‘…He pushed me away.’

He pushed her.

Constantine pushed Saena away.

Shocked, Saena couldn’t sleep until dawn.

Though she lay in bed, she spent the night with her eyes wide open. When she finally dozed off briefly, she had a dream.

『Go ahead.』

『Yes. Call me anytime if you need me, Duchess. Our compatibility is killer, you know.』

『Alright.』

That day when she discovered George Hollander and Elizabeth’s affair.

『Vulgar bastard.』

Elizabeth’s unfamiliar curse.

That day when she was frozen in shock, not knowing what to do.

Thinking back, that wasn’t the end of that day’s memory. The dream continued, awakening memories of what happened afterward.

At that time, while she was standing frozen like a statue after discovering the affair and that Elizabeth was involved, there was a presence that awakened her.

Hiss– tap. An unfamiliar sound.

She wasn’t alone below the terrace.

As Saena turned around startled, an unexpected person entered her view.

『Ah.』

Elizabeth’s husband at the time.

Back then, he was just her distant friend’s husband with no other connection to her, but there he was. The man was looking down at her with indifferent eyes while smoking a cigarette.

『……』

『……』

On the terrace below, the wife of the man who committed adultery and the husband of the woman who committed adultery met.

The man’s expression was so casual it was almost indifferent to the point of being heartless.

Looking back at the past memory in her dream, Saena thought.

What an inorganic gaze…

Since meeting Constantine, Saena hadn’t received such a gaze, making it feel rather unfamiliar, and because of that, the man in the dream seemed like a stranger.

『Are you alright?』

『…Pardon?』

『Your complexion is pale.』

His tone asking about Saena’s complexion was so detached from the situation that she blankly looked up at him.

After staring dumbly at the man’s face that showed no trace of any kind of emotion, Saena flinched and lowered her gaze.

In fact, the man was of too high a status for Saena to face directly like this.

Seeing her bow her head and lower her eyes silently, perhaps misunderstanding something, the man took something from his pocket and held it out.

It was a white handkerchief.

Saena accepted the handkerchief in a daze but then flinched. As soon as she grasped the clean white handkerchief, drops of blood seeped in, staining it red. She now noticed her palm was bleeding.

It seemed she had scratched her hand against the wall earlier when she hurriedly hid below the terrace. Unfortunately, there had been climbing plants growing along the wall.

However, the emotional shock had been so severe that she hadn’t even noticed her palm was scratched.

『Ah, I’m sorry. The handkerchief…』

Blood stains wouldn’t come out easily, what should she do…

Looking at the expensive-looking silk handkerchief getting dirty in an instant, Saena at that time first worried about the money.

『You’re not crying.』

The man said while exhaling cigarette smoke, with a face that showed he didn’t care what happened to the handkerchief. His tone suggested surprise.

Had he offered the handkerchief thinking she was crying?

『You don’t seem to have known about it before.』

『……』

Saena somehow let out a hollow laugh.

She had known for a while that her husband was seeing other women. She was just shocked to find an unexpected person among them.

Ironically, that fact was more shocking than her husband’s infidelity.

This man must be in the same position as her, but what did he mean by that? She didn’t know how to respond.

『I…』

She opened her mouth but still didn’t know what to say. Finally, Saena let out a small sigh and apologized.

『…I’m sorry.』

Though it was her husband who had the affair, she didn’t know why she should apologize, but Saena apologized anyway.

The other person was too important. He was someone who could ruin her entire family tomorrow if he wanted to.

But that wasn’t the only reason for the apology. Somehow the words of apology just slipped out.

『Hmm… Son of a b*tch.』

『…Pardon?』

『D*mn bastard, f*cking bastard, piece of sh*t.』

The man muttered curses while looking at her with a dry expression.

Surprised by the sudden string of curses, Saena looked at him, but he spoke with the same expressionless face.

『Come on, repeat after me.』

Then he suddenly told her to repeat it.

What on earth was he doing?

『Is it too intense to start with?』

『……』

『Then, hmm. Bad bastard.』

The man kept looking at her with urging eyes, as if telling her to hurry and repeat it.

『Holding it in too much can make you sick.』

『……』

『It’s not much, but sometimes cursing helps a bit, don’t you think?』

Ah, he meant for her to curse at her husband.

Though he deserved to be cursed at, Saena had never cursed before. Naturally, she had never cursed at her husband either.

Would it… really help a little if she cursed?

Saena stood blankly for a while before slowly opening her mouth.

