Chapter 1

The summer of the Belotea Empire was short yet dazzling.

Cassian Sarkis narrowed his eyes against the blazing sunlight as he arrived at the harbor.

“Your Grace, are you alright?”

The salty sea breeze brushed against his sculpted face. Cassian slowly pushed back his disheveled black hair.

The picturesque sight made even passersby hold their breath as they secretly glanced at the man.

“My fiancée tried to flee into exile today.”

As if the gazes around him meant nothing, Cassian immediately spoke about the matter at hand.

“It seems she was trying to board a ship headed for the Kingdom.”

After turning his entire life upside down, was she really going to run away?

Cassian exhaled a suppressed breath through clenched teeth.

“Has she already boarded?”

“Yes, she has. Shall we bring her to you?”

Was she planning to go find that worthless childhood friend who had moved to the Kingdom?

Cassian stared at the ship and let out a hollow laugh.

A clear jealousy burned in his red eyes.

“No. I’ll go myself.”

He forced a faint smile onto his neat lips, as if refusing any objection.

* * *

The narrow corridor in front of the cabin was quiet and dim.

And in that place stood a woman who shone as if she didn’t belong there.

So she really was here.

Cassian bit his lower lip, swallowing the emotions rising inside him.

He was relieved that he had found her before losing her forever, but the fact that she had truly tried to leave him filled him with despair.

“Damia Ponti.”

Startled by the voice, the woman turned around.

She had pulled a shabby cloak over herself, as if trying to hide her identity.

“Why are you so surprised? Did you really think I wouldn’t be able to find you?”

He only took a couple of steps forward, yet she was already pressed back against the wall.

Perhaps shocked by his sudden appearance, Damia’s violet eyes widened like a startled rabbit’s.

Even in this moment, he found that expression adorable, which made him feel ridiculous.

“Young Duke—no, Your Grace. Why are you here…?”

“Why else? I came to bring back my fiancée, who ran away before our wedding.”

“Our wedding? Were you really planning to marry me?”

“What?”

Cassian’s eyes shook at the unexpected question.

“And what do you mean I ran away? What did I do wrong to run away?”

So… she wasn’t actually trying to escape?

A small hope rose in Cassian’s chest.

“I’m just… leaving. For a new beginning.”

But that hope collapsed instantly.

“…And there’s no place for me in your new beginning?”

“Huh?”

Damia only looked confused.

“Wait… shouldn’t you get off quickly? What if the ship leaves while you’re still here?”

“Don’t change the subject, Damia. You were the one who proposed to me first. Don’t tell me you’re already tired of me now”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden? You never paid any attention to me during the entire contract period!”

Damia glanced around and then shouted quietly, sounding genuinely wronged.

“Didn’t you personally hand me the contract and say not to misunderstand kindness? You kept emphasizing that this engagement was just a transaction!”

Her accusation wasn’t wrong.

Cassian’s fiery momentum faltered.

At that moment, her smooth silver hair slipped out from beneath the cloak and fluttered in the wind.

Whenever Damia moved, a faint sweet fragrance followed her. The rationality he had barely been holding onto felt like it might snap.

“So what kind of new beginning are you planning in the Kingdom? Are you going to that childhood friend of yours…?”

Damia inhaled sharply and avoided his gaze.

That reaction was unlike his fiancée, who had always looked him straight in the eyes despite his cold treatment.

“So you really were planning to do that?”

“No, I…”

A sigh-like laugh escaped Cassian.

Rather than letting Damia slip away like this, he almost wanted to drop to his knees and beg her not to abandon him.

Even though he had never bowed his head to anyone since the day he was born.

But he was afraid that if he did, Damia would grow completely tired of him.

“You said you loved me. You said you loved me so much that even knowing you’d die soon, you still wanted to stay by my side.”

“That’s…”

“When did you decide to leave? Did someone mistreat you? Or did I do something wrong?”

“That’s not it.”

“…Then were you planning to leave from the very beginning?”

“No, that’s… because Your Grace would never fall in love with me again this time…”

Damia muttered something strange, as if in a daze, but Cassian didn’t notice anything unusual.

He only stared at her violet eyes that were trembling pitifully.

Her lips kept moving, but in the end she couldn’t offer either denial or explanation.

“Haha…”

Seeing her reaction made it clear.

Until today, he had been in love with his own fiancée all by himself.

He felt lost between the clumsy love he realized too late and the unreasonable sense of betrayal he felt toward Damia.

The heated breath whenever he thought of her.

The countless nights he spent awake because of emotions he refused to acknowledge.

“Damia, you can’t leave.”

The arrogant boy had disappeared, leaving only a man whose desperation bordered on dangerous.

“No matter what scheme you had when you proposed to me, I have no intention of letting you go for the rest of my life.”

“Your Grace, our contract has already ended.”

Damia’s voice was firm, as if his regret now meant nothing.

He never imagined that the childish contract from back then would bind him like this.

“I’ll even accept your pity.”

“What?”

“I’ll beg if I have to. No—I’ll do anything you tell me. So please… just don’t abandon me.”

In the end, Cassian shamelessly begged.

Damia turned pale, like someone who had forgotten how to breathe.

“Your Grace… you always found me bothersome. So why…?”

The hot summer air tightened around them, but it wasn’t as painful as Damia’s bewildered expression.

Yes.

The day he first met this cowardly fiancée of his was also a brilliant summer day.

When he was fifteen.

* * *

“I’ll make a prophecy. Your brilliant life is about to fall.”

“…What?”

Cassian Sarkis, a fifteen-year-old boy who had been relaxing against a tree while admiring the lake, frowned.

“But I’ll save it for you. Actually, I’m in love with you, Young Duke.”

She had silver hair that reached her waist and jewel-like violet eyes.

Her youthful face was doll-like and pretty, yet she was painfully thin.

And despite making such a sudden confession at such a young age, she looked completely calm.

“Ah, I’m Damia from the Ponti Baron family. It’s a rather insignificant family, and I’ve never really stood out before, so you probably don’t know me.”

Even her late introduction was astonishing.

What nonsense is this… A new method to approach me? These girls will try anything now.

Every girl in the Belotea Empire tried strange tactics to get Cassian’s attention.

Cassian was about to sneer and scold the girl.

But Damia Ponti smiled as if she had already predicted his reaction.

“You’ve already been told the day you’ll die, haven’t you?”

“…Wh— what did you say?”

That single sentence shocked him enough to freeze his entire body.

“What kind of ridiculous nonsense are you talking about?”

“Unfortunately, your denial came a moment too late, young duke.”

Damia let out a light sigh and shrugged.

“You don’t have to hide anything from me. I’m on your side.”

She looked several years younger than him, yet her eyes held a strange pity, as if she were looking at a much younger sibling.

“Where did you hear something like that…?”

Sparks seemed to flare in Cassian’s red eyes.

If it had been an ordinary girl, she would have burst into tears at his sharp tone.

But Damia remained completely calm.

“Now then, I’ll explain how useful I can be to you.”

“You dare say something like that to me and think you’ll get away with it?”

“In return, please become my fiancé.”

Cassian Sarkis, the only heir of the Sarkis ducal family, had a life that was perfectly flawless.

Until the summer when he was fifteen—

when a baron’s daughter with no presence discovered his lifelong secret and suddenly proposed to him.