Calix had never intended to send Selina to that dreadful party on her own. If there was a mistake to be found, it lay in his assumption that an innocent young woman so unfamiliar with the ways of the world needed warning of some kind.

His original plan had been simple. Selina would arrive at the party first and see for herself just how licentious and depraved the nobles were. She had always been naïve, someone who grew flustered at the slightest physical contact, so she was bound to be horrified by such a scene. Once she had calmed down, she would show no interest whatsoever in attending a similar gathering.

‘Thirty minutes. That should be more than enough time for her to grasp the true nature of the place.’

Calix was certain that Selina would retreat to a corner or seek solitude within ten minutes at most. Although it made him uneasy to allow her to go in alone, he decided that this minor discomfort was something he could endure for the sake of what lay ahead.

On the day of Countess Salome’s party, therefore, Calix followed Selina to the venue.

Initially, he had planned to leave her unattended for about thirty minutes. However, the moment he stepped into the garden and heard m*ans coming from all directions, he was overcome with a deep sense of unease.

No one understood better than he did what the nobles hiding behind those masks were capable of. After all, the purpose of the party was to allow them to let loose — there was no reason for anyone there to hold back.

‘D*mn it.’

The images forming in his mind spiraled towards the worst possible outcome. Unable to wait the full thirty minutes, Calix entered the banquet hall early.

He tried to remain calm, but the eyes visible through his black mask scanned the hall urgently, searching for Selina. He had deliberately given her an especially ornate mask and dress so that she would be easy to spot from afar. Finding her, he thought, would not be difficult.

Indeed, it did not take long to locate the person he was looking for. However—

‘What is that?’

The unexpected sight instantly soured his mood.

A man wearing a grey mask was holding Selina’s wrist. The moment Calix saw the man holding her hand, the calm in his eyes shattered, flickering wildly out of control.

‘She didn’t even pull away?’

Calix’s mouth hardened.

The idea of Selina standing so close to someone else had never once crossed his mind. He felt a surge of heat through his body, as though fire had been poured straight into his chest. He slammed the doors of the banquet hall shut deliberately.

The resounding crash drew every gaze in the room towards him — including Selina’s, which lifted to meet his.

Calix’s stare was fixed on the man standing beside her.

Even as everyone else turned towards the disturbance at the entrance, he did not move. His attention remained fixed on Selina alone.

‘Who the hell is that bastard?’

Calix was growing increasingly nervous in the face of the man’s unyielding attitude. He wanted nothing more than to tear off the man’s mask and see who he truly was.

However, acting on impulse and being blinded by jealousy would almost certainly ruin everything he had planned for the night.

All he wanted was to make sure that Selina would never consider going to a party like this again. Not by forbidding her outright, but by leading her to reach that conclusion herself.

To accomplish this, he had to suppress his emotions for the time being and force Selina to face reality.

Drawing on every ounce of self-control he possessed, Calix walked past Selina.

‘Disappear before I kill you.’

He did not forget to curse the gray mask with his eyes as he passed.

He moved to a spot where Selina would be clearly visible and took a seat by one of the tables. The moment he did—

“Did you come alone?”

People nearby began to gather around him. The earlier disturbance had drawn too much attention to him.

He was just about to consider how he could shake them off when Selina’s gaze turned towards him.

She kept glancing at him repeatedly with an expression that suggested she had recognized him.

‘Don’t tell me.’

She had recognized his voice before — could she now recognize him through the mask?

At first, he thought it was just his imagination. But, as her gaze kept flicking towards him, it became clear that she had indeed realized who he was.

A dry chuckle escaped his lips.

‘Perhaps it would be good for her to face reality properly.’

She seemed to already know that her husband had arrived. How would she react if he didn’t pull away from the hands reaching for him?

Would her large, violet eyes fill with tears? Would she tremble and beg, promising herself never to come to a place like this again?

“I’ve attended Countess Salome’s parties many times, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone as wonderful as you.”

“Are you here to find a partner? What’s your type?”

As though they had been waiting for that exact moment, women draped in masks and heavy perfume began to reach for Calix.

He did not evade them. He accepted their touch without resistance.

He did it for one reason alone: to see how Selina would react.

He could not deny it: a dark, shameful desire had taken root within him — the urge to make her cry.

For a moment, she looked at him, tears brimming in her eyes. Then, without a word, she turned her back on him and left the banquet hall.

Nothing had gone according to plan.

The instant Selina disappeared from his sight, Calix turned around and moved to follow her.

“Ah—where are you going?”
“The night’s only just beginning—!”

Ignoring her regret-laden hands reaching out to him, he followed her out.

But the empty corridor held not even a trace of her presence.

As he searched for her, he found himself in a darkened hallway. After all, Selina had always preferred softly shadowed spaces to places drenched in dazzling light. Whenever she disappeared from view, it was almost always in a place like this, or tucked away in some corner.

‘But it’s a problem if she hides even from my sight.’

As he searched for her, he loosened his cravat and spotted a door that was slightly ajar among the many rooms. Convinced that Selina was inside, he opened the door without hesitation.

“Being alone here is dangerous. I’ll stay with you.”

‘Why was this man with her?’

Consumed by rage, Calix threw the man out forcibly. Unable to control his anger, he then turned on Selina.

After all, it was he who had allowed her to attend the party in the first place. Had she simply complied, he would have dropped the matter without pressing it further.

Instead of apologizing, however, Selina treated him like an unwelcome intruder.

It was as if she had forgotten everything that had happened the night before.

What?

“Don’t touch me?”

It felt as though the last shred of his sanity, which had been stretched to breaking point by the urge to smash the grey-masked bastard’s face in, had finally snapped.

Who had clung to him like that that night?

How could she have changed her attitude so quickly?

‘What scheme is she plotting now?’

On reflection, he realized that Selina had done countless things without ever telling him. She had vanished from the carriage upon their arrival in Thalia, she had caused chaos by disappearing during the hunting festival and she had secretly been preparing for a divorce while he had believed that she had finally adapted to life there.

Selina was that kind of woman — always ready to disappear at a moment’s notice.

But there was one thing she had overlooked.

‘Sorry, but I have no intention of letting go of what’s once fallen into my hands.’

Calix was a man who never relinquished anything he had claimed as his own. If something was taken from him, he would kill the thief to get it back. A man with such a cruel nature would never casually give up the first precious thing he had ever obtained.

“I don’t know what scheme you were trying to pull this time. But going to another man on a whim — that’s no longer possible.”

If you want to do that, you’ll have to kill me first.

Whether that’s even possible is another matter.

“W–wait, please!”

Reaching out in desperation, she tried to stop him, but to no avail. Calix was consumed by a single thought: he had to prove to Selina that she belonged to him.

She held her breath and gripped his hair tightly.

His plan to warn Selina had failed completely. The warning had ended up being for him instead. He would never let her attend a party like this again.

He had never realized that love could make a man such a fool.

“C–Calix.”

At that moment, Selina spoke his name softly.

“If… if you’re just going to regret this again, then please stop.”

Her trembling, tearful voice fell over him from above.

“Even without you doing this, I–I already understand… more than enough.”

“…What?”

Calix tilted his head up to look at her. Through the gaps in her mask, tears streamed down from her violet eyes.

“Y–you regret what happened that night…”

At those words, he felt as though he’d been struck on the head. He couldn’t respond at all. Taking his stunned silence as confirmation, Selina forced herself to continue, holding back her tears.

“Please… don’t do this if you don’t even love me.”