“Let me go now.”

Each word from Duke Edmund sent small ripples through Cecilia’s heart. She exhaled deeply, trying to calm her unstable emotions.

Soon regaining her composure, Cecilia slowly opened her lips.

“Are you asking for a divorce?”

“……Yes.”

At his brief, direct answer—like delivering a confirmation kill—Cecilia’s carefully maintained expression crumbled.

“Really…… you’re as selfish as ever. You completely upended my life, disappeared without a word, and now that I’ve finally found you, you want a divorce.”

Her rough, broken voice trembled irregularly. Despite trying to steady it, she couldn’t stop the growing seed of emotion.

Cecilia stared directly into his wavering blue eyes. As their gazes locked in midair, her lips naturally curled into a crooked smile.

He still captured her with eyes full of desire. Seeing this contradiction to his request for divorce, Cecilia’s eyes darkened further.

She made no attempt to hide her turbulent emotions as she spoke harshly.

“You know what? The way you look at me is still disgustingly repulsive.”

“……”

“I don’t understand why you ran away trying to distance yourself from me when you still want me…… No, never mind. I’ve found you again now.”

Yet the end of her emotion, transformed into harsh malice, was coarse and brittle like swallowing dry sand. Without her even realizing it.

Cecilia bit her lip firmly, slowly rising from the sofa. Then, looking straight into Edmund’s eyes that held only her, she spoke.

“Don’t be so detestable. If I hadn’t destroyed your family, you would have trampled and ignored me again. And yet you ask for divorce? Ha, don’t even dream of it. I have no intention of letting you go.”

“That’s not it……”

Duke Edmund, about to explain that it wasn’t like that, that she had misunderstood, closed his mouth the moment their eyes met.

“……”

It was a gaze unlike before, devoid of any warmth. Her eyes looking down at him were dry yet calm.

Those eyes that once reflected every emotion honestly were now dried up. And he had been the one to make them that way.

Edmund couldn’t bear to meet her gaze directly and turned his eyes to the floor.

Meanwhile, Cecilia captured his every movement in her eyes.

His irregular breathing, his black hair fluttering in the breeze through the window crack, his body flinching whenever he felt her gaze.

Her eyes, determined not to miss even the smallest, most subtle movements, now gleamed brightly.

She slowly bent down and whispered softly into his ear. Like an affectionate lover whispering words of love.

“Watch as I share love with another man and whisper happiness.”

In the most gentle and warm tone.

“As I enjoy freedom under the warm sunlight.”

Like branding an indelible mark on his soul.

“Watch from that dark room where you once confined me. Just as I once did.”

At her words, delivered one by one with sharp pauses, Duke Edmund finally squeezed his eyes shut.

Her sharp words pierced his chest. They were terrible and chilling. Words he never wanted to hear again.

“Please……”

Between his fingers as he rubbed his haggard face, a sigh mixed with regret and despair escaped.

“Don’t think about leaving my side from now on. Remember clearly in that clever head of yours what your actions have made me become.”

Her malicious, base tone changed to a businesslike attitude, as if addressing a superior.

But her vivid, deep green eyes still persistently pursued Edmund.

Like a damp swamp that irresistibly draws you in once caught.

※※※

‘W-wait a minute!’

There was someone eavesdropping on their conversation.

It was Anna, a maid of the ducal household and Cecilia’s personal attendant. She was secretly watching them through the crack in the door.

‘W-what on earth is going on?’

Anna went over their conversation in her mind several times.

‘According to the original story……’

The female protagonist, Cecilia, was supposed to flee to a distant country, unable to endure the male protagonist’s—Duke Edmund’s—intense obsession……

‘Why is the male lead running away instead of the female lead?’

Moreover, his escape had failed miserably. He was captured by the female lead after just a few days.

And then he demanded a divorce. Like fanning flames in a burning house.

‘And the aftermath is as you can see…..’

The female lead’s eyes looking at the male lead had gone mad.

Through the door crack, Anna glimpsed the jubilation in Cecilia’s eyes at having made him hers.

It contradicted her chilling words about sharing love with another man.

‘So this means.’

Their roles had completely reversed.

The fleeing female lead became the obsessive female lead, and the obsessive male lead became the fleeing male lead.

Something that should never happen in the history of dark novels, even if the sky split in two.

‘……W-what have I done! The original story didn’t just twist—the genre completely changed!’

Unable to scream openly at the door, she pulled at her innocent hair, letting out a silent scream.

“Things are getting interesting, aren’t they?”

Just then, a pleasant baritone voice suddenly entered her ear.

“Eeeek!”

Startled by the unexpected sound, her feet tangled and she nearly fell on her backside.

Fortunately, the owner of the voice quickly caught her by the waist, avoiding a major commotion.

