“Aaaaaaaaah!”
Janie screamed in agony as my blood, dripping from my right hand, touched her.
“M-my hand!! What’s happening to my hand?!”
It was only a few drops, but the venom-laced blood quickly spread and turned her entire hand black.
Janie shrieked, staring at her hand in panic, when Edmund suddenly appeared beside her and grabbed her arm, immobilizing her.
“W-what the—?”
“Janie, you were the one who ruined my hand once.”
With my uninjured hand, I grabbed her left hand.
Completely overwhelmed by fear, she shook her head madly and begged.
“I-I’m sorry, Lady Irene! Everything I did—I’m so sorry! Please, just spare me—”
“Then go back and tell them. I will never return. And—”
I stared at Janie coldly and said,
“—at the Silliera Competition, I’ll make you all regret this for the rest of your lives.”
After delivering my final warning to Janie, she fled in a panic with the male servant who had conveniently regained consciousness.
Seeing them flee like their lives depended on it, we canceled the rest of our plans and returned to the mansion.
With Edmund’s clothes in tatters and blood dried all over my body, we had no choice but to explain what had happened.
“…You both went through so much.”
Rosette, the Duchess of Wolfgang, said with a worried look.
“That woman didn’t used to act like this. She was more like a snake—slithering around and avoiding confrontation. For her to act so irrationally, she must really be unsettled by your presence here, Irene.”
Rosette was right.
The Duke of Venomaine had always preferred to act behind the scenes, staying out of sight.
‘But I guess he didn’t think it was worth the trouble this time.’
I was nothing more than a powerless girl who always followed orders—he must’ve thought brute force would suffice to bring me back.
Had I not awakened my powers and faced them alone, they could’ve easily subdued me.
‘Even with Edmund at my side, he probably assumed they could kill him with the venom.’
He never imagined that the heir of Wolfgang would risk himself for a discarded child of Venomaine—his sworn enemy.
“To throw a dagger and use force to take you—he’s nothing but a villain.”
“And they were clearly spying on the Wolfgangs too,” Edmund growled. “There’s no way they could’ve ‘coincidentally’ run into us while we were out.”
“Not only that, but they insulted Irene too,” he said sharply. “I believe this is something we can officially protest.”
“I think so too. Do you know how shocked I was to see the two of you return in that state?”
At those words, I felt a pang of guilt.
“There should be honor, even among nobles. To throw a blade at someone with powers—”
“Mother,” I interrupted, unable to hold it in anymore.
Rosette looked at me in surprise. I lowered my head and said softly,
“I’m sorry for making you worry.”
“Irene?”
I turned to Edmund, who looked equally alarmed and was about to help me up.
“I’m sorry to you too. For dragging you into this.”
The thought still haunted me—what if the servant’s venom had touched Edmund?
‘If you hadn’t been with me, you wouldn’t have been in danger.’
Yet even in that dangerous moment, Edmund had not retreated. He had used his powers and stood between me and the servants trying to drag me away.
As someone born of Venomaine blood, I knew better than anyone how deadly our poison was to the Wolfgangs. I was overwhelmed with guilt.
“Irene, you don’t need to apologize. Not at all.”
“Edmund’s right, dear. It’s not your fault—it’s theirs.”
When I looked up, I was genuinely surprised.
There was something glistening in Rosette’s gentle brown eyes—like tears.
“Dear, I know what kind of things those people must’ve said to you growing up.”
She was looking at me, but also at something else—perhaps the reflection of herself in my eyes.
A child born from a noble’s one-night mistake. That wasn’t a label unique to me.
“I used to think I was the one who was wrong, too.”
“…”
“But it wasn’t me. It was just those people being despicable.”
She smiled gently.
“So never think that you were the one at fault.”
Only then did I begin to understand.
Why she hadn’t turned me away when her son brought home a child exiled from their enemy family.
Why she sometimes looked at me with deep, pensive brown eyes.
Why she would occasionally slide her dessert plate toward me without saying a word.
“Do you understand, dear?”
“…Yes.”
I answered with a slightly trembling voice, moved to the verge of tears. Rosette gave me a kind smile.
