Melly looked up at the other person with a puzzled face.

Edric’s expression was icy cold, but there was no time to be conscious of it.

She wondered what he had said, if she had heard it correctly.

“…Marriage? You and me, Edric?”

Melly asked.

“That was the plan. But I think I need to reconsider.”

“…”

“I didn’t know you thought of me as just a one-night stand.”

Edric’s voice was as cold as ice.

Melly couldn’t understand this situation at all, nor did she know what she had done wrong.

“Anyway, I got your feelings loud and clear.”

Edric turned away from the railing, his eyes hardening even more.

“Wait, Edric!”

Melly hurriedly grabbed his arm.

“What’s all this about? Explain it so I can understand.”

“Melly.”

Edric shook off Melly’s hand. It was a touch dripping with contempt.

“I’m saying I was going to marry you.”

“…”

“I even persuaded my mother for that. I was prepared to cut ties between mother and son. But…”

Edric spoke after a moment’s pause, as if trying to suppress his anger.

“I think it was all for nothing.”

“…”

With those final words, Edric turned away completely. The cold air he stirred up, combined with the mountain breeze blowing in from beyond the terrace, made her feel a chill despite it being the height of autumn.

Melly hugged her arms and tried to sort out her thoughts.

Edric had intended to marry her. He said he had even persuaded his mother for that. But she… I…

‘Who would think about the future based on one night?’

I pushed him away with unnecessary excitement.

I rejected him before he even proposed. I disappointed him!

“…!”

Suddenly realizing the situation, Melly hurriedly moved her feet.

Her steps, which started by crossing the terrace and traversing the corridor, gradually quickened until they finally turned into a sprint. Her breath caught up to her chin. She bumped shoulders hard with Oz while climbing the stairs. No, it might have been Lena, the maid of the same age.

“Miss Melly, what’s wrong?”

A worried voice came from behind her. But Melly didn’t stop.

She didn’t want to lose Edric. She wanted to run to him and tell him.

‘I didn’t mean it. I was just pretending to be casual because I didn’t want to seem clingy. I want to marry you too.’

But just as she was about to reach his office, Melly suddenly came to a halt.

Edric’s personality, which she knew all too well from one to ten, stopped her from going any further.

He was a man who, once he turned away, it was over. He hated it when someone clung to him.

If she opened the door now and poured out her true feelings, she might receive his scornful sneer instead of his bright smile.

She didn’t want that.

‘Let’s go back for now. Go and… think calmly. There must be a way.’

Melly turned back.

Each step back to her quarters felt as heavy as if she were wearing shackles.

“…”

Edric didn’t know how many times he had looked at the letters visible through his glasses.

No matter how many times he looked at them, they seemed new as if he was seeing them for the first time.

As if his usually well-functioning brain had become paralyzed, it was rejecting everything that was being input through his eyes.

Hoo-.

He finally took off his glasses and put them down, then turned towards the window.

In the western sky, only traces of purple twilight remained above the mountain ridges, and in the east, a clear crescent moon was stuck as if painted in a picture.

It was his favorite sight of the day. But.

Now it was just one of the five most unpleasant sights in his life.

He had no idea that Melly thought that way.

He knew that given her personality, she wouldn’t readily accept if he reached out. He also knew that she might need some time to accept. So he was going to give her some time to think about it.

But she said without any hesitation.

‘Who promises a future based on one night?’

The night he spent with her was truly ecstatic.

The curves of her small but beautiful and delicate female body, the tender flesh that quickly left red marks.

How many times had he shuddered at the sight of Melly twisting her body trying to avoid the unfamiliar sensation, only to finally succumb to instinct and moan?

This wasn’t the original intention.

He had intended to possess Melly just once, only to plainly imprint himself on her so that she would no longer think of a future with another man.

But somehow, the original purpose disappeared, and he embraced Melly again and again as if he had finally taken a woman he had long desired.

Originally, he was planning to bring up the marriage talk slowly.

He intended to assess how much potential she had as a duchess, then raise her lacking parts to a certain level before speaking about it.

That way, there would be less resistance from his mother and the family elders.

But now he couldn’t do that.

