Chapter 1

The escape drama failed.

Estelle was supposed to head to the western villa for rest, following the predetermined scenario, and be kidnapped by a group of bandits. However, the scenario, which she thought was flawless, shattered completely.

It was all because Emily, her exclusive maid, revealed everything, despite thinking she had paid off the bandits with three gold bars and ensured their silence.

Estelle, unable to believe it, was chased through rough mountain paths until she reached a dead end. The bandits who were supposed to take her near the border were also utterly defeated by the Duchy’s Knight Order.

There was no way left to escape in this chaos.

In the end….

“Why are you running away, Estelle?”

A voice she should never hear pierced her ears from behind.

If there were a cliff, she would have thrown herself off, but even that wasn’t allowed by the dense forest…. Estelle turned her head toward the sound.

‘So I’m caught after all.’

She had no way to resist him, who brought dozens of knights. The fight with the bandits was a sl*ughter, given the overwhelming difference in power.

Raphael, with traces of blood on his cheek, dismounted from his white horse. Though his face was familiar, having grown up in the same duchy, today he looked strangely unfamiliar. His physique and intimidating aura overwhelmed her.

His golden hair and deep blue eyes were beautiful, yet they evoked a sense of dread.

Knowing it wouldn’t work, she pleaded once, desperately….

“You know why I want to leave.”

“‥‥‥.”

“Please, Raphael. I don’t want to stay in the Duchy. If I stay, father might force another arranged marriage. Last time, the other party died from a fall, so it was canceled, but that won’t happen twice. I don’t want to be used as father’s tool anymore.”

Having run through the bushes, her clothes and breathing were a mess. The breath she barely forced through her lips scattered. Her heart pounded. She wanted to escape from here.

But.

“Lies.”

“‥‥‥!”

“Is that all? Is that really all, Estelle? I don’t think so.”

Raphael raised the corners of his lips, even in this situation where he couldn’t smile. His eyes burned with heat, as if he would pounce at any moment, but his expression was distinctly different. It felt odd.

Estelle fell silent. No words came to mind to retort. Because….

***

“Ahh, hmm….”

Moans echoed in the unused drawing room of the villa.

Estelle was sprawled on the sofa table, shaken senselessly. Between her sunset-red hair and delicate eyelashes, deep green eyes could be seen….

Her slender figure stimulated a protective instinct strong enough to melt any man’s heart. When she gasped for breath from pleasure she couldn’t handle, it only fueled his sadism further. It also stirred a pointless desire for conquest.

With fierce thrusts of his hips, her tight walls were mercilessly crushed against his gl*ns.

He lifted her voluminous skirt and pushed aside her underwear. It was now countless times that he entered her sanctuary.

At first, his caresses were clumsy, but as the number of times increased, he became more skilled; yet the smallness of her crimson slit remained unchanged. The rough pounding produced lewd sounds as their skin collided.

Estelle, her thighs numb, spoke in a hoarse voice.

“Ra, Raphael…. Ah, hmm, st-stop.”

She should call him ‘brother,’ but when the s*x became intense, his name slipped out unconsciously.

Raphael felt intense pleasure every time she called his name in her lost state.

When did it start? Was it when he took her virginity after her coming-of-age ceremony?

Or when he realized that, despite her resistance, she was swept away by the pleasure he gave her?

He couldn’t tell. But they could never go back to being just siblings.

The two, who shared not a drop of blood, were called siblings only because they were tied together in the same family…. Wasn’t fate cruel?

Raphael looked down at her, intoxicated by pleasure, thinking she wore an expression no sister could ever make. So sweet. So ecstatic…. She couldn’t be his sister. Maybe a woman, but never a sister.

Ignoring her pleas, he kept thrusting, hitting her cervix repeatedly. His gl*ns pressed her sensitive spots, making Estelle tremble.

She desperately wanted to resist. The more she tried to push him away, the more pleasure washed over her like a tide.

Her blurred gaze, filled with self-loathing, bit her lip. Raphael bent deeply, pressing his chest to hers. Their bodies pressed together, and she heard a pounding heartbeat she couldn’t distinguish as hers or his.

