Chapter 25
“How did you get here…?”
Yulia was surprised. She was nowhere near the company, yet she had found herself here.
It was too coincidental to be true, and then Lucy appeared, having gone off to find someone who could help.
It seemed like she was going to bring Cayente after all.
“What did you ask?”
“That…”
“Not you.”
Before long, Cayente appeared near Yulia.
He briefly glanced at her still-healing lower lip before turning to the officers and asking them a question.
He had heard that Lord Mullen had been grabbed by the collar by Yulia’s butler, and now his eyes were focused on her, silently asking if she knew why Daike had acted the way he did.
“…He heard a strange rumor.”
The rumor about using her body to capture Cayente spread, and despite how humiliating and embarrassing it was, there was nothing she could do about it.
“A rumor?”
“They said I… used my body to seduce my older brother. Daike did this to protect my honor.”
In this situation, arguing that Daike had only done it to protect her honor was useless.
Who would care about the honor of the daughter of the crumbling Luper Barony? If Cayente, who could at least compete with the wealth of the Mullen family, stepped in, things might be different, so Yulia chose to let go of her remaining pride.
“If anyone should be held responsible, it should be me. Daike did nothing wrong.”
“Miss…”
Yulia was more worried about whether Cayente would ignore her words again, despite the tears that were threatening to fall from her eyes.
“Stop.”
“What are you doing, Count Clue?”
But Cayente acted more decisively than she expected, immediately pulling Daike away from the officers’ hands.
“If I’m not mistaken, Mullen, you just insulted my fiancée. Isn’t that right?”
“Insult? We were just repeating what everyone else had been saying.”
“So, the words that everyone is repeating, who exactly said them in front of my fiancée?”
Cayente gritted his teeth, as if he could no longer stand the situation, causing the woman next to Lord Mullen to gasp.
“If you truly insulted my fiancée, then it’s as if you insulted me,” Cayente said, his tone becoming colder.
“That’s… a bit of an exaggeration, don’t you think?”
Mullen, who had been so confident earlier, faltered under Cayente’s pressure and could barely finish his sentence.
“May I take him now?”
“Count, this is still a matter that Lord Mullen’s family has reported…”
“It’s only right that I deal with my own butler’s misconduct. Don’t you think?”
The officers hesitated but soon backed down when they realized that Cayente’s will was unmovable.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Stop.”
Lord Mullen hadn’t inherited the title of Duke yet, so Cayente’s title was higher.
But it was clear that Cayente had more influence here because of his wealth.
“Take care, Count. The donation you made is being put to good use in improving city security,” one officer said.
Once the situation was resolved, the officers even took the time to greet Cayente before leaving.
“Daike, are you alright?”
“I’m fine, Miss.”
“Why did you grab him by the collar? You should have held back.”
“They weren’t just spreading rumors. They were shouting all sorts of vile things, talking about how I should have knocked him down right then. I just couldn’t take it anymore.”
His anger was understandable. People’s imaginations often run wild when they’re as messy in their own lives as they are in their opinions about others.
Yulia silently watched Daike as he ranted, before turning back to face Cayente. Before she could speak, Cayente beat her to it.
“You don’t need to thank me. I just didn’t want to hear that a future Countess’s butler had been thrown into prison for grabbing a nobleman by the collar.”
Yulia knew Cayente must have stepped in for that reason, but hearing him call her ‘my fiancée’ so firmly didn’t shake her resolve this time.
“I know. But I still thank you. Thanks to you, Daike is safe.”
Still, she thanked him. Without Cayente’s intervention, it would have taken much time and effort to either arrange bail or make things right with the Mullen family.
She couldn’t even be sure if she would have been able to save Daike without Cayente’s help.
“You’re still as stubborn in strange ways,” Cayente remarked.
Even though Yulia had said ‘thank you’ despite everything, Cayente’s frown deepened as he looked at her.
Yulia, looking at him, wanted to ask why her brother had changed so much.
He still didn’t express his anger directly and only showed his changing expressions, but she wondered why all the good things seemed to have disappeared.
“Miss, shall we head back home now?” Lucy asked.
“Yes, Daike. Let’s go home,” Yulia replied.
“Wait a moment. I’ll get the carriage ready. I’ll be right back.”
“Okay.”
Yulia was proud of herself for holding back and not reacting in anger.
Just as she thought the argument was over, it continued. Cayente’s expression was twisted in irritation as he looked at Daike, who had stormed off toward the carriage depot.
“It seems the rumors weren’t just made up.”
“Huh?”
Yulia stared at Cayente, not understanding what he meant, but soon she realized the intention behind his words. Her lips tightened, and she felt a rush of emotions.
“You knew about the rumors… didn’t you?”
