“My… My goodness…!!”

Madness began seeping into Roselina’s eyes as she read the letter. She had discovered astonishing truths—and confirmed the evidence as well.

“Hehehe….”

The eerie smile spreading across Roselina’s face resembled her father’s.

“Duchess Sophia Siren sent such a delightful little letter? To my father, no less?”

Roselina had never paid Sophia much attention before, but now that she was going to marry Carlo, she could no longer ignore her.

“What should I do with this letter? Who should she send it to?”

How could she make use of something so entertaining?

Only moments earlier, Roselina had been causing a scene, driven mad by jealousy. Now, she was chillingly calm. Yet as she grinned broadly, her eyes were the very picture of madness.

***

Day after day, Laila wasted away at Lenoa’s villa. One day, she overheard that the date of Carlo’s wedding had been set.

She also overheard that House Crussian was investing a vast sum in the preparations and that it would be the most lavish wedding in the empire.

“Ha…. Hahaha….”

Her world had stopped, yet Carlo’s continued to move forward perfectly well. Although her heart was still burning with rage towards him, hearing about the wedding made her feel overwhelmingly lost.

Was she still in love with him?

Her parched lips, dry from lack of food and sleep, twisted into a bitter smile.

Perhaps she still had tears left in her, for they streamed down her haggard cheeks. Yet her furious laughter would not stop.

“Ah… haha.”

‘Are you smiling happily right now? You must be smiling sweetly at Lady Roselina, pretending to be the kindest man in the world.’

Unable to endure the suffocating feeling, Laila rose from the bed to go outside. But no strength remained in her body, and the moment her feet touched the floor, her legs gave way beneath her.

Crash!!

“Ugh…!!”

The door flew open.

“Your Highness!!”

Nathan entered with uncanny timing and hurriedly supported Laila where she had fallen.

“Are you all right? Are you dizzy? Your Highness, please tell me….”

“Do not call me that.”

“…Pardon?”

At Laila’s icy words, Nathan became so stunned that he even forgot to help her to her feet.

“I am not a princess. The Princess of Adelina is dead, and that is what everyone believes.”

“But once the truth is revealed, Your Highness will return to your rightful place.”

Laila stared blankly at Nathan’s confident expression before bursting into laughter again.

“Haha. Ah… Why do I keep laughing?”

Where was her rightful place? Nowhere in the world had a place been set aside for her.

Princess Lailea died a criminal, Laila took lives, and she was betrayed by Carlo.

So where could this supposed rightful place possibly be?

“Please get up. The floor is… very cold.”

“Sir Nathan.”

Nathan was worried that her already weakened body would become weaker still, but Laila made no attempt to get up.

As though he had no other option, he brought over a blanket, draped it around her, and sat down beside her.

The finest material could not warm Laila’s frozen heart.

“Do you know why I fell in love with Carlo?”

Nathan’s eyes wavered at the painful question. He said nothing and simply listened.

“He was the first person to tell me that I was precious and special.”

Every day, Carlo whispered to Laila, who had lost her family and her memories, that she was special.

“You are the most special person to me.”

“Do not worry too much about being unable to remember your past. You shine simply by being yourself.”

She had loved the radiant smile Carlo directed at her. She had loved the warmth she saw in his eyes.

“And… I believed he was the only person who could understand my heart.”

“Your Highness….”

“I was such a fool. I believed he loved me and wanted to give him everything, without realizing he only intended to use me….”

Nathan could only listen through clenched teeth. Hearing her words was t*rture, and the veins stood out sharply across his tightly clenched fists.

“I thought I was the one Carlo truly loved, but it was all an illusion. If I had known it would hurt this much, I would never have stayed with him.”

Nathan closed his eyes at Laila’s murmur.

‘I should never have loved him. I should never have hoped.’

As Laila murmured, Nathan repeated his own regrets inwardly.

‘I should never have left. I should have remained by her side.’

Had he done so, perhaps the woman he loved would never have suffered this deeply. Perhaps she would not have fallen in love with another man, been tormented by his betrayal, and tried to end her life.

‘How much must she have suffered? And how deeply must she have loved him…?’

Nathan could not forget the sight of Laila standing on the edge of the cliff.

She had put down her beloved sword, as though nothing remained to tie her to this world. She had truly intended to die.

He had almost lost the woman he loved again. Whenever he thought back to that moment, his heart would clench painfully.

He could see her body swaying over the precipice. He had caught her slender waist with only a heartbeat to spare.

Had he arrived even a moment later, he would have had to endure the most horrific nightmare imaginable: watching the woman he loved die before his very eyes.

“Please….”

The words ‘Please live’ hung unspoken on Nathan’s lips. He wanted to beg her to stay alive and promise that he would devote himself to loving her. He would take on all her pain and anguish and suffer in her place.

But he could not ask her to love again.

Her years of devotion had been rewarded with betrayal, and the scars left by Carlo would never fade while she was alive.

“I will never… love again.”

As though delivering the final blow, Laila drove a sword through Nathan’s heart.

***

The nobles envied Carlo, assuming that his unusual absence from high society meant he was personally overseeing the wedding preparations. They marveled at how deeply he must love Roselina to arrange everything himself.

As their wedding became the foremost subject of interest in high society, countless rumors began to circulate.

Some claimed that Carlo had bought Roselina the most expensive wedding dress, while others said that he had hired renowned chefs from abroad.

There were even rumors that he had purchased vast quantities of jewelry and was searching for the most perfect flowers for the lavish ceremony. Each tale was enough to inspire envy.

Roselina was said to be the happiest bride in the world and Carlo was portrayed as a groom utterly devoted to her. In fact, Roselina herself had deliberately spread all of these rumors.

In truth, their relationship could not have been more different from the glowing rumors. Roselina was furious over Carlo’s disappearance, but he had neither the time nor the inclination to deal with her.

When he finally returned to his estate two weeks later, he looked like a completely different man.

“Welcome home, my lord.”

The servants hurried to the entrance of the main residence to greet Carlo, inwardly sighing with relief.

While everyone outside the estate was eagerly discussing Carlo and Roselina’s wedding, the servants themselves knew nothing about it. Naturally, their anxiety had only continued to grow.

Carlo had left the estate and failed to return, and Laila, who had always remained faithfully by his side, had also disappeared without trace. The two people at the heart of the household had vanished overnight, leaving only vague, unsubstantiated rumors in their wake.

Understandably confused, the servants could not help but feel relieved when Carlo finally returned.

However, the moment he stepped down from the carriage, the servants bowed deeply and began to tremble. He looked and acted unlike anything they had ever seen before, radiating an unmistakable intent to kill.

Over the past two weeks, Carlo’s face had grown gaunt. His bloodless lips were badly cracked and bleeding in places, and madness lurked within his shadowed, lifeless eyes.

Could this truly be the face of a man about to be married? The servants could not help but wonder if the marriage had already fallen apart.

“My lord, House Crussian has….”

Carlo swept past the chief steward, who was in the middle of delivering a report. His dark, forbidding gaze followed him as he strode forward like a harbinger of death.

The moment he reached his office, he summoned one of his most trusted knights. The knight appeared as though he had been waiting, dropping to one knee to await his command.

“Crown Prince Theodor’s shadow knight is in Circlezia?”

“Yes. The knight visited several times while you were away from the estate.”

“Bring him… before me.”

The knight bowed in acknowledgement, then disappeared in an instant.

Without glancing back, Carlo took out the documents he had hidden inside his coat and laid them out.

Having lost his reason, he glared at the papers as though they were enemies he intended to sl*ughter.

“I’ll kill them all….”