“Elliope!”

Kallian shouted, feeling the woman in his arms grow colder with each passing moment.

“Elliope, what is this…?”

As warm blood gushed out, his body shook and he held her even tighter.

“Please, please! Elliope!”

This wasn’t what he had wanted.

As he entered the funeral hall and faced Theodor, now a lifeless corpse, the same overwhelming sense of emptiness consumed him again.

This was not what he had wanted.

As he stepped into the funeral hall and faced Theodor’s lifeless body, that crushing sense of emptiness consumed him once again.

In the end, even if he hadn’t been the one to kill him, this would have been Theodor’s inevitable fate. A man of no real worth – and yet he had spent all this time and effort chasing after his death. A deep sense of futility weighed on Kallian, choking him with the realisation of how meaningless it all had been.

What was left for him now? What reason did he have to go on?

And in that moment he understood –

That part of the reason he hadn’t been able to kill Theodor himself, despite everything, was because he was afraid.

Afraid of losing his purpose.

But the moment Elliope spoke with an uncharacteristic cynicism…

Something changed.

“I heard he overexerted himself while indulging with pr*stitutes.”

“That’s not the cause of death I heard.”

“It seems there’s someone here who knows even less about His Excellency the Duke’s affairs than I do.”

They were words he never expected to hear from her – words that would never have come from the woman who always kept her gaze lowered in silent submission.

“You must be in pain.”

“Are there any people in the Duchy who wouldn’t be?”

“Well, you’ve always been loyal to him, haven’t you?”

“…….”

“No matter how much he humiliated you or cast you aside… just like me.”

The moment those words reached his ears, a heat rose in his throat.

“You too.”

He should have known.

That you, too, would say something like that.

That you, like me…

The moment he realised the wine had been drugged with an *phrodisiac – when Elliope leaned against him, laughing softly – his gaze went straight to her.

When he saw the fire in her eyes, an uncontrollable heat surged through his entire body.

“Will you come to hate me?”

Would she resent him for using the *phrodisiac as an excuse to take her?

And yet he couldn’t stop.

Ruben’s words – seize the opportunity – clung to his mind, refusing to let go.

But to his surprise, she didn’t push him away.

Instead, her body already burning with heat, she welcomed him willingly.

“Ha… hhk… ngh… haah… ah…!”

“You certainly have a lot to say, Your Highness.”

“Ah… ahh…!”

“I always thought you were the quiet type…”

As he held her, a lump kept rising in his throat, threatening to choke him.

Kallian’s eyes drifted to Theodor’s coffin – the wretched, insignificant man who had died so easily before he could even lay a hand on him.

He should have done this from the start.

“If I had known… that your body could burn this hot.”

The words slipped out on their own.

“I would have taken you from the beginning.”

“Ugh… ugh…”

“D*mn… not that filthy bastard Theodor of Ilmos… but me.”

As Kallian spoke, he realised that this was what he had wanted all along.

From the moment he had first seen her standing there, dazed, in the wedding hall, he had wanted to take her hand and lead her away.

From the moment he had first seen her standing there, dazed, in the wedding hall, he had wanted to take her hand and lead her away.

When he had seen her in the Duke’s chambers, covering herself, leaning precariously against the wall, looking at Theodor of Ilmos with desperate eyes – he had wanted to pick her up and take her away.

Sometimes he wished she would look at him the way she looked at Theodor.

He wanted to ask: Aren’t you tired of this? Aren’t you tired of being treated the way I am?

He wanted to take her in his arms and run away to the ends of the earth.

To leave behind all his helplessness, his guilt, the crushing weight of responsibility and a life spent killing his own desires.

And just when he thought that wish had finally come true –

Elliope collapsed, coughing blood.

“Cough…!”

“Elliope!”

The blood flowed endlessly. Far too much for such a small body.

Her black dress absorbed all the blood, darkening with each passing moment. The pale skin of her chest, where his handprints had lingered, was now a deep red.

His hands shook violently.

“…A phy…”

He wanted to call for a doctor, but his throat tightened and he couldn’t speak. A deafening pressure filled his head, making it hard to breathe.

“…Elliope.”

No response.

He shook her body again and again, and when blood suddenly spurted from her lips, Kallian thought for a moment that she had begun to breathe again.

But he was wrong.

It wasn’t a return to life, but the final release of power from a lifeless body – the blood that had gathered in her throat simply flowed out in her last moment.

Her warm blood splashed around, brushing against Kallian’s face, leaving a fading heat in its wake.

Her soft, pale green eyes gradually lost their light.

And in that moment, he saw the fragile yet ever-present soul within her slowly disappear.

“…Why?”

Through the splitting pain in his head, Kallian took in the sight of Elliope’s lifeless body.

Why. How. Why.

“Why did you…?”

A lump formed in his throat.

Even without ingesting any poison, he felt as if his insides were twisting, forcing the blood out of him. It was as if all the emotions he had suppressed for so long were now returning to finish him off.

For the last time, Kallian let his gaze fall on the engraving of the God of Death.

