Afternoon in the library. Dahee and Caelum have marked the novel's repeated phrases with red thread and ink.

The cruel rule emerges from a repeated vow in the book. Neither wants to say it first.

They leave the library and search the estate archive, chapel registry, and portrait hall for contradictions before evening.

A small cut reveals Caelum's terror of causing harm now. The intimacy is uncomfortable, born from blood and rules.

The absurd cruelty of the rule breaks through. Dahee laughs once, not happily; Caelum almost does too.

Evening shadows lengthen. The final evidence says the death must be willing and for the duke. Dahee makes the obvious, terrible offer.

Caelum refuses to let the plot use Dahee's death. Dahee rejects his attempt to turn refusal into noble suffering.

Caelum chooses mutual death as rebellion. He opens a plain locked cabinet, not ornate, and prepares two identical cups with period glass vials.

The castle balcony overlooks black gardens and a huge moon. A clock tower shows 11:58. Dahee and Caelum stand with the two cups between them.

Caelum kisses Dahee as apology and refusal. The cups remain visible on the rail so the action continuity is clear.

Dahee drinks poison first. Caelum snatches up the second cup, desperate to follow before midnight.

The moment freezes before Caelum drinks. Moon, clock, poison cup, Dahee falling, and the first midnight bell beginning.