“You insolent little wretch!”

The marquis began striking Selina.

As blows landed against her head and cheek, Selina found herself thinking—

‘Why am I being treated like this?’

When she was young, she knew nothing. Whenever she was hit, she truly believed that she must have done something wrong, and she was always left feeling guilty.

After her mother died, the Marquis became her only lifeline. She never resisted. Without him, there would have been no one to send her to the monastery — defying him would have been the same as condemning herself to death.

But now?

‘There’s no reason for that anymore.’

Selina had already given up hope of obtaining an antidote from the Marquis. No longer afraid of death, she raised her arm to block her father’s blow.

“S-stop it!”

It was the first time she had ever resisted him.

When she shouted and dodged his blows instead of passively enduring them, the marquis looked genuinely taken aback.

But only for a moment.

“So you really have gone mad, keeping company with fools like them.”

His fury deepened. He grabbed her hair and shook her violently. No matter how desperately she struggled, escaping his grip was impossible.

“Why are you still here?! I thought you’d already left Thalia!”

Selina screamed, her scalp burning as he yanked her hair.

“That’s why you’ll spend your life being called a fool. If you lacked the sense to see through things yourself, you should’ve at least chosen your allies more carefully.”

Tsk.

Clicking his tongue, the marquis looked at Selina with something like amusement.

“In this grand ducal castle, there are more people on my side than there are on yours.”

In that instant, Selina remembered that it had been Lady Lily who brought her here.

From the very first meeting, she had always maintained a strictly professional demeanor. Calm. Unemotional. Selina had assumed it was simply her nature.

‘Lady Lily was my father’s pawn…’

Since when?

Since when had the woman who oversaw the grand ducal castle begun serving the Empire as its tool?

More than the sting of betrayal, Selina wanted the truth. If she didn’t uncover it, she feared Lady Lily might even turn her hand against Calix.

“Well, well.”

As if he had read her thoughts, the marquis smiled with clear amusement.

“So I ordered you to seduce Calix, and yet I never imagined you would be the one to be ensnared instead. Truly impressive.”

“Th-the Grand Duke never did anything to me.”

“Oh? Then I suppose you’re simply loose by nature—just like your mother. To think you’d fall head over heels just because someone treated you a little kindly.”

Whenever she was compared to her mother, Selina would bite down hard on her lip. Although she had no memory of ever being loved by her mother, she was still the person who had made the biggest impact on her life. Hearing her mother spoken of so cruelly stirred a fierce resistance within Selina.

Her hand clenched against the dusty floor, trembling violently.

The Marquis watched her quivering fingertips in silence, then let out a short, derisive laugh.

“Do you remember how your mother died?”

She flinched.

At the mention of her mother’s death, her body reacted on its own, shaking uncontrollably.

“Yes. Wasn’t it a place just like this? Cramped. Dark. Just like now, wasn’t it?”

The memory that had scarred her childhood unfolded before her eyes like an afterimage, etching itself into her mind as an indelible mark.

Selina had lived alone with her mother in a narrow room, yet they had never shared a single tender conversation.

It hadn’t always been that way.

At first, her mother had cared for her. Her touch was never warm, but to a small child, even that had seemed precious.

But as time passed, her mother changed.

She lived as though Selina didn’t exist at all. Like a broken doll, Selina lay in bed from morning until night. Selina tried again and again to earn her attention and get her to notice her.

Then came the moment Selina realized that, to her mother, she was no more than an illusion — like the reflection of the moon on the surface of a lake.

At that point, she gave up on her wish to be loved by her mother.

About a month after her mother changed, the woman — who had otherwise remained the same — acted differently for the first time.

“Selina. Come here.”

She had called her gently.

Held in that long-missed warmth, Selina had felt nothing but happiness. For a fleeting moment, she even dared to hope that perhaps she could receive the love she believed she had already given up on.

But—

“From the moment you were born, you took everything from me.”

Her mother had not called her out of love.

“My ability. My freedom. Everything I had—you stole it all.”

With a gaunt face, she smiled brightly as she spoke.

“You were my calamity.”

The young Selina did not know what calamity meant.

But she understood instinctively what her mother intended to do next.

