“I…”

Jella was visibly flustered. Seeing this, Niel let out a faint, bitter smile.

“I understand. You’re not at fault. It’s my mistake for misinterpreting your kindness and harboring false hopes.”

“…”

Jella moved her lips for a moment as if there was something she wanted to say.

That how could it be his fault?

That it’s natural for people’s hearts to flow in certain directions, so how could that be considered a mistake?

She wanted to say that, but she couldn’t.

“Yes. I like you. For quite a long time now.”

“You never looked back at me for even a moment, but I was always looking only at you.”

“I like you, Jella.”

Because she now knew that what she had been suspecting for some time was not a misconception at all. And because she realized that her carelessly given kindness could shake him again.

‘Since when exactly… no, at ten years old, that was not long after our engagement.’

When they were very young, during their weekly meetings due to engagement obligations, there was just one time when he had pleased her by saying he liked her.

‘I naturally thought it was something the Duke had instructed him to say.’

After that, Niel never said anything similar or showed any signs of liking her.

Even when she postponed the wedding several times, he never once showed any resentment.

Originally, Niel Alpenhayer was a man with little emotional variation, as calm as the air.

She thought he had started showing emotions after Yuria appeared. Back then, he was by Yuria’s side with a gentleness she had never seen before.

She thought that calm and respectful attitude he showed beside Yuria was Niel’s love.

But it wasn’t.

Niel speaking of love to her was neither calm nor respectful.

She remembered how he had burned hot and delved deep when their lips met. She remembered how he had reached out without hesitation and enveloped her.

Far from being respectful, he had spoken of love while looking at her with eyes mixed with long-held resentment.

Jella, who had been staring at him, brought up what she had been debating whether to ask.

“…I’m curious about something.”

“Anything. Please ask.”

“You said you brought Kim Ga-eul’s body.”

“…”

“Did you know Kim Ga-eul?”

Niel, who had just said to ask anything, wore a crooked smile at her follow-up question. He seemed quite displeased and uncomfortable.

“Well…”

“Just now, you said I could ask anything.”

“I changed my mind. Don’t ask anything.”

“…”

Yes, with that crooked smile on his lips as he answered, he was not respectful at all.

‘Where on earth is the mature and grown-up Niel Alpenhayer from the original story?’

While Jella was making a confused expression at this discrepancy.

“Sister! Sister Jella!”

Someone’s voice was heard calling. Far away, a man in priest’s robes was running toward them.

There was only one person in the Grand Temple who would call Jella “sister.”

“Damian?”

“Oh my, I’m out of breath, huff huff. Lord Johannes is looking for you! His Holiness has safely awakened!”

At the news Damian brought, Jella’s eyes grew round and large.

***

In the empty room where everyone had been sent out.

Yupheon, having regained consciousness, was sitting alone, leaning against the bed’s headboard with a blank expression.

His decayed body had been restored to that of a living person, but his face was still pale, as if all color had been bleached away.

This was because the moment he regained consciousness, he remembered everything.

All the things he had done after losing his reason under Arne’s delusion.

“I like you, Jella. I like you so much.”

He had made an unsightly confession to Jella saying he liked her.

“I, I’ll only think of you. So, so, love me more.”

He had shown shameful jealousy, asking her to love only him.

“You shouldn’t think about that man either, just love me, Jella. Right, right?”

He had bitten her all over, telling her not to think about any other man.

And then…

“Good Yuphe is giving you his heart too. Allow me, Jella. Okay?”

With such words, he had gently coaxed her…

‘I, kissed her…’

Yupheon touched his rough lips.

The soft, hot sensation that had touched them was still vivid.

He had lost his reason and rushed at her.

He had burst out the feelings he had kept hidden for so long in such a barbaric way.

Thinking about it, Yupheon just wanted to cry.

But that wasn’t the only reason he truly wanted to cry.

“Take this by cutting me open here.”

It was obvious she would be sad if he did such a thing, and even though he knew this, he had said those words.

There was Arne’s delusion, but that was just an excuse.

When Yuria had used that power before, he hadn’t been affected at all. This time too, if he had held onto his will a little more strongly, he wouldn’t have been affected.

But seeing her smile brightly at him, he had hesitated.

As a result, he had been completely deluded and acted as he pleased.

So this was the result of his own selfish desire to be loved by her, even if just for a brief moment, projected as a wicked impulse.

That’s why he had uttered such stupid words, and in the end, he had… made her cry.

‘I made Jella cry.’

The noble princess from the Shunaibel Empire rarely cried even when sad since childhood. So young Yuphe always had to cry on her behalf.

And she, she had cried. Even amid the haziness of his reason, he clearly remembered that she had cried.

The image of her face, with her snow-white eyes turned red, silently shedding tears in sorrow, remained as an afterimage that painfully stabbed his heart.

‘It’s because of me.’

He had made her cry.

He had made Jella cry.

The one he should have made smile every day, he had made her cry.

‘I made Jella cry. I made Jella cry and sad.’

Yupheon was so devastated by this fact that he tightly closed his eyes and bowed his head.

Despite not being able to die, he wished he could.

At that moment, with the sound of the door opening, familiar footsteps were heard.

Yupheon’s body flinched.

But he couldn’t bring himself to look up.

Because just from the warmly fluctuating change in the air, he already knew who the visitor was.

“Yuphe.”

Jella, who had somehow approached the bedside, called him.

“Are you alright now…”

“I’m sorry.”

Before Jella could finish speaking, words of apology abruptly sprang from Yuphe’s mouth.

“I’m sorry, it’s all my fault, Jella.”

“Yuphe? Look up at me…”

At her request to look up, Yupheon shook his head and said:

“I did it because I like you. I did it because I like you too much.”

There was crying embedded in his voice as he spoke.

Jella’s brow furrowed slightly.

Jella quietly looked at Yuphe, whose shoulders were trembling, then slowly tilted her head.

Then she saw his face, which he was trying not to show her.

That pure face was covered in tears.

“Yuphe.”

When she called in a quiet voice, Yuphe tightly closed his eyes. This caused the tears pooled in his eyes to fall all at once.

“Yuphe, stop crying and look at me.”

“N-no…”

Yuphe stubbornly resisted.

“I, ugh, I can’t look at you…”

Jella, who had been silently watching him, reached out and cupped his wet cheeks.

With a slight force, she lifted his face, and despite his resistance, he couldn’t help but look up at her.

His moist eyes reflected light, looking just like sparkling golden marbles.

Jella looked carefully into those beautiful eyes and asked in a distressed voice:

“Then are you never going to look at me again?”

“…”

“I’m sorry, Yuphe. I said such mean things to you. That we should never see each other again, I was wrong. Can we pretend I never said that?”

“…”

“…I want to keep seeing you.”

At her final added words, Yuphe suddenly burst into tears and embraced her.

“No, Jella. You weren’t bad at all. I’m the bad one.”

Yuphe’s large body collapsed into Jella’s arms.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Jella. I want to keep seeing you, too.”

Pat, pat. At her comforting touch, Yuphe cried loudly like a child.