“Are you suggesting I should have just given him a nice talking-to?”

“Simply telling him to stop would have been enough to make him back down.”

“What exactly is your problem?”

“I should be the one asking why you’re acting this way.”

She finally raised her head. He could see tears welling up in her blue eyes. She seemed to be trying her best not to cry.

“I’d like you to explain why you were so emotional earlier.”

“What exactly am I supposed to explain?”

“Your authority alone would have been enough to resolve the situation.”

“Are you upset that I knocked down the man who was trying to force alcohol on you?”

“Don’t talk like that. You should be deceiving others, not me! It’s fine if you act affectionately in front of people. But please don’t deceive me like this. I’m begging you!”

Facing Jürgen who was at a loss for words, Diez continued speaking through her sobs.

“You’ve already made it clear how you think of me. You’ve taught me that all the kindness you showed me was just my imagination. I was trying to accept it. I was trying to accept that in your eyes, I’m nothing more than a body you desire.”

Even as she wiped her tear-stained face, she continued speaking without hesitation.

“You’re right. I’m a naive and stupid woman who easily falls into delusions. I was stupid enough to believe in the kindness you showed me, and I even thought you were truly a good person. I trusted you more than anyone else. Even after you pinned me down on the sofa.”

“……”

“I keep falling into delusions even now. Because I’m stupid, I end up believing that you were genuinely angry on my behalf. I don’t want to delude myself anymore. So…… please don’t try to deceive me too. You yourself think that you didn’t need to go that far, don’t you?”

Diez couldn’t easily stop crying. She tried to wipe away her tears with her sleeve, but she only ended up staining and ruining her dress.

Watching her silently, Jürgen was seized by a wrong impulse. What if he told her that while it was true he lusted after her, it was also true that he cared for her? It might sound ridiculous, but he said those things because he cared about her.

But it was too late to overturn everything now. Diez needed to get away from him and leave. No matter how much he revealed his true feelings, there was no way she could handle the desire he harbored.

She was a woman who had trembled under her father’s whip. The only reason Diez had been able to endure was because the late Duke was merely an object of fear to her.

Now Diez had been handed over to Jürgen, the Duke’s son. At first, she had been equally wary and afraid, but gradually she began to lower her walls, and eventually came to not only trust him but even develop feelings for him.

The two could never develop into an ordinary romantic relationship. And they shouldn’t.

Not because Diez had been his father’s mistress.

Jürgen was a man who had inherited his father’s twisted s*xual tendencies. Although Diez had managed to survive under his father, it was clear she would break and shatter when faced with Jürgen.

Because she had opened her heart to him.

Giving one’s heart meant exposing one’s most vulnerable parts. Jürgen didn’t want to inflict an irreversible fatal wound on her. Rather than pushing her into unbearable despair, it was better to let her struggle with feelings of betrayal.

Despite what he said, Jürgen didn’t think Diez was a stupid woman. She was a woman who could sensitively observe and keenly perceive others’ emotions. Wasn’t that true even now? Diez wasn’t deluding herself. She knew it wasn’t a delusion, but she was confused about what to believe.

He felt guilty. He felt the urge to kneel down, apologize for his wrongs, and confess all his true feelings.

But he couldn’t do that.

Jürgen knew better than anyone that if he kept Diez by his side, he would eventually break her.

It took time, but he finally managed to compose himself.

“Looking back, I think I was wrong. I should have let them make you drink. Then you wouldn’t have had the mind to spout such nonsense.”

“……”

“What exactly are you deluding yourself about? I didn’t knock that man down because of you. I was just making an example of him so no one would dare challenge my authority again.”

He took one step at a time toward Diez. She seemed to shrink back immediately, intimidated.

Jürgen forcibly grabbed her chin and lifted it, asking.

“Look carefully. Do I look like a man who cares about you?”

Held by the face, Diez’s rigid, tear-filled eyes looked up at Jürgen. Seeing her face flushed red from crying and sniffling, he felt his lower body grow tense with disgusting arousal.

