74. Farewell

2023.12.13.

Marquis Mosan Rev, who had been suppressing his surging emotions for a long time, finally opened his mouth.

“The wedding preparations will be handled by me and my wife. If we’re to avoid spreading rumors around, there’s no other way—.”

“I’m asking you not to.”

When had he grown so tall?

Immediately after learning to walk, he had endured harsh imperial education.

He had trained in swordsmanship wearing heavy armor that bent his fragile shoulders.

A tiny prince who had to move with every step, every sprint, even every glance meticulously calculated.

While suffering through family betrayal, he had quietly grown tall—so tall that Marquis Mosan Rev now had to crane his neck just to look up at him.

He had become a man with a sturdy physique, one who wouldn’t lose his posture even under the heaviest armor.

Only now did this truly become apparent.

The young man’s face, long hidden beneath a curse, was now unmistakably the face of a grown man.

The face of a man who had broken free from his shell to take responsibility for a woman, and who now looked toward a better future.

Exactly the face a man of that age should have.

“That thing I said last time.”

Clade Euphris rubbed the soft surface of the ring case with his firm thumb, speaking toward Marquis Mosan Rev, who was too overwhelmed with emotion to continue.

“The title of Marquess of Roxenhardt.”

“Huh?”

“I was thinking of receiving it at the wedding.”

Marquis Mosan Rev reacted as if his throat had been suddenly choked.

His fully grown nephew, looking as though he had finally ended his wandering, firmly pushed the ring case into his pants pocket and stared straight at him.

“Because ‘Lady Roxenhardt’ sounds much better than ‘Former Imperial Consort.’”

***

Marquis Rev left the mansion almost sobbing.

Just before leaving, he gripped Head Butler Gustav’s shoulders so tightly and flattered him so excessively that it was embarrassing to witness.

Head Butler Gustav returned to his master’s office, where the master could barely focus on work.

Clade Euphris, having escorted his maternal uncle, cast his gaze from the air to the window, then to the desk, wandering restlessly before finally settling on Head Butler Gustav as if sensing an emptiness.

“Where is Yuan?”

“She left early this morning for the marquisate cemetery. She said she’d return before sunset, so she should be back soon.”

This question and answer had already repeated about five times. Ever since waking up, he kept asking for his wife, yet each time he did so with such sharpness as if he had no memory of having asked before.

Clade Euphris, tapping his fingers on the table, soon stood up and went downstairs.

Head Butler Gustav, initially thinking his master might be returning to the bedroom to rest, quietly followed as Clade walked deeper inside.

Clade’s destination was Yuan Pelliese’s bedroom.

The room, empty due to its owner’s absence, was neatly arranged. Clade stood at the doorway for a while before stepping inside.

This was where he had stayed until morning.

Running his fingers over the massive bed where he had spent two sleepless nights with darkened eyes, Clade quietly crossed the room and walked toward the sunlit window.

Outside the window, newly hired gardeners were bringing in wheelbarrows full of seedlings suitable for summer or autumn and planting them. Clade, having watched them for a while, spoke.

“Women like flowers.”

Caught off guard by the unexpected question, Head Butler Gustav blinked rapidly before quickly replying.

“It’s not true for everyone… but generally, yes.”

“Why do they like something they can’t eat, wear, or carry around easily?”

Clade leaned diagonally against the window, pressing his forehead tightly against the glass.

Gustav pondered for a moment before answering diligently.

“Even if they’re useless, they’re beautiful. And having them nearby is pleasant because of their fragrance.”

“Yuan……”

What kind of flower does she like?

Clade, about to ask the butler, immediately closed his mouth.

He could just ask her himself.

It wasn’t something he couldn’t ask.

‘Between husband and wife.’

A small flowerbed tucked into a corner of the bustling garden came into view.

It was filled with anemones, their harmonious blend of deep purple and white strikingly beautiful.

Suddenly, a woman standing far away came to mind.

……They look somewhat alike.

“Get more of those.”

“Huh?”

At this sudden request, Head Butler Gustav shifted his gaze to where Clade had gestured with his chin.

“Should we fill the garden with anemones?”

“No. Just cut more of the ones already here. Enough to fill the empty spots.”

“Are you ordering a bouquet? Then I’ll go to the market—”

Head Butler Gustav’s face flushed quickly, his voice rising, but Clade abruptly cut him off.

“It’ll take too long. And I don’t want the servants gossiping while you’re out buying them. Quietly cut them.”

“A-Ah! Then… how big?”

“Large.”

At Clade’s indifferent, offhand remark, Head Butler Gustav darted out like the wind.

For an elderly man, his steps were surprisingly light.

Clade’s eyes, which had briefly flickered with agitation, soon turned back toward the window.

It was already late afternoon, but the sun still seemed far from setting.

Under Head Butler Gustav’s direction, the gardeners moved busily.

As they carefully trimmed the toxic stems of the anemones, Clade returned to his bedroom, knowing Yuan would come to him once the sun set.

He couldn’t focus on anything.

Clade nervously touched the bulge in his pants pocket.

He paced restlessly around the bedroom, trying to escape the anxious thoughts that made his heart flutter, until the white sunlight streaming in gradually turned red.

Soon, the carriage would return.

***

When Yuan returned to the black mansion, what awaited her was a massive iron gate flung wide open on both sides, and the guards, including the shift change crew, all lined up outside to greet her.

