[It’s easy. One night is all it takes.]

[It’ll make things so much better, won’t it? He’s a man too, so he’s probably hoping for it deep down….]

“Say one more word and I really will throw you out.”

[Hey!]

At the shrieking voice, Lisette shot to her feet and snatched up the angel figurine as though she would smash it. The way she yanked it up made it clear she was not simply going to toss it into the ash, but hurl it straight out the window.

[All right, all right. What a temper. Who’s the one calling you a fragile young lady… all right! I’m going, I’m going!]

The demon that had been grumbling in her ear all this time vanished in a rush the moment she lifted the angel figurine a little higher. To be precise, it had simply gone quiet, but for now that was enough to settle her troubled heart.

Thud.

“Ha.”

Lisette set the angel figurine back in its place and turned to leave, then stopped and turned the figurine so its face could not be seen. She knew it was a meaningless thing to do, but she felt it would put her mind at ease.

“Haa.”

Even so, the heavy sighs kept coming one after another, and she lay down on the bed just like that. Still dressed, shoes still on, she lay on top of the covers and stared blankly at the ceiling for a long while, and then a hollow laugh escaped her.

‘A demon hiding inside an angel figurine.’

Even in a novel, writing something like that would be enough to get you hauled off to a temple on charges of blasphemy. And yet here it was, not a made-up story, but something that had happened right in front of her.

‘What is this?’

On top of everything, that angel figurine was a gift she had received from Leon as a child, something she had kept close and treasured for years. They even called it a wish-granting angel figurine at a temple in a neighboring country, did they not?

And yet.

‘A demon.’

Lisette raised a hand and covered her eyes.

She had no idea what to do with this demon that was even describing itself to her as “the one who will make my desires come true.”

Even if she threw it away…

[The curse would stay, wouldn’t it? And come to think of it, I’m not the one who put the curse on you, so why are you taking it out on me….]

“…….”

[…….]

As though it had read her thoughts, the demon’s voice popped out, and she turned her head to glare at it, and then she saw the back of the angel figurine, which had gone quiet in an instant.

She could see the slightly cracked wings and the ash dust caught between them.

Just as it said, it was not the angel figurine that had placed the curse on her. It had only told her how to break it because she had thrown it onto the pile of ash.

‘The problem is that the method makes absolutely no sense.’

“Haa.”

She pulled her gaze away from the angel figurine and turned her head back to look up at the ceiling.

Her head felt ready to burst from the frustration.

Was there really no other way to break the curse?

[Is there?]

“…….”

[…….]

Right, just as the demon said, there was no such way.

If there had been, she would not be agonizing over this.

And above all, if it truly was just one night, as the demon said….

‘She might at least try.’

The problem was that the person was Leon.

‘That’s why it won’t work.’

Was this not something everyone already knew?

That once it was done, there was no going back to what they had been before. It would be pushing him into ruin for the sake of her own selfishness.

‘The mess I made three years ago is more than enough.’

She had wept and wailed and carried on that she could not live without him, and then at the very last moment she had failed to protect him.

Lisette squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head at the memory of that helplessness, when there had been nothing she could do.

Right, rather than ask him to hold her just to break her own curse, it was better to suffer a little in the dream herself.

‘It’s only a dream, after all.’

She let out a long breath.

She could not drag him into her troubles when he was perfectly fine.

‘He wouldn’t want it either….’

“Don’t come looking for me alone from now on.”

The image of Leon from that day drifted through her mind, and she looked out the window and pressed a hand to her chest.

Her chest ached and pounded as though the beats were shaking her whole body, and she pressed down on it and rubbed it as though to hold it still. She felt a slight tightness in her breath, but as always, it would pass soon enough. She drew in breath after breath, telling herself that with time it would get better, that it would all pass.

‘She had held on like that for three years.’

She just had to avoid running into him.

The dream was hers alone.

If she could dream in a way that left as little trace on him as possible….

‘But… does it really have no effect on him?’

Knock knock.

“Miss.”

Just as that question drifted through her mind and she looked up, the nanny’s voice came from outside the door and she turned her head.