“Oh my, we almost got caught.”

“Thank yo—Gasp!”

The moment she opened her mouth to thank him, Anna’s face froze like stone as she recognized him.

‘I had just confirmed no one was around……’

How could he be here?

She had a rough idea but didn’t want to dig deeper.

All she could think about now was getting away from this person holding her waist as quickly as possible.

‘Raven Dekart!’

With topaz-like yellow hair and golden eyes that seemed to radiate light, he was the Third Imperial Prince of the Trish Empire.

And simultaneously, Anna’s number one person to avoid.

He brought his handsome features close to her face, wearing a very pretty smile.

His golden eyelashes, curling slowly and gracefully, created a beautiful eye-smile that could overcome any resistance.

Raven carefully tucked a strand of Anna’s brown hair that had fallen along her jawline behind her ear. His touch was as delicate as if handling a precious treasure.

“Ah……”

Anyone’s heart would flutter if such a divinely sculpted handsome man smiled at them so tenderly.

But Anna’s heart pounded for a different reason. She couldn’t know what sinister schemes might be brewing behind that angelic face.

For good reason—he was destined to become the empire’s one and only tyrant, the villain among villains in this novel.

She mustn’t forget his true nature, deceived by his beauty.

Anna pulled her mind back from being mesmerized by his breathtaking beauty. But it was only momentary.

Anna faced another ordeal as his low voice reached her ear.

“We have so much to talk about too.”

The gentle whispering voice tickling her ear made her feel like every hair on her body was standing on end.

‘We don’t, so please go away.’

……is what she wanted to say. But a mere maid couldn’t talk back to royalty, so she pressed her lips firmly together to express her refusal.

At this, Raven’s pleasantly upturned mouth corners began to stiffen. A rather chilling voice descended upon her crown.

“What, are you thinking of running away too?”

“R-running away? Where would I go without my lady?”

“……I wasn’t talking about that woman.”

Here, “that woman” referred to Cecilia.

‘He keeps calling her “that woman,” whether out of spite or what.’

Wrong was wrong, regardless of royal status. As Anna raised her head sharply to say something to Raven for disrespecting her lady, the Duchess, she stopped.

‘……Who am I to speak? Better stay quiet.’

Raven was looking down at her with an even more subdued atmosphere than before, clearly displeased about something. Intimidated, Anna shrank back again.

“Don’t avoid me. It hurts.”

“What? What do you mean……”

Anyone listening would think he was an abandoned puppy. Yet his eyes gleamed as menacingly as a beast with prey in sight.

Anna awkwardly squirmed in his arms, pretending not to notice. Raven just stared at her silently.

“……”

“……”

As if saying, “See, you are avoiding me,” Anna grabbed his wrist instead of answering his accusing gaze.

“……Let’s move somewhere else first. We might get caught by my lady.”

He wasn’t one to be led by pulling, but strangely, he allowed himself to be dragged along. Stealing a glance, she saw him intently looking down at his captured wrist. A relaxed smile hung on his perfectly drawn lips.

‘What’s he smiling about now?’

With his expressions changing constantly, it was impossible to understand this man.

Reaching a deserted corner of the corridor, Anna released his wrist and stepped far away. But before she could do anything, he stepped forward and wrapped his arm around her waist, whispering softly.

“Every time you avoid me, I get angry.”

“……”

“While I smile like a madman at your slightest touch.”

“……”

“What should I do with you?”

……Anna wanted to ask the same thing. She didn’t know how to deal with him either. With him, who would become a tyrant in the future.

An awkward silence fell between them. His arm around her waist showed no sign of letting go. Despite her struggles to escape his embrace, his hold only tightened.

Finally, with a resigned feeling, Anna burrowed deeper into Raven’s arms. Seemingly pleased by this, Raven buried his face in her neck, nuzzling against it.

The hot breath on her neck sent shivers down her spine. Despite experiencing this many times before, she couldn’t get used to the sensation.

‘D＊mn it……’

How did she end up entangled with such a villain? And to be so intimately involved with him, when she was merely a supporting character.

‘Our statuses are completely different to begin with. He’s royalty and I’m just a commoner.’

Like water and oil, they should never mix.

‘How did this happen?’

From the protagonists with reversed personalities to the future tyrant obsessed with her. She never wanted the original story to twist this much.

‘I just wanted everyone to be happy……’

Anna sighed briefly while fiddling with Raven’s silky hair that rested on her shoulder. Then she paused momentarily, realizing she was habitually stroking his hair again.

How often had they been together that even such skinship had become as natural as breathing?

‘I shouldn’t be doing this……’

But contrary to her complicated feelings, her hand remained in his hair.

Recalling the past, wondering how everything had become so tangled.