TFTVGD 00

Chapter 00…

Prologue

They say there are good guys, bad guys, and strange guys in this world, but from my perspective, this man seems completely insane.

Effer Jen Elisia, Duke. He was a very typical “gentle by day, wild by night” kind of person.

On afternoons when the warm sunlight poured down, he would always finish lunch and come up to me.

“Are you going to look at me that prettily?”

Looking at me with charm, he would gather all the compliments in the world and express them.

“How can you be this cute?”

Unable to contain his affection for me, he’d squeeze a lemon in one hand as if it were a gesture of love.

“Will you give me a kiss?”

He never hesitated to say things that should have been embarrassing.

“I love you.”

He filled my ears with sweet words until they stuck like honey.

Watching Effer’s dazzling golden hair and clear, bluish eyes under the sunlight streaming through a massive tree, it felt like we were newlyweds spending a passionate honeymoon in a South Pacific resort.

Even when I behaved mischievously toward him…

“If it makes you happy, it makes me happy too.”

He never got angry. Instead, he always smiled as if an angel had descended.

The ocean of his love for me had no depth, approaching like waves at the shore, ready to engulf me.

“I’ll be going now. Don’t feel lonely just because I’m gone. Shall we see each other again soon?”

He would turn away like a wave leaving grains of white sand behind, always reluctantly, as if he couldn’t bear to leave completely.

But when the sun set and night fell, filled only with the sound of owls…

“Madam.”

Effer’s gentle, tender voice now carried the chill of the night air.

“What brings you out at this hour?”
“I was just taking a walk.”
“…A walk?”

Seeing his cold, hardened face made me feel lost, like wandering into the open sea without a lighthouse or walking a forest path without a lantern.

“…The moon is full and bright.”

Unlike the daylight filled with affectionate words, only silence filled our night.

“Madam.”

When I saw his dark, cool gaze against the spilling moonlight,

“I do not wish to suspect you, but it would be best not to do anything unnecessary.”

It felt as if a merciless enemy commander held my life in his hands and laughed at me in the midst of war.

“You may go inside now.”

Watching his familiar figure turn away without hesitation, as if he didn’t want to spend even a few more seconds looking at me, I quietly murmured:

“…Isn’t he truly insane?”