“Larien. How about telling the child’s father now?”

“… I can’t.”

I held my breath for a moment and spoke with difficulty.

I had said that I terribly disliked the idea of having a child, because there was no guarantee they wouldn’t die like their father.

Why wouldn’t I want to be like other parents for the child?

‘Jade will eat himself up with anxiety about becoming like his own father. He doesn’t even like children.’

Even if I wanted to give the child a complete family, I knew it would eventually break.

If so, it was better not to have one at all.

Perhaps my relationship with Jade would end as soon as I let go.

From the beginning, Jade took my hand because I reached out. If I let go like before, Jade would naturally let go too.

“I have something to give you. Follow me.”

“Uncle?”

“Come on.”

Earl Boston, who had been silent, suddenly left the reception room.

‘What on earth does he want to give me….’

I quietly followed him up to the second-floor study.

He rummaged around in the study for a while, then brought out a potion containing pink liquid.

“Larien. Did you know that Boston’s ancestor was a witch?”

“…Yes. Uncle, then is that potion…”

“Yes. It’s a potion made with a recipe recorded by the witch. If you drink this, you’ll transform into the last person you touched for three hours.”

Certainly, I couldn’t relax until I boarded the ship to Lechach.

‘If I drink this potion, I’ll be able to escape easily.’

I accepted the potion without hesitation.

“Thank you.”

Earl Boston hugged me tightly.

“Live freely. Don’t be bound by what made you suffer, live as yourself. Rachel wanted you to live like that.”

What I had been holding back finally burst out. My vision blurred with slowly rising tears.

“I hope you know that there are people who love you.”

As I felt Earl Boston’s warmth, I thought about Larien’s death.

‘It was the final moment, just before her last breath.’

In the final chapter of the novel, Larien’s ending, which required her death for the protagonists to be happy, was concluded in three lines.

I had forgotten most of the content, but those sentences remained vividly etched in my memory.

‘A life where both birth and death are decided by others is miserable, she said.’

At the same time, she monologued that she could atone for the sin of taking her mother’s life in this way.

That it was fortunate to end this cursed life, that it had been a truly lonely life without receiving anyone’s love.

That part made me cry for the first time. Perhaps because Larien’s situation was similar to mine, I understood the loneliness of not being loved.

So I wanted to tell Larien.

That there were people who loved her.

Even if she didn’t grow up receiving love, there were people who loved her.

Hoping that Larien, who died in solitude, would find comfort, I remained in Earl Boston’s embrace for a long time.

It was getting dark by the time I returned home, having sorted out my emotions that had suddenly burst forth.

The butler was waiting in front of the main gate of the Belaste mansion.

‘What’s the matter?’

I wondered if there was some business.

I got out of the carriage, escorted by the butler.

“Welcome back, young miss.”

“What’s going on?”

“The Duke has asked to see you in his office. He said he had something to say regarding the competition…”

I arrived in front of Duke Belaste’s office and took a slow, deep breath.

Then, with a calm face, I nodded, and the butler knocked a couple of times on my behalf.

“Young Miss Larien has arrived.”

“…Bring her in.”

A brief answer was heard from inside, and the door opened.

Duke Belaste looked extremely angry.

Next to him, the Duchess of Belaste looked at me and him alternately with great tension.

“Larien Belaste. Where have you been?”

“…I went to see my uncle. More importantly, why did you call for me?”

“His Majesty has changed his mind. He says he will conduct the competition fairly. I had already made you the designated candidate, what on earth did you do to make this happen!”

He expressed his indignation, saying the landscape of the competition had changed.

‘This must be Jade’s doing.’

The only person who could exert this level of influence and knew that I had been designated as the Crown Prince’s bride was Jade.

“Darling. Please calm down a little.”

The Duchess of Belaste tried to stop him.

‘It seems he came to vent his anger now that things have gone awry.’

At least it hadn’t reached the worst-case scenario of the baby’s existence being discovered.

“Do you even know what happens if you fall out of the Crown Prince’s bride competition!”

He was anxious that the long-awaited union might come to nothing.

It was the same in the original work. Right after Larien became the Crown Prince’s bride, Duke Belaste always pressured her to have an imperial heir.

When Larien died without producing an heir, he didn’t even attend her funeral.

He saw Larien purely as a means and used her thoroughly.

“Darling.”

