It was a night so grueling that not a shred of strength remained to move even a finger.

A faint smile touched Adela’s lips as she thought of Ingram Kasvah.

‘It’s a relief that Ingram hasn’t changed.’

In her past life, Adela could not endure the insults Ingram hurled at her and screamed back. And for the crime of a slave insulting a noble, she was subjected to a brutal flogging.

The horrific sound of flesh splitting open still would not leave her. Even the crack of a leather whip cutting through the air made her heart seize in a fit of trembling.

After that, any sound that pierced sharply at her eardrums filled Adela with extreme terror.

So dealing with Ingram earlier was a tremendous ordeal. Rubbing her still-burning cheek, Adela managed a faint smile.

‘This time it ended with just one slap across the face. That’s good enough.’

Looking back on her days as the Princess of Valent, it was undeniably a humiliation she could not endure for even a single day, just as Ingram sneered. The version of herself who once valued dignity above life would have bitten off her own tongue rather than bear it.

But the Adela of now had a more urgent task than dwelling on her pride as the sole blood of the royal line.

‘I have to set right the twisted thing between us, no matter what.’

Adela still did not know why Leon turned his back on her, or what planted such deep hatred in him.

But the one thing she was certain of was that the Leon of her past life tried to save her even at the cost of his own life.

‘Looking back piece by piece, the end of every tragedy was always his sacrifice for me.’

Emperor Abarus despised her deeply and seized every opportunity to cut her life short. Every single time, it was always Leon who found some pretext to keep Adela alive.

But the Adela of that time had no room left to read his true intentions.

After several attempts to take her own life, cold shackles were locked around her ankles, and she could not take a single step without Leon’s permission.

‘Back then, even Sofia was not beside me. I was truly alone.’

She was sinking into the gloomy memories of her past life when the sound of heavy military boots echoing down the corridor made Adela reflexively drop from the bed and curl herself into a ball. The fear branded into her body reacted before her reason could.

The one who cut through the darkness and entered the room was Leon.

He strode up to the head of the bed and looked down at Adela like a great shadow.

“I hear you refused to eat.”

“…I didn’t refuse. I simply cannot swallow anything.”

The blow from Ingram left the inside of her mouth badly torn. She told them the wounds stung and she could only manage soup, but the maid from Urcheka just shouted at her without listening and left.

Leon came close, confirmed Adela’s condition, and yanked the bell pull roughly to summon a maid.

“Prepare a soup fit for a patient at once.”

Then his gaze settled on Adela’s soiled dress. Seeing the garment with Ingram’s marks still on it, Leon’s eyes twisted into a dark scowl.

“Why haven’t you changed?”

“W, well……. All the dresses in the wardrobe are gone.”

Adela answered in a voice close to tears, barely managing the words. It was a frail, thin voice that sounded ready to crumble at any moment.

“Who did that?”

Adela said nothing and only shook her head in answer to Leon’s harsh demand.

After the Urcheka forces stormed in, servants stealing valuables and fleeing was a common occurrence in the castle, so it was entirely natural for Leon to suspect looting.

But the one who moved the dresses in advance and stuffed them into a storeroom was none other than Sofia. It was Adela’s calculated scheme to push Leon’s protective instincts to their limit.

There was no way to even have a conversation like this.

She had to somehow calm Leon’s anger and keep him close to her side.

Leon lifted Adela into his arms in silence. Then he carefully set her down in a bathtub filled with warm water.

“I’ll call a maid to help you bathe.”

“N, no……”

Adela shook her head quickly and curled in on herself. The wet dress clung to her skin in response, and the red marks he left the night before showed through plainly. Leon’s gaze landed there, then immediately veered away, as though burned by something hot.

Watching his retreating figure leave the bathroom without a word, Adela smiled in satisfaction. Even in the dark, the flush spreading across the back of his neck was unmistakable.

‘The effect is definite.’

Left alone, Adela let out a quiet sigh and leaned back lazily in the bathtub.

She closed her eyes and sank into the warmth, and fragments of her past life she wanted to forget drifted through her mind.

Back then, every day was a repetition of longing for nothing but death.

Because the violence wielded by the one she loved was bitterly, piercingly cruel.

She ran her fingers lightly over her wrists, and the smooth skin with no trace of shackle marks felt strange and unfamiliar.

Because of her s*icide attempts in her past life, Leon tied her limbs to the bed. The bedroom, stripped of every object she could use to harm herself, was nothing but a bleak prison.

But this life was different.

‘I will survive, no matter what.’

She already saved Sofia, hadn’t she? So she could surely push through whatever lay ahead. With her turmoil settled, Adela noticed the water in the bathtub slowly going cold.

She needed to add more warm water, but instead of calling a maid, she pushed herself deeper into the now-cold water.

By the time the chill drained the color from her face and her chin began to tremble faintly, the sound of heavy footsteps reached her from beyond the bathroom door.

“…Are you still in there?”

Leon’s voice carried a strange restlessness. Adela slowly let her chin and lips sink below the surface.

‘I wonder when Leon will come.’

She probably could not hold out much longer in this state.

Just as the tip of her nose was about to go under, the bathroom door burst open with a force that nearly tore it from its hinges.

“What do you think you’re doing!”

The furious voice rang out and Leon hauled Adela roughly out of the water at the same moment. Water droplets sprayed and soaked the floor.

“I clearly warned you that you cannot die on your own terms!”

Adela reached out her cold hand and grabbed the collar of the man roaring loud enough to shake the bathroom walls.

Her trembling lips parted with effort.

“…I just got dizzy and dozed off for a moment.”

“You’re saying you truly weren’t trying to die?”

“I won’t die. I absolutely will not die.”

Leaving that certain answer behind, Adela buried her face in Leon’s chest.

Leon drew rough breaths and swallowed his anger, then lifted her and carried her to the bedroom. He dried the chill from her body and wrapped a thick robe around her.

He even carefully dried her wet hair with a towel, and the color slowly returned to Adela’s pale face. Leon, his reason finally restored, murmured low.

“With a body this feeble, how exactly do you plan to be my mistress?”

“Don’t worry, Leon.”

Adela sat with her knees drawn up and slowly untied the robe’s sash. The robe slipped off her shoulders, and her white skin lay fully exposed. Leon’s gaze fixed there and froze.

Adela slowly climbed onto his thighs and sat, and a crack formed in Leon’s composed brow.

Leon’s body, seated at the edge of the bed, went visibly rigid.

Hot breath seeped out between his parted lips, and his eyes flashed with a heat that looked ready to swallow her whole.

Goosebumps rose across her chest exposed to the cold air, and the rosy peaks stood taut. Adela buried her face in Leon’s shoulder, and a scent both familiar and strange pierced straight through her.

She first met him around the age of eight.

Leon, two years her senior, was small and slight back then, and she naturally assumed he was younger than her. Unlike the sweet, warm scent of his boyhood, his body now carried a cool, deep fragrance like a northern forest.

“…Get off.”

“I’m still cold.”

Adela wrapped both arms firmly around Leon’s waist, and he let out a short breath. For all his ferocity, he could not bring himself to push her away in the end.