“I’m going to get revenge.”
She was trembling.
She felt like someone whose very life force had been drained away — her body weightless with exhaustion. But she summoned the last reserves of whatever strength she had left and clenched her fist.
‘The location hardly matters. Now I’ve just added another trauma to my collection.’
“How, exactly.”
Still trembling, she forced out a thin breath and let her indignation carry her.
She opened her eyes with cool defiance. Fixed them on Kael. Delivered her warning with cold finality.
“I will never let you into the annex again.”
“Ah. Devastating revenge.”
‘Still trembling.’ She had lost another argument. It was mortifying.
Her teeth were grinding with sheer frustration.
Kael, who apparently found this tremendously amusing, was lounging there with a faint smile, lazily winding a lock of her hair around his fingers.
“You think I won’t?”
She squared her jaw and even switched to plain speech — anything to project even a shred of intimidation.
“Mm.”
“You’re sorely mistaken. Whether we’re a couple or married — I have every right to say no.”
“The person who seduced me every time invoking the right to refuse seems a bit contrary to the spirit of things.”
As he said it, he pressed his finger into her left cheek.
Not a ‘poke’. A ‘press’. Slow and deliberate, sinking into the last soft curve of childhood still left in her face.
“Oh, honestly—”
She flailed like a live wire, hammering the sheet beside her with her fist.
“And such good reactions.”
“That’s not a ‘reaction’, I’m just annoyed—”
“Right. And you’re annoying to provoke.”
She squeezed her eyes shut and exhaled sharply through her nose.
‘I cannot take this anymore.’
She sat bolt upright, assumed a boxing stance, and drove her fist into his chest — bare, since he was wearing nothing above the waist. Several times.
“You might want to stop.”
“Oh — does it hurt?”
‘That would be ideal.’ She waited hopefully.
“No. I might do it again.”
“You are a genuine deviant! Why does being hit make you—”
She scooted backward across the bed, increasing the distance between them as much as the mattress allowed. A primal survival instinct in the face of something deeply abnormal.
“Let’s go out.”
“W-where?!”
“…Why are you covering yourself?”
She hadn’t even noticed she’d done it. But she knew why.
‘Because you lunge at me at every opportunity, that’s why.’
She swallowed the words. The moment anything remotely suggestive left her lips, he would turn it around and insist she had been the one to start it.
“I’m just — cold.”
“Cold?”
He engulfed her like a wave. Quite literally — he lifted the edge of the blanket and swept it over her, then rolled her up in it as he went, wrapping her tightly from head to toe.
Like being made into a roll of kimbap.
“Wh-what — what is—”
Kael stood, lifted her bundled form as easily as one might lift a log, and began walking — toward the window.
“Not the window! People can see in from outside!”
She kicked and squirmed as hard as she could. Useless — she was wrapped too tightly.
“This is genuinely mortifying — ‘mmph.'”
“What were you imagining.”
He settled her against him from behind, tucked his face into her neck, and murmured quietly:
“I wouldn’t show this to anyone. Why would I let other people see you like this?”
“I — I thought you were going to do something by the window—”
“You really do have an interesting imagination. If that’s what you want, I can oblige.”
“No — I don’t!”
She writhed again. That was always how it worked — he had a way of subtly making it seem as if she had been the one to suggest things.
“Look at the moon.”
He whispered it against her ear.
She tilted her gaze upward.
“Oh — it’s enormous.”
The moon was genuinely remarkable. With only a small exaggeration, it seemed to take up half the window.
Kael murmured again, closer now.
“Want to go out and see it?”
“Yes! Let’s go right now!”
* * *
It was the deep of night, and not a single servant was in sight.
Kael led her deep into the garden.
From that point, she began to grow wary. She fell behind, watching him sideways with deliberate caution — until Kael sighed.
“Not outside.”
“Swear on that moon.”
“Yes, I swear.”
She relaxed her guard at last, still half-worried she’d been fooled again — but the place Kael had led her to was the glass greenhouse.
“Oh! I’ve never been inside!”
The walls were entirely glass — the night sky and the moon were perfectly visible. The moon was large and luminous, and the interior of the greenhouse shimmered with a soft, silver light.
“This is beautifully maintained. Mr. Brendan must be enormously capable.”
She wandered, looking at everything. At the center stood a small decorative fountain, the water perfectly clear and still.
The clear water caught the moonlight and scattered it in tiny, brilliant fragments.
“Oh — it sparkles just like starlight! Hmm? Kael?”
He had vanished. He had been right behind her a moment ago.
She turned and searched. Somewhere behind the fountain, a long shadow waited.
“Kael, what are you doing over there?”
‘Surely not a ghost…’
Thankfully, not a ghost. Kael was standing with his hands clasped behind him.
“You startled me — disappearing like that!”
His eyes curved — warm, unhurried.
In the dark, his red irises looked deeper than usual. More arresting. A little dangerous.
He tilted his chin toward the bench beside him.
“…You want me to sit?”
A single nod. No words.
She went to the bench and sat, folding her hands in her lap, uncertain.
“Close your eyes.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Close. Your eyes.”
He said it with sudden severity. The commanding tone made her snap her eyes shut immediately — so tightly that small lines appeared at the corners.
“Why? You’re not doing something, are you?”
“……”
“Hello?”
Curiosity won.
She cracked one eye open. Just barely.
‘…Oh.’
Kael was at eye level with her. He had gone down on one knee before the bench where she sat.
‘Oh, goodness.’
For a moment, every coherent thought dissolved. ‘Is it even legal to be that handsome?’
Like a switch being flipped in her head — yes, this was what people meant by a revelation.
And those eyes were devastating. Captivating. Impossible.
Those eyes, that face — and the faintest, most knowing smile at the corners of his mouth—
‘…Dangerous.’
It took considerable time for her rationality to reassemble itself. She stared at Kael’s face, completely empty.
‘My.’
‘Snap.’ He flicked his fingers in front of her face. She blinked back to herself like a switch being thrown.
“You’re drooling.”
“‘What?!'”
She frantically wiped her mouth. Nothing was there.
“…Don’t lie!”
Kael took her tightly clenched fist in his hand and slowly opened it, lacing his fingers through hers.
Her hand came to rest in his, just like that.
“……”
He bent his head and pressed a long, firm kiss to the back of her hand. Above it, his eyes met hers — and tonight, they looked deeper than she had ever seen them.
‘…My heart.’
It was a sight dangerous enough to stop it entirely.
“Will you marry me, Lady Ivelina Florence.”
“……”
“Consider it. I can make you happy — day and night.”
* * *
