Ingram Kasvah arrived at Valent Castle and used her past engagement to Count Fershtein to assert control over the servants. The Count happened to be absent, so no one could stop her.

Ingram occupied the unmanned parlor like its mistress and waited without purpose.

Before long, the parlor door opened.

A thin smile spread across Ingram’s lips at the sight of the woman who appeared.

The woman in the white dress was slight, and without proper adornment she looked almost shabby.

‘So the greatest beauty in Valent was just an empty rumor.’

But the closer the woman came, the more the ease drained from Ingram’s face.

Brown hair flowing down to her waist, and eyes that held the mystery of a deep forest. Pale-faced, she looked like a goddess standing alone in the morning mist.

Just as displeasure began to rise, Ingram caught sight of the marks exposed through the loose neckline of Adela’s dress.

They were far too cruel to be the result of affection.

Ingram’s gaze softened as she confirmed those wretched marks.

A satisfied smile finally spread across her lips.

‘Right. There’s no need to be jealous of a slave.’

Sensing the cold stare, Adela flinched with a frightened expression and hurriedly pulled her neckline closed. But that clumsy gesture only fed Ingram’s arrogance further.

Ingram raked her gaze over Adela and shot her a contemptuous look.

“You have exactly the kind of face that lures men in. Utterly cheap and lowly.”

“…Cough.”

Adela covered her mouth with a handkerchief and stifled a cough, her thin shoulders trembling faintly. That pitiful gesture only stirred Ingram’s temper more sharply.

“The Count took you in for one reason only. Revenge. You had better not entertain any other ideas.”

Adela still said nothing.

Even dismissing her as a lowly slave, Ingram’s fury would not fully die down.

The unbearable wretchedness of knowing that Leon’s hands, which she never once received herself, touched this woman, even if only in hatred, was more than she could stand.

Ingram struck Adela hard across the cheek and screamed.

“If it were me, I would rather kill myself than suffer this kind of shame!”

Ingram shrieked like a madwoman, yet it was she herself trembling with humiliation. A nauseating bitterness rose alongside the feeling of defeat.

Unable to hold back, Ingram spat on Adela’s chest.

“Truly disgusting.”

Adela’s thin dress was soiled. But the lips of the woman with her head bowed curved into a faint, strange smile.

* * *

Following the Emperor’s orders, Leon, who swallowed Valent, rode out himself at early dawn to inspect the area around the castle walls.

It was work he could have left to a subordinate, but to clear his cluttered head, he needed to move his body.

‘What on earth is she thinking?’

The Adela he faced after two years seemed the same, yet was a completely different person.

The depth of his hatred matched the depth of his love.

Hatred toward the Valent royal family and Adela was the only force that drove him across battlefields for the past two years.

‘When we meet again, I will snap that slender neck in an instant.’

He swore to himself countless times that he would crush the lips that once whispered love to him, and grind beneath his heel the eyes that deceived him.

But when Emperor Abarus ordered every member of the Valent royal family executed, Leon could not readily swing his sword.

It was not because he still loved Adela, the daughter of the enemy who slaughtered his family and hurt those close to him.

‘I cannot give her such a peaceful death.’

Leon simply wanted to drag the once-noble princess down into the mud and make her taste the most wretched despair at the very bottom of life.

The first thing he did after crushing Valent was execute the king and queen.

On the way to face Adela with her parents’ blood still on him, Leon’s heart pounded so violently it was beyond his control.

‘She will surely hate me.’

His mind was a mess, and rage boiled through his entire body until his fingertips trembled faintly.

Passing the second-floor staircase toward the corridor, a sharp quarrel shattered the quiet. And there stood Adela, the one he despised even in his dreams.

But the face he met wore only a strange stillness. That unreadable blankness unsettled him more than any fierce accusation would have.

Adela could barely keep herself upright, yet there she stood, blocking the soldiers to protect her nanny.

The moment he saw that pitiful figure from behind, rage surged up in him again.

The only one who gets to punish Adela is me.

After sending the soldiers off the second floor and facing Adela alone, he heard something entirely unexpected.

‘Leon, I want to have your child.’

Those words wiped his mind blank.

‘Does she truly understand the weight of what she is saying?’

In the end, he spent the night holding Adela, who willingly declared she would become his concubine and stay by his side.

In the early hours before dawn, looking down at her sleeping silently in his arms, a crushing self-loathing washed over him.

The fact that he lay with the daughter of the enemy who massacred his family made him think he might as well have become a beast.

But this was also the Emperor’s strict command.

‘Since Count Fershtein desires it, I shall specially grant Adela Valent to him as a bedroom slave. However, he must manage that slave thoroughly so she does not get up to any mischief.’

Emperor Abarus added that she was to be executed the moment she became useless. So Leon, whether he wished it or not, had to take Adela every night to keep her alive.

‘It is not yet time for her to die.’

Leon wanted Adela to taste the same terrible betrayal and grief he suffered. If she was to die, it could only happen by his hand.

Leon curved his lips into a cold smile and returned to the castle after finishing the morning inspection. Crossing the drawbridge and dismounting, his close aide Hardt approached with a heavy expression.

“Welcome back, my lord.”

“Yes. Nothing unusual, I trust?”

Hardt, his strategist and secretary, showed a rare look of difficulty.

“The paperwork is in its final stages, and the maid replacement was completed without issue, however……”

“…However?”

Hardt always handled things cleanly, so the moment his words trailed off, Leon’s instincts sounded a warning.

“The young lady of the Kasvah ducal house has arrived.”

“…Ah.”

Ingram Kasvah. The moment he heard that name, Leon’s brow twisted into a dark scowl.

The engagement was broken, so they were strangers now. But the fact that she was Duke Kasvah’s only blood was a troublesome problem.

Duke Kasvah was a high-ranking noble known as the Emperor’s right hand.

“There is a mountain of affairs to deal with, and she chooses to come here at a time like this.”

“The thing is… the moment she arrived, she asked for that slave.”

Before Hardt’s report was even finished, Leon set aside every piece of work and headed for the stairs instead of his office. Just like when he climbed these stairs yesterday, his heart beat faster than he liked.

He pushed the door open and rushed into Adela’s bedroom. She was standing at the very edge of the balcony, precarious, looking as though she might fall at any moment.

Leon grabbed Adela’s arm roughly and pulled her toward him. Her head hung in shame, and a red mark stood vivid on her cheek.

Someone else’s handprint lay over the marks he left.

This was the sight he craved so desperately.

The once-noble princess fell miserably to the very bottom. It was exactly the result he wanted, yet strangely, Leon was gripped by an indescribable unease.

“No one is permitted to lay a hand on you without my permission. Do you understand?”

Whoever it was, he would stop anyone from touching Adela. The right to cause her pain belonged to him alone.

* * *

Leaning against the headboard in the darkened bedroom, Adela let out a short breath. A storm of a day was passing since her return.

“Similar, but a little different.”

Just as in her past life, Leon crushed Valent and came for her without fail. But not every detail matched. For one, she protected Sofia.

Leon too was clearly different from that time when he lay with her like an animal in the dark and then fled as though escaping.

‘Leon was right. I need to build up my stamina first.’

Because of his rough handling through the night, her body was too exhausted to obey her.