Come and Cry at My Funeral - Chapter 284

His woman lost her memory.

She forgot the etiquette of nobility, and her manner of speaking, shattered by the trauma of her suicide attempt, became as fragmented as that of a child. She forgot that she was the illegitimate daughter of Antares, that she had been married to him, even that there had been a child between them.

But in exchange for forgetting her pain, she smiled more brightly than ever, calling his name like a song.

The woman who lost her memory lived as his lover.

“Izar!”

“I told you not to run!”

He was shocked to see the woman running barefoot toward him. He glared at those who came rushing after her, as if he might kill them.

“Didn’t I tell you to attend to her properly?”

“I-I apologize!”

After punishing and replacing all those who had slandered her, a storm of blood swept through the ducal estate for some time. Whenever Izar sensed even a hint of neglect in the care of the woman, he raged like a madman.

But before Izar could raise his voice further, the woman would always loop her arms around his neck and plead first.

“Izar, the flowers have bloomed outside. Won’t you go see them with me?”

“Now?”

“Yes, now. Please?”

When the woman urged him, Izar would pick her up without another word and head outside into the warmth.

He knew full well that the world called him insane behind his back. They called him the mad duke who clung to a woman who had become a fool. But Izar no longer cared what others thought.

The woman was his sin, his punishment, and his love who he simply could not let go.

He braided her long, flaxen hair and wove flowers through it. It looked clumsy to him, but the woman would burst into bright laughter, saying she liked it.

When she was in a good mood, she would also beg him to tell her a story.

“Izar, tell me the story of how we got engaged, that one again.”

“Again?”

“Yes, from when you saved me at the lake.”

“Then I should start from the time I came to find you.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Izar lied.

When the woman awoke, he lied that after her mother died, the two of them had become engaged. He told her that living in the estate was also because of their engagement.

“After I gave you my coat, I went looking for you. Because I’ve always… had you in my heart, ever since we were children.”

He spun a tale of a past that never existed. But, had he overcome his hatred for his half-brother, he probably would have gone looking for the shepherd girl before long.

In the end, he would have fallen for her, and with his temperament, which would rather die than have an illegitimate child, he would have made an even bigger scene, insisting on taking her as his rightful wife.

So, what did it matter? Even if his story was a lie, the feelings that crafted it were sincere.

“I’m happy, Izar.”

Each time she heard his lies, the woman would blush shyly. A woman who had only memories of being loved from the very beginning shone brilliantly.

He hugged her tightly and whispered,

“I’ll protect you from now on, no matter what.”

At that time, the situation in the Empire was worsening by the day. The attacks by monsters were severe, and the South had been thrown into chaos by a full-scale rebellion.

Even so, he kept on lying. At least then, he didn’t know those were promises he couldn’t keep.

“I’ll never leave your side again. I’ll never turn away from you…”

“Izar.”

The woman nuzzled her head into his embrace and whispered in an overwhelmed voice.

“I love you so much…”

At that moment, he, too, wanted to say that he loved her.

It wouldn’t have been hard to say those words to this woman, who was so happy now. But the woman did not know why his heart ached so much.

She would never know why he needed her forgiveness.

So, in the end, he could not say it. He could only hold her in his arms.

Not long after, a rebellion broke out, on a scale incomparable to before. When he had to leave behind the woman whose mind was still not whole, an ominous feeling pressed on him so heavily he could hardly bear it.

But as she hugged his armored form tightly, the woman whispered,

“I’ll wait for you, Izar. Always…”

Hearing that farewell, Izar forced himself to turn his reluctant steps away. He resolved then,

That when the day came he returned in victory, he would be sure to confess his feelings.

* * *

…In those days, Izar achieved a decisive victory in suppressing the southern rebellion. But upon hearing reports that ‘the lady’s memory is gradually returning’, he paid no attention to the joy of triumph, and turned his horse immediately toward the duchy.

However, Izar underestimated the depth of malice the Emperor harbored toward him.

“How long are you going to play house with a broken woman?”

The Emperor, having lost his own grandchild and still unable to find the Second Prince’s child, was consumed by jealousy that Izar might yet enjoy even a twisted sort of happiness.

But outwardly, he ordered the death of the ‘crippled woman’ for hindering the ducal succession.

And House Antares, acting as the Emperor’s executioners, set out to ‘punish their own bastard’ themselves. Their real aim was to use this incident to cover up their own failures that had allowed the rebellion to grow.

Had it not been for the Emperor’s command, the retainers of the ducal house could have easily defended against them.

“Lady Atria, you mustn’t go inside!”

“Out of my way. How dare you lay a hand on me!”

Promises from long ago no longer mattered. What mattered to Atria was punishing the illegitimate wench who had been living like an imperial princess in the ducal estate.

But in the first place, it was Izar who had given Atria the ring.

If not for that mistake, perhaps he could have prevented the woman’s memory from returning at the worst possible moment.

“Freesia?”

When he, just returned, called her name, the woman who was sitting on the windowsill might not have said those words.

“Izar, I despise you.”

With those final words, his woman threw herself to the ground.

“We only came here by order of His Majesty the Emperor!”

So when the Antares family prostrated themselves and begged before Izar upon his return, there was not the slightest chance he would care about anything they had to say.

“The Duke is bewitched by such a woman…! For the sake of continuing the precious bloodline that will save the Empire from monsters—!”

Whatever Duke Antares intended to do, Izar would never find out, for a sword was thrust straight through the center of his face.

“Kyaaah!”

In the horror that followed, Lady Atria Antares screamed. But as soon as she screamed, she was seized by the Arcturus Duchy’s retainers, her head smashed against the stone floor. She died instantly.

Ironically, only then did the Emperor finally realize the gravity of what had happened and come to his senses.