Chapter 6
Really… there’s no predicting her.
Sometimes she acted like someone who charged forward without thinking.
Sometimes she behaved with a level of insolence far beyond what anyone could reasonably tolerate.
And at moments like this—
She resembled a small animal trying desperately to hide itself in the corner.
Each trait felt like it belonged to a different person entirely.
Yet all of them belonged to this woman.
“Did you injure your ears?”
The heavy silence finally cracked.
Valderion didn’t bother hiding his curiosity. In truth, he never felt much need to conceal his thoughts from someone like her.
When his voice crossed the empty space between them, Lilet’s hands paused briefly.
Though she had been absentmindedly picking at her food, her movements had at least been steady.
Now they faltered.
Awkwardly.
Valderion had already noticed that the number of fingers giving her trouble had increased from two to three.
“……”
Lilet had definitely heard him.
She had even flinched.
Yet she resumed moving her hands again, continuing her clumsy meal as though no one had spoken.
As though he didn’t exist.
Valderion let out a short laugh.
“Seems obvious, but I’ll ask anyway.”
“……”
“Was Dailyn the reason?”
Lilet froze again.
No answer.
Ignoring him once had been enough.
Frankly, the fact that he had tolerated it even once was already generous by his standards.
Yet this woman—who could display the temperament of an unruly colt without hesitation—continued acting disrespectfully as if she hadn’t noticed his patience running thin.
Valderion tapped the wineglass sharply with the knife in his hand.
Clink—
Since the glass was empty, the sound rang harshly through the room.
Lilet’s pale eyes widened slightly.
He lifted a brow, urging her to answer.
Still—
Her red lips refused to part, as if locked shut.
Instead, irritation briefly flickered across her face.
More than irritation—
Revulsion.
The disgust embedded there wasn’t difficult to notice.
Valderion tightened his grip on the knife.
Then he began tapping the glass rhythmically.
Again.
And again.
The small, fragile figure—so thin it seemed less like she wore clothes and more like the clothes wore her—flinched as though sparks were flying at her.
“Stop…”
Her voice came out quietly.
The scraping only grew louder.
Unable to endure it any longer, Lilet abruptly stood.
Her delicate features were twisted with discomfort.
“Sit down.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Why do you insist on making everything difficult?”
Valderion struck the glass one final time.
Cracks that had already spread across its surface finally gave way.
The glass shattered.
Using the flat side of the knife, he swept the fragments onto the floor.
The shards glittered as they fell, like sunlight caught in grains of sand.
“Is answering one question really that difficult?”
“I don’t want to answer.”
“At least now I understand Dailyn taught you terrible manners.”
Ignoring the jab, Lilet turned and walked toward the bed.
Arms crossed, Valderion stared at the back that looked light enough to be blown away by a strong breeze.
“Think carefully.”
“……”
“Does stubbornly resisting without understanding your place really benefit you?”
Silence.
“If you keep acting like an animal that can’t understand simple words…”
His voice lowered.
“I might start treating you like one.”
Lilet’s shoulders trembled faintly.
Is she crying?
For a moment, Valderion couldn’t tell whether he wanted that or hated the thought.
After a pause, she slowly turned her head.
Her eyes were dry.
She wasn’t crying.
Instead—
One corner of her lips twisted upward.
“Why are you smiling?”
The question escaped before he realized it.
Lilet’s expression flattened again, blank as untouched paper.
Then she glanced downward.
“It’s not like I’m being treated like a person right now either.”
“……”
“Locked in a room. Forbidden from leaving. Forced to eat whether I want to or not…”
Her voice remained calm.
“Would you call that humane treatment?”
“Judging by your inability to understand simple warnings, I’d say my decision wasn’t wrong.”
After speaking with him several times, she had learned enough.
This man had a talent for stretching conversations endlessly until he drained the other person dry.
Her thoughts already pounded like a migraine.
Arguing with him exhausted her.
“I have no appetite.”
She kept walking.
“So I’d like to stop eating. Please understand.”
Lilet turned her back with finality, as though even offering that explanation was an act of generosity.
Valderion watched her retreating figure.
One step.
Two steps.
Then he pressed down hard with his foot.
On the chain.
The chain attached to the shackle around her ankle.
