After working hard on repairs, her back ached, and before she knew it, pitch-black darkness had fallen outside the window.

She seemed to have heard sounds about needing to eat, but she’d been so focused that she must have ignored and passed over them.

Still, she was quite pleased with the result before her, so she seemed to have spent the day well enough.

‘My mood improved too.’

Thea turned her stiff body a few times before gathering herself and standing up. Then she looked around the room to find cold soup and lifeless fruit placed there.

Beside them was bread hardened stiff. When had they brought it?

More amusing was that she hadn’t noticed people entering before that.

‘I didn’t think I was concentrating that much.’

Thea rolled her eyes gently and stretched fully.

A newspaper on the table caught her eye. It was worth asking for as soon as she arrived. Now they brought it without being told.

The newspaper had Thea’s story printed large across the front page.

Honestly, she could easily guess what stories would circulate in this closed-off neighborhood, but reading indifferently to the end only made her sigh deeply.

Even her mouth felt bitter, so she smacked her lips a few times before neatly placing the newspaper on the table.

Soon awkwardness arrived in surroundings so silent it was hard to swallow even saliva.

‘…What should I do?’

What would be good to do? There really was nothing to do.

Before coming to her family home, she’d been frantically busy nursing her father-in-law, handling her husband’s work, and doing housework, but here there was far too little to do.

‘I never even imagined I’d have this much leisure…’

This must be why they say people who’ve experienced rest know how to rest well. Just when she thought there really was nothing to do—

A presence sounded in the corridor outside the room.

The visitor was none other than the nanny.

‘Ah…’

She wondered what reason brought her this late into the night. Weren’t they no longer on good enough terms to visit comfortably?

What on earth did she come for?

What did she have so much left to say?

Thea drew thousands, tens of thousands of thoughts in her head before finally managing to move her parched lips.

“…What brings you at this hour?”

“I came because I have something to tell you, miss.”

“…To me?”

Something to say at this hour.

By now she should be soaking in a bathtub chatting with maids.

The nanny liked soaking in hot water when it grew dusky outside.

What reason did she have to visit, pushing aside her favorite activity? It certainly didn’t seem like good intentions.

When Thea stared at the nanny with a suspicious expression, she raised her hand slightly like telling her not to take it too seriously.

“Miss, what are you doing tomorrow?”

“I have no special plans tomorrow.”

“Then what do you think about the Countess asking to go boating tomorrow afternoon?”

“Mother asked to go boating? At this time?”

Thea glanced out the window questioningly. The weather was too humid to play outside. Thinking about whether she was someone who liked water—that wasn’t it either.

“What reason does she have for boating?”

“It’s fashionable these days. She’s planning to invite several ladies too…”

At the mention of inviting others, she could easily tell what the scheme was. Her mother, the Countess, seemed to want to put Thea before others and use her as a topic of conversation.

Well, she was in perfect condition to be used. Being offspring from a village where cold north winds blew, she would seem mysterious to ladies staying in warm regions.

Whether before or now, the intentions were obvious.

She was still someone who didn’t care a speck about others’ feelings, and only her own displeasure mattered. If she didn’t agree, she’d surely make things tiresome for days on end.

At the sentence placed before her, Thea exhaled deep breaths repeatedly before looking at the nanny with a lukewarm gaze.

Nanny, do you know how to accept this situation?

Even at the dragging gaze, the nanny didn’t care. Like the answer was already decided.

Then she should follow that intention.

“What time tomorrow will the boating take place?”

“It seems it will start after enjoying lunch with the ladies.”

“After lunch there’ll be that tiresome teatime too, right?”

“Most likely.”

“And after that, they’ll go boating to digest their full stomachs.”

“Surely that’s it.”

When the meaningless conversation listed out and stopped, it was after a dry smile flowed from Thea’s lips.

The more the conversation continued, one side of her chest seemed to grow stuffy. Already in the nanny’s mind, it must have concluded toward definitely attending.

“Nanny, may I ask you to prepare a dress for tomorrow?”

“…Of course. Don’t worry. I’ll prepare comfortable attire.”

“I’m counting on you.”

When she obediently gave the answer the nanny wanted, only then did she leave the room wearing a satisfied expression.

Throughout her departure, inexplicable confidence showed—she could easily tell it was self-assurance brought from her mother.

* * *

Around the time Thea was conversing with the nanny, Thea’s husband Acel looked down at an old book leaning against flickering candlelight inside a dripping underground dungeon.

Being an ancient text well over 100 years old, some places had blurred writing, but it was sufficiently readable.

Before coming here, he’d brought a reagent that made writing clearer.

“Please, there must be a way to break the curse here…”

Anxiety rose to Acel’s throat. A full two years had been wasted finding this book. Unable to waste more effort, he carefully turned pages with tense fingertips.

