❖ ❖ ❖ 38
“Breaking news: This is Mark Wagner reporting. Amid public outrage over Ludvik Rex, it has come to light that he attempted to lobby opposition figures to legalize casinos, sparking even greater public fury. Still, can we say he has no ties to the underworld? Public opinion strongly believes that the forces behind Ludvik Rex were responsible for the murder of Carolina Russella’s followers. More and more people are taking to the streets, demanding that the truth behind this matter be revealed.”
As soon as Vivienne returned to the mansion, she headed straight to her room and, out of habit, turned on the radio. She wandered the empty room, recalling what it had looked like three days ago.
The messy sheets.
The lingering warmth of a man who had been there. Half-finished brandy. A glass rolling across the floor.
And herself, trembling, wrapped in a blanket soaked from the rain.
That was enough for her parents, who had met with the head of the nobility and returned, to realize what had happened while they were away. There was no excuse; she had sat there in a daze for who knew how long after impulsively surrendering herself again to Edmund.
Since that day, her father’s gaze had grown cold and harsh toward her, and she had withered beautifully within the walls of this mansion ever since.
It seemed her father had no intention of letting her be today either.
The sound of rapid footsteps reached her, and the door swung open.
Vivienne flinched and turned toward the sound. As expected, her father stood there, his eyes cold and piercing.
“Turn off the radio. I have urgent matters to discuss with my daughter.”
The servant accompanying him bowed, switched off the radio, and left. With the door closed, it was just father and daughter. It was the Marquis of Mergoville who spoke first.
“What do you think of you repeatedly undermining your fiancé’s dignity while claiming to resist the Count of Colt’s authority?”
He sat gracefully at the tea table, looking at Vivienne.
She parted her lips but said nothing, so he raised his voice slightly, as if urging her to answer.
“You’ve heard the news on the radio, I presume. I suspect that your fiancé, the Count of Colt, is the one behind releasing that information, since he is a head of the underworld. Am I mistaken?”
Vivienne lowered her head and could not refute him.
It was indeed the underworld that had pressured Ludvik Rex to push for casino legalization. If Edmund Colt was their head, then he was also the one who leaked that information.
Furthermore, her father seemed to believe that the reason the Count of Colt kept clashing with Ludvik was because of her. Vivienne stepped closer to her father and spoke calmly.
“It wasn’t my fiancé who killed Carolina Russella’s followers. So there’s no physical evidence, and there won’t be any decisive clue to turn public opinion either.”
She noticed the change in her father’s expression but did not back down. Vivienne continued thoughtfully.
“They say the underworld demanded my engagement be broken in exchange for my fiancé’s release. But if the display of strength we saw was simply a reaction to the Rex family failing to keep their promise, you must already consider it insignificant. So I suppose you have nothing more to say to me.”
Vivienne stopped a little away from her father. The marquis’s frosty gaze locked onto her.
“Vivienne.”
The marquis frowned.
“When did you start looking at me like that? With such insolent eyes?”
“……”
“I never taught you to behave like that.”
Vivienne herself wondered when she had begun speaking her mind without hesitation. When had she stopped submitting to authority and developed her own convictions?
It was after she realized that expressing her will beside Edmund was not difficult.
After learning that she was not wrong, only different.
Her father’s voice echoed in her mind:
“Now you must become your fiancé’s ‘woman.’”
And yet her thoughts returned to what her father had said earlier:
“I never taught you that way.”
Vivienne clenched her hands tightly.
“Yes. Father, you raised me to be my fiancé’s woman.”
At last, she voiced the words that had been in her heart.
“…But even though I inherited your blood, Father, I think I can bloom into something different from my essence, and so I am a human, not a flower.”
Vivienne knew her father would not welcome such words.
But deciding to leave the Count did not mean she could lose herself. Edmund might leave, but what he left behind, and what he changed, would not disappear.
With that in mind, Vivienne continued.
“That’s why there’s learning, and schools, and educational institutions, isn’t it?”
“Educational institutions?”
The marquis replied dismissively.
“They were made to standardize the working class who attend factories so that nobles like us could easily exploit them.”
He spoke like he was lecturing, taking a rough breath afterward.
Vivienne watched him silently, then spoke again.
“What makes your education any different?”
Her father’s eyes turned red with anger at her words. Still, Vivienne did not stop.
“I know you wish to scold me for letting Count Edmund Colt into the mansion. But I simply preferred him over this engagement, which I clung to as a lifeline for survival. I’ll try to sort out my feelings.”
“……”
“But I don’t feel guilty about it.”
Vivienne was confident that she would not lose herself. Even if they drugged her, even if the Count’s truth was revealed, and even if she remained Ludvik’s fiancée, she would live life on her own terms.
“You insolent girl!”
The marquis’s finger jabbed toward her.
“Do you know what humiliation I suffered because of you? Because of that… that… that bastard child…!”
“Father, you needed that bastard child’s money, didn’t you?”
Her father froze at her words. From between his teeth came a voice horrifically low.
“How dare you… speak such words in front of me?”
Vivienne stepped closer, pulling out a chair opposite where her father sat.
“I imagine the Mergoville chauffeur has told you everything. I don’t like this situation either, Father. I don’t want to lie about my feelings, and I don’t want to rely on the cumbersome title of being Rex’s fiancée.”
She sat down on her own, without any assistance from the servants.
“But you always make me miserable. In the end, to avoid being hurt myself, I have no choice but to hurt the one I love with my own hands.”
“……”
“Still, remaining Ludvik Rex’s fiancée is my choice, and I will try to honor it. What other options do I have? But I am never ashamed that I chose the man I love.”
“Enough!”
The marquis slammed his desk. Though he stood to look down at Vivienne, she did not flinch or lose her composure, meeting his gaze head-on.
She had known she would have to say what needed to be said, and she would have known to step back afterward.
In the silence, the marquis spoke again.
“You will ask forgiveness for what you said.”
“……”
“Vivienne Mergoville, I am giving you the chance to correct your mistakes and seek pardon.”
“I have no regrets, Father.”
Vivienne smiled gently—a rare and precious smile.
It was the kind of smile that could only be given when one’s resolve remained utterly unwavering.
