20. Prove It To Me

‘Love?’

Adeline hesitated momentarily at the sudden confession.

After a brief thought, Adeline soon believed the duke asked such a question because of his insecurity.

She had lied about being lovers, and the memory-lost duke had only Adeline to rely on.

‘He might mistake it for love.’

Adeline thought the duke was confusing his feelings due to his lost memories.

Adeline was also confused about her feelings for the duke.

From the moment she was reborn as the daughter of the Marquis Credion family here in the Soltarius Empire, Adeline’s life had been a succession of loneliness.

The desolate mansion of the Marquis Credion family.

Even her father, Severus, did not give Adeline any affection.

It had been a long time since Adeline had received someone’s kind gaze or felt any warmth.

Perhaps that was why she enjoyed the time spent with Mel, but.

Adeline could not call such feelings love.

Adeline did not believe in love. Or rather, it was more accurate to say she did not know what it was.

Adeline had never felt parental love in her previous life or her current one.

The highly abstract word “love” did not fit with her life as an orphan.

“I like Mel too.”

Therefore, she could not speak of love to avoid the situation.

Because she didn’t know what love was. But saying she liked the current Mel was sincere.

‘Can’t you bring yourself to say you love me?’

Casis was well aware that Adeline had subtly changed “I love you” to “I like you.”

He wore a bitter expression.

Adeline, unaware that his memories had returned, merely thought that he was anxious because he had no memories.

She gave Mel a look of sympathy.

But to the duke, who was no longer Mel, her gaze seemed like nothing but mockery.

“Then. Will you never leave me?”

He pretended to still be the memory-lost Mel and asked again.

“Why would I leave Mel? We’re lovers.”

Adeline’s answer was intended only to calm Casis’s anxiety, as he must have become mentally unstable due to Hailo’s sudden appearance.

Adeline gave a gentle smile to further reassure Casis.

But Adeline’s smile only amplified Casis’s sense of betrayal.

To tell nothing but lies while making such a detestable expression.

‘Lovers? How ridiculous.’

There was no way we could be such a relationship.

‘So you intended to deceive me until the end.’

Looking at Adeline gazing at him with innocent eyes, he felt as if his blood was flowing backward.

Feeling his heart boiling as if stabbed by a dagger, he closed his eyes.

‘Is there nothing you wouldn’t do for your marquis family?’

The reason this woman was in Torpeo’s villa that no one knew about was probably because of Severus, who was the crown prince’s closest confidant.

Her father volunteered to be the crown prince’s lackey, and now it seemed he was trying to use his only daughter as well.

‘There was no sincerity from the beginning.’

It was a moment when the situation was clearly understood.

As the one strand of hope he had been barely holding onto snapped, his patience also ran out.

If she would deceive him to the end, he would mark every part of her as his own, even if he could not have her heart.

She would never be able to escape from him.

The duke pressed Adeline further. To see how far she would allow him for the sake of her family.

The duke gripped both of Adeline’s hands with one of his.

Just like when he had tried to kill Adeline in the past.

His lips, which descended hotly again, lost self-control and dug deeper.

“Then. Prove it to me.”

With those final words, his lips refused to leave hers.

Perhaps due to the thirst of not being able to have Adeline’s heart? The duke tormented her relentlessly as if trying to substitute for that unfillable thirst.

His lips, which had lost self-control, made her lips swell red.

His caressing touch was very careful at times, but would suddenly turn rough.

As if Mel, who had only looked at her, and Casis, who was steeped in betrayal, were coexisting.

Under his yearning touch and breath, hot heat began to rise throughout Adeline’s body.

Flowers continued to bloom where his lips had passed.

Her moist eyes became a catalyst that stimulated him.

The duke greatly disliked the pieces of cloth that stood between them. His hands were already undoing the strings around Adeline’s waist.

“S-stop. No more……”

As one piece of clothing after another came undone, Adeline seemed to come to her senses and grabbed Casis’s wrist.

