“… Can you say such things even knowing my secret?”

“I don’t know what you mean by secret.”

“You heard it.”

Until now, Clea had been uncomfortable telling Admund about the curse.

To be honest, she was afraid that he might change once he learned she was terminally ill.

However, the bewilderment that was on Admund’s face when he first heard the news had completely disappeared.

He was smiling as usual and speaking to her gently as if nothing had happened.

For a moment, Clea thought Admund couldn’t accept the reality.

So Clea deliberately spoke mischievously.

“I don’t know how long I can be with you like this.”

“Then shouldn’t we make that time even more valuable?”

“Admund, but you have a duty to continue the lineage…”

“What do you think is more important to me than an heir?”

Admund’s expression remained the same.

Clea thought as she looked at Admund’s smile.

Perhaps it was predictable.

That nothing would change about him after learning the truth.

Yet Clea had been anxious.

A very small anxiety that he might give her up due to his responsibilities as a royal once he learned of her condition.

“It was a very boring life.”

“Admund.”

“From birth, it was decided that I would inherit the throne. So I had nothing but being the future emperor.”

The atmosphere that had been subdued by Aria began to warm up.

He stood up, holding the ring box he had presented to Clea.

Clea watched as Admund approached her.

Admund came to Clea and showed her the ring again.

The ring that she couldn’t properly look at earlier because of Aria’s matter came before her eyes.

“Even if you are terminally ill, my feelings won’t change.”

His heart was already a fact she had learned while living together.

Clea felt her anxious heart melting away completely as if it had never been there.

“Am I truly allowed to be by your side?”

“Don’t think you’re not allowed. I’ve never even thought of anyone other than you by my side.”

“It could have been different before you met me.”

“Even then, I only cared about myself, I never cared about anyone else.”

“What about now?”

“Now I have you.”

At Admund’s kind words, her drooping corners of the mouth rose again.

She felt lighter in body and mind than ever before.

“I want to break free from this curse as soon as possible.”

“If you don’t give up, there will always be a chance.”

“Then can I stay by your side a little longer? Even though I might be a burden.”

She could be a burden until the curse was broken.

Things she had silently ignored under the desire to live could emerge and become troublesome.

“I’ve been saying it since that day. I have no intention of letting you go.”

Clea’s laughter leaked out at Admund’s declaration that he wouldn’t let her go, starting with asking if she would regret it and ending with not letting her go.

By this point, Clea could also understand.

Where his heart was, that is.

She had doubts from his attitude towards Aria, but now she could be certain.

That he liked her, not Aria.

“I had no intention of letting you go either.”

Until just now, she had been prepared to leave anytime if he pushed her away, but now she decided to lie for Admund’s sake.

She didn’t want to pour cold water on the improved atmosphere again.

Clea shifted her gaze to the ring.

As she looked at the ring, Admund took it out and quietly held it out to her.

Clea accepted the ring Admund offered.

She felt good seeing the ring carefully slipped onto her ring finger.

“Actually, this is the first time I’ve owned a ring.”

Even when she was at the Odoi mansion, dresses and accessories befitting her position as Lloyd’s fiancée were prepared.

However, they were only the bare minimum suitable for others’ eyes, and those items lacked any heart prepared for Clea.

Rings are usually accessories one gets as a luxury for oneself or as a gift from someone, but neither applied to Clea.

“I think this is the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen. Thank you, Admund.”

Perhaps because it was the first gift with heart she had received, it looked even more beautiful.

Especially since the one who gave it was someone special to her, she was even more delighted.

Admund, watching Clea’s admiring expression, felt both happy and somewhat dumbfounded.

‘What on earth did her family and Lloyd do for her then?’

Before they became close like this, Admund had only watched from afar.

Admund regretted only watching until now, considering it someone else’s family matter.

He imagined how she might have been less hurt if he had helped her from back then.

Seeing the dark shadow on Admund’s face, Clea took both his hands.

“But I’m very happy now.”

As if understanding his feelings, she held his hands tightly and met his gaze. Admund decided to focus on her in front of him.

For now, to focus only on each other without thinking about other things.

Clea opened her mouth with a slightly hesitant face.

“Can I propose a condition in exchange for accepting your proposal?”

“Anything.”

Since she was accepting, Admund was willing to listen to anything.

