The Male Lead’s Father Refuses to Break Off Our Engagement

Chapter 111

 

Evelia tried to answer as calmly as possible.

“I heard that my husband’s sister and the prince were close friends. Maybe that’s why it’s like that?”

“Is that so? That might be possible.”

Clarisse, who was waving a fan, gave me a quick greeting and left the terrace. No, she was going to leave.

She came back and whispered in Evelia’s ear.

“But is there any reason for Lionel to come and look for that child now?”

“Yes?”

“It was nice to meet you. Then I’ll invite you to tea time sometime soon.”

Clarisse smiled and actually left the terrace. Evelia clenched her fists as she watched her back.

A stranger might think that Clarisse was just talking about trivial things, but she didn’t see it that way. This was some kind of warning.

A warning that if Lionel and Ruth become close, she will not leave Ruth alone.

‘If I don’t let Ruth get close to Lionel right now, will she leave him alone?’

It won’t happen. It was Clarisse who was targeting Ruth even when Lionel was unaware of his existence.

Even if Evelia quietly returned to the Empire with Ruth, she would not give up on Ruth.

‘I need to contact Samuel first….’

Feeling anxious, I quickly left the terrace. Due to the wind, I didn’t realize there was someone standing in front of the terrace and ended up crashing into it.

“Oh, I’m sorry…”

“Wife.”

It was a familiar voice. Evelia unconsciously relaxed her tense body and looked up.

“Cassis.”

He asked, gently squeezing her shoulder.

“What did the Queen say?”

“She didn’t say anything. She just talked about Ruth.”

That alone would have been a sufficient explanation. Cassis’ face hardened slightly.

“The Queen….”

“I miss Ruth.”

Evelia held Cassis’ hand and whispered quietly.

Lionel would be by his side so nothing would happen, but I still wanted to make sure the child was safe.

Cassis obediently took her hand.

“Yes. Let’s go back now.”

The two left the party, receiving attention from people. They didn’t know that among those gazes were Clarisse’s.

 

*****

 

“You’re here.”

Lionel, who had been guarding the sleeping Ruth, got up from his chair.

“Did anything special happen?”

“I heard the Queen mentioned Ruth.”

Cassis spoke instead of Evelia. Lionel’s face hardened.

“Ruth?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, I understand.”

Lionel nodded and left the room. Evelia went to the dressing room and changed clothes with the help of a maid.

When I returned to the bed where Ruth was sleeping, I saw Cassis, who had also changed his clothes, come first.

“Shall we sleep together today?”

Evelia held Cassis’ hand and lay down on the bed. Ruth seemed to be caught between the two.

Ruth must have sensed a presence and turned around, then snuggled into Evelia’s arms.

Evelia skillfully patted the child’s back and closed her eyes.

I hope nothing happens.

But was that such a big wind? As she dozed, she opened her eyes, noticing a strange sensation. Someone had been coughing hard earlier.

I looked at Ruth to see if something had happened to him, but he was sleeping soundly despite all the commotion.

‘Then Cassis?’

Evelia quickly got up and looked at Cassis. He was coughing repeatedly in front of a window where dim moonlight was coming in.

“Cassis, what’s going on? are you okay?”

When Evelia tried to approach, he covered his mouth with one hand and blocked her with the other.

“Don’t… come.”

It was a difficult voice. Evelia sensed something ominous and approached him resolutely.

It was then. Cassis coughed again, and something leaked from between his hands.

It was dark so I couldn’t see it clearly, but if I saw it clearly…

“Blood?”

Cassis was coughing up blood.

 

*****

 

『“What is the cause of my father’s death?”

Lucius asked in a dry voice in front of the cold body of his father, Cassis Adelhard, whom he had not seen in a long time.

The head butler of the mansion answered with difficulty, shedding tears over and over again.

“We haven’t found a specific cause yet.”

“You couldn’t find it?”

“He was suffering from an illness, but not even the Empire’s most powerful doctors could find out the name of his illness.”

“What were the symptoms?”

“He became weak for no reason and often coughed up blood.”

Lucius looked down at Cassis with a cold face. My father, a sword master, didn’t seem much different from the last time I saw him.

Lucius gritted his teeth.

“My father ignores me until the very end. How can you not say a word to me all these years?”

But there was no answer from Cassis.

Ruth muttered quietly to his aide waiting behind him, suppressing any emotion that was either sadness or anger.

“Find the cause of death.”

“Yes.”

“Don’t limit it to illness, but also consider the possibility of addiction or curse.”

“All right.”

The head butler was surprised.

“A curse?”

“I’m saying there’s a possibility, but I’m not sure.”

Ruth gave Cassis one last look and then turned his back.

There was no time to be sad.

Because now he was Duke Adelhard, responsible for a family.

Aria of Light Chapter 1』

 

*****

 

I don’t know why the prologue of ‘Aria of Light’, which I had forgotten for a while, came to mind at this moment. Perhaps it’s the word “blood”.

In the original novel, we already knew that Cassis would die around the time Ruth became an adult.

But I didn’t think about it seriously until now. Right now, Ruth’s situation was more serious, and I thought there were still many opportunities to change Cassis’ fate.

‘Besides, I thought I could change it enough because I had Erin.’

But what if Cassis’ illness progressed longer than expected? If not, has the original work changed?

Either way, it was serious. Evelia hurriedly asked him.

“What is going on? Since when has it been like that?”

Unlike her, he was calm. He answered after wiping his mouth and hands with a handkerchief.

“It’s nothing special.”

“Nothing special? You vomited blood!”

“Ugh.”

Perhaps because of the commotion, Ruth tossed and turned. Evelia left Ruth in the care of the maid and took Cassis to the next room.

I lit a candle and looked at Cassis, and saw that his face was paler than when I last saw him.

“What is happening?”

“Just calm down for now.”

“Do I look like I can calm now?”

“It’s not a disease. Today is the first time I’ve vomited blood.”

Only after hearing those words did Evelia barely manage to calm down.

“Really?”

“I think it might be a curse or poison.”

“Ah…”

Evelia recalled what Ruth said in the original story.

 

-Don’t limit it to illness, but also consider the possibility of addiction or curse.

Apparently Ruth had said the same thing.

‘But why?’

Let’s say Cassis was hit by poison or a curse. That would happen about 10 years later. Why did the story suddenly change?

After thinking about it carefully, Evelia realized the reason.

‘It’s because the content of the original novel has changed.’

This happened often in the romance novels she read. If the story went wrong, the future would also change.

There were several stories she changed now, but only one related to Cassis.

‘Cassis found out who Ruth’s biological father was.’

In the original, he didn’t find Ruth’s biological father until after his death. Even Ruth found out that Cassis was not his biological father only after his death.

Also, when Count Venion died, Clarisse found out all the facts by sending a letter to the Kingdom.

After that, she sent an assassin to Ruth, and even warned Evelia a little while ago.

So, when you look at all these circumstances…

“It must be the Queen.”

Perhaps in the original novel, the Queen knew about Ruth’s birth first and tried her hand at Cassis.

“Let’s go to Erin first. We have to check to see if it’s poison.”

The good news is that they brought Erin with them, just in case.

Evelia and Cassis left Ruth in Nikita’s care and headed to Erin.