Admund was at a loss for words at Aria’s statement.

He simply couldn’t believe it.

He tried hard to cool down the anger boiling up inside him.

It felt like if he lost his composure here, he would be placed in an irreparable relationship with the Hersher family.

But while restraint was restraint, there were separate points that needed to be addressed.

“Aria Hersher, say it with your own mouth.”

Aria was unable to utter a word, with a terrified expression.

If it were someone else, they might have felt pity for Aria’s appearance and let it slide, but the other party was Admund.

He quietly watched her until Aria spoke up.

In the end, it was Aria who opened her mouth first.

“You and I are going to marry……”

“I’ll say this for the last time, Lady Hersher.”

Lady Hersher, not Aria. It was a form of address that had been bothering him, but he had been deliberately ignoring it.

Admund had been emphasizing from the beginning that their relationship was only to that extent.

Aria wore an expression of shock.

However, the person who was actually most shocked was Admund.

He never thought such words would come directly from Aria’s mouth.

He regretted not having corrected their relationship sooner, which he should have done long ago.

He felt very sorry that Clea had been harmed because of him.

In the end, rather than hating Aria, he was angry at his own foolishness.

While suppressing his emotions as much as possible, he looked to where Aria was.

But no words were heard from Aria’s side.

At that, Admund opened his mouth.

“You and I are nothing to each other.”

“Admund.”

“If you had said we were friends, I would have thought to forgive you, but now we can’t even be friends. Lady Hersher, I would appreciate if you use formal speech with me from now on.”

“Don’t do this.”

“You don’t need to greet me anymore in the future, I hope you have peaceful days ahead.”

“Admund!”

Thinking his business was done, Admund tried to get up from his seat.

However, Aria, who was sitting next to him, grabbed his arm as he was about to stand up and looked up at him.

Admund looked down at her with an expressionless face.

Her face was already full of tears.

“Is it because of that woman?”

“……”

“I’m asking if it’s because of that woman!”

There was no one who didn’t know that the person Aria was referring to meant Clea.

Therefore, Oberon, who was watching from the side, cautioned her.

“Please mind your words, My Lady. The person you’re talking about is to be the Crown Princess.”

“Why are you like this too, Oberon!”

What mattered most to Oberon was Admund.

As long as he served him as his lord, what he wanted came first.

And Oberon also didn’t want Aria to call Clea that way.

Admund shook off Aria’s arm beside him.

Aria was still looking at Admund while shedding tears.

“My Lady, this is the last time I’ll let it slide.”

“A-Admund.”

“Don’t ever speak to me again.”

Admund, who had no words left for her, stood up from his seat.

He drew a clear line that he would no longer be dragged along by her.

Aria still seemed unable to accept the current situation and approached Admund.

“Stop, stop it. Why are you doing this to me?”

Aria muttered how he could do this to her while shedding tears.

Looking at her, Admund was rather reminded of Clea’s image.

The words she had said when meeting Lloyd, whom Aria had sent, while coughing up blood.

Disgusted by her behavior, Admund gave her an intentional smile.

For a moment, Aria’s expression brightened at Admund’s smile.

She thought that perhaps, seeing her so upset, he might brush it off saying it was all a joke.

But the words that followed were completely different from what she thought.

“Tell me about the curse placed on Clea. Then I’ll give you a chance too.”

For a moment, Aria doubted her own ears.

How did Admund know about the curse?

Not remembering that she had mentioned the curse to interfere with their date before, she couldn’t say anything.

In the end, even Admund’s bright smile, intending to give a final chance, disappeared.

“My Lady has lost her last chance too. So I’ll be taking my leave now.”

Until Admund left his seat, she couldn’t say anything.

She just stretched out her hand watching Admund’s departing figure.

Feeling the futility of not being able to reach him, Aria bit her lip.

“M-My Lady.”

Only the maids remained in the place where Admund and Oberon had completely disappeared.

Among them, Aria spotted the maid who had urged her to go meet Admund quickly, and immediately slapped her cheek.

The slapped maid sat down on the floor right there.

As the maids were also nobles, they were flustered, having never been hit like this by anyone before.

“It’s because of you.”

Aria said towards the maid.

“It’s all because of you!”

People watching didn’t know what to do at the sight of Aria getting angry loudly for the first time as a lady.

