When Violet, whose heat had been barely suppressed with medication and who had drifted off to sleep, regained consciousness, it was around dawn when the day was breaking. She opened her eyes, feeling the burning glow of the sunrise beyond the window.

Seeing the familiar ceiling before her eyes, Violet blinked slowly, then turned her gaze to look around.

“Huh? Why am I in my room?”

The last clear memory she had was applying the green potion. She remembered heat rising in her body when she reached for the red potion, but after that, her memory was hazy.

Did she properly apply the red potion?

No matter how hard she tried to piece together the scattered fragments in her blurry memories, she couldn’t remember. Only bits and pieces came to mind.

With eyes that had grown calm, Violet tried to recall what happened the previous night, but it remained foggy. It felt like an entire night’s worth of memories had completely vanished.

Feeling something strange, she sat up and immediately felt pain in her lower body. Severe muscle pain struck her entire body.

“What’s going on? Did I run yesterday or something?”

She had no memory of doing any intense exercise. Because of this, Violet had many questions about her physical condition.

Did she perhaps run away from the Snake Duke?

In the midst of various random thoughts, an absurd image flashed through Violet’s mind.

‘Why is it so delicious?’

An image of herself eating something with great enjoyment. And holding something bizarre in her hand.

“…”

Violet’s mouth opened slightly.

Why was such an absurd scene appearing in her mind? Surely… it must have been a dream…

She tried desperately to deny the memories surfacing in her mind. What kind of nonsense was this?

With her arms crossed, she was trying once more to recall yesterday’s events when another memory flashed through her mind: throwing her soaked underwear on the floor, suddenly wearing nothing under her skirt.

Why would she throw away her underwear, which she never removed except when bathing? It was something she would never do unless she had lost her mind.

Has she gone crazy? Surely not!

At that moment, she suddenly remembered that her heat cycle had started, and her face instantly turned pale.

Violet hurriedly lifted her underwear to check her opening.

“Ouch!”

It stung painfully, like something had been forcibly inserted into a space she had never explored herself. Moreover, there were traces that someone had cleaned her body…

Suddenly, the events of the previous night flashed through her mind like a series of rapid images. It seemed that even though she had lost her reason, she hadn’t lost her memories.

“I’ve gone mad! What have I done?”

Realizing she had done something unbelievably terrible, Violet covered her face with her rabbit ears that had popped out.

Was the onset of a heat cycle such a frightening thing? That wasn’t her. It wasn’t!

She wanted to erase all the memories surfacing in her mind, but no matter how much she denied them, what had already happened couldn’t be changed.

As shame washed over her, Violet felt like crying.

However, since her memories weren’t completely clear yet, she barely held back her tears and tried to recall the remaining memories, but she couldn’t figure out whether she had applied the red potion to the Snake Duke or not.

With a troubled expression, swallowing a sigh, Violet belatedly remembered that she had gone to his room with Margaret the night before.

“Margaret must be awake by now.”

Since she had been keeping watch outside, she would know what had happened.

While clutching her head and blaming herself, Violet pulled the cord attached to the side of her bedroom.

Shortly after, with a knock, Margaret opened the bedroom door and entered.

“Miss, you’ve finally come to your senses. Seeing how much you’ve changed makes me even prouder!”

Despite her bright voice, Margaret’s expression was clouded with worry, which gave Violet an ominous feeling. Right now, her physical changes were not what mattered to Violet.

“How did I get to my bedroom? Did you move me?”

“The maids moved you.”

“Maids?”

“Three sturdy maids carried you to your room and then gave you medicine to calm you down. Do you know you’ve been lying down for two days?”

“I’ve been asleep for two days?”

Violet’s eyes widened.

“Yes. I was worried there might be something wrong with your body.”

It was fortunate there was nothing wrong with her body, but that wasn’t what was important right now.

“Explain what happened, as much as you know. Surely my plan didn’t fail, did it?”

“I think it did fail.”

Suddenly Margaret’s face darkened, and her voice grew quieter.

The word “failure” pierced her heart like an arrow.

Violet clutched her chest and once again recalled the absurd things she had done.

“…”

If only the plan had succeeded, it would have been somewhat better. But not only did it fail, her sudden heat cycle had ruined the plan herself…

How could such an absurd situation happen? If she had known she would do such a thing, she wouldn’t have entered the Duke’s room in the first place.

It was too late for regrets now. So it was important to understand the situation first.

“What happened after my heat cycle started? Tell me everything you know.”

“Well… I don’t know the details either. The Count would know better than me. Somehow he knew and came directly to the guest room to stop you.”

“Father came in? How did he know?”

What on earth happened?!