“Good. Now both of you, go get some rest.”
At her words, Edmund smiled softly and stood.
I followed his lead, bowed politely to Rosette, and left the room.
Meanwhile, back at Venomaine House, two servants were bickering.
“So what happened to the mouse? Did you just toss it out?”
“No! I left it untouched, I swear! It just disappeared—how is that my fault?!”
After the proof ritual, the sacrificed mouse’s corpse was typically kept in the same container for a week. The container was treated so that the corpse wouldn’t decompose too much.
After the week, the mouse would be taxidermized and displayed as evidence of the poison’s first manifestation—a proud tradition of the Venomaine family.
The problem was, there should’ve been two dead mice. But only one remained.
“Maybe someone threw it out? This doesn’t feel right.”
“Why does it matter? Irene Venomaine was banished—she won’t be getting her mouse displayed anyway.”
“Still, someone should’ve said something before getting rid of it.”
“Anyway, don’t bring this up to the master. He’s been in a bad state.”
“Of course not. Still, that girl is nothing but trouble—even after being kicked out.”
One servant lowered their voice.
After learning that the exiled Irene had taken refuge with the Wolfgangs, the Duke had spies watch the household and learned of their outing today.
He sent two servants with his blood, instructing them to retrieve Irene.
He feared she might leak information about the Venomaine family.
Of course, the duke didn’t believe that Irene was truly welcomed by the Wolfgangs—nor that she held any valuable secrets.
He just couldn’t bear that she was living under the roof of a rival house.
He sent the two servants with confidence. But they returned injured, muttering nonsense like lunatics.
The male servant couldn’t even speak—he vomited on the floor. The female kept mumbling, “Irene Venomaine has powers…”
The duke, furious, interrogated them but got no useful answers.
‘I don’t know exactly what happened, but judging by their state, it must’ve been the Wolfgangs.’
There were old rumors that people who saw the Wolfgangs’ beastly forms sometimes went mad.
Sure enough, one glance at the wounded male servant, and the duke recognized the claw marks as that of a Wolfgang.
Contrary to his expectations, Edmund Wolfgang had not hesitated at the sight of venom—he had actively resisted the duke’s plan.
The duke realized he would have to retreat for now.
He knew the Wolfgangs’ decision to let the servants live and return injured was a warning: push again, and next time it would be the duke who got hurt.
With Wolfgang’s resistance so fierce, there was no need to stir trouble for now.
A few days later, the two servants resigned and left the estate.
“But seriously, what happened to them? They seemed fine when they left in the morning.”
“I don’t know. The guy kept mumbling something about wolves. Maybe they got bewitched or something…”
One servant closed the lid of the box where no trace of the mouse remained.
Unfortunately, in the dim light, he didn’t notice the rat tail bone barely left behind, or the inside of the box, corroded by venomous blood.
And so, the Venomaine family failed to realize that they had lost one of the top five most powerful individuals in their history.
“…Thank you, Edmund.”
“Huh? Oh—it was nothing, really.”
“It wasn’t nothing. It was dangerous. Thank you for standing by me. And for getting angry on my behalf.”
Edmund’s ears turned red.
“What are you talking about? They treated my fiancée like that—of course I’d be furious. I should’ve torn them limb from limb.”
It was a little scary hearing Edmund say such things.
Even though he’d aimed carefully to avoid vital spots, seeing him actually rip into someone earlier had sent chills down my spine.
‘He didn’t even flinch when that servant carried the venom.’
Even trained Venomaine members wouldn’t touch their own poison outside of controlled environments—they knew how dangerous it was.
Yet Edmund, knowing full well how deadly that venom was to Wolfgangs, still stopped them.
‘Why is he doing all this for me?’
No one else had ever looked back at me like this—so why was he so kind?
It was no longer just an act.
Finally, I had to ask the question I’d been holding in since earlier.
“Edmund, I want to ask you something.”
“Sure, anything.”
“Well… um…”
I licked my dry lips, took a deep breath, and asked:
“How… did you come to like me?”
The moment the words left my mouth, Edmund blushed. But then, his blue eyes curved gently like a crescent moon as he smiled.
“That’s because—”
