Lea felt that her time with Vitello was meaningless.

So she apologized to him and went to find Terran. However, he was still happily playing croquet with Mary.

‘No need to hesitate. Terran is my man. My fiancé.’

She strode purposefully towards the two of them. Soon, Terran and Mary noticed Lea.

“Terran, let’s talk.”

Mary shot Lea an unpleasant look and snapped:

“My lady, you lack manners. This is my time with the Duke. You should know how to wait.”

“You know this is not your business to interfere with, right?”

Lea’s voice was firm to the point of being frightening.

“Hmph, let’s go.”

Terran excused himself to Mary and followed Lea. The stares of everyone pierced their backs like arrows.

“I’ll wait.”

When they reached a secluded spot, those were Lea’s first words to Terran.

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll wait until Terran remembers me.”

“Isn’t a fiancée supposed to be someone precious? The fact that I can’t remember you seems to prove we weren’t that close.”

His sharp tone reminded Lea of long ago when Terran told Grace not to whine.

“Do you not want to remember me, Terran?”

If he lacked the will, it would truly be a desperate situation.

“Is there a need to?”

“Are you serious?”

“Even after getting the antidote injection, the fact that I only can’t remember Grace – doesn’t that mean she wasn’t a significant person?”

Lea’s legs wobbled again, and Terran reflexively grabbed her arm to steady her.

While his body remembered her like this, his mind remained buried in pitch-black darkness.

Lea shook off his arm.

“If you said you’d try, I was willing to wait no matter how long it took. But if you have no intention at all, then our relationship is meaningless.”

Though sad, Lea tried not to shed tears, causing her chin to tremble slightly.

She closed her eyes tightly and tried to calm her agitation.

‘Don’t torment Terran. Pressuring him like this is only hurting him.’

Lea felt pathetic for resenting him. She regretted starting an argument when she knew full well he wasn’t in his right mind.

“Alright. I’ll do as Terran wishes. If you want to break off the engagement, I’ll do that. However…”

Terran was bewildered. He remembered seeing clear tears shimmering in those amethyst eyes.

He didn’t fully know the woman before him, yet he distinctly remembered those jewel-like eyes.

“Don’t struggle or suffer. Don’t blame yourself under any circumstances. It’s not Terran’s fault. That’s what I wanted to tell you.”

Lea conveyed her concern for Terran until the very end.

Terran was confused by her attitude. Suddenly, a headache struck him.

His vision blurred, and he saw a forest filled with hazy smoke.

Just like before, a woman with tear-filled amethyst eyes shouting something at him.

“Urgh…!”

Terran clutched his head with one hand. The memory seemed both near and far. It was as if someone was toying with him, tantalizingly opening the floodgates of memory.

He remembered the amethyst eyes, but still couldn’t recall who she was.

“Terran.”

After Lea left, the person who called his name from behind was Vivian.

“Your Majesty.”

“Call me Vivian comfortably. I’m here as a friend now.”

Vivian circled around Terran, choosing her words carefully.

“What are you going to do now?”

“About what?”

“About Grace. Will you wait until you remember her? Or just bury it?”

“Why is that important to you, Vivian?”

“Why it’s important is…”

Vivian dragged out her words, making Terran impatient.

“I want Terran to value himself. I also want you to know how to grow attached to people or things. But you have a bad habit of exhausting yourself alone until you hit rock bottom. This time too, if you had accepted the reinforcements I sent, things wouldn’t have gotten this bad.”

Vivian found Terran’s stubbornness frustrating.

Though she understood his intentions, to her it seemed like nothing more than misplaced heroism.

Terran was the type who couldn’t escape the barriers he created unless someone pulled him out.

This time too, he should be desperately trying to remember his woman…

Of course, she knew Terran was struggling in his own way. Perhaps Vivian was angry out of concern for her friend.

“I just didn’t want to sacrifice many soldiers to eliminate mere bandits.”

“Well, I suppose that’s true, but…”

“Vivian, why don’t you say what you really want to say?”

Having known each other for so long since childhood, there was no room for preliminary probing.

“If Terran doesn’t want to remember Grace… can I have her?”

“What?”

“To be honest, I really want Grace. So I want to marry her to my brother Vitello. Of course, only if Terran intends to break off the engagement with Grace.”

Terran felt sick at Vivian’s blatant words.

It felt like someone was raking his insides. How ironic that his body was in such great pain when he couldn’t even remember his own fiancée.

‘Break off the engagement, she says.’

As he mulled over those words, a bitter taste filled his mouth.

