‘Just now…?’ 

Elliope doubted what she had just seen. She stood there, her mouth slightly open in disbelief. 

Kallian quickly smoothed his expression, the strange glow in his eyes disappearing as if it had never been there. His face returned to its usual calm and cold expression. 

‘It must have been my imagination.’ 

Why would he have any reason to be pleased with her refusal to become the Duchess? There was no logical explanation. 

Elliope spoke plainly, without hesitation. 

“I would rather be captured and returned countless times than become the Duchess.” 

“Even if you are brought back each time?” 

“If I run away dozens, even hundreds of times, eventually both His Grace the Duke and the Imperial Family will grow tired of me and abandon the idea altogether.” 

“……” 

“That’s why I made that proposal to you, Sir Kallian.” 

Kallian undoubtedly understood exactly what that proposal referred to. 

Remembering the humiliating failure in the hut, Elliope let out a bitter laugh. It had been a failure born of desperation and haste. 

Just then Kallian’s voice broke through her thoughts. 

“Wasn’t it you who reconsidered after trying it with me once?” 

Elliope was taken aback for a moment. She couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth. 

“You, sir… you’re the one who…”

Before she could continue, his deep, grating voice cut her off, like the sound of steel scraping against metal. 

“Then you still feel the same way?” 

“…” 

“What you said to me then… do you still mean it?” 

He was clearly referring to her desperate plea in the hut when she had begged him to take her as his wife. 

At that point she had no intention of denying it. She had already revealed far too much to him – far more than an ordinary young lady would dare to show a knight on their first meeting. Every layer, every vulnerability, laid bare. 

Elliope replied in a slightly shaky voice.

“Of course.” 

“…….” 

She stopped and took a deep breath. The reflection in the mirror caught her eye – a woman who looked like a porcelain doll, almost finished with her adornments. 

“…But that’s all in the past now.”

She added quickly, her tone firm yet cautious. It was a deliberate attempt to avoid provoking Kallian, whose feelings had obviously changed. 

“I have come to realise that I have behaved inappropriately towards you, sir, and…” 

Before she could finish her sentence, her perspective suddenly changed. 

“Ah!” 

Her jaw tightened, cutting off her words as she stared into the mirror. 

“…….” 

Before she realised, Kallian had approached, his hand now gripping her waist as his dark eyes bore down upon her. 

Her reflection in the glass – a woman cornered by a towering, menacing man – sent an eerie chill through her. It reminded her of that funeral, the oppressive weight of danger and inevitability pressing down on her. 

For a moment, her sense of reality seemed to blur, leaving her momentarily stunned. 

Then Kallian’s voice, deep and almost growling, broke the silence. 

“So it’s become something that never happened.” 

There was a hint of anger in his tone, though she couldn’t tell why. Elliope blinked, unable to respond immediately. 

‘So you’re saying it something that never happened?’ 

But how could that be? 

She remembered the man who had refused her in the hut when she was ready to go all the way. The same man who had said nothing after that and had silently taken her to the Duke’s estate without so much as a hint of his thoughts or feelings. 

‘Hadn’t he told me not to make him out to be a r*pist?’ 

Hadn’t he already abandoned the plan they had hatched together? Wasn’t his decision to bring her here merely an act of acceptance of fate? 

Given all this, Kallian’s current reaction came as a complete surprise to Elliope. 

As she froze, Kallian loosened his grip on her jaw and murmured softly, his voice brushing against her ear. 

“So now you’re taking it back.” 

His low tone sent a shiver down her spine, like sweet syrup dripping directly into her eardrums. 

A sharp sting flickered on the ring finger of her left hand, quickly spreading into a fiery heat that seemed to engulf her entire finger. It was as if an oil-covered hand had suddenly caught fire. 

Startled by the intense heat, Elliope’s hand shook involuntarily. 

“…….” 

It was only when she looked down at the stinging pain in her finger that Elliope realised what had happened – Kallian had bitten her. 

“Sir?”

She called out, her voice tinged with a mixture of confusion and unease. 

Kallian’s gaze remained fixed on her, his eyes so dark they were almost navy blue. Her finger was still trapped between his crimson lips, his teeth biting down almost to the base of her ring finger. 

For a fleeting moment, a terrible thought struck her.

‘Is he going to bite it off?’ 

A shiver of fear ran through her as the thought became more vivid. 

Would he be punishing her for her sins – luring him into betrayal, urging him to defy his master in the hut? 

Or was it for her more recent transgression, whispering once more her desire to escape? 

The loyal dog of Ilmos might well see fit to sever her finger in retaliation. 

It was a ridiculous thought, of course. But at the moment, amidst the suffocating tension and sheer absurdity of the situation, it seemed all too plausible. 

The tension in Kallian’s taut neck and jaw, the sinews sticking out with sheer force, the sharp, predatory gleam of his white teeth and fangs pressing against her skin – it all seemed to confirm her worst fears. He was poised like a beast about to tear into its prey. 

But what happened next was not what she had expected. 

“……!” 

Kallian, still holding her ring finger between his teeth, suddenly wrapped his tongue around it and pulled it into his mouth. 

“Sir!”

