A Mad Dog's Tears

About half an hour after Daisy left the room, the Grand Duke was finally able to rise from his seat. He threw open every window to let the air circulate, then rolled up the bedsheet—still bearing the evidence of their coupling into a tight wad and shoved it into the corner.

He barely swallowed the curse that climbed all the way up his throat.

In the bathroom, he cranked the tap and doused himself in cold water. The fevered heat and sticky sheen coating his whole body eased a little.

But the moment he caught sight of that crude collar hanging around his neck in the mirror, his temper flared right back to the top of his skull.

“Fuck.”

In the end, the curse slipped out anyway.

The moment Isaac stepped into the study, he doubted his own eyes.

“Your Grace……”

“What?”

The look in Ezra's eyes promised death to anyone who dared speak, and Isaac shut his mouth. His trembling pupils, quaking like the ground after an earthquake, were beyond his control, though.

Is... is that hideous collar his type?

But Isaac had guarded the man's side for years, and he knew in an instant that nothing of the sort existed anywhere within the Grand Duke's category of tastes!

Then again, who was Ezra Alkenes? A man who wouldn't lift a finger for anything he disliked even with a blade at his throat. Well—unless it was the Emperor issuing the order. In that case, he might concede a single step…….

Don't tell me... His Majesty's taste is……?

While Isaac was off galloping through his improper imaginings, Ezra's expression darkened by another shade.

He simply could not stomach this absurd accessory a second longer.

“Where did you put the report on Daisy?”

“I'm sorry—what?”

Isaac, who had been drifting far away on a solo flight of fantasy, snapped back to himself far too late and bleated a dumbfounded protest.

“What on earth are you daydreaming about? Go fetch the report on Daisy again.”

“Who, sir? Miss Daisy?”

“Yes.”

Watching Ezra's face grow more irritable by the second, Isaac shot up from his chair and bolted out of the study. He had no idea what was going on, but he understood one thing clearly: lingering here risked catching the full force of whatever this was.

Isaac scurried back with the report and cautiously held it out. Ezra broke the seal, drew out the papers, and scanned her recent movements.

“She moved to this area, and took a job at a pharmacy?”

“Yes. She was originally slated for a trainee position at the Alpha Guild, but after the graduation ceremony she apparently said something came up, and that she likely wouldn't be able to join.”

“If I said this was because of me, would I sound like a lunatic?”

Isaac's face went grim at the Grand Duke's words. If he told the truth, he half expected to be seized by the collar.

Ezra, however, had no room to spare for Isaac's predicament. That woman who had sneaked into his chambers was, without question, a vicious stalker.

She's probably gloating right now, delighted that she can toy with me as she pleases.

The thought made his head burn hot.

Ezra ground his teeth and spoke.

“Put a tail on this woman. I want her every move, every word, reported to me.”

Isaac bit back the words isn't that a bit unseemly, Your Grace? and held his tongue. One wrong syllable right now, and he genuinely feared for his neck.

That day, too, Daisy finished work and headed for the café.

With the leash finally secured, she had a bit of breathing room, and she'd dispatched her backlog of errands in quick order—tidied the house, withdrawn money from the bank—and then set out for the café to plan her next moves.

The lunch rush had passed, leaving the café in one of its lulls, so there weren't many people around. Daisy skipped her usual seat and made for a corner tucked out of the way instead.

She ordered a coffee, spread open her worn old notebook, and wrote down everything she'd learned so far, everything she still had to do, and the events she knew for certain would come to pass.

All those regressions had taken a serious toll on Daisy's memory. Some things happened in one timeline and not in another. The more loops she stacked up, the harder it became to keep straight which events had occurred in which one.

So at the start of every new loop, Daisy wrote out the events that had unfailingly happened every single time, and once a month she set aside time to memorize them by heart. Only that way could she be of use to her future self in the next loop.

“Mm, so... around this time, there's a banquet at the Imperial Palace, and for some reason the Grand Duke and the Emperor have a falling out.”

She had no idea when the rift between the two men had first opened, but the moment it spilled into the open for all the world to see was right after that banquet.

His rampage alone is already giving me a headache. I cannot afford another piece of bothersome business on top of it.

But what on earth had the falling-out even been about?

