Casius’s eyes were as crumpled as Hailo’s furrowed brow.

His reddened eyes from the lingering heat made him look even more agitated.

Adeline, receiving the fierce gazes of both men, was confused about how to resolve this situation.

Before she could properly explain anything to Hailo, Casius had entered, and now Casius seemed to misunderstand the current situation with his heated gaze.

Adeline could only look back and forth between them, frozen while still covering Hailo’s mouth.

Casius immediately strode over, grabbed Adeline’s hand, and pulled her to his side.

“Don’t touch another man’s body so carelessly. You’re about to become my wife.”

Casius looked at Hailo and deliberately emphasized the word ‘wife’ with force.

He more demonstratively wrapped his arm around Adeline’s waist and gripped her.

His hand, not yet recovered, was extremely hot.

The strength of his grip around her waist, unable to control his force, made Adeline let out a groan.

“Ah.”

At that sound, Hailo abruptly stood up and approached Adeline’s side.

As if trying to separate Adeline from the duke, he pulled on her hand.

“Duke, you’re acting like a common thug. Don’t force her like that.”

Once again, the gazes of the two men intensely intertwined with Adeline between them.

Hailo’s shoulders heaved with rough breaths as if he might pounce at any moment.

“Common thug, force?”

With each word Hailo uttered, a sneer burst through Casius’s twisted lips.

“It seems physical contact with women is quite natural in the Levrance family. This is Torpeo territory. There are no such vicious customs in my domain, so you should follow the norms of the duchy.”

The dignity befitting the Iron Duke emanated from Casius. The air around them froze from the pressure in his every word.

Hailo also seemed to read the changed atmosphere and flinched slightly. Soon after, he concealed his tension as if nothing had happened.

“I’d like you to release my woman’s hand, Hailo Levrance.”

Casius’s eyes shone sharply as he looked down at Hailo’s hand gripping Adeline’s wrist.

But Hailo did not loosen his grip on Adeline’s wrist.

Rather, the fiercer Casius’s gaze became, the tighter he held on.

It seemed as if he was trying to be stubborn.

“Young Levrance, did you not hear me?”

Killing intent seeped into Casius’s voice as he asked again.

“I cannot let go.”

Hailo’s voice trembled ever so slightly.

But Casius didn’t seem to notice that trembling.

He looked at Hailo, sighed, and then strode to the reception room.

Then he took out the silver sword, almost a family heirloom of the Torpeo family, displayed on the wall and pointed it at Hailo.

“Du-Duke!”

“You can’t let go of her hand?”

Adeline hurriedly tried to block Hailo, but he hid her behind his back.

Hailo didn’t flinch even with the sharp blade pointed at his neck.

“Hailo, let go of this hand! We’ll talk later.”

He didn’t move even at Adeline’s cry.

Looking at Hailo in frustration, Adeline turned to Casius and said,

“Duke. This is a misunderstanding. Hailo is just my old friend. How can you point a sword at a friend who came here worried about me? Please put it away.”

In an instant, Casius’s face turned ashen.

In his eyes, it only looked like Adeline was trying to defend Hailo to the end.

‘In front of me… she’s defending that guy.’

He exhaled with difficulty.

In fact, even before coming to the reception room, Casius’s body had been boiling like lava.

When he opened his eyes in the bedroom and saw the empty bed where Adeline should have been, Casius’s heart sank.

It reminded him of that night when she fled from the duke’s castle.

Holding his throbbing forehead with a headache, he searched for her.

And then he discovered the two of them together.

The moment Casius saw Hailo with Adeline, he thought he was going mad.

Hailo was like a trigger that reminded him of nightmares. It felt like she might run away with him again.

Perhaps he felt more hostility because he sensed deep love in Hailo’s eyes as he looked at Adeline.

As they were in that standoff, Casius began to feel his limits.

His vision blurred and started spinning.

He shouldn’t lose consciousness in front of that naive-looking guy.

‘…Adeline.’

Did she hear his call?

He could see Adeline’s eyes gradually widening as she looked at him.

His gaze shifted from Adeline to the floor.

Even as Casius’s body slowly began to fall forward, his gaze wouldn’t leave Adeline’s wrist that the guy was holding.

“Duke!”

It was the moment Casius finally collapsed to the floor.

Adeline shook off Hailo’s grip on her wrist in an instant.

Clang! The sword he was holding hit the floor, creating a sharp noise.

“Duke! Wake up. Is there no one outside! Call for the doctor!”

And so, in his fading consciousness, Casius closed his eyes feeling Adeline’s touch.

It was close to deep dawn when Casius opened his eyes after that.

In the quiet night with only the faint moonlight slanting through the window, he lifted his eyelids at the cold sensation felt on his forehead.

His blurry vision gradually found clear shapes.

He saw Adeline sleeping with her head buried at his bedside.

A large basin of water and several towels on the bedside table. Casius raised his hand and pulled down what was on his forehead. A damp towel came into view.

“…”

Was this the cold sensation that had been soothing his burning body while he slept?

As soon as his mind cleared, every muscle in his body screamed. He pulled his heavy body up to sit against the bed’s headboard.

She stirred very briefly at Casius’s movement, then fell back into sleep.

‘Did she nurse me all night?’

Casius’s eyes wavered as he looked at Adeline sleeping uncomfortably.

He had clearly lost consciousness from the heat while confronting Hailo.

Until the moment he closed his eyes, he couldn’t take his eyes off Adeline.

Afraid that this woman might disappear with young Levrance.

But seeing the woman keeping vigil by his side like this, Casius felt deep relief along with a strange emotion.

Casius’s eyebrows furrowed at the peculiar feeling tickling his heart.

An unpleasant emotion whose identity he couldn’t grasp.

Perhaps because it was a foreign feeling he had never experienced in his life, it was very perplexing. After staring at Adeline for a while, he slowly got off the bed.

By now, the headache that had been tormenting him was long gone.

He stood up and brushed his sweat-tangled hair behind his ears. Then he carefully lifted the sleeping Adeline.

She was sleeping soundly, unaware that someone had picked her up.

‘She wouldn’t even notice if I carried her away like this.’

Was this really the same woman who had been so prickly towards him?

Looking at the completely defenseless woman, Casius slowly laid Adeline down on the bed.

He tidied Adeline’s brown hair spread like embroidery on the pure white bedding. As he did so, he became lost in thought as her hair flowed through his fingers.

Adeline originally had faded wheat-colored hair.

This brown hair color was probably dyed to hide her identity as the daughter of a marquis.

Casius knew she couldn’t stay hidden here as his mistress forever.

Now that guy Hailo also knew Adeline was staying here.

If that guy harbored other intentions and told Marquis Credion that Adeline was here, she would be dragged back to the capital without recourse.

Adeline had already hidden in Horn’s villa to escape the crown prince.

‘It’s about time now.’

Casius thought he could no longer keep Adeline as his mistress.

But if she wasn’t his mistress, there was no justification for her to stay in this duke’s castle.

Unless the two of them got married, that is.

Thinking of marriage, an enigmatic smile spread across Casius’s lips.

If he were bound to Adeline in marriage, even a marquis, no, even if the crown prince came, they couldn’t easily take this woman away.

He had to make her his own person so that she would never again think of running away with someone like Hailo.

Even if it meant putting on the shackles of marriage.

As he raised his hand, all of Adeline’s hair that had been caught between his fingers flowed down.

It was just as Casius, who had lowered his head, was about to straighten up.

Adeline’s eyelashes, right in front of his nose, fluttered and then.

“…Duke?”

At last, Casius was reflected in her colorless eyes.