My Ruin to You - Chapter 31

“Yeah, that’s right.”

It was true—Valen, blocking her path out of spite, was infuriating. But this, too, was a problem time would solve. All she had to do was endure like a corpse facedown in the dirt until then.

“If it were me, I’d rather be Duchess than dig up herbs,” Lina muttered under her breath, shooting Roseline a sidelong glance. She was clearly saying it loud enough to be heard. Roseline clicked her tongue and planted her hands on her hips, prompting Lina to quickly feign innocence.

“Anyway, you can’t go to Belhar, my lady. They’ve tightened security around the capital—apparently, inspections for people coming and going have gotten really strict.”

Not that Roseline had any immediate plans to flee to Belhar. But there was a big difference between choosing not to go and being unable to go.

“Why all of a sudden?”

“Who knows? That’s just what they’re saying at the laundry. Even people running errands for their estates are getting held up—lines stretching all the way to the city walls. They’re turning away anyone with unclear purposes, apparently.”

Valen flickered through her mind. Could this sudden crackdown be his doing?

Roseline narrowed her eyes at her packed bag, then shook her head. Unlikely. While life had a habit of sucker-punching her, Valen wasn’t insane enough to tighten the entire capital’s security just to keep her trapped.

“Should I unpack, then?”

“No. Leave it.”

“Why? We have until the end of the month to clear out the dorm, don’t we?”

“We do. But the bag is… let’s call it a declaration of resolve.”

“…Huh?”

“A reminder that I’m ready to grab it and bolt at any moment.”

“Goodness, where are you even hearing me? I’m saying you can’t even leave the capital, let alone go to Belhar!”

“Shh, don’t ruin my dramatic exit, Lina.”

Lina bustled about, deciding to start packing little by little. Roseline helped. Three years in the dorm had left her with more clutter than expected. She pointedly ignored the box buried in the back of the wardrobe—the one filled with gifts and letters from Valen. Seeing it would only stir up useless emotions.

I could probably buy a house in the capital just by selling those alone. Yet, for some unfathomable reason, she could part with her mother’s heirlooms but not Valen’s gifts.

“Honestly, have all the higher-ups gone blind? Where else would you find a talent like our lady?”

Lina grumbled as she neatly folded unused items. Though the culprit behind this mess was likely someone at the very top, she tactfully avoided naming names out of respect for past relationships.

“Right? Why don’t you go gouge their eyes out for me?”

“For you, my lady, I’d do anything—but who would take care of you if I ended up in jail?”

“Then don’t get caught.”

In any case, there were only about twenty days left before they had to vacate the dorm. Selling the last of her jewelry would be enough to rent a place for a while—but after that, things got uncertain.

As she packed and joked with Lina, a heavy weight pressed on Roseline’s chest. But sharing her anxiety with Lina wouldn’t solve anything. This was her burden alone. She tried picturing the worst possible future—wandering the capital with no place to belong, burning through her savings—but quickly shut the thought away. Too miserable. Too humiliating. Surely things wouldn’t get that bad? The empire was vast. There had to be somewhere that would take her.

◇◇◇

There wasn’t.

The world, it seemed, had rejected Roseline outright. She sent out applications everywhere, indiscriminately, only to be met with rejection after rejection. But the bad news didn’t stop there. A thunderbolt struck when she was abruptly ordered to vacate the dorm before graduation week—ostensibly for facility inspections ahead of new Awakened arrivals, though she had a sinking feeling that wasn’t the whole story.

Then, a desperate letter arrived from Lina’s family estate—her mother was critically ill. Hands trembling, Lina insisted she wouldn’t leave, her red-rimmed eyes betraying her stubborn words.

Roseline, playing the stern noblewoman for once, pushed her toward the door.

“I’m so sorry to leave you at a time like this, my lady—”