Zelda was someone who had treated her much better than her own blood brother.

Mercian felt her whole body warming up at Zelda’s kind words.

Knock knock.

“Who could it be at this hour?”

As Zelda got up and opened the door, Cassel, standing outside, looked at her and said:

“Is Lady Canoloup inside by any chance?”

Hearing the title “Lady”, Zelda hesitated for a moment but soon smiled and said:

“Lady? Do you mean Rosalyn? Then are you the Duke? My goodness. Rosalyn, he’s so handsome! If it were someone like this, I’d forgive him even if he sold the country.”

Mercian, who was coming out behind Zelda, greeted Cassel with a look of pleasant surprise.

“Oh? My, Lord Cassel. It’s been a long time.”

“My lady, it has indeed been a long time. During… No, this isn’t the right situation for such greetings.”

Cassel, who had been standing with an awkward expression at Zelda’s words, greeted Mercian as she came out.

“Not the Duke? Oh, I’m sorry.”

“Ah. No, it’s alright, young lady.”

“Hohoho. Y-young lady? For a commoner like me? Just call me Zelda. It seems you have something to say to Rosalyn. Please come in. Rosalyn, I’ll be going now. Let me know if anything happens.”

“Thank you, Zelda.”

After Zelda left, Cassel entered Mercian’s house.

“Please, sit over here.”

“Thank you, my lady.”

“Lord Cassel. I am no longer a duchess, so please just call me Rosalyn.”

Cassel smiled at Mercian’s words and replied:

“No, my lady. To me, you will always be the Duchess.”

Mercian blushed slightly at Cassel’s words and placed a teacup in front of him, saying:

“Are you here because of Ruan?”

“Yes, I just went to the house next door, but the Duke was in a deep sleep, so I thought I’d have a word with you. I hope I’m not intruding?”

“No, it’s alright. But, how long has Ruan, I mean, the Duke been unable to sleep?”

“Pardon? Did you know about his insomnia?”

“Ah, I knew the Duke originally had insomnia. But when he was with me, he would take sleeping pills and sleep deeply, so I thought it wasn’t a problem. But early this morning, I happened to see the Duke next door, and he collapsed during our conversation. I was so surprised that I called for the elder, and he said the Duke was taking medicine. And it was a very strong medicine made by a sorcerer.”

“Ah. I see.”

“Has his insomnia gotten worse?”

“Ah. Insomnia, you say?”

Cassel briefly considered whether to tell her that it wasn’t the sleeping pills, but rather Mercian’s presence that had allowed Ruan to sleep well.

“My lady, as you know, I cannot interfere in matters between you and the Duke, nor can I relay facts that the Duke hasn’t shared himself. And I know you’re very angry with the Duke over this incident. The reason I came here today is not to speak on behalf of the Duke, but to ask you to look at these newspapers first.”

Cassel took out a bundle of newspapers published in the capital over the past 5 months and handed them to her.

“What are all these?”

Looking at Mercian staring at the bundle of newspapers, Cassel spoke with an incredulous expression:

“I truly didn’t know. That you had settled in a village where the Empire’s newspapers aren’t distributed. Please read these newspapers first.”

“Will reading these newspapers now change anything?”

Mercian glanced at the newspapers as she spoke in response to Cassel’s words.

“Pardon?”

“You haven’t forgotten the contract I made with you when I first came to the Duke’s household, have you? I said I would leave after 6 months.”

Cassel nodded at Mercian’s words and replied:

“Of course, I remember that contract. However, from what I observed of you and the Duke at the household over the past 5 months, it seemed that your relationship was more than just contractual.”

Moreover, thanks to you, the Duke who used to say that nothing was more inefficient than loving someone has now broken his curse.

Cassel, recalling how devastated Mercian had been after Ruan’s supposed death, was certain that she loved Ruan as well.

Furthermore, after Mercian left, Ruan had almost lost his mind trying to find her.

So much so that if he could, he would have gone to hell itself to find Mercian…

It had been so difficult to find Mercian.

Thinking that if they missed this chance now, Ruan might really die, Cassel was as desperate as Ruan to bring Mercian back to the Duke’s household.

While it was the Duke’s role to ask for forgiveness, Cassel had come to find Mercian wanting to at least give him a chance to apologize.

After all, knowing Mercian as he did, he was sure she wouldn’t coldly reject him…

Cassel spoke to Mercian, grasping at straws:

“My lady, I understand your intentions well, but I still hope you will read these newspapers.”

Seeing Cassel’s seemingly desperate demeanor, Mercian reluctantly accepted the bundle of newspapers he handed her.

“Thank you, my lady. Then I shall take my leave now.”

As he stood up to leave and turned around, Cassel seemed to remember something and turned back, saying:

“My lady, may I ask one more favor?”

“Yes?”

“Whether to forgive or not is your choice, but if your heart changes even a little after reading those newspapers, please give the Duke one more chance.”

“A chance?”

“I know you must have been through a lot. But the Duke also… No, never mind. Please, just make sure to read the newspapers. I’ll be going now.”

Newspapers…

What on earth could be in these newspapers…

Mercian quietly stared at the bundle of newspapers Cassel had left, then began to unfold and read them one by one.

The newspapers Cassel had brought were published after the mourning period had ended.

The first newspaper contained the story of Prince Haiman’s wedding, where the Crown Prince appeared to kill Haiman, and Ruan appeared to stop him.