Although it was natural to stop her, they were scared of possibly incurring Aria’s wrath if they actually did so.

The maid being kicked and hit by Aria was curling up her body as much as possible.

Aria couldn’t understand any of this.

Everyone in the world liked her.

Her parents, the people at the academy, even Lloyd, she knew that they all liked her.

Clea was the villainess who tormented her.

The villainess who openly showed dislike for her, whom people liked.

Finding it difficult to even be angry, she said in a muffled voice.

“It’s because of you, all of it.”

The subject of those words was pointing to someone other than the maid.

‘Everything went wrong because of you.’

* * *

“It’s been a really long time, Viscount Rockin.”

“Please just call me Barwin comfortably.”

“Originally, it would be impossible for me to even speak down to you by calling you Viscount.”

Clea neither liked nor felt uncomfortable with the guest who appeared before her eyes.

She was merely intrigued by the fact that he had come to see her.

“If you hadn’t helped me that day, My Lady, I wouldn’t have been able to maintain my current position as a viscount.”

At Barwin’s words, Clea laughed inwardly.

It was Clea who had helped Barwin when they encountered each other at a ball.

However, in Clea’s opinion, the expression ‘helped’ wasn’t quite right.

“I merely said a word to you.”

“The weight of that one word was extraordinary. You told me who the decisive traitor was within the Rockin viscounty. And then there’s the cost of the dress.”

“In the end, it was you who acted on my words, Viscount. And the cost of the dress is unnecessary. It wasn’t that expensive anyway.”

In the original story, Barwin was a character whose family was devastated for a while due to the person he trusted most.

However, he eventually rebuilt his family with his own abilities and even managed to elevate from a viscount’s family to an earl’s.

Despite possessing such abilities, he faced many difficulties when his family was struggling.

It was during this time that he met Clea at a ball.

The two of them accidentally bumped into each other there, causing the teacup in his hand to fall.

While her dress was being stained by the tea, she whispered in Barwin’s ear.

Who the traitor within was.

And after a considerable amount of time had passed, the Rockin viscounty had completely swallowed up the competing family and emerged as an even stronger house.

“It’s a poor excuse, but I’ve been too busy to help you all this time. Now that my family has finally stabilized, I hope to help you from now on.”

“There’s nothing to gain by trying to impress me.”

“I’ve already received too much, so I want to repay the favor.”

Clea laughed at his words about having received a lot.

She had never thought that just saying one thing would come back like this.

At the time, it was just words spoken without any particular thought.

Clea spoke without any emotion to his words about coming to repay the favor.

“The downfall of the Hersher family, could you do it if I wished?”

Others might have thought it was a test.

But Barwin’s eyes shone sharply.

“Would that be enough for you, My Lady? I can destroy everything from the Odoi family that mistreated you to the Percy Grand Duchy.”

It wasn’t something a mere viscount’s family should say, but Clea highly valued his abilities.

He was also a character who appeared as Aria Hersher’s biggest supporter in the novel.

He was also the one who contributed the most to making Aria the Crown Princess.

Clea smiled at Barwin.

“I’ll be satisfied with just the Odoi family. The Grand Duchy treated me well.”

When she thought of the kindness shown by the Duke and Duchess, Clea didn’t want to harm the Percy family.

Come to think of it, it was their thoughtless son who was the problem, not those two.

“Besides, if the Grand Duchy falls, wouldn’t it be a big blow to Admund as well?”

After all, both the Percy family and the Hersher family were factions supporting the imperial family, so if they were to fall, it would cause a big ripple.

“New wine should be put in new wineskins, shouldn’t it?”

Barwin tried to persuade her once more, but Clea shook her head.

Clea thought quietly.

‘Your relationship with me is now completely stained with catastrophe.’

In fact, since becoming possessed by Clea, she had been constantly enduring.

She didn’t want to fight, and she thought that if she didn’t cause any more trouble, Aria would lose interest as well.

But now the situation had changed.

“How should I pay you?”

At Clea’s words, Barwin waved his hands and said.

“This is nothing but repaying a favor. So no money is needed. And I happened to have some business with the Hersher family as well.”

He smiled bitterly as he recalled the events of the past.

The things that had happened with the Hersher family, that is.