Chapter 2
They suddenly appeared not long after. It was a beautifully clear and sunny day when they brought the child.
“This is Rose Asilla. I’m sorry, but I’m not feeling well and I hope you don’t mind me…”
“Rose.”
“How could I possibly speak to you, my lady? Don’t do that.”
Standing still, Erina observed them, but it seemed they didn’t even notice her presence as they affectionately called each other by their pet names, clearly embarrassed by their own actions.
Rose was someone Erina couldn’t help but think was lovely. Her pink, cotton-candy-like hair was full of curls, adding to her charm. Her green eyes, moist like dewdrops on leaves, her rosy cheeks and lips, and her delicate figure all spoke of innocence and grace. It was clear she was the heroine, Rose Asilla.
In Faylon’s arms, Rose looked tiny, almost fragile, sparking a natural protective instinct in anyone who saw them. Together, Rose’s soft colors and Faylon’s bright silver hair and scarlet eyes created a picture-perfect scene.
Even though Erina stood right in front of them, they ignored her entirely, embracing and whispering to each other with such intimacy. The looks they exchanged seemed as if honey would drip from them if touched. Their closeness was so intense it seemed they wouldn’t allow anyone to come between them.
The way they acted as though the world consisted only of the two of them made Erina shudder and feel sick.
“Rose will stay in this mansion from now on,” he said, pulling her closer, his gaze on Erina cold and wary.
Rose, holding his hand tightly, pretended to avoid looking at him as she observed Erina’s expression.
“Until your health recovers?”
“No.”
Erina, who Faylon expected to lash out, was calm. Her expression unreadable, her back straight, and her posture neat, she remained poised. Faylon’s smile twisted at her unexpected reaction.
Gone were the days when she desperately clung to him. For some reason, Faylon couldn’t stand how she now distanced herself, appearing uninterested in him. He wanted to twist her perfect, doll-like face.
“This woman, she’s the one I love. She’ll stay in this mansion from now on,” Faylon proudly declared, boasting about his affair in front of his wife.
Erina was dumbfounded, hearing him speak so openly about his infidelity.
“Understand this and embrace Rose. She understands everything and came here willingly. So…”
Erina couldn’t hold back anymore.
“Enough with the nonsense.”
“What?”
“Enough with the nonsense.”
Erina’s sharp tone startled both of them, their eyes widening in surprise.
Erina closed her eyes tightly and let out a sigh, realizing she couldn’t keep quiet any longer.
From the moment she realized this was a novel, she had decided to live as “Erina Eols” and make the best of it. She cast aside her feelings for Faylon and endured her unreasonable mother-in-law’s demands, trying her best to be a good daughter-in-law.
She lived quietly, holding on to the faint hope that one day Faylon would clear up the misunderstandings and they might live like any other noble couple.
There had been days when she had cried, trying to understand the hatred and distrust caused by the misunderstandings, but now, even her carefully groomed nails, which she had trimmed to avoid any sharpness, seemed unpleasant to her.
Hearing such outrageous words without becoming a villainess was clearly unnatural.
Erina recalled how the original Erina must have faced this situation. Faylon’s actions must have hurt her, and she couldn’t even refute such ridiculous words. Did the original Erina cry and lose consciousness in the place they abandoned her?
In the original story, Erina’s marriage had been a political one, but Faylon’s shocking behavior had left her in disbelief.
“Ha…”
Now, Erina didn’t care about the original story at all.
Her plan to find stability and live well as “Erina Eols”? She might as well hand that over to a passing dog.
“Excuse me, Count,” she said.
“What…?”
“Do you even realize what you just said to me?”
“Erina!”
“Oh, I have a legitimate wife from a political marriage, but I’ve found new love in my affair. She’s so understanding of my circumstances that she’s come here willingly. So, my dear wife, you should also revere this noble love.”
Erina smirked at Faylon, who looked utterly stunned.
“What am I saying, you ask? Woof, woof!”
“Erina!”
“It’s nonsense.”
As words poured from Erina’s mouth, Faylon could only call her name in disbelief, and Rose stood pale as a ghost. Erina laughed heartily at the sight of them.
“Hahaha!”
It felt as if the dark clouds that had hovered over her head and heart had lifted, revealing a clear, bright sky—just like the weather outside behind them.
Thinking she understood the original story and that things would eventually change? That was a foolish assumption.
What had possessed her to make such a ridiculous choice, forcing herself to fit into a role that didn’t suit her? She couldn’t understand it anymore.
“Yes, that’s right.”