He yanked it sharply.
Naturally, Lilet lost her balance.
Fortunately, she had already reached the bed.
Otherwise she might have fallen badly.
But the danger came from elsewhere.
“—!”
At some point, he had risen from the chair.
His shadow stretched over her feet.
A chill ran down her spine.
Lilet hurriedly tried to turn—
But the force pressing against her back reached her first.
“Ah—!”
It wouldn’t have been wrong to say she had been forced flat against the floor.
His shadow swallowed hers.
Pressure brushed against the tightly fastened buttons running down her back.
Lilet stiffened.
Fingers—
No.
A palm.
The man looming above her pressed his hand somewhere against her back.
“Understand this clearly.”
His voice sounded lower this close.
More oppressive.
As if it squeezed tightly around every sense she possessed.
Proof enough—
Her entire body had gone rigid.
“You’re not the only one uncomfortable.”
His hand remained there.
“I’m uncomfortable too.”
The pressure shifted.
“Why should I have to be tangled up with someone like you?”
It was definitely his palm.
At first.
But gradually, it became fingers.
Slowly tracing along her back.
Finding the spaces between buttons.
The contact itself was small.
Insignificant.
Yet in this position—
With him pressed so close—
With the place beneath his fingers hiding the Name branded there—
She couldn’t stay calm.
“That attitude irritates me too.”
His voice brushed against her ear.
“I told you to understand your situation.”
“W-Wait—!”
“You should be figuring out what type of woman I like.”
His fingers continued moving.
“Imitating that woman.”
“……”
“And throwing yourself into my bed if survival matters that much.”
Cold flooded her veins.
Lilet knew what was necessary to fix these cursed hands and feet.
Names were feared because they made salvation dependent on another person.
Only the owner of your Name could free you from the curse.
“There’s… no way…”
Even so—
Her resolve remained firm.
This was Eustutia.
The bloodline of the people who destroyed her family.
The Imperial Family’s executioners.
She would beg anyone else for her life if necessary.
But never them.
No matter how broken she became.
No matter how pathetic.
The handful of pride she still possessed refused to bend.
A quiet laugh brushed the back of her neck.
“Even if you die because of it?”
Thump.
Her heart dropped.
She remembered the endless white snowfield.
The cold that had frozen every bone and nerve in her body.
Maybe because she had accepted death then—
Death remained something lonely.
Cruel.
“Or suffer pain equal to death?”
Valderion understood exactly what kind of torment awaited her.
Barely steadying herself, Lilet pressed trembling hands into the carpet.
Her voice sounded fragile enough to snap.
“Rather than shamelessly flattering you…”
The rest remained unspoken.
But he understood.
I’d choose that instead.
Valderion looked down at the frail body trembling beneath him.
His fingers had already slipped between the buttons.
Resting over the fabric directly above the Name.
He curled them slightly.
Rubbed.
Scratched lightly.
“—!”
For one terrifying second—
Lilet thought her heart had stopped.
Her reaction was immediate.
Violent.
Nothing like before.
This wasn’t merely touching the surface anymore.
Something deeper had been disturbed.
Valderion felt something strange settle over him.
Moments ago, this woman had stubbornly argued without backing down.
Yet touching the Name alone reduced her to this.
For the first time—
He truly understood how much influence the Name engraved onto her body held.
Absolute influence.
His fingers finally pushed aside the fabric.
Her chemise remained underneath, hiding bare skin.
But the material was thin.
Beneath it—
His name was faintly visible in black.
He pressed a fingertip directly over it.
“Don’t… don’t do that…!”
A strange current raced through Lilet’s hands and feet.
Her body twitched.
Parts of herself that had felt numb and foreign for days suddenly sparked painfully back to life.
Valderion ignored it.
Kept moving his hand.
It was only one small area.
Something insignificant.
And yet—
The heat filling the air between them felt disproportionate.
As though something far more intense were happening.
Then—
The stiffness broke.
Her fingers stretched into the air desperately, as if reclaiming freedom after ages.
Using that movement, she struggled.
Tried crawling away.
Her hand reached forward—
Only for Valderion’s hand to slam over it against the floor.
“I’m not asking you to endure forever.”
“……”
“Just survive one year.”
