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Chapter 10
Hot breath brushed against her ear, and Edith shuddered involuntarily.
She closed her trembling eyelids and gave a small nod.
As his footsteps approached, she instinctively took a step back, only to feel the edge of the bed press against the backs of her knees.
She collapsed softly, but Denok firmly caught her, and the mattress dipped deeply beneath their weight before springing back into shape.
Everything—their breaths, the slightest touches—felt vivid and unfiltered.
It was clearly different from the last time.
Her heart pounded as if it might burst.
Denok placed one hand beside her head while the other slid under her thin slip, lifting it slowly.
His palm brushed the delicate skin of her inner thigh, making her clutch the bedsheets tightly without even realizing it.
“Are you frightened?”
His low, rich voice pierced her ears.
She flinched, but shook her head.
“…But you’re trembling.”
As she slowly opened her eyes, she realized tears had welled up and were wetting her lashes.
“It’s alright. Please… just continue like this.”
“…”
The silence that followed stretched on longer than expected.
His gaze, as he looked down at her, was as deep and unreadable as ever.
Dark like the hour just before nightfall.
She didn’t know how long their eyes remained locked.
Then, the hand holding her slip gradually retreated. And beyond that, Denok rose from the bed entirely.
“…What are you—”
Words caught in her throat.
Instinctively, she reached out and grabbed his arm.
“We… we have to keep up the act. Rachel is—”
Still half-risen, she whispered urgently while glancing toward the door, but Denok only looked down at her, unmoving.
What on earth is he thinking…?
Denok stared into her eyes, blue and wavering with confusion.
Even now, Edith kept glancing nervously toward the door, clearly worried Rachel might be listening.
Honestly, he didn’t want to care.
It was all a performance from the beginning.
There was no reason for emotion. No excuse for his heart to be stirred.
So he had tried to ignore it.
Her face, which turned pale whenever the Duke’s name was mentioned.
The way she trembled yet refused to put herself first.
That’s what I intended… and yet—
Denok pressed his lips together.
But the moment he caught the glisten in her tearful eyes, a strange, chilling discomfort crawled down his spine.
It was impossible to ignore.
“I want to ask you something.”
“…What?”
Her dazed expression made it clear she didn’t understand.
“I simply cannot comprehend.”
He furrowed his brows, continuing.
“This marriage benefits me far more than it does you.”
It freed him from the scrutiny of the cadet branches. It offered a way to stabilize his volatile mana. It silenced the suspicions of the Duke of Sertia—just by having her by his side.
All of that had only been possible through her.
But in return, what did she gain?
Nothing but the word freedom, earned through sleepless nights and unwanted intimacy.
“Tell me,” he said, his voice calm yet firm.
“Why are you being so kind to me? Is the freedom you spoke of truly worth enduring all this?”
Edith’s eyes wavered.
She hesitated, clearly debating how to respond.
Seeing that, Denok grasped her wrist and pulled her toward him without pause.
Her light frame fell easily into his arms.
Edith gasped and stiffened, while his fingers pressed lightly over the pulsing vein in her wrist.
He could feel it—thin, but beating furiously.
“If we are to be in the same boat, I have a right to know what you’re thinking,” he said quietly.
“Until then… know that I have no intention of laying even a finger on you.”
“….”
Edith lowered her head in silence.
Her gaze slowly dropped to where his hand still held her wrist.
She could feel her own pulse thrumming violently beneath his fingers.
At this rate, nothing she said would remain hidden.
She bit her lip and finally whispered:
“You reminded me of myself.”
Myself…?
Denok’s brow furrowed.
She swallowed dryly.
How could she explain this without sounding deceitful?
How could she make him understand—reach him?
She couldn’t reveal her memories from a past life, nor everything she had come to know about him.
But there was one thing she could say.
“You looked lonely. Just like me.”
She thought back to that day—
His broad back as he quietly slipped away from the ballroom crowd.
For some reason, it had reminded her of her own childhood—always chasing after her father’s distant figure.
The fear that if even this man turned away, she would truly be alone.
Maybe their underlying emotions were different.
He feared hurting others.
She feared being abandoned.
But the roads they walked felt painfully similar—desolate and cold.
And then—
“You asked me why freedom was so important to me, didn’t you?”
She recalled her few, faded memories of her mother.
Deep, murky recollections like the depths of the sea.
“My mother was always locked away in the underground.”
If word of her siren powers got out, chaos would follow. That’s what people believed.
So her father kept her hidden—sealed in the basement.
“I could only see her by going deep underground and passing through an iron gate. But before I could visit her one last time… she passed away.”
Her father had forbidden even that final meeting, claiming it might be contagious.
“And at the funeral… he clicked his tongue in annoyance.”
“…”
“You probably understand by now—my father is that kind of man. He uses people as disposable tools, all for the sake of the family.”
All she ever wanted was to escape that fate.
Perhaps the original Edith sought his approval to break free.
But she—she had chosen another way.
Edith looked up, feeling Denok’s gaze still lingering.
“So… you’re not the only one getting something out of this. I have my own reasons for walking this path.”
She offered a faint smile.
“We’re in the same boat now, aren’t we? Then, wouldn’t it be nice… if we could both reach a happy ending?”
For a moment, Denok’s amber eyes rippled with emotion.
Happiness.
Had he ever dared to even think of that word?
His life had been nothing but survival.
His memories lingered always at that one villa from his childhood—
His mother greeting him with a smile. His father lifting him high into the air.
And then… it all ended.
A blaze consuming everything, leaving his mind blank and white.
Every night, he told himself—just uncover the truth of that day, and then you can die.
So he paid no mind to what others thought of him. Whether they feared him, despised him—it didn’t matter.
He had already come to despise himself.
And now this woman spoke of happiness.
Still lost in thought, Denok suddenly felt her touch against his cheek.
He blinked.
“I’m really okay,” Edith said gently. “So… why don’t we continue the performance?”
She glanced toward the door, her face a little troubled.
“If we leave it like this, it’ll only raise suspicion…”
Her soft whisper brushed his ear, and Denok flinched.
He stared at her in silence.
Then, with a small sigh, he stepped away from the bed and walked toward the window.
Edith parted her lips to call his name, confused—
But fell silent at the sight of what he was doing.
He returned to the bed carrying a long ribbon—the curtain tie in his hand.
