The matter was wrapped up neatly.

However, on the way back to the mansion, Alex’s handsome brow twitched in irritation.

‘That damned prince…’

The prince’s sly face surfaced in Alex’s mind.

He had never even dreamed that the prince would dare to hide his knight inside his own mansion.

It must have been a recent infiltration. If the knight had been there for a long time, Alex would have already noticed.

Pressing his fingers against his furrowed brow, he let out a long sigh once again.

“Ha…”

Just as he arrived at the mansion’s gate, the chamberlain was waiting for him.

“Uh… my lord.”

“…What is it?”

His nerves were already on edge, so his voice came out sharp.

Celon flinched, then cautiously continued.

“Ah, well. Tonight… L-Lady Bella said she would be sleeping with you in the bedroom.”

Alex’s steps halted abruptly on the stairs at the unexpected statement. He turned back and fixed his gaze on Celon’s lips.

“Then… did my wife say she would sleep there as well?”

“Yes. That’s why the madam asked that, if you are not too busy, you join them and sleep together without being late.”

“……”

Alex recalled the darkened bedroom of past nights.

He had thought Elicity would hate sleeping with him again, but that wasn’t the case?

Suddenly, the image of his wife’s trembling lips under the moonlight resurfaced. A chill ran through his chest as if something was piercing through him.

“My wife… is she already asleep?”

“Yes, she went to bed with the young lady.”

The chamberlain’s gaze persistently followed him.

For some reason, his throat felt dry.

Moistening his lips, Alex resumed his halted steps.

***

He hadn’t intended to go.

Elicity cherished Bella dearly, so she might have said those words, but he didn’t believe she would actually welcome him.

However, after hearing Elicity’s words through the chamberlain, he couldn’t concentrate on his work at all.

After much hesitation, Alex eventually hurriedly finished only the most urgent tasks, changed his clothes, and headed to the bedroom.

Since it was the place he had fled from, the path there was not easy.

Upon reaching the bedroom door, Alex noticed his hand trembling slightly.

His feet felt as though they had turned to stone, unwilling to move.

‘…Maybe not going in would be better for everyone.’

Alex turned around.

But at that moment, an unbearable thirst arose, parching his throat.

Even if it was just words, the faces of his wife and daughter, who supposedly missed him, flickered in his mind.

Hesitating, Alex turned back once more.

As a skilled swordsman, entering the bedroom without making a sound was easy.

The door opened, and in the center of the room, his wife and daughter lay on the bed, breathing evenly in their sleep.

His crimson gaze lingered on them, entangled in a complex web of emotions.

Love and affection formed the foundation, but unease, the pain stemming from it, sorrow from his guilt, remorse, and even fear wove through it.

Slowly, Alex settled into a chair by the bedside.

His parched lips moved soundlessly.

‘…Do you know?’

The fear of waking up every morning, afraid that today might have been just a dream.

The terror and despair that, at any moment, his wife and daughter might vanish.

The self-pity that seeped in as he desperately struggled not to be abandoned.

She wouldn’t know.

‘Elicity, you don’t know anything.’

She may believe she returned after learning everything, but that wasn’t true.

After losing Bella, she had abandoned everything, and Alex had merely been one of those ‘abandoned things.’

She had left him behind, forcing him to endure a wretched life alone.

‘Heartless woman…’

The memories from before the regression turned into pitch-black darkness, surging over him like waves.

Before he knew it, his eyes were tinged red.

When would he finally be free from these memories?

It was suffocating.

***

“Duchess, Isabella is dead!!”

A thunderous roar echoed through the grand duchy.

It was the voice of a man who had commanded a knightly order for decades, so it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it was loud enough to shake the mansion.

The one who had shouted was a middle-aged duke, whose graying hair, beard, and deep wrinkles around his eyes suited him well.

“She’s dead! She died of lung disease, and the funeral has already been held!! She’s buried in the ground!”

It was almost the first time the duke had ever raised his voice in the mansion instead of the battlefield, so everyone in the grand duchy’s chambers widened their eyes in shock.

But it lasted only a moment. At the sight of the duke’s terrifying expression, everyone quickly lowered their heads and trembled.

Everyone except one.

The duchess.

“Your Grace, what are you saying? Bella is calling for me.”

After Queen Salita’s death, the duchess had gone mad.

After losing her daughter, she spent her days staring at the ground, and at some point, she began trying to throw herself from the window.

She was like Demeter, who had lost Persephone to Hades. Every day, she would ask her dedicated maids the same questions.

—Retia, do you think the ground will crack open? If it does, won’t I be able to go down?

—Olivia, if I go down, won’t I be able to see my daughter?

She would ask these questions with such a bright, innocent smile that the two maids could do nothing but shed silent tears.

Her life had revolved around her daughter. And that daughter had died resenting her. It was only natural that her mind could not remain intact.

Seeing his wife like that, the duke had wanted to die.

“Our Bella. My daughter, the future queen. It’s mealtime—I need to feed her.”

Muttering incoherently, the duchess started crawling toward the window.

Like lightning, the duke rushed forward and pulled his wife into his arms.

“My lady. Bella is dead!! Please, come to your senses!!”

“I have to go. My daughter, my beautiful queen, needs me.”

