Kahar breathed low and hooked his fingertips over the top of the dress covering her white skin and pulled it down.

The dress began to slide off without resistance. One of Meliciel’s shoulders met the cold air.

Kahar lowered his head further and pressed his lips into the fragrant skin. The scent he kept thinking of was throwing him off.

“Ah!”

Red marks began to bloom as deep as his eager hunger.

Lost in the sweet scent, Kahar pulled Meliciel’s back toward him and pressed his lips against her hotly.

When his lips passed her collarbone and moved lower, she twisted her body and tapped Kahar’s arm with her fist.

“S, stop now.”

Black hair paused, draped over her chest.

“Hah, that’s enough.”

“Make up your mind whether you don’t like it or you do.”

Meliciel answered in a waterlogged voice.

“I don’t like it.”

Kahar, who lost himself like a ship in a storm, slowly straightened up and stood.

She could see with her own eyes the traces of desire filling his blue eyes fading away, little by little.

In an instant, he was looking at her with eyes as cold as a frozen river.

The burning heat still on her skin was a lie now. He was back to being the Kahar she knew.

One moment he acted like a lecher, and now he was perfectly composed, like nothing happened.

“I thought you were welcoming me, given how warm those m*ans were.”

No, he was still a lecher. Meliciel steeled herself, glad she didn’t get swept away.

It was true that she needed his body, but she wouldn’t let herself be pushed around at his whim.

Being dragged along by him helplessly once was enough. She wanted to be smarter about it now.

Either way, Kahar was someone she needed to be wary of and resent.

“Not like this.”

“Then how would you like it?”

“Properly. Formally……”

“Fine. Then let’s do it properly next time.”

Kahar answered with a sardonic edge, then looked down calmly at Meliciel as she pulled her clothes back up.

But a disheveled appearance doesn’t straighten itself out so easily. Peach-flushed cheeks and damp lips. Swollen flesh caught in his gaze like a thorn.

Kahar exhaled. Even he recognized that what just happened was madness.

Since Meliciel appeared, there were frequent moments like this, where everything fell apart and his self-control broke down.

But this too was probably just a passing whim.

“As it happens, I had something to say to you. Good timing.”

“Something to say?”

Kahar crossed his arms and watched her with his long, narrow eyes.

“What I want from this marriage is peace. I want to fulfill the emperor’s tiresome request and have things go quiet.”

He continued in a rational tone, as though he was never flushed with heat.

“Just as you used me, I used you in return. So from now on.”

Kahar smiled bitterly.

“Don’t enter my space without permission. Don’t touch my things.”

“……”

“Don’t do things I haven’t asked for. From now on, live like air.”

Live like air. Those words ground and ground against Meliciel’s chest.

He was a cruel destroyer. A willful destroyer who shattered Lani’s world, reassembled it, and ultimately brought it to ruin.

But not this time. She would never again let him create her world as he pleased.

Meliciel exhaled and spoke, “Living like air, does that mean I should always stay quiet and stay out of your sight, Grand Duke?”

“You understand well.”

Meliciel spent her whole life in the tribe, drawing only the pictures she wanted. Then six months at Kahar’s side.

Then she opened her eyes in another person’s body and let a whole year pass by meaninglessly.

All of it was time Meliciel spent living like air, and throughout that time she never once put forward a proper opinion of her own.

Just going along with what those around her wanted. Being pushed wherever she was pushed.

And as a result, she protected nothing.

“If you understood, this conversation should be quick.”

Being told to live as a Grand Duchess in name only was no different from a death sentence to Meliciel.

Was he always this ruthless?

In the past, he seemed at least a little more human than this.

Kahar gestured toward the door with his chin.

“If you understand, get out.”

It was a clear line being drawn. But there was still hope.

The fact that they would become legal spouses remained unchanged.

Meliciel would become the one and only Grand Duchess of Ferriland.

And she would reclaim his child. The lost star.

Meliciel lifted her reddened eyes and glared at him.

“For someone who says that, isn’t your self-control a little weak, Grand Duke?”

Kahar slowly tilted his head.

“My self-control?”

“You were running away from me the entire way here.”

“Running away? Why would I.”

An air of amusement, like he found it absurd, came off him.

