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Inés stood there, pale as a ghost and looking as though the shards of glass were embedded in her own hand.

Cárcel wrenched Miguel's arm away with his free hand, not even bothering to look down at the hand that had stopped his brother from hurting himself.

"Let me go!"

"Miguel."

"Let go of me, damn it! Now!"

Miguel used his free hand to assault his brother, seemingly failing to recognize him, and even grabbed an empty candlestick to strike at Cárcel's arm. Cárcel did not retaliate at all and instead calmly and slowly began to restrict Miguel's movements.

The closer he got to fully overpowering Miguel, the fiercer their struggle got. Their large bodies swung out this way and that, causing the large, circular table to wobble. The silverware crashed into each other and loudly clattered to the floor, some of the goblets toppling over. It was a mess.

Isabella buried her face against her husband's arm and sobbed hysterically. Duke Escalante practically carried his wife safely into a corner of the dining room before roughly pulling Inés, who was still just standing there in awe, behind him and stood before her protectively.

"Miguel!" The duke's roar seemed to shake the very ground.

As if taking his father's voice as a signal, Miguel, pinned against the table by Cárcel, reached a hand up and took hold of Isabella's wine glass.

Inés instinctively moved forward to stop him, but the duke was faster and stopped her from getting any closer. At the same time, Cárcel snatched the wine glass from his brother's hand and quickly tossed it behind him.

Inés gasped, not at the loud shattering noise the wine glass made as it hit the floor, but at the way Cárcel's hand was drenched in blood. Even at a quick glance, she could see large shards of glass still embedded in his palm.

"How dare you act like this in front of your mother! Do you not even recognize your own brother?!" the duke bellowed.

"I never asked anyone to throw themselves at me and get hurt in my stead! Am I wrong?" Miguel spat out through gritted teeth, as if mocking his brother. It was clear he was trying to provoke Cárcel into leaving an opening.

But Cárcel, still expressionless and unmoving, continued to hold Miguel down without faltering. Even so, it was clear he was trying his best not to hurt his brother in any way. The table rattled violently every time Miguel struggled in an attempt to free himself, but that was it.

Duke Escalante's fists shook with anger, but he forced his hands open and kept Inés from approaching the two brothers. As she helplessly took a step back, she watched Miguel twist his head this way and that, his eyes glinting angrily. Even at the funeral, he hadn't shown so much emotion.

"We could say the same thing about you. We never asked you to lose your mind," said the duke.

Miguel smirked and let out a spiteful chuckle.

"I understand your remorse. You were going to spend the rest of your life with that girl and loved her accordingly. I know how cruel it was that you could not see her before she died. But you did not choose to marry Viviana in the first place. It was simply a match made by our family and House Castagnary when you were both very young. This new match is no different. You have not yet lived twenty years, and once you spend more time with your lovely bride, you will realize this was just a short period of your life. You will see the vanity in all of this."

"You think this is no different? That she is no different from Vivi?" Miguel let out an exasperated laugh, his forehead pressed against the table. "Vivi is different from any other person in the world, Father. That was always the issue."

"She is no different. In the end-"

"If that is true, then give her back to me. Give Vivi back to me. Give me the same Vivi, alive and just no different from the old one."

"Miguel."

"If you cannot, then do not ever bring up that blasted word 'marriage' ever again." His voice cracked in a sob, even as his words dripped with poison. His deranged smile still lingered on his face.

"Miguel, I have no time to be listening to your childish tantrums."

The smile on Miguel's face widened bitterly. "How much did you agree to sell me for, Father?"

"Miguel!"

"Only a few dozen days have passed since I walked out of her tomb. Could you really not wait to negotiate my hand in marriage during that time? I suppose I should be amazed and grateful that you waited until Vivi died."

"That is not the case."

"What has His Majesty promised House Escalante in exchange for me taking on Dolores, that damn girl? Has she been rejected so many times already that she has agreed to marry a basket case like me? You should have gone with her from the start-"

"Would you still refuse if I said it was for your brother's sake?"

Inés seemed to sink into her stomach. She watched as her father-in-law's strong shoulders sagged as if finally beaten down by the weight of his exhaustion. It felt strange. She then turned to look at Miguel's stunned yet still angry expression, and then her husband's still calm face.

"You don't need to do it, Miguel," said Cárcel. He sounded resolute, as if something had already been decided, despite his father's pleas.

Duke Escalante glared at his eldest son resentfully before growling through gritted teeth, "His Majesty is waiting to see whether or not House Escalante will send its successor to war, Miguel."

"Did Admiral Calderon's grandson join the navy only to avoid going to war?"

"An honorable battlefield is different from a battle intended not to leave any survivors. To be specific, this is about whether I am willing to sacrifice your brother for the emperor. In order to avoid that test, I will need to prove my loyalty in another way."

