Standing behind her, watching her pencil move across the page, Daniel gently laid his hand on her shoulder, as if to let her know he was listening.

It was an absentminded gesture, but the way her slender body fit so perfectly under his large hand suddenly took his breath away.

Lately, this perilous sensation had been tormenting him.

The trauma-induced panic over his wife’s safety kept intertwining with a kind of s*xual tension, creating a feeling he could hardly describe.

He felt an impulse to lay her down on the bed right then and there, to devour her whole—because only if he locked her away deep inside him would it feel like she could never vanish.

But such a thing…

‘That would hardly be a gentle act toward her.’

Not wanting to ease his own anxiety by tormenting the woman he loved, he reminded himself dozens of times a day to restrain those urges.

『 Thank you. 』

Daniel looked at the sentence Katrina had just written, then reached for a pencil himself from the crystal glass on the vanity.

『 For what? 』

『 The pencil. 』

He had expected her to mention the day’s events, but instead—out of nowhere—it was about the pencil.

It was absurd, yet something about it tightened his chest.

『 It’s nothing. If you need them, I could bring you hundreds. 』

『 And… you said you wouldn’t take a mistress or remarry. 』

But it turned out she had another subject on her mind, and she brought it up sooner than he expected.

She had always been one to speak directly rather than beat around the bush, but since they began conversing by writing, her expressions seemed to have grown even clearer.

『 They turned out to be far more lowly than I feared. Whatever rumors they brought you, it was all nonsense. I’m sorry you had to hear such things, Kat. 』

『 There’s nothing for you to be sorry about. I would’ve found out sooner or later. But more than that—why did you do it? 』

Daniel’s eyes lingered on the words freshly written on the paper. His already wintry face grew even colder.

Why, she asked? As if such a thing needed a reason or an explanation.

『 Why would you ask that? It was only the proper course. 』

『 But I can no longer attend social gatherings, nor can I be your partner. Even just from what happened today— 』

Daniel gently caught her right hand. The pencil slipped, dragging a long horizontal line across the end of the sentence.

Was today’s incident merely a minor issue for Katrina?

No. That couldn’t be true.

She had only put his feelings first, thinking of her worthless husband, instead of tending to her own wounds. Surely, she too had been hurt.

The Duchess of Luminous had deliberately held a tea party for Katrina’s sake. It was a kind of welcome-back reception, attended by most of the noble ladies and young women of the Bloodyfield region.

“We want you with us even if you’ve lost your hearing. Return to society. Let things be as before.”

That was their stated intent. They had even proposed communicating by writing, taking the initiative to show consideration.

Katrina, who had been training tirelessly in lip-reading, wasn’t fluent yet, but if someone spoke slowly enough, she could manage to follow. Encouraged by their apparent kindness, she accepted the invitation.

She had practiced every single day without fail.

Though still lacking, she hoped that if everyone made a little effort, maybe—just maybe—she really could rejoin society.

It was a naïve thought. For they seated her at the center only to mock her openly.

Some young noblewomen seated nearby had approached her with seemingly kind words on paper, but Katrina immediately noticed: the sentences they wrote were not the same as the ones leaving their lips.

To be precise—she had already known.

She couldn’t catch it all because they spoke too quickly, but the discrepancies were clear. Some were so different they might as well have been complete opposites.

Among them were words like these:

“That’s why the Marquis… and Lady May… are bound to remarry, don’t you think?”

Though she had missed some words in between, it wasn’t difficult to grasp the meaning.

Most likely, the full sentence had been: 

“Isn’t that why there are talks of the Marquis of Sopore remarrying Lady May?”

Yet at that same moment, the words written on paper read:

『 You are still so beautiful. Now I see why the Marquis is so captivated by you. You look so happy. 』

Alongside those hypocritical words carved onto paper, countless other things were spoken right to her face.

“How can someone like her govern a whole duchy?”

“She’s blocking her husband’s future.”

“Now I understand why she hasn’t shown her face at any social gatherings.”

