Chapter 2
“Did I keep you waiting long?”
The low, resonant voice vibrated in her ears, but it was the sight of her husband’s face up close that made Helena catch her breath.
She had felt it during the wedding, but he was almost too beautiful.
His cool, piercing eyes and refined nose lent an air of elegance, yet the blazing golden gaze beneath thick brows cast a dangerous edge over his entire presence.
Helena stared up at Kavil, momentarily dazed, as if she were prey ensnared by a predator. Then, her gaze caught on something that made her freeze.
Only now did she notice the dark crimson smear of blood on Kavil’s smooth cheek. It was so vivid, it was a wonderbecome an expert at noticing it.
Catching her stare, Kavil twisted his lips into a smirk. In a languid tone, he whispered to his bride.
“It’s our wedding night, after all. Sorry for being late.”
“……”
“I got caught up with some business on my way to you.”
Kavil flicked his eyes lightly toward his feet. Following his gaze, Helena swallowed hard, this time for an entirely different reason.
At his feet pooled a dark, circular stain of blood—whose, she couldn’t tell.
Red footprints marked the floor, trailing from where he had walked toward her.
Helena clenched her hands tightly together. Once she noticed the dark blood, her breath grew short, as if the heavy scent of it was swallowing her whole.
Kavil studied his pale-faced bride intently before speaking abruptly.
“Someone sent us a gift to celebrate our marriage.”
“……”
“I thought you might be curious, so I brought it myself.”
Without waiting for her response, Kavil strode back into the corridor. A moment later, the sound of something being dragged across the floor followed.
“My lady.”
At his deceptively gentle call, Helena looked up.
But the moment she saw what he held, her breath caught in shock.
Kavil asked in a casual tone, “Do you recognize this face?”
The “gift” he presented was a man in a black hood, his body limp and dangling like a rag in Kavil’s grip, possibly already dead.
Helena, whose trembling legs had barely held her up, collapsed to the floor.
“Well, it would be troublesome if you did know him.”
Kavil chuckled lightly and called out to his aide standing in the corridor.
“Pack it up nicely and send it back. The lady doesn’t seem to like her gift.”
“Yes, my lord.”
The door closed with a thud.
Kavil gazed down at the trembling Helena, then knelt before her.
The thick scent of blood lingered at her nose, and she gripped her dress tightly. Kavil’s eyes fell to her white-knuckled hands, and without thinking, he reached out toward her.
Helena recoiled sharply, a blatant rejection. His hand froze in midair, unable to reach her.
Droplets of dark blood from him had speckled her pristine white dress.
“Damn. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Kavil’s gaze lingered on her, unhurried, before he suddenly seized her chin.
Her wide eyes swirled with fear, anger, revulsion, and terror all at once.
He scanned his bride slowly, then whispered in a low voice.
“My lady, after tonight, you’ll never have to see me again.”
“……”
“Of course, I’ll ensure you’re treated with all the respect due a duchess. All the wealth and honor of the Destrian name will be yours to wield.”
Helena’s eyes trembled with confusion. Kavil continued, his gaze cold.
“All you need to do is stay out of my sight. If you hear me coming, leave the room. Make sure our paths never cross.”
“……”
“Live like a ghost in this manor, so I don’t even hear your breathing.”
“……”
“That’s your role. Understood?”
Suddenly, the whispers of Kavil’s infamy flooded Helena’s mind, as vivid as the praises sung in his name.
They called him colder than cruel—a monstrous deity who’d killed both his mother and father with his own hands, a beast who could tear apart massive creatures single-handedly.
Yet, despite his terrifying reputation, he was beloved by the empire’s people.
It was said that no servant of the Destrian household hadn’t received some kindness, great or small, from him. They feared him as much as they revered and adored him.
Helena found it strange. She wanted to understand this man with such a vast chasm between his virtues and vices, to know who her husband truly was.
She had convinced herself that the expression he wore at their wedding must have been a misunderstanding.
But…
Her eyes flickered with hollow despair.
To someone, he might be a hero worthy of praise. But to her, at this moment, he was every bit the cruel deity, beast, and monster of his infamy.
As Kavil, waiting for her response, began to rise impatiently, Helena called out to him in a small voice.
“…Your Grace.”
Her gaze, clearer now than before, met his.
“Please keep your word.”
“……”
“I, too… no longer wish to see you.”
Kavil raised an eyebrow, looking at her with amused interest.
“As you wish, my lady.”
“……”
“Is anyone out there? Butler!”
With a knock, the door opened, and the butler bowed his head.
“You called for me, sir?”
“Summon the maids. My lady must be exhausted, so heat the bathwater and bring her some warm tea.”
“Understood.”
Kavil, who had been staring at Helena with cold eyes, immediately left the room. The sound of his footsteps faded quickly into the distance.
As the suffocatingly thick scent of blood grew faint, Helena finally released the breath she had been holding.
She barely managed to sit up, leaning against the edge of the bed. Her entire body felt drained, as if utterly exhausted.
“Good heavens, my lady!”
The maids, spotting the stark white of her cheeks and the dark crimson blood staining her dress, rushed over in alarm. Helena, her eyes blurred with tears, blinked once before fainting dead away.
From that day on, Kavil never sought out Helena again. True to his savage warning that she should ensure he wouldn’t even hear her breathing, Helena avoided him as well.
