TLDWAE 48

Chapter 48

“…….”

At a small round table fit for tea time, sitting across from each other at a distance where their knees could almost touch, the two of them silently stared into each other’s eyes for a long while.

Whoever looked away first or spoke first would lose. Both of them knew this was a battle of wills.

Yet, even before it began, the outcome had already been decided.

After all, it was Servis who, unable to overcome her own anxiety, had come to see Karia.

“Sigh… fine. Tell me. Just what exactly do you know to be acting so insolent?”

Servis felt utterly unfamiliar in this situation. Karia had always been beneath her.

Once a harmless presence that quietly entered the peaceful royal family—a timid, clumsy fool everyone found irritating. A foolish girl who, whenever she tried to play a prank, would inevitably get punished herself.

“Why would I tell you that?”

But who was this woman sitting right before her now? Observing the unmoving, subtly smiling corners of Karia’s mouth, Servis felt cold sweat trickle down her back.

“Y-you didn’t ask everyone else to leave just to talk about this, did you?”

“Oh my, did you really think I would have a conversation with you?”

Karia laughed aloud as if hearing a ridiculous joke, but her eyes did not share the amusement.

“The Marquessate of Balta.”

“-What?”

“Give me the Marquessate of Balta.”

“Are you insane?!”

Servis slammed her hand on the table and stood up.

Servis Luxen Castaros was a direct-line royal, second in line to the throne, and the beloved youngest daughter of the current emperor.

Though the crown prince above her meant she would not become the next emperor, the emperor had granted her territories so she would not feel slighted.

She was a princess and, at the same time, the Marquess of Balta, Countess of Noctina, and Viscountess of Kemis.

And the Marquessate of Balta was the largest, most peaceful, and historically significant of all her holdings.

Who would dare try to snatch away a goose that lays golden eggs, generating steady taxes, just because they felt like it?

“If you had willingly knelt, I might have settled for the County of Noctina, but you refused. So Balta it is. No negotiation.”

Even the crown prince and the dukes each had personal territories. Among the direct-line royals, only Karia lacked private holdings, an undeniable discrimination.

So Karia decided to take Servis’s territory. Of course, she had no intention of forgiving what Servis had done.

Call it interest… interest for deceiving her so flawlessly all this time.

“Hah! Why should I? Why should I give you a title? What have you done for me?!”

“What haven’t I done for you?”

Karia widened her eyes in mock shock as if she couldn’t understand how Servis could forget. Servis, feeling insulted, grew angrily flustered, but her next words left her speechless.

“I gave you up, didn’t I?”

“-W-what?”

“You heard what happened at the Great War, didn’t you? Do you know how difficult that was? I bore the disgrace for this. There was no other way the emperor would have permitted the divorce. And yet, you’re worried about a mere title?”

Of course, Karia had not pushed through the divorce for Servis’s sake.

Yet, in the end, who benefited more from it than Servis herself? In a hopeless situation, at least she had gained a shred of futile hope.

After committing adultery with her husband, seeing hope thanks to her own actions, wouldn’t such a repayment be only natural?

Still, Servis, even now with everything clear, continued to lie without a blink.

“I—I don’t know what you think you know, but it’s all a misunderstanding. It’s just your delusion.”

“Misunderstanding? Delusion?”

“Yes! No matter what you know, it’s just coincidence. I’m innocent. If you want to investigate me, bring proof.”

“Just what do you think I know…?”

Servis, caught in her own panic and agitation, didn’t realize how pathetic she looked.

She had indirectly admitted to being involved with the Duke of Pandeon and to being pregnant, yet she still insisted on evidence—admitting she was cornered without knowing it.

Karia felt a twinge of pity at Servis’s utterly pathetic crisis management.

“You keep wondering what I know, but let me ask you instead. How much do you think I should know before it’s ‘safe’? Is there any part of your secret that I’m even allowed to know?”

Servis could not answer. Even before the argument with Karia began, she was already choking on her own secret.

She had discovered she was pregnant two weeks ago, during a secret medical check outside the palace—the baby was six weeks along.

The father was undoubtedly Rubiderf Pandeon. She had been with no one else. Yet she could not tell him. He had declared that night a mistake and would never have consented to the child. Others, too, would not accept it.

Her family, who prioritized her, would never let her life be ruined by a child born of a mistake.

Yet Servis wanted to protect the baby. Even if Rubiderf called it a mistake, to her, that night had been a gift.

She had loved him, her brother-in-law in name, for five long years since meeting at a debutante party.

‘If the child grows to a point where nothing can be done, perhaps even he will have no choice but to accept it.’

Karia and Rubiderf would be divorced soon. Then it wouldn’t be impossible. But if Karia revealed everything to everyone before that time? She would face public scorn and lose the child. That could not happen.

When Servis’s eyes finally began to show a proper light, Karia smiled, satisfied like a well-fed predator.

‘Yes, it would be no fun if you fell already.’

Seeing Karia give her a sly smile, Servis stiffened her face in resistance and said:

“If I give you the title, you’ll keep your mouth shut from now on….”

“Yeah, it must have been hard for you too.”

Servis, stunned by the unexpected reply, looked dazed.

“-Huh?”

“Now that the Empress is gone, carrying such a huge problem alone, how hard must it have been for you?”

Servis could not fathom Karia’s sudden change in attitude. Just moments ago, hadn’t they been at odds? Why now bring up her late mother in such a strange manner?

‘Huh? Has she been making that expression all along?’

Karia still smiled. But unlike when she first entered the room, her face was no longer cold. She looked resigned, tired, yet calm—as if feeling pity for Servis.

Servis, glimpsing a faint trace of affection in Karia’s expression, felt struck by lightning.

“Don’t misunderstand. That doesn’t mean I forgive you. You did something you should never have done to me.”

“Ugh! But you too—!”

“Don’t involve my child in this. That’s between Duke Pandeon and me. It has nothing to do with you.”

Strictly speaking, Karia and Rubiderf had been mutually unfaithful. Though suddenly appearing with a large child was harsh, Karia’s actions were shielded by the fact that she had lived being ignored and treated poorly by the Pandeon family.

But Servis? She was a princess who had everything, yet had engaged in an illicit relationship with her cousin’s husband. She had even more to lose than unmarried Karia.

“You’ve been so cruel since you were young… how can you be like this?”

“Y-you’re even bringing up old events to criticize me? That’s low!”

“Keep talking like that? If you want, I could throw you out right now.”

There was sting in Karia’s words, but it wasn’t enough to draw blood—just reproach born of hurt. Servis, enduring a scolding she had never experienced, somehow felt warmth in her heart.

Someone who had always been closer to strangers than family, now, at this moment, felt like a true older sister.

“I hate you. I resent you. But what can I do? You’re still my sister.”

“-Karia.”

“There’s nowhere else to tell this story, right? Have you planned what to do? It’ll show in a month or two—what will you do then?”

“I, I… I, that’s…”

There was warmth in her sharp words. Servis bit her trembling lips, feeling as if she was finally allowed to set down the burden she had carried alone.

Even from someone she had wronged and who had always been mean.

“Are you physically okay?”

And the words she wanted to hear most came from Karia. Unable to hold back, Servis finally broke down in tears.

The sorrow she had held in flooded over. She let large tears fall as she clung to Karia, who accepted her crumbling form with a deep sigh.

“You’re shameless, yet so shameless.”

“Boo-hoo… I’m sorry! Really sorry, sister!”

Servis buried her face in the warmth she had longed for and cried for a long time. Karia slowly patted her back in a steady rhythm.