“A life where one must forever serve a man she despises as her husband… How pitiful.”

Francis’s gentle hands, which once wiped his father’s face with care, now gripped the slender neck of his daughter.

“No… ahh…!”

Barbiena hung her head low, covering her face as she sobbed bitterly.

“Please… let me go, Your Grace…”

But that trembling was nothing more than a performance—
a way to conceal the joy that slipped between her lips.