Chapter 1: The Girl at the Window

“Landon… what would you like to eat today?”

Olivia von Eisenberg tapped the table lightly and pushed the menu of the most expensive restaurant in the imperial capital toward him.

Every time she treated him, she chose noble dishes and fine food from all over the Heilhorton Empire’s capital.

But Landon, who came from commoner stock, only felt it was a waste of money. So he said that next time he wanted to cook for her himself.

***

“Landon… what would you like to eat today?”

A faint smile rippled across Olivia’s face. Her cheeks were slightly pink, her eyes expressive. She reached behind her and tugged at the strings of her apron, emphasizing her slim waist and the full curve of her chest.

Her hair was tied in a high ponytail, and her pale golden locks were smooth and lovely. She looked like a gentle, graceful newlywed wife.

Landon did not know why a duke’s daughter would cook in his home herself. He only knew that the scratches and cuts on her fingers made his heart ache.

“Something simple…”

Landon only hoped she would be careful.

***

“Landon… what would you like to eat today?”

Olivia slowly peeled off her clothes, revealing a thin black lace nightgown. It set off her fair, lush figure, but her eyes seemed slightly strange.

Landon looked at the bottles and jars she brought. Inside were only potions and pills that sustained basic vital signs, taken from the alchemy classroom of Griffin Magic Academy.

This time, she did not wait for his opinion. She forced open the youth’s mouth, bound as he was by black stone handcuffs and shackles, and shoved the pills in and poured the potion down his throat.

Then she deftly undid the belt at his waist.

Her soft body pressed down on him. The warm weight came through the thin cloth, but it only made the boy’s gaze grow dim.

***

Consciousness tore free from thick darkness and the constant sensation of falling, like a drowning man hauled out of water.

“Hah!”

Landon shot up in bed. His chest heaved violently, and a short, hoarse gasp forced its way from his throat.

Cold sweat soaked through his linen pajamas almost instantly. The wet cloth clung to his skin, sending a chill through him.

His heart pounded madly behind his ribs. The drumming drowned out everything around him. For a few seconds, he wondered if he was still in a nightmare, just a different one.

He began to breathe deeply, gulping air. It took half a minute of steady breathing before he finally calmed down.

He blinked hard, and his vision slowly came into focus.

Afternoon sunlight poured generously through the clean glass window.

Fine dust drifted lazily in the light. It settled over the dark wooden floor and soft wool carpet.

The sky was a washed-clean blue, dotted with a few puffs of cotton-candy cloud.

He looked around. This was the single room he was staying in at the medical wing’s recovery area. The furnishings were simple and neat, the sheets clean and white. On the nightstand sat a glass of water long gone cold and several manuscripts on spatial magic.

Master Helentine had given them to him when suggesting he “give his mind a change.”

This was not Olivia’s villa, nor the dreary, hidden basement she had remodeled. It was a hospital under the protection of the Goddess Church.

Only after confirming he was safe now did Landon finally force himself up and wipe the beads of sweat from his forehead with his arm.

It had been a month since Master Helentine rescued him from that basement. Every night, Landon dreamed of the past.

From her first cold, distant words to the first time she showed softness and warmth, to the two of them fighting side by side on the battlefield…

He never would have expected her to become like that in the end, imprisoning him by force and draining him day and night.

After escaping, he learned that Olivia had been attending school while searching everywhere and posting missing-person notices, claiming Landon had been kidnapped by heretics. So no one suspected her.

It was truly the thief crying “stop thief.”

In the end, Helentine found Landon and beat Olivia severely. Now Olivia was lying in the special care ward upstairs.

After thinking it over, and since he could not sleep anyway, Landon forced himself up. Supporting his aching lower back, he headed upstairs.

To be honest, after the hospital examination, the doctor had said bluntly that his kidneys were weak from too much nightlife.

There is no field worn out by plowing, only oxen exhausted from the work. So Landon had no choice.

Leaving the ward and heading upstairs, he happened to run into two Griffin Academy students in the same uniform as his, coming out.

Landon recognized them. They were Olivia’s classmates at the academy.

During the month Landon and Olivia had been hospitalized, people kept visiting them. Every one of them knew only that Landon and Olivia were a campus couple at the academy.

So in their eyes, Olivia was just a tragic lover, a pitiful woman who had been gravely injured and fallen into a coma while trying to save her partner from heretics.

“Good afternoon, Landon! How are you feeling? Are you here to see Olivia?”

The mushroom-haired girl asked. Landon could only force a bitter smile and nod.

“How nice. I told you they really are a couple, didn’t I? So tragic…”

“All right, we’ll leave you two alone!”

The two did not linger. With the delighted smiles of satisfied shippers, they hurried away.

Landon stood at the door of the special care ward, fingers hovering above the handle. He hesitated for a full minute.

Through the glass window on the door, he could see Olivia von Eisenberg lying on the pure white hospital bed. Her pale golden hair spread over the pillow like carefully combed waves of wheat.

She had been sleeping like this for a whole month.

Landon took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

The room smelled faintly of disinfectant, mixed with a trace of expensive perfume. Even in a coma, Olivia’s family insisted on changing her clothes and spraying her favorite iris perfume every day.

Fresh white tulips stood in a crystal vase by the bed. They were said to be a variety cultivated specially for her in the duke’s estate greenhouse.

Her fair skin had no color at all, but her long, slender lashes rested just right over those almond eyes that could stop a man’s heart. Seduction rested in her brows, and longing gathered at the corners of her eyes.

Her slender waist was like a willow leaf, far from the slightly fuller figure he remembered, yet it had a charm of its own.

Studying that arrogant face of hers, Landon breathed deeply again and again to calm himself, trying to ignore her tenderness and violence, her softness and crudeness.

During the six months he was imprisoned, Olivia was sometimes gentle as water, sometimes violent as thunder, but she always treated him as her most precious “possession.”

That basement had been piled with expensive magic tomes, rare magical materials, and delicacies gathered from every region. Everything she thought he would like.

She had even learned a few home-style dishes from his homeland, the Western Ring City-States, though she cooked them terribly.

The Western Ring City-States. Yes, the Western Ring City-States…

Landon thought of Liana, his childhood friend who had scraped together travel money for him.

Liana was a cute, sunny girl. She had a lovely laugh and was always full of energy. She was probably Landon’s white moonlight, the one he could never forget.

Landon suddenly felt like going home. He had struggled here for too long and had forgotten his promise to return home in glory after making a name for himself.

During the six months he had been imprisoned, Landon had not written to his childhood friend for a long time.

Ever since he said goodbye to Liana on a country road three years ago, Landon had written to her once or twice a month, chatting about trivial things.

But after he was captured half a year ago, the letters stopped. Naturally, he had no idea how Liana was doing now.

Since that was the case, Landon decided to go home and give Liana a surprise.

“I’m leaving, Olivia.”

Landon stood by the window and studied that peaceful face for a few seconds, then turned and left.

But Landon did not notice the moment her fingers trembled slightly. He returned to Griffin Academy without looking back to pack his things.

Landon had not been back for a long time, so it felt a little unfamiliar, but finding his dorm and packing his luggage were not difficult.

Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly heard a loud crash.

“Clang!”

A metal bar used to prop open a window rolled to his feet.

He looked up. On the second-floor windowsill, a stunning figure appeared before his eyes.

“Could you bring it up for me?”

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