Fireworks embroidered the night sky like huge flowers, then scattered dazzlingly. The thunderous noise shaking heaven and earth, fast-tempo dance music played with matching intensity, boisterous laughter, the continuous clinking of glasses, and endless congratulatory words.

Everitt entered the castle, leaving all that commotion behind. His heart was beating as if it might burst. Before heading upstairs, he hurriedly gestured.

“Mirror.”

The head servant brought a mirror, reflected him, and added:

“Perfect, Your Grace.”

Everitt peered into the mirror with a slight frown, displaying a need to confirm with his own eyes.

His sculpture-like face that enchanted both men and women, along with his ice wall-like cold expressionlessness, was a powerful weapon that placed him in an advantageous position in any situation. Normally, there wouldn’t even be a need to tidy up like this in front of a mirror. A slightly disheveled collar or fallen bangs would only add to his decadent charm.

But today, that usual coolness was nowhere to be found on his face. His eyes sparkled like stars, his cheeks somehow looked flushed, and the corners of his mouth were rising uncontrollably.

“Grinning like this makes me look like a complete fool.”

Everitt grumbled as he held his perfect jawline with his fingertips, turning it this way and that. But he simply couldn’t hide the expression that resembled a teenage boy facing his crush.

“Still, I can’t keep her waiting any longer.”

Though he said that, it was Everitt himself who couldn’t wait any longer. He sighed and meticulously groomed his already perfectly maintained appearance once more.

This was a moment when he had to look perfect. The wedding ceremony had just ended, and his bride was waiting in the bedroom upstairs.

After looking in the mirror one last time, he climbed the stairs. The staircase seemed endless yet simultaneously too short. His hand opening the bedroom door was uncharacteristically hasty.

“Ah…”

Everitt couldn’t help but gasp at the sight that greeted him as soon as he opened the door.

Early autumn night. The air warmed during the day hadn’t fully cooled, carrying a subtle warmth, and the faint moonlight illuminated the silhouette standing by the window. The moonlight caressed the snow-white skin and seemed to ripple into the pure white dress, vaguely outlining the woman’s silhouette. Her hair, adorned with pearls and diamonds, reflected the light, shining with an undeniably lovely pink hue.

Bella Carta. No, now Bella Myers, Duchess of Windswell.

Today, Bella had exchanged marriage vows before the priest, changed into several glamorous dresses throughout the reception and party. Yet the bride waiting for him in the bridal chamber was wearing the pure white dress she had worn first.

The attire from the moment they pledged unchanging love and vowed to belong only to each other for life. She was waiting for him in that appearance. Even the delicate veil that had covered her face remained exactly as he had flipped it back to deliver the vow-sealing kiss.

Perhaps that’s why, though it was the same attire, during the day it had merely been dazzlingly beautiful, but now it was sensual enough to tear his heart apart. Even if she stood completely n*ked without a single thread, she couldn’t be more *rotic than this.

Bella turned to look at him at the sound of the door opening. Was it his imagination that the bright smile on her lips seemed slightly shy today?

“Everitt.”

A sweet voice flowed as her plump lips parted. Even though she had only called his name, he felt as if his entire body was melting.

Everitt approached Bella in a trance-like state. She raised her blue-gray eyes to look at him. Those moist eyes that always made him want to thr*st into her and make her cry… He felt he would gladly tear out his heart for a taste of those tears of pleasure and joy.

But no matter how wildly his heart raced, he couldn’t carelessly touch Bella.

Everitt knelt on one knee before Bella.

“Bella Myers.”

Calling her by her new name sent a thrill through his entire body.

Bella was no longer a Carta. She was now subordinated to his name. He had attached a human name to a goddess, pulling her to his side. Completely his, bound by the same name.

Whether she knew his dark inner thoughts or not, Bella offered her hand to him with a smile that seemed to melt. It was endearing that she extended her left hand, not her right. Everitt couldn’t help but smile. He took that hand and kissed the wedding ring he had placed on her fourth finger.

It was the ring passed down through generations to the Duchess, engraved with the family crest. With this, everything Everitt owned simultaneously became Bella’s possession.

“I can’t believe you’re my wife.”

“…Me neither.”

Everitt had lost Bella on the last day of summer a year ago, and only recovered her nearly half a year later, at the end of winter.

Everitt was truly mad then. Though he didn’t show it in front of Bella, as soon as he turned around, he was restless and engaged in all sorts of machinations, afraid of losing her again. He firmly confined her so she couldn’t escape from his arms even for a moment, while acting as if he respected her freedom as much as possible. So that she wouldn’t realize she was trapped.

Bella acted as she pleased, but in reality, she had never escaped his grasp wherever she went.

Thanks to this, the madness in Everitt’s eyes gradually subsided as he spent time with Bella. What filled its place was initially anxiety, and as time passed, warmth was added.

Who would have thought that Everitt, who had been the very idea of the cold northern Grand Duke like an ice wall, would come to look at her with eyes full of love? Anyone who knew the previous Everitt would surely be surprised and suspicious.

‘But now…’

Bella looked up at Everitt’s eyes and gently bit her lip.

The madness he had hidden was revealed again in those two red eyes looking down at her. Just like that summer a year ago. Because he couldn’t have her, yet wanted to. It was a desperate look of wanting to completely capture her as his own and imprison her forever, while simultaneously becoming the only one belonging to her. A look that suggested he would defy even death for her.

Just a moment ago when he entered the room, he had such a gentle gaze. But the well-suppressed madness had resurfaced.

‘Yes. As soon as I called his name.’

Just by her calling his name, he had revealed his inner expression. A thrill ran down Bella’s neck. Just seeing that gaze made her breathless.

One of the reasons Bella couldn’t forget Everitt, even when she was being betrayed by the male leads one after another and losing love, was precisely that gaze.

She hadn’t realized it at the time. She wasn’t in her right mind as she was being taken by various men in turn, and Everitt had also tried to force himself on her.

Only after spending the winter alone did she realize. He had never once overlapped Bella with the princess. From the first day of summer, without missing a single moment, the person he wanted was only Bella.

That gaze wanting only Bella, not anyone else, even her soul. Everitt was out of his mind for fear of losing her love to another man.

She had already seen all his emotions when she was lying mentally incapacitated.

Since she didn’t respond to external stimuli, Everitt became more honest. He couldn’t hide his joy when Bella seemed to be improving even slightly, and on days when she looked unwell, he sat by her bedside and couldn’t leave. After she got out of bed, he couldn’t show himself for fear of upsetting her, yet couldn’t stay away either, secretly visiting in the middle of the night just to gaze at her endlessly.

Twisted obsessive love kept sparking like a flint, and eventually the fire spread to Bella’s heart as well.

‘I never knew being loved by someone would feel like this…’

She didn’t know. She had immersed herself deeply in otome games because reality wasn’t easy, and even while playing games, she only loved the male leads without receiving love in return. She did experience love by identifying with the princess, but strictly speaking, that wasn’t love she herself received.

Yes. While playing the game, she had poured out one-sided love through the screen.

It was natural that she lost her mind from the physical love she unintentionally received after coming to this world. And that her heart had fallen for a man who looked at her without overlaying someone else…

There was no way she could resist. Even if it was rough and twisted, even if it was excessive obsession.

As Everitt’s burning red eyes thoroughly licked over Bella, her entire body seemed to tingle. Love tinged with madness filled her completely.