Henry, furious to the very top of his head, began lunging at her in a frenzy.

And there it was.

The reason why kicking a man in the center to defend yourself left no room for a second attempt was this: if a woman’s strength failed to put the opponent down for good with that clumsy counterattack, a far worse retaliation was waiting.

“Ngh!”

Julia’s gaze swept the room in desperation.

She needed something, anything she could use to fight back.

Then, at the edge of her vision, an empty wine bottle rolling on the floor came into view.

The one Henry drank straight from the bottle and tossed aside moments ago.

Julia instinctively dropped low and lunged for it.

Her fingertips found the cold, hard surface of the glass bottle.

“Don’t you dare!”

The moment Henry reached to grab her again, Julia squeezed her eyes shut and swung the wine bottle with her trembling hands toward the open air with all her strength.

Thud!

With a dull, cracking impact, Henry stumbled back with a sharp cry.

“Aaagh!”

The bottle didn’t break, but the blow that struck his shoulder and part of his head was considerable.

While he groaned in pain and clutched his head, Julia, now free, pushed herself up unsteadily.

Then she backed away toward the window.

She didn’t stop until the cold glass of the window pressed against her back.

“Don’t, come near me!”

Julia brandished the wine bottle as though it were a shard of broken glass and glared at him.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Henry raised his bloodshot eyes and seethed.

His face was burning red with pain and humiliation.

“Don’t tell me you actually think you can beat me with that pathetic bottle?”

The contempt that poured out was a painful truth.

The difference in build, strength, and s*x was clear.

There was no chance Julia could physically overpower him.

But that didn’t mean she could let herself be reduced to something helpless and wretched according to Henry’s wishes.

“If this gets out… both families will be devastated! Do you think the marquis would tolerate something this shameless?”

Julia invoked the last line of defense: family honor.

But Henry snorted and staggered toward her.

“Didn’t I say? Devastated? Don’t make me laugh. They’d be pleased, if anything. I’m an only child, aren’t I?”

“That’s absurd. Does the Rodev Marquisate have no minimum sense of shame or dignity?”

“Hah, why do you have to drag family matters into this and kill the mood?”

“Because it is a family matter! You and I are bound together entirely by calculation and political arrangement! What else is there between us?”

Julia’s sharp retort stopped Henry’s advancing steps cold.

His expression twisted into something strange.

“You… you didn’t like me?”

“……What?”

The delusion was so out of nowhere and so absurd that Julia was struck speechless.

Henry blinked, genuinely puzzled.

“You always obeyed me and behaved yourself. I thought that was all because you were taken with me.”

Julia shook her head hard, with an air of disbelief, or rather, something closer to revulsion.

“No. Don’t fool yourself. Absolutely not. Not for a single moment.”

Henry gaped at Julia’s firm and unwavering denial.

He looked like someone hearing a foreign language for the very first time.

“Oh, what. You’re really saying you don’t like me?”

Henry raked a hand through his disheveled hair with an irritated gesture, then narrowed his eyes and smiled with that slick curl of his lips.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. Whether you lie and say you don’t like me or kick and scream, the result is the same. You and I are going to get married anyway. And quite soon.”

“Married? That’s a long way off! There’s still plenty of time!”

“Plenty? Hah, you’re dense.”

Henry sneered and took another step closer.

“Listen carefully. I’m in my second year right now, aren’t I? I just have to get through this semester, and when I graduate in my third year next year, we will get married immediately. Understand?”

“……Ngh.”

Julia swallowed a breath, thrown off balance.

“The moment I receive my diploma, you’ll be holding a ceremony for me. Do you think I’ll wait until you graduate, Julia? You’re coming in as my accessory.”

Until now, Julia vaguely believed that the marriage talk would only begin after she completed her full course of study and graduated.

“Your wishes don’t matter. It’s already decided.”

There was not a moment’s hesitation in Henry’s words.

He shrugged his shoulders as though it were the natural order of things.

“Think about it. That’s why you were put through all that household management training here. Does that look like preparation for something years down the road?”

The moment she heard his words, it felt like scattered puzzle pieces clicking together in a chilling way.

If there were more than three years of leeway aligned with Julia’s graduation, there was no reason for the Rodev family to push the management training so urgently and relentlessly.

The breathless pace of that education was timed to Henry’s graduation.

So that when Henry took his place as the next marquis after graduating, Julia could support him immediately.

“So why don’t you slowly break that stiff stubbornness of yours and give up? We’re fated to end up together anyway. Let’s enjoy it a little early.”

Henry’s smooth voice bored into her ear.

Julia pressed down the fear rising to her chin and gripped the wine bottle in both hands.

The cold chill of the glass met her sweat-damp palms.

“No. Not now! Absolutely not!”

Julia screamed and raised the bottle, and Henry let out a scoffing laugh.

“Oh, scary.”

He smirked with mockery and stepped forward.

“But honestly, do you really think you can beat me with just that empty bottle?”

“…No.”

Julia bit her lip and admitted it honestly.

She was a woman, and he was a grown, able-bodied man.

Julia herself knew better than anyone that she couldn’t knock Henry down or subdue him with an empty wine bottle.

But winning didn’t have to mean putting the other person on the ground.

Julia drew a sharp breath through her teeth.

It was the split second when Henry’s narrowed gaze fixed on her face, filled with resolve.

She twisted her body sharply, not toward Henry, but toward the empty air behind her.

Crash!

The wine bottle left her hand and struck the large glass window with a tremendous sound.

The thick glass shattered, and sharp fragments scattered into the night sky.

It was a loud noise that tore through the quiet stillness of the annex.

“Woof woof! Bark, bark!”

The sound of the window shattering brought an immediate response.

The guard dogs patrolling the estate began barking like mad, and from the distance came the murmuring of night-duty servants and the sound of urgent footsteps drawing closer.

“Hah, hah…”

Julia gasped for breath and let the cold wind coming through the broken window wash over her.

“People will be here soon.”

It was on an entirely different level from simply screaming inside the room.

With the window shattered and a commotion rising outside, even the servants who turned a blind eye to Henry’s debauchery had no choice but to come and check.

Henry’s face scrunched with irritation at the scattered glass and the sound of the dogs barking closer by the second.

“D*mn, what a racket. Ruining everything.”

He shook his head from side to side, thoroughly fed up.

Henry’s preference was for docile, sweet girls.

Girls who liked him and would comply with anything he wanted, soft and yielding.

A fierce display like smashing things with venom in her eyes held no appeal for him whatsoever.

“Fine. Today isn’t the only day.”

Henry clicked his tongue, deflated, and waved his hand at Julia in a mocking little flutter.

“See you next time, you wild fiancée.”

He turned away without a trace of lingering interest, opened the door, and walked out of the room.

From beyond the corridor came his voice growing distant, snapping irritably: “It’s nothing, I broke it by accident!”

Only then did the tension drain from Julia’s body.

She swayed for a moment and leaned against the wall.

The night wind blowing through the broken window was piercingly cold, but that very chill let her feel, truly feel, that she was safe.

“I need to be more careful…”

Julia pressed her hand over her heart, still pounding with unease, and pushed down on it gently as she let out a long, heated breath.