‘There is no way I would have pushed you into harm’s way.’

Adela gave up even her noble position as princess and decided to leave with Leon.

On that day two years ago, if only Leon had not disappeared the way he did, the two of them might have had a beautiful child by now.

Thinking of a future she could never reach, a sorrowful sob broke free. Dizziness swept over her in an instant, and the strength drained from the hands gripping the rope.

“…Ah!”

Just as the swing lost its balance and lurched, a soldier on patrol nearby rushed over and grabbed the rope.

“Are you all right?”

“Th, thank you.”

Adela caught her breath in ragged gasps, unable to even look at the face of the soldier who helped her.

* * *

The thick veins on the back of Leon’s hand rose as he gripped the window frame.

Far away by the pond, Adela was slumped against an unfamiliar soldier, nearly falling into his arms.

His relief that she was unharmed lasted only a moment.

The soldier’s hands on her waist and arm grated on him deeply.

He could not hear what they were saying, but it was clear that Adela’s gaze lingered on the man for a long time.

It did not matter who that soldier was.

He was not Leon, after all.

Even so, Leon could not tear his eyes away.

Leon snapped the cigarette he was smoking in two, and a sneer settled on his lips.

“I’ll give you what you wished for.”

He swore countless times to crush her into misery.

He had to believe that.

Because that was the only way he could avoid admitting why he could not let her go.

His heart pounded on its own with every step he took toward Adela.

Leon slammed the window shut and left his office. From the far end of the corridor, the heavy sound of his military boots rang out like a series of sharp cracks.

* * *

Adela had just stepped inside the castle when the oppressive sound of footsteps cutting through the air made her instinctively draw her shoulders in.

She was reaching for the railing to climb the stairs when a long shadow fell over her.

Leon’s expression as he looked down at her from the top of the stairs was set even colder than the night before.

Adela wanted somehow to turn his mood around, and carefully opened her mouth.

“You know, I just came back from riding the swing.”

She glanced at the wet hem of her dress as she added it. It was a vague hope that mentioning a place tied to their shared memories might soften his anger a little.

“Is that so? Did you enjoy yourself, Princess Adela?”

The unexpectedly cold and mocking response made Adela bite down hard on her lip.

The zelkova tree where Leon hung the swing was a place deeply precious to Adela.

It was also where the two of them shared their first kiss.

So why was his anger only deeper?

She tilted her head in puzzlement, and in that instant Leon closed the distance and roughly seized her arm.

“Leon, that hurts…!”

She cried out in pain but he gave no reaction.

Leon grabbed Adela like a piece of luggage and dragged her toward the banquet hall.

As they passed through the entrance, the soldiers who were cheerfully raising their cups fell silent all at once.

Hundreds of eyes turned on her at once, and Adela’s face burned with shame.

Blatant stares she never experienced before.

These were not Valent’s own people but the enemy soldiers who trampled this land. To them, she as a princess was nothing more than war spoils and a spectacle.

Adela limped the entire way as she was dragged to the head table, but Leon paid no mind. When he sat at the head seat, a servant approached and asked whether to bring a chair beside him.

“No. That won’t be necessary.”

Leon tightened his grip on her hand and roughly pulled Adela down onto his lap. Trapped suddenly in his arms, her body trembled with mortification.

“Your efforts in this conquest of Valent were great. Let us all drink.”

Leon treated Adela as thoroughly as an object and raised his glass toward the soldiers.

“Long live Count Fershtein! Long live the Urcheka Empire!”

A thunderous roar shook the banquet hall and filled the entire castle. Leon drank and only then looked down at Adela in his arms.

“Are you glad we took this place?”

It was a cruel question.

She was glad to see Leon again, but there was no way she could be pleased that her homeland was destroyed.

Adela felt every soldier’s gaze fixed entirely on her lips.

“…The Count’s joy is my joy.”

At her answer, swallowing her humiliation, Leon’s lips curved crookedly upward.

“Then we should share the celebratory drink together.”

Leon took a mouthful of strong liquor and pressed his lips over Adela’s. Overwhelmed by the shame crashing over her, she kept her mouth shut and turned her head away, but Leon gripped her throat with one hand and forced her mouth open. The burning liquid spilled down her throat.

“The wine is quite sweet.”

Leon pulled back and smiled with satisfaction.

Adela wiped the liquor that ran down her lips with a trembling hand. She thought she was prepared to do anything if it meant saving Leon and clearing up the misunderstanding, but reality was far more wretched than she imagined.

“How about the princess puts on a celebratory performance for us? I understand she is the finest dancer in Valent.”

At the mocking command, the musicians began to play.

She felt like a beast locked in a cage, and it was humiliating, but she had no right to refuse.

Adela kicked off her shoes and stood in the center of the banquet hall.

Her bare feet, exposed beyond the shoes she threw aside, touched the cold marble floor. The wound from the glass the day before had not yet healed.

The moment she took her first step, an unfamiliar pain tore through her heel as the unhealed wound split open again.

“…Ah.”

Each time the cold of the floor seeped into the open flesh, Adela swallowed a short breath.

With every step, hot liquid seeped from the split wound. The sticky sensation weighed on her like sinking into a swamp.

But until the musicians stopped playing, she had to keep up this ridiculous performance.

She never had a talent for dancing to begin with.

Her body was stiff and her movements were always a mess, so her father beat her for it regularly. No matter how much she practiced, the dancing that never seemed to improve was pure torment for her.

But after she brought Leon in, everything changed.

Every time Adela made a mistake, her father beat Leon in her place. To protect Leon, who was drenched in blood because of her, she practiced dancing until her toes bled.

As she moved her body to the music, both her cheeks burned hot.

Not from pain.

It was because she thought of young Leon from the days she learned to dance, the boy who, even after being whipped, would wrap cabbage leaves around her feet and make a face more pained than she was.

Round and round, each time she spun, the sight of Leon sitting at the head table imprinted itself on her vision like a panorama.

His face, which wore a faint sneer at first, twisted into something strange as time passed.

He slowly straightened from where he leaned against the back of his chair. The tips of his fingers around his glass went white, and his eyes, chasing after her, trembled in small, rapid movements.

Leon saw the places she stepped turn red.

In the brief moment their eyes met, his face contorted sharply. As though he were the one bleeding.

‘Why are you making that face?’

He was the one who pushed her onto the cold marble floor.

“Count, Adela’s feet are bleeding…!”

Hardt’s cry drew every gaze in the room down to the floor. Drops of blood bloomed one by one along the path Adela traced.

Leon, who was irritably turning his glass in his hand, spoke coldly.

“Everyone look away.”

At his sharp command, the soldiers turned their eyes away all at once.

“The celebration is over. Everyone, assemble at the training ground.”

The soldiers drained from the banquet hall like a receding tide, leaving only the musicians, Adela, and Leon. Even so, Adela did not stop dancing.

Her body moved from memory, the way it did in those days when no amount of dancing made her feet hurt.

“Stop.”

The order came, but Adela’s body did not know how to stop. The feeling in her feet was long gone, but her body seemed to have forgotten how to cease, and kept moving.

“Can you not hear me!”

Unable to hold back any longer, Leon threw down his glass, crossed the floor, and caught Adela mid-dance, lifting her into his arms.

Leon’s furious voice grew fainter and fainter.