“I.. Why?”

Heinrich asked with a blank expression at Belsac’s words to resign from the candidacy of the tower lord.

Belsac’s body stiffened and shrank.

By his standards, a lowly person doesn’t show any manners, and has an attitude of asking a question.

In fact, he was the most influential ‘next master’ among the nine archmages.

He did a lot of things in the tower.

It was all for a rosy future, for his own desires. The desire was precisely directed at the position of the tower lord.

“I have dedicated my life to the tower! Even before entering the tower! It’s absurd for a guy like you who suddenly appeared to become the owner of the tower.”

“.....”

“Moreover, to a cheap half-blood bastard like you.”

Heinrich lifted the corners of his reddish-red lips resembling his mother’s and smiled.

Heinrich’s smile was beautiful as always. As such, Belsac’s impression was distorted.

..What’s so funny?

It was such an unexpected reaction. Heinrich as a child was just a small, fragile boy who cried and left when he heard his abusive language.

However, the child he abandoned had now grown into a wonderful adult.

“Hah, you’re begging for fear of losing your place as the ‘Master of the Magic Tower’ to that same half-blood bastard.”

“..What?”

“You can win the ‘vote’ fair and square and become the master of the tower, right? ..Hm.”

A faint, sly smile made its way on his face.

“Or do you have no confidence?”

“....!!!”

Bang—

Belsac couldn’t win and hit the table. His face turned red in an instant.

“After all, was your genius talent not given by me!”

It was really pathetic. It was something he didn’t want to say because he was afraid it would sound cheap.

“I wasn’t supposed to meet that lowly courtesan in the first place..!”

Warak,?Heinrich’s forehead crumpled.

Clink—

At that moment, the red-violet aura extending from Heinrich shattered the surrounding decorations all at once.

“....!!!”

Belsac’s eyes shook. Among the archmages of the Magic Tower, there was no one who had this kind of intimidation. He felt the overwhelming difference in power.

Why people called Heinrich a genius, Belsac realized in an instant.

It was difficult to lift a hand from the aura he was emitting.

The voice sounded even more threatening because it was relaxed and languid.

“Don’t curse my mother. Because she was a much nobler woman than a vulgar human like you.”

A purple gaze shone like a glare of darkness.

Although those purple eyes resembled his, they were very different.

He looked just like the woman who, even after being abandoned, promised herself that she would give birth to a child and raise him by herself.

Belsac lost his ‘arrogance’ at this moment and trembled.

Gwak—

When Heinrich beckoned, Belsac’s collar swung away. At the same time, Heinrich stood up from his seat, grabbing the neck.

“....!!!”

His gaze moved closer to the tip of his nose.

“I have surpassed you. Don’t get me wrong, because the frugal talent you gave me isn’t even a hundredth of my strength.”

—You don’t have a single piece of my life that you can claim.

Heinrich warned the ‘perfect’ person who looked like him.

“And never call me again, Grand Duke Valentino.”

“....!”

“I am not very patient.”

Roughly letting the weary Belsac go as if throwing it away, Heinrich walked out of the drawing room.

As usual, with an arrogant and noble gait.

━━━━???━━━━

“It’s an order.”

Sislin seemed to be doing magic. It was as if the words themselves became shackles and wrapped around the whole body.

I couldn’t move.

Normally, I would have made a playful comment, such as being disappointed that he was giving me orders.

“.....”

Why?

The feeling of receiving the gaze of the intense red eyes, which was darkened by that desire, was different from usual.

Even though I was out of breath, I felt strangely.. not bad.

“Annette.”

It was such an unfamiliar look.

He never let go of the initiative with a domineering force, and at the same time, he had a clinging gaze.

It was to the point that he looked desperate and pitiful.

“You seem to have forgotten my proposal.”

“Because I don’t have just one ring.”

When I deliberately responded coldly, Sislin’s eyes twisted strangely.

