“Don’t you already know? Olivia owes me a debt, and she’s in the process of repaying it.”

“So you collect debts with people’s bodies?”

Alois’s leisurely smile gradually disappeared from his face as he dealt with Lime. Slowly crossing his legs and tapping his fingers on his knee as if playing a keyboard, Alois looked up with a chilling gaze. So there was another reason he had impatiently rushed over, abandoning all courtesy.

On the train? Or after returning to the mansion? He wasn’t sure when Lime had noticed, but throughout his heat cycle, they had literally been stuck together like beasts knowing nothing but mating, so it wouldn’t be strange if Lime had accidentally encountered some scene.

“I don’t care what you saw that got you so excited and made you rush over here, but you’re overstepping.”

“I suppose being cursed and staying in your mansion makes playing with a person amusing to you, so you……”

“Who’s playing with whom?”

“Isn’t that what you’re doing? She has a debt to repay to you, so you’re just keeping a person around to do whatever you please with her.”

Alois slowly rose from his seat and strode toward Lime. Despite Alois approaching with a face so cold it sent chills, Lime didn’t back down. By now, he no longer cared about who the duke was or what debt existed between them. His mind was filled only with the thought that he needed to rescue Olivia from this monster’s clutches as soon as possible.

“Judging by your expression, you look like a prince going to rescue a princess kidnapped by a monster.”

“What?”

“But I told you before. I didn’t kidnap Olivia; she entered my world.”

“So you’re saying all of this was Olivia’s choice?”

Lime laughed incredulously and stared into the distance to suppress his anger. His shoulders shook roughly as he barely managed to hold back his boiling emotions.

“Who do you think you’re fooling? Even if it was Olivia’s choice, what difference does that make?”

“……”

“Even if, huff, even if Olivia liked you and chose this herself, how does that change what you’ve done? If anything, playing with someone who likes you makes you even more despicable.”

Though it was painful to admit that Olivia liked Alois, Lime didn’t run from reality. If anyone in this world had observed Olivia for the longest time, it was him, and if there was a reason why the Olivia he knew would endure such pain to stay by the duke’s side, there could only be one explanation.

Lime had already figured out that she might be staying by the duke’s side of her own will because she liked him, even without the duke telling him. It was too obvious. But Lime’s reaction, accepting this fact so easily, confused Alois.

“I’m asking you right now, not Olivia. But you haven’t properly answered anything. If you had answered that you were lovers when I asked what your relationship was, even though your relationship seemed dangerous and unhealthy, I would have tried to understand.”

If she likes him and they’re having relations, but they’re not lovers, what exactly does this relationship leave Olivia with? Besides the fact that she liked someone, Lime was most worried about her getting hurt and suffering.

“Whether you hate humans or not isn’t my concern, but just as you don’t want to get hurt by humans, I can’t stand by and watch my sister get hurt by someone else.”

“What a touching familial love.”

“Instead of stringing someone along with an ambiguous relationship and making a fool of them, why don’t you stop this inappropriate game?”

“You sound like quite the protective guardian.”

Hit right on target with each of Lime’s words, Alois tilted his head and pulled up the corners of his mouth. Despite his face smiling in a gentle curve, each word he uttered was as cold as frost.

“Why should I listen to such advice from you?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Olivia is my only family and……”

At the word “family,” Alois snickered demonstratively. Like someone who couldn’t hold back laughter anymore because it was too funny, he covered his mouth with his hand to suppress the erupting laughter, then let out a big sigh.

“I find it hard to believe that you truly see Olivia as family.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I didn’t like the way you looked at Olivia from the beginning.”

“……”

“If you’re truly here out of pure familial concern, have you never had any s*xual fantasies about Olivia? That seems unlikely……”

Alois’s gaze slowly scanned Lime from bottom to top. His tightly clenched fists, twitching jaw, and trembling eyes that he couldn’t hide.

“You’ve dreamed of it, haven’t you? Dreamt of being in a relationship with her, one that isn’t family.”

For a moment, Lime couldn’t breathe and closed his eyes tightly. A vision he couldn’t escape no matter how much he tried to run away. The honest desire containing his sincere wish that he had hidden and concealed because he didn’t want to acknowledge it.

