Adela struggled in her torn chemise, but Leon only wore a cold sneer as he pressed her down.

“So you were planning to bring Duke Tilbury into this room and dream of a future with him.”

“When did I ever deceive you? And why would I bring him into this bed…”

Leon slowly swept his hand across the bedsheet and stared at her, as though mocking her protest.

Adela understood at that moment.

‘He knows. He knows this is the bridal bedroom I prepared.’

She fell silent, and Leon’s brow drew tight.

“And yet here you are, violated by the hands of your slave, not your husband. How utterly laughable.”

“I never once thought of you as a slave, Leon. You know that!”

Hot tears ran down her cheeks.

Adela brought Leon back after he was nearly beaten to death by slave traders, and told her father she bought a slave to take beatings in her place. Without that lie, her father would never have allowed Leon into the castle.

After that, every time Adela made a mistake during lessons or etiquette classes, Leon took the punishment in her place. The guilt and horror of it were unbearable, so Adela threw herself into subjects she never cared about before.

Because she didn’t want Leon to be beaten.

But the Leon now bearing down on her seemed to have no regard for how desperate she was back then. The more tears Adela shed, the more mercilessly he crushed her wrists.

Leon roughly wiped her wet cheek and let out a cold voice.

“Was it so unbearable, having a slave you thought was dead come back alive?”

Adela’s breath caught in that moment.

Leon truly believed it.

It was not a simple misunderstanding.

He looked like someone who received confirmation from another source.

“With that false face of yours, how far do you plan to deceive me this time?”

“No, Leon!”

“…What a shame.”

Leon roughly tilted Adela’s chin up and let out a cold laugh.

“The foolish slave who would have given his heart at a single word from you died that day.”

Everything Leon said from a moment ago was incomprehensible.

Emperor Abarus must have fed Leon lies. She never once wanted Leon to die.

‘What can I do?’

Right now, Leon had no intention of listening to her at all.

He roughly forced her legs apart and trapped them between his thighs, then took her br*ast through the chemise into his mouth.

“Ugh, haa…!”

Adela shuddered and threw her head back. She resented the heat that followed the pain. She needed to refuse, but everywhere Leon’s hot breath landed, shame and pleasure tangled together and broke her body down.

“If you were planning to bring Duke Tilbury into this room, forget it. As long as I’m alive, that will never happen.”

The words repeated like an obsession, his face flushed with heat. Leon cursed Adela and craved her at the same time.

Leon seized her thighs with terrifying force and tore the taut silk stockings apart in one motion.

With a ripping sound like a scream, cool air touched the exposed skin. Through the roughly torn threads, Leon’s rough fingers traced Adela’s tender inner flesh and pushed toward the most secret place.

“Leon, please calm down.”

Caught off guard by his merciless hands, Adela twisted her hips trying to pull away, but there was nowhere to escape.

“Calm down about what?”

Leon asked coldly, his face twisted with torment. Adela thought of the Leon from the past, who was always sorry he couldn’t do more for her.

Thinking of Leon blushing as he gave her a ring woven from flowers made her eyes redden at once. He couldn’t give her dresses or bracelet gifts back then the way he could now, but Adela was happier in those days.

He now wrapped his arm around her slender waist and turned his gaze to the nightstand at the head of the bed. On it sat a small glass ornament Adela placed there while praying for Leon’s safe return.

Leon picked it up, and with a sneer, threw it to the floor. Transparent shards scattered in every direction.

A sharp crack tore through the silence.

The sound was exactly like the sound of everything the two of them built together shattering to pieces.

It felt like the hope and excitement she poured into every small decoration in this room broke apart along with it.

A cold voice came through Leon’s twisted lips.

“Go ahead and talk. Not that I’ll believe a single word you say.”

His hand pushed the chemise fully up and pressed into the most sensitive skin on the inside of Adela’s thigh, toward the most intimate place.

“Ah, wait… Leon.”

Overwhelmed by shame and an unfamiliar heat, Adela squeezed her eyes shut. Leon’s fingers toyed with the lace tie of her underwear. He tugged at the tie and studied every detail of Adela’s face.

“Was saying you wanted to be my concubine a lie too?”

“No, all of it was sincere.”

“And wanting me not to die?”

“…Haa, Leon. Please… stop humiliating me. I, I’m trying to save you!”

“Save me? …Not even funny.”

Leon muttered low and tore the tie completely away. The small scrap of torn fabric disappeared under his rough hands, and there was nothing left to cover Adela’s body.

Leon’s eyes, studying her trembling body, were a deep, burning red.

Soon his hard length pushed through her tender flesh without mercy. The rough texture of his linen shirt scraped against Adela’s chest and left a raw sting.

Leon took her earlobe between his lips and whispered.

“Curse me all you want. But don’t forget. You will live as my slave for the rest of your life.”

The deep pressure driving into her left Adela unable to answer properly. Fresh tears kept falling over cheeks already ruined by crying.

‘This is no different from my past life.’

Adela’s resistance and Leon’s forceful act were the same as back then. The painful memory tightened around her throat, and Adela held onto her fading consciousness.

She reached out and pushed Leon hard, and he pulled back from her and looked at her face.

“What are you doing?”

“I can’t do this.”

Adela shook her head, her eyes full of confusion.

Leon read her expression and slowly drew his body back. Adela exhaled a ragged breath and moved away from him.

She climbed off the bed in a daze, her legs trembling. She picked up her robe and took a step, and a sharp shard of glass drove into her flesh.

“…Oh.”

She let out a short cry, and Leon scooped her up in an instant and carried her back to the bed. The bedsheet where her foot touched turned red quickly.

Adela blinked, startled. Whether from the pain or the sorrow, tears kept coming.

Leon lifted her foot and examined it, then tore a strip from his shirt and pressed it against the wound to stop the bleeding.

After a brief hesitation, Adela called to him carefully.

“…Leon.”

Leon said nothing and only gripped her ankle tightly.

“……”

The Leon she knew was someone who felt pain on her behalf if so much as a thorn pricked her fingertip. She knew his reaction now wasn’t his true feelings, but the ache in her chest was real.

How did things between the two of them come to this?

Glass shards rolled across the bedroom floor.

The bedsheet she chose herself was stained, and the bedroom she decorated while dreaming of a happy marriage was in ruins.

‘It’s just a room. I can decorate it again.’