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Chapter 3
The Male and Female Leads Have Broken Up
“I had no choice but to do whatever I could because Your Grace never paid any attention to me!”
I deliberately spoke as though I were blaming him, saying that I was only acting this way because of him.
At my words, Kane let out a weary sigh.
“I can no longer stand by and watch the things you do, Lady Hatz. No, I don’t want to watch them anymore.”
“It was a joke! A joke!”
“A joke?”
“Yes, yes! You know better than anyone that things like this don’t have any effect on you, Your Grace.”
“Did you just say it was a joke?”
“Yes. I was just desperately trying to grasp at even the smallest hope—”
Perhaps the word joke had angered him even more, because Kane looked at me with contempt before staring blankly into the air for a moment.
Even I was slightly frightened at that moment.
But when he looked back at me, all traces of anger had completely disappeared, and his face had returned to its usual cold, composed expression.
“Let us break off our engagement.”
And what he said was that we should break off our engagement.
“What are you talking about right now…?”
Outwardly, I put on a look of utter shock, but inwardly, I was cheering in delight because I had finally done it.
I was so happy that I actually had to consciously stop my body from bouncing up and down with excitement.
But this was the truly important part.
I couldn’t let my acting slip now. I had to be extremely careful with every answer, action, and expression so that I could achieve my goal without exposing myself.
“Are you saying we should break off our engagement just because I put one little bottle under Your Grace’s bed? Do you really think breaking off an engagement is justified over something like this?”
“I have someone I love.”
“What?”
I stared at him with a bewildered expression, as though I had just heard something completely impossible.
“Your Grace… I heard you wrong, didn’t I? Right?”
Kane remained silent.
“This can’t be happening. I must have heard wrong. Or maybe… this is a dream.”
I continued pretending to deny reality as I slowly backed away from him.
Wow. My acting has really reached another level.
Even I thought I looked completely genuine.
“Lady Hatz.”
“I can’t do this anymore. I’m too tired, and I don’t want to stay here any longer. I’m going home.”
As I said that, I even covered my ears to show that I didn’t want to hear anything more and headed toward the door.
However, I deliberately didn’t walk very quickly.
Inside, I was desperately screaming,
Please stop me!
“We haven’t finished talking yet.”
Phew. Thank goodness.
Kane reached out as though he was going to stop me from opening the door. But then he hurriedly withdrew his hand and instead stood blocking the doorway.
Does he really hate me that much?
It seemed that he genuinely hated me enough that he couldn’t even bear the slightest physical contact with me.
Well, that’s perfect.
I was already tired of coming here every day, and every single day had just been a waste of time.
And the thought that, starting today, I wouldn’t have to look at that face anymore made me feel even better.
“How… how could you do this to me?!”
So I had to bring this entire situation to an end today.
That was why I decided to push him even harder.
“You know how I feel about you. I’ve loved you for more than ten years. And yet, how could you… how could you…”
“From the very beginning, I never had any feelings for you, Lady.”
Good. Good. Keep going. Say more. Say even more.
“I knew… I knew that you didn’t like me, Your Grace… I knew that I was the only one who had feelings for you. But I’m all right. I can endure everything! As long as you stay by my side like you do now, I don’t care. So…”
“Lady, we are over now.”
Over? We never even started.
“Is it Lady Adela Bion? Is she the person Your Grace loves?”
I glared at Kane as I demanded an answer.
Perhaps he hadn’t known that I was aware of the heroine’s existence, because a flash of shock briefly crossed his eyes.
“How did you find out?”
“I know everything about Your Grace. The people you meet, the places you go, even what you ate today, what time you woke up, and what time you went to bed.”
Kane frowned as though he were thoroughly disgusted by my words.
But that was exactly what I wanted, so I paid no attention to his expression and continued.
“Your Grace, it’s common for married nobles to have mistresses. I’m not that narrow-minded. It’s just an affair, isn’t it? A momentary affair. You’ll come back to me someday, won’t you? So I can wait until you return to me. Because I’ll be the one you end up with.”
If I’m going to act like an obsessive woman, I have to say lines like this.
