“I thought there was someone you needed to meet because you suddenly disappeared.”

“I’m also cold-hearted, my beauty that is. I suppose you can’t see me wagging my tail like a dog for attention.”

Deus smirked and drank champagne right where she had spoken. Milvia picked up another glass without thinking. Reliana briefly approached Deus by her side, but she didn’t seem to want to say anything and disappeared again.

“Ha.”

Watching Reliana’s back, Milvia sighed as if she was out of breath.

A slight sense of victory wandered through her body. This feeling was new, so she was honestly excited and nervous. The pleasure of having stepped on Reliana for the first time was so great that it felt like she could be addicted to it.

“You’re not thinking about me at all, really.”

“I am.”

“How much?”

“Um.”

Milvia evaded Deus’s question by drinking champagne and choking on it. Of course, she wasn’t not thinking about him. He was the best card she had in her hand.

“I know you think about me just a little bit.”

“It’s more than just a little bit.”

“Thank you for that.”

Deus raised his eyebrows. Milvia looked at his eyes with a smirk.

“Deus.”

“Yes.”

“Do you like me?”

We’re just in a contractual relationship.

That night, Milvia promised Deus gold. She said that she would give him a house made of gold with all the power she had once she achieved her goal. Of course, he probably didn’t take it at face value, but Milvia really thought that way.

After kicking Reliana and her mother out, she would turn the entire Medier Mansion into gold. And she would give Deus the house and the title of Medier. Then he could do anything he wanted with that money.

She didn’t care about what would happen after she died, so she didn’t ask why he needed money. Deus also didn’t ask how she knew he needed money.

That was just enough. No more, no less.

But he kept acting like a man who wanted to get into her heart.

“Of course.”

“Why? Because you think I’m beautiful?”

“That’s part of it.”

“No, I don’t understand. You’ve probably met many more beautiful women than me.”

And above all, Deus is not the type of man who rushes in just by looking at a woman’s face.

He was much prettier than she was.

So she was curious.

It might be because she had had a few glasses of champagne with a little alcohol content. She wouldn’t have asked so persistently like this normally, but Milvia opened her mouth again.

“You’re not really into me. And I want to know why.”

“Gosh, haven’t I told you I’m in love with you yet?”

“No, and I don’t believe it.”

“That’s a shame. You don’t know your own charm.”

Deus raised the corners of his mouth at her gesture. He seemed rather amused that she was so unaware of her charms.

Milvia felt embarrassed and took another sip of the golden champagne.

The sweet grape aroma wrapped around her tongue and spread smoothly. The aftertaste was a bit bitter, but that was alcohol.

“If you knew how you glow in my eyes, you wouldn’t say that.”

“Glow? As opposed to fading away?”

“Well… “

Deus’ pupils contracted vertically once again when their eyes met.

Like a mythical creature that only appears in legends, every time he saw that appearance, Deus felt like a sage who had awakened to all the truths of the world by himself.

Deus slowly raised his hand and drew a circle around where her heart was.

“Your heart glows. To the point where it’s a shame that only I can see it.”

Thump, thump, thump.

Her heartbeat rang loudly. Her chest pounded so fiercely that she wondered if she was going crazy. Milvia struggled to suppress her ragged breath.

So, um, this, it doesn’t seem normal.

“Ah.”

“Milvia?”

Deus’ expression became strange. Her vision blurred for a moment, and everything in front of her turned white. Her whole body stiffened to the point where she couldn’t even move, and her tongue dried up and retreated into the back of her throat, rendering her unable to make a sound.

Crash!

The champagne glass in Milvia’s hand fell to the marble floor and shattered into pieces with a sharp sound.

“Milvia!”

The next moment, Milvia vomited blood and collapsed.

Her vision flickered.

She was like a flower wilting.

The last fragile leaf trembled and fell lightly to the ground in a faint breeze. Her lips, stained with blood, trembled, but she did not breathe out.

In the blink of an eye, the incident occurred.

As the silver-haired woman collapsed in Deus’ arms, screams soon filled the hall.

“Ah! Where is the doctor?”

“Someone’s dead!!”

“Who did this to us?!”

She doesn’t know if she’s still breathing, but she wouldn’t survive after losing so much blood. The woman who stood at the center of today’s party, attracting everyone’s attention, collapsed after drinking champagne. This was clearly poisoning.

