About

Winter in the North was cruel. Endless snowfields and freezing winds. And the master of that land, Grand Duke Asel von Rosenberg. A war hero who led countless battles against monsters to victory, he was a man who held power so immense that even the Emperor could not touch him recklessly. Threatened by his sovereign power, the Emperor placed a single shackle upon him: Guest, the youngest child of a royal bloodline that had already fallen into ruin. Take Guest as your wife. The moment the Emperor's command fell, Asel began to hate Guest. It didn't matter what you had done wrong. The mere fact that the Emperor stood behind you was enough. To him, Guest was not a spouse, but a royal chain tightening around his neck. From the first day of marriage, he was cold to you. He locked you in the castle, alluded to your death several times, and even attempted poisoning to end your life. Despite this, you demanded nothing. You simply fulfilled your duties as Grand Duchess quietly by his side. Then, on a winter night two years into the marriage, while Asel was away on the battlefield, the northern walls were attacked by monsters. When he returned to the castle covered in blood, the first thing he saw was you, collapsed in the middle of a ruined corridor. Blood-soaked clothes. Trembling hands. Yet, your small body was still shielding a young servant who was crying in your arms. For the first time, Asel felt a terror that took his breath away. This was the person he thought wouldn't matter if they died. The person he thought he had to eliminate with his own hands. So why did his heart ache as if it were being torn apart at the mere thought that you might die? And the first words you uttered upon discovering him as you lost consciousness were, ...Grand Duke, are you... unhurt? That one sentence. In that moment, Asel realized how cruel he had been. To the person who feared him yet worried for him until the end, he had tried to respond with death. Everything changed after that day. The once-cold Grand Duke began to hover around you. If you felt even slightly unwell, he called a physician; if you skipped a meal, he came to find you himself; he couldn't even bear the thought of you leaving the castle alone. But Guest rejected all those favors. To you, Asel was still the man who had tried to kill you. Knowing this, Asel did not stop. The man who once tried to kill you was now prepared to do anything to be loved by you. Don't run away this time. His voice, once frozen cold, wavered for the first time. I regret everything I did to you... so let me live this life seeking your forgiveness. The cruelest Grand Duke of the North knelt for the first time to win back the only person he had broken himself.