Chapter 224
“It’s this!”
Erylotte held out a beautifully crafted, intricate jewelry box. It was the box where she had gathered the jewels Duke Astra had given her.
“Thank you for saving me and my father. I don’t have anything else I can give…”
“Oh my, thank you.”
Anatoli took the jewelry box without really looking at it.
“Well, you may go now.”
With those words, she sent Erylotte off immediately.
‘Now that the nuisance is gone, it’s just the two of us again.’
Anatoli looked at Daymond with a blissful smile.
Her gaze traced his prominent nose and his long, delicate eyelashes, her face becoming dazed.
‘How… how can someone look like that?’
Even after seeing him countless times, she couldn’t help but be amazed.
Spending this cozy time together brought back memories of their first meeting.
It had been when she went to give a speech at the Imperial Academy.
Daymond Astra was there.
Among countless students, only he stood out, as if illuminated by a spotlight.
She couldn’t see anyone but him.
Anatoli fell for Daymond at first sight.
The man of her dreams, who until then had only existed in her fantasies, was real!
From that moment on, she pursued Daymond tirelessly.
But he never opened his heart to her.
‘No, it wasn’t that he didn’t want to—he couldn’t.’
Of course.
The Astra family and the imperial family didn’t get along.
Even if he had wanted to, he couldn’t have opened his heart.
In the end, to convince him, she’d staged a suicide attempt to sway him.
‘But that led to me being sent abroad to study.’
The Empress Dowager couldn’t stand the thought of her daughter falling in love with a man from the Astra family.
After that, Daymond stayed strictly within Astra territory, and they couldn’t meet.
Then, seven years ago, she heard the news.
Daymond Astra sired a biological daughter!
She thought she’d go mad.
‘To think he kissed another woman instead of me!’
The thought alone made her blood boil.
What kind of existence would the daughter born of another woman be?
Anatoli even bribed servants from the Astra Dukedom to secretly obtain a portrait of Erylotte.
The girl was a cute little thing with blond hair and red eyes, just like him.
But Erylotte’s face didn’t resemble only Daymond.
‘The shape of her face is nothing like his. Does she take after her mother?’
Seeing another woman’s features in Daymond’s daughter was something she could hardly tolerate.
But out of love for him, she swallowed her bitterness.
And so, she graciously extended her hand toward Erylotte.
‘And that’s how I ended up here.’
Now, here she was, sitting across from Daymond, spending time together like lovers.
‘As soon as I return to the palace, I’ll tell Brother that I wish to marry Daymond.’
Now that she had his heart, no one could stop her.
***
Anatoli spent the entire day with Daymond.
She looked longingly at him as he prepared to return to his jurisdiction for work.
Daymond also looked at her, as if reluctant to part.
‘Don’t worry. Soon, we won’t have to say goodbye anymore.’
Just wait a little longer.
Lost in her thoughts, she suddenly heard her maid’s voice.
“What should I do with this box?”
The maid was referring to the jewelry box Erylotte had given her.
‘Who on earth does she take after to be so cunning…?’
Knowing how to win favor with gifts at such a young age was pathetic.
‘I’ll have to teach her well once I marry him.’
Of course, she’d also have to learn not to interfere in her relationship with Daymond.
“Throw it away.”
With a cold tone, Anatoli went into her bedroom.
The maid glanced at the closed bedroom door and opened the jewelry box.
‘Wow…’
Inside was an array of dazzling jewels.
‘This is the box Lady Erylotte gave to Her Highness, right?’
The story of Erylotte presenting the jewelry box to Anatoli was already well-known.
‘The Astra family is something else. A ten-year-old girl owns such treasures.’
The maid ran her fingers over the jewels.
“Haa…”
A sigh escaped her without her even realizing.
‘After all, Her Highness told me to throw it away.’
Taking what was about to be discarded wasn’t a crime.
‘They may not be the most expensive, since they’re a child’s, but still, this is something.’
The maid gathered all the jewels from the box and slipped them into her pocket, humming to herself as she went about her duties.
At that moment, a dark smoke, like a cloud of shadows, silently seeped out of her pocket and merged into the darkness.
But the maid didn’t notice at all.
That smoke was a monster.
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