“They say you’re getting married because you’re pregnant. A week after Count Clue’s return to the Empire, the rumor was that you got pregnant and seduced him. I thought it was nonsense, but…”
Yulia was angry that Cayente knew about the rumors but had never tried to stop them.
He hadn’t even warned her about them, and the thought of what people must have said at that party made her feel her face flush with shame.
The rumors of her seducing Cayente to get him into bed made her seem like a woman who had slept with multiple men, which was devastating.
“I didn’t realize Daike was so upset,” Cayente continued, his tone colder.
Yulia had never asked for Daike’s protection.
She hadn’t known about the rumors, and now she was dealing with the consequences.
“I didn’t know,” Cayente said, his eyes narrowing.
His voice was icy.
Yulia was speechless.
How could she have known that rumors like this were swirling around her, yet Cayente never warned her?
“So, what now?”
“What?”
“So what do you want me to do? Should I just let people like this spread rumors about me?”
Yulia wasn’t sure why she was even having this conversation.
It seemed like Cayente didn’t care about her, and Yulia wasn’t sure she wanted to continue a marriage built on lies.
“Why did you choose me? If you hate me this much, why are you still marrying me?”
At that moment, the words that had been left unsaid came spilling out.
“Who said I hate you?”
“You’ve ignored me during all the wedding preparations. Every time I see you, you look like you’re trying to devour me, yet you claim you don’t hate me?”
Yulia was frustrated. Why her? Why had he chosen her, only to make her life miserable?
“If you loved me, would it be okay then?”
“…How far are you going to keep mocking me?”
“If you loved me, would that make it okay?”
“…Is this some kind of joke?”
It was clear that for Cayente, it didn’t matter who his wife was, as long as she wasn’t against him. If he had just hated her but treated her well, she might have accepted it.
“What’s so sad about it? And you got one thing right. Yes, I want to devour you.”
“What did you say?”
Cayente gave a crooked smile, his expression twisted in a way that didn’t reach his eyes.
“I’ll eventually devour you whole, Yulia.”
Cayente’s words left Yulia with more questions than answers. He was still smiling, but there was nothing joyful in his gray eyes.
Yulia’s heart raced in her chest, and her body felt frozen at the chilling words that came from Cayente’s lips.
She didn’t know what to think, didn’t know what to say.
The way he looked at her, with that unsettling, dark smile, made her feel as though she were in the grasp of something far more terrifying than she had ever imagined.
But as the silence stretched between them, Yulia forced herself to regain control.
She couldn’t be afraid of him. She couldn’t let him take everything from her.
“No,”
she said firmly, her voice trembling but determined.
“You don’t get to decide how my life goes, Cayente. You don’t get to own me. You never did, and you never will.”
Cayente’s expression faltered for just a moment, his lips twitching as if he were about to speak, but Yulia cut him off, her words coming faster now, fueled by the fire of everything she had held in for so long.
“You think I don’t know what you’ve been doing? The lies you’ve been spreading, the way you manipulate everything around you. You think I’m some object you can possess, but I’m not. And I won’t let you break me down. Not anymore.”
She could see the shift in his eyes. Something snapped in his expression, and the darkness seemed to consume him even further.
“Stop pretending, Yulia,”
Cayente spat out, his voice low and dangerous.
“You’re not the same as you were. You think you can stand there and lecture me? You think you can say all these things and walk away?”
Yulia’s breath hitched in her throat, but she stood her ground.
“I don’t need to walk away, Cayente. I’m already gone. The day you trapped me in this cage, I was gone.”
Cayente’s hand shot out, grabbing her wrist with surprising strength.
His grip tightened as he pulled her toward him, his face inches from hers, his cold breath against her skin.
“Don’t you dare walk away from me,”
he growled, his voice a harsh whisper.
“You belong to me. Don’t forget that.”
For a moment, Yulia’s entire world seemed to shrink to the pressure of his grip, his words reverberating in her mind. But then, something inside her clicked. She wasn’t his, and she never had been.
With all the strength she could muster, Yulia jerked her arm free from his grasp, her pulse pounding in her ears.
“Get your hands off me!” she shouted, stepping back, her body shaking with anger and fear.
Cayente’s eyes narrowed, his jaw clenched. He said nothing for a long moment, just standing there, watching her.
Yulia could feel his gaze burning into her, but she refused to look away.
She refused to be the one to back down.
Finally, Cayente spoke, his voice low and dangerous.
“You won’t get away from me, Yulia. No matter how hard you try, I’ll always be here. And one day, you’ll see that I was right.”
Yulia swallowed hard, her heart racing as she took another step back.
“You don’t scare me anymore, Cayente,”
she said, her voice steady despite the fear still clawing at her chest.
“You never did.”
She turned on her heel and walked away from him, not looking back.