『Bad, bad bastard…』

And then,

『Bad…』

…b*tch.

“Kyang!”

The memory in the dream began to fade. The curse word crumpled the scene, and a sharp voice suddenly burst out, scattering the curse.

At that moment, Saena suddenly opened her eyes.

‘…Bad… kyang?’

Waking from the abruptly and strangely concluded dream, Saena blinked for a moment.

‘Ah, what a strange dream…’

Ah, why did I dream something like that? Was it because of the cursing?

Though it was a strange dream, it made her feel emotional again.

‘Come to think of it, I did have some direct contact with him in my previous life too.’

Back then, he was cold. His blue eyes were like ice. But looking at those same blue eyes in this life, she didn’t think she had ever found them cold.

‘But yesterday…’

Remembering his gaze that had grown chillingly subdued, her chest felt heavy too. Whether from lack of sleep or not, her eyes felt sticky, and Saena pressed her palms against them several times as she turned to lie on her side.

Then she felt something licking her forehead.

‘…Lick?’

“……!”

Saena startled awake and sat up abruptly.

“Kyang!”

“Wh-what? Y-Yolly?!”

Yolly was awake.

“Kyaang!”

He barked while spinning in circles in his spot like he was chasing his tail.

“Yolly! You’re awake!”

Saena quickly picked him up and held him in her arms.

“Kiyang–!”

“You, you! How could you make people worry like this!”

Saena cried out with a trembling voice.

“Do you know… how worried I was…”

Her voice became choked with emotion from the surprising, joyful, and renewed happiness of seeing him. Seemingly understanding, Yolly licked her eyes this time.

“Thank goodness. I’m so relieved…”

“Kyahang~?”

It seemed to mean ‘Why worry about something like this?’ which made Saena chuckle.

“Right. I knew you’d wake up. I just didn’t know when…”

“Kyaung.”

“That person overreacted for nothing.”

“Kwang?”

Yolly’s tail started moving tap-tap in dissatisfaction, but Saena was caught up in memories of the previous night again.

‘Right… I shouldn’t reach out to anyone.’

Why did he suddenly say such a thing?

Because of his cold skin? But hadn’t that issue been resolved since it didn’t apply to Saena?

‘Go back. To your room.’

Until when? Forever from now on? Should they just live in their separate rooms forever like other noble couples?

“Kyang?”

If they had been in that kind of relationship from the start, it might have been fine. Saena didn’t expect much from this marriage at first either.

Just a marriage to avoid the Prince.

A relationship with appropriate distance and mutual respect, that would have been enough. As long as there was no hitting or oppression, as long as it was a marriage where she could see her family when she wanted to, she thought that would be enough.

‘But we’ve already crossed that line…’

How could they pretend that line hadn’t been crossed? Especially when it had been crossed in a good way…

“Kwang, kwaawang?”

Though Yolly strongly expressed his disapproval at her being lost in thought when he had just woken up, Saena was too deep in her thoughts to notice.

“Ah, I don’t know.”

Not knowing the cause meant not knowing what the problem was. Perhaps that was natural.

“Kyang?”

“Yes. I don’t know. Yolly, why you suddenly fell asleep, why you were found at the nanny’s place.”

“……”

“Come to think of it, why did you go there anyway? I heard you went there very often? Even slept there?”

“…Kyuu?”

Suddenly Yolly made a confused sound and tried to change the subject.

“I’m asking why you did that?”

“…Kyu, kyuhu.”

“Ah, really… What’s the point of asking? It’s not like you can answer…”

Though she always felt like they could communicate simple things, questions like why he went there were too complex for yes/no answers.

“Kyahang.”

“If you disappear without notice again, you’ll see what happens!”

Saena warned with a stern expression.

“…Kyang?”

“Got it, didn’t you!”

“Kyang.”

Giving what seemed like a vague acknowledgment, Yolly escaped from her arms and dropped onto the bed. Then he yawned widely and curled up into a sleeping position.

“…You’re just taking a short nap, right? You’re not going to not wake up again?”

In contrast to her scolding just moments ago, Saena anxiously asked with urgency.

“Kyang!”

At his response that seemed to say ‘Of course,’ Saena felt relieved. She stroked his head once before getting up. Though she had only dozed off briefly, lying down again might just lead to more strange dreams and make her more tired.

‘Let’s try talking again at lunch.’

Unless he was particularly busy, he always had lunch with her, so he would probably come today too. Probably.

So she headed to the dining room at lunchtime but…

“……”