Besides, if I treated the person he loved as nothing more than a mistress, surely that would make him even angrier.
I recalled all the countless novels I’d read and delivered one prepared line after another, determined to make him sick and tired of me.
“So please, just take back what you said about breaking off our engagement. Please? Your Grace. I love you. I love you so, so much. I’ll love only you until the day I die. No, if you happen to die before me, I’ll follow you. I’ll even be buried alive beside you.”
Was the ‘buried alive’ part a little too much?
No.
This much was necessary.
Only then would he truly become fed up with me.
And sure enough, the expression buried alive seemed to have had the desired effect. Kane’s face twisted horribly, as though he’d just heard something absolutely terrifying.
I continued pouring out an emotional confession of my supposedly obsessive love while slowly approaching him.
There probably wasn’t anything more unpleasant than having someone you hated come closer to you.
As if he had realized what I was trying to do, Kane raised a hand to stop me.
“Don’t come any closer.”
“Your Grace…!”
“Since you already know, then I’ll tell you. My feelings for Lady Bion are absolutely nothing like the passing affair you described. From the very first moment I saw her, I lost my heart to Lady Bion. She is now my entire life. Ever since that day, my entire world has revolved around her. I can no longer even imagine a world without her in it. That is why there isn’t even room in my heart for anyone else.”
As though he were countering my confession of love, he poured out his own feelings for Adela to me in great detail.
The sheer rapture in his eyes as he spoke about Adela made it immediately obvious to me that he truly loved her deeply.
Well, look at this hopeless romantic.
“This feeling of mine will never change. The first and last woman in my life is not you, Lady. It is Lady Bion. So please, let me go now.”
As soon as he finished speaking, I acted as though I had suffered an unbearable shock.
I let the strength drain from my legs and collapsed onto the floor with a thud.
“You can’t do this to me… If you have even the slightest bit of respect for me, Your Grace, you can’t treat me like this…”
Then, with an expression as though my entire world had collapsed, I slowly spoke each word in a voice filled with despair.
“Lady, get up.”
I had half expected it, but sure enough, Kane showed no intention of helping me up. He simply told me to get up while I lay sprawled on the floor as though I were glued to it.
“How could you do this to me?! Your Grace, what do I lack? What do I lack compared to Lady Bion?! Sob… sob…!”
Unable to bear the injustice of it all, I slammed my hands against the floor and wailed even more loudly.
Yet he still didn’t move an inch.
I didn’t give up.
I continued muttering in a tearful voice that this couldn’t be happening.
I wanted to look exactly like someone who had suffered an enormous shock…
But my hand, hidden beneath the hair that had fallen over my face as I kept my head lowered, was actually extremely busy.
Since this whole situation was merely an act for me, I wasn’t sad at all, and naturally, no tears were coming.
But I had to make it look as though I had been crying.
So, while secretly making sure Kane couldn’t see, I relentlessly poked at my own eyes to force the tears out.
After some more time passed, I decided that I had done enough.
Once I’d managed to produce a decent amount of tears, I decided it was time to get up.
Actually, the real reason I decided to get up was that my feet were starting to go numb from sitting there for so long.
I didn’t want to stand up with numb feet and then embarrass myself by stumbling and falling.
Still keeping my head bowed, I weakly rose to my feet.
As I stood, I even made sure to stumble slightly so I could see how Kane would react.
As expected, Kane pretended not to notice.
Thank goodness this man is so heartless and cold.
If Kane had shown even the slightest bit of sympathy toward Belita, I might not have been able to take things this far.
But just as I’d expected, he was cold and detached.
Now it was time to bring this performance to an end.
For a beautiful finale, I changed the expression on my face—from the sadness, despair, and emptiness I’d shown until now to anger, fury, and indignation.
I widened my eyes as much as possible and glared at him.
“Hah! You’re really too much!”
I let out a hollow laugh accompanied by an exaggerated gesture.
“I’ve always known that Your Grace was a cold and heartless person, but I never imagined you would be this cruel. I collapsed right in front of you, yet you didn’t even spare me a glance. Have you ever once made an effort to truly look at me, Your Grace?”
