Chapter 30
“I was just about to leave anyway. As the young lord said, we can exchange proper greetings another time. Then I’ll be on my way.”
“No, that won’t be necessary. I heard Adelaide seemed rather down lately, so I came out of concern. But it appears there was no need for me to come after all. I’ll take my leave.”
“W-wait, Killi! You just got here, how can you leave already?”
Adelaide, who had just raised her voice moments ago, now grabbed onto him like a child, as if nothing had happened.
“W-when will you come again? You haven’t visited at all lately…”
Her hand, clutching at his collar, trembled helplessly. But Killian gently yet coldly removed her hand.
The smile on his face remained perfectly intact.
“I’m not sure. I’ve been quite busy lately, learning from my uncle. It’s hard to say exactly when I’ll be able to come.”
“Then… letters? You’ll reply to my letters, right?”
Seeing Adelaide on the verge of tears, Killian reached out and neatly smoothed the hair by her ear.
“Yes. If I have the time.”
Then he added,
“I’m glad you seem to have found a good friend besides me, Adelaide. I hope you enjoy your time with Lady Winterbloom.”
Before leaving, Killian offered a final polite bow to both Adelaide and Elise.
But the moment he turned and took a single step away, the smile vanished like a mirage.
The maid who crossed paths with him in the hallway flinched and lowered her head at once.
His expression had turned ice-cold.
* * *
To tame a captured beast, one must first starve it—right up to the brink of death. In the face of survival, defiance becomes meaningless.
Once its will is broken, you feed it, just enough to keep it alive. A beast conditioned by such feeding soon comes to trust the one who provides it. And that trust eventually becomes affection.
The way Killian had taken hold of Adelaide was not so different.
From the moment they first met, he had used his power to constantly remind her that she was different from the Eport family she now belonged to.
Lowborn blood. A fake noble lady. He crushed her self-worth with words like these. The boldness she had once shown when they first met disappeared.
In its place remained a subdued, obedient Adelaide.
And he felt no guilt. After all, hadn’t he given her exactly what she desired? A stable relationship called friendship.
Sweet affection that whispered he was on her side and he will never leave her.
With that, Killian had become Adelaide’s only world.
But seen another way, it meant that anyone who could give her that same sense of stability could replace him.
“As expected… I was right.”
Low blood will always show its nature. After all the effort he had put in, and yet, swayed by something as trivial as a bit of attention, she had already forgotten who her master was.
That was precisely why he had opposed her debut despite the countess’s desperate pleas.
Just imagining Adelaide, flushed with excitement at her first social event, smiling at the pests gathering around her was enough to twist his expression.
Elise Winterbloom, was it?
She needed to be sent abroad with Roem and never allowed to set foot in the empire again. The thought of that girl, clinging to Adelaide as if she were already family, flaunting their closeness, left a bitter taste in his mouth.
“Bertholdt. We’ll need to adjust Roem Eport’s departure schedule.”
Killian spoke while staring into empty space, casually flicking his finger. Behind him, standing in the shadows, Bertholdt opened his mouth as if to ask why, then closed it again.
There was no need to ask. Whenever Killian acted like this, the answer was always the same.
Adelaide.
Adelaide Eport.
This connection that should have been disposed of long ago, had instead dragged on like a leg stuck in mud, leaving behind messy footprints with every step.
“Yes. Understood. How would you like it adjusted…?”
“Have them wrap up everything here before my birthday.”
He had no intention of spending his twentieth birthday in the same foul mood as today.
Bertholdt did a quick calculation in his head.
There were only a few weeks left. The timeline was tight, but the crown prince’s orders had to be fulfilled.
Moistening his dry lips, Bertholdt gave a heavy nod.
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