Chapter 49
Eleanor was speechless for several minutes after hearing Vanessa’s story.
What Sinclair had done was just too absurd.
To go behind her back like that, trying to drag her away for Lydia…
And on top of that,
“Bringing up the academy days…”
It had been four years since she had dropped out and three years since he had graduated.
Did he really have to dig up a period that no longer even held any meaning?
No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t understand.
“Why all of a sudden…?”
“Miss, are you alright?”
Seeing Eleanor clutch her head, Vanessa asked with concern.
Eleanor forced a smile and nodded, trying to look okay.
“I’m fine. Thank you for telling me. It must have been awkward because of me.”
“No, it’s okay.”
Vanessa smiled but hesitated, as if she had something more to say.
“Um, but…”
“What is it?”
Eleanor gestured for her to speak freely. Clutching a folder to her chest, Vanessa looked at her cautiously before speaking.
“Is the Marquis… your former fiancé?”
Eleanor’s pupils dilated.
She had heard many things in her life, but this was a first.
Sinclair… my fiancé?
Good heavens.
There was no way the perfectionist young master, who hated leaving even a single blemish on his life, would have gone mad enough for that.
For a proud man like him, just Lydia, the daughter of a count, was already an exceptional case.
“No. Absolutely not. Why would you misunderstand that?”
Tilting her head, Eleanor asked, making Vanessa feel embarrassed.
It was clear that Eleanor’s firm denial revealed her mistaken assumption.
‘I misjudged this.’
Vanessa had thought Sinclair’s behavior was extreme, so she had speculated on the way here.
She knew why Eleanor had come down to Oclama.
It was because her former fiancé had caused a ruckus in the capital.
Considering that, Vanessa thought Sinclair might be that reckless ex-fiancé trying desperately to bring Eleanor back.
If he had caused trouble after the broken engagement but then regretted it and clung to her, his extreme actions could be somewhat understood.
His arrogant and confident demeanor, despite being at fault, wasn’t entirely surprising either—he was the heir of the Duke Tess family, after all.
“I just thought… maybe that could be it…”
Vanessa offered her explanation, and Eleanor chuckled.
“Sinclair is way too high up for me to be engaged to him.”
Of course, she had once been engaged to someone somewhat like him—but that had been a lucky coincidence.
Sinclair Tess was not someone who would get engaged to a count’s daughter like Lydia.
There was a vast gulf between the Tess dukes and the Stikov counts, wider than the Sern River.
How could the three ducal families supporting the empire be anything like the common counts?
At least the Stikovs had past glory to hold their heads high. Though their power had waned, their name still commanded recognition.
But against the Tess family, that was nothing.
‘Rank is a form of status. I can’t understand the love between an emperor and a countess.’
Eleanor’s brief memories reinforced her opinion. She added another point.
“And Sinclair likes my younger brother.”
“Oh… I’m sorry. I misjudged the situation…”
“No, don’t worry about it. Sinclair just went overboard.”
After signing smoothly on the form, Eleanor looked at the damage report list to change the topic.
“How are Yahin and Yasmin doing?”
“They’re both fine.”
Hearing Yahin’s name reminded Vanessa of the morning’s events, but she didn’t show it.
Yahin didn’t need to know everything about Eleanor, and Eleanor didn’t need to know everything about Yahin. It wouldn’t necessarily have been a good thing.
“If you need any help, just let me know anytime.”
“Yes, Miss.”
Vanessa left, saying she would return with a summary of the support scale.
Left alone, Eleanor reflected again on the story Vanessa had told her about Sinclair.
She recalled Sinclair visiting her two days ago.
‘You can’t do that to me.’
Eleanor rested her chin on her hand, lowering her gaze.
Already, with the rainy season and so much to do, her head was spinning because of Sinclair.
Trying to live in Oclama and the present, she couldn’t stop thinking about Bayrn and the past.
‘The academy…’
Eleanor closed her eyes.
Through her darkened vision, the gray-white buildings of the academy appeared.
Under the crape myrtle planted in the inner courtyard, she remembered herself and Sinclair in their academy uniforms.
In terms of the academy,
‘You can’t do that to me either.’
She opened her eyes slowly.
Even thinking about the academy, Sinclair’s behavior had gone too far.
If she let it slide, he might have turned Oclama upside down.
Sinclair Tess, so you insist on doing this…
Eleanor got up and walked to the window.
The rain that had fallen in the morning and started again in the afternoon had already stopped.
She gazed at the pale gray sky and called for Lisa.
Hearing the bell, Lisa ran and went outside to deliver her mistress’s call.
At the same time, Ernst was in a private meeting with the baron.
Baron Stephanie Pomfry had gladly accepted his request for tea. Their families were acquainted, and the baron knew Ernst’s aunt well.
In his childhood, he often came to Oclama following the Stikov sisters. They were familiar with each other and on comfortable terms.
“I apologize for visiting suddenly. It seems we are causing too much trouble.”
“Don’t worry. Ernst, I’ve known you for a long time, and you’re here on Lydia’s request, aren’t you?”
“I’m grateful for your understanding. If we’ve been rude due to our limited experience, I apologize as well.”
The baron smiled silently.
Ernst knew the rudeness he referred to was Sinclair’s behavior toward Vanessa, so he did not respond with an ‘it’s okay.’