Later that evening, as Yulia sat in her room, her mind raced.
Cayente’s words haunted her, but she wouldn’t let them control her.
She wouldn’t let him. Not anymore.
The room was quiet, and the weight of the silence pressed down on her.
But even in the stillness, she knew something had shifted. Something had broken, and she could feel the pieces of her old self slowly coming back together.
She was no longer the scared, helpless girl who had been pushed into a marriage she didn’t want.
She was Yulia, and she had control over her own life.
For the first time in a long while, Yulia allowed herself a small, quiet smile. It wasn’t much, but it was enough.
She would find a way to escape this life. She would find a way to take back what had been stolen from her. And Cayente—he would have to learn that he could never break her.
Yulia sat in her room, her thoughts a whirlwind. The anger that had surged in her earlier confrontation with Cayente still lingered, but now it was mingled with a deep, overwhelming sense of exhaustion.
She had finally found her voice, but now the reality of her situation hit her with full force.
She looked out of the window, her eyes tracing the darkening sky as the last rays of the sun disappeared behind the distant hills.
The night would soon be upon her, and with it, the heavy silence of the mansion.
The oppressive walls of the Clue estate felt like they were closing in on her, suffocating her in a way that made her feel small, insignificant.
But tonight, something had changed.
A part of her had broken free from the chains that had bound her for so long.
She wasn’t going to let Cayente dictate her future.
She wasn’t going to be his pawn any longer.
The sound of a soft knock on the door broke her from her thoughts.
She didn’t need to ask who it was—she knew. Daike.
He had been there when everything had gone wrong, when the rumors had exploded, and when the confrontation had reached its peak.
He had been the one to stand by her side, despite everything.
“Miss, may I come in?”
Daike’s voice came through the door, tentative but kind.
Yulia didn’t answer immediately, but after a moment, she nodded.
“Come in.”
The door creaked open, and Daike stepped inside, his expression a mix of concern and uncertainty.
He looked at Yulia, his eyes full of unspoken questions.
But he didn’t ask them.
He simply waited, giving her the space to speak when she was ready.
Yulia took a deep breath and spoke, her voice quieter than usual.
“Daike, I… I’m sorry for everything that’s happened. You’ve been through so much because of me.”
“Miss,”
Daike said, shaking his head.
“You don’t need to apologize. I’m here to protect you. I always will be.”
Yulia smiled faintly, her heart heavy with the weight of his words.
She had never asked for Daike’s loyalty, but she had never realized how much it meant to her until now.
He had become more than just her butler—he was her protector, her ally in a world that seemed determined to break her.
“I don’t want to live like this anymore, Daike,”
Yulia admitted, her voice breaking slightly.
“I don’t want to be trapped in this marriage, in this life. I want to be free.”
Daike’s expression softened, and he stepped closer to her.
“I understand, Miss. You’ve been forced into a situation that’s not of your making. But you’re strong. You’ll find a way out.”
Yulia’s heart swelled with a mixture of gratitude and fear.
“But how? I don’t even know where to start. I don’t know how to escape this.”
“You’ll figure it out,”
Daike said firmly, his voice reassuring.
“You don’t have to do it alone. I’ll help you. We’ll figure out a way to get you out of this.”
Yulia looked at him, her eyes filled with both determination and doubt.
“I don’t want to hurt anyone. I don’t want to make things worse. But I can’t stay in this marriage. I can’t stay with him.”
Daike nodded, understanding her struggle.
“You don’t have to stay with him, Miss. You have the power to make your own choices. And when the time comes, I’ll be right here, ready to support you.”
Yulia took a deep breath, feeling the weight on her chest begin to lighten.
For the first time in a long time, she felt a glimmer of hope. Maybe, just maybe, there was a way out of this after all.
The next morning, as Yulia prepared for the day ahead, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of determination she hadn’t felt in months.
The thought of facing Cayente again made her stomach turn, but she knew it was something she would have to do.
She had to confront him—once and for all.
As she walked down the hallway to the study, her heart pounded in her chest.
She wasn’t sure what she would say to him, or how he would react.
But she knew she had to speak up. She couldn’t let him control her life any longer.
When she entered the study, Cayente was sitting behind his desk, as usual.
He didn’t look up when she entered, his attention focused on the papers in front of him.
But Yulia wasn’t going to let that stop her.
“I need to talk to you,” she said, her voice steady.
Cayente finally looked up, his eyes narrowing slightly as he regarded her.
“About what?”
“About us,”
Yulia replied, taking a deep breath.
“About this marriage. I can’t do this anymore, Cayente. I’m not going to be your possession. I’m not going to be trapped in this life.”
Cayente’s gaze hardened, his lips curling into a tight smile.
“You think you can just walk away from me? You think you can leave?”
Yulia didn’t flinch.
