The moment Adeline took steps deeper into the cave at the terrifying sound of thunder.

A roar of a different dimension from the sound heard just before was heard, and the ground and the entire cave began to shake with vibrations.

Adeline staggered mindlessly in the vibrations that shook as if an earthquake had occurred.

“Wh-what!”

Adeline saw the debris blocking the entrance of the cave in her shaking vision.

It was a landslide. By the time she came to her senses, the surroundings were already shrouded in darkness.

“Ha… This can’t be true, right?”

Adeline couldn’t believe it even though she saw it with her own eyes.

Just a moment ago, the place where the entrance had clearly been was now blocked by a solid mound of earth.

As Adeline walked forward in the darkness, she tripped over debris at her feet and fell.

Despite the pain from the wound on her knee, she had no time to care about such injuries.

Faced with this hopeless situation, Adeline slumped down.

“How did this happen… Why me of all people…”

She let out a shallow breath. It wasn’t as if she had wished to be reborn as Adeline.

Growing up as the young lady of the Credion Viscounty in this Soltarius Empire, and becoming the Crown Prince’s fiancée.

‘There was not a shred of my own will in any of this…!’

She had only wished to escape from the tragic life of this Adeline.

A life with a predetermined death. If one knew they had a limited time to live, wouldn’t anyone struggle to survive?

She had simply fled from the Crown Prince to live. That’s how she ended up treating Duke Torpeo in Horn, and desperately clung to him to survive.

And now, she had come out with the intention of giving up everything and running away.

“Do I… have to die for this to end?”

Was death the only way to end this cursed life?

A bitter laugh escaped through Adeline’s twisted lips.

“Why is it so hard only for me.”

Why was her life so twisted and miserable?

Adeline clutched her ruined skirt.

What kind of karma from her past life could have led to such a life?

Adeline cried out in the darkness where she couldn’t see an inch in front of her.

She would die here, trapped in a place no one knew about. It seemed this was the miserable end her life was destined for.

Once fear set in, it became hard to breathe.

“Ha, haha.”

Adeline clutched her burning heart.

‘I want to live.’

Ironically, in this situation facing death, the person who came to mind was the Duke.

It was pathetic. To think that even as she was dying like this, the person she thought of was Duke Torpeo.

Adeline buried her face in her knees.

“…It’s over.”

Just as she was being consumed by endless despair.

The sound of footsteps echoing from the end of the cave pierced Adeline’s ears.

At first, she thought she had misheard.

But the very faint sound gradually approached closer to Adeline.

“…?”

Adeline raised her head.

Could it be that someone had come looking for her?

“Wh-who’s there? Is someone there?”

Adeline’s voice, which she had managed to produce with difficulty, trembled finely.

Had she misheard? Right, there’s no way someone could be in a place like this.

“Adeline!”

A familiar voice reached Adeline’s ears as she was sinking into the darkness she could never escape from.

The gentle voice that had troubled her so much, and also made her heart flutter.

It was Duke Torpeo.

Tears that had welled up in an instant poured out as soon as she saw the Duke’s face.

Duke Torpeo ran over and embraced her tightly.

As Adeline was finding warmth in his arms, she suddenly faced reality.

Why was this man here?

Could it be that he thought she had run away because she was pregnant, and came looking for her despite the danger?

As that thought occurred to her, Adeline flinched with a chilling tension.

“I, I didn’t mean to deceive you.”

Adeline gently pushed the Duke away and continued speaking.

“I really thought it was true… I, I.”

Even Adeline, who initially didn’t think she was pregnant, came to believe she was carrying a child as time passed.

She had never intended to deceive him deliberately.

Their eyes met.

“I’m sorry. I should have told you… Did you find out everything?”

Adeline asked in a tearful voice. If he had found out that she wasn’t pregnant.

Casius was silent for a while.

His hand that had been embracing her was now moving towards her head.

“Is that important?”

After a long silence, his lips parted.

“I told you I don’t need anything. I said I just need you by my side.”

As if trying to restrain himself, the Duke spoke in a suppressed voice near her ear.

