Chapter 1
“…I shouldn’t have saved you back then.”
A voice like a rasp, as if grinding my lips anew, escaped from between his arms, which held me in place.
On the soft bed, my gaze locked with his.
Even at my words full of resentment, he only looked down at me with a cold, indifferent face.
“If I die, will you finally smile at me?”
With a casual shrug, he spoke nonchalantly, then suddenly gripped my chin hard.
“Ah…!”
A small moan slipped from my lips as pain shot from my jaw, but I defiantly lifted my head.
“I suppose I could show a smile like that at your grave, at least.”
“A smile I can only see after your death… My wife’s smile is truly expensive.”
“Doesn’t it sound more like your death is worth nothing to me?”
Diasi raised one corner of his mouth in a sneer and leaned in close.
“I admit it. You’re the best in the world at getting on my nerves.”
As if he was about to kiss me.
I had to accept it. No one could know that the man and woman known for their perfect marriage actually shared only hatred.
Sharing a bed, warming each other’s bodies out of obligation—it wasn’t the first time.
I should be used to it by now, but every time we lay together, my mind filled with distracting thoughts.
‘I should resist this…’
Like prey frozen before a predator, my body wouldn’t move.
A scream in my mind telling me to push him away tormented me like tinnitus.
And yet, my wildly beating heart brought with it a crushing guilt.
There was a time when I had imagined a future with him.
If our relationship and feelings weren’t like this, I would have gladly accepted his kiss, smiling happily.
But not now. I can’t. Because you and I…
My mind and heart were at war. My eyes grew hot.
“Hnngh…”
Tears, born of the emotional storm inside, finally rolled down my cheeks.
“Why are you crying?”
He, who moments ago looked like he wouldn’t flinch even if stabbed, hesitated at my tears.
Then, gently brushed back my hair—like he used to, long ago.
“Don’t cry, my wife.”
Diasi wiped away my tears with his lips, then pulled back to look at me with an unreadable expression.
At the sudden shift in his behavior, I couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.
‘Why are you doing this to me…?’
Wherever his gaze touched, it felt like I was burning.
Where did this sinful emotion begin?
Can I ever be forgiven for harboring such feelings for you?
The despair, so overwhelming, left me breathless.
* * *
Five years ago. Inside the execution grounds of the Lashire Empire.
“Hngh… Mom, Dad…”
My throat, hoarse from crying, could no longer produce sound properly.
The stench of blood filled the air, and time had passed without measure.
I forced open my swollen eyes, looking around with a hollow gaze.
‘What crime did they commit…? They only ever lived kindly…’
If my parents had any sin, it was trusting an old friend with a secret.
‘Is this the price for trusting someone?’
What could possibly be worth this betrayal…?
My fists trembled uncontrollably with rage.
“Huhuh…”
Only sobs escaped my lips, the pain and rage tangled chaotically in my chest.
I clutched the lifeless hands of my parents and sobbed, when a man approached, clicking his tongue.
“Tch tch. What a pitiful sight, Louise.”
I snapped my head up at the voice I’d never forget, not even in death.
“Mason Richards…!”
The name dripped from my mouth like venom.
Baron Mason Richards.
Diasi’s father. My only childhood friend’s father. The man who murdered my parents.
Though my parents were minor barons of a remote region, they had sharp business sense.
They bought an abandoned mining site cheaply and developed it into a fortune, eventually trading rare minerals with the temple—the most powerful institution in the empire.
I knew Mason had long coveted their success.
When Mason struggled financially, my parents had offered to help out of friendship. “Let’s succeed together,” they said.
But less than half a year later, Mason accused them of treason, claiming they had stolen imperial property.
Worse, he accused them of secretly selling the minerals to enemy nations and conspiring with mages.
In this empire, mages were considered synonymous with evil. Being a mage was enough for execution.
Rumors spread like wildfire. The temple began a harsh investigation, turning the whole ordeal into a witch hunt.
With fabricated evidence and deceit, my parents were imprisoned and tortured before finally being executed.
Their deaths were unjust. The situation was tragic. And the man before me was the source of it all.
I made no attempt to hide my hatred.
“How dare you show your shameless face to me?”
If I had a knife, I’d have stabbed him on the spot.
Mason said nothing, simply staring at me as I sat on the ground.
“You look like you’ve lost the world. Don’t worry. Out of old friendship, I’ll take you in.”
“…Shut up.”
I slapped his hand away as he reached for my face.
He glared at his rejected hand, then looked at me again.
The reflection in his eyes made me sick.
As my vision blurred with tears of anger, I glanced—unconsciously—toward the execution ground’s entrance.
There was no one. Not a soul.
‘You didn’t come today either…’
Diasi.
Though we’d grown up together, he hadn’t visited once while I was imprisoned.
He was Mason’s son, so perhaps he too had betrayed me. That thought tormented me.
But I tried to shake it off. I wanted to believe Diasi would never betray me.
“Diasi, if you ever became a fugitive for a terrible crime, I’d still believe you. What about you?”
“Why ask something so obvious? You’re too kind to ever commit such a crime.”
“But if I did?”
“Then I’d protect you forever. I’d follow you everywhere.”
“You promised, okay? You can’t abandon me, even in death!”
“Haha, okay.”
It wasn’t long ago that we laughed together like that.
I couldn’t believe that the look in his eyes, those words, were all lies.
But… Mason had also been my parents’ friend.
He betrayed them with a smile. Diasi shared that blood.
Confused by the contradiction, I bit my lip.
I hated myself for instinctively seeking Diasi even now.
Mason’s voice dropped above my bowed head.
“I’ll become a duke soon.”
“…What?”
I frowned at the absurdity.
“You think a dukedom is something you get just because you want it?”
But he only smirked.
“I prevented a crisis that could’ve cost the empire dearly. I deserve a reward.”
“A reward…?”
No.
‘Is he saying… that framing my parents earned him a dukedom?’
A chill ran down my spine.
Mason lifted my chin.
“When I become a duke, I’ll make you my official mistress. A favor, really, for a parentless orphan.”
His gaze clung to me like slime. Cold, emotionless, but unbearably revolting.
‘A duke…?’
They made Mason a duke?
The world went dark.
“Not just any mistress—the duke’s mistress.”
“….”
“Who else would take in the daughter of a disgraced baron, if not me?”
As a child, my parents read me fairytales where villains always paid for their sins.
But reality was cruel and heartless. I wasn’t the heroine. The man who took everything from me was about to live in luxury.
‘How can this be…?’
Consumed by rage, I grabbed a fistful of dirt and threw it in his face.
“Get lost, you vile bastard!”
It hit him in the eyes. He groaned and rubbed them.
His eyes turned red.
“Is this how you treat your savior?”
“…Shut up.”
The man who framed my parents dares call himself my savior?
My limbs went cold.
Every word from his mouth was unbearable.
“You should’ve been executed too, but thanks to my plea, His Holiness the Pope granted mercy.”
“The Pope…?”
He flinched at my reaction, quickly clearing his throat.
‘Why is that name coming from Mason’s lips…?’
No way…
A terrible suspicion surfaced.
