Chapter: 27
It wasn’t until I went to the cabin where my mother was lying that reality truly hit me.
My whole body went limp.
“I’ll probably be broken off with.”
Someone other than the Marquis had witnessed my mother’s mania.
We had stayed only at the Marquis’s place to avoid exactly this kind of situation.
Now the rumors would spread. They would say the Princess of Liente had gone mad.
So much money had been spent to secure my engagement…
The fiancé’s family would be furious. How dare I rush the engagement while hiding such a serious matter? How shameless.
What if the mania was hereditary…?
I held my mother’s hand as she lay in the cabin, and only then did the tears start to fall.
I felt regretful, miserable, and… utterly helpless.
“Hmm?”
My mother opened her eyes only after the boat ride was over.
“What is it? I feel a bit dizzy…”
I smiled at her, my face clean and dry from wiping away my tears.
“You took medicine for seasickness, remember, Mother?”
“Did I?”
She tilted her head in confusion.
“Oh my, you must have missed the prize draw. Where is your father?”
“He’s in another cabin,” I said calmly.
“You still don’t seem in great shape. Since the official events are over, shall we return home?”
“Let’s do that. I do feel a little queasy.”
My mother remembered nothing. But as always, she accepted the gaps in her memory without concern.
“Anyway, the engagement went smoothly, right? It did?”
“Yes, Mother.”
I nodded.
“Everything went well.”
I hadn’t told her the truth out of fear.
She still couldn’t accept her own mania. I couldn’t even imagine how shocked she would be if I told her.
What if the shock drove her completely insane…?
Still, most of the time, she seemed fine…
But eventually, she would find out.
Leopold had witnessed my mother’s mania. Rumors would spread like wildfire. And I would soon be broken off with.
Of course, even after the engagement, my mother didn’t get better.
Every night, she would wail behind the locked door.
“I don’t want to go! I don’t want to go! I’d rather die! How am I supposed to live there alone? Huh?”
She refused to eat or sleep, insisting she wouldn’t go to the Empire…
“I won’t marry that man! Marquis Sears? Why should I marry some old man I’ve never even seen?”
I quietly cried in my room, face buried in my arms.
She hated the Empire and my father so much… could she ever really love me, the child she bore unwillingly?
She had not wanted to give birth to my father’s child ever since leaving Liente.
Perhaps the reason I kept returning in my mind to the day we left the Kingdom of Liente was because she regretted every single day spent with me.
Yet after raging all night, by morning, she would seek me out.
“Brisa? Hurry and bring the Taipan language textbook. We need to move on to the next lesson. Hmm, your lace is wrinkled, so sit properly. This afternoon, there will be a vocabulary test in Ancient Language. Keep that in mind.”
I always did my best.
When I performed well, Mother was pleased, and perhaps she wouldn’t regret giving birth to me. If I could escape the past like that, maybe she would miraculously seem fine.
“All that effort… and if I get broken off with, it will all be for nothing, won’t it?”
I suffered in silence, unable to tell anyone about what Leopold had witnessed.
Yet a month, two months, and then three months passed.
Until the day my mother passed away.
Not a word about that incident was ever spoken.
Even when I reunited with Leopold at the Academy, we never mentioned it once.
I was careful not to say anything foolish in front of him. I feared he might suspect me of being “the crazy child who takes after her mother.”
In truth, it was the same with everyone.
I never lost my composure, rarely cried or laughed, and never said anything irrational.
Because of that, many said I was cold and distant, but at least no one called me crazy.
Unlike me, Leopold was a gentleman to everyone.
After offering just the right amount of help and then forgetting about it, the incident of that day would have meant nothing to him.
“Everything will be fine.”
But there are moments in life like that.
Moments where a debt is created—one that only I can carry, one I will never forget.
Because my heart was so heavy, I tried to act as though nothing had happened.
I worried that remembering the events of that day might burden him.
There was a reason I had fed Baron Forman well. Even including the potatoes and sprouts.
“Actually, that wasn’t all of it.”
I had even given him eggs—big ones, hand-picked.
Leopold quietly watched Brisa and her group disappear through the warp.
The knights were doing their best to carry sacks full of wheat.
“They must be bringing the wheat like that because the central region warp isn’t working,” someone said.
“Right. I really thought we were going to starve,” Baron Forman sighed beside Leopold.
“But that young lady fed them all. The one who sent the flowers anonymously,” he added.
“His subordinates will have to be replaced,” Leopold said lazily.
“It seems confidential information reached your grandfather’s ears,” Forman chuckled.
“Even if you replaced your subordinates a hundred times, you can’t escape Duke Nozen’s notice in the West,” he said.
Leopold had already grasped all the circumstances when he heard that his maternal grandfather had gone to the central region.
Forman spoke smoothly, knowing it was useless to deny anything.
“Why did you send the flowers?”
“It was just a small comfort for an Academy friend feeling down from a broken engagement.”
“Then why send them anonymously?”
“I didn’t want anyone asking ‘why,’ like right now,” I said.
Leopold answered without expression.
Forman murmured in admiration, “What an extraordinary young lady. Duke Nozen will have a lot to hear. As for me, I owe this young lady a tremendous debt.”
“A debt?”
“Lotus root, fried fish, grilled mushrooms…”
Leopold smiled faintly at Forman’s serious tone.
“An interesting debt,” he said.
“Not small at all, Leopold,” Forman corrected, understanding the “it’s nothing” implication.
“You’ve spent your whole life in the West. You don’t know the value of food. Here, even when monsters appear, food is abundant everywhere.”
“I see,” Leopold said.
“You have no idea… of this young lady’s worth. In her current state, even if I explained, you wouldn’t understand with your heart.”
“Of course I would,” Leopold said firmly.
“No, I told you, you wouldn’t understand,” Forman replied flatly. “If you truly understood, you wouldn’t have given her tracking incense.”
“That was the most valuable thing I had. I actually thought Grandfather would be thrilled,” I said.
“What a clueless young one… Didn’t you see she was receiving it out of courtesy? You had a useless look on your face,” Forman scolded.
“I’m curious what gift Grandfather would have given Brisa instead of the tracking incense.”
Forman puffed up with pride. “Another sack of wheat.”
“Surely not…”
“And a shame, too. Then you might have seen her smile.”
“Surely not.”
“But first…”
Forman looked around.
“We need to find out when the Black Mages started creeping into the Western port.”
Leopold nodded, his eyes shining menacingly.
At his feet still lay the Black Mage who had confronted Brisa. He had no intention of killing him easily.
