The Price is Everything of Yours (76 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 222

All around was dark. Neris sighed, grateful that Cledwin’s face couldn’t be seen clearly in the gloom.

“Do you know the Dowager Duchess’s character? That woman, who became my stepmother, saw me as a filthy foreign object clinging to her precious family. Valentine hated me from the start, making it even worse. ‘Her manners lack refinement,’ ‘her attitude isn’t meek enough’—she used every excuse imaginable to abuse me. I studied day and night, sacrificing sleep, desperate to earn their recognition. Eventually, they could no longer find fault with my etiquette—but that was all.”

Life in that household had been barely survivable.

“House Elantria was frantic to secede from the Empire, and I helped them using the Gemstone Eye. One day, the ducal house and the Imperial Court struck a contract to marry me off to Abelus. Neither my will nor Abelus’s was considered in the engagement, but since both families agreed, the betrothal was settled instantly. My marriage was no different.”

No matter how positively one framed it, she had merely been moved like a chess piece.

“Abelus never loved me. After Natasha Grunehals gave me a potion that left me unable to bear children, the entire Imperial Court despised me. It was an obvious choice, wasn’t it? On our wedding day, Abelus was already in love with Megara—not me.”

Watching Neris’s bitter smile, Cledwin’s face twisted with complex emotion.

He understood without further explanation—what she was saying now

was about ‘returned time.’

“When the moment ripened, House Elantria declared independence as its own royal house. The Imperial Court accused me of spying for my family, imprisoned me immediately in the Tower of the Vile, and tortured me. I was wronged. Yes, I served my house—but I also gave my utmost for the Empire. Yet no one would listen to me.”

Neris’s expression grew gloomy.

“In the end, I died—at the hands of those I’d longed to call family.”

“Neris.”

Cledwin set the lantern down on the ground and pulled her tightly into his arms.

His embrace asked no questions, yet her body trembled uncontrollably. Neris buried her face against his chest. Tears began to fall slowly, but it wasn’t unbearably painful.

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