And the venue had been nothing less than the Imperial Palace itself. Even the Grand Duke's residence, townhouse though it was, wasn't somewhere she could just walk into—she'd had to infiltrate it like a common thief. If she tried sneaking into the Imperial Palace that way, her head would be rolling on the marble before she made it three steps.

“Haah. It was obviously that fear-mongering yap of his.”

She was certain that unrestrained mouth of his had brought the disaster down on his own head.

Then again—she'd left him alone for days now. It was surely about time for that side to come looking for her…….

At that moment, the chair across the table scraped back with a clatter and someone sat down in it. Daisy's head snapped up in alarm—and a complete stranger was sitting there.

She was about to haul off and throw the lunatic out when an arrow pointing downward materialized above his head, and beside it, a status window blinked open.

Only then did the man's face shift into the Ezra she knew. The weather was sweltering, yet thanks to the collar, he wore a shirt buttoned all the way to his throat.

“Well, this is an unexpected visit……”

Daisy snapped her notebook shut and leaned her body as far away from the table as she could.

“So your eyes really do see my face as it is.”

Ezra propped one arm on the table and tugged up the corner of his mouth as he spoke.

“Thanks to this goddamn collar, I cast a spell and changed my face. But you can see me perfectly clearly, can't you? Probably this collar's doing, I'd wager.”

“Ah, well.”

She decided to leave it at something like that—close, but not quite. Ezra shrugged at her noncommittal response.

“You know why I've come, don't you?”

“If it's about the collar, then absolutely not. Don't even hope for it.”

As if he'd anticipated exactly that reaction, Ezra glared at her with a mocking glint in his eyes and pressed on.

“What is it you want, then? Money? Or my body? We've done it twice already—apparently it suits your tastes rather well?”

She knew perfectly well he was needling her on purpose, but it would be a lie to say it didn't sting.

The man in front of her might be outrageously handsome, but she hadn't slept with him because she'd wanted to. There was no earthly reason for her to be in a good mood about it.

That day, Daisy had scrubbed and scrubbed until her skin felt like it would peel off, and being talked to like this was something she could not forgive.

“Me? If I remember correctly, you're the one who shoved me down first.”

“And you're the one who broke into my house in the dead of night, aren't you? I'm the only one who knows whether you had some other intent. A trained alchemist, no less—who knows what drugs you might have slipped me. Or failing that—honestly, you're not so pretty that a man like me would fall for it anyway. There's no way I'd have been seduced.”

At that viciously blunt assessment, Daisy's face flushed scarlet.

She wanted nothing more than to hurl the table straight into that smug face—but for the sake of the greater scheme, she had to endure it.

Watching Daisy tremble from head to toe with fury, Ezra's expression grew darker still.

Even after I humiliated her this thoroughly, she still clings on. Could there be someone else behind her?

Ezra's true identity was a decidedly inconvenient one, and plenty of people had tried to dig up leverage on him in order to use him.

The fact that the Emperor himself numbered among them was another problem entirely.

“Who's backing you? If you don't tell me, something very unpleasant is going to happen.”

Ezra let his killing intent show, plain and naked, as he pressed her for an answer. The color drained from Daisy's face. She was so frightened she wanted nothing more than to bolt right then and there.

“S-Sit——”

Before the word could leave her mouth, Ezra clapped a hand over her lips.

He locked eyes with Daisy's startled, widening gaze. For an instant, something twisted deep in his chest—but no. He reminded himself that this woman was not to be treated gently, and bore down harder.

“Planning to catch me off guard again?”

Under the crushing weight of his killing intent, tears spilled in a slow stream from Daisy's wide, hazel eyes.

She was scared, and heartsore, and furious.

Furious that her body was too weak to fight back against him. Why did she always, always, come out on the losing end? She had done nothing wrong.

“Ha. Stop crying.”

Ezra's resolve wavered, and he grumbled under his breath. He didn't withdraw his hand, though. Loosen the grip for even a moment, and he'd be the one paying for it later.

Countless women had wept and pleaded before him over the years, and Ezra had never been moved by so much as a fraction.

And yet, somehow, the few drops of tears Daisy shed melted through that cold indifference and left quiet ripples spreading across it.

“Undo this collar, and we go our separate ways. You understand?”

As Ezra delivered his final threat, heavy footfalls came thudding up the stairs—someone ascending two steps at a time.

“That's him! That lunatic is harassing one of our customers!”