Chapter 1: Regret? I Don’t Do That 

Clea gazed absentmindedly at the dazzling chandelier lights that were intense enough to be felt even from the terrace.  

Inside the banquet hall, Aria Hersher was laughing with the others, enjoying a happy time.  

Surrounded by countless people who loved and cherished her.  

‘Among them is my fiancé, Lloyd.’  

As soon as that thought crossed her mind, Clea swallowed the bitterness rising in her throat and shifted her gaze.  

She wanted to leave this secluded and lonely terrace, but there was no place for her inside.  

After all, she was the notorious Clea Odoi.  

Even if she were to be there, no one would welcome her; she’d only receive uncomfortable stares.  

Rather than face that, being alone here was the better option. She laughed briefly before biting her lip.  

“I’ll be dead soon, anyway. What’s the point of making things awkward by showing my face?”  

Clea furrowed her brow as she thought about the pain near her heart.  

She didn’t have much time left.  

Did they even know?  

That she was terminally ill.  

There wasn’t much time left. Spending her remaining days with people she wanted to see was far better than facing those she didn’t.  

And if there was no one she wanted to see, she thought, she’d rather spend that time alone.  

But that thought was fleeting.  

Suddenly sensing someone’s presence, she looked around, only to find an unexpected figure.  

“What brings you here, Your Highness the Crown Prince?”  

“Why are you alone here?”  

“I’m here because I have no place inside.”  

The Crown Prince of the Empire, Edmund Wilhelm.  

One of the very few who didn’t let rumors sway his perception of her.  

By the original story’s logic, he should despise her more than anyone for Aria’s sake. Yet, he approached her with a calm expression.  

‘In the original, you should be in there dancing with Aria. Why are you here?’  

Clea wasn’t thrilled about his approach, but she still offered him a smile.  

After all, she thought, if she couldn’t smile on a blessed day like the Emperor’s birthday, when could she? But even to herself, the smile felt forced.  

“You’re the young lady of the Odoi Ducal family. There’s no way you don’t have a place in there.”  

‘Why would someone who knows that even say such a thing?’  

The usual sharp, snake-like glint in her eyes was gone.  

Edmund thought she seemed as if she might disappear at any moment, and he reached out a hand toward her.  

Seeing his hand extended, like he was inviting her to join him, Clea’s expression stiffened for a moment before softening again.  

If this gesture was the victor’s magnanimity, she could accept it as such.  

After all, he was Edmund Wilhelm, the male lead who would eventually claim the heroine, Aria Hersher.  

But Clea glanced at the scene beyond him and shook her head.  

If she returned to the banquet with him, at least for the moment, people wouldn’t openly criticize her. But the moment she parted from Edmund, who knew what they’d say?  

Though it might displease the victor, she had no desire to step into a den of gossip.  

Her life was too short for that.  

“Edmund, I have one last request.”  

A final request.  

The two of them weren’t in a relationship where requests were exchanged.  

Yet neither Clea, who spoke first, nor Edmund, who listened quietly, pointed this out.  

Edmund silently looked down at Clea standing before him.  

Clea met his gaze and smiled.  

“Would you have a drink with me?”  

What would he say?  

Before speaking, he must have already made up his mind.  

That he should refuse, thinking she might be up to something.  

But unlike his usual self, Edmund couldn’t make an immediate decision.  

Seeing his hesitation, Clea took a step closer to him.  

With the narrowed distance, their faces were now more clearly visible to each other.  

“I’m feeling very lonely right now.”  

She pointed to a spot with her hand.  

The place she indicated was where Lloyd stood, clinging closely to Aria in an unsightly manner.  

Edmund sighed at the sight.  

It was incomprehensible that his one and only close friend was neglecting his fiancée to hover around another woman.  

“Wait here. I’ll bring him to you.”  

He thought he should fetch Lloyd and tell him to take proper care of his fiancée. It seemed like the only thing he could offer to do.  

