You are at the End of the Downfall

Well, for Kaela, who had no one to play with except a brother seven years older, it might not be a good memory. She had to follow him around constantly, and he probably didn’t play with her well.

Then, did she already dislike him before the regression? Was his feeling that Kaela liked him just an arrogant misunderstanding of his inflated ego?

“I must have been quite a bother to you.”

Kaela, for her part, thought Peon had changed so much after meeting him again after death that she didn’t know how to respond.

Before she died, throughout their married life, he had treated Kaela like a complete stranger, as if there were no childhood memories at all. So it felt very unfamiliar when he brought up old memories first.

“No. You were cute and lovely.”

Kaela, who widened her eyes at his words and just kept blinking, was still just as cute and lovely now.

Even if she followed him well when young, now that she’s old enough to know better, how could she be interested in someone seven years older? Peon couldn’t dare approach her, if only because of the age difference.

He had to make sure Kaela didn’t waste these years more brilliant than jewels. There should be no more unjust deaths at such a young age because of a cowardly and weak husband.

“It was an enjoyable meal for a change.”

He said formally as he stood up. He had to maintain boundaries since they were going to part ways anyway. He had to restrain, tie up, and lock away the part of himself that wanted to go crazy and cross that line.

“Have a good night, Your Highness.”

Peon suppressed his desire to stay seated longer and forced himself to get up and leave the bedroom.

As soon as he stepped outside, the cool air hit him. Having left his wife in his bedroom, he was sleeping on a makeshift bed hastily set up in a room next to his office.

Working late and sleeping on an uncomfortable bed was familiar to him as a soldier. After the regression, he didn’t even feel the discomfort. He had to endure. Only by enduring could he protect.

However, separate from that, there were times when his senses became unnecessarily sharp. Peon detected light footsteps coming up the opposite corridor facing the Grand Duke’s bedroom.

Today, Beatrice Ravalley had to use the Grand Duchess’s bedroom out of necessity. Peon, not wanting to run into her, immediately left the front of the Grand Duke’s bedroom.

“Rolf!”

But even when he came to his office, he could hear Beatrice calling for the butler.

“Where’s Peon?”

“Ah, at this hour, he’s probably in his office.”

And unlike with Kaela, he could hear everything, including the butler’s voice being so kind to Beatrice, despite the thick walls, doors, and dozens of stairs between them.

His senses, which had become hypersensitive after the regression when the seal no longer worked, were helpful at times like this. Peon got up from the seat he was about to sit in again and headed for the bathroom.

“I need to wash up.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

He deliberately blocked his senses from focusing towards the Grand Duke’s bedroom and avoided Beatrice. As soon as he retreated to the bathroom, he heard the office door open.

“Peon? …He’s not here. Where is he wandering off to?”

He knows. Beatrice is persistent. She has very strong desires and does anything to fulfill them. She’s determined to see Peon somehow tonight.

‘How annoying.’

No, it was beyond annoying—it was irritating. He’s the master of this castle, yet he’s in a situation where he has to avoid an uninvited guest.

However, he was determined never to meet Beatrice alone. He couldn’t sully Kaela’s honor by failing to properly play the role of husband, as he had before the regression.

Peon, sitting in the bathtub with his arms casually draped, brushed his hair back. He wondered if Kaela was bathing now too. Would the water be warm? She should be careful not to catch a cold.

“Rolf! Peon’s not in his office?”

“Ah, he’s in the bathroom right now.”

“Where?”

Peon sighed, looking at the ceiling. He hoped Kaela would quickly replace this butler who couldn’t tell inside from outside and blabbed every trivial detail of the Grand Duke’s movements to outsiders.

He was a husband who had entrusted everything to his wife. He intended to give everything to Kaela and live with nothing for himself.

There was no time to leisurely sit in the bathtub. He quickly washed himself, wrapped a large towel around him, and left the bathroom. He narrowly avoided Beatrice.

“Peon? …Tch, he’s not here.”

Her voice was bright when calling his name, but it turned vicious in an instant when she realized he wasn’t there.

She hadn’t seen him since dinner tonight, and the situation had changed, making her quite anxious. But even so, for a woman to barge into where he was bathing, a married man, was she in her right mind? What on earth had she been doing in places he couldn’t see!

“…Ah.”

Peon, who had come out wearing clothes haphazardly, groaned and put his hand on his forehead. Water was dripping from his wet hair, but he had no presence of mind to wipe it away.

Before the regression, how much must Kaela have struggled in places he didn’t know about.

The exiled former head maid, Doris Windgood, had complained that the Grand Duchess was picky and kept changing maids, but surely those maids must have done something wrong. He should have looked into even such trivial matters. If he had, Kaela would now…

“Peon?”

Peon, leaning against the wall in a white shirt with unbuttoned buttons and a towel around his neck, turned to look at Beatrice, who had finally found him.

“Ah, here you are. I’ve been looking for you for a while.”

“Why me?”

As a dry voice returned, Beatrice smiled brightly.

“Because I missed you.”

“It’s late. Good night.”

No, I hope you have nightmares, Peon muttered without sincerity as he moved. Only Kaela needed to sleep well.

“S-sleep, you say?”

Beatrice stammered, too dumbfounded.

This flower of high society, the queen who ruled over social circles had come, and he just says he’s going to sleep? She thought it was perfect timing that Peon was wearing just a shirt and pants even in this chilly weather, and she had come prepared to cross a line she had never crossed before, but he says he’s going to sleep?

What had gone wrong?

“Peon, it’s been so long since we met. We should catch up.”

She deliberately made her voice seductive and approached slightly, but before her white hand could reach out, Peon was already walking far away. It was obvious he wasn’t even listening to what she was saying.

“Where are you going?”

He grabbed the door of the Grand Duke’s bedroom in front of Beatrice, who was chasing after him, and opened it.

“Where else?”

He glanced down at Beatrice with cool eyes, fully revealing the muscles he had developed through actual combat.

The moonlight pouring in through the windows in the corridor illuminated his wet hair, dark eyebrows, delicate eyes and tightly closed lips, his fully exposed neck and chest, and down to his abdomen.

His body, devoid of any fat and filled only with muscle, was filled with pure masculinity. Beatrice felt her throat go dry.

“To my wife.”

And the next moment, Peon went through the open door. The door slammed shut in front of Beatrice’s eyes.