“Don’t run away from me.”

Adeline was so overcome with emotion that she couldn’t give any answer.

Before waiting for an answer, the Duke picked up the carelessly thrown lantern again.

In the darkness, Adeline met the Duke’s red flickering eyes.

“I just need you by my side.”

The hand that had been cradling her head slid down and wrapped around Adeline’s wrist like shackles.

“Answer that you understand, quickly.”

A self-deprecating smile briefly crossed Adeline’s lips.

To think that this man would reach out to her, buried in endless despair, entering the cave at the risk of his life.

Despite his urging gaze, Adeline couldn’t give any answer.

She didn’t know how much this man knew.

For a very brief moment, it could be a show of acceptance to entice her.

But Adeline was too exhausted. Almost to the point of wanting to give up everything.

Drip, drip. The only sound in the cave was that of raindrops falling through the collapsed ceiling and hitting the rocks.

Adeline had her head buried in her knees. Then, at the sound of approaching footsteps, she lifted her head.

The Duke, who had gone to check outside, approached her. He then placed his hand on Adeline’s forehead.

“We should leave for now. There’s a temporary shelter where the miners stay, let’s head there. Your body is too hot.”

In reality, it wasn’t that Adeline’s body was hot, but that the Duke’s body was too cold. Neither of them realized this fact.

It was when Adeline tried to stand up. Having been crouched in a corner of the mine for so long, she felt dizzy and ended up sitting back down.

“I’m sorry. I can’t seem to muster any strength.”

With the tension released, Adeline simply couldn’t get up.

Seeing this, the Duke gently picked up Adeline and carried her out of the mine.

It was ridiculous that she was now relying on the man she had run away from out of fear.

She closed her eyes, finding it too difficult to even look at him anymore.

She couldn’t tell how much time had passed in the mine.

The time she spent trapped alone in the darkness felt like an eternity.

In the darkness, he truly seemed like a destined person who had come to save her.

Perhaps that’s why, despite the embarrassing position of being carried, she couldn’t let go of the sense of security from being in his arms, and wrapped her arms around the Duke’s neck, pressing even closer.

As Adeline, who had been constantly burrowing into the Duke’s embrace, finally found complete security, the temporary shelter began to come into view.

Upon arriving at the temporary shelter, the Duke gently placed Adeline on the sofa in front of the fireplace.

Even though she was just placed on a comfortable sofa, Adeline felt a sense of emptiness from being separated from the Duke.

She must be going crazy.

She gently folded her hand that had unconsciously reached out, not wanting to be separated from the Duke.

She thought this unfamiliar feeling was due to having been in such a state of terror.

After setting Adeline down, the Duke began searching the shelter for something.

What he found after opening all the storage cabinets was just a single blanket. The Duke placed the only blanket he found in front of Adeline.

“You should take off your wet clothes.”

He turned around and took off the jacket he was wearing, hanging it on a chair in front of the fireplace.

Water droplets fell from the soaked jacket, wetting the wooden floor.

This time, he unfastened all the buttons on his shirt cuffs. Then he rolled them up to reveal his wrists.

Every time his exposed hands moved, the sturdy muscles along his wrists rose and fell.

Casius untied his cravat with extremely smooth movements. As his clothes came off one by one, Adeline watched the scene in a daze.

Then he suddenly turned towards her.

The Duke furrowed his brow at Adeline’s appearance, unchanged since entering the temporary shelter.

“You’re still like that? You’ll catch a cold at this rate.”

He turned his steps and approached her, looking at her with eyes that seemed like silent pressure.

It was a reasonable thing to say, as she couldn’t keep wearing wet clothes.

But Adeline simply couldn’t bring herself to take off her dress in front of him.

Whether it was because of the desire she had briefly seen in his eyes.

Or because of her own heart that had softened somewhat, unlike when she had decided to run away, she wasn’t sure.

Casius, who had approached close by now, slowly bent his knees to meet Adeline’s gaze.

And with another word that came from his smooth lips opening once more.

“If you don’t want me to undress you, then do it yourself.”

A deep wave stirred in Adeline’s eyes.