How to Perfectly Break Up with You

A cool breeze, unsuited to the atmosphere, briefly shook them before disappearing. Jeremiah momentarily looked away from her, running his hand through his disheveled hair.

It was then that Sienna, who had been sitting motionless, opened her mouth.

“…Do you find me amusing?”

There was a clear tremor in her low voice. Jeremiah let out a hollow laugh.

“I can’t believe you really didn’t know, though I had my doubts.”

He muttered as if dumbfounded. While he knew the late emperor had worried about this information leaking, he never imagined that nothing would be said to his own daughter, who was directly involved.

Moreover, based on the circumstances, the content of the late emperor’s will seemed different from what he knew.

‘What exactly is going on…’

Nothing that came from Sienna’s mouth matched his memories.

The flow of their conversation was like a tangled mess of thread. Jeremiah organized his confused thoughts. Right now, proving to the woman before him that his words were not lies took priority.

He began to share what he remembered.

“At that time, the separate residence where the Imperial Princess stayed was in a situation where outsiders couldn’t freely come and go. That’s why I know the Emperor sent people to where you were staying several times… isn’t that right?”

“What nonsense are you…!”

Sienna, who had raised her voice, suddenly froze.

The times when the separate residence was locked, when the bedridden late emperor had sent people several times.

As soon as she repeated those words to herself, moments from what was now quite long ago suddenly surfaced in her mind. The color gradually drained from her face.

Jeremiah quietly let out a sigh.

“There’s something I need to show you. Let’s go to my lodgings first.”

****

Back in his chamber, Jeremiah muttered, “I never thought I’d return this in this way,” while searching through his luggage. Then he took out a small box.

Sienna’s blank gaze fixed on the ring inside the box. Her eyes suddenly wavered greatly.

Sienna reached out and roughly pulled it out. As expected, behind the large emerald was engraved the initial ‘C’.

How could she not know this? This was the wedding ring that had been commissioned from the finest craftsman in the Kralto continent when her parents married.

If nothing else, it was sufficient evidence to prove there had been some kind of transaction between the late emperor and Jeremiah.

“Everything that happened between His Majesty and you… tell me everything. Right now.”

Sienna blurted out without order.

“My father’s illness began quite long ago.”

In contrast, Jeremiah began speaking calmly.

“His condition deteriorated very slowly. As his body began to fail, his mind started to fail as well. When it reached the point where he couldn’t even recognize me, his son, managing state affairs became my responsibility.”

“…”

“And I had only one goal.”

Jeremiah suddenly leaned toward her and said in a low voice.

“For my kingdom to become a country that wouldn’t be controlled by the Empire.”

Sienna showed little reaction to these expected words. After all, it was what every kingdom near the Empire desperately wanted.

“I tried everything to break free from the Empire’s influence. I increased trade and sought ways to build Parma’s national power while avoiding the Emperor’s eye. However, your father saw through such intentions quite quickly.”

“…”

“He said he would give me Ricata.”

At the sudden mention of the territory’s name, Sienna’s face hardened.

“What did you say?”

“To be precise, he said he would give it in exchange for making you my wife. Well, while Ricata was the main condition, he added several minor conditions.”

He raised his hand, spreading all five fingers.

“Unlike the Empire, Parma recognizes female succession of titles. In exchange for handing over Ricata territory, it must be passed down to you and your children for generations.”

The prince recited each condition while folding his fingers one by one before Sienna’s eyes.

“The future crown of Parma would also be inherited by your child. And I wouldn’t take any woman other than you as queen.”

He suddenly smiled as if finding it absurd.

But Sienna had no composure left to respond to such trivial remarks. Right now, she was struggling just to maintain her sanity.

“If such crucial matters were discussed between you and His Late Majesty, shouldn’t someone have at least hinted at it to me? Even years after father’s death, I lived like a fool knowing nothing…!”

Sienna’s voice shook with emotion. Jeremiah’s face hardened as he stepped closer.

“Lower your voice.”

