***

“Rufus, try harder.”

“Ngghhh…!”

Rufus clung desperately to the railing with both hands, straining with all his might.

But his body remained stubbornly dangling, refusing to move.

Helena thought to herself ‘Are all those muscles just for show? He’s completely useless.’

“Uuugh-cha…!”

Rufus kicked and squirmed, trying to wedge his foot into a protruding part of the wall.

But that didn’t work either.

After a moment’s hesitation, Helena spoke.

“Do you want to just let go? It’s not that high.”

“U-Ugh! Helena, that’s cruel…! You know I’m afraid of heights—how could you say something like that?”

Rufus whimpered, still clinging desperately to the railing.

Watching him, Helena was plunged into a dilemma.

‘What am I supposed to do now? Should I call someone? But how would I even explain this situation?’

Just then, a loud pounding came from the bedroom door behind her.

Helena made up her mind.

“Rufus, just hang in there for a second.”

She rushed to the door to call for help – only to find the very last person who should be witnessing this situation standing on the other side.

“Excuse me.”

With that, Benjamin Ishpern pushed past her and stepped into the bedroom without hesitation.

Helena stood frozen for a moment, then came to her senses and spoke sharply.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

It was clear where he was going – straight for where Rufus was hanging.

Helena quickly stepped in front of him, blocking his path with a sharp glare.

“Bursting into a lady’s bedroom like this – unbelievable! Have you forgotten we’re not even married yet?”

Benjamin stared at her with a sombre, brooding look before speaking.

“We will be in a few hours. Is there a problem with that?”

“Anyway, now is not the time.”

He gestured to the balcony where Rufus was still dangling.

“I need to see what’s out there.”

“Why do you need to see it?”

“Because there’s something I need to confirm.”

“There’s nothing to see! Nothing at all!”

As she tried desperately to shut him out, Benjamin’s pale forehead wrinkled with visible irritation.

“So you’re lying to me? Hah… I see. I’m the kind of person you think it’s okay to lie to, is that it?”

At that moment, a loud scream – “Aaaagh!” – echoed from the balcony, followed by a heavy thud as something hit the ground.

Helena’s face instinctively contorted before she quickly forced it back into place.

She couldn’t bring herself to look Benjamin in the eye. Instead, she stared at the window and bit her lip.

“Are you still going to tell me there’s no one out there?”

“……”

Helena couldn’t answer. All she could do was sink her teeth into her lip in silence.

The next moment, Benjamin’s big hand reached out and grabbed her chin and cheek.

Startled, Helena gasped sharply.

She tried to pull away from Benjamin’s grasp, but for some reason she couldn’t move at all.

With an unyielding force, he turned her face to his, forcing her to meet his gaze.

“Are you going to ignore me now? Don’t look away. This is your punishment.”

Helena struggled desperately to get his hand off her face.

But his hand was too big, too strong – she couldn’t shake it off, couldn’t move an inch.

It was as if she were chained.

And then his blood-red eyes – cold enough to send shivers down her spine – scanned her face, inch by inch.

It was as if the proof of her guilt was written in fine print across her face and he tried to read every word.

Helena’s face turned pale with humiliation.

“Let… go…!”

She had never been treated like this.

Even when she had been difficult, Count Winston had never laid a hand on her. The same was true of her stepmother, Mia.

They may have clutched their own chests in frustration, but they never laid a hand on Helena.

Backed into a corner, Helena didn’t bother to hold back the tears that threatened to well up.

Her eyes glistening, she shouted.

“You bastard! Let me go!”

But Benjamin Ishpern – he truly seemed to be a man without blood or tears.

Even as he looked into Helena’s tear-filled eyes, he showed not a flicker of sympathy.

Far from showing any compassion, his voice grew even colder, laced with menace.

“Don’t forget that today is our wedding day. If you run now… it’ll only be harder next time.”

That pathetic threat made Helena’s tears vanish in an instant.

Her expression began to twist with growing anger.

“Let go of me. If you don’t, I’ll scream and call for help.”

“Then I’ll ask them to look for the man who fell from your balcony. Miss Helena – Lady Winston – stop trying to run away like a coward and just tell the truth.”

‘Coward?’

‘Did he just call me a coward?’

Helena’s green eyes blazed with anger.

Gritting her teeth, she shouted.

“Fine! Yes, Crown Prince Rufus was here! He turned up out of nowhere – what was I supposed to do?”

Benjamin, who had been staring at her with a gaze colder than anything she’d ever known, finally let her go.

Helena covered her face with her hands and gasped for breath.

Her cheeks throbbed with pain – probably from the soft inner flesh pressed too hard against her teeth – and she could taste the metallic taste of blood in her mouth.

