RVMPT Chapter 57

Chapter 57

Kaiden spat out his words as if he were chewing them.

“Are you being forced into this?”

Harold’s lips curled into a cold smile. His deep blue eyes, once burning like lava, had now frozen over like an Arctic blizzard.

“My younger brother seems to take my warnings lightly.”

Harold gripped Kaiden’s wrist, which was still clutching his collar.

“Or maybe you have trouble hearing? Or is there something wrong with your head?”

Kaiden’s hand turned pale from the pressure, his knuckles whitening as the blood flow was cut off.

“How many times do I have to tell you?”

“…Ugh.”

Crack. A bone-chilling sound echoed.

Kaiden’s hand trembled as he clenched Harold’s collar but eventually let go.

Harold, however, didn’t release Kaiden.

Like an alpha overpowering a reckless challenger, he radiated an intimidating aura and spoke in a frigid tone.

“Diana is my wife. Whether I kiss her or do anything else, it’s none of your business.”

He wasn’t wrong.

Kaiden clenched his jaw tightly, unable to refute.

The tension between them was suffocating, and I could only swallow nervously.

“Let’s go, Diana.”

“…Okay.”

I nodded and was about to leave with Harold when—

“I remember everything you told me last time, brother,” Kaiden said. “But I need to speak with the duchess. Just for a moment. After this, it won’t happen again.”

Why would he come all the way to the Sun Palace just to talk to me?

“Say what you need to say here.”

“I want to talk to her alone.”

His voice was firm, leaving no room for negotiation.

I turned to face him, curious.

Kaiden obviously disliked me, so why was he insisting on speaking with me in private?

But I wasn’t curious enough to ignore the fact that Harold hated the idea of me being alone with Kaiden.

So I followed Harold, putting more distance between us and Kaiden.

As we walked down the Sun Palace corridor, Harold suddenly stopped.

“Are you feeling unwell?”

I remembered that he had said earlier that it wasn’t enough.

Should I kiss him again?

I stared at him, ready to do just that, but Harold let out a sigh.

“…I should have sent him far away instead of just warning him.”

Rubbing his face with one hand, he continued, “I’m fine now.”

“Huh? But…”

Earlier, his heartbeat had been all over the place.

Harold took my hand and placed it on his chest.

His heartbeat was now steady and rhythmic.

What? I was relieved but also confused.

“Diana,” he said, his voice low, “you are curious about what Kaiden wants to ask you, aren’t you?”

I flinched at his direct question.

“…Yes. A little.”

“If it’s because of me, you can talk to him alone.”

“…Are you really Harold?”

Something was off. Harold would never say something like that.

He smirked. “I don’t like the idea of you being alone with Kaiden. But whatever his reason, I’ll just keep him too busy to act on it.”

Yep. This was the Harold I knew.

“But.”

His expression darkened, and I instinctively leaned in to hear him better.

“I hate it even more that you’re curious about him.”

For some reason, my face suddenly felt hot. Maybe it was from all the champagne I had earlier.

I nodded. “Got it.”

“If anything happens, yell. I’ll come right away.”

“Okay. I’ll be back soon.”

After parting ways with Harold, I fanned my heated cheeks as I walked.

I also made a mental note not to drink for a while.

‘He’s still there.’

Kaiden stood exactly where we had left him.

He looked so miserable, like a stray dog abandoned in the rain.

The sight made me feel even more disconnected from him.

Sensing my presence, Kaiden turned toward me, his eyebrows twitching.

“…Of course.”

Of course, what?

His expression wasn’t sad anymore—it was relieved.

“What is it you wanted to ask me, Kaiden?”

He stepped closer, his red eyes slowly scanning me from head to toe.

Then his gaze stopped on my lips.

His brows furrowed, and his fists clenched tightly.

“Did he force you?”

Again with that question.

“No. I wanted to do it.”

“…!”

His eyes shook violently.

He looked like he couldn’t believe what I had just said.

To make it clear, I repeated myself.

“Kaiden, what did you want to talk about?”

Instead of answering right away, he said something completely unexpected.

“Duchess—no, Diana.”

“…Kaiden.”

Why was he calling me by my name all of a sudden?

“I love you.”

“What?”

Did I hear that right? No, I must have misheard.

Hahaha, I must be exhausted after everything that happened today. I just need to finish this conversation quickly and go home to sleep.

“I’ll accept you,” he continued. “Come back to me, Diana.”

“…….”

How many times can someone mishear the same thing?

I suddenly realized that Kaiden’s burning red eyes were too intense for him to be lying.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

My heart pounded wildly.

As I stood there, unable to say anything, Kaiden confessed again.

“Diana, I like you.”

“Now, after all this time?”

I was shocked, confused, and furious all at once.

The original Diana had never been loved back by Kaiden.

Before I possessed her body, her fate was to be sold as a slave and eventually take her own life.

That was Diana’s future.

And now, after all that, he is saying this?

“I will never accept your feelings. Ever.”

My voice wasn’t firm—it was cold.

Kaiden opened his mouth as if to say something but then closed it again.

I didn’t care.

“I’ll be going now. And I hope you don’t forget twice that I outrank you.”

“Wait.”

Kaiden grabbed my wrist.

I looked up at his trembling eyes.

“…Do you really not like me?”

“No. I don’t.”

“Ha… haha.”

His lips twitched as he let out a dry, bitter laugh.

“…That’s a relief.”

I frowned. What was he talking about now?

Kaiden let go of me and continued.

“I actually asked that to the duchess. Because I was just confirming something.”

“Confirming what? Whether I really don’t like you?”

“Yes. Exactly.”

I blinked, trying to process his words.

It sounded too genuine to be a lie, but…

Well, that makes sense.

He was the one who had personally told the Count to kick me out of the family.

There was no way he would confess his love after doing that.

I had never seen Kaiden act before, but since he was Harold’s brother, maybe it ran in the family.

“That’s good, then.”

I let out a deep breath, finally feeling at ease.

If it had been real, it would’ve been too late.

If he had loved Diana just a year earlier, she wouldn’t have become the “villainess.”

She wouldn’t have lived in constant fear, made mistakes she couldn’t take back, and been exiled.

Once again, I reminded myself—

It was a good thing that Kaiden hadn’t fallen for Diana now.

---

Kaiden stood motionless, staring in the direction Diana had disappeared.

“Now, after all this time?”

“I will never accept your feelings. Ever. I’m not the old Diana anymore.”

He covered his ears. But her voice, full of relief, rang clearly in his mind.

He shut his eyes tightly. But the image of her looking at Harold with admiration wouldn’t go away.

Because in the past, when he had nothing, she was the only one who had looked at him like that.

“…….”

And now, how did she look at him?

Kaiden clenched his fists.

He had to accept it.

Diana, who had once seemed unchanging, no longer loved him.

Shouldn’t he feel relieved?

Wasn’t it a good thing that she wouldn’t bother him anymore, even if it was unfortunate that he couldn’t take revenge on Harold?

“Then why…?”

His chest ached as much as his bruised wrist.

The weight in his clenched fist felt suffocating.

Irritated, he pulled off his engagement ring with Ella and threw it to the ground.

Clink. Clink. Clink.

The sound of metal bouncing off the floor echoed like thunder.

“My choice was… damn it.”

He had thought that confirming the truth would make it easier to move on.

Instead, it had done the opposite.

With a voice filled with frustration, Kaiden muttered:

“…If only you had just died on the street, I wouldn’t have to feel this way.”