The Duchess of Belaste, who had been quiet all along, frowned.

“Don’t shout. You’re scaring Larien.”

“Do I look like I can calm down right now? If she falls out of the Crown Prince’s bride competition, we won’t even receive marriage proposals from other families!”

Duke Belaste, breathing heavily, roughly unbuttoned his collar.

He was worried that if I didn’t become the Crown Prince’s bride, it would also affect my prospects of being sent to other families.

‘He’s even thinking about sending me to other families at a time like this.’

I was tired of dealing with Duke Belaste and weary of being under scrutiny.

‘Is there any need to be so careful even when breathing?’

Why do I keep watching for others’ reactions? Like a helpless child not knowing when they might be abandoned.

‘I’m going to leave anyway, is there any need to accommodate like before?’

I felt disgusted with my posture of looking down at the floor.

“Duke. Does coming here and doing this change anything?”

For the first time, without trembling, I met Duke Belaste’s eyes.

“You…!”

Duke Belaste, who flinched for a moment, became serious.

“So you said something to Marquis Rowe.”

“Marquis Rowe?”

Why was Jade’s name suddenly coming up?

When I asked back as if I didn’t understand, Duke Belaste laughed for a while.

“I heard that Marquis Rowe went to the greenhouse garden of Sunset Palace. How dare you interfere with what I’m doing?”

Duke Belaste’s anger, realizing that Jade was the source of all this trouble, grew uncontrollably.

“Da-darling.”

Even the Duchess of Belaste couldn’t stop him.

‘I can’t stand by and watch Jade suffer because of me.’

Even if he couldn’t completely ruin Jade, Duke Belaste could deal a considerable blow.

“Ja-Jade did it for me. I told him I didn’t want to be the Crown Prince’s bride. He did nothing wrong.”

“…He did nothing wrong?”

“If you want to blame someone, blame only me.”

“Do you not know what position the Crown Prince’s bride is? She’s the future Empress, and the imperial heir you’ll bear will have a high succession rank to the throne.”

Duke Belaste’s voice became colder than ever.

“Naturally, your son and grandson could become Emperor! What on earth are you dissatisfied with? I’m offering to make you the most noble in this Langrangsha, why on earth!”

Duke Belaste looked at me pathetically and raised his voice, perhaps due to heightened emotions.

“No matter what happens, you must, absolutely must be the Crown Prince’s bride.”

His purple eyes, indicating his obsession with power, gleamed with greed.

“I will officially send a letter of protest to the Rowe Marquis family. How dare they interfere with what Belaste is doing. I won’t let this slide.”

A letter of protest was the starting point of a conflict that could escalate to a territorial dispute between families.

I was afraid that Jade might be harmed because of this incident.

“Jade… did it for me. Please don’t do this.”

“You. Do you even know what kind of man Marquis Rowe is? Do you really think it was for your sake!”

Do you even know what kind of person Jade is to me?

“He must have clearly intended to devour Belaste!”

My hands trembled, frightened by Duke Belaste’s delusions.

“…I wish I had the chance to choose your mother, not you.”

Without even a moment to catch my breath, a wound that had never healed was gouged open again.

“I already tried to dissuade Rachel from giving birth to you. I wished you wouldn’t be born. Yet Rachel chose you and died.”

He left words that would never allow new flesh to grow, words that would never be forgotten.

“If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have lost Rachel. I hate you. I despise you for craving affection from me. Don’t expect anything from me.”

“…You never even allowed me to expect anything. You always passed by the little child who begged to be hugged.”

It was a very deep cruelty.

“What I wanted wasn’t anything grand, but I couldn’t even receive that small affection. I wonder, who could ever love me?”

Having never experienced love, I suddenly wondered if I could even love someone.

The fear that I might not be able to properly love the baby suddenly overwhelmed me.

“…Do you have the luxury to think about such things? The past is long gone. Opportunities like this don’t come again! How long are you going to act like a child? Aren’t you past that age?”

I hated Duke Belaste so much, and his hatred was overwhelming.

‘Larien. I, I don’t want to die like you.’

I’m sorry to Larien, but I didn’t want to endure any longer, I wanted to end this long-standing unrequited love.

“Duke, please stop hating me too. If you can’t love me, don’t resent me either.”

A moment of silence passed.

“Foolish and obstinate thing.”

Duke Belaste, uttering these cold words, stormed out of the office.