“I resent you… and yet, I can’t help but worry about you—about the fact that you’ll be left all alone after I’m gone.”

Her emaciated hands closed around Selina’s throat.

“Let’s die together.”

It was hard to believe that such strength could come from such a fragile body. Yet Selina’s bony fingers tightened with brutal force. She thrashed and clawed desperately for what felt like an eternity, trying to tear herself free. Then, as if a burst of light had erupted from her body, she lost consciousness.

That was the last moment she shared with her mother.

When she awoke, her mother was lying there as she always had been, except this time she was no longer breathing. For a brief moment, Selina wondered if everything that had happened was just a dream. But the vivid handprints circling her neck told her otherwise.

Her mother had deliberately tried to kill her.

She wanted to run. She was terrified that her mother might rise at any moment, seize her throat again, and scream at her for still being alive.

But the door imprisoning her would not open.

Only when the stench of decay filled the room and maggots appeared on the corpse did anyone come to rescue Selina from that narrow, lightless space.

“—Kgh, kgh.”

Dragged back into the present by the resurfacing trauma, Selina began to retch dryly.

“You fool. In the end, the fate awaiting you is one of two things.”

The marquis spoke coldly as he watched her in disgust.

“You’ll either become like your mother—or you’ll be abandoned by Calix.”

“C-Calix would never—”

“You think he won’t abandon you?”

The marquis’s lips split into a grotesque grin, amusement gleaming in his eyes.

“Your mother thought the same of me. She believed I would never cast her aside.”

“Why did you—”

“Why did I abandon your mother? The reason is simple. Her value disappeared. She was useful at first—but after giving birth to you, she suddenly lost her ability. What use would I have for a woman like that?”

Clicking his tongue, he suddenly fixed Selina with a sharp stare.

“Do you really think Calix will be any different?”

“!!”

“He’s even more calculating and meticulous than I am. Right now, you’re useful to him—that’s why he keeps you by his side. But what if it comes to light that you were a worthless piece the Empire had already discarded? And worse—what if he learns that you’re nothing more than a filthy bastard child?”

That was it.

The very source of the unease that had weighed on Selina ever since she had begun receiving Calix’s love.

“Do you really think he’ll still love you once he realizes how humiliated he is? Of course not. Given his temperament, he’d discard you without a second thought. And do you think he’d simply let you go? He’s the kind of man who slit the throat of the uncle who raised him. Do you honestly believe he’d spare you?”

She had tried to bury it, to pretend she didn’t know, and to look away. But the Marquis spoke as if he had already seen straight through her. He dragged the fear lurking at the depths of her heart into the open and exposed it mercilessly.

“Th-that’s……”

“At this point, I don’t care whether that bastard lives or dies. Someone far worse is standing right in front of me—do you think I can just let this go? Hm? No matter what, I will expose who you really are. Only then will this finally settle down!”

Seeing Selina frozen in terror, spiraling into panic, the marquis pressed her harder still, raising his voice as he drove her into a corner.

His plan worked perfectly.

In the end, Selina collapsed at his feet, dropping to her knees, prostrate.

“W-what… what should I do?”

At the answer he had wanted to hear, the marquis barely managed to suppress the smile tugging at his lips.

“What do you mean, what can you do now? Because of you, every plan has been ruined!”

“S-still… I believe there must be something I can do. That’s why Father came looking for me, isn’t it? So p-please… tell me.”

“If that’s truly what you want.”

As if he had been waiting for this, the marquis thr*st a pen and a sheet of paper toward Selina.

“Write down exactly what I say.”

A single candle was lit in the darkness, its weak flame casting a dim light over the page before her.

After writing everything exactly as she was told, Selina was thrown onto her bed in a ruined state.

Lady Lily approached with a calm expression and said,

“You seem to be in very poor condition. You should rest in your room for the next two days.”

In truth, it was no different from imprisoning her.

‘……The letter.’

Only now did the contents of the letter—written in a near-mad state, consumed by trauma—come rushing back to her.

As she slowly reread it with a clearer mind, her vision plunged instantly into darkness.

‘Father set a trap… to catch Calix.’

Selina sprang to her feet.

She had to tell Calix—immediately.