It detailed how the culprit who pretended to be a rich young master, riding around in carriages, paying women who lived alone to spend nights with him blindfolded, and occasionally beating women to death for seeing his face when the blindfold came off, turned out to be the Crown Prince. Following that, it explained in detail how Ruan, upon learning that the Crown Prince was plotting to assassinate Prince Haiman, who was more capable than himself, deliberately pretended to be dead to lure out and eliminate the Crown Prince.

The subsequent newspapers were filled with content about searching for Mercian.

There were articles offering 10,000 gold coins to anyone who knew her whereabouts, with her portrait printed; articles mentioning that after her portrait was published, over a hundred fake Mercians visited the Duke’s household daily; and even mocking articles about how the Empire’s hero, who had returned from the brink of death, was frantically scouring the Empire in search of his runaway wife…

For the past 4 months, the Empire’s newspapers had been overflowing with stories about Mercian.

Even though he should have stopped after seeing the articles mocking Ruan, her portrait and articles about searching for her continued to appear in the newspapers every day.

He… he searched for me this much?

Why? Why did he search for me…

We had only lived together for 5 months.

During that time, we didn’t even spend nights together, just slept in the same bed…

What am I that he would search for me so desperately?

Knock knock…

Mercian, feeling Ruan’s desperate longing for her through the newspapers, hastily wiped away the tears that had unknowingly started flowing, and opened the door to find Ruan standing there.

“Ruan.”

“M-my lady, who made you cry?”

Seeing Ruan worrying about her with a face still showing fatigue despite sleeping for over 6 hours, probably due to not sleeping deeply, Mercian felt inexplicably angry.

Why are you doing this to me?

Why are you trying to bring out the feelings I’ve painfully hidden away again?

Why are you coming to shake up someone who’s trying to forget and live on?

“My lady! Are you alright?”

Surprised by the sight of Mercian crying, Ruan tried to grab her, but she forcefully pushed his hands away and pointed at the newspapers on the table, shouting:

“Why did you search for me so desperately? You said you won’t die now, so why didn’t you just marry a noblewoman befitting your position and live on? Why did you search for me so frantically? Why? What am I to you? We were just a couple with a 6-month time limit!”

Approaching the wailing Mercian, Ruan trapped her in his arms and answered in an anguished voice close to her ear:

“That’s because I love you, Mercian, more than my own life. Because in this world, you are the only one who can be my wife. Because now, I cannot live without you.”

You love me? More than your life? And a person like that pretended to die in front of me?

What do you think love is?

Is it something like ‘I loved you, but the situation was unavoidable, so please understand’?

Is it that you couldn’t help it then, but now you love me more than life itself, so forgive you and accept you?

Am I really that amusing? Or do you think I’m that easy?

Mercian stepped out of Ruan’s embrace, took a step back, looked at him, and said:

“Love? Did you just say you love me now? Love seems to come so easily to you.”

“My lady, I…”

“That day when you collapsed at the bookstore, you confessed your love to me like this too. Of course, it was a confession made with lip movements since your voice wouldn’t come out, but still. When I heard those words from you that day, the feelings for you that I had kept hidden deep in my heart burst forth. When you collapsed and didn’t wake up for a week, I was really scared and afraid. Afraid that you might just leave like that. If you really loved me, you shouldn’t have pretended to cough up blood in front of me when you woke up a week later. If you really loved me, you should have at least explained the truth to me.”

“My lady. I’m truly sorry. You may not believe this, but I had planned to come to you and tell you the truth as soon as I dealt with the Crown Prince. I never intended to deceive you.”

As Ruan reached out to Mercian with a desperate expression, she took another step back.

“Ruan, in my life, the only person I thought truly loved me was my father. As you know well, even my birth mother and my older sister would say hurtful things to me without hesitation, considering me a useless person because I looked different from them, because I didn’t meet their standards. At the time, it was so hard and sad, but later I became grateful to them. Because thanks to that, I became less hurt by most criticisms against me. To someone like me, the people at the Duke’s household were really strange. Because they trusted, loved, and acknowledged me more than my own family.”

As Mercian spoke, sobbing, Ruan stood there blankly, not knowing what to say.

“Among the people at the Duke’s household, especially you, I always loved your warm and affectionate gaze when you looked at me. Although we didn’t exchange emotions, you always respected me and said you liked me just as I am. For the first time since my late father, I believed in you, who seemed to treat me sincerely. Even knowing that our marriage had an expiration date, I may have unknowingly fallen in love with you. That’s why it’s harder for me to forgive you.”

As Mercian seemed to struggle with her surging emotions, breathing heavily, Ruan hurriedly brought a glass of water from the kitchen.

“M-my lady, please try drinking some water.”

Mercian declined the water Ruan offered, slowly exhaling to compose herself.

“If my mother or sister had told such a lie, I might have just accepted it without even thinking about forgiveness. Because they were always beings who did such things to me. But you shouldn’t have done that to me. Or rather, if you hadn’t confessed anything to me at all, then I might have been able to forgive you. Because my love for you was solely my own emotion. Even if you had used me in your plan, I couldn’t say anything to you about it. You should have just not told me you loved me then. If you hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been this hurt after you died. When you reappeared, I could have been sincerely happy that you were alive.”

“I’m sorry, Merc. I was angry that the Crown Prince was threatening you. So I wanted to eliminate all the threats to you and then meet you in a healthy state.”

Mercian looked at Ruan with a cold expression in response to his apology.