“I know well that I shouldn’t dare say this.”

But if I don’t let it out, my heart feels like it will explode. Every moment I breathe out and open my lips, it feels like I will keep spouting out love over and over again.

“But, if there is any chance for me… … .”

Then, please love me. I will really be a new person. If you love me, I don’t need anyone else.

‘Because no one can replace you.’

Akkard clenched his teeth and recited painfully to himself. However, if he brought out his true intentions, it would only frighten Damia and make her back away from him.

So he willingly stepped back on his own feet to the edge of the cliff. It was better for him to step back from her and fall and die than for her to take a step back from him.

“… … Please, I beg you, give me one chance.”

Akkard bowed his head as he uttered his last plea. And as if her hands were a lifeline, he quietly kissed them and pressed his forehead to them.

The sound of Damia’s breathing over his head was more frightening than any other whip.

“… … .”

Throughout his life, he could boast that he never forgot that sharp pain for a single day. But at this moment, her silence hurt more, so the lashing was preferable.

It was when Akkard could not overcome his fear and closed his eyes tightly.

“Oh, isn’t it Sir Akkard?”

Suddenly, a voice in his ear fell gracefully. When he raised his head, standing there was a slender blonde beauty.

Akkard and her eyes met, and she raised the corners of her lips and sneered.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you outside the royal palace. right?”

asked Teresa Dmitry slowly. It was his ex, with whom he had once been romantically associated with.

As a candidate for the Crown Princess, her speech was impeccably aristocratic and elegant. But there was clear malice in that tone.

“Teresa.”

Akkard’s voice, which sensed the uninvited guest, became brutal at once. It was a momentum that would make everyone tremble and turn blue.

But the slender Teresa did not back down one bit. Instead, she said with a smile as she barely moved her head but surveyed with her roaming eyes and landed on Damia.

“Indeed, the heartless Sir Akkard has not changed. When you have a woman, you bring her to this restaurant.”

There was a chilling silence.

Akkard looked into Damia’s eyes with a pale face. This was one of his most frequented restaurants, and he had been accompanied by a woman a few times.

All of them liked this place, so he thought that Damia would also prefer it. But his thoughts were short.

Apparently, his causal retribution still had a long way to go before it was finished.

“Huu,”

Damia, sensing Teresa’s provocative gaze, put down the napkin. Even though the main meal was over, she couldn’t find her appetite anymore.

‘Really, this man.’

Without realizing it, she had gotten so drunk on his eyes dripping with honey that she almost forgot: What kind of man Akkard Valerian was.

Even so, Teresa’s sudden intervention was an act that went too far. Damia, who was forced to face reality not voluntarily but because of the malice of others, was very uncomfortable.

But there was no need to get angry or raise her voice as Teresa wanted. Such an undignified act would only please her.

Instead, Damia raised his hand and called the clerk. And she asked in a calm voice.

“I’m sorry, but there’s an uninvited guest. I’d like to focus on my meal.”

Teresa, entirely ignored by Damia, bit her lip. Instead of being rudely kicked out by the clerk, she chose to leave on her own two feet.

She, of course, didn’t forget to stab Akkard one last time.

“Did you actually think your life would be filled with roses and go smoothly when you brought tears and blood to other people’s eyes? Keep dreaming.” 

Teresa uttered a bloody curse in a shaky tone, turned away, and left with her back tall and straight.

Akkard’s hateful glare bore a hole in her back, and it felt hot as if on fire. But she was still happy to get his attention; Teresa gave a twisted smile.

‘Who is speaking to whom?’

In fact, all the schooling she gave to Damia, she had also given to herself.