Though he reminded her of those who might be outside in a cold voice, she reacted sharply and covered her ears with both hands.

She wanted to scream.

How had her life spiraled to the worst after her father’s death? Not only did she ruin herself, but she also ruined his life and caused Soliet’s death.

When she remembered the child’s cold corpse, her stomach churned. Sienna covered her mouth as nausea rose.

If the prince’s words were true, what was everything she had gone through? Wouldn’t none of this have happened if she had properly inherited Ricata in the first place?

If so, then Declan and Soli…

While Sienna’s mind was becoming chaos, the prince continued speaking calmly.

“No one could have been told. The engagement between the Imperial Princess and me was the most confidential of secrets. Only my strategist, the late emperor, and I knew about it.”

“…”

“The late emperor must have been worried about the Imperial Princess after the current emperor’s ascension. But considering the ripples this would cause, he couldn’t hastily announce it either.”

Though he couldn’t shake the somewhat cowardly impression, the prince tactfully kept that thought to himself.

“Of course… I never thought that you, the person concerned, wouldn’t know either.”

Her eyes were already red. The tears pooled in her eyes seemed ready to fall helplessly at the slightest touch. Not only that, but her whole body was trembling.

Jeremiah looked down at the woman who was pitifully shaking in a state of panic with a slightly puzzled expression.

While thinking this might not be something to react so intensely to, considering the rumors about her hardships in Lopwell, her anger seemed understandable.

“…I can’t believe it. His Majesty…”

As she muttered in a daze, the image of her always cold father suddenly came to mind. His cold voice telling her to know her place spun in her head.

Her chest felt tight. It was hard to breathe.

In her previous life, it must have been similar why Jeremiah hadn’t particularly contacted her. When she returned to the capital, she was already married to the Grand Duke.

Sienna opened her mouth, almost panting while trying to steady her breath.

“In the will… there was nothing at all for me.”

“I was just about to ask about that.”

He nodded in agreement and checked the tightly closed door once again.

“When I first heard the news that the Imperial Princess had been exiled, I naturally thought you had been expelled after having your ownership of Ricata taken away. But to hear you never inherited it in the first place… that doesn’t add up.”

“What makes you so certain about this?”

“It seemed the late emperor intended to pass Ricata to you without exception, even if you refused marriage to me.”

Sienna rose unsteadily from her seat, her face already a mess.

“Maybe… it’s just your own misunderstanding. Father didn’t regard me that specially.”

Though much time had passed, it was an unpleasant past not worth digging up. It was quite uncomfortable to recall her childhood spent yearning for her father’s affection.

Back then, she had sought only her own flaws while trying to gain her father’s approval, believing she was the reason for his hatred.

In other words, she had spent her entire childhood finding fault with herself. All this just to receive the parental love that any child should rightfully have.

There was a time when she suffered from not receiving her father’s love. Sometimes she thought it was because she resembled her dead mother too much, or because she lacked any outstanding talents compared to Joseph who excelled at hunting or Marianne who played the harp well.

Only after going through despair and depression, and after Soliet was born, did she finally realize. Her father’s actions toward her could never be justified. A child deserved love simply for existing.

The day she first held that tiny newborn body in her arms, Sienna thought she wouldn’t regret giving her life for this child.

Even while being hurt by Declan’s indifference, she never felt any resentment toward the child who looked just like him.

Even if the child’s father were to stab her in the back, Sienna knew she could love their daughter who looked exactly like him. Even at this moment, that was true. She would do anything if it meant bringing Soliet back to life.

While the positions of mother and father might seem different, Declan wasn’t much different from her in cherishing their child. If anything, he kept the child closer than she did.

“Of course, I don’t fully understand His Late Majesty’s deep intentions… but at least to my eyes, the late emperor didn’t appear to be a father without any affection for you.”

Even at the prince’s careful words, Sienna buried her face in her hands as if not wanting to hear anything. She could never understand her father for any reason. Sienna was already too tired to reconsider her father’s intentions again.