Just….

“Don’t bite those pretty lips. They’ll bleed.”

He spoke, then overlapped their lips. His golden hair brushed her forehead and cheeks. It was a ticklish sensation.

The stimulation, like a tidal wave, grew uncontrollably.

Estelle surrendered her lips entirely, unable to breathe. Raphael was satisfied by the electric thrill every time she swallowed her sobs. Estelle wore a secret expression only for him, unseen by anyone else.

Raphael, frantically sucking her tongue, suddenly stopped his hips. The rounded tip, which had been thrusting into her cervix, settled deep inside.

Estelle’s mind went blank, her lower and upper holes greedily filled. Only after sucking up her saliva like a tangled thread did he pull away.

Her unfocused gaze showed no trace of reason. Her primal instincts were all that remained, and that always thrilled him.

“Ugh….”

Raphael groaned, releasing his hot seed. As warmth spread through her lower belly, Estelle’s torso twitched. She had accepted his s*men more than once, but the sensation never became familiar…. In this savage coupling, she surrendered as always. Moans escaped through her teeth.

“Uh, hmm, uh…!”

Her vision blurred as his seed filled her without pause. Still pressed tightly against her, Raphael held her, rotating his hips gently so she could feel even more ecstasy.

Their fluids mixed and flowed between their joined bodies. Her lower belly tightened at its own will.

“Ra, Raphael….”

As if wanting to escape this intense climax, she called Raphael desperately.

But he did not answer. He only grabbed her as she turned her head and buried his nose in her neck. Her scent quickly invaded his senses. Raphael’s chest expanded and contracted excessively. His massive chest heaved.

Exhausted, she let her arms and legs fall limp. After finishing, Raphael inhaled her scent to his heart’s content before finally lifting his head. Unaware, Estelle closed her eyes as if fainting.

Smiling in satisfaction, Raphael showered kisses on her forehead, cheeks, collarbone, and finally, stamped her lips again—only for himself.

His face, now calm, overflowed with affection for Estelle.

‘We will be eternal.’

It was not a wish, but a conviction for Raphael. A firm belief that no one could break….

Engraving that conviction in his heart, Raphael did not leave her side for a long time.

***

Nothing is forever.

Estelle, leaving the Duchy’s office, could not shake that thought.

As the eldest daughter of a fallen family, she should have been begging on the streets or living as a courtesan, but the hand extended by the Duchy changed her life entirely.

At twelve, the day she entered the main residence holding the hand of Duke Pellia, now her father…. Estelle still remembered that moment.

The crystal chandelier hanging in the grand lobby. The hundreds of artworks displayed so that visitors could see them. She was in awe. Then, when she was introduced to Raphael, who would become her sibling, her heart almost stopped.

He was more beautiful than any refined artwork. He didn’t seem like someone from her world.

Back then, he looked down at young Estelle with an indifferent expression. There was no contempt in his cold blue eyes, but neither was there kindness. No interest at all.

That was their first meeting.

When did Raphael’s gaze start to show life, when did he treat her sincerely?

Was it when Estelle turned thirteen?

She hadn’t meant to eavesdrop. She had only stopped by the library to find a book for her tutor’s assignment. Had she not overheard Raphael crying and muttering secrets no one else could hear in an empty corner….

If she had left immediately, would their relationship be better now?

She didn’t know.

Unfortunately, he was the illegitimate son who would one day lead the ducal house as its next head. The label of “illegitimate child” had never been officially revealed and remained hidden behind a veil… yet she had heard everything through his muttering to himself.

The Duchess and her only son died of a mysterious illness during a trip. Before even a year had passed since tragedy struck the ducal family, Raphael suddenly appeared.

The Duke said Raphael was the Duchess’s last child, but that had not been the truth. He claimed the boy had been hidden away and raised in seclusion for recuperation because his health had been poor as a child, but that had not been true either.

Because the name Raphael cried out while sobbing was not the Duchess’s.

It was the name of a strange woman.