And there, in a corner of the carving, he saw traces of them – Elliope and himself – scattered like fleeting remnants, gradually fading into time.

A truly humiliating mockery.

“I deserve this treatment.”

The gods deserved it too.

The gods who had never answered a single prayer.

A bitter laugh escaped his lips.

Slowly, his consciousness began to fade.

***

When Kallian realised he had returned, the first thing he did was to seek out Elliope. 

Whether it was a blessing or a curse, he had returned to a time just before Elliope entered the Duchy. 

‘If that was the case…’ 

He needed to know if she was still alive and well. Part of him wondered if all those years had been a dream. 

If only they had been. 

If only that moment when she had grown cold in his arms had never been real. 

Blocking the road by triggering an avalanche was not difficult. Like a hunter stalking his prey, he held his breath and watched. 

Soon, the imperial carriage arrived. 

And the moment the door opened, revealing her once more— 

“…….”

A wave of deep relief and overwhelming emotion washed over him. He stared at her with an almost desperate need to penetrate her mind.

‘Why?’

Was it so unbearable to be with him that she would rather die?

She stood before him in a black dress, her face pale as she met his gaze.

The moment he saw those eyes –

And the black dress she was wearing

Kallian felt it immediately – she too remembered their past life.

Grief and sorrow flickered in her eyes, clear and unmistakable.

But he couldn’t bring himself to ask why she had chosen death.

Because he was afraid of the answer.

Afraid that she would tell him that she truly despised him.

Afraid that she would reject him before he had a chance to bare his heart.

And so when he arrived at the remote hut, fully prepared to take her away if necessary, she said.

“I don’t want this.”

“…….”

“I don’t want this.”

She was the first to say those words to him.

“If you want, I can even tell you how to kill Duke Ilmos.”

“I know how to kill him.”

When she said this – when she declared that she would not become the Duchess – he had masked his reaction, but inside he had been thrilled.

So he asked her one last time.

“Are you prepared to accept this?”

“…….”

“You, a noble Imperial Princess who could become a Duchess – would you really choose to be the wife of a mere bastard knight?”

Elliope said she would.

Not only that, but she tried to seduce him.

And it was a temptation he could not resist.

But in that moment, he failed to claim her.

When he touched her, when they became one, tears of pain streamed down Elliope’s face.

“Why?”

Kallian could never truly understand what was in Elliope’s heart.

He couldn’t tell if she found joy in their union or if it only caused her pain.

Even when he bought her a pink dress to remind her of her former life, only to change his mind and replace it with a black one.

Even after he took her to the ducal estate –

His observation and scrutiny never ceased.

In her previous life, she had often looked at Theodor of Ilmos with eyes that yearned for love. There was no guarantee that she wouldn’t do the same in this life.

“If you change your mind…”

If she returned to Theodor von Ilmos in the end.

But she never did.

In the end, he married her and gave her no chance to regret it on their first night together.

After the disastrous failure in the cabin, he had decided to ask Ruben for advice on how to properly take a woman.

And so, although it was their first time, it was not really their first time.

A paradox that made the experience all the more intense.

He had never imagined that the raw act of claiming her body, exploring her softness, burying himself deep inside her to stir her delicate core would give him greater pleasure than defeating an opponent on the battlefield.

It felt like he was trapped inside her body.

As if the one trapped was not her, but himself.

He could not let her go.

If she said now that she really wanted to be with Theodor, he wasn’t sure if he could take it.

“But if you’ve decided to do this…”

“Then use me.”

“Not Ilmos – make me your loyal dog instead, my wife.”

When he told Elliope to use him to bring down Theodor, he meant it.

He wanted her to crush Theodor with her own will.

To erase him completely.

Before her heart could soften to Theodor again, he had to disappear in the most horrible way possible.

It would be even more perfect if she were the one to end him herself.

“And those who disregarded her as well.”

Anything that could influence or hurt her had to be wiped out for him to be at peace.

That included the Kartan Imperial Family, who had once backed her into a corner.

Yes, they were the ones who had sent her to the Duchy of Ilmos, so their paths had crossed.

But it was clear that the Emperor and the rest of the royal family would not stop pressuring Elliope.

They would urge her to divorce him and reunite with Theodore,

to complete the mission in Princess Leanne’s stead.

“There can be no room for that.”

He refused to allow the Imperial family to plot the annulment of his marriage to Elliope.

Rather than see such an outcome, it would be better to overthrow the Imperial Family altogether – or eradicate it altogether.

“Dylan.”

“Yes, Sir Kallian.”

“Let us begin our coup.”

As Kallian spoke these words, Dylan smiled brighter than ever, just before their departure for Elsen, the land he had been granted as viscount.

Kallian slowly turned his gaze to Elliope, who had just finished preparing to board the carriage.

“If my wife wishes it.”

He wanted to end it all before she had a chance to change her mind.

He wanted to let her do whatever she wanted, while making sure she saw him as her best choice.

The anger and hatred towards Theodor that had never fully ignited in their past life now burned fiercely – along with a desperate determination to remove any possibility of Elliope’s escape.

It was a fire ready to consume all.