“It doesn’t seem like something to decide hastily. I can’t give you an answer right now, Vivian.”

“That’s unlike you, Terran.”

Terran usually judged and handled everything according to his own will. Was his body remembering Grace?

“I’ll respect that. This time, I hope you’ll find your way out on your own. You’re infinitely strong, but also more fragile than anyone.”

“Are you trying to provoke me right now?”

Terran spoke in an unpleasant tone.

“Yes, that’s right. I’m provoking you. You deserve it. You’re a blind fool who can’t recognize the precious jewel right in front of you.”

“I wonder if people know? That the cultured, elegant, and benevolent Empress of Rubeck is actually sharp-tongued in reality.”

“Who knows.”

Vivian shrugged and disappeared with a smile.

After the Empress left, Terran wandered alone in the imperial palace gardens.

No matter how hard he tried, his memories of Grace remained submerged in darkness.

Then, in the distance, he saw Grace taking a friendly stroll with Vitello.

Thump thump―

His heart pounded as soon as his eyes fell on her.

‘How unpleasant.’

Terran pressed his hand firmly against his heart. His body and mind were moving separately. His body remembered her, but his brain felt as stuffy as if buried in sand.

Perhaps she sensed his gaze even from afar. Grace turned her head.

Terran didn’t avoid her gaze. Then he recalled Chainer’s words.

[Uncle, you idiot! You stabbed sister with a knife and hurt her.] [What are you talking about? Who stabbed with a knife?] [You were delirious, so sister tried to give you the antidote, but you stabbed her with a knife, didn’t you?]

If that was all true…

‘You’re not even human, Terran.’

Just then, James came looking for Terran.

“Your Grace, it’s time to return now.”

“Let’s go.”

“Are you going to leave Miss Grace behind?”

“What’s the point of taking a woman I can’t even remember?”

Terran said his piece and turned away.

Regardless of who she had been to him, the fact that he felt unpleasant and angry right now was undeniable.

Honestly, he wanted to run far away from her.

‘There’s nothing I can do if I can’t remember.’

It’s impossible to go against fate anyway.

* * *

Sara stood in front of the MacDowell mansion, lost in thought. She had promised him she would find the key or whatever it was.

‘What will Allen say if I tell him I couldn’t find anything?’

Though it was the wrong path, they had been comrades with a sense of solidarity until now. If he would accept her back unconditionally, she would live the rest of her life forgetting the sins she had committed against Lea and Richard.

She would devote everything to loving only Allen.

Sara desperately hoped that Allen wouldn’t cast her aside now that she had become useless.

‘Allen, I have nowhere else to go.’

She was in a situation where she had to hold his hand and look only forward.

But if even he let go of her hand, all that remained was for her life to be thoroughly twisted. Suddenly, she imagined a different scenario.

‘What if I hadn’t betrayed Miss Lea?’

By now, their laughter would probably be heard from beyond those high walls.

The two people who first treated her like a human being when she was an abused girl from the poorhouse.

She, who had driven them to their deaths, was no longer human.

‘So Allen, give me one last chance.’

Even if it’s not sincere, she hoped she could live out the rest of her life clinging to her love for him.

Hope and despair alternated in Sara’s heart. She was conflicted between a glimmer of expectation towards Allen and worry that even he might abandon her.

‘This is the last time.’

The time had come to make her own decision. Her path would be set one way or another.

But she was afraid to face reality.

Sara squeezed her eyes shut, took a few ragged breaths, then calmed her breathing.

She opened her eyes and put on a grave expression.

‘Whether it’s hope or despair, don’t avoid it.’

Sara entered the MacDowell mansion.

* * *

Rumors were rampant in Rebon that Terran and Grace would soon break off their engagement.

Perhaps because of this, flowers were delivered to the mansion every day.

“Are these for me?”

Terran asked, watching the servants carry in lines of flowers.

“They’re flowers sent to Miss Grace by unmarried noble gentlemen from the capital. It seems the rumors of your engagement being broken off have become accepted as fact, Your Grace.”

“I haven’t decided to break off the engagement yet.”

“Here, many love letters have also arrived for you, Your Grace. They’re from noble young ladies.”

“Burn them.”

“What should we do with the flowers? It seems a waste to burn them.”

“Do as you see fit.”

Terran replied curtly and left. It was truly amusing.

As soon as rumors of the broken engagement spread, so many hyenas came running to target Grace.

Well, even Vivian had openly said she desired Grace.

‘This is exhausting and irritating. If I break off the engagement as they wish, these uncomfortable feelings will disappear too.’