“As expected of a knight—so quick with your hands.”

Roselina’s voice dripped with mockery as she looked down at her immaculate dress. Looking down on her from above, her gaze overflowed with superiority, pleasure and disdain.

“I’ll call for your lady’s maid.”

After picking up the fallen dessert from the floor, she turned and walked out of the parlour. Of course, no one called after her. Roselina had got exactly what she wanted: Carlo’s undivided attention.

“Hah… haah…”

A sharp, suffocating pain bloomed in Laila’s chest. She struggled to steady her breathing.

Someone asked if she was all right, but she could barely answer. She managed to murmur that the lady needed her maid before slipping out of the manor.

***

By the time Carlo finally returned later that night, darkness had long since fallen.

He entered the room looking thoroughly pleased and humming a faint tune.

Seeing the satisfaction on his face made Laila’s heart ache all over again.

The smile that had once graced his face had been warm, but it no longer belonged to the man she had known.

“You are the most precious person in the world to me. You don’t have to push yourself so hard.”

When Laila blamed herself for her faltering swordsmanship, Carlo draped his coat over her shoulders and comforted her gently. He begged her to take better care of herself because he couldn’t bear to see her hurt.

She could still vividly remember the warmth seeping through that coat.

But Carlo had changed.

Standing before him now felt as though she were trapped in a frozen moment in time. Neither her safety nor her efforts mattered to him anymore.

“Carlo.”

“Hm, Laila?”

His red eyes flickered at the shadow on her face.

“I promise… tomorrow—”

“Laila, I’m tired today. Can’t we talk later?”

His tone was gentle, yet it carried an unmistakable refusal. A dazzling smile curved across his lips until his eyes nearly disappeared—the same courteous smile he used to reject noblewomen.

It was a smile that warned, Do not come any closer.

“Do you truly have to meet Roselina? Tell me what you need, and I will do it. If you need documents, I will infiltrate the Duke’s study and steal them. If you need someone brought to you, I will deliver them—even if I have to render them unconscious first.”

For a moment, Carlo’s gaze hardened. Although Laila knew he despised hearing such words, she could not stop herself. She could no longer endure watching him embrace another woman and smile at her.

“I would rather take upon myself the slow, consuming revenge that is stealing him away—and die for him—than watch him slip from my grasp. I do not need to know every detail. I can endure all those wounds in his place.”

“Laila, stop.”

A cold wind cut between them, but neither seemed willing to yield.

“I’ll do the revenge—everything—for you! So stop living in vengeance and live your life!”

“…What?”

Laila’s voice rose as her emotions boiled over, and Carlo’s expression twisted as if he couldn’t bear to hear it.

“Why are you living like that? Don’t you care about your life? If your mother could see you—”

Smash!

Carlo slammed his hand down on the table at the word mother, glaring at Laila.

“You ask if my life is worthless? If my mother could see me—what could she even do? She’s dead. You know that! You know exactly how she died!”

“Carlo, please—let it go.”

“How can I let it go? My mother was framed because of the emperor’s mistress—falsely accused and forced to die. How can I forget that?”

Carlo stepped so close to Laila that his voice dripped threat.

“Do you know what my mother and I looked like the last time we met?”

“Carlo, please…”

The more Carlo poured out his rage, the more Laila’s heart splintered into tiny shards.

“That bastard—my father—locked me in a room when I begged him to clear my mother’s name. He said I was the same kind of sinner!”

Laila knew the story well. Carlo’s mother had been found in the company of the man said to have supplied the poison. Due to the intervention of a noblewoman, she was executed without trial. News then broke that the duke’s mistress, Sofia, was pregnant, and the whole affair was quickly forgotten.

“My father imprisoned me, so I couldn’t even see my mother before she died. By the time I was released, her body had already been taken away. I don’t even know where she was buried. And you expect me to forget? How could I possibly forget any of it?”

“Carlo.”

Once his fury had erupted, he no longer knew how to contain it. He seized Laila by the shoulders, shook her violently and pulled out a worn letter.

“This letter was left by my mother’s maid — the woman who disappeared without a trace immediately after the incident. Read it.”

Breathing heavily, Carlo thr*st the letter into Laila’s hands. She slowly began to read it, finally understanding the source of his terrible fury.

