That night, Calix tormented Selina so severely that she could barely keep her senses. There was scarcely a place on her body that wasn’t covered in red marks.

Each time she floundered in a pleasure unlike anything she had ever experienced before, pinned beneath him, he bombarded her with accusatory questions.

“Was this all it took for you to think you could go to that party?”

Selina said it was just an excuse to justify pursuing a divorce, but Calix still looked unconvinced.

“I know you’ve always been curious.”

The moment itself was fleeting. Yet, seemingly intent on satisfying her curiosity, he continued to mark her without pause.

The next morning, Selina opened her eyes out of habit, her body aching from the previous night.

Before her was Calix’s face; his eyes were closed as he slept.

It felt surreal to be lying beside him like this, close enough to reach out and touch him. They had stayed at the same inn before, but that night she had been too preoccupied with avoiding him to sleep properly. It had been nothing like this.

“…Calix.”

She reached out towards his face, smooth and beautiful as if carved from moonlight.

It was even more beautiful and radiant than the dazzling moonstone she had seen in the Moonlight Palace.

He was a man she had never thought she could have. Someone she had never dared to desire.

“You said you would remain my future.”

His words echoed in her mind. She had never asked what he meant by them, yet she could still guess.

‘It must have meant that I’m allowed to stay by Calix’s side.’

The moment she had that thought, her heart, which she thought had finally settled, started racing again. An intense fluttering unlike anything she had ever felt before surged through her, and she gently placed a hand on her chest.

She had never experienced much happiness in her life. There had only been a few moments of happiness, so few that she could count them on one hand, and even those had disappeared without a trace, like sweetness that lingered briefly in the air before fading away.

‘…Will it really be all right?’

Looking at the man sleeping beside her, she was suddenly overcome with fear. She felt as though her happiness might slip through her fingers like grains of sand.

If she stayed by Calix’s side, she would have to continue pretending in order to obtain the antidote, acting as though she were searching for his weakness.

‘The antidote….’

At that moment, a question that had never occurred to her before sprang to mind.

She had heard that skilled apothecaries could recreate any medicine, provided they knew its ingredients. If that was the case, could she make an identical antidote?

Until now, she had never dared consider such a method, too afraid of the Marquis to even think about it. But now, a fragile hope bloomed — perhaps it wasn’t impossible after all.

‘It’ll soon be the three months Father promised. He said he’d send the antidote every three months, so I just need to secure it. I’ll take half, and with the other half, I’ll find an apothecary and see if it can be replicated.’

If she could manage that, she would finally be free of the Marquis’ control. Perhaps the guilt she felt for deceiving Calix would ease if those conditions disappeared, even if only slightly.

‘If that happens….’

Selina carefully reached out and rested her hand on Calix’s cheek. Despite having lived on the battlefield since childhood, his skin was soft to the touch.

In every way, he was perfect — far more beautiful than her. She wasn’t sure if she could really help someone like him, but she was going to try.

‘Even so… that time, I’ll protect you.’

Thanks to Calix, she had survived far too many times. Although she could never repay him for all that he had done, she wanted to protect him in any way she could.

She did not want him to get hurt. Even when he was attacked by monsters, her heart would race with terror.

‘Come to think of it… is the wound he got from that monster really all right?’

The injury she had seen back then had been severe enough to expose the bone. In fact, it looked so bad that Selina thought he wouldn’t be able to use his shoulder properly again for at least two or three months.

Selina lifted her head to examine the injury.

As he was bare-chested, there was no need to undress him, which was a mercy in such an embarrassing situation. Afraid of touching the wound, she cautiously reached towards his shoulder.

And then—

‘There’s… no wound?’

She was sure that the monster had bitten his left shoulder, yet there wasn’t a single mark — his skin was completely unblemished. Wondering if she had got the side wrong, she checked his right shoulder, which was also completely clean.

Suddenly, the Marquis’s words came back to her.

“If you don’t believe me, go and check that bastard’s wounds yourself. Then you’ll understand what I mean.”

At the time, she thought her father was simply having a rant. Whenever he was angry, he exaggerated his misfortune to the point of absurdity.

But now, faced with the undeniable fact that Calix was completely unharmed, she was overwhelmed by a numbing chill.

“An injury like that wouldn’t even amount to a problem for him.”
“Mark my words. That thing isn’t human—it’s a monster.”

The Marquis spoke as though wounds meant nothing to Calix and could not affect him. Did he mean that Calix had extraordinary regenerative abilities, unlike ordinary humans?

‘But… that doesn’t make sense.’

Selina recalled the first time she had met Calix at the monastery.

Several arrows were embedded in his body, and he was covered in wounds from head to toe. His injuries were on the verge of festering, and he had such a high fever that he could barely stay conscious. If Selina had not tended to him, he would have died.

