“Somehow, it’s embarrassing.”

To this, Veronica gave an obvious reason and evaded answering.

It meant she didn’t want to say more, and the perceptive Lady Arin, though disappointed, didn’t pry further.

Veronica picked up her teacup. The table was full of desserts Lady Arin had bought.

Every time she visited the Hardness family, she would bring such delicious snacks for Veronica. It seemed she was truly taking care of her with sincerity.

“Hoho, to think Veronica has a fiancé now.”

“It is a bit late, isn’t it?”

“Late? I had my engagement ceremony with my husband late too. Did I tell you how I met my husband?”

“Yes, you told me.”

Indeed she had told her, to the point her ears bled from hearing it.

Lady Arin’s husband was the son of a poor noble family.

The man’s family was significantly inferior to Lady Arin’s in terms of wealth and status. Honestly, they could barely be called nobility.

A man and woman who shouldn’t have had any connection met by chance and fell in love.

It was Lady Arin who fell in love at first sight, and if she hadn’t actively pursued him, it would have been an impossible relationship.

She even had a arranged fiancé, but she went so far as to break off the engagement.

All of this could be said to be the result of her unilateral actions.

Surprisingly, she had succeeded in that difficult thing called a love marriage.

“Crisis makes love stronger. If you want it, take it! Hope comes to those who strive! Let’s take care of what’s ours! If you stay still, you can’t have anything!”

Lady Arin slammed the table as she proclaimed her beliefs. Veronica listened with a smile.

“Still, it wasn’t an easy choice, was it?”

“That’s true. Actually… there was tremendous opposition from the family. I had an arranged fiancé, and unilaterally breaking off the engagement would cause enormous damage to the family. It was the first act of rebellion I’d ever done in my life. Since childhood, my brother got everything he wanted, but I had lived obediently to the family. I didn’t want to do that with marriage. Although I had to give up inheriting the family fortune.”

Lady Arin stirred her teaspoon and smiled bitterly.

The price for forcing a marriage opposed by the family was naturally high.

She had to give up inheriting a massive fortune and was cut off from family support. She married her current husband with only a small, courtesy dowry.

As a result, she often secretly tutored children of noble families as a pastime without her husband knowing.

Veronica, who had formed a connection with Lady Arin through her father’s acquaintance, received education on practical noble manners from her.

Veronica liked spending time with her because it wasn’t stiff and formal.

“But I don’t regret it. Love is important to me!”

“Haha.”

Lady Arin clenched her fist. Veronica just laughed.

Love… There was a time when she too had been swayed by the emotion of love. She thought it was everything in her life.

What was the original 16-year-old Veronica like?

The innocent young lady of a duke’s family who didn’t know how the world worked would have been floundering in a fateful love by now.

Thinking of her loved one, wondering how he was living, wanting to see him again, she would have been writing letters non-stop.

Using clean and pretty paper, playing with her pen, spraying sweet perfume and inserting beautiful flowers, she wrote all sorts of lovely expressions.

She wanted him to see her as a cultured woman. And so she diligently attended her bride lessons which she had found annoying and skipped before.

‘It was all useless.’

Even reminiscing like this was meaningless.

Lady Arin’s beautiful love won’t last long. Three years later, her husband, whom she had fought to win even abandoning her family, will die in an accident.

After that, she returned to her family, and soon there was talk of remarriage.

At first she refused, but eventually I heard that a marriage agreement was made. In the end, she couldn’t escape the shackles of her family.

Veronica smiled bitterly as she brought the teacup to her lips. The wind blowing from outside the window tickled her hair.

Brushing her disheveled hair behind her ear, Veronica calmly sipped her tea.

Watching that brief movement intently, Lady Arin said,

“Veronica.”

“Yes, my lady.”

“You seem to have changed somehow since I last saw you. Like you’ve become more mature.”

This too was something she had been hearing often lately. Though she hadn’t particularly tried to hide it, it seems the passage of time couldn’t be concealed.

Veronica had returned to being 16 years old again. Which meant she had to repeat her life as a 16-year-old.

At 16, a noble lady should be accumulating knowledge and etiquette, cultivating dignity. The daughter of a duke’s family was no exception.

Veronica’s daily routine was studying all day long.

While noble women would receive basic bride training from childhood, she was to be the future emperor’s wife.

She had to relearn imperial etiquette, so her education became even stricter, and there was that much more to learn.

But who was she? Wasn’t she someone who had repeated this countless times?

She performed all of it perfectly.

