‘It’ll, it’ll be fine.’

Ivona swallowed dryly and repeated to herself mentally, trying to calm her racing heart.

‘If Father knew, he wouldn’t have just sent Rona away.’

Never mind Rona—the moment he entered the room, he would have dragged her out like a dog and whipped her. Just like he’d done to her mother before.

But because she had something to hide, her whole body kept shrinking as time passed. 

The more her father’s pheromones rolled in, conveying his discomfort plainly, the faster her heart pounded.

If this continued much longer, wouldn’t she suffocate and die? Feeling cold sweat running down her back and thinking futile thoughts, the Marquis opened his mouth.

“Exactly what did the Young Master of Mutheira say yesterday?”

His voice, barely suppressing rage, was indistinguishable from grinding teeth. But Ivona was momentarily bewildered and couldn’t answer readily.

She’d gone straight to her father after parting with the Young Master yesterday and reported everything without omission. The humiliating demands unbearable for an unmarried young lady to hear, and even the blatant mockery of her status—all of it.

Every single thing had trampled on Castillia and Ivona. Despite hearing it all, the person who’d used even pheromones to oppress her, demanding unconditional obedience, had been none other than the Marquis himself. 

So she couldn’t understand why he was making a fuss about it now.

Frustrated by her hesitation, the Marquis pressed her again.

“What on earth did you do to make him postpone writing the marriage contract!”

So that was why. Ivona felt so absurd she was dumbfounded.

‘A week from now, he’d watch how well I do and decide whether to marry me—what nonsense…’

No matter how shameless the Young Master of Mutheira was, apparently he hadn’t said that much in front of the Marquis. But having heard talk of postponing the marriage, the Marquis wouldn’t wait obediently.

In the end, hadn’t he pushed the embarrassing task of making his demands acceptable onto Ivona? His petty, mean temperament was so ridiculous she almost laughed bitterly.

But the Marquis didn’t have a single grain of patience left to consider Ivona’s suffering.

“Can’t you confess exactly what he said!”

The Northern Tower, far from the main building, had no worry of sounds leaking out no matter how much shouting occurred. Hearing the thunderous roar right in her face, Ivona squeezed her eyes shut. 

The familiar aggressive pheromones surged, demanding an answer. In the illusion of her whole body being torn to shreds, Ivona forced her jaw to move and answered with trembling lips.

“Th-the Young Master said. If he watches my efforts, and I, I do well. He’ll acc-accept me as his companion…”

“So! What kind of efforts!”

Even at her answer given with all her strength, the Marquis only pounded his chest in frustration. Ivona’s face flushed red with shame, but the eyes with blade-like pupils were merciless.

“H-his, th-the Young Master’s thing… he gave me a model, and, and, and I should… squeeze it… he said…”

The last words were buried in sobbing and barely audible. It was a filthy demand she hated even putting in her own mouth again. A man proposing marriage, even if formally, demanding a lady practice for his pleasure.

It was quite rude to the lady’s family too, but the petty man hadn’t even conveyed that rudeness with his own mouth. Ivona pressed her lips together and presented the pouch she’d received from the Young Master before the Marquis. 

Then she squeezed her eyes shut, anticipating the thunderbolt about to fall.

The Marquis would be mortified to come in second regarding pride. He’d let it pass yesterday, but originally he wasn’t the type to stay quiet after receiving such an insult. 

Since he couldn’t confront the guest, that rage would likely pour entirely onto Ivona right before his eyes.

But no matter how much time passed, the anticipated thunderbolt didn’t fall. Opening her eyes to slits, she saw large hands picking up the pouch from her trembling palm. Seeing the black obsidian bead, a bewildered look rose in those fierce yellow eyes.

“…What is this?”

“Th-th-that’s the Young M-Master’s… thing…”

Her moon-white face turned bright red with shame. Even so, to have to mention an outside man’s g*nitals in front of her father. If there was somewhere to hide, she wanted to run away and hide.

But the Marquis never let Ivona escape. Even with a stunned face, he asked again.

“You’re saying this modeled the Young Master’s member? So what did he tell you to do with this?”

Her father’s eyes, digging in persistently, gleamed strangely. Not knowing why her father’s mood was turning savage, Ivona squeezed out an answer.

“T-to practice… squeezing it, he said…”

“…”

The doubt shadowing the Marquis’s face still hadn’t cleared. Ivona squeezed her eyes shut and spat out like pouring.

“T-to please the Young M-Master, to receive much aff-affection. So if I do well, he’ll c-consider accepting me as his wife…”

The words were utterly humiliating. But the Marquis wouldn’t back down until he got a satisfactory answer. Rather than continue suffering and provoking her father’s anger, it was better to give the answer quickly even if it was shameful.

Ivona’s head, having spilled everything she knew, buried downward. Though Mutheira’s insult wasn’t Ivona’s fault, the Marquis wasn’t such a rational shapeshifter. So preparing for a possible thunderbolt or fist was a reaction close to instinct.

But by great fortune, the Marquis didn’t rage.

“This?”

“…Yes.”

“This? The Young Master’s member?”

“…Yes.”

She couldn’t understand the meaning of asking repeatedly, but Ivona answered faithfully. After asking several times to confirm he hadn’t misheard, the Marquis’s expression slowly but surely crumbled.

She’d seen the Marquis look like this exactly once before. When he’d heard news that the fleet he’d invested more than half his fortune in had sunk.

“Were the rumors true…? The Young Master can’t perform…?”

She’d never seen the guarded Marquis lose his composure like this. An inexplicable anxiety transferred to Ivona too.

