“There might be many people better than you, but I like you.”

“……”

“Among those numerous women, you caught my eye.”

Serena held her breath at Magnus’s words.

“I like your dishonest side and I like how you avert your gaze and blush when I say I love you.”

“W-What are you suddenly saying……”

Serena asked with wide eyes, flustered.

Of course, Magnus didn’t back down.

“I like how you make eye contact and converse with me, and I like how you squeeze your eyes shut but still fall into my arms when I ask for a kiss.”

Magnus spoke slowly, but not tediously, as if he was chewing each word carefully.

As if each word he uttered should properly lodge itself in Serena’s ears.

“I like how you sleep comfortably only in my arms and how you seek warmth by coming to my embrace. I like that you’re not afraid of me.”

“……”

“If you need more reasons, I can tell you more. I like how you come up with interesting ideas and I like your ability to immediately execute what you’ve decided to do. And……”

“E-Enough. S-Stop it.”

Serena said, covering her eyes with the back of her hand. It was a sight that perfectly matched the saying ‘covering your eyes and pretending it’s not there’.

Even that looked quite lovable, making Magnus feel a bit foolish about himself.

“I don’t know why you keep belittling yourself as ‘someone like me’, but……”

Magnus raised his hand and interlocked fingers with her other hand.

She twisted her body as her bare face was exposed under the moonlight, but Magnus didn’t let go.

Now that he had caught this opportunity, it would be troublesome if he didn’t correct this bad habit.

‘It would be troublesome if she keeps thinking like this and suddenly flies away one day.’

If only she were a bird.

Then he could put shackles on her ankles to prevent her from flying away, and she wouldn’t complain.

“So when you talk like that, it makes me feel bad. No one can treat what I cherish carelessly.”

“……”

“Even if that happens to be yourself.”

Serena’s face turned bright red, and eventually, her eyes reddened.

“You are enough. I like you because you’re you. Serena, don’t ask ‘why do you like someone like me’.”

Magnus said.

“I just like you because you’re you.”

Hearing those light words, tears fell drop by drop down Serena’s cheeks.

She seemed flustered and tried to pull her hand away, but Magnus was faster.

He lowered his body with their hands still interlocked and lightly licked her tears with his tongue.

“W-What are you doing, it’s dirty……”

Serena shook her head. But her hand, held gently but firmly, showed no sign of breaking free.

“Let me say this clearly. I will not abandon you.”

“……Even if I kill someone?”

“Yes.”

The answer came without hesitation, more straightforward than expected.

His eyes showed no wavering. Serena’s gaze trembled, not expecting to hear such an answer from him.

“Of course, you should be prepared to wear an ankle shackle or two at that time.”

“……What?”

“I said, you should be prepared to wear a shackle or two.”

Serena’s eyes trembled.

‘There was no mention of Magnus von Kelahinum being a madman who would even imprison someone……?’

He was not the type to deliberately keep someone alive to torment them. He would just kill them if he had to.

Perhaps interpreting my trembling gaze in some way, he smiled faintly.

“Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you. After all, it’s not easy to cover up murder, so it would be difficult to do it more than once.”

What’s with that tone implying he could cover up at least one murder?

Since when was that possible?!

Seeing Serena’s wavering pupils, Magnus kissed her tear-stained cheek.

“No, do you like me that much to go that far?”

Serena couldn’t believe it.

‘While calling me a pig in a pigsty?!’

She really couldn’t believe it.

‘While dangling me by the scruff of my neck like that?!’

It was closer to being unable to believe it, in fact.

“No.”

“……”

This time too, the answer came plainly.

It came plainly, but this time it’s too plain to be a problem.

Shouldn’t you say yes this time?

“……Huh?”

“Not to that extent.”

“……What then?”

Serena frowned.

“But, I will probably fall for you more and more each day as I meet you. More than now.”

Magnus said calmly.

“By the time you cause trouble, I’ll end up wanting to solve it somehow.”

“……”

“Because I’ll come to like you more tomorrow than today, more today than yesterday……”

Magnus gazed at Serena for a moment, then lightly bit her nape.

Serena’s body shuddered.

