“Hk, ngh……”

Muffled moans spilled out one after another. The wet, clinging sounds from where they were joined built the tension higher.

She took him in, mindless, until everything went white.

“Ahh……!”

Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes and slid down. What filled her completely began to pour out a devastating pleasure.

She held onto what was almost too much to take, refusing to let go, and braced herself for the wave of release.

“Haah, Iden……!”

She grabbed his back as he burned against her.

He shifted slightly and drew her hands away from his back.

“My back is…… ngh.”

He swallowed a breath, and then she felt him reach the end alongside her, overtaken by the pleasure rising to the top of his head.

***

She had never once thought that burning desire for each other could be anything other than love.

Nor the warm closeness of lying tangled together afterward. Nor the tender conversations where they had happily sketched out their future together.

It was a past so different from the misery of now.

***

Elsie pushed herself upright with a sluggish effort. Her damp hair shifted with the movement, cold with sweat.

Morning had come again. Tedious and unwelcome as ever.

Though, looking at the light pressing through the thin curtains, it was closer to noon.

Knock knock.

A knock at the door. Elsie’s blank gaze drifted toward it.

“My lady, it seemed you were running late, so I took the liberty of opening the door.”

It was Ivy Smith, the estate’s lady’s maid. The mockery in her voice made Elsie bite down on her lower lip.

“I’ll come in.”

She was already inside, and only now said that.

This was nothing new from the estate’s staff, and Elsie had no energy left for anger, so she gave a limp nod.

“I’ll prepare your meal. Since you mentioned your stomach has been unwell, porridge might be best.”

Ivy came over and smoothed Elsie’s disheveled hair. The brushing was rough in some places and gentle in others, and entirely without feeling.

“Everyone waited for you as long as they could and has moved on to other tasks.”

Ivy offered this as her explanation for tending to Elsie alone.

It was a reproach, but Elsie gave no particular reaction to it either.

“So please wait a moment. You’re welcome to enjoy that hobby of yours in the meantime.”

Ivy glanced at the painting supplies in the corner of the bedroom. Her gaze moved next to the botanical encyclopedia Elsie had been absorbed in.

The corner of her mouth twitched with a smirk as she looked at it.

“……All right.”

“Very well, then.”

Elsie changed into a dress easier to move in and let out a sigh without meaning to. Ivy’s eyes sharpened at the sound. Her lips moved silently for a moment, then pressed shut as she left the bedroom. Her footsteps carried irritation with them.

“It’s a nice day.”

Elsie ran her hand through her curling hair and looked out the window.

Even in the suffocation of her reality, the world outside was still beautiful. Warm sunlight came in. A soft breeze passed through. The smell of grass tickling her nose made her feel distant from everything.

Elsie moved listlessly to the window and pressed close to it. The way her hands itched told her she wanted to put this view on canvas.

“Ah……”

But the moment she spotted three people in the garden, the urge vanished instantly.

Kaiden Grey and his father, Charles Grey. And between them, a woman laughing brightly.

The three of them laughing together among the flowers in full bloom looked like a perfect picture.

She had not seen Charles Grey separately since the marriage. And here he was, laughing with a woman she didn’t recognize.

And that expression on Kaiden’s face……

It was the face she had loved.

The corners of Elsie’s eyes began to burn red.

Kaiden had changed long ago. She should have let go of the man who still filled her heart to the brim.

Why couldn’t she leave Kaiden behind and move on, instead of clinging to this estate and being forced to witness something this cruel?

Elsie’s hand tightened on the curtain.

“My lady, I’ll come in.”

Knock knock. The neat sound of a knock rang through the room again. Elsie yanked the curtain shut irritably and covered the window.

***

Elsie had not set foot outside in recent days.

She killed the hours reading through the books stacked in her room, letting the days pass like something to be endured. Today was no different.

She had even covered the window that had at least given her a view of the outside.

She forced her eyes to the page, but the words refused to register.

The scene from that morning replayed endlessly in her mind.

Kaiden was finally choosing another woman over her.

That conclusion settled in, and Elsie’s chapped lips twisted.

I have to say it tomorrow. I will.

