Chapter 47
The fact that Duke Tristan had not obtained the Rosier flower and that Richard had procured a pot of it, albeit without a bloom, were two entirely different matters.
“Rosier flowers only bloom under special conditions? Yes, that’s true. I can’t deny that. You said that’s why you sought a bloomed Rosier, didn’t you? Then why didn’t it occur to you to grow the flower yourself?”
Duke Tristan’s confident statements were, in essence, accurate.
It was a fact that Rosier flowers required specific conditions to bloom, making it exceptionally difficult to find one in full bloom.
He had claimed this as the reason he couldn’t procure a Rosier for me. But if he had truly cared about me, he could have acquired a non-blooming one and attempted to grow it.
What had made him so certain that he couldn’t succeed in getting the flower to bloom?
If he’d had the flower in his possession, a solution might have presented itself eventually.
But he had done nothing of the sort.
He couldn’t have, to begin with. He had never intended to acquire it at all, which naturally meant he never even considered the option of obtaining a non-blooming one to try growing it.
If he had personally obtained a pot of Rosier and cultivated it with care, this entire ordeal wouldn’t have happened.
“You said you wanted to find a bloomed flower, but I think that claim doesn’t hold water. Anyone making inquiries at auction houses would know there are no such listings. On the other hand, transactions involving non-blooming Rosier flowers happen frequently. That’s how Richard was able to get one for me.”
I fixed my gaze on Duke Tristan as I spoke. His face contorted with frustration as my words continued.
“You couldn’t conjure up a non-existent listing, so wouldn’t it have been more logical to secure an unbloomed flower and then figure out the conditions to make it bloom? Or were you planning to sit idly by and wait indefinitely for a blooming flower to appear? For an entire year?”
I turned to face the judge. The judge, who had been listening intently, seemed to be reviewing some documents again.
“Your Honor, as you are well aware, I’ve been diagnosed with the terminal Darnnella’s disease. I likely have less than a year left to live. In such a situation, was it truly futile hope that Richard gave me by obtaining the Rosier pot, even though it wasn’t in bloom? Was it really just a ploy to deceive me? … That’s all I have to say.”
Having said my piece, I returned to my seat.
Richard, who had been waiting for the right moment, stood up and made his way to the center to continue the argument. I watched him as he moved and fell into thought.
No matter how much Duke Tristan tried to defend himself, his self-defense was riddled with lies, making it easy to unravel.
This situation was no different.
Despite his continuous maneuvers, they had ultimately failed to gain any traction.
That’s probably why he had attempted to get rid of me—to the extent of using that child, Dave.
If I died, everything would work in his favor.
The thought made me clench my teeth in frustration.
If I had been alone, would I have been able to come this far?
Reflecting on various scenarios, I realized none of them ended positively.
If I had tried to reclaim everything while still living in Duke Tristan’s household…
No matter how I considered it, the conclusion wasn’t favorable.
He could have confined me to a room, preventing me from even participating in this trial. He could have controlled me, or worse, killed me without anyone knowing. After all, I was already dying from the disease; even poisoning me would not have raised suspicion.
In that regard, it was a blessing that I had married Richard.
I etched into my mind the sight of Richard standing in the center, boldly confronting Duke Tristan.
He was putting forth everything he had prepared to win this trial.
Most of it revolved around me.
He played the role of a man deeply in love with me to the extent that an outsider might believe he had genuinely fought his way to this trial out of love.
But that was all part of his performance to secure victory.
“Rosier blooms when it is nourished by love.”
Why did the words of the magician I had met yesterday suddenly resurface in my mind?
They had explained that for a Rosier to bloom, it needed to feel genuine love.
That’s why I thought I should entrust the flower to someone else, but Olivier seemed to have a different opinion.
She seemed to believe that if Richard and I were together, the flower might bloom. That was their interpretation of the change in the pot yesterday.
A tiny bud had emerged.