The day he witnessed the passionate lovemaking between Olivia and the duke, Lime had rushed into his room, unable to calm his pounding heart. Seeing Alois roughly handling Olivia and biting her all over had been shocking, but even more so was the sight of Olivia moaning beneath him, spreading her legs, and shuddering in ecstasy while crying—it was too, too much……

Horrifyingly, he felt a bulge between his legs. His p*nis, er*ect beyond his control, grew increasingly in size. No matter how hard he tried not to imagine it, Olivia’s image kept appearing before his eyes. The vivid imagination surpassed reality and gradually transformed into something else.

In Lime’s imagination, the one Olivia smiled at and embraced n*ked was not the duke but himself.

‘Hmm, Lime.’

He pushed his tongue between her lips as she called his name with a smile, and kissed her repeatedly under her bursting laughter. Knowing how sensitive and ticklish Olivia was, he gently removed her clothes one by one and carefully ran his hands over the white nakedness hidden beneath.

She squirmed and smiled shyly at his light touch, and he kissed her neck, sucking in her fragrant skin to leave red marks blooming all over her body. He buried his face in her soft br*asts and……

“Shut up.”

“Does she know? That this so-called brother is looking at her while having such dirty thoughts?”

It was indeed a dirty fantasy. He had controlled her in his imagination solely to fulfill his own desires. Gripping his own c*ck and calling Olivia’s name while moving his hand busily, Lime had spilled hot white liquid onto his hand with a brief climax. He didn’t even want to recall the despair he felt then.

“Don’t misunderstand. I’m not ashamed of my feelings. Fine, since you insist, I’ll admit it.”

But his disappointment and regret came from having used, even in imagination, the person he loved merely to satisfy his lust—at least Lime wasn’t ashamed of his feelings of love for her.

Gritting his teeth and glaring at his feet with reddened eyes, Lime slowly raised his head. His nape burned with the shame of having his embarrassing side exposed, and he shot Alois a hard look, like someone who had made up his mind.

“Honestly, I would have been fine remaining by her side as just an ordinary brother for my entire life.”

“You’d stay by her side for life, hiding your feelings? You overestimate yourself.”

“But thanks to you just now, I’ve changed my mind.”

Though it was Lime who had his shameful side exposed, strangely, Alois felt his own heart growing anxious. His clear eyes, showing no sign of wavering or confusion about his feelings, glared at Alois. For a moment, Alois thought those eyes resembled Olivia’s, and he had to feel a deep sense of defeat.

“If my interference is overstepping as a brother, then from this moment on, I’ll protect Olivia and approach her properly as a man, not as family.”

“……”

“Fortunately, I know more about Olivia than you do, so I’m not at such a disadvantage.”

It was a proper declaration of war. Despite knowing that Olivia liked Alois, Lime willingly declared that he would fight him. Faced with this unexpected boldness, Alois couldn’t say anything and had to let Lime pass by.

The animals that had scattered around the duke, who remained frozen in place, cautiously gathered around him one by one.

— Master?

“How, how can it be so easy for him?”

Honestly acknowledging his feelings, and trying to face them proudly even while foreseeing his own pain—these were things Alois could never do.

Once again, he confronted the fact that he was an utterly shabby human being. Despite having been raised more nobly than anyone else in a high position, he was still just an inadequate and weak human who only knew how to whine.

Following Olivia, when he had put down the high walls he had built around himself and stepped forward, what he faced was a portrait of his own pathetic self.

Alois, who had been about to retreat, forcibly stopped his steps. Olivia’s voice, telling him not to worry about other things and to bring her the answer she wanted, held his heart again. Frowning, Alois buried his face in his hands.

The self he had just confronted was so unsightly that he wanted to run back inside, but he still forcibly tied his feet in place and made his eyes look straight ahead instead of constantly trying to look away.

He properly looked back at the path he had walked.

“Alois!”

Olivia, who had woken up late and was looking for the missing Alois, came running from far away. His eyes, buried in his hands, were swollen and red with an inexplicable heat. Olivia gently stroked his eyes and furrowed brow.

“Who made you sad again?”

Alois took her gentle hand, which seemed to ask if she would fight for him, and kissed the tips of her fingers. As he looked into her wide, surprised eyes, his expression wavered as if he were about to cry—but he managed to smile.

“I won’t retreat anymore either.”

There might still be a long way to go before finding the answer she wanted, but he vowed never to be the first to retreat again. Knowing that Olivia would be waiting for him to come to her, Alois decided to move forward, even if slowly.

Having received a declaration of war, he couldn’t just stay complacent if he wanted to protect her.