Chapter 5

The Male Lead and Female Lead Broke Up

“Mother, where is Father?”

Among them, I addressed the older-looking man.

He had been working as a butler in the Heitz Ducal Family for several decades.

“His Grace is in his study, and Her Grace is in the library.”

“I see. All right.”

I wanted to tell my parents about everything that had happened today right away, but I needed some time to think about how I should tell them.

So, for the time being, I went upstairs to the second floor, where my room was.

After living with them for six months, I could now call them Mother and Father without hesitation.

Fortunately, they were people who genuinely loved their daughter and showered her with affection.

The man who was my father was hot-tempered and quick to anger, befitting the head of a family wielding the power of fire.

In contrast, my mother was calm and positive about everything.

And apparently, I had done a good enough job acting like the real Bellita, because they hadn’t noticed that their daughter had changed.

After observing them for six months, I was relieved to discover that neither of them was particularly perceptive.

Still, I’m glad I got good parents.

I genuinely felt that way.

In novels, the protagonist either ends up with horrible parents… or doesn’t have any at all.

If I hadn’t had parents here, I would have been sad too.

They hadn’t been my family from the beginning, but by now, the two of them had become my family.

Watching them treat me well because they believed I was their daughter sometimes made an unavoidable sense of guilt well up inside me, and at times, I even felt a certain distance between us.

But as we continued spending time together and interacting, my heart gradually opened as well.

Now, we were slowly becoming a real family.

I went to my room and rested for a while as I organized in my head what I would say to my parents.

The incident had already happened, but this wasn’t merely a broken engagement between two individuals.

It was a political marriage that had been arranged between two families long ago.

So I had to properly explain everything to my parents.

And convincing them while simultaneously creating a situation favorable to me, so that I could live comfortably from now on—that was entirely my responsibility.

I was so lost in thought that I didn’t notice how much time had passed.

Then there was a knock on the door, followed by Mary’s voice from outside.

“My lady, it’s time for dinner.”

“Okay.”

I went downstairs to have dinner.

When I arrived, my parents were already seated at the table.

I took my seat and looked at them for a moment.

My father was a handsome, pleasant-looking man with blond hair and green eyes.

My mother was an exceptionally beautiful woman with red hair and blue eyes, the kind of beauty that was immediately obvious at a glance.

And Bellita had inherited her father’s golden hair and her mother’s blue eyes in equal measure.

In terms of appearance, I could say that she resembled both of them.

Fortunately, she took after her mother a little more, so although she wasn’t quite as beautiful as her, Bellita could still definitely be called a beauty.

Soon, dishes began appearing one after another.

I chatted lightly with my parents while eating.

The food always tasted more or less the same, but perhaps because of the day I had had, everything tasted better than it ever had before.

Of course, I didn’t let it show in front of my parents.

Instead, I repeatedly exclaimed inwardly about how delicious everything was as I ate.

“Did you have a good visit to the Maxius Ducal Residence today?”

Just as I was tearing off a piece of bread to dip into my soup, Mother asked me.

Since she knew I went there every day, it had become routine for her to ask me during dinner whether my visit had gone well.

So it wasn’t a particularly unusual question.

“Yes. It went well. But…”

I paused for a moment and deliberately darkened my expression slightly.

It was time to start acting again.

“Why? Did something happen?”

“Bellita, what is it?”

As soon as my expression became gloomy, both Mother and Father pressed me anxiously.

“…I have something to tell you after dinner. I would like you to spare me some time.”

At my serious, subdued voice, they both nodded slightly and said they understood.

After that, I deliberately maintained a noticeably depressed expression throughout the rest of dinner.

Seeing me like that, my parents stopped asking me anything else.

After dinner, I headed toward the study where my parents were.

Knock, knock.

“It’s me. Bellita.”

“Come in, dear.”

Mother’s gentle voice came from inside.

I opened the door and entered.

My parents were sitting side by side on the sofa, waiting for me.

I carefully sat down across from them and let out an exhausted sigh.

