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Chapter 5
“What?”
Lowell, who had been hurriedly asking for forgiveness because he thought the Grand Duke was angry, froze.
“I know you can’t accept what happened with the broken engagement.”
“Your Grace…”
Kylenz quietly gazed into Lowell’s orange eyes.
Lowell was his most loyal subordinate, practically his right hand. Even if he learned every secret, he would take them to his grave.
But…
Kylenz no longer wanted to think about it or even speak of it.
“My revenge is over, so I don’t want to remember any of it anymore. Therefore, Lowell, erase everything related to Lady Blante from your mind as well.”
Kylenz drew a firm line, telling him not to think about it anymore.
Revenge?
Lowell wondered what that meant, but he quietly lowered his head.
“…Yes.”
Thinking that Lady Blante was no longer related to him now that the engagement had been broken, no matter what happened to her, Lowell buried his discomfort deep in his heart.
“You may leave.”
After looking at Lowell’s heavy expression, Kylenz let out a short sigh and dismissed him.
“I shall take my leave.”
As soon as Lowell left the office, the butler spoke.
“Your Grace, Sir Rows has arrived.”
“Let him in.”
Daryl entered the office and gave a knight’s salute to Kylenz.
“At ease.”
“I have completed the task Your Grace assigned me. This is the engagement annulment agreement signed by Lady Blante.”
As soon as he stood upright, Daryl placed the document on the desk.
Kylenz’s gaze landed on the pure white envelope.
The annulment agreement.
He had personally prepared it and ordered Daryl to obtain her signature.
Since it was the end, he could have met Ariel face-to-face and finished things himself. But he did not want to see Ariel’s face while she was grieving for Marquis Blante.
He did not want to spend even a moment looking at a sorrowful face that resembled his enemy.
That was why he had hoped Daryl would quickly take care of the document and bring it back.
He wanted to sever all ties cleanly as soon as possible.
Then why did he feel so terrible?
He had thought seeing the signed agreement would make him feel relieved, as though a long-standing blockage had finally cleared.
But contrary to his expectations, his mood sank rapidly.
“…Did she sign it without resistance?”
“Yes. She signed it immediately without saying much.”
“She signed it immediately…”
At least she hadn’t caused a scene and refused to sign.
His reason told him that.
Yet his mood had already hit rock bottom.
He had been the one to let go of her hand, but somehow it felt as though Ariel had abandoned him.
Had he secretly wanted her to cling to him and refuse to sign?
As Kylenz asked himself that question, he let out a bitter laugh.
He himself had cornered her so completely that she could not possibly cling to him.
Even he could not understand what he had truly wanted from Ariel.
But it’s over now.
Kylenz reached for the agreement.
Instead of opening it, he placed the envelope in the deepest corner of the second drawer of his desk and spoke to Daryl.
“You’ve done well. Go back and rest.”
“U-Your Grace…”
Daryl hesitated instead of leaving.
“Do you have something else to say?”
At Kylenz’s question, Daryl’s lips parted.
He couldn’t decide whether he should say it.
For the sake of his lord, perhaps he should remain silent.
But Lady Blante’s request weighed heavily on his mind.
Despite everything that had happened, Daryl held no ill feelings toward her.
In fact, he rather liked her.
He had always believed her upright character suited the position of Grand Duchess perfectly.
In the end, Daryl decided to overlook it just this once.
“…Lady Blante asked me to deliver a message to Your Grace.”
“Ariel?”
“Yes.”
“…Speak.”
“She said… ‘Until the very end, I believed in your promise.’ She asked that those exact words be delivered to Your Grace.”
The expressionless look on Kylenz’s face instantly shook.
Without realizing it, he clenched his hand and spoke.
“…You may leave.”
Daryl glanced at the fist whose knuckles had turned white before bowing.
After Daryl left, Kylenz was once again alone in the office.
He let out a deep breath.
“A promise…”
The moment he heard her words, he knew exactly what she meant.
The memory of the day he proposed to her remained so vivid that it felt as though it were unfolding before his eyes.
The promise he made while kneeling before her.
That he would stay by her side until the day he died.
“…I wish she had caused a scene instead.”
If she had lashed out, he could have convinced himself that she had fallen just as low as he had.
But her words—that she had trusted him until the very end—made him feel as though he alone had been thrown into a filthy swamp.
Even after he had driven her into a corner, she never let go of his hand first.
She had kept the sacred vow of their engagement.
Unlike him.
