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Chapter 51
The servants of the Southern Mansion were just as shocked.
Everyone wore stunned expressions, then quickly began glancing at Aileen, as if gauging her reaction.
After a brief pause, they dashed off to resume their work.
“…See, I’m not the only one thinking this…”
Floanne had long since gone inside, saying she had matters to discuss with the Crown Prince.
With the servants all gone, there was only one possible solution.
‘Dalton! Dalton had that knowing look in his eyes.’
Instead of questioning the sly Floanne, it would be faster to interrogate Dalton.
After wandering around for a while, Aileen finally found him.
“Huff… huff…”
Perhaps because she had searched the vast Southern Ducal Castle as if turning it upside down.
“Your Grace, the Duchess!”
“Dalton! Whose child is that?! Does the mother exist? Why on earth did Floanne bring this child here?!”
Aileen panted heavily as she fired off her questions in rapid succession.
“Please catch your breath first, Your Grace! You’ll pass out otherwise!”
“Now’s the time for that?! I’m asking about that child!”
“Well… it’s… the Duke’s… mistake…?”
The Crown Prince had clearly ordered Floanne to annihilate the family, and as his shadow, she had to carry out the mission.
Since she didn’t kill the child who was part of that family and instead brought the child along, it was literally Floanne’s mistake.
“If it’s a mistake, is it the one I think it is? Don’t try to protect him—just tell me the truth. The mother exists separately, right?”
“Of course she does. A stork doesn’t just bring the child, you know.”
Regrettably—or perhaps unsurprisingly—Dalton, like his superior, didn’t understand women at all.
“…The mother?”
“She’s dead. That’s why she was brought here.”
“Dead…?”
“Uh, well… due to an accident…?”
He vaguely skirted the truth, unable to say that the family had been annihilated.
“So she was alive until recently?”
“Yes…?”
“Was she a noble lady? Or a commoner?”
“She was a noble lady.”
“….”
“She tried to escape abroad but died. So the child couldn’t be left alone and was brought here.”
Ah, now the puzzle pieces finally fit!
Floanne had planned to flee abroad with that woman!
‘The reason he suggested a disguised marriage to a woman he’d never met, offering her the South, was to escape with her.’
Suddenly, everything made sense, but at the same time, Aileen felt utterly invalidated.
This feeling was even humiliating.
‘The Crown Prince didn’t know either, so he asked me to seduce Floanne. Now that the child is in the Duke’s mansion—wait. If that’s the case, then I escaped from the obsessive Northern Duke to the South, only to end up in the role of a villainous stepmother? Like some wicked stepmother cliché.’
Is this a twist on the original story?!
Like scheming to prevent the child from taking the South, only to get a harsh lesson?
‘I won’t be swayed by any romance fantasy cliché. What do you take me for?’
At that moment, a rustling sound came from the corner of the room.
When she turned to look, a frightened child’s face came into view.
Seeing the child’s face properly, Aileen became even more certain.
‘Black hair… This is definitely the same hair color as Floanne’s—!’
There was no need to ask further.
She had thought she would gain peace and freedom in the South, free from absurd fantasy plots, but she was wrong.
She had stepped in the wrong place entirely.
Aileen nodded as if making a firm resolution.
Perhaps realizing something was wrong, Dalton said,
“Your Grace, I think there’s some misunderstanding—”
“No. It’s fine.”
“Eh?! Wait, please—”
“If you weren’t shocked, that would be a lie, Dalton. I was just starting to get confused about why I even came here.”
“Eh? No, please just hear me out—”
“It’s fine. Hearing your explanation won’t change anything. I’ve been foolish enough already, letting myself waver over talk of love.”
As always, Aileen was quick—quick to notice, quick to assess, and quick to act.
This decisiveness was a strength in her life as a businesswoman but sometimes caused misunderstandings in daily life.
Of course, she was aware of this flaw in herself.
But the moment she saw the child with black hair, just like Floanne’s, everything else seemed meaningless.
Aileen turned and left the room.
“Ah, Ahn-yu, wait, Your Grace!”
Dalton, left behind, could only panic, trying to soothe the child who was sobbing uncontrollably.
“Oh, she was crying so pitifully—I was so busy trying to calm her down. I thought I’d put out the urgent fire first and then explain properly to Your Grace, but suddenly the maids came pale-faced, saying the Duchess had left the castle! It seems there’s been a serious misunderstanding… What should we do?”
There was nothing around them. She hadn’t ridden a horse or taken a carriage—she seemed to have left on foot.
Floanne sighed quietly at Dalton’s flustered explanation.
It really was her mistake.
She hadn’t considered that Aileen would assume the child was illegitimate.
She felt foolish for not thinking that far ahead.
“What can we do? We have to go find her.”
“You mean you’re going to search for Aileen in the middle of the night?”
Floanne didn’t answer the Crown Prince, heading straight for the stables.
Mounting a horse, he rode toward the path leading into the forest.
“Wait, why there—”
“Your Excellency! We’ll come too! Why are you going into the forest?!”
Dalton and the guards hurriedly followed the receding Floanne.
With a plop, Aileen slipped her muddy foot out of the dirt.
Fortunately, she had thrown off her shoes and put on the boots she found in the mansion’s storage.
The typical noble escape involves expensive dresses, shoes, taking a carriage into town, walking until your feet hurt, and being caught quickly. That cliché didn’t apply to her.
She had stolen a gardener’s work uniform from the storage, quickly changed, and resumed walking into the forest.
Why the forest instead of the city?
“Normally, don’t go into the forest, Aileen. It’s dense, and once you enter, it’s hard to be found. Even animals avoid it.”
She remembered those words clearly.
The trees grew so thick that even the sky was barely visible.
Legends said anyone who entered would lose their way, wander in circles, and eventually go mad.
Still, Aileen navigated fairly well by using the stars and counting tree rings.
Eventually, this forest connected to Café Kawah’s forest.
After walking through the night, she planned to reach Café Kawah, ensure the staff kept quiet, grab extra clothes and food, and then head to the port.
“Right. Leaving this empire behind is the only solution.”
She should have just fled abroad earlier.
Aileen decided not to think about the South, Floanne, or the Crown Prince anymore.
She would escape safely and start a new life abroad.
Normally, her eyes would sparkle when planning something, but not this time.
“Well, that’s fine. I’ve never lived abroad anyway.”
She tried to force positivity but couldn’t shake the melancholy.
Eventually, she realized her self-justification was pointless and sat down on the ground, eating bread from her backpack.
Sigh.
She had to admit the truth. Judging by how troubled she felt…
“I must already… like Floanne…”