Though they lived in the same mansion, the two never so much as brushed past each other. In this way, each erased the other’s existence for their own reasons.
At least, that was how it remained until their lives were bound together by something utterly absurd.
* * *
Two months after the wedding, Kavil left the estate. He claimed it was to conquer the lands of foreign tribes and turn them into vassal states.
Kavil and his knights rode off, kicking up clouds of dust as they departed from the mansion.
Helena leaned against the second-floor window, taking in the sight. Only when her husband was completely out of view did she descend to the first floor.
For the first week, she wandered the estate as if exploring every nook and cranny. She met the long-serving staff of the ducal household, exchanging greetings and conversations.
It was her own calculated effort to prevent her existence from being erased.
She was that desperate.
“You’ll finally prove useful one day.”
Suddenly, her father’s gleeful voice echoed in her ears.
“The day has come when you’ll repay me for raising you.”
Helena had no home to return to.
In the Florence count’s estate, she had been thoroughly erased as a person.
Her father, who hadn’t even known if she was alive or dead, only looked her in the eyes for the first time when she offered to marry Kavil in place of her sisters.
Through her marriage to Kavil, Helena had finally earned her father’s acknowledgment of her existence, her usefulness. If she divorced Kavil in this situation and returned to the count’s estate…
“Strive to earn the duke’s love. Do whatever it takes to bear an heir. Do you have any idea how much wealth the duke possesses? Even beasts repay their parents for raising them—surely you can do the same for your father.”
The greedy gaze of her father, now with a duke as his son-in-law, flashed in her mind. She held her breath for a moment before managing to steady it.
‘…So, no matter what, I have to survive here.’
Her knuckles turned white as she clenched her fists.
Ever since Kavil had ordered her not to appear in his sight, Helena had avoided leaving her room unless absolutely necessary, lest she encounter him.
The farthest she had ventured since the wedding was the garden behind the main building.
But suddenly, she had a premonition that living like this would lead to her existence being erased here, just as it had been at her family’s home. If she lived like a ghost, like air, like an old piece of furniture—present yet absent, as per his command.
She feared she would fade into something so indistinct that no one would remember her. That future terrified her more than she could imagine.
That was why, as soon as Kavil left, she roamed the estate freely and greeted each servant one by one.
In the ducal household, where nothing felt familiar. In this place where she alone was the stranger. It was her desperate struggle to survive, in her own way.
The servants, each secretly worried about their lady for their own reasons, felt immense relief seeing her come vividly to life the moment the duke departed.
“Did you see the butler smiling earlier? I had no idea he could smile so broadly!”
“It’s not just the butler. The head maid has been smiling lately too… Honestly, the atmosphere in the ducal estate has improved so much, and it’s all thanks to my lady.”
“I was worried she might divorce the master right away… I’m so relieved she’s decided to stay at the estate.”
Contrary to their concerns, Helena was far more resilient and strong-willed than they imagined.
In this way, during Kavil’s absence, she carved out her own place in the ducal household.
The servants opened their hearts to her as much as she opened hers to them. She even began painting in earnest after arriving at the estate, something she had only done sporadically back at the count’s home.
With so much more to see and feel than before, her canvases grew increasingly vibrant as time passed.
This was something Kavil had never anticipated.
* * *
One year later.
Rumors spread throughout the empire that Duke Destrian, who had left to subdue the foreign tribes, was returning.
The ducal estate buzzed with lively energy in preparation for its soon-to-return master. Avoiding the main building where the butler and head maid dashed about busily, Helena stepped out into the glass conservatory.
The only sounds reaching her ears were the wind rustling through the leaves, the chirping of birds, and the occasional patter of small animals.
Here, there were no sounds tied to Kavil—only things that brought her peace.
With a much more relaxed expression, Helena took out paper and a pencil.
Ever since hearing the news of Kavil’s return, she had felt as if someone were slowly tightening a noose around her neck. It was suffocating.
Just thinking of him brought back memories of their wedding night: the thick scent of blood on his fingertips and his gaze, chilling as it was nauseating.
“Live like a ghost in this estate so that I won’t even hear your breathing. That’s your role. Understood?”
‘When he returns… will I have to become a ghost again?’
More than facing Kavil himself, Helena dreaded the erasure of her presence in the estate.
To avoid letting him hear even her breath, her range of movement would inevitably shrink to something incomparable to now.
If she had never tasted freedom at all, it might have been bearable. But Helena didn’t want to live as she had before. She no longer wished to settle for merely wandering between her room, the annex, and the glass conservatory.
In the year without Kavil, she had undergone so many changes here.
Knowing every corner of the estate, she had come to cherish many spaces within it. And just as she had given her heart to them, many people had given theirs to her in return.
Helena didn’t want to easily give up what she had fought so hard to gain. She stared blankly at the empty drawing paper. More than thirty minutes had passed since she picked up the pencil, yet she had drawn nothing.
With a small sigh, she fidgeted with her necklace. It was her mother’s keepsake.
“Mom wants Helena to be happy.”
‘How can I… become happy?’
Helena clutched the necklace tightly.
* * *
“…I intend to pass the next imperial throne to the prince. I want you to become his sword.”
Kavil had been summoned to the palace immediately upon his return. Recalling the conversation he had just had with the emperor, his brow furrowed.
