Following the wedding, a reception was held in the Grand Hall of the Crown Prince’s Palace.

Thirty years earlier, when the young crown prince — the emperor’s only child — died, the hall was left empty. Since then, it had only been opened occasionally for banquets at the emperor’s discretion. The victory celebration for the Knights of Dusk had also been held there three years earlier. Isabelle, a provincial noble who had rarely left her estate, hadn’t even known that such an event had taken place until just before her marriage to Tenetta.

Many people approached Tenetta throughout the reception. Some spoke of matters that Isabelle could barely follow. Among these was the holy war that had ended three years ago.

Tenetta had never once spoken to her about it. And yet, the achievements he had earned there were among the most remarkable of his life.

When Isabelle once asked him why, he answered—

“I don’t want to waste our time on predictable stories from the depths.”

Yet despite dismissing the past as a dark abyss, Tenetta showed an unexpected level of concern for his subordinates. Although he occasionally joked about the Knights of Dusk, he never spoke ill of them. Whenever they were in trouble, he always stepped in to help.

And yet, for reasons she couldn’t fathom, he kept them away from his wife.

It was then—

Tenetta, who had been quietly watching Isabelle as she drifted into thought, tilted his head slightly.

“What are you thinking about?”

‘How controlling you were.’

Isabelle murmured to herself.

In hindsight, they had never even done something as ordinary as going on a trip together. Tenetta had never allowed her to leave the capital city of Rosina. Even when she went out, Tenetta was almost always by her side.

What felt even more absurd was that Isabelle had never once thought of her life as confined. Back then, she hadn’t been dissatisfied with a life spent waiting for her husband at home. The fact that she couldn’t visit her family bothered her a little, but she simply accepted it. Her husband was a busy man, after all. The Attley estate was far away, and Tenetta hadn’t wanted to send her there alone.

What she hadn’t known was that there was a portal near the Attley estate that allowed instant travel to and from the capital, which Tenetta could use whenever he wished.

‘How foolish.’

Her throat felt tight. Isabelle reached up and touched the three-strand pearl necklace fastened securely around her neck. The maid had given her no other choice when she changed into the deep green velvet dress for the reception.

“The master said you must wear this.”

At a glance, the necklace looked incredibly expensive, and it matched well with the elegant folds of her gown—but Isabelle would have preferred to choose something else, even if it made her look ridiculous.

“Isabelle.”

Tenetta urged her for an answer.

Before he could grow suspicious, Isabelle quickly chose an appropriate topic.

“How do you prove that Your Highness still possesses divine power, even after marriage?”

“Well.”

The man blinked slowly, as if giving the matter serious thought.

“Shall I have someone dragged out of the Inquisition tomorrow morning? If we attempt to execute a heretic after we’ve become a proper married couple, that should prove it quite clearly.”

Hearing those words, Isabelle vividly conjured the image of the Line family’s final moments in her mind, and her face turned pale.

Tenetta stared at her intently, as if gauging whether his sadistic joke had been received well. Then he smiled. Reaching out, he gently brushed her cheek, as though to reassure her.

“Don’t worry. No one would dare question it.”

At that moment, one of the high-ranking nobles stepped forward to greet Tenetta. Isabelle recognized him immediately — he had been sitting on the jury when she had reunited with Tenetta in her previous life.

He offered his congratulations with a courteous smile and extended a glass to Tenetta. It was wine.

Isabelle froze.

She hadn’t realized before; she had been too distracted by everything surrounding Tenetta. The wine she had drunk back then had been poisoned.

Had Tenetta not caught her when she fell down the stairs, she would have died from drinking it.

Perhaps misreading her gaze, Tenetta tilted his head slightly and murmured.

“Even if you want some, I can’t share it with you today.”

“……”

“It’s a superstition.”

In Legrandem, it was customary for the groom to drink every alcoholic drink offered to him on his wedding day.

After that, people continued to approach him, one after another, each offering him a drink. Even the emperor sent a glass through his chamberlain. Soon afterwards, the emperor took his leave, citing his age and the strain of staying up late.

