AWWL Chapter 144

 

He seemed completely taken aback, as if he never expected me to show up here.

However, after a moment of thought, he composed his expression and asked me, 

“Cornelia, how did you get here…?”

“I thought you would be here. If you’re the one who gave me the handkerchief.”

At my response, a look of shock appeared in his blue eyes.

His almost affirmative demeanor made my emotions surge, as if long-suppressed feelings were about to spill over.

But…

‘I still need to confirm something with him.’

I took a deep breath to calm my racing heart and spoke.

 

☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓

 

When Cornelia first came to find him, he felt his heart drop.

‘Did she come to confront me?’

After all, she had every right to be angry.

For the past ten years, she had been a victim deceived by him.

‘Of course she must resent me. A fake treated her harshly; how could she not feel that way?’

So he made a resolution: to bear her resentment and anger.

However, the moment he heard her response, Erich wore a blank expression.

‘She… knew of my existence?’

Even after entering the duke’s household, he had lived in the shadow of his brother, so he naturally assumed she wouldn’t recognize him.

Yet the fact that she was aware of him filled him with indescribable emotions.

‘Could it be that she also…’

At that moment, she, who had been glaring at him, finally spoke.

“You grew up in the slums, didn’t you?”

“…Yes.”

As he struggled to acknowledge a long-hidden truth, she spoke.

“I thought something was odd.”

At her softly murmured words, he stiffened.

‘What does she mean by odd?’

Then she said in a cold voice, 

“If that’s the case, then the person who danced with me and came to find me with gifts must be the real Erich, right?”

At Cornelia’s question, he let out a hollow laugh.

‘So that’s how she figured it out.’

His warm and kind brother had a way with words.

And nobility radiated from him.

That’s why it must have been clear.

The lowly butcher who grew up in the slums was nothing like him.

‘Of course she couldn’t possibly like someone like me.’

It felt as if his heart was tightening.

For a moment, he unconsciously clenched his fists against the suffocating pain, but then he spoke.

“That’s correct.”

At that, she seemed incredulous.

“So, the one who returned from the battlefield is you, which means my husband isn’t Erich Blant, right?”

“I’m sorry. I’ll suppress the rebellion and do as you wish…”

“As I wish? Oh, you mean you’ll grant me a divorce?”

The moment the word “divorce” escaped her lips, his heart sank.

‘Divorce, that’s right.’

Before her true identity was revealed in the conference hall, she had been so kind, and he had completely forgotten about the divorce.

But now that the word “divorce” had come from her lips, he felt as if he were standing on the edge of a cliff.

‘It’s only natural that she wants a divorce.’

The person she had been waiting for all along was his brother.

If his brother hadn’t gone missing, he would never have married her.

‘I am not Erich Blant.’

He was someone who had never possessed nobility in the first place.

If she desired it, it was only right to let her go.

He lowered his head weakly and replied, 

“Yes, if that’s what you want. But it’s still dangerous, so if you could just bear with me a little longer, even if you don’t want to see me…”

Before he could finish his sentence, she interrupted.

“You’re really cowardly. You deceived me for ten years, and now you want me to endure?”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’ve been wondering all this time why you’ve been ignoring me. Is it because I have a bad personality? Is it because I’m not good enough? Or is there something wrong with me?”

It was the exact opposite for him.

To him, Cornelia had always been beautiful, and each time he saw her, he felt an intense desire.

The desire to confess everything and declare his love for her.

‘But if I had done that, you would have left me then, wouldn’t you?’

Driven by a desire to keep her close, he had no choice but to suppress his feelings and distance himself from her.

However, he did not try to clear up her misunderstanding.

To her, he was merely a fraud who had deceived her for a long time.

All he could do was listen to her resentment and apologize.

“All of this happened because I thought you were Erich Blant. But now that your true identity has been revealed… you want to end it with a divorce?”

He felt something strange in her voice and lifted his head.

When he looked at her, he saw her face contorted, biting her lips.

She was biting her lips so hard that he could see droplets of blood forming.

