TILAD 11

Episode 11

Seimon returned to his seat and looked at Christine with a soft smile.

“Yeah, you look much better when you smile.”

“I’m not smiling.”

“Well, it looks like a smile to me.”

Christine touched the corner of her lips, confused, wondering if she really was smiling. Seimon chuckled to himself — she looked like a small animal to him.

They continued eating in silence until Christine finally broke it.

“What were you doing all this time for it to get this bad? Didn’t you have any symptoms?”

“It was vague.”

Seimon frowned as he explained how he got diagnosed.

He had always gotten headaches, but they were just mild migraines — nothing serious. But recently, the pain got worse and even painkillers didn’t work. That’s when he rushed to the hospital and was told it was a brain tumor.

And not just any tumor — the worst kind, one with no treatment.

Christine thought for a while after hearing all that and said,

“You should go to a hospital in the Lohas Republic too. I still don’t believe it. How can someone as strong as you be seriously ill? I won’t accept it.”

Christine bit her lip hard. Seimon reached out.

“You’ll hurt your lip. Don’t do that.”

Christine pushed his hand away and answered weakly.

“Do I look like I can help it?”

“Why are you so worried about me? I thought you hated me. Why are you confusing me like this?”

Seimon rested his chin in his hand, pretending to tease her, but he actually liked how she cared about him.

Christine looked surprised, then hesitated before asking carefully,

“…Did you know?”

Her expression changed, but Seimon answered slowly,

“You’ve probably hated me this whole marriage, haven’t you?”

“…”

“You think I used my power to reduce the punishment of the people who killed Prince Martin. That’s why you’ve been like this.”

“…So is that not true?”

Christine looked at him, hoping desperately he would say, “No, I didn’t.”

She hoped maybe it was all a misunderstanding — that she didn’t need to hate him.

But Seimon shook his head.

“It’s true. I helped reduce their sentences behind the scenes.”

Christine felt like she’d been shot in the heart, even though she had suspected it.

“…You’re a terrible person.”

Her voice shook as she glared at him. Tears welled up in her eyes.

“Even knowing I would hate you, you still married me?”

“Our marriage was necessary because of the political situation. For the sake of the Republic.”

His answer was cold and rational.

Christine couldn’t breathe. Her lips turned pale from how hard she bit them. She suddenly stood up, but her legs gave out, and she had to grab the table to steady herself.

“You monster. He was my brother. My only family.”

She cried out her anger, then stormed out of the restaurant. The tears she had been holding back began to fall.

“I’ll never forgive you. Never.”

She wiped her tears and left completely.

“….”

Seimon looked at the untouched plate Christine left behind with a displeased expression. Then he called Andrei.

He asked him to make sure Christine got home safely. Then Seimon picked up his wine glass.

His face looked troubled.

He began to remember something from long ago.

“Prince Martin…”

Christine’s brother, Martin Lihand Oredot, had been a gentle and wise royal.

He was expected to become a balanced emperor, keeping peace between the royalists and the republicans.

If only those stupid radicals hadn’t assassinated him…

“Damn it.”

Even the Republican Party saw Martin’s death as a tragedy.

Six years ago.

The atmosphere in the meeting room was tense. A newspaper lay tossed on the table with a bold headline:

“Prince Martin Assassinated! Killers Revealed as Radical Republicans!”
“All Four Radicals Face Death Penalty!”

Seimon held his forehead. His tired voice was low.

“…We need to reduce their sentences somehow.”

A fellow Republican member shouted back,

“That’s ridiculous!”

“Director Deirt, do you know how angry the public is? Even carrying out the death sentence won’t satisfy them!”

“But we can’t make emotional decisions right now.”

Seimon looked at the others coldly.

“If those radicals see their comrades executed, they’ll think the party betrayed them — and they’ll go after Princess Christine.”

“No way.”

“If there’s even the slightest risk, we have to prevent it. We must stop them from turning extreme.”

“But still…!”

Seimon shut his eyes tightly for a second, then opened them again and said firmly,

“The Chester Republic only works because there’s a balance between royalists and republicans. If we lose all the royals, the country will fall into chaos.”

His voice was decisive.

One of the party members looked annoyed and said,

“So you’re willing to lose public support just to protect that royal girl?”

“…I’m ready to lose support. I don’t care about my standing in the party. I’m only thinking about the Republic’s future.”

Seimon stared out the window with a determined face.

If he pushed for life sentences, the royalists and Christine would be furious. The public would rage.

But he had no choice. What mattered most at that moment was the princess’s life and the country’s fragile balance.

As Seimon returned to the present, he couldn’t stop thinking about Christine’s tears.

‘Is that what made her hate me so much?’

His chest felt like it was splitting open. Still, he shook his head.

It couldn’t be helped.

It was already in the past. If he hadn’t interfered in the trial, he might never have met her.

‘You might’ve died back then…’

As he thought of Christine, Seimon felt like he carried a wound in his chest — just like the bullet wound Martin had suffered.

The Next Day

Christine left home a little later than usual because her eyes were swollen from crying.

She hadn’t eaten, so she stopped by a bakery near her apartment to grab breakfast for her baby.

That’s when she saw a familiar man sitting in the bakery café, wearing a gray suit and reading a newspaper.

At first, she didn’t believe her eyes — but it was definitely Seimon, looking sharp and clean early in the morning.

‘What the heck…’

She quickly turned her head away, pretending not to see him.

After everything yesterday — thinking about her brother, Seimon’s brain tumor, and all the pain — she had cried so much.

And she felt guilty for being so harsh to a man who might be dying.

‘…But then why is he showing up here like this?’

While she grumbled to herself, the cheerful bakery owner greeted her.

“Christine! Good morning!”

The owner happily started packing dinner rolls without being asked.

‘…What is going on?’

Meanwhile, Seimon just kept sipping coffee and reading the paper, acting like nothing happened.

Was he ignoring her on purpose?

She had planned to greet him if he said hello first. But now it would be awkward for her to speak up.

‘Unbelievable.’

Christine pouted, paid for the dinner rolls, and left. Seimon never looked up from his newspaper.

She shook her head and began to walk away when the bakery door opened behind her with a cheerful chime.

“Christine!”

“Yes?”

“A handsome man asked me to give this to you. He’s been here for two hours waiting. I guess he came just for you. Hehe!”

“Oh…”

“Anyway, see you!”

The bakery owner, happy from the generous tip Seimon gave her, handed Christine a thick bag of bread and a card before walking off.

Christine blinked, still in shock, then slowly opened the card.

[Come to the hotel after work. We need a real conversation.
– Seimon Deirt]

Her fingers trembled slightly.

Vrrrmm.

She heard the sound of an engine. When she looked up, a luxury sedan — definitely Seimon’s — was already driving away.

She stared after the car for a moment. Then the corners of her lips slowly turned up.

“A real conversation, huh…”

She repeated the words in her mind and smiled.

Then she carefully tucked the card deep into her bag, held the heavy bag of bread close, and continued her walk to work with lighter steps.

Today felt like it was going to be a long, long day.