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Chapter 3
I wanted to get out of this wretched place as soon as possible. But the moment I stepped out of the room, someone else was waiting for me.
“Seriously, nothing’s going my way today.”
That little cut from the paper really was a bad omen. When Reddick Bangegger saw me smirking, he stomped toward me like an enraged bull.
“Saia Erdonar! How dare you make a fool out of me?”
I’d already expected something like this. Reddick Bangegger was a petty, violent man.
The only reason I got engaged to him was because he was desperate enough to marry a fake noble like me, and because he had enough of a reputation not to disgrace the Erdonar name.
And most importantly, he wasn’t foolish enough to reveal his true nature before the engagement.
“How dare trash like you make a fool out of me?”
My shoulder blade throbbed as it slammed against the corridor wall. That was a hard hit.
“That’s why I’m breaking off the engagement.”
“Breaking it off? Ha! Breaking it off, you say?”
As Reddick came closer, Jesse, standing diagonally across from me, shivered anxiously.
“Of course I’ll break it off. And I’ll make sure you never dare show your face in society again.”
His words didn’t even qualify as a threat. That was exactly what I wanted.
Reddick’s clenched jaw and glaring eyes had no trace of reason left in them.
“So you came all the way here just to say that?”
When I sneered, he closed the distance he had barely left between us.
“Just for that? No, no. I came here because there’s something I want from you.”
A slimy smile curled on his face. This man was both petty and violent — if things didn’t go his way, he’d explode with rage. I knew exactly what could happen if I humiliated him.
But my circumstances were desperate enough to risk it.
“Kneel.”
Reddick finally shouted at me.
“Kneel down and say you were an idiot for daring to defy me.”
He clearly thought I wouldn’t do it.
“…My lady!”
Jesse took a step forward at his words, but I stopped her. Reddick was a man who never strayed from my expectations.
And to be fair, he wasn’t innocent either. I personally knew of at least three women he had cheated with. He was a habitual philanderer. Not that I cared — I never had feelings for him in the first place, so his affairs couldn’t hurt me.
I could’ve asked the Guild to dig up evidence of his infidelity. But then I’d be pitied and mocked, and worst of all, I wouldn’t have been able to leave the Erdonars as planned.
If it came to that, Giselle would’ve rushed to find me another marriage match to cover the scandal. No — the unfaithful one had to be me. That was the only way to make the situation unsalvageable for Giselle.
If it was for my plan, I could kneel a hundred times.
I slowly sank to my knees. Jesse burst into tears at the sight, while a satisfied smile finally formed on Reddick Bangegger’s lips.
“Well? Aren’t you going to say it?”
He prodded me like a puppeteer controlling a marionette.
“…I was an idiot for daring to insult you.”
“Say it louder!”
He screamed right in front of my face. I couldn’t help but flinch. Then, with a louder and firmer voice, I repeated:
“I was an idiot for daring to insult you.”
“Ha!”
“I deserve to be cast aside.”
So please, just break off the engagement.
Swallowing the last words, I finished. Reddick laughed so hard he was nearly out of breath.
And then—
“…What exactly are you doing?”
A chilling voice came from behind me. I didn’t need to think about who it belonged to; my body heated with shame instantly.
The last person I wanted to see me like this was Kyril.
“This is nothing Lord Dvonic needs to concern himself with.”
“I asked what you were doing.”
I felt his footsteps approaching. Not wanting to meet his gaze, I fixed mine on Reddick’s knees.
“Kyril, this is—”
Giselle’s voice followed, but Kyril acted as if he didn’t hear her at all.
“Did they teach you at Bangegger to treat your fiancée like an animal?”
“This woman is no longer my fiancée. And in Bangegger, we’re taught that some creatures aren’t even worth being treated as people.”
The men’s eyes locked dangerously in midair.
“Reddick, this is between you and me—”
“Shut your mouth!”
His bellow forced me to fall silent.
“Looks like the real beast here is someone else.”
“This is none of your business—ugh!”
I heard Giselle’s startled gasp. I too looked up in shock — Kyril had punched Reddick, and from the look on his face, he wanted to hit him several more times.
“Say one more word, and I’ll shatter that useless jaw of yours.”