Violet tried desperately to pull up her dim memories. And in those memories, her father was there. Trying to forcibly separate her from the Duke’s body…

“It seems he came out to the corridor because he couldn’t sleep, and smelled the pheromones.”

No way!

“Tell me it’s a dream. Tell me it’s not true.”

Violet held her head and pleaded with a pitiful expression.

“I’m sorry. Even though I was keeping watch, I couldn’t help at all.”

Margaret bowed her head deeply, apparently feeling guilty.

“What do you have to be sorry for? I’m the one who planned this. You were just following my orders.”

Though she comforted Margaret, the more she thought about it, the more appalling it was. If her father knew too, it was truly the worst situation.

Unable to just sit still, Violet headed to the study, barely dragging her aching body despite the muscle pain.

“Father!”

She flung the door open without knocking. Count Mori, who had been looking at documents, turned his gaze toward Violet and immediately stood up.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes. More or less.”

Though she was not fine at all, Violet glossed over it.

“Tsk, what a thing to do.”

Unable to meet the Count’s disapproving eyes, Violet lowered her head and said, “I’m sorry.”

“Do you really understand that you should be sorry?”

“O-of course.”

Because the Count’s gaze was so stern, Violet’s head, already bowed, lowered until her chin nearly touched her neck.

“Can you tell me why you committed such an absurd act yesterday?”

“I wanted revenge.”

“Revenge?”

The Count’s eyes narrowed, seemingly not expecting that answer.

“Yes.”

“You, you! What on earth have you done? How could you do such a terrible thing?”

The Count’s voice, which had been calm until just now, became agitated.

“I-I’m sorry. But it wasn’t fair that only I got hurt.”

“So you tried to use that potion?”

“You knew?”

“How could I not know about a secret potion of the rabbit clan?”

“I-I suppose you would.”

“So you were trying to use the potion when your heat cycle suddenly started, and that absurd situation happened?”

“Y-yes?”

“Oh my goodness.”

The Count sighed and smacked his forehead. Violet shrank back, watching his reaction.

“So… what happened?”

“I handled the situation. So consider it all never happened.”

“What did the Duke say when he woke up this morning?”

“He left without mentioning anything unusual. It seems he didn’t notice anything, but we shouldn’t let our guard down. He’s a perceptive man.”

Was it just good fortune that he didn’t notice the sleeping drug in his tea?

As Violet’s tense expression relaxed, the Count shook his head.

“Don’t be relieved just because I cleaned up after you. Do you realize what you’ve done?!”

With this, the Count’s storm of scolding began.

Rabbit beastkin should be modest, even though snake clan members are rumored to be promiscuous and don’t discriminate when it comes to women, that doesn’t mean one can simply pounce on them, one shouldn’t misuse clan secrets so carelessly, and so on. He repeated the same things so many times that her ears nearly bled.

Arguing back would only double the length of the lecture, so at times like this, she just had to endure until he finished.

“…No, wait. Since it was your first heat cycle, it might have been an even bigger problem if Duke Queensberry had been conscious. Do you know how powerful your pheromone scent was?”

The Count, who had been lecturing for a while, suddenly muttered to himself.

When the scolding abruptly stopped, Violet’s body instinctively shrank. Her upright ears also gradually lowered.

Instead of continuing his lecture, the Count asked a question.

“So you put the drug in his tea when you were discussing the broken engagement?”

“…Yes.”

Violet answered while watching his reaction.

“Because of you, I might not live out my natural lifespan.”

The Duke tapped his chest twice and looked at his daughter with exasperation.

“We’ve concluded the discussion about breaking the engagement, and I’ve cleaned up yesterday’s situation, so could you please forgive me now?”

Violet approached the Count and clung to his arm with the most pitiful look she could muster.

Seeing her like this, the Count let out a deep sigh.

“Why did you have to go to that room and make things worse?”

“I-I’m sorry.”

Violet’s shoulders drooped as she answered.

“You’re confined to the house for the time being. I’ll say you’re recovering because you’re ill, so remember that.”

“Yes.”

For Violet, whose condition was still unstable even though she had been calmed with medication since her heat cycle wasn’t completely over, it was better to stay at home anyway.

“Even if Duke Queensberry finds out what you did, he won’t suffer much beyond wounded pride. After all, this wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t hurt you in the first place. So don’t worry too much. I’ll bear the emotional burden for you.”

The virile Snake Duke likely wasn’t a virgin anyway. Given the characteristics of the snake clan, he might even sleep with different women each night, seeking those with compatible pheromones.

So Count Mori hoped that Violet wouldn’t feel too much guilt over this incident, dreaming of the perfect crime.