Prologue: Tangled in Moonlight

Creak— click.

The moment I stepped into my room, I leaned my back against the closed door and let out a long sigh.

"What a brutally long day."

The smell of alcohol clinging to my skin, the stink of cigarettes, someone else's perfume—my head throbbed from all of it. I need to wash up and sleep, right now.

I was sighing and reaching behind my back to undo my dress when it happened. Ugh, I can't reach the buttons. After a brief struggle, I finally managed to pinch one between my fingers. Just as I hurried to work it loose before the taut thread snapped—

"Do you need help?"

A low voice echoed from a corner of the room, deep in shadow.

"…!"

I froze mid-motion, fingers still tangled in the button, then slowly let the tension drain out of me.

"Eusilif?"

"You don't even seem surprised."

He walked slowly toward the moonlight. Despite his enormous frame, he hadn't made so much as a footstep, and for a moment I had the strange illusion of a wild animal emerging from the darkness of the night.

"If you were going to come back, you could've at least turned on a light."

My heart wavered, half shock and half relief. And right at that moment, the stitching around the button I'd barely managed to hold gave way, and it popped free of the fabric.

Tok.

A small sound rang out as the button dropped onto the carpet, and in the same instant the dress it had been holding shut parted down both sides and slid to the floor. The red dress bloomed open like a flower petal, leaving my bare shoulders and the upper curve of my breasts completely exposed.

Eusilif stared down at me in my flustered state without a word. For some reason, his expression looked absolutely livid, and his blatant gaze—like it was drinking in my skin inch by inch—stole the breath from my lungs. I twisted my head away awkwardly and quickly draped my coat over my shoulders.

"You're back, so at least get some rest. Whatever you have to say can wait until tomorrow."

"There's something I can't put off."

"Which is?"

"Could you really hear it in your state?"

His voice was stiff, as though a wick had been stuffed inside it. Only then did I realize why he was angry.

"It was hard to keep refusing at the party, so I accepted a few glasses. I'm not drunk."

"It seems you've been attending quite a few parties while I was away."

I faltered at his words. How on earth did he know that? He'd been away from the capital this entire time.

"That—there was a good reason for it."

"A reason."

Eusilif's handsome mouth curved into a crooked line.

"Now that I think of it, your name was splashed across the front page of every paper. 'The Count's Daughter's Dangerous Night Out.' 'Exclusive Interview with the Three Noblemen Toyed With by the New Queen of the Night.'"

As I stood there struck speechless, Eusilif took another step toward me. His dark crimson irises, spread wide in the dim light, glowed eerily, as if they meant to strangle me.

"And what's more—I hear you even kissed Young Lord Carin recently."

"That… well, you see—"

I scrambled to respond, then suddenly stopped.

Because it felt like I was making excuses for no reason.

I hadn't done anything wrong, so why was I so worried about what Eusilif thought? His face only grew more ferocious as he looked down at me, mouth clamped shut like a mute who'd swallowed honey.

"On top of that, the Crown Prince has declared he'll make you his Crown Princess. I'm simply curious—have you perhaps resolved to sleep with every man in the capital?"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

When I snapped back at his sarcasm, he glared at me right back, refusing to yield.

"Listen to me. That's a misunderstanding. It's just that the Crown Prince kept putting my name forward as a candidate for Crown Princess again, so to avoid it, I deliberately caused a scandal—"

"Stop."

He cut me off and strode closer.

"Just how long… do you intend to deceive me?"

"…What?"

"You saved a woman who was dying, and then you ran off to the capital and abandoned me? Fine to enjoy yourself whenever it suits you, is it? Now that I've brought this body back from death, you've decided to play with other men to your heart's content?"

"Eusilif! Wh-what are you even saying? Anyone who heard that would get the wrong idea!"

"Is there a single thing I've said that isn't true, Lady Arabella?"

As if it weren't enough that he couldn't hold a register—swinging between formal speech and casual—cold and warmth alternated in his voice as well.

The moment I, flustered by the fury radiating off him, took a step back, my coat slipped from my shoulders and fell.

Moonlight spilled across my exposed skin, turning it pale, and my breasts, pressed flush against his chest, rose and fell raggedly with every breath.

This was dangerous. His face was too close, and the heat radiating from his body was too intense. The thunderous beat of his healthy heart tangled wildly with my own frail pulse.

He caught my chin and forced me to face him.

"Eusilif…?"

"This body of yours. I'm the one who brought it back from the brink of death, not so long ago. You haven't forgotten that already, have you?"

His fingers brushed across my lips.

"This warmth,"

Then he caressed the line of my jaw.

"This softness,"

His hand slid down the nape of my neck, and I felt his fingers trace the area around my carotid artery, throbbing wildly.

"Even this heartbeat—I'm the one who returned them all to you."

"E-Eusilif."

"So you are mine, Arabella. You don't get to fool around with anyone else."

"…!"

His voice, brimming with obsession and the hunger to possess, made my heart plummet. He met my trembling eyes and smiled bitterly, and my mind went blank under that smile. I barely forced my mouth open.

"We… we can't do this anymore, Eusilif."

"Why not?"

"You know why. Crown Prince Sota won't leave you alone."

For an instant, flames kindled in his eyes before sinking back into cold. His breath, closing in on me in a stride, tickled my ear.

"Then hear me well, my employer."

"…?"

"You'd best throw away whatever doomed scheme you're cooking up."

"What?"

"Whatever your plan is, I will chase it down and ruin every last piece of it."

"Eusilif!"

"So if you want to live, look only at me from now on. Worry about me instead of that insane Crown Prince bastard—want me. That's the only way your plan will ever succeed!"

His outrageous words sealed my mouth shut, and in the next moment, he slowly tilted his face down toward mine.

Now is not the time for this, my reason screamed.

But it was useless. My body, already tamed to him, was welcoming him as if it had been waiting all along.

He pressed a soft kiss to my lower lip, licking into the seam where our mouths met, and my lips parted on their own like a living thing moving of its own will.

His body heat and mine entwined, and without any need to decide who went first, our breathing turned ragged. The hands wrapped around my back gathered force bit by bit. It was hard to tell whose heart was making that pounding sound anymore.

Before long, a faint moan spilled from my throat. At the sound, his hand stroked my back as if in praise, then slid slowly downward and began undoing the buttons that were still fastened.

Tok, tok.

Loosened bit by bit under his fingers, the dress slithered off me like a shed skin.

He kissed his way down the newly bared skin, and soon stripped away even the dress bunched at my waist and what remained beneath it.

Every time my tender skin was drawn into his mouth and sucked, a shivering jolt of pain and pleasure raced up my spine at once.

Moans laced with excitement and fear flowed from my lips. But he was already absorbed in devouring my body, as if he could hear nothing at all.

Naked by the moonlit window, I barely endured his rough caresses.

Why did things turn out this way? All I ever did was struggle to survive and hold off the coming apocalypse—so how did I end up this hopelessly tangled up with you?

And yet, if I could return to the very beginning where all of this started, I would still make the same choice. I would fight to survive, and I would seek you out first and keep you by my side.

Because you are the protagonist of this world, and the only person who can stop the apocalypse to come.

Yes. That's all. That, and only that, was why I kept you near me.

But for all my silent vow to myself, my body collapsed helplessly beneath his burning hands.