The noble ladies panicked at the thought that it could have been them, and the young men who were subtly watching turned pale. The mistresses, fearing a possible attack, stood close to those nearby, back to back. His Imperial Majesty declared that someone committed a poisoning on the first day of the Goddess New Year’s celebration.

This could potentially escalate to a serious matter, even involving treason.

“Escort the young lady to the resting room. Imperial protocol awaits.”

The Emperor of Deas rose to his feet and gave his orders.

The culprit must be thoroughly investigated and brought to justice, and the only ones allowed to leave this place are Milvia Nell Medier and no one else.

Following the emperor’s command, the knights who were waiting outside rushed in to lift Milvia. However, they couldn’t take another step.

A man was wiping the blood off his lips and chin.

His presence was suffocating.

As knights in direct service to the emperor, they were confident in their abilities, and that’s why they felt it. The chilling aura that made their skin crawl. The cold, refined energy that would unleash a ferocious attack if they dared to come any closer.

No, they couldn’t even approach him in the first place.

They didn’t have permission.

Entering the man’s radius was equivalent to committing an act of suicide for them at this moment.

***

Deus had never felt more embarrassed in his life.

Even if he thought about his entire life, it could be counted on his ten fingers.

The world always flowed as he wished, and if he didn’t like it, he just changed it. Even if he met someone, it was only a brief encounter, and after a few years, they were forgotten even in memory. Deus had a habit of not turning memories into reminiscences, no matter how enjoyable the time was.

It was such a useless thing to do.

But very occasionally.

Once in a hundred years or so, on the slimmest of odds, there would be someone who became a memory.

He knew just by looking at them.

They glow.

‘So I wanted to watch over her.’

How to utilize a short life, what survives the onslaught of decaying causality. Turning back time was a major violation of the unwritten rules of this world. Originally, she should have bled to death with blood pouring into every hole in her body and died as soon as she returned to the past.

That would have been the appropriate conclusion.

But this delicate woman survived. And persevered.

He had heard that dozens of ‘administrators’ were struggling to reverse the broken timeline, but he wasn’t interested until the moment he met this ‘problem child’ face-to-face.

Deus felt a tremendous interest.

Has there been a human whose soul shone so brightly in recent times?

When was the last time he saw a vessel containing such an alluring spirit?

And so, he decided to deceive the eyes of the administrators. He sent his subordinates to protect her and became obsessed with hiding and concealing this woman from the beings in the hidden world who sought her.

But…

‘I did all this, and yet…’

How dare someone…

Deus embraced her body, which was rapidly cooling, and pressed his lips against her white forehead. Then, from the point of contact, a dark current began to emerge. Like something alive, the current with determination wrapped around Milvia’s neck and chest, slowly spreading and engulfing her entire body.

Deus scrutinized Milvia with an obsessive gaze, like a sculptor beholding his masterpiece.

To ordinary eyes that couldn’t see the dark currents, it would appear agonizingly poignant.

‘I found you.’

But at this moment, Deus was not confessing a fervent love.

Instead, he coldly searched for the whereabouts of the poison with eyes sharper than ever.

Finally, the dark current that had been moving within him searched through Milvia’s body and found the remnants of the poison, escaping outwards.

“Cough, cough, cough!”

A few seconds later, Milvia, who couldn’t even breathe, coughed violently and vomited blood once again.

However, this time it didn’t matter that blood was mixed in with what she was vomiting since it was part of the process of expelling the bad things.

Deus finally stood up and embraced Milvia.

“Where is the imperial doctor?”

“He is waiting in the lounge outside!”

“Get out of the way. You’re in the way.”

Deus was clearly a commoner. The knights here were nobles.

But Deus’ arrogance was so natural that it was almost as if it had always been there, and the knights were more taken aback by his attitude than anything else.

Deus walked down the path the knights had made and left the banquet hall. The young ladies standing near the entrance were the first to notice that something had changed.

“Did you see that just now?”

“I did, I did.”

“Did her hair suddenly change color…?”

“Is it because of the poison?”

The murmurs quickly spread throughout the banquet hall. Milvia Nell Medier’s hair, which had been silver, was now dyed a deep black color, just like Deus’ black hair that seemed to swallow even darkness itself.

It was so captivating that it was impossible to take your eyes off it.