Strategic Marriage with the Mad Villain - Chapter 124

Soon, the Emperor couldn’t hold back his laughter and spoke to Ian, the captain of the Imperial Guard.

“Do you know?”

“What do you mean, Your Majesty?”

“There’s no need to worry about that child dying. Isn’t he of the Rocheter bloodline?”

I know from cutting open my friend’s body. Unless Reus takes out his own heart, he’ll probably live like that for the rest of his life.

“It’s good that the child has regained his strength when it was troublesome.”

No. Now it was a bit pitiful. His power had taken away his father and ultimately pushed even himself into the abyss of hell, nothing more than pain.

But the Emperor was not completely satisfied with this. He wished for Reus to suffer in even greater pain for a very long time.

So whenever it seemed to be forgotten, he spread false rumors. That a woman who looked exactly like Roel had appeared somewhere. Then Reus would have no choice but to be deceived, even while knowing.

Despite knowing best that he could never meet her again unless the woman wanted to return, he couldn’t let go of even the tiniest possibility.

However, what greeted him at his destination was only the fact that Roel had completely left him.

Thus winter passed and spring came. But the fresh spring went by quickly without even realizing it, and early summer began.

When he was with Roel, even a single breeze felt sweet during this season, but now it was no longer so.

Now summer was a season without any meaning for Reus.

Since summer began, Reus no longer responded to the Emperor’s tricks.

This was separate from Reus’s numb state.

It was simply because he had finally come to accept, after several months, that unless Roel appeared before him of her own will, he would never be able to meet her.

Indeed, how long would it take to completely forget the woman?

Reus knew the answer. Probably it would never happen until he closed his eyes at the end of his life.

So today too, Reus locked himself in his bedroom and did nothing. He just lay like a dead body, hugging the blanket Roel often used, trying to grasp even the memory of the woman’s appearance.

After spending time lying like this for a while, there was one thing he realized.

When he lay in the exact same place where the woman used to be and looked out the window, everything felt depressingly boring.

Sometimes he felt separated from the world. It was the same when sitting on the sofa and armchair that Roel often used.

No matter how beautiful the scenery beyond the window, it was just stuffy and gloomy.

During the time he kept the woman by his side out of his own greed, she must have withered away silently like this every time.

Back then, Reus would wrap the woman’s hair around his hand, taking her breath as his lullaby, intoxicated with incomplete happiness.

Although it was always accompanied by anxiety, it was certainly happiness. Happiness he enjoyed alone by stealing the woman’s vitality.

At that time, he didn’t know because he was drunk on his own emotions. That Roel’s time was flowing this slowly while she was here.

How terribly he must have seemed.

‘How horrible I was, nearly killing her just to satisfy one selfish desire…’

Thinking about the emotions Roel might have experienced while by his side, even if not exactly the same, regret soon washed over him. However, coldly speaking, Roel was someone who would leave whether it was like this or that.

Unless his birth changed, that is.

So he had no choice but to hold onto her like that, Reus made an excuse that no one would hear.

‘If I hadn’t done that, she would have left even sooner…’

But there was no Roel now to listen to such excuses. Soon Reus curled up like an abandoned puppy and hugged the blanket tighter.

He missed Roel so much.

“You promised not to abandon me…”

It was okay to naturally recall old memories while holding this.

The memories always brought sadness and frustration, but it was good to reminisce about Roel’s face from the past, even like this.

“You should have just killed me and left.”

She must have hated me, so why didn’t she kill me and leave?

Why did she leave a kiss as if forgiving everything that made her suffer?

“Why did you tell me not to die…”

If she had told him to die, he would have taken out his heart and ended his life.

It was true when Reus said he felt alive when he was with Roel. Originally, if Roel hadn’t saved him, he was destined to die that day.

Even if not, he was planning to die somehow with an end no different from destruction, so his fate to die remained unchanged.

But the woman saved him at every moment. She didn’t pass by when he was dying in the forest, but brought him along with difficulty and saved his life, always showing incomprehensibly kind favors that saved even his emotions.

Then she foolishly extended her hand with a gentle smile, saying let’s get along well.