The lingering regrets over her foolish decisions peeled away like a shed skin, falling off her entirely.
“I sincerely wish you both the best in your legendary love.”
If the life span the gods had assigned to Erina was finite and she couldn’t alter the key settings of the original story, then her days were numbered anyway.
Would she spend the rest of her life listening to nonsense while standing next to these two insufferable people?
Not a chance.
“L-Lady!”
“Yes, Lady Asilla?”
“I’m sorry, truly. It’s all my fault for loving him.”
The servants, shocked and appalled, watched the scene unfold while Rose studied Erina’s unreadable expression with sharp eyes.
Erina stared back at Rose’s fake, pitiful expression, unable to suppress a laugh.
“No, that’s not something to apologize for.”
“Then… are you forgiving me?”
“Rose, what are you saying?”
Faylon, having finally collected himself, looked displeased that Rose was humbling herself before Erina, asking for forgiveness.
“But the Lady is right. I…”
Rose’s round, lovely eyes began to fill with tears.
“Why should you feel sorry? We just fell in love. Don’t say things like that!”
“Look at you, acting so pathetic.”
Erina stopped holding back the thoughts she usually kept to herself. In this ridiculous situation, there was no need to spare Faylon’s feelings.
“You… you really!”
“Oh dear, did I say that out loud? My apologies.”
As Faylon tried to lash out, Erina covered her mouth with one hand, her eyes crinkling as she smiled at them.
“Stop it, Erina. If you go any further—”
“What if I do? Are you planning to raise your hand against me here, in front of all these people, my oh-so-noble Count?”
Erina tilted her head slightly, her golden eyes gleaming ominously, as if daring him to say what he was thinking.
She clicked her tongue as she watched Faylon trembling with rage.
For Erina, this level of hostility was a daily occurrence. Yet Faylon, faced with mere words, was trembling from head to toe with fury.
“That’s enough now.”
Yes, it really was enough.
Erina would no longer hold on to the belief that her husband might one day turn back to her.
She would no longer hope for a smooth and ordinary marriage, like other couples had.
“There’s no need to apologize, Lady Asilla.”
After all, she was going to take everything they wanted for herself.
Erina smiled brightly at the two, who were now staring at her nervously.
No matter how passionately they loved or quarreled, Erina would do her utmost to live well.
Even if that meant seizing every sweet, sugar-coated coincidence that seemed to fall into Rose’s lap, or destroying the once-admired Faylon in the process.
She would steal everything Rose was meant to have and tear down everything Faylon had built.
She would destroy the two who tried to disguise their dirty affair as love, who sought to ruin Erina and turn her into a villainess. She would bring down Eols, who trapped her and tried to let her wither away.
Erina turned her back on the pair and walked away.
Just a few days ago, the sky had been gloomy and overcast, but today it was unbearably clear. The cloudless, bright blue sky, the sun shining warmly, and the gentle breeze all looked like something out of a painting.
It felt as though even the weather was celebrating the road ahead of her, and Erina felt a rare sense of joy.
“Erina!”
She ignored Faylon’s loud cries as he called her name and made her way to her room. No matter how much he yelled, the Erina Eols who once stood silently by, hoping to earn his attention, no longer existed.
She tried to steady the excitement bubbling up inside her as she thought about the tasks awaiting her in her room.
But her thoughts—and her steps—stopped suddenly.
At the end of the hallway, she saw a small child clutching the wall, trembling as he stared at her.
It was the child whose name she had seen on the papers yesterday.
Revil Eols.
Just before signing the document that officially recognized him as the heir, Erina had paused and stared at his name for a long time.
She didn’t know if he had kept the name he’d been given at the orphanage or if it was one Faylon had given him, but for some reason, the name lingered in her mind.
In the original story, the child barely had any role at all.
An orphan taken in as the heir. A small, quiet child with light brown hair and Faylon’s crimson eyes.
There had been a brief description of him early on, but once the heroine entered the mansion, Erina was cast out. After the heroine married Faylon, even Erina, with her sharp memory of the original story, didn’t know what became of the boy.
Erina was going to leave this mansion.
It might be next year, next month, or even tomorrow—she didn’t know for sure.
But what would happen to that child who still lingered in her thoughts?
A faint dizziness washed over her.
Memories of Erina, as a young girl swallowing back tears while her uncle and aunt celebrated seizing the Medelia family’s estate, tangled with hazy fragments of her past life, stirring her mind into chaos.
Feeling her gaze, Revil quickly retreated into his room.
Erina stood there, her thoughts swirling once more.