“Even so! D*mn it! Being that small, how can he handle a woman on the wedding night!”

“…?”

“If it’s like this, it’d be better to hand her over to the experienced Border Duke…!”

The Marquis muttered incoherently, unable to hide his bewilderment. Because of this, he didn’t even realize he’d said insulting things he should have hidden from his daughter.

‘The Border Duke, surely not.’

The imposing figure she’d seen from afar last night rose hazily. 

Even without seeing him directly, there wouldn’t be anyone in this empire who didn’t know the name of Border Duke of Mutheira, who’d defended the empire by blocking the demon beasts. 

But wasn’t he even older than Marquis Castillia?

Handing her over to such a Border Duke, calling him experienced… and the words that slipped out about “handling a woman.”

No matter which way she thought about it, it couldn’t be a better choice.

‘Surely not. Even so, marriage with the Border Duke… No, it can’t be.’

Her fierce denial was close to a wish. But Ivona already knew in a corner of her mind. That to her father, her position was nothing more than slightly expensive livestock. No owner would willingly accept losses for mere livestock’s wellbeing.

With a dizzying sensation of falling and strength draining from her legs, she unknowingly sank down with a thud. 

At the sound of her collapsing, the Marquis, lost in his own thoughts, flinched and turned around. The gazes of father and daughter, each shocked for their own reasons, collided in midair.

“F-Father…”

Hearing the voice tangled with faint resentment and despair, a faint sense of dismay rose on the Marquis’s stiff face. Even while feeling a corner of her chest collapsing, Ivona tried hard to deny it.

“The Border Duke… s-surely not the Young Master’s father…? And what rumors…”

“…”

The more her fumbling questions continued, the more the Marquis’s face turned pale then flushed red. With anger deepening on his face, she already felt like she’d heard the answer without needing to ask. Ivona felt her vision darkening.

“Are you serious…?”

The moment resentment she couldn’t hide welled up in her large eyes, the Marquis shouted.

“Nonsense! Would your father make you do something bad!”

But the moment he spat the words, the Marquis realized his slip of the tongue. Hadn’t he essentially admitted what Ivona heard was correct? 

Cornered for an answer, the Marquis was swept up in rage. The fact that Ivona had cornered him made his anger blaze even hotter.

“Useless rabbit! You should be grateful someone chose the likes of you!”

At the familiar roar, Ivona reflexively raised her arms to cover her face. Setting aside the species difference between rabbit and snake, Ivona was thin and small in build. 

She’d already experienced being hit by the Marquis and flying to the end of the room, so it was a natural reaction.

But the blow didn’t come.

“…Tch, you need to marry. Consider yourself lucky.”

The Marquis spat out like chewing and withdrew his hand. But the rage he couldn’t hide at being unable to rampage as his temper demanded showed plainly on his face. 

Instead of hitting Ivona, the Marquis released threatening pheromones. Her slender limbs went limp at the pheromones full of malice, but the Marquis didn’t stop.

“Keep your mouth shut and just follow orders. What did I say happens to useless children in this Castillia!”

“Y-you said you’d dispose of them.”

When the strangled-sounding voice barely squeezed out an answer, the Marquis withdrew with a satisfied face. Until the footsteps echoing through the empty corridor completely disappeared, Ivona couldn’t move at all.

It felt like her body was shrinking on its own, like paper crumpling in a hand. If it were the old Ivona, she would have just held her breath and waited for this feeling to pass.

But for some reason, today she found this miserable state hard to endure. Like someone who’d learned the shame of nakedness for the first time in their life, Ivona twisted her body. 

The room’s shabbiness, the stifling air, everything seemed to press down on her.

Only after a long while did Ivona stagger to her feet and move. Anywhere would be fine, as long as it wasn’t this room still thick with her father’s pheromones.

“Miss, are you an idiot?”

A voice mixed with sighs, sounding exasperated, settled heavily over her head. The blunt yet low tone that sounded like worry hadn’t changed at all from last night.

Only upon hearing the scolding did Ivona snap back to her senses.

‘How much time has passed?’

As her foggy mind cleared, only then did her surroundings come into view. A temporary building in a corner of the training grounds where wind and water sounds leaked through walls crudely patched with boards. 

Raising her head, a beautiful man stood against the sky where sunset had begun. With a displeased expression filling his smooth face. In embarrassment, Ivona flinched like stabbed by a blade and lowered her head. 

Even so, wasn’t that too harsh?

“An, an idiot…”

“Aren’t you?”

Her crawling protest was blocked by a merciless answer. Calix crossed his arms and looked down with stern eyes. It was essentially an interrogation rather than a question. Ivona’s head could only bury downward further, like weights hung from it.

‘W-well, I suppose it looks that way…’

It was unfair but she had no room for excuses. The weather, having entered winter in earnest, grew colder by the day. Even indoors, if you moved away from the hearth, the cold dug in mercilessly.

So a place like the training grounds without even a proper windbreak was no different from an open field. Wandering around such a place wearing nightclothes with just a shawl—she had nothing to say even if she looked like an idiot.

Ivona bit her lip with her head lowered. Though she had her reasons, even thinking about it herself, her appearance was hard to see as sane.

‘…I shouldn’t have come.’

Her eyes grew hot with embarrassment as regret flooded in like a tide. What was so great about being scolded by Father? It wasn’t like it was the first or second time.

Anyway, the moment she was locked in the tower, Ivona’s future had been predetermined. Even if she bore the Castillia name, wasn’t she a daughter born as a b*stard?