Various curses and demons were written there, but about the curse Acel received—not a trace was written.

“D*mn it!”

He’d properly scattered time on the ground.

They’d guaranteed it would be right, but this time was wrong too. How was this a medium to break curses?

From the first page to the middle, splendid content was written, but toward the end it was closer to word games.

In the desperate situation, Acel raised his dry hands and roughly dragged them down his face.

Nearly 10 years since he’d moved to break the curse.

Not only hadn’t he reached even the curse’s toes, the increasingly serious surrounding situation made him feel like he was going mad.

In frustration, he looked up at the dungeon ceiling—that’s when it happened.

“Master. The great master has had another seizure.”

“…This damned household won’t leave me alone even for an hour.”

Acel pushed aside the deep emptiness and looked at the butler standing blankly outside the bars.

“What reason did he have a seizure this time?”

“Master, your words are excessive.”

Even at the butler’s reproach, Acel made an indifferent expression. Because it was like an annual event he heard every time.

“So how did you handle Father?”

“For now, he’s taken the sedative Dr. Brown provided.”

“Then there’s no particular problem.”

“Still, the great master seems anxious, so it would be good for you to visit.”

“You know it won’t change anything if I go.”

Acel coldly broke the butler’s intention and waved his hand lightly like telling him not to bother, issuing a dismissal.

Because he couldn’t shake the thought that finding a way to break the curse was better than caring for his mad biological father.

After sending the butler away, he skimmed the ancient text he’d already reviewed countless times before throwing his body onto the icy dungeon floor at the same reality.

“Ha, d*mn.”

As time passed, he felt like sinking into an inescapable swamp. Even in the midst of this, Thea’s face wouldn’t disappear from his head.

‘…She looked so hurt.’

Her face declaring they should separate flickered before his eyes. How hard must it have been for her to say they should separate?

‘Is she eating well, sleeping well?’

She mustn’t become nothing but bones again.

She was someone who couldn’t sleep well when sleeping arrangements changed. He remembered how she’d groaned for quite a while after coming to this mansion, unable to adapt.

Surely she wasn’t adapting to the changed Count’s household.

Acel felt like he’d lose his mind with worry, so he sprang up from the floor and decided to find the butler he’d just sent away.

‘Somehow, I need to know. What my wife is doing.’

Drawing Thea in his mind, he recalled the night that had bloomed profusely a few days ago. Her pure white n*ked body and sobbing voice were still vivid.

And what about her lower lips that had mumbled she wouldn’t let go again?

‘Haah…’

Saliva pooled at the chewy flesh and swallowed down his throat. Just imagining made him stiff below.

He looked down fiercely at his c*ck rioting to roughly tear into his wife’s flesh right now.

Swollen tight, it looked like it wouldn’t be strange if it burst immediately.

This must be why the mansion’s servants looked at her with reddened eyes.

Imagining servants looking at her with l*st-filled eyes made his vision dizzy.

“D*mn it, that woman is mine. Don’t look at her with those filthy eyes.”

Growling at invisible enemies, he closed his eyes tightly.

She didn’t know her own charm—not by a long shot.

Whenever she raised her dress hem above her ankles with a detached attitude like knowing nothing, bastards in heat gleamed their eyes and giggled with dirty tongues.

Grind.

“I shouldn’t have sent her off nicely.”

His teeth ground automatically. Even though he’d gathered and killed over a hundred dog bastards as an outlet, his insides weren’t refreshed.

“Our lady is so beautiful it’s a problem.”

No matter how much he cleared them, trash buzzed around her.

At that fact, in the end, he pulled out his c*ck and exposed it. The moment he raised his head, it panted searching for his wife’s insides.

But there was no way she’d be in this stuffy dungeon. He pulled out a handkerchief with her scent remaining from his bosom and smelled it.

“Sniff, haah…”

The sweet lily scent tickled his nose tip and gave the illusion she was before his eyes.

“Ha, f*cking h*ll.”

Absolutely f*cking h*ll.

Just one handkerchief aroused him so all his body’s blood vessels rushed to his thing. He wrapped his thing that rose even more taut with the handkerchief and slowly reciprocated up and down.

At the soft cloth texture, his throat gulped again.

“Hah… f*ck.”

Though far inferior to her insides, just having her scent soaked in was sufficient for m*sturbation.

Drawing her n*ked body entirely in his head and adding speed, blood seemed to rush to one place before finally spurting white liquid.

He stared at the dirtied handkerchief with a dazed expression at the belated sense of exhaustion.

White cloth, splotchy liquid, lily scent wrapped in indescribable fishiness.

“Absolutely perfect.”

Nothing could be more perfect. Like she was tied in his arms unable to budge.

His lips curved at the joy rising from deep within. After that, he roughly folded the handkerchief, stuffed it in his waistband, and headed outside.