Why on earth was that woman like that? Why was that woman so stupid? The truly incomprehensible, no, the daughter of the enemy he didn’t want to understand.

Even though he was judging her with such evil thoughts, even though she knew all of this, she was kind to him.

Then at some point he realized. That while watching the woman, everything that tormented him was completely forgotten.

That it was that woman who made him realize that the world wasn’t hell, despite being born with the name of Ibel.

So from some point on, Roel became someone Reus rarely wanted to wish happiness for.

But thinking about it now, it doesn’t seem like that feeling came from a very pure intention.

The one who wanted to be happy was… probably himself.

Reus wanted to be happy together with the kind woman.

But because he firmly believed she was someone who would leave, he kept ignoring his feelings. He couldn’t easily show his heart, thinking it wouldn’t be the same feeling as his anyway.

Thinking he would obviously be rejected no matter what, he ended up just grabbing her and sitting her next to him without a word.

It was a relationship he ruined from beginning to end. But he shamelessly missed Roel.

He wanted to see that bright smile without any price just one more time like before. The kind attitude, the worried look she always gave him even when he told obvious lies.

He missed everything so much – the gentle touch that would hold his hand, the soft hand that would gently brush his cheek.

Reus finally couldn’t hold back his sobs and cried, calling out for Roel.

Reus’s daily life became very monotonous, just like Roel’s used to be. He closed all the curtains and lived a life without boundaries between day and night.

Wanting to have even a nightmare.

But ironically, now that Roel had left his side, he no longer even had nightmares that ended with the woman’s back.

He wanted to meet her even like that, but days just repeated where his consciousness would snap off and then return.

Now Reus locked himself in the Grand Duke’s castle and never went outside.

At first, even that was the talk of the town, but naturally the rumors died down as he didn’t show himself.

And one day, Teron appeared before Reus.

Today, Reus, who had been sitting still like a decoration in the office Roel used to use, suddenly raised his upper body.

Teron had completely disappeared along with Roel. Of course, Reus tried to find him at the time, but just as he couldn’t find the woman, he couldn’t find any trace of Teron’s whereabouts either.

But today he suddenly appeared before him.

Reus got up from his seat and walked briskly towards Teron, grabbing his collar tightly.

His eyes, full of resentment, were so clouded that it was obvious how Reus had been living until now.

It was as expected, but it seemed he had barely endured Roel’s absence until now, neither dead nor alive.

Soon Reus managed to speak in a trembling voice.

“Roel… where is she.”

“Why? If I tell you, will you go find her and keep her by your side again?”

“…”

He couldn’t say anything because it was obvious that even if he forcibly went to find her, the kind woman from before would no longer be there.

She probably hates me terribly now.

Imagining Roel’s face rejecting him, Reus’s fierce energy quickly crumbled. Soon tears fell without resistance from his pale eyes that had lost their light.

Just by seeing him standing still and crying helplessly, one could tell that he no longer had the energy to even argue with Teron.

Teron had come prepared to be hit a few times, but he was a bit bewildered by Reus’s reaction.

And for a very brief moment, his conscience was pricked.

The sight of him standing blankly and crying like a child reminded him of Reus’s appearance when he lived in sorrow after losing his parents as a child.

It wasn’t something he originally intended to say, but Teron spoke without realizing it.

“Roel… is doing well.”

“…”

She sometimes asked about Reus’s well-being, but he didn’t say that much. Even Roel’s simple kindness would have a different meaning for Reus.

Reus spent most of his time wondering if Roel was hurt, if she had an accident, or if he could never see her again forever.

Because he wasted a lot of time thinking about useless things, even that one sentence from Teron opened his airway a little.

But this wasn’t enough.

What kind of place is Roel staying at now? What does she do to pass the time? Are there any bad people around her? Also, has she started smiling again after leaving the Grand Duke’s castle…

Does she still find him very horrible?

Teron knew there would be a lot of things he was curious about, but he had no intention of telling more about Roel.

Instead, he brought up something else Reus wanted to hear.

“Do you want to know where Roel is?”