“Who did you just call a villainess?”

Philip flinched and stumbled back a step at the edge in Johann’s voice.

In the moment that followed, Liz got to her feet and steadied the trembling woman beside her. The woman looked so thin she might collapse at any second, and the sight of it only sharpened Liz’s anger.

Johann confirmed both women were unharmed and gave a brief gesture.

“Tell the captain. A dangerous man who threatened my wife is on board.”

“Y…… Your Grace.”

Philip’s face turned ashen in an instant. If he was taken away like this, he would be handed over to the authorities at the next port of call and dragged straight into a scandal.

He fixed his eyes on Liz, who was holding the woman close, with a look that could kill.

“This…… this can’t be happening.”

His life had been torn apart this thoroughly, and that woman had become a duchess?

Even thrown into the gutter, the rage refused to die. His teeth ground together on their own.

The bodyguards closed in and grabbed him by both arms.

“Please come with us.”

“Let go of me!”

Philip fought and refused to move, then his eyes rolled to something strange and wild. He wrenched free of the bodyguards with everything he had and threw himself at Liz in one last desperate lunge.

“This is all your fault!”

“Liz!”

Johann’s shout came a beat before Liz spotted Philip. She pulled the woman into her arms and turned her back. Philip’s hands slammed into her with full force, and her body slid toward the railing in an instant.

The cold iron of the railing struck her at the waist, and then her body couldn’t hold against the momentum and pitched over.

“Ugh!”

She squeezed her eyes shut as the sensation of falling took over, then landed with a hard thud somewhere below.

She forced her eyes open.

By some stroke of luck, she had fallen into one of the lifeboats fixed to the outside of the ship one deck below.

Liz let out a shaking breath and lifted her head, relieved to be in one piece. Up on the deck above, Johann had half his body over the railing, looking as though he might throw himself into the sea at any moment.

The ease that had been on his face until a moment ago was gone. His expression was hard and fierce.

“Liz, don’t move!”

Liz came back to herself, managed to push herself upright, and gave Johann a sheepish smile.

“Don’t worry. I’m fine……”

She was waving one hand and finishing the sentence when her body listed sharply to one side. A cold prickle ran across the back of her neck.

Screeeech!

The next instant, a horrible grinding screech tore from the pulley holding the lifeboat’s rope, and the thick line unraveled in a rush.

“Liz!”

Johann’s shout and the lifeboat dropping were simultaneous. The boat plummeted down the massive hull of the Eternelle and hit the water.

Splash!

The lifeboat slammed into the surface and pitched violently. Liz lost her balance and was swept into the cold sea.

“Mmph, ugh!”

Ice-cold seawater flooded her mouth and nose without mercy. She thrashed desperately against the pressure that crashed over her before she could even open her eyes, but the rough current only dragged her along, helpless.

The crushing pain in her lungs made her writhe, and then the cold locked her body and she began to sink.

She couldn’t breathe……

From the outside, the sea had shimmered so beautifully. From inside it was deep and dark.

Was this how she died.

Numbness wrapped around her sinking body as the cold cut into her skin and her mind grew dim.

She had wanted to escape. Not to die.

‘Who does she think she is, meddling in other people’s business. No one says it to her face, but she’s nothing but a nuisance.’

A cruel whisper she had once caught behind her back hummed through her waterlogged ears like a ghost.

‘I only helped someone.’

Turning away from those who needed help had cost her nothing but a moment’s gratitude and a retreating back. Everyone who didn’t know the full story called her a villainess.

Still, it wasn’t all regret. The knowledge that someone was living out a whole and happy future was a comfort to her, more than any of the ugly rumors that dirtied her ears.

But maybe that was over now too.

The last of the strength drained from her thrashing arms, and her body went limp.

Without warning, a powerful force seized her around the waist and hauled her upward through the water.

She broke the surface with a gasp.

The breath she had been holding burst free in ragged heaves. Liz spat out the bitter salt water and forced her eyes open. Clean air flooded her lungs at last.