It didn’t hurt, but perhaps it tickled a bit from embarrassment, as she slightly blushed.

“In the end, what I said won’t be a lie.”

“……Really.”

Serena had never heard such strange words before.

A promise that mortgages an uncertain future.

She asked, biting her lip and tensing her eyes while still shedding tears.

“What if your feelings change eventually?”

“That won’t happen.”

“Why are you so confident?”

“My intuition never fails.”

It’s a promise with no real foundation to trust.

Nevertheless, Serena somehow wanted to keep hearing those words.

She wanted to believe those words.

“……You’re strange.”

“The strangest one would be you.”

Magnus said bluntly, but he released their interlocked hands and gently stroked her cheek, wiping away her tears.

“You must have been lonely.”

Magnus’s arms lightly embraced her.

He lowered his body and pressed it close to hers.

“You were lonely, hurt, and didn’t want to be hurt anymore.”

“……”

He hugged Serena tightly.

The warmth touching her body was so comforting that Serena unknowingly reached out and tightly grasped his clothes.

“Serena.”

“…Yes.”

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

“……”

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

Magnus casually brought up what she had been avoiding all along.

Serena’s expression darkened a little at the feeling of having her insides exposed so nakedly.

It was even more so because those were words she didn’t want to hear in this way.

“You need to acknowledge that first. You were lonely.”

She was lonely.

Despite living three lives, it was lonely having no one around.

Even when it was hard, she had no one to talk to, and when she was in pain, there was no one to come to her.

Even if she tried to justify it by saying it was the life she had chosen to live, it was still painfully lonely at times.

“You’re not okay. The pointing fingers of others don’t not affect you. It’s just that it hurt too much.”

It hurt.

It hurts to death.

Even knowing it wasn’t directed at her, it still hurt.

But because she couldn’t get what she wanted without pain, and because there was never a time in her life when she wasn’t in pain, she thought it was natural.

She thought she was a steel human who would never be hurt, that it was enough to just ignore it.

She had lived brainwashing herself like that.

Serena’s expression contorted.

She didn’t want to have this confirmed while being held in someone else’s arms like this.

“I’m fine.”

She once again uttered the words she had always said to herself.

“You are not fine.”

“……”

Magnus firmly contradicted her.

“You’ve been hurt too much. You’re just too tired.”

“……”

“Now I understand why you were listless for a while.”

Serena’s body stiffened at the touch of the hand patting her back.

Seeing Serena stiffen as if unfamiliar with the touch, Magnus frowned.

‘How on earth did the Marquis of Lavernia raise her?’

Come to think of it, Serena had been a very nonchalant, mature child for quite a long time.

If she had become that way because she was rotten to the core since then, and then returned because she didn’t even have the energy for that anymore, it’s somewhat understandable.

“You’re just too used to enduring alone, so you just endured alone under the covers.”

“……”

How can you talk as if you know everything?

What do you know, really?

Serena bowed her head deeply, suppressing the urge to shout those words.

You don’t know anything.

Yet, because the warmth was comforting, Serena burst into silent tears.

Seeing Serena swallowing her sobs without making a proper sound in his arms, Magnus hugged her tightly.

‘…It’s frustrating even for me.’

If only she would cry out loud, it wouldn’t be this uncomfortable.

After a long while, Serena gradually stopped crying.

“Serena.”

He said, slowly kissing her tear-stained, flushed cheeks and lips.

She nodded slowly instead of answering.

“If you’re okay with a bit of stimulating comfort, how about it?”

Magnus slowly sank his teeth into Serena’s nape and gently chewed.

His palm lightly pressed on her wrist and slowly moved up.

It’s a gesture with subtle implications.

“How about entrusting yourself to me for one night?”

He whispered in her ear with a gentle voice.

Yet his eyes shone fiercely like a beast’s, and his voice felt more ominous.

However, it’s not threatening.

“……Ha, you’re really the worst……”

Serena said gruffly.

“So, do you dislike it? As I said, I won’t force……”

“If I disliked it, you would have been slapped already.”

Serena said, looking directly at him.

Magnus felt the heat gathering in his lower abdomen and kissed her lips with a chuckling face.

Again, the heat returned.