~Chapter 80~
My eyes lost focus as I stared out the carriage window.
Meeting the Empress. Wudian’s mocking laughter. The way everything had turned upside down, as if my life had jumped onto a different track—it still felt unreal.
Regardless, the carriage sped toward Count Medinael’s estate.
When we finally arrived at the front gates, it wasn’t the butler who greeted me—it was Lysa herself.
“Amelie!”
The moment I stepped down, Lysa pulled me into a tight embrace. Her warmth melted away the stiffness in my body.
“Cold, isn’t it? Let’s go inside and talk.”
I gave a faint smile and nodded. Though it was only early autumn, the wind was unusually sharp that day.
Led by Lysa, I entered the mansion, and Yvonne came hurrying down the stairs.
“Where have you been, sister?”
“I told you not to run, you’ll get hurt. What if you fall on the stairs?”
She was completely like a mom.
Though they weren’t far apart in age, Lysa cared for her younger sister as if she were still a child. They really were a lovely pair.
“Oh. Hello, Sister Amelie.”
Yvonne finally noticed me and greeted me in a shy, soft voice.
“Hi, Yvonne. You don’t need to be so formal with me.”
“Mm… okay. I’ll try.”
Holding tightly to Lysa’s hand, Yvonne replied in a slightly louder voice than before. Lysa patted her gently.
“I need to talk seriously with Amelie. Can you give us some time alone?”
“I’m not a child anymore, sister. But… this serious talk, is it about Sister Amelie?”
Yvonne’s pink eyes suddenly turned to me, glowing like doll’s eyes with a strange curiosity.
‘That gaze feels… odd somehow.’
I brushed it off, thinking it must just be because I’d never seen pink eyes before.
“Yes. So don’t come into the drawing room.”
“Got it.”
Yvonne nodded obediently but glanced back at me once more.
‘Huh? Did she just smile?’
For a brief moment, I thought I saw a smile flash across her face. But by the time I tried to check again, she had already turned away.
“Amelie, this way.”
Lysa guided me into the reception room.
“Now tell me everything. Her Majesty the Empress really had the token of your engagement with Wudian?”
Her first question came as soon as we sat on the sofa, as if she’d been holding back the whole time.
“Yes. And there was even an engagement contract.”
“An engagement contract?”
Lysa’s face showed the same shock I had felt.
I hadn’t been able to ask the Empress or Wudian whether it was truly valid—they accepted it so naturally, as if it was beyond question.
“Was it written by your father?”
“The only signature and seal were from the previous Count Montorre. But the engagement token from our family was kept by the Empress all this time. She said that alone gave the contract validity, even without my father’s signature or seal…”
I repeated the Empress’s words exactly.
Lysa fell silent, troubled. I had come to her for advice, but even she didn’t know what to say.
“So… Her Majesty herself acted as the witness for your engagement? Not even a ducal house involved, just children’s engagement?”
I nodded slowly.
It puzzled me too. The Garnet viscountcy had no strong ties to the Empress, nor did the Montorre family. For the Empress to step in as witness, there should have been some distant relation or a friendly connection—but there was none.
So why would she involve herself in such a trivial arrangement?
I had lost sleep thinking about it all night.
Finally, I reached a conclusion:
‘Maybe the Empress made a deal with the former Count Montorre, with the engagement as the price? Since the contract bore only his signature…’
As a heavy reader of romance-fantasy novels, it was a plausible guess.
But if not that…
“Couldn’t it be that Her Majesty and Wudian Montorre share some hidden interest?”
The moment I voiced the worst possibility—
The door burst open, and Richard strode in.
He must have rushed back from his patrol near the border after receiving my urgent message.
“Amelie Garnet.”
The instant our eyes met, he quietly called my name. For some reason, that alone filled me with relief.
I told him everything that had happened at the Empress’s palace, and all the conclusions I had drawn. For a moment, I considered hiding the fact that I suspected his mother—but in the end, I chose to trust him.
“That’s all I know.”
Richard listened without interrupting once.
But his eyes… once like clear skies, now burned with raw, lethal fury. His clenched jaw and taut muscles radiated the aura of a feral beast barely restrained.
“Uh… I-I’m sorry, Richard. For doubting your mother…”
“You don’t need to apologize. Your suspicion is reasonable. And if it’s true, I’d be the one who should kneel before you and beg for forgiveness.”
“Still…”
I faltered at his frightening aura. Then suddenly, Richard rose to his feet.
“I’ll take care of it. Amelie, you don’t have to worry about anything.”
“Wait, what? How exactly are you going to—”
I grabbed his sleeve, afraid he might do something reckless. But he gently clasped my hand, pried it free, and let it go.
“I’ll tell you when I return. Stay at your house.”
His eyes, once filled with fury, softened like calm skies again. He spoke gently, then strode out of the estate alone without hesitation.
“Stay at home, he says…”
How long was I supposed to wait?
After talking a bit longer with Lysa, I returned home. Now, I could only wait for news with no end in sight.
It was almost ten at night, yet nothing had happened.
“Young lady, are you waiting for someone?”
Sofia asked carefully when she found me pacing the foyer, restless and anxious.
“No… not exactly…”
Even I didn’t know what I was waiting for. My eyes wandered to the window—dark sky outside, like my future.
But whenever despair crept in, I recalled his words:
“I’ll take care of it.”
If he said that, surely it would be alright. I had repeated his words twenty times already when—
“Young lady…!”
The front doors flew open. A knight stumbled in, pale and gasping as if chased by death itself.
“What’s wrong? What happened?”
“H-His Highness the Prince…!”
“The prince?”
Before I could ask more, the door opened again.
“I’m back.”
Richard entered with a calm face, greeting me as if he had merely returned from a stroll.
The servants erupted in chaos, flustered by the prince’s sudden visit. I quickly led him into the study.
“Why are you here at this hour? I thought you’d send me a letter.”
“I handled it, so I had to come tell you directly.”
“You… handled it?”
My lips curved into a smile before I realized.
“Yes. The method was simple, but the process took time.”
“What method?”
Richard suddenly looked straight into my eyes and smiled. His lips curved elegantly, his refreshing smile lighting up his face. I froze, forgetting I was supposed to be listening.
Then his words landed, clear as day:
“Keep me by your side, Amelie Garnet.”
I almost lost my senses.
“…What?”
“If I stand by you as your man, all the problems are solved. So let’s get engaged—me and you.”
Richard spoke kindly, tenderly.
Which meant—
I had just been proposed to by the male lead.
