If Maria lost even a hand or foot because of her, she couldn’t bear it.

Perhaps because she had experience working for the countess at the Count’s estate in the past, Daphne had seen countless maids swept away like fallen leaves by their employers’ whims. She had experienced it herself too.

Upon becoming the duchess, she had made one resolution while watching the maids who served her.

Even if she couldn’t treat them intimately, at least she would make sure they never suffered because of her.

But that resolution had crumbled twice because of him.

Daphne was conflicted.

“Daphne, I don’t have much time. You know that.”

Astaire quietly urged her.

The silence was increasingly pressuring her. Daphne knew too.

What Astaire wanted right now.

“You want this?”

Daphne grabbed Astaire’s nape and recklessly pressed her lips against his. Their noses collided slightly, then soon found the perfect angle and twisted together.

“Not like that, like this.”

Astaire corrected Daphne’s clumsy posture, holding her cheeks and kissing her more properly. It was a deeper, more intense kiss.

Daphne didn’t avoid Astaire binding her. She stayed quietly in his embrace.

How much time passed like that?

Finally, Astaire released her lips.

Acting like he had never been so affectionate and intimate, he withdrew from Daphne mercilessly.

Daphne felt something that had filled her heart drain away in an instant like low tide.

It was more than just a feeling of emptiness. What was this feeling? She couldn’t name it herself.

Astaire slowly rose from the bed.

Daphne had actually thought he would naturally cross the line. Something beyond kissing. What they had done many times before.

Though to Daphne, it was merely a humiliating act.

“Is this all you’ve got?”

Astaire looked down at Daphne with disappointed eyes, then twisted his lips and sneered at her mockingly.

Her heart sank. The shock felt like he was pushing her off a cliff.

“Pathetic.”

Astaire pulled his disheveled cravat taut.

“If you’re going to do it, do it properly. Don’t half-*ss it.”

Speaking coldly, Astaire closed the door and left.

Daphne remained alone in the middle of the bed, hugging her knees.

Tears flowed endlessly from her eyes.

Even after leaving Daphne, Astaire headed somewhere without stopping.

The underground dungeon of Duke Seyfried’s estate.

The endlessly spiraling staircase seemed like a passage leading to hell.

The dim light of candles along the wall illuminated the damp stone floor of the stairs, but nothing could be seen below.

Yet Astaire walked without hesitation, like he knew exactly where he was going.

When he finally reached the bottom of the spiral staircase.

Astaire stood before the prison.

Damp stone walls bearing traces of long years surrounded all sides. The iron bars were rusted and on the verge of crumbling. Darkness settled densely, obscuring the view.

The entire space felt heavy, like someone’s long years had been carved into the stone walls.

Thud, thud, thud.

Astaire deliberately made noise as he walked. Then the iron bars rattled, as though someone inside the prison was moving.

“Are you doing well?”

Even when Astaire asked in a leisurely voice, no answer came back.

Clank, creak.

He unhesitatingly inserted the key and opened the door.

In the corner of the prison, Maria could be seen with an iron ball chained to one ankle.

Maria was drenched in sweat, her hair completely disheveled. Her face and limbs were covered with red scratches from resisting. Her scabbed red lips let out rough, wheezing breaths.

“Come to think of it, you haven’t eaten all day, have you?”

His tone wasn’t sympathetic at all.

After all, the very person who had imprisoned Maria was Duke Seyfried himself.

Maria said nothing, only rolling her eyes. Even that small action looked extremely difficult.

“Eat this.”

Astaire took out bread from his coat.

Savory, soft, sweet bread. The pre-meal bread that appeared on the ducal couple’s table every morning.

Both the smell and appearance were enough to stimulate the appetite of a prisoner who had starved all day.

Gulp—the sound of Maria swallowing seemed to reach Astaire on the other side of the bars.

Astaire held out the bread through the bars.

Maria approached the bars with a suspicious expression, wondering if she could really eat this.

The moment Astaire nodded for her to eat.

“Huff, huff, huff!”

Maria gasped for breath and devoured the bread frantically.

Astaire watched until the end.

He went to sit heavily on an old sofa in the corner.

When Maria finally finished the bread, Astaire leaned close and murmured quietly.

“How is your master, the Second Prince?”

Maria’s pupils dilated instantly. Her scabbed lips parted, revealing blood again.

Astaire calmly held out ointment for her lips while continuing to speak. He willingly answered what Maria was curious about.

“I’ve also planted my people around the Second Prince.”

His voice was chilling.

Maria couldn’t even apply the ointment, shaking her head with a pale face.

“So according to the information they gave me, I heard your four younger siblings live on Berserk 4th Street.”

Thud.

She dropped the ointment she was holding.