Benjamin Ishpern kept his eyes on her as he turned and walked to the balcony, slowly opening the window.

There was no one there.

Helena hurried out onto the balcony and looked down.

Apart from a neatly trimmed shrub that had been crushed, there was nothing else to see.

It seemed that Rufus had been lucky – he must have landed on the shrub and got away safely.

Helena let out a long sigh of relief, her hand pressed to her chest.

“Haa…”

The sight grated on Benjamin’s nerves.

If the Crown Prince had come of his own accord, as she claimed, then she shouldn’t have opened the window.

And she certainly shouldn’t be standing in front of him, visibly worried about the intruder.

Benjamin stepped up beside her.

The balcony was so narrow that Helena had to lean against the railing.

In front of her eyes, he slowly ran his fingers along the edge of the railing.

A smear of Rufus’s blood spread across the surface.

At the sickening sight, Helena quickly turned her head away.

Benjamin’s bloody hand touched her cheek.

“I see now how forgiving you really are.”

The sensation of that sticky, bloody hand caressing her face made Helena’s shoulders shake violently.

Looking into her face, Benjamin spoke in a deep, cold voice.

“But from now on, I suggest you behave more appropriately. I have no desire to witness anything like this ever again.”

***

The wedding of Helena Winston and Benjamin Ishpern was as grand and elegant as two noble houses of such prestige could be.

With his long black hair slicked back neatly and dressed in his formal wedding attire, Benjamin Ishpern recited the vows in his soft, pleasant voice.

“And so, as Lord of House Ishpern and steward of the great land of Burwood, I vow before God and our two honourable Houses to go forward as wise and faithful partners – husband and wife, united in body and soul.”

As she listened to the vows read by the man who would become her husband, Helena thought to herself:

To be unhappy with a political marriage was probably quite common.

Marriages arranged to avoid scandal or for money weren’t unusual either.

But how common was it for the arranged partner to turn out to be insane?

Helena’s lips trembled as she took Benjamin’s vows.

Then, slowly, they began to move.

“I, Helena Winston… take you, Benjamin Ishpern… as my husband.”

As the words left her mouth, she felt her not-so-long life flash before her eyes like a reel of memories.

“…I am grateful that the life I will now live with you will be longer than the days I lived without knowing you.”

She had been naive. Arrogant.

“I vow to always respect you… and to be a loving wife.”

Crack.

Forcing herself to say what she didn’t mean, Helena accidentally bit the soft flesh in her mouth.

It was then that Benjamin spoke her name.

“Helena.”

Helena stared at him, her eyes burning.

‘What, you bastard.’

She had never felt such hatred in her life.

Benjamin Ishpern.

A penniless nobleman with nothing but a pretty face – and now marrying her just to get his hands on her dowry.

If that were the case, he should have worshipped her like a queen.

Instead, he had bought into some unfounded rumours that were circulating in the capital and treated her like a reckless, debauched woman – utterly ruined.

Her searing stare, full of burning contempt, was met with a smile.

That twisted smile – the one she had once, foolishly, thought was beautiful – curled back into Benjamin Ishpern’s lips.

“Thank you.”

Then he slowly raised his hand and touched Helena’s cheek.

“I, too, vow to love only you for the rest of my life.”

But to Helena, that vow sounded like a declaration of war: “We’ll be locked in a battle for the rest of our lives.”

Pull yourself together, Helena.

She turned her gaze back to the marriage vows.

There was no turning back now—the wedding was happening, no matter what.

‘Benjamin Ishpern, right now you probably think everything is going exactly the way you want it to. But there’s one thing you don’t know.’

‘That I am Helena Winston.’

‘Let’s see how long that smug smile lasts. Bring it on.’

There was something he didn’t know.

She wasn’t some unfortunate woman forced into marriage, driven by scandal and loaded down with a dowry.

She was the Empress’s spy – married to him for the sole purpose of uncovering the secrets he was so desperate to hide.

And one day, when Benjamin finally opened his heart to her, she would wait. She would endure.

Then, at the very moment he would trust her completely, she would rip his secrets from him, down to the last speck of dust.

With fierce determination burning in her chest, Helena recited her wedding vows aloud.

“…And so, as Lord of House Ishpern and steward of the great land, I vow before God and our two honourable houses to go forward as wise and devoted partners – husband and wife, united in body and soul.”

Even as she spoke the vow aloud, Helena was making a very different promise inwardly.

‘You’re dead. I’m going to find out every last secret you’re hiding, and I’m going to drag you straight to hell. If I have to endure you to do it, so be it. And when the day comes that you’re crying and begging for forgiveness, know this: I won’t spare you a drop of mercy.’

As her silent vow ended, the priest finally spoke.

“By the will of the heavens, I now pronounce you husband and wife.”