Time passed, the sun outside the window began setting slowly, and she reached the last line of the report.

She understood why Margaret said this would help her. With content like this, she could only be grateful.

Going to dinner wasn’t the issue—she needed to visit her father-in-law first. An important matter had come up that she needed to ask about.

Could she have ever imagined that gloomy old man was scheming like this behind the scenes?

“Pretending to be weak all this time… and pulling off something so clever?”

At the end of Margaret’s report, written clearly in red letters, it said the former Count had made a contract with a demon.

And he’d contracted for tremendous wealth, no less.

“No wonder he got cursed. How many people have lost their lives from greed for money… Why would someone who knew so well do this?”

Having sat in the position of chancellor, he couldn’t have been ignorant.

It was a position very close to money, after all.

Anyway, Acel hadn’t been stomping around for no reason. At first, she’d dismissed the contents of Margaret’s report as something that belonged in a fairy tale.

But toward the end, she realized it wasn’t.

Thea instinctively realized that’s where all the problems had started.

The curse, Acel, and me.

“Coming back to it… my mother-in-law who died engulfed in flames.”

Looking back now, when her mother-in-law was dying, she’d acted like someone who’d given up on life.

Even in those scorching flames, she’d only looked at her son Acel with pity, never screaming, never showing pain or sadness.

She’d seemed to lack the emotions any living creature should naturally have.

If that was the result of contracting with a demon—

“I understand. Then of course that would make sense.”

If everyone had been sacrifices to the former Count’s desires, the pieces fit together. Honestly, she hadn’t been completely unaware.

Did Thea want to just leave her husband, consumed by madness, alone?

Since marrying in, she’d secretly investigated from behind when the family’s obsession began. And there had been more than one or two strange points.

Originally, the Winter family had been wealthy, but not this rich, and the climate had been much harsher.

But as soon as the former Count took his position, everything changed.

The harsh weather became cold but mild and abundant, and the family’s reputation grew daily. For a mountainous region, grain and fruit were plentiful.

Without doing anything special, like they’d received divine grace.

“Let me reconsider this.”

Starting from that first meeting where strangeness lingered.

* * *

The ticking of the clock heightened her sensitivity, and soon she could only let out a sigh.

Why hadn’t she known? The clues had been given long ago.

Realizing she’d been the one acting stupid and foolish, what came was resentment toward Acel for letting things reach this point.

If he’d told her directly even a little sooner, she wouldn’t have felt this miserable.

Because he’d given her time to reflect on what she meant to him.

“What was I to you?”

Had she been so incompetent that he couldn’t even tell her one family secret? She’d thought she’d worked hard as a wife to lead the family… but it had all become meaningless.

Acting like a swan floating on a lake had been useless from the start.

How ridiculous must I have looked, trying so hard?

In this reality where only hollow laughter surged, Thea dropped her raised shoulders and headed toward the sickbed with one hand against the wall.

The whole way, the Winter family’s gloomy atmosphere and the ceiling paintings rippled toward her. And they seemed to convey the sound of raw wind that didn’t even exist.

Whoosh, whooosh.

Just when she muttered that it sounded exactly like whistling, she realized it wasn’t her imagination. Every time wind entered through the slightly open window gap, it made a whistling sound, and she could hear rattling noises in rhythm with it.

It truly looked like ruins. Though people lived here, old estates were bound to show their age.

But to discover this in a situation like this—

She was extremely displeased. At another time she would’ve called a repairman, but right now she didn’t want to do anything.

She only wanted to express her confused anger at her father-in-law and Acel, both more hateful than God. Because she’d learned that making one person look stupid was nothing.

If she hadn’t noticed, how long would they have kept deceiving her?

‘After my father-in-law entered the grave? Or when we divorced and became strangers?’

Neither was a good ending.

When the emptiness surged even more and she let out bitter laughs several times—

She finally reached the sickbed. Inside was quiet, filled only with weak breathing that seemed ready to stop at any moment.

Even at this scene, Thea’s eyes were half-unfocused and hazy, like someone searching for fragments of a dream.

Soon she placed her hand on the sickroom door and raised her fingernails.

With an eerie sound, her nails dug into the wooden door, and she barely raised her trembling head.

“Father, Father, Father.”

Why did you deceive me?

“Why did you do it?”

Surely you didn’t think I wouldn’t know?

“Please say something. Why did you make that choice?”

Of all things, a contract with a demon. And using all of us as sacrifices.

Despite her thick anger, her father-in-law only hung silence on his lips.