In an instant, the heated, moist touch of his inner mouth caressed her slender, delicate finger. His tongue, powerful and unyielding, began to roll against her skin as if to expose it. She could feel the texture of the tiny ridges on his tongue with startling clarity. 

“Kallian…” 

Her voice trailed off, the formal title she was about to utter left unfinished. Her breath caught as she struggled to process the overwhelming and utterly unexpected sensations. 

Kallian’s blatant act of sucking on her finger was like a dog playing with a bone as he chewed and savoured her hand with almost playful intent. 

It wasn’t painful or rough, but the sensation was excruciatingly ticklish and strangely disconcerting. The nerves in her fingertip sent waves of tingling through her body, even reaching her lower half. A heat began to build between her legs, an involuntary reaction she couldn’t suppress. 

“Ugh…” 

Slurp. 

Wet, obscene sounds echoed as Kallian continued to savour her finger, his mouth enveloping it completely. 

Somehow this felt far more humiliating than standing n*ked in front of him. His relentless, meticulous exploration of her fingers with his lips and tongue left her completely exposed in a way she couldn’t comprehend. 

“Ah…” 

It was only dry skin, coated with a little oil, yet he treated it as if it were a honeyed fruit, licking and nibbling at every joint with an obsessive precision that left her breathless and embarrassed.

Finally, Kallian bit down hard where her fingers met her hand, then teasingly ran his tongue between her fingers one last time before finally releasing her hand. 

Her finger, now slightly swollen from the rush of blood, was slick with saliva. Elliope stared at it in shock, momentarily forgetting to wipe it clean. 

What startled her even more was the faint imprint of teeth marks on her skin – exactly where a ring would rest, as if to replace one. 

“Back in the hut, you made me a promise, didn’t you?” 

His voice, though subdued, as if his anger had been smothered, was still deep enough to send a shiver down her spine. 

“If you really have no intention of becoming the Duchess…” 

He left the unfinished thought hanging in the air, his tone laced with an intensity that made her heart pound.  

It wasn’t long before Kallian’s gloved hand reached out and gently wiped her wet finger. Although the saliva-soaked finger was quickly cleaned, the bite mark remained in the same place. If anyone were to look closely, the mark would be obvious.

“Keep your promise, Your Highness.” 

“…….” 

She knew instinctively which promise he meant. 

Kallian slowly pressed his lips to her ear. 

“Tell them I took your purity in front of everyone.” 

“That’s…” 

The words That’s not true never left her lips. Kallian’s hand rested gently on her waist, where an untied ribbon hung loosely. 

Just as he had done in the hut, Kallian began to tie the ribbon into a neat knot. 

“If you really mean it.”

“…….” 

“Then say it.” 

The red glow of the candlelight in the room seeped through her ear, deepening the blush that was already there. Kallian’s lips hovered so close to her ear that she could feel their warmth. 

Just as Elliope opened her mouth to respond, the moment was shattered. 

“Your Highness!” 

Emma burst into the room in a nervous rush. 

Kallian’s warmth withdrew from her as quickly as it had enveloped her, as if it had never been there. His hand, still resting lightly on her waist, slid gently down her side to avoid Emma’s gaze, sending a tingle down her tailbone. 

“I brought as many as I could! Fortunately, the Imperial Palace had prepared some jewellery…” 

“And so?” 

“Yes! Considering the colour of Your Highness’s hair, I think these gems would be most appropriate…”

Emma quickly approached, opened the jewellery box and began to hold various pieces up to Elliope to see what they looked like. She seemed completely unaware that she was being asked to help the other maids with the Duke’s estate. But despite Emma’s busyness, Elliope couldn’t help but notice Kallian standing silently in a corner of the room.

“It’s time to go.” 

At the appointed time, Kallian approached as if nothing had happened and held out his hand. 

“All right.” 

Taking his hand, Elliope tried to block out the sound of her heart pounding in her ears. 

The knight, now wearing his usual calm and collected expression, showed no sign of having whispered such words to her earlier. His face was so calm that she felt she had imagined the whole ordeal. Yet faint bite marks on her fingers rested against his arm, undeniable proof that it had all been real. 

Instinctively, Elliope curled her fingertips and resisted the urge to rub the marked finger with her other hand. She stopped herself, afraid that the action would draw attention to it. 

She was confused. Why was he ready to accept her proposal now?   

A voice echoed through her mind again. 

“Damn it, not that dog Theodor von Ilmos, but me…”

Could Kallian hate Theodor that much? 

Perhaps he found satisfaction in the idea of stealing the Imperial bride meant for Theodor. Elliope had seen how Theodor delighted in taking other men’s wives, reveling in the idea that their choice of him over their husbands was proof of his superiority. 

And yet, once stolen, these wives were discarded as quickly as Theodor grew bored with them. He would then set his sights on new women, continuing his cycle of indulgence and constant humiliation of Elliope. 

‘Does this man have the same instincts?’ 

It was hard to associate such base desires with Kallian, the cold and stoic knight who claimed to dislike women altogether. But then again, who really knows? Everyone hides their darkest, most shameful traits. Just as she had hidden the fact that lately her dreams at night had been filled with… such thoughts. 

That brief, gleeful glimmer in Kallian’s eyes earlier – was it really an illusion? 

Her thoughts were suddenly shattered. 

“Her Royal Highness the Princess is eating.”