Assuming she only had one year left to live, Catherine felt a sense of urgency.

There were so many regrets.

She had never visited the coastal city of Acrotia.

Forget destined love—she hadn’t even experienced love at first sight.

She hadn’t learned horseback riding because it was deemed too dangerous.

What about her dream of tending a vineyard?

She had never run until she was breathless. Never plunged into clear water.

Assuming she didn’t know when she might die, there were countless regrets in her life.

This profound contemplation continued even when she attended Madame Nebois’s tea party, who had been her governess.

“What I regret most, Catherine?”

“Yes, Madame. If… if you only had one year left to live, what would you regret the most?”

At her question, Madame Nebois smiled slowly and answered kindly.

“Hmm, that’s difficult, Catherine. I’ve already lived too long to regret my past life.”

“Ah……”

Madame Nebois was treated as one of the most respected elders in social circles.

For someone over sixty, the emotion of regret must have either faded considerably or become too profound.

After thinking quietly, Catherine changed her question.

“Then, Madame.”

“Tell me, lovely Catherine.”

“Then… what has been the most satisfying thing in your life so far? Something you feel you truly did well.”

“Aha. Hmm….. That’s also difficult, but.”

Madame Nebois raised her head and gazed toward the distant sky.

Catherine’s mouth felt parched as she waited for the words from the mouth of Nebois, the matriarch of high society.

Forty years ago, she had served as a physician for her husband’s soldiers during the war, and after the war ended, she ran an orphanage for children who had lost their parents.

What could be the greatest accomplishment in the life of this noble old lady, who was praised throughout the city?

With eyes filled with the haziness of bygone years, Nebois gazed beyond the blue sky and smiled as she spoke.

“Loving Charles.”

“…Pardon?”

“Meeting Charles and loving him with all my heart. That seems to be what I did best.”

“What do you……”

Catherine was taken aback, having expected something more grandiose.

Love, coming from the lips of the most prestigious noblewoman in the capital.

“You look like you don’t understand, Catherine. Yes. Actually, I’m surprised by my own answer. But looking back… if I hadn’t loved, I think many of the colors that filled my life would have been dull. Those moments that made me radiant, though their light has faded now, were certainly that way because of love.”

It was difficult to comprehend.

Catherine was so absorbed in pondering Madame Nebois’s words that she didn’t even realize she had gotten lost on her way back from a brief outing.

‘Love, what on earth is love.’

She had read about it often in books, but it didn’t feel real.

If she had many friends, she might have seen cases of people falling in love, but Catherine’s only friend was Michael, who overprotected her—and that was no exaggeration.

“Where am I, anyway?”

After walking aimlessly for a while, Catherine suddenly looked up with a perplexed expression.

She had been seeing unfamiliar scenery for some time. No matter how much she looked around, she only saw strange places, with no familiar paths in sight.

Madame Nebois’s mansion wasn’t particularly ornate, but the grounds were so vast that it was easy to lose one’s way.

Looking around, Catherine brightened at the sight of a red building nearby and headed toward it.

“I should go into that building and ask for directions.”

In front of the two-story building, servants’ clothes were hanging out to dry.

Judging by the clothes drying fluffily in the bright sunlight, it seemed to be the servants’ quarters.

“The door is locked.”

After trying the locked doorknob, she looked around the building with a troubled expression.

And then she heard it.

“Ungh! Hnngh…… Ah, ahh…… Joseph, Joseph.”

Someone sobbing with a voice heated with passion.

“Ah, uh, ungh! Joseph, ahhh! Huh, ungh! Please, mmm, there, there……”

A thin, sensual voice like a cat’s mewing pleaded incessantly.

The word “please” continued intermittently, but it wasn’t filled with pain.

Catherine turned her head toward the sound, which seemed like sobbing mixed with heavy breathing—a strange, peculiar breathing.

The sound was coming from a small alley next to the red building.

‘What on earth is that sound?’

The more she listened to the sounds, the more strangely her toes and fingers curled. Her heart pounded heavily, and her ears grew hot.

No matter how innocent and ignorant she was about relations between men and women, she knew these were sounds of pleasure.

‘Surely not, we’re outdoors!’

She stared with wide, surprised eyes at where the sounds were coming from. It was a narrow gap between the building and the forest.

Gulp.