As Isabelle glanced around the hall, her eyes met Raymond’s.

Despite being in conversation with a group of young intellectuals, he had been keeping an eye on her.

The moment their gazes met, he silently mouthed—

‘Are you alright?’

Isabelle nodded.

His lips moved again.

‘Should I come over?’

Isabelle shook her head.

She didn’t want Tenetta and Raymond to become entangled.

At that moment, Tenetta tightened his grip on her hand.

“Go rest in the lounge for a while. I’ll follow soon.”

“The reception isn’t over yet.”

“If you wait until it ends, your delicate little feet will be crushed.”

The unpleasant imagery made Isabelle frown. Tenetta ignored her expression and called for an attendant.

In the end, she withdrew to the lounge as he intended. As she left, Isabelle resolved to speak with Raymond before her family departed the next day.

***

Isabelle did not look back once.

Tenetta stood there for a long time, watching the retreating figure with its elegantly braided black hair. The way she carried herself with such pride stirred an impulse in Tenetta to chase after her at once, just to see if she was holding her chin high and what expression she was wearing.

“You can’t seem to take your eyes off her.”

A man who had approached him spoke.

With sun-bronzed skin and striking red hair, he was a knight of the Knights of Dusk.

Tenetta called his name.

“Cender.”

“Congratulations on your marriage.”

Tenetta took the glass from him and drank it all at once.

By the time he saw Cender approaching, he had already sent his wife to the lounge. She needed to rest, and he disliked the idea of her growing close to a knight who had experienced battle.

It wasn’t because he looked down on the profession. In fact, he held knights in high regard — if respect meant recognizing that they shared something of his own nature.

Ultimately, though, a knight was someone who made a living by killing.

Those who lived by killing inevitably left their mark on those who did not. Isabelle had already been deeply affected by him.

Since she had the power to undo him just as easily, Tenetta considered this to be a kind of balance — but this was separate from her forming bonds with others.

He didn’t want Isabelle to suffer because of anyone else—nor did he want her cruelty directed at anyone but him. To him, there was no difference between the two; he was equally jealous of both.

As he finished his drink, Cender spoke.

“Your wife will surely live a long and healthy life—at least a hundred years.”

“I hope so.”

He doubted she could last a thousand days, let alone a hundred years.

Of all the cycles, those in which Isabelle survived for three years were strikingly few. Each time she died, Tenetta found himself resenting the fact that he had failed to keep her confined.

Yet whenever he encountered her alive again, he would become a fool once more, falling helplessly in love.

It was a love that could not exist without freedom and suffering.

Then Isabelle would die again.

‘This is what a vicious cycle is,’ he thought quietly.

Cender continued with a lighthearted blessing.

“It may have had a rough start, but you’ll live happily together.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, she truly is beautiful—ah, my apologies. I was told I shouldn’t say things like that.”

Praising someone’s appearance so casually wasn’t exactly refined behavior. Still, Tenetta did not find his subordinate rude. Those who lived by physical labor tended to judge others by appearance first.

He himself hadn’t always been well-versed in etiquette either.

“I prefer an elegant husband.”

Ever since Isabelle insisted on it, almost as if it were a demand, he had no choice but to change.

After his first regression, Tenetta spent a considerable amount of time learning elegance. It was only after Isabelle — who had corrected even his gait to perfection — pressed a satisfied kiss to his cheek that that ordeal finally came to an end.

Tenetta nodded to his subordinate.

“It’s true—she is beautiful.”

Isabelle was strikingly beautiful. Had she been raised in the capital instead of on a provincial estate, she would have easily received boxes full of love letters.

If that had happened, he would have found a way to get his hands on every single one, checked who they were from, and then burned them all.

Isabelle would have frowned at him, but secretly she would have been pleased.

Women had a way of doing that—stirring a man’s heart like firewood in a hearth, prodding it again and again until it finally caught flame.

Was this her fifth life…?

Isabelle had deliberately drawn several young men into the orbit of their marriage, provoking her husband until he challenged them to duels.