She’d definitely heard from Dr. Brown that he’d been chattering like a canary with the new medicine, yet not only did he keep his mouth shut, he even turned his head sharply to the other side.

That meant he didn’t want to have a conversation with her.

Her father-in-law, who knew well that wouldn’t work yet still avoided her, wasn’t even funny.

Would he speak if she approached the bedside and looked down from the headboard?

Turning thought into action was very easy.

With shuffling steps, she walked to the headboard and bent her waist grotesquely.

Then she asked her father-in-law, who still wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“How many sacrifices did you offer? I know of at least three.”

“…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Finally the locked mouth opened. Though what came out wasn’t the content Thea wanted.

“I know everything. You contracted with a demon, didn’t you? That’s why Acel goes out every day.”

“Child, you seem to have read too many fairy tale books. A demon?”

His manner of brushing it aside like a child’s tantrum wasn’t even funny.

Even though things had reached a point where that was impossible, he seemed to think saying no and denying it would end everything.

“Father, why do you keep trying to hide it? I told you I already know everything. When you have something you shouldn’t have, naturally there’s a price to pay, isn’t there?”

Thea, who’d been speaking in a gentle tone like soothing a child, straightened her back again and sat on an empty spot on the bed.

After that, she looked into the distance—this was a place where the stars were truly visible. In some ways, they might be more visible than from Thea’s room.

Though she wasn’t even sitting by the window, many stars were twinkling beyond the wide-open window.

But wasn’t this quite interesting? It wasn’t even late evening yet, but so many stars.

This alone was proof of contracting with a demon. She’d read it in an old tome long ago—to identify a demon’s contractor, check the room where they stay in the early evening, not late at night.

Why hadn’t she known?

There had been many opportunities, but she’d never suspected once.

‘Suspected? No… this is.’

Even though she’d glimpsed it, she must have pretended not to know. Perhaps she’d turned away because she didn’t want to become more miserable.

Now she could no longer turn her eyes away from what was in front of her. With evidence so plainly visible, how could she turn away?

“Countless stars shall be visible.”

“Child, what are you saying? Where are there stars?”

“Father, can’t you see them? All those many, many stars?”

She raised her pale, shining hand and pointed directly at the stars, like telling him not to forget that all of them were evidence. One, two, three… and when the number passed a hundred, her father-in-law had squeezed his eyes shut again.

He seemed to want to pretend not to know the horrifically continuing current situation.

At this point, she could probably ask. What he’d used as sacrifices.

“I’ll ask again. Who did you sacrifice? Me, Mother, Acel, and who else?”

At her truly curious tone, her father-in-law finally declared surrender.

“Everyone who bears the Winter family name is caught in it. If even a drop of blood is mixed in, it will never end.”

“You’ve caught quite a lot in it.”

So that’s why he’d opposed having children. Strangely, he’d hated leaving descendants terribly.

Thinking about it now, he’d foamed at the mouth to a degree that anyone would find questionable—why hadn’t she suspected this too?

She should have confronted him at least once with veins bulging in her neck.

This had been her mistake. Because she could have but didn’t.

Anyway, how many sacrifices had been made just because of that curse?

Looking at it now, only laughter came out. Thea moved her body slowly and walked to a side table placed in one spot in the room.

Then, gripping the vase placed in front of her, she spoke lightly.

“Father, do you think that was a wise choice?”

“Of course, it had to end in our generation, so there was no choice.”

At the immediate affirmation, Thea had expected as much, but hearing it directly made her feel strangely unavoidable.

Couldn’t he at least say no, even as an empty word? Then this emptiness wouldn’t have surged so much.

At the dizziness that came again, she only moved her lips a few times before barely speaking.

“Father, I don’t think that’s what you should be saying to me right now.”

“Then what should I say? I only did my best.”

“…Ha.”

Thea let out a hollow laugh. Because such words coming from the mouth of a father-in-law she’d once respected felt pathetic.

Why didn’t he know that couldn’t be a reason?

Thanks to that, hadn’t she gained the dishonorable name of being infertile?

As a woman, her life had been trampled miserably.

Whatever the reason, she was in a state of not fulfilling the duty a noble lady should naturally perform. To others, her father-in-law and the family would only look like excuses.

Only she, her father-in-law, and Acel knew it was true.

No matter how much she told others, it was a story perfect for being ridiculed.

‘How can he be so shameless after making me a complete mess?’

Thea had wanted children, but it had been four years since the couple used the same bedroom.

That meant they’d never shared the same space even once since she married in.

She’d thought it was due to her father-in-law and mother-in-law’s strange obsession with cleanliness, but now she saw it was actually a trick to prevent the curse.