If the plant truly thrived on love, then it must have sensed it to form that small bud.
Olivier thought it was because of the love between Richard and me.
Could that really be true?
Richard Theodore. The man before me was the very villain I knew from the original story.
In the narrative, he was a cold, calculating man who never let anything of his go and ensured he never incurred losses.
The only person who ever moved his heart was the heroine, Aileen.
That’s why he fell in love with her, and to claim her, he willingly embraced the role of a villain.
Knowing all this, I couldn’t imagine him loving me in the slightest.
In my mind, the only person Richard could genuinely love was Aileen.
I had simply allied with him for mutual benefit.
Could a Rosier truly bloom between us?
Not a chance.
Even if we shared a bond over our tragic pasts, empathy wasn’t love.
I still thought the flower should be entrusted to someone else capable of making it bloom.
Once it bloomed, I would be free from the disease, and I would no longer have to fear death.
When that happened, I wouldn’t need anything more from Richard. I had already relied on him enough. When it was all over, I would quietly disappear.
Lost in thought, I noticed Richard returning to his seat.
As I watched him sit down, I smiled faintly. Sensing my smile, Richard looked at me, puzzled. I simply shrugged lightly in response.
The conversation continued between Duke Tristan and the other parties, but the gap in perspectives remained unbridgeable. Nevertheless, Tristan’s earlier missteps left openings for us to exploit.
For instance, his own admission that he had promised to return my title and assets, his failure to procure medicine despite knowing about my illness, and his act of selling me to Richard to settle his debts.
As the trial progressed, his true colors began to show. Not everything had been revealed yet, but it was only a matter of time.
“I’ve heard the arguments from both the plaintiff and the defendant. We will reconvene on the next date, during which the verdict will be delivered. Please ensure your presence,” the judge announced.
With that, the courtroom doors opened.
Richard and I rose from our seats to leave. One by one, the other attendees began filing out of the courtroom.
For some reason, however, Duke Tristan remained seated at the defendant’s table, unmoving. His face was rigid, and his sharp eyes burned into me.
The atmosphere was tense, but considering the way the trial had turned against him, it wasn’t surprising for him to be furious.
After all, if things continued this way, he stood to lose everything.
He was about to be left with nothing. It would have been stranger if he weren’t enraged.
“Diarna.”
As I stopped and stared at Duke Tristan, Richard called out to me, as if urging me to move.
Snapping out of my thoughts, I turned to look at him.
When our eyes met, he glanced briefly at Duke Tristan before gently guiding me with the hand that was escorting me, his touch steady on my waist.
“There’s nothing worth looking at. Let’s go.”
“Alright.”
I responded to his insistence with a smile and turned away, leaving the courtroom.
As we exited into the lobby, Olivier approached me. This time, I wasn’t feeling unwell or dizzy, so I didn’t need her support. I waved her off with a reassuring hand gesture. Only then did she relax, returning my smile with a small one of her own.
“By the way, I heard Dave has gone missing. What happened?”
It was something I had been curious about throughout the trial.
Dave, who was supposed to testify that Duke Tristan had attempted to kill me, had disappeared.
If he hadn’t gone missing, we would have been able to reveal the full extent of Duke Tristan’s actions today, securing a decisive advantage.
But for him to vanish so suddenly…
“Well… He said he needed to use the restroom, so I let him go, but he never came back.”
“…And what about his sister?”
“I checked, and she’s still at the hotel.”
“Is that so?”
If both Dave and his sister had vanished, it would be safe to assume they had fled together. But since his sibling was still at the hotel, it didn’t seem like he had run off alone.
If, by any chance, he had abandoned his sibling and fled, I would be deeply disappointed.
In that case, I’d have no choice but to report Dave to the authorities and handle it through official procedures…
“Countess!”
Just as I was discussing Dave with Olivier, Jason approached Richard, calling out urgently. In his arms was a small child, covered in blood.
“…Dave?”
