About the time the wall clock had completed one full rotation after returning to the bedroom the butler had prepared—

Thea finally came to her senses and, still pale-faced, lashed out at Acel leaning against the window.

“What’s going to change by staring outside? Why… why didn’t you do anything to stop things from getting this bad?”

She hated him for not preventing it when he’d been here the whole time and could have.

Moreover, the fact that he’d kissed that woman, even for a moment, irritated her to the point of madness.

‘You’re my husband, aren’t you?’

Why was he kissing other women, meeting their eyes, even matching bodies with them?

“Tell me, why did you do it?”

Though deep resentment gnawed at him, Acel couldn’t give an answer.

He’d only just learned about it himself.

If he’d known earlier, he would’ve handled it before things got this bad… but he knew that telling her he couldn’t would only sound like an excuse.

From the start, no matter what words he said, they wouldn’t get through.

Even if their relationship was poor, parents were still parents.

When told her father wouldn’t return with his limbs intact, what child could remain still?

If their positions were reversed, he’d surely be the same—organizing these complicated feelings, he pulled out a cigarette from his pants and put it to his lips.

Though he didn’t light it, the cigarette’s harsh smell crept up toward his nose. It seemed to make his throat terribly dry, so he raised an empty hand and pressed firmly around his eyes.

The stress made both eye sockets feel like they’d hardened into lumps.

He’d foolishly thought he wanted to sink into silence like this, but quickly realized he had to pull back.

Thea’s reflection faintly visible in the window looked terrifying.

Her two eyes glared fiercely, and he could see her neck lined with veins from how hard she’d bitten down, her clenched knuckles standing out prominently.

In her atmosphere that seemed ready to jump out the moment he opened the window, he lowered his raised hand neatly and said, “I’ll send people out and handle it so he can return as soon as possible.”

“But he can’t return. Don’t you really understand what being held hostage means? The Grand Duchess… he got caught badly in that woman’s malice.”

“I know, but we can’t just sit here waiting. Even in this moment, the Count will fall deeper into an inescapable trap.”

To him guaranteeing somehow they’d bring her father back, Thea let out a hollow laugh. By what means could he snatch her father from that woman’s clutches?

When she knew full well how many innocent people had been caught by such petty methods.

The Yut family could no longer return to its former position. Hadn’t they received no less than three territories?

‘We can’t go back anymore.’

Thea, who considered everywhere a cliff’s edge, ground her lips together. What could she do here?

Go to the Grand Duchess, kneel, and beg her to spare her father? Or say she’d do whatever she was told, just please look favorably on them?

Either way, it was clearly a servile appearance.

Just when she was about to give up in this nauseating reality, he spoke in a slightly cracked voice.

“For now, let’s… go home. To our home.”

At those words, Thea lowered her head even more. Home, he said.

A place to return to, he said.

“Honey… did I ever have a home, a family? When you don’t know anything about what I heard from your father?”

When he hurriedly met her gaze at her tearful tone, there she was looking like a lost child, her curled fingertips striking down at the floor.

As she hit down hard enough to make her nails rattle, he rushed over and grabbed her hand.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s punishment for my foolishness. My eyes that saw, my ears that heard, and my hands that managed the household… didn’t know reality, so shouldn’t I be punished?”

At the whispers continuing in devastation, Acel felt like he was suffocating. He couldn’t understand what any of this meant.

Punishment—who dared inflict punishment on her?

To her reciting confessions like blood was flowing backward, his vision seemed to go dark. This wasn’t the ending he’d wanted when he moved.

In a reality shattered beyond gathering up the pieces, unable to do this or that—

When the strength in his tight grip gradually loosened, Thea quickly escaped through that gap. Then, stepping back several paces, she hid the wrist that had been caught from view.

“Did you really think I wouldn’t know? When you left so many clues?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb. And don’t deceive me anymore.”

The moment the words ended, drops of blood beaded on her fingertips fell to the floor.

Drip, drip, drip.

Though only three drops, it was enough to disturb his reason. His wide-open eyes shook back and forth, and his rough breathing seemed audible even to her standing far away.

When the scene that had unfolded in an instant subsided, he existed with narrowed eyes.