Playing instruments she always stumbled over flawlessly, completing dance routines without missing a step, fluently reciting history she hadn’t known well before – it was all because she had learned it repeatedly.

She couldn’t help but become proficient after doing it to the point of boredom. But the teachers who didn’t know the circumstances showered her with all sorts of praise.

They even called her a genius. But this too was something she had heard often at some point, so Veronica felt nothing.

Of course, annoying things happened too. Not just her father Harry, but even people around her found her attitude strange.

Veronica had no intention of explaining her circumstances in detail, but she didn’t want to stand out either. But even if she tried to act childish, her mind was that of an adult, so it wasn’t easy.

She didn’t want to roll on the floor like when she was really young, throwing tantrums asking to buy this and that.

She knew that was the reason she had caused her father unnecessary worry, but Veronica, who had repeated her life countless times, simply couldn’t do it.

But she couldn’t do nothing either.

Veronica recently sent away several faces she remembered. Excuses weren’t difficult.

It was just a matter of being stubborn and saying they didn’t suit her taste.

At times like this, being a willful child was convenient. She knew well that no matter what she did, her father would eventually give in to her stubbornness.

She watched the servants file out through the window.

Among them was the maid she had quarreled with. Veronica remembered the moment that face had smiled condescendingly at her.

‘…What happened?’

Her father would never know. That they would later become traitors who falsely testified that the Hardness family was connected to the rebels.

The greedy faces that shamelessly presented false testimony and false evidence in front of Veronica, trying to get their share, were still vivid in her mind.

Driving them out wouldn’t change the future, but it might help delay it a little.

“Hoho. They say girls become adults in no time.”

Lady Arin chuckled with her chin resting on both hands.

Fortunately, Lady Arin seemed to be trying to gloss over her changed appearance lightly. Her mischievous face shone brightly.

Veronica stared at her intently. For Veronica, she was a teacher who taught the etiquette a noble lady should have, and a mother figure.

Lady Arin also doted on Veronica.

She was an adult who got along fairly well with Veronica even when she was arrogant and headstrong.

Perhaps taking pity on her for growing up without a mother, she came to meet Veronica with the same attitude whether she was happy or depressed.

She was someone who made you feel cheerful just by looking at her.

The face that worried about her until the end, even when the Hardness family was framed, came to mind.

‘I’m sorry, Veronica.’

“Is it delicious, Veronica?”

The face that was once stained with pain and despair as she clasped her hands together was now full of joy. She had wanted to help her, but in the end couldn’t do anything.

It was as futile a result as her love.

Well, when the Emperor was the enemy, who could have helped them? Thinking like that made the layers of emotions seem to fade.

“Yes, it’s delicious.”

Veronica smiled wryly as she picked up one of the cookies Lady Arin had brought and ate it. A sweet taste spread on her tongue, but she felt empty inside.

Because she already knew our future wouldn’t be as sweet as this cookie.

Veronica sent a letter to Cassian every day without fail.

At first she put her heart into the content, sprayed trendy perfume, and decorated the outside, but towards the end she just scrawled whatever.

She didn’t expect him to be moved no matter how sincerely she wrote, and honestly, she doubted if he even read the letters.

Seeing how there was no reply at all, it was likely the letters were being burned without even being read. It wasn’t entirely a wrong assumption.

Still, Veronica persisted in sending letters. She just sent them regardless of whether there was a reply or not.

She was determined to see how long he would ignore them.

Her persistence in sending letters tirelessly even moved Harry to secretly express admiration.

Meanwhile, she diligently attended her bride lessons.

The tutors praised her changed self and showered her with admiration. Veronica herself was indifferent to the whole situation.

For her, she was simply doing what she had learned repeatedly countless times.

There was a time when she had desperately accumulated knowledge to be a worthy bride for Asher.

There were many moments when she rejoiced at praise. Now it was something she couldn’t even remember.

No matter how much praise or exaggerated reactions she received, she no longer felt any sense of achievement or joy. For her, this whole process was just one of many tedious routines.

But even within that, there were clearly parts that had changed.

Veronica smiled shyly.

“I’ve been working hard not to be an inadequate wife for His Highness Cassian.”

“Oh my-!”

At her words, the teachers let out envious exclamations, and Veronica put on a shy expression as if thinking of her fiancé.

Inwardly, imagining Cassian’s furious face when he heard this story that would spread like wildfire, she didn’t feel too bad.

And so time passed, and the Emperor’s birthday arrived.