They looked just like a loving couple.

Could it be that a lowborn foreigner would become the Grand Duchess of the Pathsbender family?

It was absurd, yet—because that lowborn foreigner happened to carry the Cambria name—
it wasn’t entirely out of the question.

“I know the way to my room.”

Irynsis snapped as she stared straight at Laurel.

Then she briskly dusted off the veil lying on the floor and, as if it were second nature, covered her face once more.

Cassion took her hand and placed a brief kiss on the back of it.

“The one who was rude here was me, my lady Marchioness.”

His eyes flicked upward to glance at her, full of mischief and defiance.

Irynsis let out a faint laugh.

“Until we meet again.”

Leaving behind a short farewell, Irynsis turned and began walking toward the mansion.

As Laurel followed after her retreating figure, Cassion’s eyes narrowed. Never mind that some insignificant brat was trailing her—the real issue was that Irynsis’s gait looked uncomfortable.

‘Did she injure her leg?’

He found himself having pointless thoughts, like whether he should bring her some medicine next time.

“Well then, I’ll take my leave.”

Once Cassion also wandered off, all that remained were Lomia and her followers, standing there with Lomia’s face bright red.

“……She wasn’t prettier than the rumors said, was she?”

“Yeah, I guess not.”

At the murmurs around her, Lomia bit down hard on her lip.

***

“What were you thinking?”

Just as she was about to enter the room, Laurel hastily turned her around by the shoulder.

Irynsis didn’t bother hiding her annoyed expression and brushed his hand off without hesitation.

‘She’s changed.’

He didn’t know what it was, but Irynsis had changed.

Though burdened by the sin of her bloodline, she had always been gentle in nature.

Yet overnight, it was as if she had become a completely different person.

“I heard there was a commotion at the Crown Prince’s palace a few days ago. Did something happen?”

At that question, laughter finally burst from Irynsis’s lips.

“There was always something going on. Which of those ‘somethings’ are you talking about?”

“Irynsis.”

“Would you like me to go over every wound on my body and recite who put them there and how?”

At her clearly mocking words, Laurel’s face hardened.

“Her Holiness is greatly upset.”

“If she wants to know, I’ll tell her.”

Throwing off the veil, Irynsis began to undo her garments, one piece at a time. Laurel, startled, instinctively moved to stop her hand—but then froze.

She had only undone a few buttons, yet already countless scars were visible through the gap.

Leaving the speechless man behind, Irynsis gave a bitter smile.

“They said her insides were more wounded than this, didn’t they?”

“…Do not insult Her Holiness.”

Seeing Laurel’s face contort in contempt at what he deemed blasphemy, Irynsis clutched her stomach and burst into laughter.

‘What were you even thinking, Irynsis, with something like this?’

In her first life, Irynsis had thought of Laurel as the very embodiment of a Holy Knight. In her second life, she had even chosen him as an ally. He hadn’t raised a hand against her, and at times, even showed signs of pity.

Back then, she had been so desperate for affection that she clung to that pitiful kindness—the kind where he had lied and said she had fled in the opposite direction when she had actually hidden behind the curtains from Tod Cambria’s violence.

She had been that young, that starved for warmth.

But he was a man blinded by absolute faith. Throughout the repeated cycles of her life, Laurel had never once stood against the Saintess.

The High Priest had tried, in some way, to use the Saintess to gain footing between the Imperial Family and Cambria—but he knew nothing of Irynsis’s divine power or the experiments of Quies.

In her previous life, she had told the High Priest and Laurel everything to borrow their strength.

‘But it all fell apart because of you, Laurel Herzen.’

Cambria, holding the cure that could save all people, chose instead to place power in his daughter’s hands and sway it as he pleased. The Imperial Family, without fear, had kidnapped the daughter of Pathsbender and discarded her once used.

She had handed over a truth so massive it could shake power and threaten lives before anyone could even question which side was more vile. And yet, the High Priest had died in vain—by Laurel’s blade, who had firmly believed Lomia’s claim that the High Priest had betrayed God.

And next, it had been Irynsis’s turn.

In that past life, he had wept as he confessed his love—only to call that love a sin and drive a sword into Irynsis’s heart in repentance.

“Are you really this angry because I insulted Lomia?”

Still wiping the tears that had spilled from laughing too hard, Irynsis stepped right up to Laurel.

He flinched and tried to step back, but her hand grabbing his collar was faster.

