Four years ago, Aurelia.

Old buildings, especially schools, always had at least one such place. A location students deliberately avoided, attached to some eerie ghost story.

Adeline stopped in front of a low stone structure at the garden’s edge where the foundation of an old observatory remained.

She was apparently invisible, because just ahead a male student had cornered a woman. It was Matteo von Regenstadt, Adeline’s fiancé.

“Come with me while I’m being nice.”

He roughly gripped the wrist of Anna, a lower-level administrator at Roenheim Girls’ Academy. Anna tried several times to pull her captured arm free but was overpowered.

“N-no. D-don’t do this, young master. Please?”

Anna’s feet caught on the stone floor as she was dragged, making her stumble. But Matteo didn’t stop.

“Y-young master, please. I’ll stay completely out of sight. I’ll really live like I’m dead.”

“Hey, cut the crap. How dare you try to ruin someone’s life.”

That’s when it happened.

“Regenstadt heir.”

Adeline’s calm voice wasn’t loud, but it was clear and distinct.

“Stop it. If you’re human.”

Even as she said this, Adeline sneered inwardly.

Ah, but he’s probably not human anymore.

In fact, calling him a beast would be an insult to beasts.

The moment his eyes met Adeline’s, Matteo’s steps came to an abrupt halt.

“N-no…”

Adeline approached the pair and, taking advantage of Matteo’s loosened grip, pulled the dazed Anna who was only shedding silent tears behind her.

“Go to my room, Anna.”

“Sob, sniff.”

After confirming that the sniffling Anna nodded and limped around the corner, Adeline turned back.

Matteo, who had gone beyond pale to an ashen gray, was tearing at his brown hair. He urgently raised his head.

“It’s a misunderstanding. A misunderstanding, Adeline. I can explain everything.”

Watching Matteo take a step closer, Adeline stepped back twice to maintain distance.

“Yes. Since you say you can explain, then please do.”

Matteo began pouring out words hastily, like her statement was some kind of salvation.

“That wench approached me first. It was completely deliberate. Someone clearly put her up to it. Otherwise, why would a mere maid have the guts to do something like this?”

Matteo tried to maintain a calm tone. But his voice, higher-pitched than usual, betrayed his urgency.

“It was a very calculated approach to trap me. That’s why I had no choice but to fall for it.”

Everything Matteo spewed, even his breath itself, was a continuous stream of repulsiveness. One wrong move and she felt like she’d vomit up last night’s fish dinner.

In truth, she already knew the full ugly story of what Matteo had done to Anna. Last night, before bed, Anna had suddenly come to see her.

〈At first I definitely said no. I pushed him away several times, telling him not to do this, that it wasn’t right… I should have just refused to the end…〉

Adeline couldn’t bring herself to blame Anna, who said she must have been temporarily insane, that she’d been blinded by the gifts Matteo gave her and couldn’t resist the temptation, and now carried her fiancé‘s child.

In fact, she’d never felt even a speck of affection for the man named Matteo von Regenstadt, and having already repeated numerous engagements and broken engagements, she didn’t attach much meaning to the existence of a fiancé, so she felt no sense of betrayal. She only felt disgust.

So Adeline, who pitied the girl toyed with by a beast in heat, had even promised to help Anna whatever decision she made about the child.

“Trust me, Adeline. For the sake of my honor, I’ll clearly reveal the truth and definitely put everything back in its place.”

Why hasn’t God shut that filthy mouth yet?

Matteo suddenly grabbed Adeline’s wrist as she prayed for lightning to strike the contemptible man.

“So please just give me one chance.”

Adeline’s delicate eyebrows, which had at least outwardly maintained composure, instantly contorted. She wanted to carve out all the skin on her captured wrist.

“Let go!”

But as Adeline, whose whole body broke out in goosebumps, roughly pulled her hand away, she ended up slapping Matteo’s face hard.

“…Huh?”