“I’m sorry… Mother, Father…”

I began by apologizing to them.

“What is it?”

“Bellita, tell us what happened.”

“…I’ve decided to break off my engagement with Duke Kane Maxius.”

My unexpected bombshell left both of their faces momentarily filled with bewilderment.

“…Break off the engagement?”

“Yes.”

“Break off the engagement…? Who decided that?!”

As expected from his hot-tempered personality, Father shot to his feet.

His expression was as though he had just heard something completely unacceptable, and he shouted angrily.

At the sound of his loud voice, I deliberately shrank back, pretending to be frightened and intimidated.

Seeing me cower, Mother hurriedly tried to calm Father down.

“Dear! Calm down.”

“How can I calm down?! I hear that the two of them broke off their engagement without discussing a single thing with their parents!”

“Please calm down and let us hear why she did it first. Do you really think our daughter would do something like this for no reason?”

My calm mother somehow managed to soothe Father while adding words that showed she trusted me.

Thinking that I was deceiving someone like her made me feel guilty, and my heart pricked slightly.

“Bellita, explain properly. I simply can’t understand this. You like the Duke of Maxius, don’t you? You were supposed to get married soon, and now you’re suddenly saying you’ve broken off the engagement?”

The fact that Bellita liked Kane was so well known that, with only a slight exaggeration, one could say there wasn’t a single person in the capital who didn’t know.

Naturally, her parents knew just how much she loved Kane.

So regardless of Kane himself, they simply couldn’t believe that I had decided to break off the engagement.

“Yes… That’s what I’ve decided.”

I tried to answer calmly, but I couldn’t hide the emotions welling up inside me.

My voice gradually became tearful.

I was warming myself up in advance for the sorrow and heartbreak I was about to perform.

“…Why did you do that? What on earth happened between the two of you?”

Perhaps seeing me tear up so pitifully had finally calmed Father down a little.

He sat back down on the sofa and asked me the question.

It meant he was ready to listen to my story.

“The Duke… The Duke says that he loves someone else…”

“W-What?!”

“What on earth are you talking about?!”

But the moment he sat down, Father sprang back to his feet.

His fist was already clenched so tightly that the veins on the back of his hand stood out, as though he might smash something at any moment.

Just looking at him made it obvious how furious he was.

My unexpected statement had also caused Mother’s voice to rise considerably.

After all, she had just heard that her precious daughter had been rejected.

It seemed even she was having trouble maintaining her usual composure.

“So I’ve decided to break off my engagement with the Duke…”

As I said this, I tried my best to play the most pitiful and tragic person in the entire world.

“How dare he do that to my daughter! He cheated on her?!”

Father’s face became flushed with anger as he ground his teeth and spat out his fury.

“Do you know who the other person is?”

“…Lady Adela Bayon.”

“Bayon? You mean the Bayon family?!”

“Yes, that’s right…”

“The Bayon family? The Bayon family is…!”

“Dear…!”

I didn’t know what Father had been about to say about the Bayon family, but Mother urgently called out to him and stopped him before he could finish.

Father also seemed startled, quickly closing his mouth.

What was that?

The way Mother had so conspicuously stopped Father made it obvious that he had almost said something I wasn’t supposed to hear.

But there was no way I could question him about it in the middle of this situation, so I firmly suppressed my curiosity for the moment.

For now, I decided to focus only on what I needed to do.

“Bellita, as you have seen and heard yourself, it isn’t unusual for nobles to see other people behind their partners’ backs. And more importantly, your marriage is a union between two families. It isn’t some trivial promise that can be broken over something like this. Of course, if the two of you truly loved each other, that would be wonderful. But unfortunately, marriage between nobles isn’t quite so romantic.”

Of the two, Mother had managed to calm down first.

She gently explained why I couldn’t simply break off the engagement.

“I know. I know what this engagement means. But the Duke has already completely changed his heart. There was nothing I could do…”

“Did the Duke ask you to break off the engagement first?”

“Yes.”