“I don’t think that’s the reason.”

“You should compose yourself properly.”

“Right. That’s what’s making you angry, isn’t it?”

Irynsis’s lips curled downward. Her fingers brushed over skin riddled with scars.

“More than these.”

The hand that had traced the disturbing wounds now moved upward, pressing down on her reddened lips.

Lips swollen from Cassion’s biting and licking—and to Laurel, they struck painfully, more than anything else.

“This is what’s really bothering you.”

“What are you talking about…?”

“If you don’t want to hate me, get rid of that pathetic affection first, you stupid bastard.”

With a hard shove, his body was pushed back, and the door quietly slid shut before him. In that brief moment, as the space between them narrowed and disappeared, Irynsis laughed openly—at the man who couldn’t take his eyes off her even then.

***

“…What on earth did you just do?”

After thoroughly examining Cassion’s body with a serious expression for quite some time, Scarlett finally straightened from her bent posture. 

Cassion, who had been sitting and receiving the examination, poked at the plague marks with his finger.

“Is it that much?”

“Yes, it’s definitely gotten smaller. You should be able to feel it too, my lord.”

“My body does feel significantly lighter.”

Cassion nodded.

“Me too! I want to see it too!”

“In that case, so do I.”

“I’m first, you bastards!”

The men who had been pacing nervously at a distance came rushing over all at once.

“Whoa, what the? It really shrank!”

Jubin, who got there first, widened his eyes in amazement.

“Amazing. Just how did they manage this?”

Even Escal, the most dignified of them all, couldn’t hide his curiosity as he stared intently at his lord’s bare skin.

“Get lost.”

Cassion shoved Jubin and Escal away, displeased by the sight of a bunch of dark-haired men swarming to ogle his bare body.

Seizing the moment, Hugo wedged his large frame into the gap and clasped his hands together, eyes brimming with tears.

“Oh Lord, am I witnessing a miracle right now?”

As Hugo began reciting a tearful prayer in a booming voice, Cassion covered his forehead. A throbbing headache was beginning to form.

“To think these are the squad leaders of my knight order.”

Before Irynsis appeared, there had only been five people who knew of his illness. First, his personal physician Scarlett Bessa and the knight commander, Milo Onyx. Originally, he had planned to tell only those two.

But the ones who could sniff out anything suspicious when it came to Cassion had doggedly tailed him for days, badgering him endlessly until he had no choice but to tell them.

And so, First Unit Commander Hugo Berman, Second Unit Commander Escal Sheveri, and Third Unit Commander Jubin Onyx—men who had long tossed dignity aside—were now making this commotion.

No matter how much Cassion shoved them away with his hands and kicked at them with his feet, it was useless.

In the end, Scarlett, who had been standing quietly, let out a sigh and stepped forward.

“Let’s all move aside—while I’m still asking nicely.”

At the single, low command, the three men immediately froze and shot to their feet.

“Ah, sorry, noona—uh, I mean, Baroness Bessa.”

“We’ve shown disgraceful behavior. My apologies.”

“Hoho! Doctor, I stood up first, you know!”

Watching the squad captains rise in perfect sync, as if it had been rehearsed, Cassion furrowed his brows.

“This is really starting to piss me off.”

They never listened to him, not even if their lives depended on it.

Knights were the kind of people who could brush off a superior’s words without a second thought, yet treated a physician’s words like sacred law. And those bastards were the worst of them all.

Damn fools.

Clicking his tongue, Cassion reached for his discarded shirt and pulled it back on.

“My lord, you must bring her here.”

“Hm?”

“If it’s medicine, then bring it. If it’s a treatment, then find out how it works. And if it’s her skill alone—then you must bring her with you.”

Scarlett spoke earnestly, her expression solemn.

She hadn’t pressed Cassion for details, knowing he seemed reluctant to explain how exactly he had experienced such healing effects. But one thing was certain.

Continuing that treatment was the only hope.

“Sigh.”

At Scarlett’s words, Cassion let out a deep breath.

Yes, he knew it too. He had to form an alliance with that woman. But the damn problem was how to make that alliance.

‘Take me as your mistress.’

The woman had uttered that storm-like statement in a flat tone, her blue eyes tightening around his body like a noose.

“I’ll think about it.”

A few days later.

Cassion met Irynsis again at a charity-held jewelry exhibition.

“Marry me.”

And then he proposed.