Even without stepping out of the carriage, a cold, strange atmosphere touched her skin.

Pulling the curtains fully aside to look outside, she saw a large, extravagant golden carriage parked before the pitch-black mansion entrance—an utterly incongruous sight.

Yuan felt her heart drop and paused briefly to steady her breath.

She couldn’t even imagine how many horses Bollonico Euphris must have changed during that short time to arrive here so quickly.

She had thought she needed to leave this mansion as soon as possible, but even at the fastest, she expected it to be in two or three days.

What was so urgent for that prince?

The mysterious power she had felt after being slapped?

Or perhaps that strange, twisted emotion toward Clade, whose nature she couldn’t even define?

Yuan’s carriage naturally stopped behind Bollonico’s golden carriage, and the moment the door opened, the short-haired prince greeted her with a dazzling smile.

Yuan stared at the hand suddenly extended toward her, enduring the gazes pouring in from inside the carriage, before finally taking it.

The moment Yuan stepped out, holding Bollonico’s hand, gasps erupted from all around.

The servants lined up along the entrance stairs had eyes widened to their limits, and Head Butler Gustav’s face was deathly pale, so shocked that he couldn’t even utter a word of greeting.

Bollonico smoothly escorted her toward his carriage.

When Yuan paused, he smiled with a slightly twisted mouth.

“Any problem?”

“Why are you acting so dull?”

Even at her harsh whisper, Bollonico looked thoroughly delighted.

As if the shocked faces of the black mansion’s servants and butler, standing at the entrance with jaws dropped, were enough to show how deeply Yuan’s absence affected this place.

His sharp blue eyes, flickering between narrowed eyelids, sparkled momentarily with malice and interest.

“Bollonico, this is already plenty entertaining.”

“I’m not yet. I want to see my husband’s face twist in pain.”

“How cruel.”

His grip, which had tightly held onto the treasure chest that walked right in, now loosened slightly.

As if granting that much amusement, Bollonico casually extended his hand toward the mansion entrance.

“Come along gently, Princess. The knight who will save you will wait here patiently.”

***

Yuan dressed herself.

Just as she had every night when entering Clade’s bedroom.

Only this time, she changed into the green dress that dressmaker Mishel had altered for her—the same one she had first arrived in.

The traces of last night covering her shoulders and neck were neatly hidden beneath the modest design.

Yuan carefully removed the earrings and necklace Monica had lent her for outings and placed them on the dresser, then slowly looked around the bedroom.

The massive bed where she had spent two nights with Clade.

Her gaze even slipped to the book he had brought for her, resting on the nightstand beside the bed.

Deciding she had nothing to take, she handed only the book Clade had bought to Bollonico’s attendant waiting outside the door.

At the attendant’s unspoken question—Is this all your luggage?—Yuan silently nodded.

The mansion, emptied of servants who had scattered like receding tide at the prince’s arrival, felt larger and lonelier than usual.

Her feet felt heavy as she walked down the second-floor corridor.

Standing before the massive door, Yuan took a deep breath and opened Clade’s bedroom door.

“It’s me.”

She didn’t even pretend to knock.

She entered his bedroom as naturally as ever and gazed at Clade, slumped in his usual spot—the rocking chair that no longer creaked.

Clade Euphris’s face, now fully freed from suffering, turned toward her.

His beautiful eyes, which Yuan had always wanted to swallow, were clouded like frosted glass and hardened into rigidity.

He had already sensed the mansion’s unnatural atmosphere and must have seen her stepping out of the carriage, holding Bollonico’s hand.

Yet he showed no emotional fluctuation, merely gazing at her in silence.

“There’s something I need to say.”

The air in the room instantly grew heavy.

Yuan spoke each word as if hanging a heavy weight upon it.

“I’ve come to say goodbye.”

Clade stared at Yuan’s unfamiliar appearance for a long while before finally uttering a single word.

“Goodbye.”

It was a low voice, crawling across the floor and leaping up at her feet.

Yuan shivered slightly, as if feeling his hot breath from the night before brush against her toes, then replied heavily.

“Yes.”

In this place where precious memories had quietly piled up in such a short time.

She couldn’t die miserably before him, now that he had finally broken free from the curse and could live like others.

There was one thing Clade desired from Yuan—something she absolutely could not grant.

If things continued like this, they would all die.

Clade, by the hands of another spy Bollonico would send.

Yuan, vomiting blood right before his eyes.

“Why.”

His gaze, strangely seeming both angry and bewildered, slowly wandered over Yuan’s pale face.

It was persistent, as if searching for signs of an absurd joke.

“Thank you for everything until now.”

At her continued farewell declaration, Clade suddenly let out a low laugh.

It was a sneer, full of cynicism—a sound Yuan hadn’t heard from him in a long time.

But only for a moment.

Seeing Yuan remain completely silent, he flinched his lips, appearing unsure of what to say.

His hand, slowly caressing the bulge in his pants pocket, eventually brushed his cheek, then twisted one corner of his mouth in a distorted expression of frustration.

Clade didn’t erupt in rage. Instead, he made no effort to hide the feeling of sinking into an abyss.

A heavy silence, like fog, settled over Yuan’s head.

“Why.”

At the end of the silence, the word from his mouth was the same one again.

Yuan struggled to recite the lines she had rehearsed over and over.

“It seems too difficult to keep living in Roxenhardt. It’s barren, poor, and desolate, isn’t it?”

A faint ripple passed over Clade’s face.