~Chapter 18~
Rachel stood still, gazing up at the small window set high in the wall. There were no longer any flowers outside.
Just overturned earth.
“But I kept my promise. I said I’d come see you once the truth was revealed, didn’t I?”
“……!”
Paris’s face twisted with fury. He rushed toward her, but—bang!—the suddenly conjured magical barrier stopped him cold. The door even rattled in its frame.
“You—you! Don’t tell me, from the very start—!”
“……”
He struck the transparent barrier, voice shaking with accusation.
“Why’d you do it? We were happy! Even if you found out, you could’ve just kept your mouth shut. You wanted to be a Valencia, didn’t you? That’s why you clung to me!”
His bloodshot eyes flashed with resentment and mockery.
“Of course! At the end you started avoiding me. Was it fine as long as you thought I was the Valencia heir, but when you heard I was a slave knight’s son, you couldn’t stand to touch me? Acting all high and mighty—like your behavior changes with someone’s status! Did you really think I’d go down like this—!”
There was no reason to listen any longer. Rachel, who’d been silent, finally spoke.
“There’s another reason I started to hate you.”
“What do you mean, me!”
Maybe he still didn’t realize.
Even before all this happened, Rachel’s marriage hadn’t been a happy one.
For five years in a family where heirs were everything, there had been no child. They’d both been checked and found healthy, so there was no answer.
Then, much later, she found out he’d been taking contraceptive tea all along.
—What is this…?
—That’s…
Paris had hesitated, then left. Not long after, the Duchess came to see her and cleared the room.
—Paris said he wasn’t ready to have children. That’s why he did it—
—You knew about this, Mother?
—No, of course not. How could I have?
….
It was the Duchess who had been quickest to blame Rachel for not having a child. Yet she hadn’t so much as apologized, just stared coldly.
—In any case, there’s no need to worry now. I’ve told him not to do it anymore.
—Is that all you have to say to me?
—Don’t tell the Duke. There’s nothing to gain from that, is there?
The Duchess stood. Paris, waiting by the door, glanced at Rachel with indifference before following his mother out. On impulse, Rachel called after them.
—Why would there be nothing to gain? You know what I’ve been accused of. Isn’t this a perfect chance to clear my name?
—What?
The Duchess stared, as did Paris, faces full of disbelief at this uncharacteristic defiance.
But for Rachel, it was inevitable.
When she’d first married, she’d had no one on her side—so she couldn’t do anything.
Later, with no child, she’d had to live in fear.
‘Why don’t they have a child?’
‘Maybe it’s Lady Rachel’s fault.’
‘Can the sealing ceremony even be held like this? They should check what’s wrong—’
All those whispers, all that shame, had been because of him.
—I’m going to tell the Duke.
—Rachel!
—Madam!
Rachel ran straight to the Duke’s office. Paris, face contorted with anger, had followed, but with so many witnesses, he couldn’t stop her.
Maybe, even then, she’d sensed that her strange marriage was coming to an end.
Of course, she hadn’t guessed that the sealing ritual would reveal him as a fraud, or that the entire family would be thrown into chaos.
‘…And I never imagined you already knew the truth about your own birth.’
In the end, Paris had been an accomplice. Without her <Return> power and without reading the Record, she would never have learned the whole story.
“……”
Finishing her recollection, Rachel quietly watched Paris. She wasn’t even sure why she’d come to see him.
Did she want to confirm it was his fault, not hers, that her life had fallen apart?
In a way, he had impacted her more than Nathan Valencia ever had.
The one who had once made her shine—
—and who, even now, was dragging her to the depths.
“Why won’t you answer? So what I said—”
“You knew about your bloodline.”
“……!”
He looked as if he’d been struck.
He stammered,
“W-what are you talking about? I didn’t—”
“You overheard your mother and Sir Wayne talking when you were fourteen. That’s why you accepted the Duchess’s plan to delay the ritual. You even started searching for a way to fake the ceremony. Am I wrong?”
“……!”
Judging by his face, it was true. The Record really was accurate—past, present, and future.
Paris’s face went pale.
“How did you know that? Was someone listening then? Is that why my father didn’t believe I was innocent—!”
Rachel said nothing.
In fact, the Duke had found proof that Paris had tried to stage the ritual in secret.
Maybe even before the regression, the Duke had found the same evidence.
“Ah…”
Paris collapsed to his knees, despair etched on his face. Rachel tossed him one last question.
“I think I know, but I’ll ask anyway. Why did you do this to me? The ceremony would’ve exposed your bloodline, so why drag me into it?”
He clenched his teeth and looked up. His eyes were full of despair and malice as he finally spat out an answer.
“Because you were the most valuable.”
“……!”
“You were called the Jewel of Olsher, right? The Flower was at the Mage Tower, and everyone was pressuring me to marry, so I just picked you. You were a useful ornament.”
Rachel’s hands curled into fists. Paris stood and pointed at her, shouting,
“Don’t blame it all on me! I was the Valencia heir—since birth! How could I just give that up now? Was I wrong? You only wanted to be Duchess of Valencia, but changed your mind when you saw my flaws! You’re no different!”
She turned away. Whether it was this world’s Paris or the other, nothing had changed.
There was no reason to care anymore.
This was the end of her and him.
“Goodbye. Farewell, Paris. If that’s how you saw things, I can’t even feel wronged. I guess all we ever had between us was deception.”
“……!”
“So then.”
Suddenly, Paris screamed.
“Wait—!”
Rachel’s heel clicked as she stopped by the door. He tried to move closer, but was blocked by the magic barrier. He pleaded,
“That’s not what I meant! It’s not just my fault. Being born the son of that woman and that man wasn’t my crime! I’ll forgive everything you did—just save me. Please, ask the Duke to spare my life—”
She listened in silence.
There was nothing more to hear.
She left without looking back, thinking how pitifully unchanged he was.
No remorse. No apology.
“Rachel!”
She ignored his desperate cry and stepped out.
She was about to call the knight, but then, right beside her, she saw someone and flinched in surprise.
