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Prologue
Rosalyn calmly reviewed the situation in her head.
Everything was clearly her own fault.
There had been countless suspicious signs along the way.
The problem was that, unlike usual, she had noticed every single one of them and still chosen to think only what she wanted to think.
“Your Grace.”
After a light sigh, Rosalyn finally spoke. Not a trace of emotion could be heard in her voice.
She was not the kind of person who would patiently undo a button just because she had fastened it wrong the first time.
She was the type who would rather rip off the remaining buttons altogether.
“Whether the thing hiding back there is really a little rat or not doesn’t matter much to me.”
So instead of trying to reset this botched job back to the beginning, Rosalyn chose a solution that suited her much better.
“Because once something happens, it’s already too late anyway.”
It happened in the blink of an eye.
Deus stared blankly at the thin knife pressed against the back of his neck.
The blade was aimed perfectly at a vital point without the slightest tremor. It looked as though it could pierce his skin at any moment.
“So what will it be, Your Grace? Are you going to call out your little rat? Or are you going to write a reply?”
Where had everything gone wrong?
Darkness seemed to close in around him.
Deus let out a shaky breath.
“I’ll… write the reply.”
“You made the right choice.”
Rosalyn reversed the grip on the letter opener and handed it to him.
With no other option, Deus opened the envelope.
“Would you mind turning around for a moment?”
“And what if that knife ends up in my back the moment I do?”
Rosalyn spoke casually, though her words were anything but.
For the first time, a different expression settled over Deus’s face.
“That would… never happen.”
His voice sounded almost desperate.
Rosalyn shrugged lightly and stepped back.
“Well, who knows? If someone has lied once, who’s to say they won’t do it twice?”
Deus rubbed his face wearily.
Now that he had fallen into the trap he had set himself, there was no escaping it on his own.
“I’ll stand over here and compromise. That should be acceptable, right, Your Grace?”
After managing a nod, Deus unfolded the letter with trembling hands.
For a moment he seemed frozen, then his hand finally began to move.
“Here it is.”
Once he finished writing, Deus stood up.
Rosalyn rushed over and snatched the letter from his hand.
At last, the end of this infuriating commission was within reach.
“It could have been this easy from the beginning. You really went through a lot taking the long way around, Your Grace. It was an honor meeting you, and let’s never see each other again. Understood? Well then, goodbye.”
The moment she tucked the letter safely into her clothes, Rosalyn gave him a polite bow and quickly retreated.
“W-Wait…!”
Driven by panic, Deus instinctively reached out and grabbed her wrist.
And at that exact moment—
Crash!
The ceiling and floor seemed to flip upside down.
Deus blinked blankly from where he had been slammed into the floor.
Everything felt unreal.
The carpet pressing against his cheek.
The pain radiating from his twisted shoulder.
And the weight of another person on top of him.
“Ah…”
A soft exclamation escaped Rosalyn.
It was an entirely unconscious reaction.
“This looks exactly like the kind of situation people would misunderstand, but throwing you wasn’t intentional, Your Grace.”
Rosalyn hurriedly got to her feet and awkwardly began making excuses.
“This is, um… Ah, right! It’s because you have bad habits, Your Grace. Why are you grabbing people when words would do?”
Deus let out a hollow laugh as he slowly pushed himself up.
“I won’t apologize.”
Even so, Rosalyn apparently had enough of a conscience left to offer him a hand.
Her voice remained brusque.
Deus smiled quietly, took her hand, and rose from the floor.
“It’s fine. This was my fault.”
The sincerity with which he admitted his mistake left Rosalyn visibly flustered.
She quickly pulled her hand away.
“Anyway, be more careful from now on. If you keep grabbing people’s wrists like that, you’re going to end up getting slapped.”
Deus’s expression became even stiffer than when his face had hit the floor.
“I would never do this to anyone else.”
“No, I don’t mean literally other people standing nearby… Honestly, Your Grace. Having no social life isn’t exactly something to be proud of.”
“Isn’t it?”
Rosalyn sighed.
There was no point continuing the conversation. She would only lose out.
With a light movement, she instantly widened the distance between them.
“Think whatever you want. You can figure out your own social life. As for me, I’m a very busy woman, so I’ll be on my way.”
“Ah, wait…!”
“This time I’ll use the door. Climbing down the wall is a trade secret, so I can’t exactly show it off. Well then—let’s never see each other again!”
After delivering her farewell in a cheerful voice, she melted into the darkness beyond the doorway and disappeared.
Left alone, Deus let out a deep sigh and rubbed his face roughly.
Her words—let’s never see each other again—refused to leave his ears.
After a long while, he finally raised his head.
His icy blue eyes stared into the darkness.
“No.”
A completely different tone entered his voice.
“Absolutely not. No matter what happens… we will meet again.”
His gaze remained fixed on the shadows.
“I’ll make sure of it.”