Reddick’s lips twitched, as if he wanted to argue, but no words came out. His busted lips only allowed ragged breaths. His glare fell on me, his face flushing red with unspent rage. Staggering, he got to his feet.
He kept retreating without saying a word, until he finally shouted from a distance:
“You’ll regret this! Both of you!”
After that pathetic threat, he disappeared from sight. Jesse rushed to my side.
Kneeling for so long had left my legs numb. Jesse caught my unsteady body.
“My lady, are you all right…?”
“I’m fine, Jesse.”
I just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. I couldn’t stand being humiliated any further. I brushed past him quickly.
“Not even a word of thanks, huh.”
Kyril’s low voice followed. Reluctantly, I turned back to meet his eyes.
My neck burned with embarrassment.
“You didn’t do it for me. You did it for Giselle. You were worried I’d disgrace the Erdonar name even further. So if anyone owes you thanks, it’s her.”
Looking at Giselle coldly as I said that, she let out a hollow laugh. Kyril, apparently deeming me unworthy of a response, only glared at me in silence.
Sometimes, just sometimes, I wondered what it would feel like if those golden eyes of his ever looked at me warmly. They carried such a warm color, yet they had only ever looked at me coldly. That hadn’t changed now.
Grabbing Jesse’s arm, I walked away. Neither Kyril nor Giselle stopped me. Good — that was a relief.
Once I was in the carriage with Jesse, I could finally breathe.
“Let’s just pay the balance today and hurry back.”
The day had been full of bad omens already, and I was afraid something worse might be waiting.
“My lady, are you really all right? I knew he was insane, but still…”
“I’m fine. It was bound to happen sooner or later.”
I brushed it off, but Jesse scolded me, hands on her hips.
“Still, forcing a noble lady to kneel? That’s unthinkable!”
I couldn’t agree with her. After all, I wasn’t born a noble.
I had never once thought of myself as a noble daughter. To me, this was just like shedding clothes that had never fit in the first place — a necessary misfortune to be rid of them.
“This settles the broken engagement though, right?”
“…And you can laugh about it now, my lady?”
Why not? I shrugged.
“I’m sending this to Trillin.”
I handed her an envelope, and she brightened.
“…So you’ve picked out the house?”
“Mm. No turning back now, right?”
“Of course not!”
I’d finally chosen a home I liked from the catalog, and with the contract prepared, everything was nearing completion.
Once I found Chaddy, my plan would be complete.
“Jesse, you go mail this. No need to rush — don’t get hurt running.”
“Understood, my lady.”
The letter I entrusted her with was the contract for the mansion I was buying. Jesse knew that, and her face was set with determination.
While she went to mail it, I had my own task.
After slipping the coachman a few coins to wait for me, I confidently made my way through the alleys. Even in broad daylight, the backstreets felt dangerous. I kept my eyes down, avoiding the gaze of passersby.
Finally, I stopped before a door that looked like nothing more than a wall. Slipping a hidden gold coin to a beggar slumped nearby, he quietly pocketed it.
A click echoed as the door unlocked, and I slipped inside.
“Are you satisfied with how we handled the matter?”
“It was very thorough.”
The woman who greeted me smiled and gestured for me to sit. She was the same clerk who had handled my previous request.
Unlike other guilds, this one didn’t hire brutish mercenaries to carry out requests. That was one reason I chose them.
I paid the remainder of the fee I had prepared. The woman carefully checked the pouch of coins before smiling.
“Everything’s in order.”
“Good. I have one more request.”
“What would you like? Just say the word.”
“I want you to find someone.”
“There’s no one we can’t find.”
When I planned my escape, the first thing I thought of afterward was Chaddy.
Before being adopted into the Erdonar family, I had lived at the Dorlin orphanage. In the book, that fact had been reduced to a single line:
Saia was Giselle Erdonar’s adopted younger sister.
But my life before the adoption was something the book never contained. That part of me belonged only to myself — a part even Giselle couldn’t touch.
Searching for Chaddy was my desire to reclaim something of my own in this world that seemed made only for Giselle.
If I could find her, I had so much to say. Even though we’d gone over ten years without contact, I wanted to tell her that I had missed her all along.
And above all, I needed to apologize — to tell her that I hadn’t abandoned her there.
