Rastan said he had visited the Krone estate the other day, but he hadn’t gone into details, saying he would tell me once everything was finished.
He replied with a face that seemed, for some reason, to be slightly playing dumb.
“Who knows. I simply tried to convey my sincerity by looking him in the eyes. That you couldn’t be happy in House Lansval.”
At the flat answer, I dropped my jaw.
“That is all?”
“I did also give a bit of consolation money. If his circumstances were too strained, he might harbor pointless thoughts about you.”
So thorough of him. Then had my father agreed to the annulment because of money?
‘With the money to be returned to House Lansval, and even the annulment compensation covered in full, he might have agreed without much thought.’
Even so, it was hard to understand. My father was someone who still had pride in his House.
There was no way a man like that would so easily agree to an annulment that could bring shame to the family name.
‘If that’s the case…’
“Just how much did you spend on this?”
It was a question asked with the assumption that he must have handed over a considerable sum, and Rastan didn’t particularly deny it.
“About a cup of water scooped from the sea.”
He lifted one corner of his lips and gave a soft smile.
Looking at that face, something from the past suddenly came to mind.
It was that strange incident I had heard about from the chatty Lady Raum at the ball held at the Baden estate.
‘She said that Gerald, who had been drunk, shouting, and completely out of it, suddenly straightened up and walked out properly the moment his eyes met Rastan’s.’
It had been a situation I couldn’t understand at all, both when I first heard it and even after thinking it over many times.
And it had something in common with what I had just heard now.
‘…Rastan said so. That he conveyed his sincerity while looking my father straight in the eyes.’
If that wasn’t just a figurative expression, but literally true.
‘Come to think of it, there were many times when I felt as if I were being drawn in while looking straight into his eyes.’
Could that be a power Rastan possessed?
‘But manipulating people to bend to a caster’s will usually falls under dark magic.’
Dark magic didn’t suit Rastan’s upright nature at all, and as far as I knew, using magic powerful enough to control people required drawing an extremely complex magic circle on the ground and sprinkling it with the blood of a sacrifice, usually a small living animal.
One would also have to memorize and recite a complicated incantation, with the sequence perfectly precise.
‘If he had done something like that back then at the Baden mansion, it would have been discovered immediately and caused an uproar.’
And at the Krone estate as well, no, anywhere, there was no way he could cast dark magic like that in front of others.
He would surely be dragged away and executed on the spot.
Of course, there was also no reason to take such a risk just to control someone like Gerald or my father.
I shook my head vigorously, brushing away the absurd thought.
‘Rastan must have pushed it through by using his status and handing over a considerable amount of money.’
In any case, the important thing was that I was now officially disengaged from Gerald.
I was no longer bound to that worthless man.
In my previous life, I had died young after a tear-filled married life, and even after returning to life, I had still been bound by the status of his fiancee.
At last, I had become someone with no connection whatsoever to that man or to that wretched family.
‘I’m free! I’m free!’
So overwhelmed with joy that I felt like I might cry, I covered my mouth with one hand and held back my sobs.
“Hup!”
At that, Rastan examined my face with eyes that had perked up.
“Evelyn?”
Seeing the faint concern on his face, the emotions I had been desperately holding down burst out all at once.
I stood up, stepped toward him where he was sitting beside me, and threw my arms tightly around his neck.
Caught off guard and suddenly pulled into my embrace, Rastan called my name again, this time in a slightly flustered voice.
“Evelyn…?”
His hands hovered awkwardly in midair.
“Thank you. Thank you so much. I am someone who has nothing to do with House Lansval anymore…!”
I had put in every effort myself for this annulment, but thanks to Rastan stepping in both materially and personally, I had been able to wrap things up far more easily.
Even though I tried to steady myself, my damp voice was still trembling slightly.
Rastan slowly lowered both hands to my back and gave me a light pat.
“Congratulations. Now live the life you chose for yourself.”
In this Empire, it was considered a virtue for noblewomen to marry into matches arranged by their parents, then live in obedience to their husbands and parents-in-law.
In a place like this, being told to decide my own life, not by parents or a husband, but by myself.
It might be common in modern Korea, but for a noblewoman here, it was an almost impossible life.
Then Rastan slowly continued.
“…And if you decide to live with me, that would be even better.”
‘Huh?’
Startled, I loosened the arms wrapped around Rastan and looked at his face. A playful smile was hanging at the corner of his lips.
“Again, again with that? The contract marriage? Is this really the time to talk about that?”
Unable to hide my reddened face, I scolded him for no real reason.
But his relaxed smile didn’t fade easily.
“Now that you are completely free with no fiance, there is nothing holding me back, so I should appeal whenever I can.”
Hearing that, I suddenly became acutely aware that his two hands were still gripping my waist tightly.
Brazenly erasing from my mind the fact that I had been the one to pull him into an embrace first,
“W-what are you doing? Let go.”
At that, Rastan obediently released both hands, almost demonstratively.
I had thought he might not let go and would continue talking about the engagement or tease me.
‘That’s unexpected.’
As if he had read my expression, Rastan smiled lightly and said,
“I will keep suggesting it and hoping for it, but I will not force you. I want you to make a decision you will not regret, on your own.”
His earlier words telling me to decide my own life hadn’t been said lightly.
The moment I looked down at his face after hearing that, an emotion I had never felt before surged up and filled my chest.
A face I would normally have thought was radiating cold suddenly looked… lovable.
‘…Have I lost my mind?’
It was a ridiculous thought.
But the way his eyes curved as he smiled at me, the smooth line of his nose slightly furrowed, the corner of his lips lifted just a bit.
Every part of him felt as if it were whispering to me, ‘Please love me.’
As I stared blankly at his face, Rastan’s smile deepened slightly, and he pulled my waist toward him.
I was clearly standing and he was sitting in the chair, yet somehow it ended up looking like I was the one being held.
I braced myself by placing a hand on his shoulder, then gave up and pulled his head and neck into my embrace.
‘I don’t even know what my feelings toward Rastan are anymore.’
One thing, however, was certain. The desire to stay here with Rastan, and with all these kind people, was growing inside me day by day.
In this perfect daily life, there was only one thing weighing on my mind.
‘I can’t turn away from poor Rosie. I don’t even know where she is right now or how she is being treated.’
My resolve to save Rosie hadn’t changed.
Still, if I could bring Rosie here and live together with her, I felt I couldn’t be happier.
After holding me like that for a while, Rastan lifted his head and, with a gentle smile, made a suggestion.
“Since today is a good day, let us celebrate, just the two of us at least. A so-called ‘annulment celebration party.'”
At a term I had never heard in my life, I forgot the slight heaviness in my mood and laughed.
“Pfft, what is that supposed to be?”
“Surely we can at least have a good dinner with you, me, Ris, Sally, and all the staff of this manor. To celebrate the day you became free.”
Ris and Sally, of course, and I had already grown quite attached to the staff of this manor as well.
Just imagining spending a pleasant time with all of them already made me happy.
“Alright. You really never disappoint me.”
When I said that while lightly resting my hands on his shoulders, he placed both hands back on my waist and met my gaze with a pleased smile.
***
After finishing the joyful ‘annulment celebration party’ with the people of the Blake Ducal estate, I returned to the Duchess’s room.
Just as I was about to head to bed after getting ready, a pigeon suddenly flew in through the open window.
“Oh my! Why is there a bird flying all the way into the room…?”
Startled, I noticed it was a carrier pigeon with a note tied to its leg.
When I untied the note and unfolded it, it turned out to be the results of the request I had submitted to the high-end information guild just a few days earlier.