“Yes, I do. I’ve spent too long living in your shadow, too long pretending to be something I’m not. I’m done.”
For a moment, there was silence between them. The air was thick with tension, but Yulia stood her ground.
Cayente’s eyes flickered with something—anger, frustration, maybe even fear—but he said nothing.
He simply stared at her, as though trying to make sense of her words.
Yulia didn’t wait for him to respond. She turned and walked toward the door, her heart pounding in her chest.
This was it. She was done with him.
“I’m leaving,”
she said, not looking back.
“And I won’t be coming back.”
With that, she left the study, the sound of her footsteps echoing in the quiet hallway.
For the first time in a long time, Yulia felt free.
Yulia walked briskly down the hallway, her steps echoing in the silence of the mansion.
The weight that had been crushing her chest for so long was finally starting to lift. She had done it.
She had said the words that would change everything.
As she reached the door to her room, her pulse was racing.
There was no going back now.
She had spoken her truth.
She had told Cayente that she was done, that she wasn’t going to live her life for him anymore.
But as she stood in the doorway, her heart still hammered in her chest.
There was still a lingering doubt—was this the right thing to do? Was she truly ready to leave everything behind? Her life, her status, the security that came with being married to someone like Cayente—could she really walk away from it all?
A soft knock at the door broke her train of thought.
Yulia opened the door to find Lucy standing there, her face filled with concern.
“Miss, are you alright? I heard… I heard everything,”
Lucy said, her voice gentle.
Yulia looked at her for a long moment before speaking.
“I’m okay, Lucy. I’m better than I’ve been in a long time.”
Lucy stepped inside and closed the door behind her.
“You’re really leaving, aren’t you? You’re not just saying this in the heat of the moment?”
Yulia nodded.
“I’ve thought about it for a long time. I can’t keep pretending, Lucy. I can’t keep living a lie. I have to find my own way, even if it means giving up everything I’ve known.”
Lucy looked at her with understanding in her eyes.
“Then I’ll support you. You don’t have to do this alone. I’m here for you, always.”
Yulia’s heart swelled with gratitude.
It wasn’t just Cayente who had become her strength.
It was also the people who truly cared about her.
People like Lucy, who had stood by her side even when it was hard.
And Daike.
She hadn’t realized how much his loyalty meant until now.
“I don’t know what will happen, Lucy. I don’t know what comes next. But I can’t stay here any longer. I have to be free.”
Lucy smiled softly.
“Then go. You deserve to be free.”
The words lingered in the air, and for the first time in a long while, Yulia felt a sense of peace.
She was no longer a prisoner of her circumstances.
She was taking control of her own life.
Later that day, Yulia gathered her things in her room.
It wasn’t much—just a few personal belongings and a small suitcase.
But it was enough.
Enough to start over.
Enough to walk away from the life that had been forced upon her.
As she packed, she couldn’t help but think of Cayente.
What would he do when he realized she was truly gone?
Would he try to find her?
Would he even care?
She had no answers, and for once, it didn’t matter.
What mattered was that she was choosing herself.
She was choosing her freedom.
Once her bags were packed, Yulia turned to face the door.
This was it.
The moment that would change everything.
She was leaving.
She didn’t know where she would go or what she would do next, but she was leaving.
And that was enough for her to feel like she was finally taking back control.
She walked toward the door, her heart steady.
But as she reached for the doorknob, there was a knock at the door.
Yulia paused, her hand hovering over the knob.
She could already guess who it was.
“Miss?” It was Daike’s voice.
Yulia took a deep breath before opening the door.
“Daike,”
she said, her voice calm.
Daike stood there, his expression serious but gentle.
“Are you sure about this, Miss? Is this really what you want?”
Yulia looked at him, her heart filled with gratitude.
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”
Daike nodded, his eyes softening.
“Then I’ll help you. I’ll make sure you get out safely.”
Yulia smiled, feeling a weight lift off her shoulders.
“Thank you, Daike.”
As they left her room together, Yulia felt the weight of the past begin to fade.
She wasn’t running away; she was moving forward.
And for the first time in a long time, she felt free.
The next morning, Yulia stood outside the gates of the Clue estate, her suitcase in hand.
The early morning light was soft, and the cool air felt like a fresh start.
She looked back at the mansion one last time, but there was no regret in her heart.
She had made the right choice.
“Are you ready?”
Daike asked, standing beside her.
Yulia nodded, her eyes set on the road ahead.
“Yes. I’m ready.”
Together, they walked away from the mansion, away from the life Yulia had known.
And though the future was uncertain, one thing was clear—she was no longer bound by her past.
She was free.
As they walked, Yulia felt something she hadn’t felt in years: hope.
For the first time, she was in control of her own destiny.
And that was enough.