“You dislike me as much as the others, don’t you, Your Highness?”  

“What?”  

But the bitterness in her voice made Edmund stop in his tracks.  

Though Clea’s voice carried a trace of disappointment, she quickly composed herself.  

They weren’t close enough for her to feel disappointed in him.  

“It’s fine. You don’t need to call him. Even if you did, I doubt we’d have a pleasant conversation.”  

With that, she erased the smile from her lips and looked down at the ground.  

Clea, who was once called a villainess, was now showing such vulnerability.  

She had always glared like a fierce cat, wary of anyone who approached her. The only person she had ever allowed close was her fiancé, Lloyd.  

Edmund recalled how Clea had once looked as if she owned the world when Lloyd was by her side and frowned slightly.  

“With just a word from me, Lloyd would stay with you all night.”  

“As I said earlier, even if that happened, he’d only blame me and glare at me. I’d rather be alone.”  

“…Have you given up on Lloyd?”  

Edmund asked a question that could be considered rude.  

Though she wasn’t obligated to answer, Clea, aware of her limited time, shook her head.  

For a brief moment, Edmund’s gaze turned cold.  

“From the start, he and I were never a good match.”  

Hearing her next words, he turned his head away.  

Edmund wasn’t a fool. He understood the precarious position Clea was in.  

But seeing her show such vulnerability for the first time in her life, his heart wavered.  

Though his rational mind warned that the villainess might be plotting something,  

His wavering heart refused to harden.  

She had always shown a cold, unyielding front to others.  

He thought she would brush off any wounds with ease, her pride too strong to falter.  

But now, she was different.  

The woman who once seemed incapable of loneliness now appeared as though she had resigned herself to everything.  

Edmund asked her,  

“And yet, you want to stay with me?”  

At his words, Clea lifted her head slightly to meet his gaze.  

His red eyes shimmered like the moonlight in the night sky, and Clea smiled.  

“You’re the only one who came looking for me at the banquet, Your Highness.”  

She had always been alone, accustomed to solitude.  

But Edmund had approached her. In an unexpected moment, Clea’s heart wavered.  

“So, for now, I want to drink with the only one who sought me out.”  

Seeing her bright smile, so different from earlier, Edmund hesitated briefly.  

It didn’t take long for him to decide.  

The smile he had never seen throughout their academy years was beautiful. He wanted to see it a little longer.  

“Don’t regret it.”  

“Regret? I don’t do that.”  

“Even though you have a fiancé?”  

By the time they reached the Crown Prince’s palace, the two had drawn closer.  

Both were now somewhat drunk.  

“He’s openly cheating on me, so why shouldn’t I?”  

“That’s not what I meant.”  

Drunk, Clea could no longer think clearly.  

Though she knew she shouldn’t cross the line, her rationality failed her.  

Perhaps the original Clea would have acted differently, but to her, the man before her seemed far more appealing than Lloyd.  

A height taller by a head, hair as sleek as black velvet, and eyes red as if made of blood.  

His appearance was so captivating and elegant, reminiscent of a vampire.  

But as the future husband of the heroine, she had never dared to get close.  

‘But now, he’s right in front of me.’  

Clea swallowed hard, clutching onto the last bit of her reason.  

As his shirt loosened slightly from the heat of drinking, his pale white neck came into view.  

Overcome with the impulse to leave a mark on that neck, she leaned in closer.  

Even as she approached with the gaze of a ferocious beast, Edmund didn’t move.  

Instead, he seemed to anticipate it.  

‘I wonder what expression you’ll have tomorrow morning.’  

As she bit, licked, and kissed him, he too surrendered to the alcohol and let go of his reason.  

But Clea didn’t care.  

‘What does it matter? I’m cursed anyway.’  

Whether it was tomorrow morning or the day after, she believed nothing would change the fact that she was terminally ill, waiting for her death.  

So she thought even more simply.  

This was just a fleeting, one-night accident.