“If even the Hereidin family can’t fix her, then she must be incompetent…”

All manner of insults were hurled at her with smiling faces.

Meanwhile, across from her, Selena—also known as Lady May—was showered with praise.

“Lady Selena is the true flower of society.”

“Surely the Marquis of Sopore regrets it now.”

“I hear she’s even studying ancient languages these days.”

“Hosting a charity ball every month—how admirable! Of course, that’s something only possible if you can speak and hear, isn’t it? Hoho…”

The problem was that none of them knew Katrina could read lips—and that, unintentionally, she had “heard” every single word.

The maids who had been waiting outside learned of this only later and turned pale, but they couldn’t bring themselves to say, “The Marchioness has been trained in lip-reading.”

They knew that saying so would only cause an uproar.

Even so, the news quickly spread within the household, and by the time Katrina returned home and shut herself away upstairs without moving, the matter had become more serious.

Eventually, word reached the Sopore Gorge office. Upon hearing it, Daniel left work far earlier than usual and rushed back to the manor.

『 A partner, you say? You are my one and only companion. 』

After staring for a while at the words on paper, Daniel slowly, firmly, and with bold strokes wrote his reply.

As for Lady May—Daniel had never given her name even the slightest ear. Neither remarriage nor taking a mistress had ever once been something he seriously considered.

What kind of husband would abandon his wife, who had suffered a terrible accident and lost her hearing?

To him, anyone who dared to thr*st another woman’s name at him was nothing but senseless.

『 That’s not what I meant. If your associates suggested you take a mistress, it must have been purely for political or social reasons— 』

『 I refuse. Anyone who says such a thing is no associate of mine. 』

『 My love. 』

『 Please, Kat. It will be difficult, but keep up your lip-reading practice—for me. So that you can stand before people again without discomfort. 』

『 That’s… not difficult at all. 』

Katrina wanted to say more, but before the graphite could even touch paper, Daniel snatched the pencil from her hand.

“Dan!”

She whipped her head around and shouted, only to see him smiling like a mischievous boy—a look that appeared only when he was with her.

That innocent expression, so ill-matched to his otherwise heavy, cold demeanor, made her lose her words. Instead, she couldn’t help but laugh.

“Kat, I…”

Katrina focused on the movement of his lips, carefully reading each syllable.

“I. Only. Need. You.”

Daniel spoke slowly, clearly, one word at a time. Katrina rose quietly to face him.

“Rea.. lly.”

He emphasized it again, his round eyes curving into a graceful arc—just like when she had seen him off that morning.

In that instant, Daniel was struck speechless.

How could this woman smile so serenely, so lightly, and yet be so breathtakingly beautiful?

Her cherry-red hair, her bright chestnut eyes, her clear, luminous skin untouched by makeup, her small, straight nose, her soft, rose-tinted lips—

Everything about her left him breathless.

Daniel drew in a short breath and pulled Katrina into his arms. Her small frame fit perfectly against him, stirring both calm and unease all at once.

He pressed his lips to her unhearing ear and whispered in a low voice, suppressing the feelings boiling inside him:

“…How could I ever take a mistress when I already have such a lovely wife as you?”

As his arms closed more firmly around her waist, he feared she might break—yet at the same time dreaded she might vanish if he didn’t hold on tight enough.

“I’m sorry, Kat. You lost your hearing because of the husband you married… and now it feels like I keep demanding more and more from you. My heart aches for it.”

“…”

“Still, stay with me. I’ll buy you all the pencils and paper you want…”

“…”

“…Just stay by my side, Kat.”

Katrina knew, from the faint vibration and the warmth of his breath, that Daniel was whispering something into her ear.

Though she couldn’t hear a thing.

He often did this—held her close, murmured into her ear for a long time, tickling her skin with words she could never hear.

Katrina loved those moments. Even without sound, the emotions and feelings reached her whole being.

“Daniel.”

At last, when the ticklish vibration at her ear and neck subsided, she quietly—softly, she supposed, since she hadn’t forced her voice—called his name.