Cecilia burst into laughter.

Everything felt chaotic and absurd.

Her lips stung from the collision, but she found the situation incredibly funny.

Russell, on the other hand, heard her laugh for the first time.

It reminded him of a clear bird song, and a tingling sensation climbed up his arms from his fingertips.

He felt like a pervert.

Just the sound of her laughter had him fully aroused, and the intense desire to relieve himself sent a cold sweat down his back.

When his lips moved toward hers again, Cecilia turned her head away.

“What’s the important thing you needed to tell me?”

He shifted his head, trying to kiss her again, but she turned her head in the opposite direction this time.

“The important thing,” she insisted.

Russell let out a frustrated groan before responding.

“Is that really what matters right now?”

“Of course. You said it’s important.”

“Well…”

He frowned, forcing his brain—dulled by instinct—to start thinking again.

Finally, he remembered what he had said to Hoffman that day and why.

“I said it so you wouldn’t misunderstand.”

“Misunderstand what?”

“That I was avoiding the situation. I really had an urgent matter that required me to leave the castle.”

Cecilia pouted slightly.

After all her curiosity, his explanation turned out to be nothing meaningful.

She felt slightly annoyed that he had caused her to dwell on it for so long.

She pushed against his chest with her hand, and seeing his disappointed expression as he stepped back, she nearly laughed again.

The man who had been unreadable suddenly seemed so easy to figure out.

“How was the hunt?” she asked, changing the subject abruptly.

Russell blinked in surprise.

“It was… just the usual annual hunt.”

“What kind of beast did you catch?”

“Wolves. Mutant wolves.”

“Wolves aren’t very big animals, are they?”

“Compared to a black bear, no. They’re only about twice your size.”

“Twice my size? Wolves?”

“You’ll see for yourself. I brought back their pelts.”

Cecilia thought to herself that she wanted to see them.

A wolf twice her size was hard to imagine, and she was curious about these mutant beasts she had only heard of.

She opened the door.

The rusty hinge let out the same creak she’d heard earlier.

Turning back to him, she saw that he wasn’t moving at all, just standing there as if rooted to the spot.

“Aren’t you coming?”

“I’ll… uh, join you later.”

“Why? Do you have something to do here?”

She glanced around the room.

It was completely empty, devoid of any furniture.

Lagos Castle had plenty of such vacant rooms.

“It’s not so much something to do as… a man’s business.”

Cecilia, who was well-acquainted with male anatomy—having been married seven times, though not all those unions were proper—understood what he meant.

She had spent years navigating high society, where she’d seen and heard all sorts of things.

Instinctively, her eyes dropped toward his lower body.

It wasn’t intentional.

Realizing her mistake, she quickly averted her gaze, but Russell had already noticed where her eyes had gone.

“Ha.”

Russell let out a crooked laugh.

His gaze shifted, and Cecilia flinched.

She felt as if she had just touched something dangerous.

“I’ll be going now,” she said hastily, slipping out and shutting the door behind her.

Walking quickly as if someone were chasing her, she felt tense, half expecting him to burst out and grab her.

When she reached the stairs, she turned to look back.

The door remained closed.

She let out a small chuckle and began descending the stairs more leisurely.

As she walked, she gently touched her lips.

The memory of his lips enveloping hers was still vivid.

How could the lips of a man who had just returned from something as rugged as hunting feel so warm and soft?

In her past life, she had thought of him as a cold, indifferent man toward women.

The Russell Cardros of this life didn’t seem like a completely different person from the man she had known before.

After all, when she’d seen him at the grand duchy just months ago, he had been the same as she remembered.

—Men are all the same.

A voice in her heart whispered.

Her smile faded.

‘Yes, that must be it.’

In her past life, she had abandoned all expectations of people.

Once she let go, the last few years of her life had been unexpectedly peaceful.

Even when she faced death, she hadn’t resisted or fought against it.

—What do you want to do with that man?

‘…I don’t know.’

She truly didn’t know.

Even the questions she posed to herself had no answers.