While he was determined to do anything for her, she continued with a smile.

“If I ultimately fail to break the curse and face death, please marry someone else. That’s my condition.”

Hearing Clea’s request, Admund almost furrowed his brow for a moment.

He didn’t like the idea of her dying, nor of having someone other than her by his side.

However, he nodded, thinking that if he didn’t accept the condition she put forward, she wouldn’t accept the marriage either.

“I’ll break your curse somehow.”

“I’ll break it somehow too. So that I can stay by your side longer.”

With those words, the two continued their warm atmosphere.

Although the current situation couldn’t be called good, there were still many gains.

‘Having someone who knows about my curse is, in a way, a positive hint.’

Adding the fact that she had definitely won Admund’s heart, it was a perfectly satisfying day.

“Admund, don’t drink too much no matter how good you feel.”

Clea tilted her wine glass with a satisfied expression.

* * *

The atmosphere in the Marquis Philip’s household was as cold as ever.

Oberon’s father, now almost like the previous head of the family, still emphasized meals where the whole family gathered.

He thought that without even that, the family bond would surely crumble.

The Philip family’s table, forcibly brought together like this, was very quiet.

In the precarious atmosphere, as if walking on thin ice, the first person to open their mouth was Philip’s father, Azar.

“You, as the head of the family, when do you plan to get married?”

Azar’s wife, Enma, also smiled at the topic he brought up.

Oberon, who had been calmly cutting his meat until just now, furrowed his brow.

“Is that all you have to say after abandoning the position of family head?”

“It’s a position you’ll inherit anyway, what’s wrong with inheriting it early?”

“Don’t you even think about how my life has been ruined because of that? Why do you give up so easily what other families try so hard to protect?”

“Just because others do something doesn’t mean we have to follow suit. And if you hate it so much, why don’t you give it to your younger sister?”

As her father’s target changed to her, Rupia audibly put down her spoon and looked at Azar.

“Elder brother, it seems you inherited it at the right time? Seeing as you’ve forgotten that I went abroad to avoid inheriting the family head position, I suspect dementia.”

“Dementia, you say. My child, it’s not that bad yet.”

“You insolent girl! What are you doing! Your father is being insulted like this, why aren’t you expelling her immediately!”

“I can’t abuse expulsion for something like this.”

“Something like this, you say, something like this!”

While Azar’s angry voice echoed in the dining room, the other three family members weren’t paying any attention at all.

This was the daily life of the Philip family, so they didn’t care much.

“By the way, elder brother, there have been interesting rumors spreading in the imperial palace.”

Meanwhile, Rupia, completely ignoring Azar’s words, turned her gaze to Oberon.

Oberon felt uncomfortable under Rupia’s gaze.

It was the first time in several years that he was facing his sister.

Although Oberon welcomed Rupia’s return as their relationship wasn’t bad.

But the topic she brought up was very uncomfortable.

Even Azar, who had been getting heated over Rupia’s topic, and Enma, who had been fanning the flames beside him, turned their attention.

They weren’t completely uninterested in imperial affairs either.

And they too were intrigued by what they had recently heard.

“So, is it true that His Highness the Crown Prince has found a lover?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“It seems to be true.”

Although he said it was none of her business, he failed to control his expression at the word ‘lover’.

Seeing this, the quick-witted family members immediately realized. That the rumors were true.

Oberon also frowned, realizing he had been caught.

“Then is it really Clea Odoi?”

“Rupia, no matter what, could that be true?”

“That’s right. How could a daughter of the Odoi family catch the eye of His Highness the Crown Prince?”

To Rupia’s consecutive questions, the other family members were saying it couldn’t possibly be true, that it must be someone else.

At this sight, Oberon thought of Clea for a moment.

Thinking about how different the Clea they knew and the Clea he had seen with his own eyes were, Oberon said.

“It’s true.”

“To think that was true!”

He spoke without hiding it, as it was a story that would be revealed soon anyway.

The family members all looked surprised. Oberon liked that sight.

It was the pleasure of breaking a prejudice that was thought to be absolutely impossible.

On the other hand, Oberon regretted it in front of Rupia’s next response.

“Then let me meet her. I want to meet that person.”

He hadn’t thought at all that she would make such an unreasonable request.