“Father…”

The voice that unconsciously escaped trembled miserably.

He thought everything would change if his father read the diary. He believed that the intense emotions he had felt would also come to his father.

However, in his father’s voice he heard a while ago, he couldn’t find any such sentiment.

No, there was certainly something wrong with my ears. Because his father isn’t that kind of person.

Cold but fair and warm.

That was Giovanni Madelaine, the Duke, as Conrad saw him.

Conrad knew better than anyone about the love his father had bestowed upon Esella, Jade, and himself.

Even though he appeared cold at times, he would smile warmly when looking at his children with a seemingly cold face.

Conrad urgently turned his head to look at his father.

He hoped to see some fluctuation on his father’s face. Whether it be guilt, apology, pity, or even sympathy.

But the moment he faced his father’s expression, Conrad couldn’t breathe for a moment.

With an eerie face, his father casually put down the diary. Thud, the sound of the diary falling repeated in Conrad’s ears.

His hands trembled slightly. As the firm trust in his father began to waver, the occasional voice that had been repeating in the distance and getting closer began to fade away.

“Starting tomorrow, the Hesperity delegation will participate in the banquet. His Highness the Prince said that when there is a delegation from another country, you should be with Olivia. So, early in the morning—”

“Father… You saw the diary, didn’t you?”

Conrad interrupted his father’s words with a trembling voice. At this unprecedented event, the Duke rebuked his son with a stern look.

But what was important now wasn’t that kind of gaze. Something caught in his throat like a thorn, but Conrad had to say something.

“That’s not Olivia, it’s not her fault. This is all a misunderstanding, just like it was for me, Father.”

“Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding?”

“So… it’s just…”

As Conrad was about to answer absentmindedly, his mouth slowly closed. The inside of his throat, which had felt dry as if swallowing sand, suddenly became painfully sharp.

It wasn’t a misunderstanding or anything like that.

The reason he hated Olivia was clear.

His once affectionate parents became a worse-than-average couple, and his beloved mother died. All because Olivia entered the house.

But really, because Olivia entered?

Conrad swayed for a moment. The floor he was standing on began to tilt slightly.

“Oh, Father.”

It was a desperate plea.

Please, he wished his father would hold his hand now.

But the Duke looked at his son with indifferent eyes. The eldest son, who he thought had grown up quite a bit, still had a vulnerable heart.

“What do you want to say?”
Conrad bit the inside of his mouth hard. Amidst a pain that he couldn’t even feel, his father’s voice was cruelly clear.

“I, too, changed my thoughts a bit after hearing Esella’s story. I tried to forgive her a little. But that girl is smiling at the banquet today.”

Ha. The Duke sighed as if he found it ridiculous.

Unfathomable sadness passed over his face. It was identical to the face he had when he cried after the death of the Duchess in Conrad’s childhood.

So Conrad always sided with his father. He wanted to be a source of strength to his pillar-like father.

“That can’t happen.”

But.

“Why did Hazel die?”

It couldn’t be the reason to blame Olivia. Even as the vision became distant, the vague figure became clearer.

The Olivia who stubbornly called him ‘brother’ and smiled by his side, no matter how much she insulted her.

And finally.

Olivia passing by him as if looking at someone else.

In resignation, Conrad remembered her briefly glancing at him with green eyes.

When Conrad couldn’t even breathe as if pierced in the lungs, Olivia’s indifferent amethyst eyes stared at him.

“…Don’t you know it too?”

“Did you really not know?”

Suddenly, the day when Jade came to find him came to mind. The words I said to Jade, who spoke about Olivia with a haggard face.

Only then did Conrad understand that Jade was standing there as if only the ruins of himself remained.

At that moment, Conrad realized that his eyes at that time were filled with pure hatred, just like his father’s now.

Olivia was not the one I should have hated.

In this sharp social circle where he had to constantly cut through, it wasn’t Olivia who had to show the relentless blade.

“…Rest. Don’t forget to attend the grand reception tomorrow.”

As if quickly suppressing his emotions, his father left Olivia’s room. As if nothing had happened.

But Conrad couldn’t move a step. The eyes that now understood the truth shook aimlessly.

The culprit of these lingering wounds that I couldn’t hate cowardly.

It was all. His father. Never fair, never strong.

Ah…

I realized it too late. No, I turned away until now.

In the overwhelming despair, Conrad covered his face with his palm.

Imperial Palace Reception Room.