As had always been the case, the beautiful dream did not last long.

“I have to go now.”

Just like long ago, the Calix in her dream said his farewell to Selina.

“I’ll come back to get you. Wait for me until then.”

Back then, Selina said she would wait, and she did.

But she knew only too well how that promise had ended.

She waited, but Calix never came back. While waiting for someone who never returned, she too was forced to leave, unable to keep her promise.

Ever since her time at the Marquis’s estate, one question had been circling endlessly in her mind.

‘Did you really come to get me?
When you realized I was gone, were you disappointed?
I’m sorry I couldn’t keep my promise, even though I said I would wait until you came.’

‘If you truly hadn’t forgotten me—if you really had come looking for me…’

“Don’t go…”

Selina clutched Calix’s hand tightly and finally spoke the words she hadn’t been able to say back then.

‘After sending you away like that, I regretted it endlessly. I should have thrown a tantrum—should have begged you to take me with you.’

If she had known that she would be away from Calix for so long and that she would have to hide from him for the rest of her life, she would have followed him without hesitation.

Perhaps that regret remained because of it.

Despite knowing that nothing would change in this dream, she held on to Calix.

‘No, it’s precisely because I know nothing will change that I’m doing this.’

Would things be different if she were sent back to that same moment?

No, she would let Calix go again, break her promise and tell him that she would wait for him.

If only she hadn’t known him so well, she might have held on to him.

But now she knew only too well how heavy a burden he was carrying.

Because of that, she couldn’t bring herself to try to stop him.

“…Don’t go.”

She said it because she knew it would never happen.

Soon, she would have to let him go again and, as always, he would remain nothing more than a dream.

Despite knowing that nothing would change, she reached out desperately, trying to grasp him. Suddenly, she felt a chill brushing against her fingertips.

Startled by a sensation that shouldn’t exist in a dream, she opened her eyes.

A man was sitting in front of her, making it impossible to tell whether she was still dreaming or had woken up.

“Y-Your Grace…?”

Selina flinched and stared at him.

The room was steeped in darkness, illuminated only by pale moonlight filtering through the window.

A single ray of light fell across Calix, angling his face. One side of his face was illuminated by the moon while the other was engulfed in shadow, obscuring his features.

Like a distorted reflection rippling on water, his expression seemed to fluctuate in the darkness.

As she could not see his face properly, she had no way of knowing what he was thinking.

Calix was simply there, unnaturally still, like the hush before a storm breaks.

It reminded her of the first time she had met him in the Empire.

He had sat motionless, like a still life, and the air around him had felt heavy and stagnant, as though it could no longer move.

“H-how did you come all the way here…?”

Forcing her way through the oppressive silence, Selina spoke to him cautiously.

“……”

There was still no response.

Her insides began to burn with anxiety.

‘Did I… make some kind of mistake before I lost consciousness?’

No matter how hard she tried to remember, she couldn’t recall doing anything terribly wrong.

Unless, of course, collapsing in front of the Knights of the Order had humiliated Calix. Perhaps that had been the mistake.

“I’m sorry, Your Grace. I failed to realize how unwell I was—”

She had just reached that conclusion and was about to apologize—

“Is that all you have to say to me?”

A deep, heavy voice emerged, like a dark, murky swamp.

Unable to understand what had been said, Selina looked at the man hesitantly.

At last, the man, who had not blinked once, slowly raised his head.

“Then I suppose it wouldn’t matter if I burned this.”

Calix held a single sheet of notes in his hand.

He took a match from the bedside table and lit it. The flame flared to life and quickly consumed the paper.

Still half-dazed from sleep, Selina watched until she recognized the writing on the page.

“Y-Your Grace—that is…!”

“Divorce.”

It was the memo in which she had organized examples of divorce cases.

Watching the paper crumble into ash, Calix curled his lips into a faint smile.

“So this is what you meant when you said you had something to tell me? I didn’t realize you were planning to stab me in the back.”

“Th-that’s not true. The reason I considered divorce was—”

“Since when?”

Calix had no patience left to listen to Selina.

Since finding the memo on the desk, his mind had been racing and he had been unable to focus on anything; it was like a broken clock with its gears stripped bare.

