“Haah…….”

In the deep dawn, where the cold wind lashed without mercy, Delia bit down on her lip as she fled barefoot, not even realizing her shoes had slipped off.

For days now, she had done nothing but run, unable to eat a proper meal. Her vision swam dizzily. Barely clinging to her senses, Delia forced herself onward, running and running toward the mountain’s peak.

‘Delia, I truly love you.’
‘Because you are here, I am able to exist.’
‘I will make you happy for the rest of your life. So much that you will never regret marrying me.’

Lies. All of it was nothing but blatant lies.

Kallius despised her. He denied and loathed the very fact that he had married her—a daughter of his enemy’s house.

She resented him bitterly, the man who had turned every memory they shared into nothing but foam that vanished in an instant.

Once, she had loved him with all her heart. Now, only hatred remained.

Thinking of the man she had once loved, but now could only hate, Delia pressed forward.

But before long, the sound of pounding hooves echoed behind her, followed by a low voice calling out.

“Delia Hildebrandt.”

A voice low and chilling, as though it came from within a cavern.

Like a broken clockwork doll, she turned her head stiffly—and there he was. Kallius, mounted on a warhorse used for battle, his brow furrowed in displeasure.

After handing the reins to a nearby aide, he approached her.

From head to toe, clad entirely in black, he looked like a demon descended to earth.

“Let us end this game of hide-and-seek here.”

It felt as though a frigid blade had pierced straight through her heart. The fact that Kallius compared her desperate flight for survival to nothing more than a childish game filled Delia with maddening hatred.

“Do you have any idea how troublesome your behavior is? Why do you keep defying my orders?”

His gaze, calling her a nuisance, was colder than ever before. There was no trace of love in it—only a possessive hunger directed at her. Delia clenched her fists.

“It seems you weren’t worried about me at all.”

Illuminated by the torchlight, Delia no longer resembled a duchess.

Her mystical silver hair had been cut halfway through. The dress she wore was torn in several places, and red wounds marked her bare feet where her shoes had been lost.

Belatedly noticing her state, Kallius’s blue eyes wavered.

“What on earth happened to you…?”

Even if she remained his wife, nothing awaited her but ruin. She had not the slightest confidence that she could continue living beside a husband who neglected both her and the child in her womb.

“If you run from me, what do you intend to do? Once you cast aside your duke, are you not a lone woman with nowhere to go?”

“No. I do have somewhere to go.”

Ignoring Kallius’s outstretched hand, Delia took several steps back.

Watching her with a puzzled expression, Kallius’s eyes flashed sharply.

“What foolish trick are you trying to pull now?”

“I was a fool to love you. If this was how it would end, I should never have met you in the first place.”

“Do not take a single step from there. I’ll come to you right now!”

Only moments ago he had been condemning her, yet now his voice cracked miserably. Just as Kallius reached out in haste—

Delia slowly lowered her violet eyes.

“No, Delia—!”

Clutching the child within her womb, Delia slowly let the strength drain from her body.

Her hair scattered through the air as she fell, and Kallius’s despairing cry echoed after her.

To think that the man who had always humiliated her would wear such a look of utter shock.

Even with death before her eyes, a faint, pleasant smile curved her lips.

Holding in her gaze the husband she had once loved with all her heart—

Delia fell from the cliff.