Karen, who had reassured her grumbling sister that she shouldn’t take on dangerous missions now that she was a Viscountess, died.

Karen, who said it wasn’t a particularly difficult operation, that she would return soon, that she would bring back more gifts than usual this time, returned as a corpse with half her face blown off in an explosion.

“I’ll leave the mansion.”

“Do you mean you want a separate house?”

“No. I mean exactly what I said, I’ll leave the mansion. I should go back to the house where I lived with my sister. The contracting party has… died. There’s no reason for me to stay here anymore.”

“What do you mean there’s no reason? You’re still my wife’s sister.”

“But I heard from my sister before that…”

“I said I would act as your sponsor while maintaining the fake marriage relationship. My relationship with Karen remains the same. We are still husband and wife. It’s just that Karen is dead, and I’m widowed.”

“…I don’t quite understand.”

“Then stay here until you do understand.”

Even though it was just a fake marriage.

He continued to treat Cedine as his sister-in-law even after her sister’s death, supporting all her education and living expenses. It might have been understandable for 1 or 2 years, but as it entered the 3rd year, Cedine started to feel uncomfortable. If he had been an affectionate brother-in-law from the start, it might have been different. But he was just as taciturn before and after marrying her sister.

A woman? It seemed like there might be one, but she wasn’t sure. She had never seen the face of that woman. Just judging from the panting breaths that flowed out of his bedroom, it seemed that despite appearances, he had an active s*x life.

The year Cedine turned twenty-five, she told her brother-in-law that there was a man she wanted to introduce him to. Ivlik dropped the fountain pen he was holding. His voice was stiff when he said he would arrange a meal sometime, but when he actually met Cedine’s fiancé, he didn’t cross any lines. Cedine’s fiancé was very excited and seemed impressed to meet the famous Bluebeard.

But the next year, Cedine spent nights crying until her eyes were swollen over her fiancé’s betrayal. That was the first time Ivlik approached her first and asked.

“What should I do to that bastard?”

The traitor’s life hung on her single word. When she realized this, Cedine felt both scared and thrilled.

And in the year she turned twenty-seven, Cedine Liere died on vacation.

As she was coming out of the cathedral after offering a candle for her sister, she was shot by men who mistook her for Ivlik’s woman. Cedine collapsed helplessly on the cathedral steps heated by the afternoon sun. Her parasol, splattered with blood drops, rolled down to the bottom of the steps. She had practiced shooting countless times, but this was the first time she had actually been shot.

Ivlik, who had been waiting for Cedine in the car instead of following her into the cathedral, drew his gun. He shot the rear tire of the fleeing vehicle, then shattered the rear window. The man in the back seat tried to duck to avoid it, but Ivlik was faster.

One bullet for each person.

Right after the sniper fell, the driver’s back of the head was pierced. The person in the passenger seat hurriedly tried to control the steering wheel, but was busy avoiding bullets flying from behind. The front windshield shattered. The car, its direction skewed, crashed into a building wall at full speed.

When the person in the passenger seat didn’t come out, Ivlik approached the car himself. Having loaded two more shots while walking, he fired at the side window of the back seat when he was just a few steps away from the criminals’ vehicle. When he pulled the trigger for the last time, Ivlik aimed not at the passenger seat but at the back seat.

Cedine realized that the criminal in the passenger seat, knowing he would die immediately if he left the car, had switched places with the sniper’s corpse in the back seat and was waiting for Ivlik to approach. Ivlik had figured this out, which is why he broke the window of the back seat instead of the passenger seat. The man pretending to be dead would have made a sound when hit by the glass shards falling onto the seat.

Cedine was reminded of his nickname. The Wolf of the Army Ministry wasn’t just competent in the torture room. The medals of valor hanging on Ivlik’s officer uniform were proof of that.

After finishing the summary execution, Ivlik ran to Cedine. His face, which had remained cold and unmoved until he killed the criminals, was now distorted.

“You killed them.”

“Yes.”

“Every single one of them.”

“Yes, I killed them all.”

“You should have left one for interrogation. You should have shot their legs…”

“Don’t speak anymore. The blood…”

As he tried desperately to stop the bleeding, he finally realized. Even if this were the operating table of the Royal Hospital, they couldn’t save Cedine.

Cedine wanted to leave him with final words. She wanted to tell him what she had said inside the cathedral earlier. Come to think of it, it seemed there were many things she hadn’t said to Ivlik.

That she was grateful he had stopped her when she tried to leave the Viscount’s mansion after her sister died. That she still didn’t understand why he had been so kind to her, but there were many times when she was glad not to be alone when she came home late at night. That now that she was dying too, there would be no more Liere sisters in the world, so he could remarry freely. But even after he got a new wife and gained a new sister-in-law and lots of family, she hoped he wouldn’t completely forget her.

You could at least send a bouquet of flowers to the grave on the anniversary of my death, right? We’re close enough for that kind of gesture, aren’t we?

Despite having so much she wanted to say, she couldn’t utter a single word. Her eyelids gradually grew heavy. Then, as Cedine’s heart stopped, he dropped a tear on her pale cheek and whispered.

“I’m sorry, Cedine. It’s my fault. This happened because of my greed.”

It was strange. He had nothing to be sorry for. Greed? What greed? They say hearing is the last sense to remain after death. In the darkness that enveloped Cedine, his sobbing reached her ears. It was unfamiliar and confusing.

‘Why did that man say such things to me as I was dying? Could he have killed my sister? Is that why he’s been so kind to me all this time out of guilt?’

She didn’t know how long she spent in the quiet darkness. When she opened her eyes, Cedine found herself back at age twenty-one. Just before her nurse officer sister was about to enter a fake marriage with the heartless ‘Bluebeard’.

If this marriage proceeds, Karen will soon die. But it might be different for her. Because she knows what will happen afterward.

People said Cedine was more relaxed compared to Karen, who was always cautious about everything. She didn’t intend to deny that. However, that was only valid until her curiosity button was pressed.

When Cedine Liere becomes curious about something, she stubbornly pursues it. Even if death awaits at the end, it doesn’t matter. She needs to know what happened while she was living cheerfully under her sister’s protection and that man’s shadow.

So Cedine decided to marry Ivlik Wintermore instead of her sister.

* * *