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Chapter – 22
During the week-long founding festival, Lafine decided to stay in the Imperial Palace.
It was not only because she did not want to go to the Marquis’s mansion where the Marquis and Elizabeth were, but also because she could not ignore the Emperor’s consideration.
“Haah… I’m tired.”
Even though she had rested for a few days after the pre-festival, she had gone through so much that the fatigue was still heavy.
Still, things with Cedric were mostly settled, and she had also managed to silence the Marquis for now, so she felt at ease.
Knock knock—
Just as she was about to lie down on the bed, someone knocked on her door.
There shouldn’t be anyone coming to see her here. Thinking it strange, she spoke.
“Yes, come in.”
The door opened immediately.
“Have you been well?”
“Wow, Bayern!”
It was someone she had been waiting for, so Lafine brightened and welcomed him happily.
“How did you get here?”
“I got permission from the Emperor—well, His Majesty. I have to go back soon.”
“I see…”
“I snuck out, so I can’t get caught.”
Bayern said playfully, scratching the bridge of his nose.
It sounded like a joke, but it was true. He had struggled a lot to shake off the head attendant.
Still, he couldn’t hold back his desire to see Lafine, so he came just to see her face for a moment.
At his words, Lafine burst into laughter.
“What?”
“It’s true. I really have to go soon.”
He didn’t want to run into anyone who might recognize him without his mask—only a few people, like Cedric, the head attendant, or the captain of the guards—and cause trouble for her.
“You’re leaving already?”
“Yeah. I just came to see your face for a moment. I’ll come again later—”
Knock knock—
At that moment, before Bayern could finish speaking, someone knocked on the door again.
“Wait a moment.”
Lafine went to the door and opened it.
But standing there was Cedric.
Someone she had never expected to see. For a moment, she wondered if she was dreaming.
After what had happened, she thought she would never see him again.
Her face hardened.
“What is it? I have a guest, so please leave.”
“Lafine…”
Cedric looked desperate.
“I’m serious. I have a guest right now. Baye—?”
She turned her gaze back into the room.
Bayern, who had been there just moments ago, had disappeared.
“…What?”
In that brief moment of distraction, Cedric had already stepped inside the room.
“How can you just come in without permission?”
“You didn’t break off the engagement because of that Bayern guy, did you?”
Lafine let out a dry laugh in disbelief.
“Do you really think I’m the same kind of person as you?”
As she glared at him, Cedric grabbed her wrist.
“Lafine… I didn’t come to say that. I came to ask for your forgiveness. It’s true. I was wrong about everything. I… I was foolish.”
“….”
He suddenly began to beg.
Lafine let out a sigh.
She didn’t want to cause a scene in the Imperial Palace. She didn’t want Bayern to see such disgrace, and she didn’t want the imperial knights to hear the noise from inside the room.
“Let’s go outside first. It’s better to talk while walking.”
They began walking near the garden, in a place visible to others.
Cedric apologized in a trembling voice.
“…I admit everything I did wrong, even though you were my fiancée. It’s all my fault. I deserve to be abandoned.”
“….”
“But… could you think about it just one more time?”
For once, his remorse seemed genuine.
But Lafine looked at him without any change in expression.
When she didn’t answer, Cedric kept talking.
“I won’t do it again. I must have been crazy. I did something I never should have. Please.”
But some things cannot be undone.
“It’s already over. Stop appearing in front of me and go back.”
Lafine said coldly.
“Lafine! I’ll do anything you say. If you tell me not to meet someone, I won’t. I’ll never do anything you dislike again. That time—with Elizabeth… yes, kissing her was wrong. And forgetting your birthday was unforgivable. What else do I need to be forgiven for? Lafine… please. Just not the broken engagement…”
Cedric’s voice trembled as if he were about to cry. His eyes even looked moist.
But Lafine did not waver at all.
“What are you talking about? We’re strangers now.”
“Please… think again. I’ll never see Elizabeth again. I won’t even look at her or speak to her…”
At that moment—
Rustle.
An unfamiliar sound interrupted them.
Both turned toward the source.
As if invited, yet another uninvited guest had appeared.
Elizabeth stood there, looking completely stunned.
Her pale face showed that she had heard everything.
She looked like she was about to cry.
Lafine found the situation absurd and crossed her arms as she looked at her.
“Really, the nerve you both have, showing your faces like this.”
She jerked her chin toward Cedric.
At her voice, Elizabeth trembled.
“You said you were sick. How did you make it all the way here?”
Lafine just wanted both of them gone.
Ignoring Cedric, she walked toward Elizabeth.
Without her father there to support her—or perhaps because of what she had just heard—Elizabeth looked terrified.
“Elizabeth, if you don’t have any business here, please leave.”
“….”
“Take care of your lover. I don’t even want to see his face.”
At those words, Elizabeth suddenly burst into tears.
But unlike her usual whining, she cried silently, tears falling one after another.
“Why are you crying? You’ve done far worse things to me without hesitation.”
Lafine was long used to her tears.
She no longer felt any pity or sympathy.
She quietly stepped closer to the trembling Elizabeth.
Every movement drew attention.
Standing right in front of her, Lafine leaned in and whispered into her ear:
“Now you understand, don’t you? You shouldn’t desire what you cannot have, Elizabeth.”
At that whisper, Elizabeth suddenly screamed and broke down completely.
She couldn’t believe it—
Cedric’s betrayal, and her own situation.
She, who had always lived as she pleased, could not endure such humiliation.
“Ahhh!”
“Waaah… aaah!”
Cedric rushed over in shock.
But unlike before, he didn’t even dare to support Elizabeth. Instead, he only glanced nervously at Lafine.
Seeing that, Elizabeth seemed even more shocked and cried even louder.
Lafine watched quietly, then frowned in annoyance.
If this continued, it would attract attention again.
She spoke quickly to Cedric.
“I don’t want to become a spectacle like on Roysha Street, so I’ll be leaving now.”
“L-Lafine!”
Cedric looked flustered between the two of them.
At the same time, Elizabeth screamed and suddenly fainted.
Lafine sighed.
“She’s the one you love. Take her to the imperial physician.”
Cedric, looking helpless, supported Elizabeth.
Lafine walked past them and headed straight back to her room.
But before long, she was called out again by the imperial physician.
The place she arrived at after being summoned was a medical room in a separate building of the palace.
She stared blankly at the scene in front of her.
Since she was Lafine’s younger sibling, the palace had clearly put in a lot of effort—
There was practically a whole group of physicians gathered in the room.