“Cornelia—!”

As he approached her in surprise, she punched his shoulder.

However, her thin and delicate fist couldn’t possibly hurt his solid shoulder.

Instead, it was Cornelia whose knuckles turned bright red.

He grabbed her hand.

“Cornelia, you’ll only hurt your hand like this!”

“Let go.”

Her voice was calm, but it was muffled, like she was crying alone.

‘You are always struggling because of me…’

Feeling the pain in his heart, he pleaded with her.

“I’ll hurt myself instead. Please don’t hurt yourself because of me.”

As he poured out his sincere feelings in pain, she let out a scoff.

“What do you care? You don’t even consider yourself my husband!”

That cruel remark pierced deep into his heart like a dagger.

But he didn’t even have the right to suffer.

The one she loved was his brother, and he was a sinner who couldn’t refuse her out of selfishness.

“Cornelia, you can hate me as much as you want. But please don’t hurt yourself because of someone like me. And…”

Seeing you like this breaks my heart. So please, don’t hurt yourself because of someone like me; cherish yourself.

However, the moment he thought of saying such things while feeling resentful, he knew she would likely ignore him.

‘Yes, if it were him instead of me…’

He concealed his true feelings and brought up the person she had been eagerly waiting for.

“…If my brother saw you like this, he would surely be sad.”

At those words, Cornelia trembled and then spoke.

“Yeah, that bastard brother of yours! You must have kept your distance because of that precious brotherhood! But do you know? The person I thought of as my husband was always you!”

Erich looked at her in shock at her words.

She was glaring at him with tears filling her violet eyes.

Without realizing it, he opened his mouth.

“What do you mean…?”

“When did I start following Erich Blant? It was right after you returned! The man I liked from the start was the one who gave me the handkerchief when I was crying!”

No matter how he thought about it, it didn’t make sense.

That she had been waiting for him, not his brother, must be a mistake.

“That’s a misunderstanding. You’ve only seen me once; there’s no way you could like me…”

“It wasn’t just once.”

The moment he looked at her with trembling eyes, she said,

“You picked wildflowers for me every year when no one else gave me flowers.”

It was a past he thought she would never notice.

He believed that if she realized what had happened back then, she would surely feel uncomfortable.

But the moment he realized she knew about that time, he could no longer suppress his emotions.

 

☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓

 

At first, he thought it was a ridiculous idea.

The boy who gave me flowers was from the slums, and he was not just a noble but the sole heir of the Blant family, a high-ranking aristocrat.

But the moment I heard Reinhardt say he was a twin and grew up in the slums, the boy came to mind.

‘It can’t be. That child is…’

But it was undeniable; those bright blue eyes were too similar.

‘Right, it’s possible, isn’t it?’

With that half-hearted belief, I prodded, but it was the truth.

‘Honestly, I still resent you for deceiving me. But… you were the only one who kept bringing light into my dark world.’

I had tried to deny it continuously, but I couldn’t help but acknowledge it.

I was thinking of the boy who had given me flowers.

The boy who had offered comfort along with a handkerchief.

And even though he had lied, I was in love with the man standing before me who had protected me all this time.

But tragically, he did not love me.

‘But now, I no longer want to hide my feelings because of pride.’

That was why, even if we would part, I decided to reveal my true feelings.

“You rejected me because you only saw me as your brother’s woman, but even though I resented you, I kept… loving you.”

It was painful to finally muster the courage.

But we couldn’t live as a couple with just my feelings, so I tried to say goodbye.

However, lacking the courage to look him in the face, I lowered my head and said,

“But what good does it do? You have no feelings for me. So, there’s no need to force yourself to protect me…”

That was when it happened.

“I feel the same way…”

When I lifted my head at his trembling voice, I saw him shedding tears.

“I’ve never stopped loving you, not for a single moment. Shamefully, even at this very moment.”

He then knelt before me.

“I love you, Cornelia.”

The moment I heard those words, I twisted my face and embraced him.

There was no telling who initiated it.

Our lips met passionately.