Matteo, born and raised precious as the heir to a ducal house and never having been hit by a woman, staggered for a moment. But before long he regained his balance while swaying and muttered.

“…It’s fine.”

The shock filling his flushed face bizarrely transformed into delight.

“If this makes you feel better, then by all means.”

Something horrible landed on Adeline’s shoulder.

“You can do more.”

“Get this off!”

Adeline had never experienced a more horrifying moment in her life. She reflexively struggled violently, but his sticky, claw-like hands clung and wouldn’t come off.

“Let go! D-don’t you dare think about touching my body!”

She barely managed to turn and collapsed on the stone floor. A stinging shock ran through her knee, making her grimace involuntarily, but escaping was more important right now.

The answer to crazy people is to avoid them.

Matteo hugged the screaming, struggling Adeline from behind.

“Calm down. Calm down, Adeline.”

“Cr-crazy, crazy bastard.”

It was so horrible tears nearly came out, and for the first time in her life she hurled profanity.

“That’s right, that’s right, Adeline. Calm down, it’s okay.”

Just as Matteo was gently soothing her while pretending to be affectionate—

From the direction of the cracked stone foundation, a voice thick with sleep, like someone just dragged from slumber, fell indifferently.

“…What a shitshow.”

It was a place they’d believed no one else would be. The two people, startled out of their wits, simultaneously turned their gazes in one direction.

“…”

The corner was already filled with gloomy energy and the air was cool, but now they even felt a hair-raising sense of dread.

From beneath the thick tree shade came a rustling sound of grass brushing. Then a black figure slowly rose.

Matteo too just stood there with his mouth hanging open stupidly, perhaps shocked that his vile behavior had been exposed to a third party.

“F*ck…”

Before long, a man with one eyebrow furrowed entered Adeline’s stunned field of vision.

Soon eyes that held a certain boredom yet radiated an unusually striking color turned toward Adeline.

The moment their eyes met, Adeline’s heart skipped a small beat.

…Belliche?

It was a face Adeline knew. They had no acquaintance whatsoever, had never even exchanged glances, but every student at Roenheim Girls’ Academy knew this man. Because of those vivid eyes that were hard to forget once seen.

Last month, Roenheim Girls’ Academy and Ehrenroth Royal Advanced Academy, which shared some grounds under the same foundation, held their spring joint event.

And Adeline and the other female students had watched a polo match on the first day of the spring festival.

〈Waaaah!〉

Watching the horses galloping across the well-maintained grass and the riders who’d become one with their horses, Adeline too felt a rare sense of liberation.

〈Yes! Left side!〉

〈Get a little closer!〉

Amid the chaos of massive cheers pouring from all directions loud enough to be deafening, someone caught the eye of Adeline, who’d secured a front-row seat in the stands.

It was the captain of the blue team, whose presence stood out even from a distance. The man wearing number 3 charged fiercely toward the goal and swung his polo stick, and soon the ball flying through the air lodged in the goal.

〈Wow! Well done!〉

It was truly a magnificent score that made the cheering crowd leap from their seats. Even Adeline, in an uncharacteristic display, rose from her seat.

Fortunately, Adeline wasn’t the only female student who stood up in excitement. Regardless of family status or gender, every student watching couldn’t hide their excitement.

Once seized, the momentum seemed to have no intention of passing to the white team. So when he received fierce concentrated attacks from the white team players, especially her fiancé, an involuntary “ah” of dismay escaped her.

But he didn’t fall despite interference bordering on fouls.

Even afterward, Adeline couldn’t take her eyes off number 3 driving his horse at full speed. 

Each time he swung his stick, his solid body lines showed even through his uniform, and especially when he bent his waist low, his thigh and calf muscles stood out prominently, rivaling the white horse carrying him.

Running like a painting, he was like a black horse. A beautiful black horse with a glossy jet-black mane.

Beneath eyelids narrowed against the pouring sunlight, eyes bluer than the clear sky. Lips curving refreshingly upward with each score.