Killian, who had been watching her release Carol with folded arms, caught Rowena’s falling body in his arms just as she collapsed. Carol, whose last hope for survival had disappeared before her eyes, pleaded with bloodshot eyes.

“Please spare me! Please! I’ll do anything!”

She stared at him with a blurry gaze as he looked down on her. Those cold pupils made her whole body shudder with fear. It seemed almost as if she was a prey being spotted by the predator who had no other feelings other than hunger at that moment. Her lips trembled sensitively making every single hair on her body stand up. It was only then where the emotionless voice spoke. 

“I won’t kill you. Because she doesn’t want me to kill you.”

“Oh, god!”

After being abducted by a group of men who entered her residence in the wee hours of the night without reason, she thought that she was going to die. Killian, who had been watching Carol breathe a sigh of relief, turned around with Rowena in his arms.

A man stood in front of Carol as she fumbled to untie the rope that had restrained her left hand.

“What is this…?”

Her heart fluttered when she saw the scissors in his hand, and that was the moment Carol caught sight of Killian’s back as he slowly opened the door.

“Ah.”

“…….”

Killian spat out to advise the woman, as he paused for a moment right before he left— as if he were someone who had accidentally forgotten to inform of something important to them but irrelevant to him.

“Watch out for that tongue of yours.”

It was a direct statement, one that was not an analogy. Carol’s face felt numb as she froze up with fear as if she were like a corpse.. soon enough, a horrifying scream echoed throughout the old building.

Back at the residence, Bianca greeted her master at the door, and her eyes glanced over to Rowena, who was unconscious and held in the Duke’s embrace; her eyes widened out of surprise.

“Did anything happen to the young miss?”

“It’s not a big deal.”

His voice was the same as usual but somehow emitted much more coldness than usual. Killian walked right up the stairs past the staggered Bianca. He entered the bedroom and laid Rowena on the wide bed. 

Melissa, who had been following him silently while holding her breath, opened her mouth to speak softly.

“Your Excellency, I can take care of Lady Rowena..-.”

“-..I”

“…….”

“I thought that I had told you not to open your mouth when you’re before my presence?”

Although his tone was calm, it was as cold as an iced pillar. With her face turning a white shade of deadly pale, Melissa lowered her back a full 90 degrees.

“I’m sorry that I spoke out of line, Your Excellency.”

“Get out.”

There were no second chance when it came to the Duke’s standards. Melissa, aware of this fact, raised her back from the posture of bowing before she staggered out of the bedroom and left.

Killian sat on the bedside  chair, fishing his hand inside his breast pocket and took out a cigarette. The curtains were draped, and the misty smoke rose in the darkened bedroom.

It was Felix’s words that started the day.

―”You were right. There was indeed a courtesan under the name of Rowena Philone. It’s located in a small town, so she was very popular as “The duke’s old mistress.”

The moment Killian heard that, he felt as if all the blood in his body had been flowing backwards.

―”The miss …… no, Lady Rowena has been framed… What happened five years ago is also not true.…. (Sobbing).”

As soon as he heard Melissa’s confession, all of the assumptions he had all along seemed to make sense, and he felt as if he was slowly being crushed to death by the weight of the truth that poured down upon him in his heart. He was doing his best just to suppress the feeling of having the urge to tear everything apart.

Until he finds out who was involved with the truth of said events, killing Benedict would have been an easy task. Even if he did do so, it would have merely been like cutting off the tail of a snake. There was still something more in terms of the truth, and to reach the bottom of it, he planned to go to the capital in the social season even though he hated it as such during that time of year.