Chapter 36
As the carriage pulled away, Annie, who was crouching like a frightened turtle, asked.
“What happens to me now?”
“You will be my exclusive maid at the Adelhard mansion from now on.”
“There are rumors that you are breaking up your engagement. Are you marrying Duke Adelhard?”
“Yes.”
Annie didn’t ask anything more, as if it was hard to keep up with the sudden change in the situation. However, her expression seemed more relaxed.
Evelia glanced at Annie’s hands, which had swollen in just a few days.
“I’m sorry, I’m late.”
Annie shook her hand in surprise.
“No! It’s not.”
Then she blushed and scratched her cheek.
“I am just glad that you didn’t forget me and came to look for me. Really.”
It’s not a big deal, but I felt like my face was burning for no reason. Evelia deliberately responded more casually.
“Of course. Because you are mine.”
Annie clenched her fists with a determined face.
“I will also serve you with all my heart!”
Evelia smiled involuntarily at the look on her face.
“Thank you.”
* * *
No matter how you think about it, Evelia has changed.
After Evelia left, Count Venion gritted his teeth.
He hadn’t taken the situation seriously until a few days ago, when his wife, Countess Venion, cried out.
‘Even if I said it was a tiger cub, It’s only a cub.’
He was well aware of Evelia’s weakness.
Evelia’s biological mother. I heard she was dead, but I thought I could blackmail her, since she wouldn’t know, and I could always take her leash back.
But to know all the facts. Was it Cassis Adelhard’s work?
No. There was no reason for him to go that far just for the sake of Evelia.
Besides, there wasn’t too much information. Even Duke Adelhard would not have been able to gather information this quickly.
‘Then who the hell….’
But now, that wasn’t the point. What really mattered was that Evelia, whom I thought was in my grasp, had run away.
If Evelia became Duchess Adelhard and turned away from them, all plans would be ruined.
Before that, I had to make things right before that happened.
Count Venion rang the bell and summoned his aide.
“Call Catherine.”
Catherine. She was his niece, the same age as Evelia.
“I need to get her to the capital in a hurry.”
Count Venion laughed viciously.
If a chess piece did not fulfill its role, it was time to change it with other piece.
Even if it wasn’t Evelia, there were plenty of people who could take the place of Duchess Adelhard.
* * *
Evelia, who met Count Venion and returned to the mansion, fell into a strange sense of loss. So she skipped meals and stayed in her room all day.
Ruth came in the middle, but she sent him back without meeting him. She couldn’t bring herself to smile at the child.
‘It seems that the original Evelia’s body is responding.’
The fact that Evelia’s mother died was not a big shock.
She had memories of a very warm person, but those were real Evelia memories, not me.
She wasn’t saddened by the absence because she was never really there.
However, ‘Evelia’ had a different feeling. It seems that some of the original emotions remained, but I couldn’t shake off the depression.
I couldn’t sleep, so I lay in bed and blinked my eyes for tens of minutes. Evelia finally got up and went out onto the terrace.
The still cool breeze of early summer hit my body. However, that alone wasn’t enough to ease the stuffy chest.
After staring blankly at the dark garden, she went outside as if possessed by something.
As soon as I went out to the backyard, which only the owner of the Duchy could use, the scent of roses hit me. She closed her eyes and smelled the fragrant flowers.
The smell that came from the arms of ‘Mother’ that day. Evelia’s mother asked where she got it from and she used to wash Evelia with rose-scented soap.
-My daughter is pretty.
As if she were the most precious person in the world.
The moment the memory of ‘Evelia’ came to mind, she shed tears without knowing it.
Even though I didn’t feel like crying, the tears wet my face in an instant.
Evelia sat down on the spot, covered her mouth, and cried. She really didn’t want to cry, but her tears kept flowing.
I don’t know how many times I cried like that. I didn’t feel any presence, but suddenly something landed on my shoulder. It was a man’s coat.
Evelia looked up in surprise. In the darkness that swallowed the whole world, a man with darker hair was standing there. It was Cassis.
His red eyes looked straight at Evelia.
He didn’t ask why she was crying. He didn’t even ask what was going on.
He just said.
“It’s cold.”
Evelia wondered if it was because of his own consideration, or if it was because he lacked empathy.
Either way, I thought he would return to the mansion after finishing his errands. Surprisingly, he sat next to her.
Is it because Cassis appeared unexpectedly? Tears flowed in.
Evelia wiped her wet cheeks with the back of her hand and looked down at her feet.
‘I see, the shoes are also indoor shoes. I guess I didn’t even have the energy to change clothes.’
While I was thinking blankly, Cassis opened his mouth.
“My mother passed away ten years ago. She had a fever. She has been visited by many doctors, but they haven’t been able to cure her disease.”
The words were unusually long. Evelia looked at him again, curious at the sight.
His face shimmering in the moonlight was no different than usual. A face without expression.
In fact, his voice was not as high-pitched as usual.
‘Why is that story….’
After thinking about it for a moment, she realized that Cassis might know the story of today.
And that he had his own consolations.
Even the Adelhard family, which was said to be the best in the Empire, couldn’t save the Duchess. So it’s not your fault that your mother died. It was just nature’s order.
Does he want to say that?
‘Maybe it’s my misunderstanding.’
Cassis could have just heard Evelia’s story and thought of his mother.
Still, Evelia somehow wished he was comforting her.
But it was Cassis, no one else. Who despised her not so long ago.
Even though she had agreed to marry him, the wall between them was too high for her to take his comfort lightly.
Evelia asked shyly.
“Are you comforting me right now?”
“……”
“If you’re comforting me, it’s okay if you don’t.”
“…….”
“I wasn’t too shocked. So just…”
I didn’t mean to sound like this…
Evelia looked down at her slippers for no reason and murmured. Her voice was as small as a mosquito.
“Thank you, for comforting me.”
Then she ran out of the place as if she were running away.
It was such a small voice, but did Cassis hear it?
I thought so, but I didn’t go back and headed to my room.
When I lay down on the bed again, I felt as light as ever.
* * *
Cassis has been pretty busy lately. It’s because he had a lot of work to do with his marriage with Evelia.
Nobility’s marriage was not simply made by their own will.
In the case of a high-ranking aristocrat like Cassis, there was a lot of politics involved, especially with the Imperial Family.
All noble marriages required the Emperor’s approval, but the Emperor, who wanted Cassis to marry the Princess, didn’t like this marriage.
It was the same just by looking at avoiding Cassis’s audience for some reason.
Third visit already. Today, too, Cassis was denied an audience. He could barely even meet the Emperor’s aide.
It was already late at night when he returned to the mansion after having an unkind discussion with the Emperor’s aide.
“Duke.”
Logan, whom he had sent home, was waiting for him with a puzzled look on his face.
“What is going on?”
Cassis recalled the instructions he was given to him a few days ago and changed the question.
“Is Countess Venion visiting again?”
“No, however… ”
From the look on Logan’s face, it seemed that something more serious had happened.
“What is it?”