He observed Ernst, drinking tea with precise movements.
Was he growing quickly because he was raised in another house, or because he became a marquis at a young age?
It had been two years since he last saw Ernst, but he now seemed taller and more mature.
A year into adulthood, he carried himself with enough composure that, despite being someone else’s nephew, it left an impression.
However, the faint shadow lingering around him mixed with his childhood past, making it hard to distinguish.
“Will you tell me the real reason you came here?”
The baron got straight to the point.
He could have had a casual chat with his friend’s nephew, but since it concerned his own niece, a serious demeanor was inevitable.
He didn’t want to argue petty points with a young marquis.
Ernst chose honesty and went straight to the point.
“I want to return to the capital with my sister.”
He didn’t hedge his words. Both parties had a sense of each other’s intentions, and the baron was not one for indirect talk.
“Why, because Lydia wanted it?”
The baron’s voice pierced Ernst like a dagger.
But he remained calm.
“That was my intention when I came down.”
“Has it changed now?”
“I’m not sure. I think she changed after coming here.”
“What kind of change?”
The baron asked, curious about what made the young marquis anxious enough to visit him.
Ernst chose his words carefully.
“I felt a will in her, unlike before.”
He had noticed it on the first day and again the next.
Unlike Bayrn, Eleanor clearly expressed her opinions here.
Previously, she seemed to go along with the flow in engagements and daily life, but here, she spoke with intention.
“Having a will is a good thing, isn’t it? There seems to be no reason not to return to the capital.”
“…Having a will and changing isn’t always a good thing.”
Ernst smiled wryly. Eleanor hadn’t just changed because she had willpower.
After hearing Sinclair, she had changed.
She said she wasn’t Lydia’s sister.
That phrase unsettled Ernst for reasons he couldn’t understand—a strange feeling he remembered from the summer of his eighth year.
“Your sister changed once long ago. Then, without will, she acquired one and changed.”
“…”
“And then she changed again. I believe you know that turning point, Baron.”
The baron did not dispute Ernst, knowing the time he referred to.
He quietly watched the young marquis, whose expression still bore traces of youth.
“So your sister changed three times. Each time, she changed further, became different, and grew distant.”
“Marquis Runner.”
“Why call her sister?”
Ernst gazed at the baron with calm, dark golden eyes.
“Why did you designate her as the heir? I’ve always wanted to ask.”
She had two nephews, but the baron had named only one as the heir, and that one was the firstborn.
In succession struggles, it was rare for the firstborn, with the highest chance of succession under imperial law, to be passed over.
Had she been left alone, Eleanor would likely have become a countess.
Even if she married and became independent, it would have been the same.
If the husband was from a lower-ranking family than Stikov or a second son, it was possible to bring him in as a son-in-law to pass on the title.
Leaving aside the first engagement, even the second and third engagements meant Eleanor could inherit the title after her parents’ death.
Both men met the conditions for becoming a son-in-law.
“…If I were to pin it down, it’s a reason similar to yours.”
The baron sighed. She knew Eleanor could inherit the countship.
Looking out the window after the rain stopped, she spoke slowly.
“When I first saw Vanessa, she had a different aura than the other children.”
Hearing Vanessa’s name suddenly, Ernst paused but did not ignore it.
He patiently listened to the baron.
“She was unattached, drifting with no roots anywhere. I thought she would just fly away.”
He remembered meeting ten-year-old Vanessa as if it were yesterday.
The baron’s mouth held traces of nostalgia and bitterness.
“She looked different, but I thought she resembled Eleanor. As she grew, the resemblance became stronger.”
Returning home anxious about his niece, he found Vanessa looked like her.
Unable to settle, seeming ready to leave at any moment.
In that way, he thought Eleanor and Vanessa were alike.
It seemed she was too afraid to ask the question herself.
“After bringing Vanessa to Oclama… she changed. That restless aura disappeared. So I thought Eleanor might change too.”
In the baron’s eyes, Eleanor was always a child who wanted to leave.
No one knew where she wanted to go or what she wanted to escape.
She seemed like a bird trapped in a cage with clipped wings, dreaming of freedom.
Just like Vanessa before the baron brought her here.
So he wanted Eleanor to come to Oclama as well.
“After coming to Oclama, Eleanor changed. Instead of wanting to leave, she wanted to put down roots here.”
Like Vanessa, Eleanor settled in Oclama.
Not completely yet, but she was slowly taking root.
If she stayed, she would establish herself without issue.
The baron hoped no one would interfere.
Even her elder brother, the count, had agreed with her and permitted it.
So he had to accept this young marquis and the young minor duke.
“Eleanor has changed, but she won’t leave anywhere now. So let her live here.”
Ernst’s eyes flickered. The baron smiled reassuringly.
“You know it’s better for her to be here.”
The soft voice comforted him as if dealing with a child.
Ernst clenched his fists.
The conversations with Lydia before coming down and the conversation with Eleanor here swirled confusingly in his mind.
‘What if my sister abandons us?’
‘I like it here. I’ll never go back.’
‘Ernst, bring my sister here. I’m afraid she’ll leave forever.’
‘I like being free.’
When he closed and opened his eyes, the voices that had tormented him disappeared.
With a clearer mind, he looked at the baron.
“I….”
Buzz off you flies