“Well… you don’t know anything.”
That’s why you can remain so noble.
If you learned what I did in the name of revenge, what expression would you make?
He had destroyed evidence that could have proven Marquis Blante’s innocence.
If she knew that, could she still remain so dignified?
If you knew that I betrayed you, surely you would become just like me—
Kylenz stopped his train of thought and laughed bitterly.
No matter how hard he tried to imagine it, he simply could not picture Ariel becoming as broken and consumed by revenge as he was.
Even if she had been in his position, she probably would have chosen a different path.
Ariel was not the type of person to gamble everything on a foolish revenge.
“The more you resent and hate someone, the more you destroy yourself as well. So, Kyle, never fall into that kind of swamp.”
Kylenz remembered words Ariel had spoken long ago.
How had a daughter like her been born to Marquis Blante?
Feeling suffocated, Kylenz rose from his seat and turned toward the window.
The vast gardens of the estate stretched before him.
It was the final stage of autumn.
Fallen leaves had gathered beneath the trees.
“…I will forget you.”
He would forget every memory they had shared.
Her smile when she looked at him.
Her voice.
Even the eyes that had held warmth and affection.
He would erase them all completely.
Time would do that for him.
Then perhaps this endless depression and sense of loss would disappear as well.
But if…
If time passed and he still could not forget.
If nothing changed no matter how much time went by, then I…
Kylenz clenched his fist at the chilling emptiness inside him.
Opening his eyes, he lifted his gaze toward the sky with a hardened expression.
Dark clouds covered the heavens, as though reflecting the darkness within him.
It looked like a storm could break at any moment.
* * *
At last, after four straight days of autumn rain, a bright and sunny morning arrived.
The sunlight, absent for four days, shone over the rain-soaked earth, creating an oddly unnatural scene.
Still, Ariel enjoyed seeing the sun again.
Though that pleasant feeling did not last long.
Ariel smiled at the sunlight before reality suddenly struck her, causing the corners of her lips to fall.
This isn’t the time for me to be enjoying the weather.
Looking at the account books scattered across the table, Ariel let out a deep sigh.
During the four days since her engagement with Kylenz had ended, she had remained at the Blante estate and thoroughly examined the family’s situation.
Their finances.
The overdue affairs of the territory.
Every business operated by the marquisate.
The more she learned, the more hopeless everything seemed.
The territory had suffered a severe drought, making tax collection nearly impossible.
On top of that, the shipping company that had been the family’s largest source of income had suddenly gone bankrupt overnight.
She couldn’t understand how a shipping company that had operated successfully for more than forty years could collapse so suddenly.
But that wasn’t the important issue.
The real problem was the family’s completely depleted finances.
And to make matters worse, they were now burdened with a charge of treason.
At this point, it would not have been surprising if the Blante name disappeared from the Empire altogether.
Most people would have given up.
After all, with treason added to everything else, what hope was left?
But Ariel had not abandoned hope yet.
She couldn’t.
She had decided to trust her father.
Therefore, she would uncover the truth.
The truth behind her father’s false accusation.
And the person who had framed him.
Every last bit of it.
But before that, she had to save the family first.
…
To be honest, Ariel was certain that His Majesty would not exterminate House Blante.
Those ignorant of history might laugh and call it wishful thinking, but the connection between the Imperial Family and House Blante was far deeper than most realized.
Pentium VII.
Emperor Arnold de Pentium.
Emperor Arnold had once been extremely close to Achilles Blante, the Marquis Blante of that era.
Because Achilles had been the young emperor’s tutor.
Even after ascending the throne, Arnold frequently sought Achilles’s advice whenever he faced difficult problems.
When the marquis eventually passed away, the emperor personally attended his funeral and even shed tears.
Then, praying for the marquis’s peaceful rest, he placed a royal sword inside the coffin.
As long as that sword remained within the Blante family tomb, no one would ever dare destroy House Blante.
That was what he had declared.
Of course, that had happened several hundred years ago.
But the sword still rested within the ancestor’s coffin.
And if no one else remembered, His Majesty certainly would.
The story was an essential part of the history lessons taught to every member of the Imperial Family.
Therefore…
His Majesty could never personally destroy House Blante.
Doing so would mean trampling upon the will of the Seventh Emperor.
Furthermore…
The head of the family and the principal figure accused of treason—her father—had already taken his own life.
As heartbreaking as it was, Kylenz had been right.
A chance still remained for House Blante.
A chance to survive.
