s family anywhere.

‘Did I trust a mere comment too much?’

Adeline felt fatigue and half-reclined on the sofa. As she leaned back on the sofa, something caught her eye.

It was the hinge of a door barely visible behind a particularly old piece of furniture.

‘Oh? There might be something there?’

Curious, Adeline tried to push the furniture slightly.

Despite just a light push, the large furniture moved away easily.

On the wall where the furniture had been was a door leading to the basement.

Puzzled by the existence of a basement, Adeline took one of the candle lamps placed on the desk and stood again in front of the discovered door.

‘What could it be?’

Creeak. As if announcing that it hadn’t been opened for a long time, the door opened with difficulty, making a loud noise.

Adeline began to descend the dusty stairs one by one, holding a candle lamp.

And when she reached the basement.

What came into view was only one large frame, covered with a white cloth as if to protect it from the layers of accumulated dust.

Through the slightly slipped cloth, the corner of the frame was visible.

The ornate frame border, as if carved by a master craftsman, piqued Adeline’s curiosity about the painting inside.

‘I wonder what this is, to be hidden in the basement?’

Full of expectation, Adeline grabbed the edge of the cloth covering the frame larger than her body and pulled.

As the whitish accumulated dust scattered, the cloth slid down smoothly.

‘Black hair, red eyes.’

These were the first things that caught Adeline’s eye in the revealed frame.

A child gently cradled in the arms of the woman in the frame.

The child held by the woman with her black hair neatly tied up had black hair and red eyes.

There were only two people in this empire who had red eyes and black hair at the same time.

The crown prince who would drive me to death and Duke Torpeo who might save me.

Judging from the comment she read before dying, this mansion was certainly the villa of the Torpeo ducal family.

‘Casius Mile Torpeo.’

Deep down, Adeline had hoped that the place where she lived wasn’t inside the novel.

She had fled to this remote village clinging to a thread of hope based on a comment, but she had wished that everything was her misunderstanding.

However, as if mocking that wish, the picture before her eyes was proving that this was indeed inside the novel she hadn’t even finished reading.

This villa must have really belonged to the duke’s family. Otherwise, a frame capturing the childhood of Duke Torpeo wouldn’t remain like this.

Which means that the duke coming to this mansion severely injured to the point of death was also true.

Adeline unconsciously gulped.

* * *

It was on the way back from shopping.

Adeline hurried her steps, then sighed in relief at the sight of the villa in the distance.

Although she had hurried back because it was quite a distance to town, darkness had already settled around her.

On the way back, she wondered if today might be the day the duke would appear.

The momentary anxiety dissipated when she saw the house unchanged from when she left.

Adeline turned the key and opened the door of the villa.

With a creaking sound of rusty metal turning, the door opened.

Along with the darkened interior view, cool air touched her skin.

Adeline approached the living room and began fumbling for a candle.

‘I put it somewhere around here. Why is it so hard to see today?’

Soon her fingertips touched a long candle. Just as she thought she only needed to find matches,

A cool breeze brushed past Adeline’s skin.

After a moment, the sound of the door locking echoed through the room with a click.

“…?”

Adeline replayed the sound she had just heard in the quiet stillness.

It was clearly the sound of a doorknob turning and locking. Adeline instinctively grasped the candle.

“Wh-who’s there?”

Although it was unlikely that anyone would be in this remote villa at the end of the world, Adeline asked.

Her hand grasping the candle had become clammy with sweat, but she had no time to pay attention to it.

An inexplicable sense of unease creeping up from her toes.

Just as Adeline was about to turn around holding up the candle,

“What do you think you can do with that?”

A monotone voice flowing into her ear canal and a thick breath settling as if tickling her ear.

A large hand reaching out from the darkness easily restrained Adeline’s hand holding up the candle.

Adeline’s both hands were too easily grasped in one hand of the figure in the darkness.

The man’s firm chest pressed against her back could be felt clearly through the thin dress.

A man. And one with an extremely robust and solid build at that.

“Wh-who are you?”

Adeline’s raised hands trembled uncontrollably as much as her voice asking the man.

Being a villa built in a secluded forest, there was no one who would come to help even if she screamed.

“What good would it do you to know who I am?”

The man ruthlessly snatched the candle from Adeline’s hand and threw it away.

With a thud, the sound of the candle breaking as it hit the window was heard.

“A woman who’s about to die.”

Cold metal touched Adeline’s neck.

Deep darkness lurking around. Only a single beam of moonlight slanting through the window was the sole illumination in the villa.

As Adeline shrank back, the metal touching her neck dug in deeper.

As if the thinly honed blade would sear her neck at any moment.

‘N-no.’

She hadn’t fled here just to die such a miserable death.

Warning signals were fiercely ringing in her head. That she must escape quickly.

The moment she slowly turned her head. Adeline met blood-red eyes shining alone in the quiet darkness.

“Duke Torpeo?”

The man who had put a knife to her neck was Duke Torpeo, whom she had been waiting for so desperately.

She had fled to this villa to change her fate of an early death, but now she seemed about to meet an even earlier end.

Moreover, wasn’t this man, who had overpowered Adeline with overflowing strength, too well when he was supposed to die from excessive bleeding in this villa?

Adeline couldn’t understand this confusing situation.

“You. You know me. How did you find this place?”

At the duke’s chilling voice, Adeline hurriedly blurted out an excuse.

“Your Grace! I just…”

Adeline couldn’t think of a way to overcome this situation.

A person waiting in a hidden villa, knowing she would come. If she were Duke Torpeo, she would have put a blade to Adeline’s neck too.

The duke pushed Adeline’s arm, which he grasped even more tightly, against the wall.

The light reflected off the sharp blade made the duke’s blood-red eyes even more vivid.

Though the sparkling light was as beautiful as stars in the night sky, Adeline looking at him was paralyzed with fear.

The killing intent lurking in those red eyes gazing at her slowly pressed down on Adeline.