Eyes as deep as bog turned to me, and his lips, wrapped in his sleek jawline, rose nicely.

He shuddered and replied as if it was normal.

“But it’s me who likes it.”

“.....”

My eyelashes quivered slightly. It felt like my cheeks were blushing, but I hope Sislin didn’t know that I was shaking.

I deliberately took it boldly.

“..How are you sure?”

Even now, I was still looking for a break, because if he found out that I was attracted to him, he would try to swallow me completely. It would be irreversible.

“.....”

Sislin lightly lifted my slender wrist.

There was a pattern engraved on it that only two people in the world could see.

A flower that climbed up the wrist like a vine, and as time went by, as if it used something as nutrients and bloomed more and more splendidly.

He traced the clear blue veins of my white flesh with his fingerprints. I reacted sensitively and slowly curled my fingers.

It was a thin wrist that looked like it would break if he put too much force on it.

When asked how he was sure he liked her, he gave a desperate answer.

“I measure your pulse every time I see you.”

“....!”

My lips fell open as if in astonishment, and looked at him in protest.

“How could you do such an unsophisticated thing? That’s rude, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

The caught heart stinged.

‘There were times when my heart raced because I was scared.’

I wanted to respond with that, but somehow the words didn’t come out easily.

“I’m marked as a rude man anyway, so let’s try a little bit more.”

..What?

That was then. My vision was greatly flipped, and before I knew it, my golden hair was scattered across the bed.

Without a moment of resistance, a huge man was draped over me.

Badump, badump, badump.

The heart started beating without mercy from the instant skin touched skin.

The weight I felt as I was pressed down by a muscular body was overwhelming.

“..Sislin.”

I frowned and called vaguely.

Sislin gently stroked my hair and smiled.

“You look insanely pretty from this angle, Annette.”

In the midst of crazy talk, the way he called my name was sweet.

As if possessed, I gazed up at him.

How could he be so persistent?

Cruelly wrapping his lifeline around my wrists and heart.

I could feel Sislin’s gaze on my lips. In an instant, unconsciously, the red lips parted slightly.

At that minute movement, Sislin’s dark eyes shone like a beast that wouldn’t miss its prey.

If he swallowed it and drank it like life water, it seemed that all this pain would disappear.

In actual fact, the more he touched her, the more painful it felt, like dancing in fire, but he just wanted to kiss her.

The two lips barely touched.

It seemed that if he narrowed the distance just a little, really a little, it would be irreversible.

A strange feeling raged through and pierced his body.

Both had the same sentiment.

Right then.

“..That’s why.”

―At that time, from the moist red lips, just before they touched.

“That’s why I can’t believe it, Sislin.”

“.....”

I looked up at him with clear eyes.

“I don’t know if you really like me or if you just want to play a game of taking hold of me.”

Sislin looked down at the woman like a man who had woken up from hypnosis.

Annette’s pale green eyes weren’t as distracted as his.

It was very strange.

Even though she was obviously locked in his arms and looking down, it felt as if she had never been under him.

In a power struggle played with a loved one, Sislin always felt like he was losing.

It was a defeat that he did not hate, but only with victory could he have her.

“How can I make you believe? Let me know.”

“..That, I don’t know.”

‘It’s me, I don’t know the feelings of my heart.’

My eyes darkened slightly.

‘Because I accepted you only with the heart of my childhood.. We’ve been apart for so long.’

‘It’s weird.’

‘When I try to love you, it feels dangerous.’

I brought my body up and out of the current compromising position. I was determined to be as cool as possible with him.

“Sislin..”

There was so much to do for the time being.

Finding the snitch, running the duchy well, and taking revenge on Gerard.

It was all urgent, so I wanted to keep my feelings for Sislin as the 2nd priority.

―This insecurity and close affection.

‘If I don’t draw the line, he will encroach on the line as he did before.’

Then I spoke calmly.

“I will reject the proposal, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”