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Episode 1
Prologue
“Please… my lady. Please don’t abandon me.”
Between his messy black hair, beautiful golden eyes dropped tears one after another.
His perfect nose and pale cheeks were wet, making him look even more pitiful.
But the hand gripping his wife’s arm was strong.
He clearly had no intention of letting her go.
When her husband started crying, Raylee panicked.
“Um… Serge. I’m not planning to leave you.”
“You secretly made a fake name without telling me or my father.
You even stored money under that name…”
“H-How did you find out?!”
“Someone who does business with you told me.”
Raylee wanted to hit her forehead in frustration.
She had been so careful with security—yet she was betrayed like this!
While promising herself to find the person who leaked her secret, she gently spoke to Serge.
“You know my family had problems, right?
So I didn’t want to keep property under my own name…
That’s why I used another name.”
“……”
“It was not because I planned to abandon you!”
Of course, at first, she really had planned to run away.
Because—
“Even though my father and I are fox beast-people?”
“……”
“You weren’t trying to run away because we scared you, right?”
That’s right.
This world was the setting of a novel Raylee had read in her past life.
In this world, beast-people were considered half-demons—
feared, hated, and rejected.
The temple called them “heretics.”
The Elestine Ducal Family, who secretly carried fox beast blood, would be discovered in the future and completely destroyed—just like in the original story.
‘At first, I didn’t want to get involved and die with them.’
But as time passed, she grew attached to her husband and father-in-law.
Now, she had no intention of abandoning them.
Instead, she was thinking about how to avoid the tragic ending of the novel.
‘I didn’t expect my husband’s secret to be exposed this soon…’
The Elestine family had a tradition:
they brought a young bride into the family early.
To protect the family secret, they hid the truth about being fox beast-people from the young bride.
After observing her for years and trusting her, they would officially accept her into the family once she became an adult—and then reveal the secret.
But Raylee found out before becoming an adult.
‘I slept with Serge last night while he was a fox…
and in the morning, he turned human and we ran straight into each other.
There’s no way I could pretend I didn’t know.’
Raylee already knew the truth because she had read the novel.
But she had pretended not to know.
A daughter-in-law who already knew the family’s biggest secret would look suspicious.
So she planned to follow the original timing—
to “learn the truth” only after becoming an adult.
That plan failed unexpectedly, but her conclusion was clear.
“I have no intention of leaving the Elestine Ducal Family.”
“……”
“Even if you and your father are fox beast-people.”
Still holding her wrist, Serge suddenly pulled closer.
Their faces were so close she could feel his breath.
“My lady.”
“Yes, Serge.”
“You already knew we were fox beast-people, didn’t you?”
“……!”
“So you prepared to run away for a long time…
and now you’re panicking because you were caught, right?”
“N-No…”
“You’re just saying sweet words to calm me down—
and then you’ll escape when you get the chance.”
Raylee opened her mouth but couldn’t speak.
Not only did he know about the escape money—
he even knew she already knew his identity.
Her mind went completely blank.
Looking at his silent wife, Serge whispered sadly.
“It doesn’t matter what your true feelings are.”
“S-Serge…”
“You’ll never be able to leave the ducal family… ever.”
His pupils narrowed into thin vertical slits.
It was the sign of a fox beast using their power.
Before she could react to the dangerous aura, Raylee felt her strength drain away.
‘…Pheromones?’
As her consciousness faded, confusion filled her mind.
‘Serge isn’t someone who would do this…’
As if chasing the truth, Raylee remembered—
The first day she entered the Elestine Ducal Family as a child bride.
Back when both she and Serge were still just children.