What the duke was telling Miguel was not news to Inés. This was exactly what Empress Cayetana had ordered Isabella to convince her husband to do. Inés also knew that Cárcel would only retire after participating in both the conquest of Las Sandiego and another battle afterward. But this very moment, this reality that seemed to eat away at her flesh and bones, was unbearable.

The fact that her husband seemed to have already come to a decision, and that his father was convinced he would be joining the battle only to be killed made her nervous. This conquest was just the same as in her past life, but also entirely different. The reason for Cárcel to participate, as well as the cause of the battle itself, were different this time. Inés could bet her life on her conviction that things would not have gone this way in her past life, now that she was on the inside and knew about details she had never known before. Her knowledge of the future did not ease the burden of it one bit.

She was frightened by the idea of Cárcel leaving to join the battle soon.

"And that would be my marriage," said Miguel.

The duke let out a heavy sigh. "Though I am also saddened by the fact that Viviana's life was cut short so soon, it allowed me to gain a good way to save your brother's life through your new match. You can marry Dolores now without breaking off your engagement or betraying your betrothed. And by doing that-"

"A good way, you say? Why don't you just say that you are glad she died? Because I think so too. I am glad she did not have to marry a man whose father would say such things about her!"

"Miguel!" Isabella's shrieked, louder than ever before.

It was because Miguel had finally managed to hurt himself. He had somehow managed to grab a knife and stabbed himself in the arm by shoving his brother away with miraculous strength before ripping it out again and making as if to stab himself once more.

Cárcel spat out a curse and hurriedly stopped him by placing his own arm in the way.

"Good heavens... Cárcel... Cárcel..." Isabella, who had been cowering in a corner, came rushing over on unsteady feet.

The knife that had been aiming for Miguel's neck instead slashed against Cárcel's arm before clattering to the floor. It was a small knife intended for cutting meat, so it was too thin and flimsy to truly kill anyone, but it was still sharp.

Now that his hand and wrist were covered in wounds and Cárcel was only able to overpower his brother using his other arm and torso, he resorted to kicking Miguel to the ground. As Miguel held onto the tablecloth, the dishes and remaining silverware all shattered to the ground in a cacophony of noise.

The knights, who had already stepped into the dining room and seemed to have been waiting for this chance, rushed in and held Miguel down by his hands and feet. Inés had been pushed back by the duke so that she was too far to intervene already, but Isabella, who had also been pushed back, collapsed against her as well, leaving Inés powerless to do anything.

The duke, after making sure the two women were at a safe distance, glared down at his youngest son with exasperation and began to march over as if meaning to kill him.

"You blasted reprobate... how dare you! How dare you try to kill yourself before your own parents!"

Cárcel put himself between the two. "Father, Miguel was not trying to die."

"Just look at what you did to your older brother! How could you act that way after what he has done for you?!"

"Miguel was simply trying to mar his appearance so as to push back the marriage, Father. You need not be so angry with him." Cárcel, who was still strangely calm through all of this, accepted a dry cloth handed to him by Raúl and began to stop the bleeding on his own arm as he turned to his brother. "Isn't that right, Miguel?"

Miguel turned away, unable to hide his guilt.

Cárcel clicked his tongue and turned back to his father. "He has even returned to his senses enough to feel guilty toward me. He had been charging at me without recognizing me at all countless times in the past few weeks. I can tell what Miguel was intending to do with the time he could buy by marring his own skin. He wants to save me, but he would rather die than get married, so he must have figured that he could go to war in my stead. As if he could replace me, when he has barely even spent a year at El Ledequilla himself. The pathetic brat barely knows how to fight."

Miguel's face turned into a grimace of guilt. But the duke's fiercely furrowed eyebrows would not budge.

"This dimwit will be tossed away in no time, even if he were to marry Dolores. It would be a miracle if he did not brandish a sword during their first night in an attempt to preserve his purity, so please leave this lunatic in peace, Father."

The duke's eyes now filled with worry. "Cárcel, I told you you cannot-"

"That is the only thing we can do. You saw this display yourself, Father. This fool is the one who cannot. Not I."

Cárcel's firm gaze wavered when his eyes fell on Inés. He belatedly made an attempt to hide his injured arm. Inés was exasperated by the way he seemed to be worried about her even in this moment. As though he didn't want her to be disgusted by the blood.

He turned to face Miguel. "You need not do anything. All I need to do is follow my orders and join the war."

Inés could not for the life of her understand that faithful yet tactless tongue that spoke of joining the hopeless war even as he worried about her-his damned mind that was filled with a noble sense of duty and sacrifice.

Unable to bear this any longer, Inés rushed out of the dining room. She ordered Isabella's lady-in-waiting, who was standing frozen by the door, to help the lady of the house to her room and felt as though she was spent. But she continued onward, sensing Cárcel's gaze on her back until the door shut behind her.