But Casis had no intention of stopping. He brought Adeline’s delicate hand, which had blocked his actions, to his mouth and said while toying with it.

“How far will you allow me?”

Adeline, who met his red eyes, felt as if she would be devoured by his heated gaze.

He approached Adeline’s ear and whispered seductively.

“Shh.”

At the hot breath that came rushing in, Adeline became flushed with heat.

Her body, which had become heated, could no longer recall how to refuse Casis.

Adeline’s mind grew distant under Casis’s hot lips that toyed with her entire body.

One, two. The thin cloths began to fall helplessly beneath the bed. Soon, nothing existed to separate the duke and Adeline.

Adeline wanted to cover everything out of embarrassment for this situation where she had exposed all of herself.

However, his large hands that bound her two hands only gripped more strongly.

Adeline twisted her body at the weight of fear that seemed about to crush her. But the predator did not know how to release prey that had already been caught.

His hot breath persistently devoured every corner of Adeline. Adeline felt as if she would wear away under his persistence. The body heat they exchanged fueled each other’s heat even more.

As if unable to withstand that dense temperature, Adeline’s consciousness gradually grew distant. She felt as if she would melt away in the heat that spread deeply within her body.

The long night that seemed like it would never end could finally conclude as Adeline lost consciousness.

“You’ll have to keep that promise not to leave me.”

The night at the end of summer was exceptionally hot.

And as if to offset that heat, the duke’s red eyes were piercingly cold.

“Now that you’ve come to me. I have no intention of letting you go. Adeline.”

With those words, the duke left the villa, leaving Adeline alone.

⁕⁕⁕

Only by late afternoon did Adeline finally open her eyes.

Waking up after the intense previous night, Adeline found it difficult to properly control her body.

She turned with difficulty to lie facing where the duke would be.

The space beside her was cool without a trace of warmth, as if it had been vacant for a long time.

‘Mel……?’

Adeline could tell from the sunlight streaming through the window that it was well past lunchtime.

A time when his absence was natural. Yet she felt loneliness at the empty space beside her.

‘Where could he have gone?’

After leaning against the bed for a while, Adeline decided to go look for him.

Even if he had gone far, he would still be within the mansion.

She recalled him making soup when she was sick.

Adeline left the bed and slowly descended the stairs to the first floor. Contrary to her expectations, she could not feel any presence on the first floor.

‘Could he be in the garden?’

Adeline wandered around various parts of the garden searching.

But she could not find Mel anywhere.

‘Or maybe the study?’

Adeline, who had been searching for Mel outside for a long time, headed back to the villa toward the one place she hadn’t yet looked: the study.

Entering the study, Adeline was shocked.

The furniture that had been concealing the entrance to the basement was no longer fulfilling its role.

As if it had never been hidden by furniture, the basement entrance was clearly revealing its existence.

‘Could he be in the basement…!’

Adeline hurriedly descended toward the basement.

In the basement, there were still only the portrait of the affectionate mother and son and frames covered with cloth.

Adeline began to feel anxious.

If the duke had discovered this basement, he would surely have seen this frame in front of her as well.

A black-haired boy with red eyes and a woman who appeared to be his mother holding him.

‘Did seeing this picture trigger some memories?’

Adeline could not even gauge what had happened while she was unaware.

Adeline came back up from the basement.

Her mind was complicated.

She didn’t know who had moved the furniture, but it was possible that he hadn’t seen the basement.

“That would be fortunate…… I’m worried he might have seen it and remembered.”

Adeline moved the furniture again to cover the basement door.

Leaving the musty space of the basement and breathing the air of the study, Adeline calmed herself.

An uneasy feeling began to rise from a corner of her heart, but she couldn’t yet determine anything for certain. It could just be her excessive worry.

She thought that if the duke’s memories had returned, there was no way he would not have harmed her in some way.

Looking out the window, she saw the sun was setting.

‘He’ll probably return before it gets too late.’

Adeline composed herself and decided to wait for the duke. Still hoping he was Mel.