“No, she’s dead! Our Bella is dead. She’s gone.”

Saying those words with his own mouth was like tearing his own heart apart.

“Our daughter is dead… Elicity.”

And yet, he forced himself to say them to protect his wife. He wanted her to somehow find meaning in life again.

“No, you liar! My daughter is waiting for me!!”

But the duchess, held tightly in his arms, violently shook her head. Tears began pouring from her empty eyes.

“Let go of me! Who are you to stop me?! Bella, Bella!!”

Her violet eyes remained fixated outside the window.

As if the husband holding her meant nothing, she struggled against him.

It broke his heart.

And yet, in silence, the duke screamed.

‘Then what about me?’

Are you just going to leave me behind, all alone in this world?

‘The man who loved you, who still loves you… what about me?’

But his wife didn’t know.

And the duke knew better than anyone that she didn’t.

Because he had hidden it.

Long ago, those trembling amethyst eyes had left him no choice but to conceal his emotions.

But he shouldn’t have.

The duke regretted it so bitterly. He cursed himself for never having been honest. Inside, he screamed in despair.

He should have just said he loved her.

Even if she was afraid of him, he should have approached her anyway.

He should have begged for her love somehow…

If he had, then at least, in the moment she decided to leave this world, maybe—just maybe—she would have thought of Alex Zeroden.

Maybe then, out of regret, she would have hesitated before choosing death.

‘…No.’

The duke tightened his embrace around his wife, as if binding her with his arms.

He could never let her die.

He had already lost his daughter. If the underworld took his wife as well, he might truly go mad.

“Let me go! I have to go to my daughter! Bella, Bella!!”

She continued to call for Bella, chasing after her.

As if, by instinct, she had chosen to abandon life itself.

The duke ordered all the servants to place locks inside and outside her bedroom.

He forbade any sharp objects and spent a fortune installing the best physicians right next to her chambers.

And he stepped down from his position as commander of the knights.

Everyone whispered that the duchess had gone mad, and that the duke had lost his mind alongside her.

Even the king had tried to stop him.

But the duke didn’t care.

Every day, he visited her chambers, checking her health and talking to her.

—Did you eat well?

—Did you sleep well?

—How are you feeling today?

Of course, there was no way to have a real conversation with someone who had lost their mind.

So the duke simply spoke alone.

It didn’t matter if she never looked at him.

It didn’t matter if she forgot him.

As long as she was alive.

As long as she didn’t leave him behind.

He would do anything.

As long as she didn’t abandon him in this world, all alone.

Every day, he begged.

And every day, he cared for her with all his heart.

But the duchess was cruel.

In the end, she abandoned the duke and left.

Without leaving even a shadow of herself in this world, she disappeared into the cold embrace of death.

As the duke stared at his wife’s lifeless body, hanging in midair, only then did he truly understand—

The pain of all those he had killed.

—I curse you.

—Your daughter and your wife! They will never die peacefully!

—May the people you love most meet their deaths!

Someone, their name unknown, drenched in blood and tears, screamed those words while holding a dying comrade.

—I do not wish for your death. Instead, I wish for the deaths of those you love. In the most wretched state possible…!

The demonic expression, the agonized screams, the shrieks that tore through a throat already spilling blood, the voice that carved itself into his heart all the more because it was he who had killed them—

That voice became an arrow, flying straight toward his daughter and wife.

Yes, God was truly fair and just.

“……”

Alex slowly opened his tightly shut eyes. Before he knew it, his vision was blurred by the heat rising in his eyes.

At that moment—

A crack formed in the sleeping face of his wife as her eyelids fluttered open.

In the darkness, her violet eyes gleamed.

“Alex?”

He hadn’t expected her to wake up.

Her voice was thick with drowsiness. Alex was caught off guard for a brief moment but quickly concealed it and replied,

“Yes. I’m sorry for coming late. Bella will wake up, so just go back to sleep. I’ll sleep too.”

But Elicity sat up, a resolute glint flashing in her eyes.

“No, I have something to say. I think I need to say it before I sleep.”

“…Something to say?”

“Shouldn’t we finish our conversation from earlier?”

Her voice trembled slightly, but her expression was cold and unyielding.

Alex, unable to hide his surprise, nodded slightly.

“But first, let’s go somewhere Bella isn’t.”

Elicity quietly got out of bed and wrapped her arm around Alex’s. The soft sensation of her skin against his made him exhale sharply.

Despite his towering build, he was effortlessly led away by the woman who was only half his size.

Before he realized it, Elicity had brought him into a small powder room.

Through the tiny window, moonlight trickled in.

The pale light seeped between them, scattering into fragments above Elicity’s head.

Her brown hair, damp as if touched by morning dew, her round forehead, and the full lips beneath it all shimmered under the moonlight.

A faint wound marred those lovely lips.

No doubt, a mark left by him.

Alex’s lips twisted ever so slightly.

“Dear, that night…”

Elicity had barely begun speaking when she caught the fleeting change in her husband’s expression.

“Alex. Why do you look like that?”

Alex let out a deep sigh and rubbed his face with both hands.

“I…”

The voice that slipped through his barely parted lips was filled with pain.

“I was too rough with you, wasn’t I?”