It was embarrassing, humiliating, and shameful, but I had learned that one should definitely apologize for things that were not right.

So it was quite a courageous apology that Nocturne Lavernia managed to utter.

However, when no response came for a long time, he slowly opened his eyes that he had tightly shut.

Serena was staring blankly at Nocturne Lavernia.

Her indifferent gaze showed not a hint of expectation, affection, sorrow, or hurt.

It was just dry.

So dry and arid that even a parched desert would seem better in comparison.

“Is that all you have to say?”

“…What else?”

“Then I’d like you to move aside, I need to pass.”

‘That was less of a deal than I thought.’

Serena thought as she slightly relaxed the tension she had been feeling.

She had been worried about what to do if he started another argument.

“Wait, wait. You’re just going to leave like that?”

It was Nocturne Lavernia who was taken aback by Serena’s words.

Serena frowned slightly at Nocturne Lavernia’s retort.

“What else?”

“You’re just going to leave like this?”

“Is there a problem?”

“I apologized!”

Nocturne Lavernia raised his voice in disbelief.

A slight crease appeared between Serena’s brows at Nocturne Lavernia’s words. She couldn’t understand what he wanted.

“You said you had something to say to me, and I listened.”

“Yes! When someone speaks to you, you should give some kind of response. Just leaving like this is…”

“…What do you want me to do?”

Serena blinked once and asked back.

“Surely you’re not expecting me to accept your apology? Or wanting to hear that it’s okay… something like that?”

Serena spoke casually.

After all, Serena was still hurting from the wounds he had inflicted on her.

It often came to mind at night, and when she was alone, it would surface and make her choke up more times than she could count.

So, she had no reason, no obligation to add anything to an apology that was forced out.

“I heard what you had to say, but I need to go see His Majesty now, so I’d appreciate it if you’d move aside.”

“Why do you always… act so selfishly without considering others’ feelings?”

Nocturne Lavernia asked with a distorted expression, his fists clenched tightly.

Serena merely frowned at Nocturne Lavernia’s behavior, still not moving aside and continuing the argument.

“You’re not listening to my apology, my words, or anything I’m saying! You didn’t even apologize for the trouble you caused with the accident you caused! And to Father, you shamelessly…!”

“Why should I listen to your apology?”

Serena asked Nocturne Lavernia, who was venting his frustration.

Drukan frowned as he watched Serena’s expression grow increasingly stern.

‘I think it would be better to take her away.’

It didn’t seem like the immature person in front of them would move aside.

‘Everyone has their own circumstances.’

If he had just observed properly from the side, he would have noticed that something was different, but because he never properly observed from the side, they kept misunderstanding each other every time they met.

“What more do you want me to do? I said I wouldn’t appear again.”

“But you did appear!”

“You know when I visit the Imperial Palace. If you don’t want to see me, you should avoid me.”

Serena tried her best to speak calmly.

After all, she just wanted to maintain her composure, get through today safely, and fall into Magnus’s arms.

Whether human warmth was like a drug or not, Serena reflexively sought out Magnus whenever she felt anxious.

“Soon, when His Majesty recovers, I won’t have any reason to come here, and I won’t see you again.”

Serena didn’t want to be swayed by Nocturne Lavernia anymore.

She didn’t want to do as Nyx wished, nor did she want to cause trouble for Magnus.

‘It’s already a headache trying to uncover whatever this Darkness is…’

She didn’t want to add another troublesome issue.

‘I should also request access to the Imperial Library from the Crown Prince.’

The library in the Imperial Palace was the most extensive in the empire, so there might be information she was looking for.

Anyway, for these reasons, Serena didn’t want to cause any trouble or commotion today.

So she didn’t feel like engaging in further conversation with Nocturne Lavernia.

“I’ve agreed to do everything you wanted, so I don’t understand what you’re dissatisfied with.”

Serena truly thought so.

She couldn’t understand.

He had told her not to appear before him, and she had agreed to do so. She couldn’t agree to go out and die, after all.

“Or do you have something else to say to me besides telling me to die?”

“That’s…!”

Nocturne Lavernia’s eyes widened as he bit his lip, his fists still clenched.

“I said… it was a mistake. I said I was sorry.”

“So you have nothing more to say?”

Serena asked once more to confirm, hoping he would stop holding her back.

“…So you’re just going to leave without accepting my apology?”

“I don’t see why I should accept it. I don’t know how terrible and bad of a person you think I am, but…”

Serena slowly opened her mouth while looking at those eyes that seemed somewhat wronged and sorrowful.

“I’m human too.”

Serena clenched her fist.

“Serena. Sometimes, if you don’t acknowledge it, you can’t move forward.”

Remembering Magnus’s words, Serena admitted this fact out loud for the first time.

“You were lonely. You’re still lonely. You’ve been hurt too much, so you don’t want to be hurt anymore.”

“It’s not okay. It’s not that I don’t care about others’ pointing fingers. It’s just that it hurts too much.”

Everything she thought was fine wasn’t fine at all.

Nocturne Lavernia’s words were wounds.

She understood that the person who used this body had done wrong, and that her young sibling had been hurt because of it.

But even so, all those words were wounds to Serena.

“You’re not okay. You’ve been hurt too much. You’re just too tired.”

It’s not okay.

Magnus was right. People don’t usually stay under the covers for days and days just because they heard one bad thing.

They don’t need the warmth of others because those words keep coming back to mind, making daily life difficult.

Usually, even if they fall once, they look around and somehow get up on their own.

But Serena couldn’t do that.

“You’re just so used to enduring alone that you just went under the covers and endured it alone.”

“……”

So she had been lying to herself all along that she was fine. Because she had to be fine.

“I was hurt too, and I was struggling too. I understand that you were hurt. I also understand that you’re saying those things because you want me to be hurt too.”

Serena spoke as calmly and quietly as she could.

“That’s why I agreed to do everything you said. But I don’t understand why you keep stirring things up.”

Serena said softly.

She blinked slowly and then let out a slow sigh.

Nocturne Lavernia couldn’t remember the last time he had such a normal conversation with her.

And somehow, the content made his heart feel tightly squeezed.

“I just…”

“They might be a precious family to you, but to me, the Marquis’s household…”

Serena slowly lowered her eyes.

“It was no different from living as a freeloader in a stranger’s house.”

She uttered words she had never spoken out loud before.

She felt that if she didn’t, this terribly unpleasant exchange would continue.

“So I don’t understand why you’re so angry. We didn’t have any particularly deep relationship or interaction, did we?”

“……”

Listening to Serena’s story, Drukan thought he could understand how she had been embracing such a massive evil energy.

“It’s all rotten and decayed. It wouldn’t be strange if she died at any moment or went berserk at any time. It seems she even made a mistake in contracting with a monster.”

Suddenly, Drukan recalled what his wife had said.

The person known as Serena Lavernia was just rotten from the inside.

Rotten, rotten, and rotten again.

It just didn’t smell rotten, so it wasn’t noticeable, but it seemed like being even alive was already at its limit.

‘…Is it really okay to let her live?’

Isn’t living actually more of a hell for her?

Serena was in such a mess that even Drukan, who had decided to save her, momentarily had such thoughts.

She seemed to have been rotten for a very long time.

To the extent that unless she deceived herself into believing it wasn’t true, it would be unbearable.

‘It’s quite old…’

It was clear that things had been accumulating like sediment for a very long time, to the point where even she herself couldn’t notice.

Drukan suddenly turned his head slightly at the gaze he felt from behind, and frowned slightly.

Marquis Lavernia had been standing there for who knows how long.