When a couple bound by a political marriage divorced, it could only mean one thing: one of them wanted to end the marriage in order to destroy the other.

Therefore, Selina’s actions could only be interpreted as betrayal — an attempt to stab him in the back.

“I asked you.”

All the emotional turmoil he had endured seemed to collapse in an instant, like a sandcastle being washed away by the tide.

With a laugh as dry as dust, Calix asked,

“Since when have you been scheming with the Marquis to ruin me?”

The rage that surged through him was so intense that it made his stomach churn.

But what enraged him more than the thought of Selina secretly planning this was the fact that he was now desperately trying to identify the man whose hand she had clutched in her sleep while begging him not to leave.

He was now desperately trying to identify the man whose hand she had clutched in her sleep, begging him not to leave.

Was it Waldemar?

Seeing him dance in the Empire was nauseating enough, but when he cast those furtive glances at Selina during the hunting competition, it stirred something close to murderous intent.

Had Selina felt the same way?

Was that why she had started considering divorce?

“I…”

Selina had no way of knowing what was going through his mind.

Her eyes wavered violently, like a candle flickering in the wind. Clearly, Calix was furious, but Selina could not fathom why his anger had escalated to such an extent.

When she heard about the divorce, she expected him to be less than enthusiastic, but at least she thought he would feel some relief.

But betrayal?

The situation was taking such an unexpected turn that Selina bit down hard on her lip, utterly at a loss.

No matter how the situation unfolded, her resolve would not waver. Having already begun, it was only right that she convey everything she meant to say properly and in full.

“I–I made this decision on my own. It has nothing to do with my father. I was planning to divorce you.”

“Did the Marquis tell you to do it? To pretend it had nothing to do with him if you were discovered halfway through?”

“…My father never gave me such an order.”

The voice that answered her was so cold it felt as though her skin itself might shatter.

“I—I don’t understand why, why you’re this angry, Your Grace…”

Her voice trembled violently as she continued.

“You… you never wanted me in the first place.”

The moment those words reached him, Calix felt as though he’d been struck in the head.

“I… I couldn’t even bring you information about the Empire. I never helped you in any way. Ever since coming to Thalia, all I’ve done is cause trouble. I know you avoided me. I noticed.”

There had been days when Calix had deliberately kept his distance because he couldn’t face Selina while he was grappling with emotions he couldn’t define.

However, he hadn’t realized how it would affect Selina.

“I—I know I was completely useless. I hated that I kept being nothing but a burden, so I just…”

Her soft voice slowly dissolved into sobs. She wanted to hold back her tears and speak clearly, but no matter how hard she tried, all that came out was a trembling, broken voice.

“I just wanted to disappear.”

Tears welled up until his face blurred from view.

“I regretted it. Asking you to take me with you. It hurt so much to think that I might be nothing but an obstacle preventing you from living the life you want. And more than anything…”

Selina wiped at the tears pouring down her face with both hands, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t keep up with them. With her face flushed red and her cheeks streaked with tears, she whispered with great effort—

“I—I was afraid I would truly become your misfortune.”

Libero’s words continued to echo endlessly in her mind.

‘I had already become my mother’s misfortune once—so if I were to become Calix’s misfortune too, I wouldn’t be able to bear it.’

‘If only I could truly disappear.’

‘But I don’t even have the courage to vanish.’

‘So…’

As Selina sobbed helplessly, a large shadow fell over her.

“Who gave you the right to decide my misfortune?”

Calix pulled her into his arms with such force that it nearly crushed her.

He held her tightly, leaving no space between them. As her small body was embraced, the violent trembling that had wracked her slowly subsided.

When the woman who had been crying until her vision had blurred finally stopped, the nauseating turmoil inside Calix began to subside.

In that moment, he remembered what Calliope had said.

“Don’t waste your time clinging to some pointless specter. Pull yourself together.”

It felt as though something that had been under immense pressure for far too long had finally given way.

When a dam holding back a river finally breaks, everything that had been trapped inside comes crashing out with terrifying force.

“There will never be a time when you become my misfortune.”

The things he had denied and suppressed all this time surged forward as well.

“So stay. Stay as my future.”

Once it began to pour, it came rushing in with a force impossible to stop.