“Thea, come here now.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Your hand is injured. Blood is dripping. If you stay like that, it’ll get infected.”

“Even if it gets infected, there’s nothing I can do. Since I caused this, I should endure at least that much. Whether I’m sick or dying, leave me alone.”

At the continued defiance, he seemed to finally awaken the monster sleeping inside.

With a terrifying face, he stepped forward. Soon, unable to hide his boiling anger, he clenched his fist.

“Listen to me now! Do you know how scary infection is? This year alone, a hundred more people died! I can’t lose you to infection too!”

Growing more anxious toward the end, he threw away formalities and growled. It was so fierce it made her step back even more.

But that was only for a moment.

“Why are you angry at me? You’re not in a position to be angry at me.”

“Please, my lady. If you want to see me go mad, keep provoking me.”

At Acel’s appearance scanning her wound with bloodshot eyes, Thea felt her breath catch.

She wondered why he’d inflicted such a large wound on her heart when he trembled so much even at this speck of an injury.

‘Right. When you can’t handle even this small wound.’

Why did you do it?

Why on earth did you do it?

Why did you leave behind so many traces?

‘When you’d hurt this much.’

She was the one who’d been wronged, yet his pain seemed far greater—this situation felt deeply contradictory.

Because of that, her ankles felt bound tight by invisible vines. No matter how much she pulled, her steps wouldn’t move.

Eventually, Thea squeezed her eyes shut and clenched the hand still dripping with blood.

The wrist below the wound, where he’d grabbed, seemed to throb.

After moving only his lips wordlessly for a while, having calmed down, he raised his dry hand and repeatedly wiped his face. In that series of actions, she could tell how deeply he’d fallen into despair.

All the world’s misfortunes seemed to kneel before him.

“Please, my lady… just grant me this request.”

At that sight, Thea moved one step, but couldn’t say the words asking if he was okay. She knew that even speaking kind words here wouldn’t make the cause disappear.

Just when she’d waited for his heart to settle, he lowered his hand from his face and opened his mouth.

“…So what made you do this?”

At his tone saying he needed to know what the problem was, Thea bowed her head deeply. She didn’t know where to begin.

But she knew hesitation couldn’t break through this situation.

Through her parched lips, Thea brought forth what had happened a few days ago.

“There were… sacrifices, weren’t there?”

“Sacrifices? What do you…”

At the resentment coming out of nowhere, his eyebrows twitched, seemingly unable to even guess. Where had this content come from?

What had she heard before that made Thea this confused?

He’d received reports that there were no major incidents around Thea recently.

Who on earth had caused what trouble?

Just when words were failing him in a situation he could never know unless she told him—at the lengthening silence, she shuddered, then finally breathed roughly, unable to hold back.

“In the end, you won’t tell me?”

“What haven’t I told you? I don’t even know what you’re talking about in the first place.”

“You don’t know? But you can’t not know.”

Thea felt disgusted by his pretense. How could someone who was the biggest victim of the curse say they didn’t know?

Even now, wasn’t he wandering everywhere searching for ways to break that curse? How could he say he didn’t know?

When Thea squeezed her eyes shut and opened them, like it was an incomprehensible situation, she saw him having come closer.

His hands flailed in the air, and his unfocused eyes trembled.  

Seeing his helpless state, Thea let out a hollow laugh.

Wasn’t he acting exactly like someone who really didn’t know? Anyone watching would think he was a fool who knew nothing, like herself.

That absolutely couldn’t be true.

At the nauseating scene, Thea roughly stomped her foot like telling him to stop. Then she spoke to him, who’d stopped walking.

“What did you receive from your father? For sacrificing Mother and me?”

Only then could he understand what Thea had discovered. He covered his mouth with his hand, his eyes grown terribly large.

At his appearance jumping in shock, she just wanted to cry. If he’d insisted to the end that it wasn’t true, that he absolutely didn’t know, she might have pretended not to know and let it pass—but his current attitude told her it was the truth.

Thanks to that, she asked in a trembling voice.

“As I thought… you knew? What Father did?”

“That’s a misunderstanding. Give me time to explain.”