Jürgen let out a hollow laugh filled with self-contempt. To get aroused even in this situation. This confirmed it. He was a man who needed to stay away from Diez as soon as possible.

“Miss Schleicher.”

“……”

“Shall I make sure you never have such delusions again?”

Diez’s eyes trembled with anxiety. Soon after, Jürgen, giving her a knowing look, pinned her down on the bed and roughly consumed her lips.

Her soft, hot lips somehow gave him the illusion of sweetness. It was an addictive sweetness that could be described as intoxicating.

He had done this to earn Diez’s contempt. He thought that by covering her lips like this, she would never again even think of having delusions about him.

But Jürgen thought he might be consumed by his own actions instead.

Diez’s lips were much softer than he had imagined. Perhaps because of the sensation of her lips, his manhood rose painfully hard within his pants.

Jürgen unconsciously wedged his body between Diez’s legs. As she struggled and resisted, Jürgen firmly pinned her to the bed, grabbed her round br*ast, and muttered.

“Ha…… Diez.”

Diez, who had been trying to escape his grasp, tightly shut her eyes.

“I said I would let you go, but I’m starting to regret that promise a little.”

“……Hic.”

“No one would dare interfere with whatever I might do to you.”

This was the first time he was exploring Diez’s body while sober. His pants felt tight. He had clearly intended to just scare her and then leave.

The lust that had been suppressed for so long consumed him. He wanted to unbuckle his pants and take out his c*ck. The woman he had always desired was now beneath him. He was overwhelmed by the desire to lift her skirt and thrust his c*ck into her exposed womanhood.

She twisted her body and gasped for breath. But her movements only stimulated his hardened member by creating friction.

At some point, Diez’s gaze met his as she shook her head. Her face turned even paler as she read the deep lust in Jürgen’s eyes.

Frightened, Diez grabbed Jürgen’s right arm that was holding her and tried to push it away with all her might. The moment she pressed hard on his unhealed burn, Jürgen let out a groan of pain.

Taking advantage of his momentary weakness, Diez escaped and crawled to the opposite side of the bed. Jürgen, who had briefly contorted his face in pain while holding his forearm, carefully composed his expression.

What rescued him from the whirlpool of lust was the knife-like pain in his forearm. Diez didn’t seem to have noticed his injury. She appeared too shocked to notice, still gasping for breath.

As he belatedly regained his senses, Diez’s appearance slowly came into focus. Pressed against the wall, she was trembling with fear. She too realized that he had impulsively tried to violate her.

If Jürgen had failed to control himself, it really could have happened.

A cold sense of guilt seemed to crawl up his spine.

“Are you confident you won’t be confused anymore?”

“……”

“It’s regrettable for me as well. That you left room for such delusions about me.”

Now what consumed him was an ill-fitting sense of disgust. It felt as if bugs were crawling all over his body. He felt so sick that he wanted to vomit right away. What had he done right? Even feeling guilty was a luxury for him.

To think he had actually tried to penetrate her, and yet, guilt……

Did I bring cigarettes?

“I hope there won’t be such incidents in the future, Miss Schleicher.”

Finally, he gave Diez one last glance. She too was looking at him, her body pressed against the wall. Jürgen recognized at a glance the emotions in Diez’s eyes.

It’s irreversible now.

An inaudible voice seemed to whisper in his ear.

Even after Jürgen left the room, Diez remained frozen in place, unable to move. It was only after several more minutes that she was finally able to raise her stiffened body.

She could have called someone for help, but she didn’t want to face anyone right now. Diez removed her clothes and pulled out her accessories as if tearing them off, then hurried into the bathroom.

She crammed herself into the bathtub and quickly turned on the water. Even as the clean water washed over her, the terrible feeling wouldn’t go away, so she frantically scrubbed her body until her skin turned bright red.

Ignoring the pain, Diez continued rubbing her body until at some point she burst into tears, curled up in the bathtub. She cried bitterly as if someone close to her had died, covering her own mouth lest the sound escape.

It was painful. Had she ever felt this miserable before?