“Since you’re busy working at the duke’s estate, I hear the neighbor Mr. Jeremiah takes care of your siblings.”

Astaire knew Maria’s circumstances inside and out, like he had lived with her.

Maria finally broke down.

She knelt and began begging through tears.

“I’m, I’m sorry. I was wrong! What did my siblings do wrong!”

Astaire smiled silently in the darkness.

If anything was wrong, it was having immature and foolish siblings by blood.

“Don’t worry.”

But the man offered comfort. He picked up the ointment Maria had dropped and continued.

“If you just do as I say, your siblings will be safe. And they’ll be able to live without lack, if not abundantly. They’ll attend proper schools, and won’t need to fill their bellies by picking up food scraps from the streets anymore.”

“Is… is that true?”

“Yes. I promise on the name of Duke Seyfried.”

Astaire placed his hand over hers, which gripped the iron bars until they turned white. Maria’s hand was cold like a corpse.

“But I need to gain something too, right?”

“Yes…”

“Defect, Maria. Then you can live. Your siblings too.”

In other words, it was a threat.

A threat that meant if Maria didn’t abandon the Second Prince, Astaire wouldn’t leave Maria and her siblings alone.

Maria, realizing the duke’s true intention, began hiccupping in terror.

“…Hup.”

“It won’t be difficult.”

“What, what kind of work?”

“You just need to monitor the First Prince’s movements.”

Maria gasped sharply.

Except for the few familiar with Avont Empire politics, most nobles and commoners who only got news from newspapers believed Astaire and the First Prince had a close relationship.

Not knowing what tectonic shift was occurring between them now.

“You can do it, Maria. Right?”

Astaire pressured her quietly.

Gulp—Maria, swallowing hard, finally nodded.

Even if she couldn’t, it was a situation where she had to answer that she could.

* * *

Daphne woke at dawn from her sleep.

Her face, briefly touched with her fingertips, was swollen from crying too much. There was no need to look in a mirror. Even the soft silk pillow was damp with her cold sweat.

Daphne sat up and curled into a ball again.

“I want to leave…”

She muttered alone in a hoarse voice. But before falling asleep, she had realized she was confined in her bedroom.

Rattle, rattle, rattle.

No matter how much she pulled the doorknob, the door wouldn’t budge. Even when she pounded on it hard enough to break it and shouted, there was no response from the other side.

“Is anyone there?”

The first emotion that wrapped around Daphne was anger. Then frustration, and finally resignation.

“If you’re there, please at least answer… please.”

Now Daphne had given up everything.

She had to stop even trying to leave Astaire.

In the process of obtaining the freedom she craved, Daphne confirmed that innocent people got hurt. Then tremendous frustration covered her like a tidal wave.

She wanted to collapse and cry like a child. But perhaps because of emotions that broke long ago, she couldn’t.

Drip, drip—her cheeks just grew damp like heavy rain pouring from a dark gray sky. When she opened her mouth, only screams that didn’t sound like her own voice flowed out.

“Sob, sob, sob…”

Someone please help me.

I was wrong.

About everything.

She remembered that time long ago when she was locked in the storage room at the Count’s estate by the countess’s order. She sobbed quietly, then clamped her mouth shut.

I wish I could just die like this.

But even the act of dying was something she couldn’t do as she pleased in her current situation.

While she briefly slept, someone must have come by—all potentially dangerous objects had been removed from the room. The window was also firmly closed, not budging, like someone had tampered with it.

“I can’t breathe…”

Being trapped in a sealed space was more than enough to drive someone mad.

“I want to die.”

Of course, being the duchess’s bedroom, the room was spacious and comfortable. But because of that, she felt like she would suffocate to death in the desolate, cold air.

“Is anyone there…?”

Eventually Daphne wept bitterly, suffering from loneliness. Still, no one answered.

The sturdy door of the duke’s estate would never open.

Bang, bang, bang!

At first, she pounded the door hard enough to break it. But by the time blue bruises formed on her arms and hands, she knocked weakly, almost like a polite knock.

“Please… someone just answer me.”

Her desperation naturally went unheard.

In the end, Daphne had no choice but to spend time lying like a corpse on the bed where she slept every night.

Through the firmly closed window, she watched night turn to dawn.

She could barely feel that time was passing, that she was alive.

Rain poured outside the window.

Rumble, crash!

The sound of thunder roared somewhere. It was so loud the house seemed about to collapse.

The sounds outside were so loud and booming, yet that wooden door remained firmly closed and wouldn’t open at all.

Eventually Daphne gave up completely.

She spent an entire day trapped in her bedroom.

The second day too.

The third day too.

Daphne couldn’t meet anyone.

It was a complete isolation from the world.

Even during confinement, meals came regularly.