Chapter 05
As always, it was mealtime.
Lyrette sat on the edge of the bed, her eyes drifting aimlessly. Normally, a meal would be placed right in front of her on the bed, but today a blackwood table had been brought in, and a lavish spread was being prepared.
Even as the scent of delicious food filled the room and two chairs were set down, she desperately tried to deny reality.
But a moment later, when the man entered through the door, the last shred of hope shattered into pieces.
“Standing there like you intend to stay up all night?”
Unlike Lyrette, who had frozen without being able to take any action, Valderion entered calmly and took his seat at the prepared table. His teasing voice snapped through her stunned mind like a tap.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Can’t you see?”
Valderion replied lazily as he washed his hands in the prepared basin.
“I’m here to eat.”
That much was obvious from his demeanor alone.
That wasn’t what Lyrette was asking. And he likely knew that as well.
“Why?” she asked again.
“Do you need a reason to eat?”
“If I’m eating with you, yes.”
Valderion dried his hands on a silk towel and let out a faint laugh.
“It’s just a meal.”
“….”
“There’s no need to treat it like something so serious.”
He took a light sip of the pre-meal drink and leaned back in his chair, meeting her gaze.
“More importantly, how long do you intend to keep me waiting?”
His golden eyes drifted toward the empty seat across from him.
Lyrette clenched her fist. Her nails dug into the soft skin of her palm. Yet all her senses were already focused on the man, so she barely even felt the pain.
Valderion raised a brow, silently urging her to sit.
With reluctance, she stood and walked to the table. Even if she could move away from the bed, she could never leave the room—the length of her restraints ensured it, tightening around her ankle like a noose.
The meal began in fractured silence.
Lyrette held her breath as she moved her cutlery, cutting food and bringing it to her mouth.
Normally she could at least taste something, but not today.
Simply having someone else at the table made everything feel like eating sand—dry, bitter, and unbearable. Of course, it wasn’t merely the presence of another person, but who that person was that mattered most.
Valderion ate with an air of composure, his gaze occasionally returning to her hands as she awkwardly held her utensils.
“Your hands are still stiff,” he said.
“….”
“And I didn’t even look under your skirt, but your legs must be the same.”
Valderion set down his knife. It clinked sharply against the glass plate.
At that moment, Lyrette flinched.
Valderion’s pupils narrowed as they locked onto her reaction.
“And yet you still haven’t stopped that habit.”
His tone was displeased.
His gaze, which had been on her, shifted toward a corner of the room.
There, a tapestry bearing the proud emblem of Yustutia lay in tatters, discarded like refuse. Judging from what he had been told, this made the tenth incident today alone.
“Don’t you ever get tired of it?”
“Unfortunately, no.”
“I’m the one who finds that unfortunate.”
Valderion’s knife glinted dangerously as he held it.
Despite his refined, aristocratic movements, the meat on his plate was being ruthlessly torn apart.
“You seem to hold a lot of resentment toward me.”
“….”
“You always make that face. Like you’re staring at something filthy, pathetic, and grotesque.”
But it wasn’t only that.
There was a deeper reason.
The core issue was that he was a descendant of Yustutia.
The very lineage that had once been glorious, now stained and ruined in blood and ash.
Resentment toward him was inevitable.
“One piece of advice,” Valderion said. “Dwelling too much on the past isn’t good for you.”
He set down his cutlery without touching the mutilated food and took a sip of wine. At those words, whatever little appetite Lyrette had left sank even further.
Don’t dwell on the past…
It was certainly correct. And yet, depending on who said it, the meaning changed entirely.
At the very least, she did not want to hear it from the man who had destroyed her family under imperial command.
“….”
Lyrette took a slow breath.
Was it because of the name?
Every time she met those eyes—like gold dust pressed into shape—her fingers stiffened painfully, joints refusing to move properly.
Instead of her hands, she gripped the tablecloth over her lap.
And then it happened in an instant.
Crash—!
The plates and glasses neatly arranged on the table toppled over. Lyrette’s sudden pull on the tablecloth turned the peaceful dinner into chaos.
In the blink of an eye, only Valderion’s glass remained intact.
His golden eyes, radiant yet indifferent by nature, quietly surveyed the wreckage.
Lyrette looked back at him with an expression so shameless it hardly seemed like she was the one responsible.
After a moment, a crack formed between Valderion’s brows.
For a man usually so composed in his own domain, it was a rare flicker of emotion.
“What exactly do you think you’re doing?”
“You asked if a meal needs a reason. I agree.”
“….”
“If I don’t want to eat, I don’t need a grand reason for that either.”
A cold smile formed on Valderion’s lips. It was almost laughable how she used his own words as a shield.
The atmosphere in the room froze instantly.
The two of them locked eyes without a single retreat. It felt like standing on a sheet of ice that would shatter the moment one of them misstepped.
Lyrette forced every muscle in her body to stay steady, refusing to let him see her trembling.
“No matter how long you were treated like a lowborn… surely you still remember how to act like a noble.”
“….”
“Or have you truly come to believe you’re nothing more than livestock just because Dailen treats you like one?”
Valderion pointedly criticized her behavior and slowly raised the glass in his hand.
His fingers, long and precise, extended one by one.
Then he released the glass.
It fell toward the floor already littered with broken dishes and spilled food.
Crash!
The sound of shattering glass echoed even more sharply than before, embedding itself into the silence.
“This makes it impossible to continue the meal, doesn’t it?”
As he stood, the space of the room suddenly felt smaller. It wasn’t that he had changed—yet his presence pressed down on the air.
Valderion looked down at Lyrette.
This time, instead of sitting across from her, his gaze came from above.
He tilted his lips slightly.
“I’m not a very patient man.”
“….”
“Try this again, and it won’t be amusing.”
Though he was smiling, Lyrette’s face stiffened.
“Next time…”
Next time.
So this wasn’t the end of today.
No…
Lyrette watched his retreating figure and desperately hoped it was just her imagination.
But starting the very next day, the man truly returned.
Every day followed the same pattern.
Two portions of food were brought in, and they sat through meals that felt worse than attending a funeral.
Lyrette gradually felt that he was observing her through these moments.
And she wasn’t entirely wrong.
In aristocratic society, shared meals were a form of assessment. When children learned manners, the first thing after speech and writing was dining etiquette.
It was a stage where one’s behavior and instincts were observed—an informal trial of character.
Of course, Valderion wasn’t observing her for social refinement.
His gaze still lingered most often on her hands.
He seemed more concerned about the condition of the girl now bound to his name.
As he cut his food and ate, he lightly tapped the nearby glass with his fork.
A sharp sound rang out.
Lyrette flinched again, as if burned.
Valderion narrowed his eyes.
As she had suspected, he had begun observing her reactions in detail during these meals.
She was, in some ways, excessively sensitive.
Especially to sound.
Even the faint chime of silver cutlery against glass made her flinch.
At first, it had been accidental.
But once he realized how sensitive she was to it, it became… interesting.
So sometimes he deliberately tapped the glass.
And not only that—he would suddenly open the door, watching her startle as if struck by lightning.
She reacted like someone constantly expecting to be devoured.
Like someone who believed the world itself was waiting to consume her.
