In her memory, she’d collapsed while dragging Heron—that was all…

“What happened to Lord Heron? Did he return safely?”

“He returned safely, so worry about yourself, Dame. Your condition is serious.”

“Yes…?”

“Dame, doesn’t your head hurt? Your color still hasn’t returned.”

Color? What did that mean?

Seeing she had no idea, Cardel brought over a mirror that had been standing on the table and handed it to Evolaine.

“Why is my face…?”

The reflection in the mirror was exactly what Cardel had said.

Her eyes were dyed purple, glowing brilliantly, and her hair was purple too.

She hadn’t returned to her original colors.

“Why is this happening?”

“I don’t know either. Kelic did run wild quite a bit last night, so it might be because of that… Anyway, you need to rest for a while.”

Cardel emphasized absolute rest to Evolaine and instructed a maid to change her bandages.

“Excuse me.”

“Yes…”

The maid approached and rolled up Evolaine’s shirt just enough to expose her abdomen.

Originally they’d planned to treat her after everyone left, but the ducal household members stubbornly insisted they had to see with their own eyes before leaving.

Because of that, Evolaine ended up having her bandages changed in front of them.

When her abdomen was exposed, bandages completely soaked in blood were revealed.

As the maid unwrapped the bandages around her abdomen to change them, bloodstained skin appeared along with a diagonal laceration.

The moment the maid pressed a water-dampened cloth against the wound area to clean it, Evolaine flinched.

The cloth touching her stomach was cold. The coldness kept making her body move.

Realizing Evolaine was squirming from the cold, the maid hurriedly cleaned the area thoroughly, applied medicine, and wrapped fresh bandages.

“All done.”

“Thank you.”

After pulling down her shirt and tidying her appearance, the maid left the room.

Meanwhile, the ducal household members who’d seen Evolaine’s wound wore serious expressions.

Despite applying medicine prescribed by a mage at dawn, the wound remained unchanged.

The medicine the mage had prepared wasn’t ordinary medicine.

In normal cases, Evolaine’s laceration should have already healed, leaving only a scar.

“This is the first time I’ve seen something like this…”

The troubled duke said he’d bring the mage directly and left the room.

“…Um, did something happen yesterday?”

At Evolaine’s question, the four people’s gazes focused on her again.

Those gazes felt somehow menacing, making Evolaine feel cold sweat on her back.

“…When you collapsed with Lord Heron yesterday, Dame, Sir Leopold found you. He said you were both like dying corpses.”

“……”

There were no words to make excuses.

Heron had truly been like a corpse, unconscious, and she’d just woken up after collapsing on the ground and passing out.

Though she couldn’t last long and passed out again…

“Sir Leopold called Father and me, and we recovered you and Lord Heron, Dame. We returned to the estate and immediately began treatment, but as I said, your Kelic absolutely wouldn’t settle down.”

In truth, it had nearly reached a rampage state, but Cardel didn’t mention that.

Knowing Evolaine already had many thoughts about Kelic, he didn’t want to burden her further.

‘I need to look into Kelic going berserk.’

The fact that Kelic could rampage was something he’d first learned through Evolaine.

Even if there were precedents in the Marquisate of La Voletta, none of that was publicly known.

To learn detailed information, they had no choice but to extract information from the Marquisate of La Voletta.

‘I’ll deal with that gradually…’

Even while listening to him, Evolaine seemed interested in something else entirely.

Her restless appearance looked exactly like a cornered rabbit.

Was he seeing things from exhaustion?

Swallowing a hollow laugh, Cardel gave Evolaine the answer she wanted.

“Lord Heron is receiving good treatment and recovering, so don’t worry and focus on your own treatment, Dame.”

“Thank you…”

Though she’d heard it once before, perhaps she needed to hear it again to feel at ease—once she heard a relatively detailed answer, Evolaine finally relaxed.

“……”

In contrast, Cardel’s face was rotting away.

Heron responded well to medicine, so his treatment was nearly complete. Essentially, he just needed to rest for recovery.

But Evolaine’s medicine wasn’t working well, so her laceration remained unchanged, and because her Kelic wouldn’t settle, her hair and eye color hadn’t returned either.

In other words, far from recovering, she wasn’t even being treated properly.

Anyone could see she was in a more serious condition, yet the person herself didn’t even care.

For Cardel, who by nature thought of and prioritized himself above all else, this was an incomprehensible aspect.

Cardel continued watching Evolaine seriously.

Not even knowing Ashili and Lucia were staring ominously from behind.

* * *

Aaaaah—!

Meli screamed from pain that felt like her body was splitting apart while looking at the man standing before her.

Empty eyes devoid of any emotion met hers, but even that alone made Meli happy.

Though she knew she was being completely used, she willingly let herself be used.

Being used meant being useful.

Just like tools each have their purpose, she too had her purpose.

What did it matter? As long as she’d become an important tool to him.

Meli laughed even while crying in pain.

“…Ha.”

Completely insane. The Duke of Arpi let out a scoff.

He’d only intended to work on her a little, but the problem was forcing the experiment on Meli, who followed more obediently than expected.

Because of this, Meli completely lost her sense of self as a human and showed serious obsession toward the duke, who’d been the main caster of the magic in the experiment.

“Felton, bring a sword.”

When the duke commanded into empty air, a knight who’d been concealed revealed himself and dropped a sword in front of Meli.

Clang—!

At the sound of metal hitting the floor, Meli startled violently.

Light gathered in eyes that had been unfocused all along, and she properly understood the meaning of the sharp sword before her.

“Du-Duke…”

It can’t be. It can’t mean what I think it means…

Though her gaze wavered, completely gripped by fear, Meli didn’t give in and crawled toward the Duke of Arpi.

Iron pillars blocked the space between them, but such things didn’t matter.

If I grab and cling to his pants, if the duke properly looks at me, he’ll change his mind.

The duke who’s forgiven me countless times until now…

“Duke…?”

Meli’s hand, meeting the duke’s deep eyes, lost its way and floundered.

No answer, no looking at her.

It feels like my heart stopped. Why? Why?

I let myself be used. I endured the painful experiments and proved my usefulness.

And yet…

“Why…?”

Despair swept through her head. Meli’s head couldn’t bear to look forward and turned downward.

Lowering her head, she saw the well-honed sword again.

“The sword before you is your last chance to prove your usefulness.”

In short, he was telling her to die.

And directly, by her own hand.

Meli’s hand trembled as she grasped the sword.

Is this really the end? Will no more chances come to me?

Thoughts followed endlessly, one after another.

My only crime was loving him…

The man she loved wanted her to die directly before him.

“…Duke, you release the suggestion right before death…”

“……”

“You know well how to make a person most miserable.”

Meli resented herself for having sworn she’d willingly throw away her life for him.

It had certainly been sincere, but she realized too late that ultimately it was a lie mixed with impurities born from sincerity.

“Kugh…!”

The sharp sword pierced her heart. Though strength didn’t enter well, Meli forcibly pushed the sword in.

“I resent you, Duke. You who toy with people’s emotions like playthings… I resent…”

Meli’s words didn’t finish. Her gasping breath ran short, and her upper body tilted forward.

Thud—

The strength left her hand gripping the sword tightly. The hand that fell to the floor slowly cooled along with the chill.

“…Trash.”

The duke turned away without lingering over Meli, who was coldly cooling.

Just as she’d said, he was trash who ignored people’s sincerity, but he possessed the power to avoid being buried even while doing such things.