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Chapter 07
The Duke of Romanov wore a rather satisfied expression.
‘…What is that face supposed to mean? And I never asked for his impressions.’
I barely managed to suppress the strange surge of defiance rising in me.
‘But seriously, how did Hazel endure this man? Even without loving him…’
No, it wasn’t just that she didn’t love him. In the novel, it was even described that their relationship was poor. Even standing beside him made an uncomfortable, creeping sense of unease rise within me.
As I had been thinking all along—was it because he wielded the power of eternal night? Even when I tried not to think about it, a strange sense of distance constantly lingered.
“Then I suppose… the reason is just his face?”
“…?”
“Gasp….”
I panicked as my thoughts slipped straight out of my mouth.
Perhaps because the tension had melted away like snow, my tightly pressed lips had relaxed as well. To think I would make such a mistake.
“What did you say?”
“I was just lost in thought for a moment.”
I quickly put on a dignified expression, trying to prevent the Duke of Romanov from pressing further.
“What kind of thought.”
…Useless. That didn’t work at all.
“I was suddenly thinking about a friend of mine. She ended up marrying a very intimidating man. He’s a bit scary, to be honest.”
I hastily fabricated an explanation and spoke rapidly.
“And?”
The Duke casually rubbed his chin again, as if it were a habit. I followed his fingers with my eyes and continued.
“I just couldn’t understand it. After thinking about it, I concluded that the only reason my friend keeps him by her side is probably his face. He’s honestly extremely handsome.”
“That doesn’t sound like a very meaningful story.”
…But you’re talking about yourself.
I swallowed down the disrespect that nearly slipped out again and instead asked a sudden question.
“May I ask something personal?”
The Duke gestured slightly with his chin, as if to say go ahead.
Confirming his expression, I spoke in a slightly heavier tone.
“If someone wasn’t particularly important in your life… were you to lose that person suddenly, what do you think you would feel, Your Grace?”
The reason I asked this was because Hazel would likely have wanted to ask the man who once cried over her dying body why he cried at all.
Looking up at him, the Duke seemed to find the question unexpected and paused in thought.
“A person who wasn’t important… A meaningless question. Naturally, I would feel nothing.”
He answered lightly, as if it were a pointless inquiry.
For a moment, his expression overlapped with the man I had seen in my dream—someone who had gone mad after losing a woman who wasn’t even that important to him in life, a broken man who failed to care for his daughter for seven years because of it.
‘But that’s no longer important.’
That wouldn’t happen anyway.
So I silently bid farewell to the man who might have collapsed after my death.
‘In that sense, I guess I saved your life.’
Of course, I also saved myself in the process. And I would find the people responsible for my mother’s death. I nodded firmly to myself.
“You’ll break your neck like that.”
Perhaps unable to understand my behavior, his head tilted slightly.
I brushed past his face, which looked at me as though I were something meaningless, and shrugged.
“It’s nothing. Really, nothing.”
On the way back home.
Inside the carriage, I thought about my future plans.
‘…I really need to leave the Lindberg ducal house as soon as possible.’
I was an adopted daughter. Though I had a distant relation to the Lindberg ducal family, I had once been a simple countryside baron’s daughter who had never even set foot in the capital.
But when I was six, my biological parents died in a fire. With no inheritance left and no one to take care of me, I was brought to the Lindberg ducal house.
People had said I might at least be taken in as a ward by the duke.
But it wasn’t just “good luck.”
Duchess Vivian Lindberg had personally stepped forward and adopted me. She had been deeply moved by the story of a child who lost her parents so young, and she embraced me with open arms. As time passed and I was ready to recover from my grief, she continued to show me endless affection.
‘I was lonely with only three sons. I’m so happy to finally have a daughter.’
She whispered love into my ears countless times, saying she felt like she had gained the whole world by having a precious daughter.
‘But…’
She was no longer in the Lindberg ducal house.
At that thought, bitterness rose in my mouth. This rough feeling lingering inside me was the guilt that always surfaced when I thought of my mother, Vivian.
I bit my lip repeatedly out of habit, but the emotions breaking through were impossible to suppress.
She died one day before my fifteenth birthday. In a carriage accident while returning home after picking up a gift she had prepared for me.
‘Our Hazel must see the wide, wide world.’
Even now, if I closed my eyes, I could hear her warm voice.
For ten years, she had been my mother—my sun.
To be honest, I barely remembered my biological parents, who had always been away from home during my infancy. My attachment to her was far deeper.
I loved her deeply, and she loved me even more. She was a wise and kind woman who personally designed a beautiful seaside villa in the southern empire.
When that villa was finally completed, she flew away to the heavens.
Since that day, I had been suffocating under unbearable guilt.
‘Mother got into that carriage because of me. And everyone in the Lindberg family knows it.’
I couldn’t endure the hollow ache in my chest. The emptiness could only be filled with remorse. Wherever I went in the mansion, I would burst into tears at the sight of anything that reminded me of her.
So I built my own small world in a corner of the ducal house and hid myself away. I avoided my father and brothers, thinking they would resent me.
At first, they had looked for me—but soon they became indifferent. Even when I caused small incidents unbecoming of a noble lady, they didn’t scold me.
‘They still resent me in their hearts… Maybe I’m lucky I haven’t been thrown out yet.’
Until recently, I even thought it might be best to marry and leave the Lindberg family that way.
‘But I don’t want to die while giving birth to a child.’
As I was sinking into my gloomy thoughts, I suddenly remembered the Duke of Romanov’s question.
‘Why not request this from the Duke of Lindberg instead?’
He had asked why I approached him rather than my father regarding the carriage accident.
‘Because I know my manners.’
Even if my mother’s death had been the result of a crime, the guilt embedded in my heart could not fade. Knowing how much she meant to the Duke of Lindberg and his three sons, and how much I loved her as well, nothing could change that feeling.
Because of that, my thoughts kept circling around apologies to the Lindberg family and the need to leave.
Sadness surged like a wave. I shook my head firmly. I had already endured enough days where emotions threatened to drown me.
From now on, I would find herbs to restore my health, safely break off the engagement, and punish those involved in my mother’s death.
After everything was over, I would live independently. If my life had indeed sprouted inside a novel, then this would be the ending I wanted to write myself.
“Lady, we have arrived.”
At the coachman’s voice, I steadied myself and stepped out of the carriage. And immediately, I was summoned by my father.
Knock knock.
“Your Grace, it’s Hazel.”
A servant opened the door, and I stepped inside without hesitation.
“You met with the Duke of Romanov?”
My father looked up only slightly from his large desk.
“Yes.”
“Did you state your intention to break off the engagement?”
“Yes.”
“And what did he say?”
“Hm…”
“Tell me everything—leave nothing out.”
His words struck me as odd.
My father had always shown no interest in me except when I was very young. He usually only watched me with narrowed eyes whenever we happened to cross paths in the mansion. I had always found his gaze uncomfortable.
So why was he suddenly asking for every detail?
‘Because it involves Romanov, I suppose.’
Since I had a private arrangement with the Duke of Romanov, I couldn’t reveal everything. I would have to be careful.
I chose my words cautiously.
“I decided to postpone the engagement decision.”
At that moment, my father’s expression subtly crumpled. The pen he was holding dropped onto the desk with a faint sound and rolled slowly across the surface.
“What does that mean?”