Catherine swallowed dryly and, forgetting all her previous worries, carefully moved toward the source of the sound.

As she got closer to the gap in the building, she could hear sensual moans unlike anything she had ever heard before.

‘Just a little… let me just see a little. Just to know what’s happening.’

She couldn’t overcome her curiosity. Her heart was racing madly, and her breathing became unnatural.

Catherine suppressed her heavy breathing and peeked her head slightly to look inside the narrow path. Her narrowed eyes widened in shock.

“Ungh! Ungh! Hnngh! Joseph, Joseph! Ah, it feels so good! More… harder…… Mmm, there! Yes!”

“Gruh. Anna…… Oh, my Anna. I love you. I love you.”

“Mmm…… Ah, ahhh! I love you too. Joseph. Huh!”

Squelch-squelch! Thump, thump!

The sound of forcefully pushing into a narrow, wet passage was loud.

Despite the bright daylight, the woman was bent over half-n*ked in the tree shade. Her disheveled golden-red hair flew wildly over her trembling body as she sobbed.

“Ahhh! Ungh, hnngh! It’s, it’s so good…… Mmm!”

The woman moaned loudly with nasal sounds as if she had no inhibitions.

Because of the woman’s posture—crouched down with her b*ttocks raised like an animal mating—Catherine unintentionally saw everything.

‘Oh no. I can see everything…!’

It was the first time she had seen another person’s reddened, aroused p*ssy.

Though she felt she shouldn’t look, she simply couldn’t tear her eyes away. She held her breath, not even blinking as she spied on the act. Her heart fluttered as if she were doing something wrong.

The woman’s area, swollen from the man’s c*ck entering and exiting, was soaking wet with slippery juices.

It looked red and soft like cut meat. The sight of it wet with cloudy white fluid while accepting the man’s c*ck was shocking in itself.

‘I never knew it looked like that.’

Though she wasn’t that close, everything was strangely clear.

Even the man’s bare b*ttocks as he gripped the bent-over woman’s hips and thrust, and the dark red t*sticles swinging violently beneath.

‘What… what should I do.’

Gulp.

As she swallowed dryly, Catherine came to her senses and quickly backed away. Hiding her body behind the wall, she covered her hot cheeks with both hands and tightly closed her eyes.

Her heart pounded violently as if she had run dozens of meters. It was beating so loudly that she worried they might hear it.

“Uh, ah! Huaaahh! I’m, I’m going crazy, Joseph! Yes, mmm! Yes!”

Even with her body hidden and eyes closed, she couldn’t block out the sounds. And why did the wet sound of flesh slapping against flesh sound so lewd and obscene?

Gulp.

Swallowing dryly once more, Catherine thought:

‘Is that… what s*x is?’

Along with the guilt of having peeked at someone else’s intimate scene, an unbearable curiosity made her seethe.

‘Since it’s come to this, should I watch a little more…?’

The little devil inside her whispered.

After taking a deep breath, Catherine completely gave in to the little demon’s whispers. Yes, she had already seen it, so seeing more wouldn’t compound her sin…

Yes! Perhaps this moment was God’s will.

After all, it was clearly some mysterious force that had led her to this unknown place.

‘Oh Lord. Forgive this lamb of desire!’

After making the sign of the cross over her chest, she peeked around the wall with a determined face.

“Ah, huh! Ungh! Jo-seph…!”

“Gruh! Anna, you’re squeezing too tight. You lewd thing!”

Thump-thump, the man roughly grinding his hips slapped the woman’s round b*ttocks.

“Ahhh!”

The man’s handprint remained bright red on her round as$.

Whether surprised or hurt, the woman arched her back dramatically and almost stumbled forward, causing the man to lie down on her back and wrap himself around her body.

The man’s hip movements became even more intense as he entered and exited the woman’s wet place.

Catherine’s eyes widened as she watched the scene.

‘Why… why is he hitting her?’

The slapping was shocking enough, but even more shocking was how the woman moaned in pleasure and wiggled her b*ttocks after being hit. It looked as if she was being coquettish, as if she enjoyed being spanked.

More fluid kept flowing from the woman’s area as it was ravaged by the man’s c*ck.

The juices that had been squelching out were now flowing down the woman’s snow-white thighs.

It felt strange. Could just watching make her feel so lewd?