“That…! That was because of Arne’s scheme. Because of the brainwashing power Arne spread… And after Arne disappeared, didn’t Niel Alpenhayer move public opinion to make it all as if it never happened? So, Jella. Please clear up this misunderstanding.”

Cail, seemingly quite flustered, spoke more than usual.

Jella smiled at the suddenly reversed situation, but inwardly asked something she had kept in her heart for a long time.

“Then what about you and Yuria going in and out of each other’s rooms long ago? What was that about?”

She had been curious ever since he confessed that he had never liked Yuria even once after they met again.

“I saw everything. Yuria visiting your room, and you lingering in front of Yuria’s room.”

She remembered feeling like she had seen something she shouldn’t have and immediately turning away.

And the next day, when she went looking for Cail, who hadn’t come to work, she found Yuria’s hair and droplets of blood on the floor of his room.

Even though she hadn’t been aware of her feelings for Cail at the time, the moment she saw that, her heart sank with a grating feeling.

It wasn’t as hot as jealousy nor as painful as sorrow, but that grating feeling in her heart that day resembled loneliness.

Perhaps, even as those close to her were leaving one by one, she had hoped that at least Cail, at least this man, would remain by her side.

Cail Aleret.

A man who seemed to live only for her. Thus, a man who made her look back even at the final moment.

But unlike just before, Cail hesitated to answer with a pale face, unable to make excuses right away.

At this sight, Jella furrowed her brow suspiciously and asked.

“What’s with that reaction? Did something really happen between you and Yuria?”

“…How could it?”

Cail shook his head vigorously.

“Then, what I saw that day…”

Pause.

Jella, who had been digging for the truth of that day, suddenly stopped speaking.

Cail was looking at her with a face like a pitiful puppy.

In other words, a face that aroused protective instincts, making her feel like she should hold and stroke him.

‘How can that huge body be associated with the word protective instinct?’

Even while thinking this, Jella’s heart quickly softened toward Cail.

She was always like this. She would easily soften her heart, especially toward Cail.

Noticing her change in demeanor, Cail glanced at her cautiously and carefully explained.

“That day you saw, that woman came to me and used a strange power. I didn’t know exactly what it was at the time, but it was Arne’s power that brainwashed people whenever their eyes met. So I tried to gouge out that woman’s eyes…”

“What? Gouge out her eyes?”

Jella cut off Cail’s words in surprise and asked.

“Yes, I could have gouged them out well, but that woman used holy power and ran away, so I missed her.”

Cail answered, nodding his head with a still kind and gentle puppy-like face.

“…Then you lingering in front of Yuria’s room was, no, never mind. I think I know, so you don’t need to answer.”

He must have gone looking for Yuria, who had escaped, to harm her after all. Jella thought she understood why Yuria was terrified whenever she saw Cail.

Gouging out a living person’s eyes. How could he think of such a terrifying thing with such a beautiful face?

‘Come to think of it… you’ve always been like that.’

Cail would always react sharply when it came to matters related to her safety, as if he were not the kind and innocent man she knew.

Remembering this, her heart, which had been sharp with petty jealousy and lingering resentment until just now, softened.

“Has your doubt been cleared?”

“It has to be, right? Otherwise, you look like you’re about to capture Yuria again and harm her in front of me.”

“…!”

With a face that seemed to have gained deep enlightenment at those words, Cail asked quite seriously.

“Should I do that?”

“Don’t do that! I said I don’t have any doubts!”

When she frantically dissuaded him, Cail smiled gently and replied.

“That’s a relief.”

Jella stared quietly at that handsome face and suddenly remembered to ask.

“Then the next day, when I came looking for you, you were curled up like that because…”

“I thought you might abandon me.”

At that calm answer, Jella burst into laughter.

“You were a coward even back then, Cail.”

“I’m still a coward now.”

Cail confessed in a calm voice.

“Even with you right before my eyes like this, I’m always afraid of when you might suddenly disappear from me again.”

“I…”

“I know. That you won’t do that.”

“…”

“It’s not that I dare not trust you, that I harbor such disrespectful thoughts. This is just…”

After choosing his words for a moment, he said with gently curved eyes.

“It’s a fear like a habit ingrained in me who loves you, Jella.”

“…”

Jella silently gazed for a while at this man who said he loved her, and thus was always afraid.

She slowly reached out her hand, cupped one of his cheeks, and then rose on her tiptoes to kiss his lips.

Touch.

Cail froze in surprise at the lips that touched and separated without warning.

“Don’t be afraid.”

Jella whispered, gently stroking his stiffened face with her thumb.

“And don’t be anxious.”

“Jella…”

Looking at his wavering eyes, Jella rose on her tiptoes once more.

Smooch.

Just as her lips, which had touched longer than before, were about to slide away.

A large palm gently cupped the back of her head as she was moving away, pulling her in for a deeper kiss.

Jella’s red eyes widened, but soon she, too, closed her eyes and clung to him.

Though they had shared countless moments of warmth during their brief time at the northern castle, the act of pressing their lips together and sharing breaths still made them hot.

Cail lifted her up and slowly walked.

Even while walking, their lips didn’t separate, as if even a moment’s distance was regrettable.

By the time the creaking wooden stair sounds stopped, the door opened with a squeak, and after a few steps, her body settled onto a soft bed.

Their lips, which had seemed inseparable, finally parted, and Jella, slowly opening her eyelids, burst into a small laugh toward him and spread her arms.

Why did that clear laughter sound so languid and sensual? Cail felt emotions boiling somewhere inside him as he lowered his body over her.

Then Jella tightly embraced him with both arms and whispered.

“You know what, Cail? You once said that when you died with the dragon, the world would become peaceful. That you would end everything with your death.”

“…”

“But I wanted to give you, no one else but you, a peaceful world.”

“…”

“I wanted you to be loved by everyone. In the peaceful world I left behind, I wanted you, who was my only lingering attachment, to be happy.”

“…”

“And now I know. For you to be happy, I need to be by your side.”

“Jella…”

Cail’s voice calling her name came out with a low crack.

“So I’m not going anywhere. I’ll stay by your side.”

Jella said once more in a clear voice and reached for the buttons of his shirt.

Pop. Pop. Pop.

The buttons came undone one by one, revealing his chest.

His left chest, where Helasio had once dwelled, now showed no trace of it.

“It’s clean now.”

Jella murmured, caressing his left chest where his heart was beating.

Helasio’s demonic energy and the traces that would occasionally turn black as a precursor to going berserk had all disappeared.

“Yes, Jella. Because you didn’t give up on me, I can now stay by your side for a very long time.”

Cail caught her hand and kissed it repeatedly. Jella burst into giggles at the ticklish feeling.

“Ahaha, it tickles, Cail, ah, mmm…”

Suddenly, she shrank back. Cail was sensually biting and sucking on her finger.

The hot temperature inside his mouth traveled from her fingertips throughout her body.

“Mmm…”

A faint m*an escaped from between Jella’s lips.

Cail, pleased with Jella’s reaction, let out a low laugh and audibly kissed her palm.

As his lips traveled up her wrist and bit and pulled at the tender flesh on the inside of her forearm, a red bruise bloomed instantly.

The lips that were marking their traces densely on her snow-white skin pulled at the red satin string that fastened the front of her blouse with his front teeth.

Swish.

The ribbon came undone and the front of the blouse opened, revealing the white skin hidden within her undergarments, welcoming him.

Jella looked at his face, which was focused on her body, with a languidly relaxed expression and uneven breaths.

Perhaps it was because of his neat and ascetic appearance. The sight of him biting into white flesh with red lips often provoked a strange sense of perversion.