Elsie had been in love with Kaiden. His blue eyes, so unlike her own, had been impossibly dear to her.

She had pestered her father, Count Resleth, to bring him along, and the count, who adored his daughter, had naturally granted the request.

Those days.

It was time to scatter that past far away, that past like sand that no longer held its shape in her hands.

Elsie ran a brush through her hair and climbed into bed. Her plan was to find Kaiden first thing when she woke in the morning.

She pushed the stray thoughts away and closed her eyes. She couldn’t fall asleep easily in the dark, so she kept a candle nearby.

She didn’t know how much time had passed when she drifted off.

But she was soon pulled awake.

“……Kaiden?”

Whether he had snuffed the candle or it had burned down on its own, a presence moved in the darkened room. Her eyes, unaccustomed to the dark, couldn’t make out anything. But the hands pressing in were familiar enough.

Elsie knew Kaiden had come into the bedroom.

There had been a time when she had set aside all pride and wanted him.

Unable to accept that he had changed, she had clung to him and asked for closeness.

But not now.

Kaiden’s hand moved naturally toward the hem of her thin slip.

“No……”

Elsie pushed his hand away and murmured, and the unhesitating touch stopped.

“……You were the one begging for it, and now you’re saying no?”

The words reached her, somewhere between a question and a mutter.

“Haa……”

A disbelieving exhale followed at the end of the sentence.

Kaiden’s hand withdrew, and Elsie shifted and pulled her slip back down.

She felt his irritated gaze in the dark. He seemed to have been about to say something, his mouth opening once, then closing. He turned his back to her.

“……I have something to say.”

Her eyes had adjusted to the dark enough to make out Kaiden’s silhouette. Her trembling voice seemed to reach him, because he went still.

“I was going to say it tomorrow. I’ll just say it now.”

Elsie’s round shoulders curved inward.

“Let’s divorce.”

The already short sentence crumbled further with the trembling of her breath.

“……Divorce?”

Kaiden finally turned around and looked down at her.

In the dark, his pale blue eyes were low and still.

Elsie couldn’t easily understand why his tone was so sharp.

Kaiden had no interest in her, and beyond that, he was seeing another woman. Divorce should have been exactly what he wanted.

“Yes. Divorce.”

Elsie tilted her head and said it again.

“Not worth hearing.”

“Pardon?”

The answer that came after an uncomfortably long silence was baffling.

This time it was Elsie who let out a sharp, incredulous breath.

“Divorce. Wasn’t that what you wanted?”

Her trembling voice gave shape to a suspicion that had long since hardened into certainty.

Another strange silence fell. Elsie could now see, even in the dark, the subtle shift in Kaiden’s expression.

He was angry.

Then every trace of feeling seemed to vanish, replaced by a dry, brittle amusement.

It was unmistakably a sneer.

“Me? ……I wanted a divorce?”

“Yes. To Colonel Kaiden Grey, I’m……”

Elsie drew in a hollow breath.

“I’m nothing but a burden.”

Kaiden Grey, commander of the sharpshooter platoon, decorated for his outstanding service in the war.

The former Count Grey and Kaiden, who had played a central role in the Red Evening Revolution known as Citizen’s Day, had received reverent praise from many.

Elsie Grey, once a count’s daughter, was their only blemish.

In a society where titles no longer existed, family honor hardly mattered.

Even Elsie, living in near-total seclusion in the estate, knew that much.

“Yes, a burden. You still are.”

“Then let’s divorce.”

The smile of resignation had fully set at the corner of Elsie’s lips when Kaiden spoke again.

“No. That won’t happen.”

He turned and walked out of the bedroom. She couldn’t understand why he would react this way when the burden was offering to remove itself.

Even without understanding it, Kaiden’s words lodged themselves in Elsie’s chest.

What did he mean by them. She turned it over in her mind from the early hours until morning, but no answer came.

***

Kaiden had refused the divorce.

Her head was so full of questions she couldn’t bear it, and Elsie turned to painting.

“I’m going to the garden.”

“Well, if you insist, I’ll call Nina.”

Ivy answered absently and left the bedroom.