It was a cautious voice, unlike the usual way she would throw the door open and walk right in. Then the nanny poked her face through the slightly open door and looked at her, and at the sight of Lisette her shoulders drooped. Her round face looked a little gaunt, as though she had spent the past several days treading carefully around her mood.

‘That was too much of me.’

She remembered snapping at her for no good reason, and she lifted the corners of her mouth as naturally as she could.

“Come in. Why are you standing there like that.”

“Oh, s, shall I?”

At Lisette’s reply, back to her usual warm voice, the nanny’s face brightened at once and she pushed the door open and stepped inside. She was still rolling her eyes around cautiously, but her expression was much more at ease.

How could a face be so easy to read?

Lisette looked at the nanny’s clear, round face, always the same, and the brown eyes set into it, and let her shoulders drop.

In the middle of everything changing, there was one person who had not. That was something to be grateful for, she thought. At least she was not the only one who had stayed the same.

“What is it?”

She lifted her head at the end of a short sigh, and at that the nanny’s eyes went wide and she smiled broadly and drew close. Watching her smile so wide her small eyes nearly disappeared, Lisette felt her heart beat with a faint unease.

‘What is she about to say now.’

Her heart beat faster. But she could not stop the nanny’s flushed, eager mouth.

“Your betrothed, that is, Baron Tarmen, will be arriving in one week.”

“Oh.”

And just as she had thought, it was not good news.

Her betrothed.

The word still felt strange and uncomfortable, and it scraped at the tip of her tongue. It felt like a word that had no business being placed in front of her, but even so, she could not refuse his existence, and she forced the corners of her mouth up.

‘Right. Her betrothed.’

She squeezed her eyes shut, picturing him arriving in one week. If nothing else, for the sake of not disappointing her family, she absolutely had to keep her distance from Leon.

Because every night, tormented by that demon, she might wake with a flushed face and reach down to satisfy the desperate desire without even realizing it. If the line between reality and dream disappeared, she could not predict what she herself might do.

‘So keeping her distance was the only option.’

Right, no matter how cursed she was, surely it would not still have an effect after she married and left this estate, she thought with a careless optimism, and nodded toward the nanny.

“That’s good news. Thank you for telling me, Nanny.”

With a smile she forced herself to wear.

* * *

From that day on, Lisette avoided Leon with everything she had. The resolve happened to coincide with the day her betrothed, Baron Tarmen, announced his visit, and talk began to spread among the people around them.

And with good reason. When Leon came walking toward her from ahead, she would turn around and go back the way she came, and in situations where she could not do that, she would pass him by without a glance. She even stopped setting foot anywhere he was likely to be, such as near the training grounds or at Alexander’s side.

So perhaps it was only natural that rumors spread.

The two of them, who had planned what people called the escape of the century three years ago, had reunited on the day of his return without a care for anyone else’s eyes. Of course people would be curious about what came after. And with her so busy avoiding him, it was inevitable that rumors would follow.

The problem was that the rumors about the two of them were growing more and more outlandish.

At first, a rumor began circulating that Leon had confessed to Lisette and been rejected.

Right, up to that point, anyone might have thought it plausible enough.

But the problem was that the very next day, that far-fetched rumor shifted into a story that it had not been Leon who confessed to Lisette, but Lisette who had confessed to Leon and been rejected.

At that, Céline, who had never thought much of Leon to begin with, flew into a rage and went on and on about throwing Leon out at once. Of course, that was put to rest by Alexander’s firm objection, but either way, the ripple effects of the rumor created waves large and small throughout the manor.

But what made this more troublesome than anything else was that there was no way to set the record straight.

No, what was there even to correct?

‘That it wasn’t true?’

Who would she even say that to? And going around to each person to explain and say it was not true would have been absurd.

The best way to put the rumor to rest was simply to show everyone that she and Leon were on good terms, but…

‘Absolutely not.’

Lisette could not do that.

For four days now, just as the demon had said, she had been waking every night with a flushed, feverish face, and more than once or twice she had slipped a hand beneath the covers to satisfy the desperate desire that had built up.

And now she was supposed to see Leon.