She was leaning on someone. Her body was guided back up into the lifeboat, and only then did she see the face of the person who had saved her.

Johann’s blue eyes looked down at her, shifting between relief and something shaken.

“Liz, stay with me! Are you all right?”

Kyle’s voice rang out from somewhere far above on the ship, urgent and frantic. Crew members shouted and ran in all directions.

“Ah…… cough……”

Liz rolled onto her side and expelled the water from her lungs. Painful breaths came out tangled with coughs.

She was still coughing when a large hand began to pat her back.

“Breathe.”

“Ugh…… ugh……”

“Now!”

Her eyes were a complete blur, flooded by the salt water soaking her and the involuntary tears that came with the physical pain.

The breath still felt heavy, waterlogged. A firm hand gripped her chin and wrenched it up. Something warm pressed against her parted lips.

“……!”

A steady rush of air filled her. The thought that it was a kiss flickered through her mind, but before she could push him away, her body accepted the breath on instinct, like salvation.

By the time she could clearly see the desperation on his face, the agony in her chest had finally begun to ease.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

“I’m so cold.”

Her whole body shook, her teeth chattering. Maids arrived with large towels and wrapped them around her from all sides.

“My lady, here. It’s hot, so be careful.”

Liz took the cup Maribel held out with both hands and slowly swallowed its steaming contents. A sweet fragrance drifted up through her nose.

“It’s a miracle you’re all right.”

The maids had gone pale at the sight of her in the water. Liz looked down, embarrassed.

Once she had coughed up the seawater, her breathing had returned and she hadn’t lost consciousness. A doctor was called immediately, and the moment he declared the duchess in no danger, Liz went straight to the bathroom and spent well over an hour soaking in a hot bath, chasing the cold of the sea out of her bones.

During that time, Johann had come as far as the bathroom door, stared at her in silence for a long moment, and left without a word.

He could have at least said something.

It was the first time someone had frightened her without raising their voice. Just thinking about that cold silence made her shiver all over again.

“……Where is the duke? He must still be furious.”

“Well…… I’m not entirely sure. He did go to see the nobleman who pushed you, my lady, but after that……”

The maids’ subdued expressions told her enough. A man who cared so deeply about his own dignity would make sure Philip got exactly what he deserved for going on about how ruined his life was. And after that, she would probably be next.

A chill ran through her at the thought.

It was almost funny. She had just been telling herself she would find a way to get divorced, and now it looked like it might happen on its own.

Her fall from the ship had thrown the entire vessel into chaos.

The accident had happened less than an hour after departure. The captain had been seriously weighing turning back, but the moment the hastily summoned doctor confirmed the duchess was unharmed, he decided to continue on the original schedule. Still, as the man responsible for passenger safety, no matter how powerful the Duke of Ashworth was, the aftermath would be difficult to avoid.

“The mood must be terrible.”

“It nearly ended in disaster, my lady. From what I heard, you were lucky it was the stern. If you’d been pulled into the ship’s engine, there wouldn’t even have been anything left to feed the fish. You would have been ground up without a trace.”

“……Ground up how?”

Maribel shook her head at Liz’s question, her face pale with the horror of it.

“Your body, my lady. They said you’d have been shredded beyond recognition. And then the master himself jumped in after you…… everyone was terrified the Ashworth line was about to end right there. The story’s already all over the ship. They’re calling you the controversial lady. A bride who nearly died falling off a ship on her own honeymoon. Everyone was in a complete panic. My heart is still pounding just thinking about it, ugh……”

Maribel was still going when a sharp elbow from the side made her flinch and snap her mouth shut.

She went white, clearly realizing she had said too much. Liz let out a hollow laugh to tell her it was fine.

“……I really almost died.”

The way things had turned out, surviving at all was nothing short of a miracle. She was technically the Duchess of Ashworth under the law, and if she had been pulled into the engine and killed, the captain would have been sent to prison that very day. She could see why he had been terrified.