When Everitt lowered his gaze, his wavering eyes had settled. He opened his mouth with an almost expressionless face.

“My introduction was long. For your safety, I simply cannot leave you here alone. So I want to make one suggestion.”

“What is it?”

“Let me arrange a place for you to live.”

His attempt at being cool-headed was brief, as Everitt’s gaze crumbled again.

“In my castle… No, you wouldn’t like that. At least in the town inside the walls. Let me provide you with a mansion and guards. Please, Bella. You won’t have to run into me. You don’t have to say anything or do anything for me.”

He spoke desperately, his voice breaking with earnest supplication and heartfelt entreaty toward Bella.

“Just… occasionally. Very occasionally, allow me to see from a distance that you’re living safely. Just that would be enough for me to breathe in this world…”

To see you from afar occasionally. Wasn’t that what Bella had thought when choosing the Grand Duchy as her refuge?

Bella couldn’t help but laugh softly.

“Would you really be satisfied with just watching from a distance? Even if you couldn’t exchange a single word or even make eye contact?”

“Yes.”

“Yet in the summer palace, you tried to embrace me at every opportunity?”

At that, Everitt became flustered and rubbed his face.

“That… I was wrong, Bella. You don’t know how much I regretted it after you collapsed. When I heard what you said to Leon earlier, when everyone was gathered, I didn’t know what to do with myself. Not asking for your opinion. Not trying to hear your thoughts. And only trying to satisfy my desires… It was all my fault. Even though I claimed to love you, I didn’t even consider that you might not feel the same way.”

Wait, what?

Bella nearly screamed but covered her mouth. Everitt had bowed his head at that moment, missing her reaction.

“So I’m not shameless enough to say I want more from you here.”

“But wanting more is your true feeling. You just said so.”

“No, Bella, that’s…”

“But I don’t think I would be satisfied with that.”

“…What?”

When Everitt raised his head in surprise, he saw Bella with her face flushed red.

“I had thought it would be nice if I could just occasionally see you from a distance, perhaps riding a horse. But now that we’re talking so closely, I don’t think that would satisfy me at all. I think I’d want to see you closer, talk with you, and…”

“…Are you serious?”

Bella stood up. Leaving Everitt, who had reflexively stood up as well, she walked deliberately to close the door that Everitt had intentionally left open, then returned.

“And I want to kiss you, and also…”

“Wait, wait… Bella, Bella! Please, just a moment.”

“You never listened when I asked for a moment, did you?”

Bella wrapped her arms around Everitt’s neck and stood on her tiptoes. She tilted her head slightly and requested:

“Would you lower your head a little?”

As Everitt slowly lowered his head, Bella pressed her lips against his.

It was the first taste of his lips in half a year. They were warm and soft, just as in her memory. And inside, they were unbearably moist and supple.

Their tongues crossed lips and intertwined. The kiss, which had begun tentatively with tension, instantly became passionate. As Bella’s fingers dug into his hair, black as the night sky, she felt a tremor from the hand that gripped her slender waist. A groan escaped from Everitt’s throat.

“Mmh, Bella…”

He tried not to read too much into why Bella had closed the door. He also had to struggle to erase from his consciousness the fact that the bed was right behind her.

When Everitt, having thoroughly tasted her mouth, pulled his lips away, Bella gently opened her eyes, which she had closed. Her gray-blue eyes were moist.

“Every day, I’ve been having dreams. Nightmares.”

“….”

Everitt’s expression hardened, having seen past summers in his dreams. For him, they hadn’t been nightmares.

But Bella’s dreams were different.

“When I close my eyes, I return to the summer palace. Unclothed, surrounded by three men… And always, at the end, you appeared.”

“…Bella.”

“When you brandished your sword, I would wake from the dream.”

Bella buried her face against Everitt’s chest and whispered:

“I need someone to wake me from nightmares. Someone to remind me of reality and cover the nightmares. And finally, someone to make me stop having such dreams altogether.”

At that, Everitt held her tightly in his arms. As if to never let her escape from his embrace again.

“May I be by your side every time you wake up?”

Bella nodded as she embraced his broad back.

***

Footsteps outside the door drew closer. A measured stride that never seemed to hurry. Leon, gagged and tied to a chair, raised his head.

The person who opened the door was, as expected, Everitt Myers. With his usual cool expression, Everitt pulled up a chair and sat across from Leon.

“Leon Herbert. You didn’t heed my previous advice at all.”

Advice?

Leon glared at Everitt. They had never been on terms to exchange advice. Sure enough, Everitt tilted his head askew and continued.

“I carved it into your face so it wouldn’t fade.”

Shut up!

Leon shouted, but due to the tight gag numbing his tongue and lips, all that came out was a muffled growl.

Unable to contain his anger, he began to shake the chair as he continued to shout. Stop talking nonsense and untie me right now! You’ll pay for this!

Everitt merely raised an eyebrow slightly, quietly observing as Leon thrashed about with the chair. When Leon finally tired himself out, stopped shouting, and just glared at him while breathing heavily, Everitt spoke again.

“As Your Highness well knows, Miss Carta has a very tender heart. After all that torment, she ended it with just a couple of slaps and a few words.”

Everitt slightly curled the corner of his lips and rubbed his brow with his fingertip, adding:

“Well, thanks to that, I was forgiven too.”

She forgave him?

Leon couldn’t believe his ears.

Bella hadn’t forgiven anyone. She had clearly said she never wanted to see them again…

But he had no time to think deeply about it. It was because of what Everitt said next to Leon.

“Miss Carta needs someone to punish on her behalf. Of course, she doesn’t need to know that I administered punishment in her stead.”

Everitt arrogantly lifted his chin and crossed his long legs.

“It’s time to pay the price for insulting Miss Carta.”

His crimson eyes blazed like the flames of hell.

“You insulted her with your filthy tongue, and tried to violate her with your filthy c*ck. Choose. Which would you prefer?”

What?

“As the heir to a nation, think carefully about which one you’d like to keep. In my opinion, a king who cannot speak seems useless. Ah, but then again, a king who cannot produce heirs is equally useless.”

You madman!

Leon began to thrash about again. Everitt rose from his seat with no change in his expression.

“Don’t worry, I’ve called a doctor outside.”

Everitt drew the sword at his waist.