“You rushed ahead to the Grand Ducal Castle.”

“There was an urgent meeting. I exchanged correspondence while traveling and arrived ahead of schedule. Did that look like running away from you to you?”

“Then what about enjoying yourself by teasing me?”

“You’re overthinking it.”

Meliciel calmly shot back at him.

“But just now you kissed me first, and my shoulder too…… you did all of that.”

Getting worked up like a lecher, and now he was going to treat someone like air?

“That’s what spouses are supposed to do.”

“Spouses don’t tell each other to live like air.”

She didn’t like the way Kahar’s mouth kept curving upward, but Meliciel held her ground and spoke boldly.

“I’ll see you only when I want to, Grand Duke.”

“What?”

“If you want me to behave, then you need to meet me halfway too.”

“Meliciel Chloe.”

“That’s all I have to say. Have a good day, then.”

With that, Meliciel suppressed her misery and walked toward the door she came through.

She opened the slightly ajar sitting room door, and inside, maids had arrived.

They seemed to have been looking for Meliciel while she was gone, and from the look of it, they didn’t dare come as far as Kahar’s sitting room and were waiting just outside.

They looked startled to see Meliciel.

Did they hear everything?

“I’m not done talking.”

Kahar’s voice came from behind her.

“I’m the one who maintains this relationship. Don’t get presumptuous.”

Meliciel had to stop walking for a moment and endure words that cut like a blade.

“There’s no place for you to be put forward anyway. If you’re thinking of making the same threats as before, you’d better drop it.”

“You’re a tyrant, Grand Duke.”

“Get some rest. There’s a wedding scheduled, informal as it may be.”

The sound of Kahar’s footsteps retreating reached her. She heard him declare, along with the maids, that she would never play the role of a proper Grand Duchess.

He was sharp enough to sense his surroundings. There was no way he didn’t know the maids were there.

Even if nobles didn’t pay much mind to the presence of servants…….

Still.

Meliciel looked at the maids awkwardly, and the head maid Belita stepped forward and spoke first.

“We came to check on how you were feeling.”

“……I’m fine.”

“You still have a fever.”

Belita touched Meliciel’s hand and guided her to sit in a plush chair.

Not that she deserved to be treated this way.

Meliciel’s expression grew visibly dark with gloom.

“The physician will visit after lunch, my lady.”

What was that hand warmer about?

She wanted to ask Kahar about it, but there was no chance.

Then again, it was probably a meaningless object. What would asking even accomplish?

The hand warmer being there was surely just a coincidence.

***

Huby and Ann came by after lunch. Huby looked a little tired.

His brown curly hair was tied back and draped neatly over one shoulder, and his eyes were a lighter shade of blue than Kahar’s.

He was a handsome man with a slightly high-strung look about him.

“Ann, be careful.”

“Yes. I’m sorry, my lady.”

Ann let go of Meliciel’s arm and accidentally let it drop, causing her hand to land on the bed a little too hard, and Huby’s tone sharpened over it.

“Tsk. Clumsy as ever.”

“I’m fine.”

Meliciel smiled awkwardly. She saw Huby’s face enough times by now to feel somewhat comfortable with both of them.

“Stop dawdling and get things sorted.”

“Yes, yes. I must do as I’m told.”

Huby, who was prickly toward Ann in particular, and Ann, who puffed out her lips and made no effort to hide her complaints at him despite him being her superior, were entertaining to watch.

Huby spotted something in Ann’s medical bag and snatched it.

“What’s this? Trash?”

“It’s what I had left over from lunch.”

Wrapped in a small cloth was a half-eaten sandwich.

“My lady, may I use your waste bin?”

The bundle in Huby’s hand was tossed into the waste bin. Ann’s eyes went sharp.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Calling that lunch. The waste bin doesn’t deserve it.”

“Ha, the cook made that specially.”

“Specially made trash, then. Enough. Pack up your bag and come.”

The two of them always kept their bickering to low, hushed voices. They lowered their voices out of consideration for Meliciel, but the problem was that she could hear every word perfectly.

“Pfft……”

Meliciel finally burst out laughing, and both of them looked over at her.

“Sorry. You two are just too cute……”

The word cute made both of them open their mouths at the same time. Meliciel found that funny too and laughed again.