Chapter 21
Sophia, forcing her trembling lips into a smile, set her teacown down as well and replied. She wasn’t a foolish woman, so by now she should have understood his meaning.
‘I should see the Princess by evening, so it would be best to return home and finish official business before then.’
Viern checked the time and began to rise slowly from his seat. That was the moment…
“Your Grace! Your Grace!”
At the aide’s urgent voice calling for him, Viern frowned and looked toward the door.
“The marquis’s daughter is still bedridden—what’s with this commotion?”
“My apologies for the rudeness, Lady Silberk. But, Your Grace, an urgent message from the palace…”
“An urgent message?”
At the word ‘palace,’ Viern raised an eyebrow as if to say, ‘Out with it,’ and repeated the question.
“W-Well, it’s… Her Highness the Princess…!”
As the aide’s words continued, his expression hardened into stone.
* * *
Meanwhile, the thoroughly sulking Diana was, contrary to Viern’s expectations, not at all dejected nor engaging in any self-reflection. On the contrary, she had grown even more twisted and was currently picking and choosing to do precisely the things Viern had told her not to do. It was true she was abstaining from food and drink, but that simply meant she, with her picky appetite, was throwing the food trays brought to her while making a huge fuss.
The poor Princess’s assigned knight, Aisen, had his hands full today trying to stop her.
“Oh dear, that’s dangerous, Your Highness. Please come down.”
While he had gone to the Duke’s estate this morning to see his brother and returned empty-handed, the Princess had climbed a tree and was giving everyone a heart attack.
“Don’t care. I’ll just fall and die.”
“You won’t die from that height! But I will be the one to die… at my brother’s hands!”
If she were to get hurt, everyone—from Aisen to the Princess’s attendants—would find it hard to escape punishment. Though the Duke had been coldly drawing a line with the Princess these past few days, he was more concerned than anyone about the safety of Diana, the kingdom’s sole heir.
Thus, Aisen was anxiously shifting from foot to foot, but Diana paid his words no mind, letting out only a disdainful snort. Who cares if Aisen lives or dies? What’s that got to do with me? Right now, I feel absolutely wretched.
She was thinking of Viern. To be precise, the cold-hearted Viern who had turned his back on her to embrace his prospective fiancée.
If she’d known it would come to this, she should have pushed that woman into the lake herself, before even witnessing her faking a fall. That wretched woman—since she ended up in the lake anyway, it would’ve been better if she had just drowned for good.
Remembering that woman who had boasted about the necklace passed down through generations of the Duchesses and called Viern ‘her man’ as if he belonged to her made Diana’s chest ache with a foul, grating feeling. They said they’d hold the engagement ceremony in a month. And not long after the engagement, they would have a wedding. And then the two would become a legally married couple…
From now on, Viern would share everything with that woman. That… was a little unpleasant. No. It was truly detestable.
Ever since leaving the tower, he had been with her for every single moment. The first day she breathed outside air, the first day she held a fork and knife and ate fresh bread, the first day she read and wrote… all of it…
And now, it felt like that man was being taken from her by that woman.
‘No, wait. Is this really being ‘taken’? Was he ever mine to begin with?’
That thought made her heart lurch with resentment. I gave him my leash to hold so very long ago. From the moment I left the tower, I was his. But he was never mine, not for a single moment. What a completely one-sided relationship this was.
‘Nothing would be more meaningless than a union between Rosenheir and Erkman.’
His words when he informed her of the engagement came back to her. He was right. The Rosenheir royal family was already in his grasp. So, from his perspective, there would be no benefit in marrying her.
‘But…’
Diana thought back to how Viern had treated her all this time and bit her lower lip until it hurt.
‘Viern. Do you really not have a single shred of feeling for me? Was everything you did for me all just calculation?’
He had spoon-fed her soup when she was whining with a cold. On nights when she complained she couldn’t sleep, he had patted her shoulder and sung to her until she drifted off. She remembered him patiently coaxing her when she threw tantrums about learning to read, reading her fairy tales in that low, deep voice. She remembered the time the corner of a book she’d thrown split his skin and made it bleed, yet he had just smiled gently and said it didn’t hurt.
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