Chapter 0
“My lady.”
A hoarse voice cut through the night air.
It had always been a voice devoid of anything. Like a hollow tin knight.
But why now does it seem…
“Letricia.”
Why does that voice calling her name seem to ripple with something—anger, perhaps, or some other indescribable emotion?
It shouldn’t be possible.
Letricia bit her lip, stubbornly keeping her gaze down.
If she didn’t do this, everything she had carefully hidden until now—her feelings, her well-packaged facade, her meticulously built tower—would all come crumbling down.
“Where are you trying to go at this late hour?”
But her wandering gaze lifted upward, following his voice.
After all, Letricia had no way to ignore this man who resembled the night itself…
Perhaps it was inevitable.
The Grand Duke’s eyes, which seemed to see through everything, were deep blue.
Meeting those piercingly blue eyes, Letricia’s lips trembled as she spoke.
“I’m leaving.”
At that, the Grand Duke’s brow, set above his elegant nose bridge, immediately creased.
It was such a subtle movement that an ordinary person wouldn’t have noticed, but because the Grand Duke rarely showed any emotion, even this small change felt significant to Letricia.
But the Grand Duke quickly erased even that slight movement and looked up at the sky.
They said it would rain for several days starting tonight.
The clouds hiding the moon were dark.
“It’s going to rain soon.”
“…Yes. So please go back inside.”
“And you?”
As if he hadn’t heard Letricia’s words about leaving.
The Grand Duke approached with long strides. And repeated his words again.
“They say it’s going to rain.”
“…”
“So just like always, you should put me to bed. Stay with me. Isn’t that right, my lady?”
‘Always.’
That one word, emerging from his refined and eloquent speech, pierced her heart particularly deeply.
Always, he says.
How did such a word come to leave your lips?
Why make me use such words when I won’t be able to stay by your side forever?
Letricia pushed up the corners of her mouth, feeling on the verge of tears.
Wearing that empty smile she had learned to use to hide her emotions—the very thing the Grand Duke hated most.
With her thin white hand, she pushed against the Grand Duke’s firm chest.
“No, Killian. I can’t stay with you anymore.”
“…Letricia.”
Even at that low voice that rumbled like a strangled beast, Letricia firmly repeated her words.
“I’m leaving. I told you I would leave after one year.”
“I don’t recall agreeing to that.”
“Killian…!”
But as if the contract from a year ago meant nothing to him.
The Grand Duke—Killian—snatched Letricia’s luggage away with his large hand.
“My wife abandons me so easily.”
Abandon? What nonsense. Letricia wanted to shout right then that that wasn’t it at all. How could I possibly abandon you?
The heart that had remained unmoved even upon hearing she only had one year left to live. The mind that had thought it was for the best…
You filled them with foolish attachments and the desire to live.
How could I…
But instead of revealing these true feelings, Letricia kept her mouth firmly shut and curved her lips prettily.
If she didn’t do this, her body—growing weaker as the disease consumed it—and her heart—wanting to stay here even with the flimsiest of excuses—
Would end up clinging to those words that seemed to hold her back so shamelessly. Afraid of this, Letricia forced strength into the corners of her mouth and repeated to herself:
That she shouldn’t cling, shouldn’t hope to be held back any longer.
The one year she had already spent here had brought her more happiness than she deserved…
Don’t be greedy for more.
As she was trying to steel herself with these thoughts—
“…!”
“There’s that smile again. I told you not to do that.”
Unlike his emotionless voice, his warm hand touched the corner of her mouth.
As if this might somehow erase Letricia’s theatrical smile, his long fingers slowly traced her curved lips.
“Whenever you smile like this, you always say something unwelcome.”
“Don’t—”
“So you really intend to abandon me.”
As Letricia tried to pull his hand away while saying “don’t,” he instead interlocked their fingers and pressed his forehead against them.
“…what must I do to not be abandoned?”
“Let… go.”
At the sight of Letricia trying to pull her trapped hand free, a short breath scattered between Killian’s dry lips.
“If I grab your clothes here and beg you with tears, would that do…”
Swoosh.
As his lowered eyelashes lifted, creating shadows, his sunken blue gaze constricted around her body.
And so.
Killian’s red lips, which had ensnared even Letricia’s will to escape, moved slowly.
“Would you look back at me then?”