‘If his recovery had been that fast, those wounds should have healed quickly too. But Calix hovered on the brink of death for an entire week.’

She remembered how frantic she had been when the arrow wounds, despite not having struck any vital areas, had refused to heal easily.

There was a clear contradiction between what the Marquis knew of Calix, what Selina could see now, and the Calix she had known before.

‘Could it be that he gained some strange ability after that day?’

Selina pondered this for a long time before eventually shaking her head.

Perhaps there hadn’t been any deeper reason after all. Maybe the arrows he was struck by long ago were poisoned, and now that he was receiving far better treatment, his innate ability to recover was simply manifesting itself more fully.

‘As long as Calix is safe, that’s enough.’

Though it felt like a dream, this time it was real. Selina carefully placed her hand over Calix’s; he was lying beside her.

The next day

Calix had matters to attend to from early morning, so he headed for his office. Why did his steps feel so heavy as he left Selina’s bedroom? For the first time, he understood the men who had joked on the battlefield that they wanted to hurry home and use their wives as an excuse to leave early.

“I’ll be back.”

After kissing Selina on the forehead while she slept soundly, Calix pulled the blanket up to her neck. It was a sweltering day, hardly ideal for covering someone so thoroughly, yet he thought she looked cold in her thin clothes.

‘Even for summer wear, it’s far too thin. It’s nearly see-through. I should have other clothes prepared for her.’

Selina was wearing nothing more than an ordinary slip dress, the kind commonly worn by noblewomen. But to him, it looked as though she were wrapped in just a single, delicate layer of fabric.

“Your Grace!”

When he arrived at the office, Alter, who had arrived early, greeted him warmly. After exchanging greetings with the knight commanders he had personally summoned, Calix was just about to move on to the main matter at hand when—

“I heard the news! Sounds like you had a very pleasant night yesterday!”

Alter blurted out the nonsense without a shred of restraint.

“I won the bet, didn’t I? Hand over the gold.”

Zenfri snickered as he held out his hand to Alter. With a miserable expression, Alter reluctantly produced a pouch of gold coins.

Setting aside the absurdity of their wager for the moment, Calix first needed to identify the source of Alter’s nonsense. Frowning deeply, he looked Alter sharply in the eye.

“A pleasant night? What rumor did you hear?”

“Oh, come on… it’s already all over the grand ducal residence!”

The corners of Alter’s mouth twitched as he eagerly relayed what he had heard.

“They say Your Grace finally slept in the madam’s chambers….”

“Ha.”

Calix let out a hollow laugh.

It had happened only a few hours ago. No matter how fast rumors spread, this was far too quick.

“Do you have spies planted in the residence? Tell me at once how you found out.”

“Spies? Of course not! My only crime is being friendly with the servants!”

Alter protested indignantly, but by then, he had already provoked Calix’s ire.

‘I told you—just sit quietly and take the money.’

He clasped his hands together in mock prayer toward the pitiful Alter, then began counting the coins in the pouch.

“…Alter. Why is there only one gold coin in here?”

“I’m sorry! I used the rest to buy a gift for Madam! She must be feeling down after collapsing!”

“You lunatic. That sort of thing should come out of your own pocket.”

“I’m sorry! But the gift I bought for Madam is really beautiful!”

As ever, oblivious to his surroundings, Alter proceeded to talk at length about the wonderful gift he had purchased. Meanwhile, Zenfri was seething over the fact that he had lost four out of the five gold coins he had wagered.

“…What did you buy?”

Calix was the only person who listened to Alter’s explanation. Given his obvious displeasure, it seemed unlikely that Alter would ever give Selina his gift.

“Your Grace!”

At that moment, Rocheste and Karen entered through the door. Rochester approached Calix with a sense of urgency evident on his face and started speaking immediately.

“We’ve just received a statement from Libero’s mother.”

“I see. What did she say?”

That day, they had gathered in Calix’s office to share updates on the investigation into the Libero incident. Calix had long believed that Libero, usually an extremely quiet man, lacked the courage to orchestrate something on this scale alone. From the outset, he had been convinced that someone else was pulling the strings.

“She said that two months before Madam came to Thalia, a suspicious figure in a robe visited their home.”

And his suspicion proved correct.

“Did she remember anything about that person?”

“Yes. I told her that if she shared anything at all that might be of help, we could at least spare her son’s life. After that… she recalled one detail.”

For a brief moment, Rocheste and Karen exchanged glances, as if weighing something silently between them.

“Stop stalling and tell me.”

At Calix’s prompting, Rocheste finally spoke, his voice measured and cautious.

“She said the man introduced himself as ‘Richardt.’”