“How about leaving?”

A flash of lightning lit up the sky outside the window. Since midday, raindrops had fallen one by one, and now they were striking the ground in a fierce downpour.

Ilenia pressed her hand against the glass. The cold clinging to the glass slowly crept up her arm.

“Let me ask again. Would you not consider traveling with me, madam?”

“What thoughts are keeping you so deeply occupied?”

With Raymond’s voice still echoing in her ears, Delphius entered. Only then did Ilenia blink her heavy eyelids. In the storm-lashed garden, the branches trembled helplessly in the wind.

“…Nothing.”

“Is there something outside?”

“No, Delphius. Nothing at all.”

With that, Ilenia cast one last glance at the darkened garden before drawing the curtains. A sudden flash gleamed beneath the thick gray drapes.

“The air is cold enough. That’s enough of the view. Come here.”

His voice was as cold as the night air as he beckoned her over. When she turned around, she saw that Delphius was leaning back on the sofa with his shoulders relaxed. His gaze held a possessive pull that refused to let her go.

Without replying, Ilenia quietly obeyed. Sitting beside him as though it were her designated place, she allowed him to draw her into his embrace. His breath fell hot and heavy against the nape of her neck.

“Your hands are like ice, though you were only at the window for a moment.”

His strong yet delicate fingers slipped between hers, enclosing her chilled fingertips in his own. But even his touch held little warmth.

Ilenia lifted her face and looked at him quietly. In the dim light, weariness shadowed his features.

In the short time they had been married, she had become well acquainted with how ceaselessly busy Delphius was — day and night — with numbers and rates in constant flux, changing every minute and every second. Those restless figures must be circling in his mind even now.

Perhaps coming to this villa was an extraordinary experience for Delphius. How long had it taken to reach this place by train and then by carriage? For a man who planned every move with such precision, it must have seemed reckless.

But that no longer concerned her.

Such gestures from Delphius would once have moved her. But now, her heart stirred no longer. It neither raced nor swelled with emotion.

‘Could we still truly call ourselves husband and wife?’

When she lifted her gaze, her eyes met his golden ones. In the past, this simple act would have made a young country girl’s heart flutter, causing her eyes to shine with love. But that girl no longer existed.

There had been a time when even a single sweet would have filled her with delight. Now, however, she could not recall what that emotion felt like. Neither happiness nor anything else. Nothing. Nothing at all.

“…Nia. Ilenia!”

“Ah.”

The haze clouding her vision cleared, and she could suddenly make out his urgent gaze. The eyes that had always been so cold were now trembling faintly.

At some point, Delphius had started to fall apart whenever Ilenia’s gaze was not fixed on him. He grew desperate, as though she might vanish at any moment.

“Please… don’t look anywhere else. Look at me.”

The hand brushing back her hair trembled.

“Look at me, Ilenia.”

“……”

“Look at me!”

“…I’m looking, Delphi.”

She reached out and smoothed his dry cheek; her fingertips skimmed over skin roughened by years. Even to her cool touch his face seemed to crave more—his eyes clung to hers with a desperate need, unwilling to let even that fleeting contact go. He behaved like a child afraid of being left alone, as if they must never be separated.

Ilenia’s thumb moved to the dark hollows beneath his eyes. Those shadows looked like stains on a man who had always appeared impeccably composed. She rubbed them slowly, as if repeated strokes might lift the darkness.

She had once told herself that those eyes were fixed only on her. Their marriage was founded on convenience and devoid of love, yet she had convinced herself otherwise.

She had clung to that hope. Like many foolish young girls, she had believed that they were destined for each other and had dreamed that his gaze would be reserved only for her.

She did not know then that his gaze had never truly belonged to anyone.

Now, the idea seemed almost absurd to her. Narrowing her eyes, she let a soft breath escape through her slightly parted lips.

Somewhere close by, it seemed as though a faint humming—like the sound of soothing a child—brushed her ears.

“…Ah—”

Her breath hitched. Only then did Ilenia realize Delphius’s mouth had covered hers. She tried to pull away on instinct, but his lips followed with relentless pressure—hard, urgent, and rough against the soft skin of her mouth.

The kiss was anything but gentle. Their tongues tangled in a frenzy of desperate movements. The hand that had been pushing her hair back moved down to grip her waist and then moved lower still, seizing her forcefully. Each hurried touch through the thin fabric drew soft, unwilling sounds from her.

As their breaths came in ragged bursts, Ilenia lifted her eyes and, for the first time that day, met his golden irises. They trembled, and only then did his expression begin to calm, as if her quiver reassured him.

He buried his face in the hollow of her neck and drew a long, shuddering breath.

“Ilenia…”

His voice was a low murmur against her skin. Even then, he slipped his hand beneath her thin clothing without restraint. When his calloused fingers dragged sharply across her most sensitive spot, she felt a jolt surge through her body.

“Mm—ah…”

She clung to his back. Her eyes, which had once been empty, now flickered with heat, as if suddenly ignited. A hazy fever clouded her mind, melting away every thought and shred of resistance. Gripping the collar of his shirt tightly, she whispered between shallow breaths.

“Delphi… just a little more…”

The moment his hand parted her thighs and pressed firmly between them, her spine arched taut. His fingers moved without hesitation, pressing down hard where her body throbbed.

“Ah!”

She locked her arms around his neck as a familiar pleasure shot up her spine. His hand rubbed insistently, causing her hips to jerk in response. Meeting her movement, he unfastened his belt with a sharp click.

“Haa…”

They both moaned at the same time. They were on the sofa rather than the bed, but neither of them cared. He pushed slowly into her, stretching her tightly around him as his thick p*nis throbbed deep inside her.

It was always like this — every week, at every meeting. The deeper Ilenia sank, the more Delphius drove her towards pleasure, forcing a response from her.

This was the only time she resembled anything other than a broken doll.

The more unfeeling she became, the harder he pressed her down.

The bed. The sofa. The island counter. Even behind the garden.

As long as her sunken eyes showed the faintest glimmer of life, the place ceased to matter.

As he felt her grow wetter around him, Delphius thr*st into her harder and deeper. The tight squeeze of her body, straining to take him in, made him desperately hope that her heart had not fully moved on from him. Like an addict, he pushed on with relentless obsession, again and again.

Her fragile heart teetered on the brink of danger, swelling and trembling. Their sweaty bodies were covered in a thin layer of moisture, which soaked through the clothes they had not fully removed; the fabric scratched against their heated skin.

“Ah—ah… nn—!”

She clung to his neck, her body shuddering with each electric surge that caused her hips to jerk upwards. The room echoed with the obscene, wet sound of flesh meeting flesh, liquid mingling and bubbling at their point of contact. When she looked down at his rough movements, she saw milky froth blooming where they were joined, flickering with each sharp thr*st.

“The sea does not flow as quietly as rivers or streams. It crashes in foaming white, its waves striking with such force it feels as though even the heart is being washed clean.”

Through her blurred vision, Raymond’s pleading face flickered before her.

“Madam… you once said you wanted to see the sea.”

Each time she moaned beneath Delphius’s kiss, those words returned—sharper, clearer.

“Shall we go see it? When the days turn warm, when the wind grows cool—we’ll go to the sea.”

The sea.

When he came inside her, Ilenia felt the last of her passion die. The heated tide quickly subsided, leaving emptiness in its wake.

‘I will never be free to see that sea.’

Parting her swollen lips, she reached for him again as she felt him harden within her once more. With her eyes shut tight, she surrendered, while a bitter thought tolled relentlessly in her mind0

Until the day she died, she would never know the majesty of the sea.