…

[My lord,

Madam died unjustly. Please clear her name and bring the truth to light. The poison was not found in her room, and all the witnesses gave false testimony. Most importantly, the meeting between the lady and the man who allegedly supplied the poison was a trap devised by Sofia.

That day, Madam said she was going out to meet her maid’s fiancé, whom she cared for deeply. But that maid betrayed her—she lured Madam there under false pretenses. I heard with my own ears Sofia ordering that maid to bring Madam to the meeting. In return, the maid received an expensive ruby gemstone. I’ve drawn the gem and its box for you below.

Because I knew this, I barely escaped with my life and am now in hiding. But I cannot live keeping this truth buried. To prove my words, I’ve enclosed the keepsake Madam left with me, along with this letter.

Please, my lord, clear her name….]

…

“T-This…!”

Laila’s stomach churned at the sheer cruelty of it all.

How could such malice exist? How could an innocent woman be branded a criminal? For what reason? Because of someone else’s greed?

Tears welled up in her eyes as she read the letter, her heart twisting painfully.

“I tried to track down the maid using the keepsake she mentioned, but she was gone. Whether someone silenced her or she vanished on her own—I couldn’t find her.”

He lifted his gaze, fury burning behind his crimson eyes.

“And do you know what else I discovered?”

Carlo’s eyes were red and bloodshot as he unleashed the torrent of pain he had kept inside for so long.

Hearing the anguish he had kept locked away for so long was not comforting; it was overwhelming.

He had finally realized, with cold certainty, that his thirst for vengeance would never be quenched.

“The Empress of Adelina used Sofia to drag my father into her camp.”

Carlo’s father—completely taken with Sofia—had abandoned his neutrality and become a pillar of Empress Scarlet’s faction.

“The family supporting Scarlet is none other than Lady Roselina’s. And the man who handed the poison to my mother was from the Cerclezia Empire. The duke must be hiding him.”

How the Duke of Cerclezia came to be helping the Adelina Empress, he don’t know—but for now, Laila decided to calm Carlo down. He looked as if the hate he’d carried might consume him at any moment.

“All right. All right—just calm down. I’ll find that man for you. But stop trying to seduce the duchess.”

“You? What can you possibly do? I’ve tried everything to get close to the duke’s house.”

“…Carlo.”

A flash of poison crossed Carlo’s face as Laila tried to steady him.

“There’s only Roselina left. If I win Roselina’s heart, I can get close to that man. Then I’ll find the ones who killed my mother and end this. Once I have the lady, everything will be possible.”

“So you intend to sell your soul to the duchess?”

“I’ll sell it.”

“…!”

“Even if I have to marry her, I will.”

Please… not this to me.

Carlo left, seemingly with nothing more to say. Laila was left trembling with shock.

“You’re even talking about marriage?”

Could he really be thinking that far? To promise a lifetime to a woman he didn’t love.

“W–Why… Carlo, why are you doing this…?”

Her legs gave out beneath her, and Laila sank to the floor.

‘Do you really have to go that far? Am I… truly nothing to you?’

No matter how much distance he put between them, she had always believed — perhaps foolishly — that there was something special between them. Now, however, she wondered if that belief had only ever been a fragile illusion born of false hope.

What should she do now? Was she just supposed to stand by and watch him throw himself into the flames of vengeance?

“Haa… haah…”

Could she really bear to see him marry another woman—and remain by his side as nothing more than his knight? Did she even want to?

‘I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore…’

Laila knew Carlo’s nature — he never gave up once he’d made up his mind. This was only the beginning. He would win Roselina’s heart and, if necessary, marry her — all for revenge.

Time slipped by mercilessly and night fell deep and still. Laila lay weakly on her bed, unable to sleep.

She replayed Carlo’s words over and over again in her mind, each repetition cutting deeper than the last. Only after an endless cycle of hurt and regret did she finally drift into a restless slumber.

Then, a nightmare swallowed her whole.

“P-Please… spare me….”

In a cold and desolate place, Laila pleaded desperately for mercy.

Her entire body ached, and she was bruised, battered and broken. Not a single part of her was free from pain. The fact that she was still breathing felt like a cruel miracle.

The agony was so overwhelming that she could not tell whether it was real or a dream. She had no idea where she was or why she was there; she just knew that she was trapped in a place that felt like hell itself.