He wanted to give Melly his surname as soon as possible. And he wanted to make her moan beside him, no, under him every night. He wanted to see those clear eyes made transparent with tears every day.

He thought Melly felt the same way. Of course.

Last night, she had shown a side of herself that was as true to her instincts as he was.

And yet…

The nail marks she had dug deep into his back, clinging to this body as if she would never let go, hadn’t even healed yet.

Yet she says such things? Melly Enwood.

‘If it was enjoyable, that’s enough. Wanting more is greed.’

“You dare to think of me as just a one-night stand?”

Edric rubbed his face as if washing it dry, then stood up.

It felt like he was endlessly sinking into the sea, as if weights were attached to his feet.

Even opening the window and feeling the cool autumn breeze didn’t improve his mood much.

Edric turned again to look at the mahogany office door.

His eyes narrowed gradually. But no matter how hard he glared, the tightly closed door showed no signs of opening.

‘If I left in such anger, shouldn’t you come check on me at least once, Melly?’

Edric felt like flames were rising inside him.

“Damn it.”

He rose abruptly from his seat.

He felt like he would go mad if he didn’t do something. This feeling was a first for him.

“Where on earth could it be?”

Melly rummaged through every drawer.

Just in case, she looked in the wardrobe and searched the shelf where she kept her accessories. But it was nowhere to be found. Her diary.

“I need to have that.”

She needed it to convey her true feelings.

Melly was genuinely distressed.

She wanted to show him how much she loved him.

She wanted to let him know that it wasn’t a shallow emotion that had developed in a day or two, but a deep feeling that had accumulated over ten years.

She wanted to show him, with definitive proof, that she loved not just his strong and splendid side, but Edric Pelton as a person, including his weak, wicked, and cunning sides.

That seemed less clingy than rambling on with words.

She thought that even someone as cold as him would reconsider at least once if she did that.

But… it’s gone!

It’s nowhere to be found!

Despite skipping dinner and dedicating herself to finding the diary, despite asking every servant she met if they had seen such and such a notebook, none of them knew anything.

As if it had spontaneously combusted, the notebook had vanished without a trace, like smoke.

“It’s all over now.”

Melly sighed as she slumped onto the sofa.

It was truly a strange thing.

The diary that had so inconveniently appeared when she wanted to hide it was now teasingly hiding when she needed it. And hiding so thoroughly that it couldn’t be found at all.

‘What should I do now? Do I have no choice but to convey it in words?’

She had never felt so frustrated about knowing Edric inside out as she did at this moment.

If only she didn’t know that he was a man for whom it was over once he turned away. If only she didn’t know how quickly and thoroughly he cut ties with someone he had lost feelings for. How much better would it have been?

If that were the case, she would have confessed without considering this and that.

‘I love you too.’

But Melly was afraid.

‘I’m sorry, but I’ve already moved on from you. You shouldn’t have played hard to get.’

She wasn’t confident she could fight off the regret and self-loathing that would surely overwhelm her the moment she heard those words from Edric.

‘Then, should I give up like this?’

If she gave up, of course, she wouldn’t get hurt. But… she would surely have regrets. About giving up out of fear when she could have been a bit more courageous.

Melly felt caught in a dilemma.

To avoid getting hurt, or to avoid having regrets. An extremely cruel dilemma where she had to choose one or the other.

“…”

Melly turned her eyes to the window for a moment, to clear her mind.

It was an ashen sky, widely covered with clouds.

The increasingly bare trees shook their gaunt branches, dancing an eerie dance.

When had the weather, which had been clear until just an hour ago, changed to become so gloomy?

Melly was afraid of this kind of weather.

She wanted to escape this ghostly darkness and jump into Edric’s arms.

She wanted to go back to that beautiful night of the past.

She finally made up her mind.

‘I’ll tell him. Even if I get rejected miserably.’

Melly quickly ran to Edric’s quarters.

She hesitated for a moment in front of the door, losing courage, but the creaking sound of expanding furniture made Melly brave.

She flung the door open and said,

“Edric, you know, actually…”

Everything I said earlier was a lie.

That’s what she wanted to say.

But there was no one to listen.

The room was empty.

There was only a neatly made bed and navy blue indoor clothes laid out on it.