On the day everyone believed Elysea had died, Kaelen broke down as well.

He couldn't even hold a proper funeral, as her body was never found.

In the wake of the Valka remnants' raid, only the bodies of dismembered guards and maids remained, along with an engagement ring dropped in a blood-stained corner of the room.

Anyone who saw that scene could not have imagined she was still alive.

Kaelen, returning from the battlefield, relied on alcohol from that day forward. For nearly a year, he couldn't sleep until dawn, and even when his eyes were open, he didn't look like a living man.

The position of Grand Duke of the North became a mere formality. The territory slowly faltered, and the pressure for an heir grew stronger by the day.

The person who found that pressure most unbearable was the Duke, Elysea's father.

A father who had lost his daughter offered a proposal to his crumbling son-in-law that was cruelly realistic.

—To bring in a woman who resembled Elysea.

That was how Guest, from a branch family, appeared before Kaelen.

At first, he felt something close to loathing.

It wasn't that he disliked her.

It was because she looked too much like her.

Her smile, her way of speaking, and even her unconscious expressions brought back traces of Elysea. Every time he looked at her, he saw the fiancée he thought was dead overlapping with her, and that fact was unbearably cruel.

Kaelen didn't give her a second glance.

He was sparse with his words and avoided any conversation beyond what was necessary. Sometimes, he acted cold intentionally.

Thus, a marriage without love began.

Kaelen didn't even give Guest the Grand Duchess's ring.

He believed that ring should belong to Elysea.

Withholding the ring was the clearest evidence that Kaelen had not yet let go of his dead fiancée.

However, Guest stayed by his side until the end.

She silently endured her cold husband's silence, the unconscious gazes that seemed to compare her to Elysea, and her position signaled by a finger without a single ring.

She didn't complain.

She didn't demand anything.

She simply kept her assigned place and remained by Kaelen's side.

And time passed.

At first, he thought he was just getting used to it.

A warm cup of tea handed to him when they met in the study late at night.

The sincere attitude she showed while caring for the estate.

The way she silently stood by him.

As those small moments piled up one by one, a change gradually occurred in Kaelen's heart.

He grew fond of her.

He became accustomed to her.

And from a certain point, he felt uncomfortable when Guest wasn't around.

He worried when he heard she was ill, and he felt relieved in spite of himself when he saw her smile.

Only then did Kaelen realize.

He no longer saw Guest as a replacement for Elysea.

She had now become a precious person to Kaelen in her own right.

And then, a new life arrived.

The moment he felt the small flutter of movement, Kaelen smiled sincerely for the first time.

He thought he could finally be happy.

That he wouldn't have to lose anything anymore.

He thought Elysea in heaven would be watching over him.

'Elysea, since you're watching from heaven...'

'I'll be happy now.'

He made that vow.

He believed she would want him to live on.

So, for the first time, Kaelen tried to leave the past behind and move forward.

It was the moment he believed that.

---

Kaelen, who had gone out to wipe out the Valka remnants, miraculously found Elysea alive in a corner of a ruined hideout.

Beneath a broken wall.

On the cold, chilled floor.

Elysea was huddled there, bound in chains.

She was alive.

She was definitely alive.

But her mind had already broken long ago.

Her unfocused eyes wandered through the air, and not a trace of vitality remained on her pale face.

She looked like someone who had forgotten even who she was.

Kaelen couldn't say anything for a long time.

He just stared at her.

The person he believed was dead.

The person he thought he failed to protect.

The person he had given up on, thinking he would never see her again.

Yet, she was alive.

Then, Elysea's lips moved ever so slightly.

"...It's Kael."

In an instant, Kaelen's fingertips trembled.

The old nickname.

No one else in the world called him that.

Only Elysea called him that.

With that one word, Kaelen's breath hitched.

She recognized him.

She, who seemed completely broken, remembered him in a corner of her last remaining memories.

Kaelen couldn't bring himself to look at her directly.

What had he been doing?

While she was suffering here.

During the time she might have been screaming for him to save her.

He believed she was dead.

And he, the survivor, was trying to be happy again.

With Guest.

That fact pierced his chest like a blade.

Kaelen pulled her into his arms without a word.

The slender body bound in chains trembled slightly in his embrace.

He didn't let her go.

As if the moment he loosened his grip even slightly, he would never be able to get her back again.

That day, Kaelen realized for the first time.

What he had lost wasn't just Elysea to death.

It was the fact that he hadn't protected her even while she was alive.

Kaelen brought Elysea back.

And from that day on, he never left her alone.

He stayed by her side.

It wasn't to be forgiven for the wrong he had done.

He didn't think he deserved to be forgiven.

It was simply to offer a lifelong apology to the woman he had done nothing for while she suffered.

He decided to stay by her side this time.

Even if it took his whole life.

He believed that was the only atonement he could offer her.