Chapter 06
“My lady, these are His Grace’s sincere gifts.”
“I appreciate the sincerity, but wasn’t the compensation for the broken engagement agreed to be debt forgiveness and offering me employment? Though our family may be insignificant compared to Adelgart, we’re not so lacking in pride that we’d eagerly accept such charity.”
The aide, William, seemed somewhat surprised by Odelite’s firmer attitude than expected.
He ultimately had no choice but to yield to Odelite’s resolute stance and return quietly to the ducal estate.
Odelite showed a relieved expression at this.
She actually knew how precious these betrothal gifts were.
If she’d been her previous life’s self, she would have accepted them at the word “sincerity,” thinking him a good person. But nine years of high society life had made her cold.
‘I can’t let Adelgart get even the slightest hold over me with this.’
She knew well how cold and thorough Cherdian was about family relations and connections between nobles. Even if she hadn’t experienced it directly, everyone said so, so it must be true.
Thinking this, Odelite looked satisfied.
But a few days after she returned the betrothal gifts, this time Cherdian himself visited the viscounty.
The moment she heard this, Odelite froze but ultimately had no choice but to go to the reception room. Entering with a somewhat anxious face, she swallowed hard at the sight of the man sitting with his characteristically cold expression.
Cherdian stood up the moment he noticed her entrance.
In that instant, the cold gaze Odelite remembered was nowhere to be found, and he looked at her with eyes that seemed to see someone dear he hadn’t seen in years.
Odelite hesitated at the unfamiliar gaze before raising her head again.
“I greet Duke Adelgart. It’s an honor that you’ve visited the viscounty despite your busy schedule.”
“Lady, it’s been a while.”
Cherdian spoke after a brief silence following Odelite’s words.
Odelite politely gestured for him to sit with a slightly tense face, then sat across from him herself. But she couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable with Cherdian staring intently at her face.
Eventually, she spoke first.
“May I ask what brings you here?”
“It’s about your returning the betrothal gifts. Since you personally refused to accept them, I came to persuade you.”
“Me? You came personally to the viscounty to persuade me? To accept those things?”
Odelite briefly doubted her ears. That busy man, the man who’d left even on their wedding night citing royal orders, came all this way just to ask her to accept betrothal gifts? It was an absurd situation.
Not knowing how to react, she hesitated when Cherdian continued.
“I’d like you to accept them.”
“I’m sorry, Your Grace, but betrothal gifts aren’t simply valuable objects—they carry important meaning. Especially gifts exchanged for the head of house’s marriage have special significance. Shouldn’t items meant for the woman you love go to her rather than me?”
Odelite responded as calmly as possible. Since her words weren’t wrong either, Odelite thought Cherdian would back down now.
But Cherdian, who’d shown an indecipherable expression at her words, spoke with a hardened face.
“These are things you already received. Even if you return them, Adelgart will have no occasion to use them again.”
Odelite’s face flushed bright red in an instant. Her hands, which had been elegantly placed on her knees, trembled violently.
Seemingly sensing something in her sudden change, Cherdian straightened, but Odelite’s mind had gone blank from memories flashing through it.
Suddenly, the afterimage of the cold-eyed man who’d casually looked her over and murmured occupied her mind.
— You wore it once, didn’t you? I’ll give her something new, so there’s no need to return it.
That was when the scandal between Cherdian and Lilia had completely consumed the capital.
Though she’d pretended indifference to Cherdian, the scandals she heard about constantly tore Odelite apart inside. Then around that time, a famous jeweler brought a necklace, saying Cherdian had ordered it.
The necklace studded with gorgeous pearls and emeralds was far from her taste but quite beautiful.
Odelite took it as Cherdian’s way of apologizing or reconciling.
Noble couples often had husbands offer gifts first after quarrels as a gesture of reconciliation, and sometimes this actually strengthened their relationship.
Though Cherdian’s attitude was poor, Odelite’s heart softened considerably at the thought that the taciturn man had personally prepared such a gift.
Eventually, she pulled out a dress she never normally wore to match the necklace and attended a garden party alone, though she was supposed to enter with Cherdian.
But a noblewoman who saw the necklace murmured:
— Isn’t that the jewel Duke Adelgart was going to gift that actress?
Sensing something wrong, Odelite had her maid investigate, and only then learned the jeweler had switched the necklaces.
At the play Cherdian attended after breaking his promise with Odelite, Lilia took the stage wearing a necklace set with a supposedly one-of-a-kind blue diamond.
Naturally, Odelite threw the necklace away the moment she learned this.
Whether switched or properly delivered, the fact that what he’d given wasn’t meant for reconciliation but just to carelessly placate her enraged her.
Then she put that necklace in a box and handed it to Cherdian, forcing herself to be calm.
— The necklace seems to have been switched. Please return it to her.
Cherdian, who’d been looking at the necklace in her hand with puzzled eyes, frowned. Odelite spoke with a choked face.
— You were going to give it to that woman, right? You ordered it to match her eye color, so what use is it in my hands?
At Odelite’s words, Cherdian seemingly recognized the necklace and roughly snatched the box.
Noticing his wife’s tearful expression, he hesitated briefly, then thought something and finally returned the box to her, speaking:
— You wore it once, didn’t you? I’ll give her something new, so there’s no need to return it.
Odelite couldn’t forget the humiliation of that moment. It felt like he was saying items that had touched her hands were unnecessary, and she felt terribly ashamed.
Feeling so stupid for mistaking the necklace as Cherdian’s reconciliation gift and going out wearing an ill-fitting necklace, she eventually threw it in the trash.
‘And now, again.’
Odelite fell silent, not knowing what to do with her trembling lips.
No matter that the necklace incident hadn’t happened yet in this life, she remembered it.
After shedding tears for a long time that evening, she couldn’t attend parties for a while out of shame. The capital overflowed with gossip about how beautifully Lilia had enjoyed a date with the duke wearing the diamond necklace he’d gifted her.
Thinking that far, Odelite spoke coldly. “Then let’s discard the betrothal gifts.”
“Why go that far?”
“Your Grace, I’m not a trash bin. I don’t know how precious the woman you love is, but I have no reason to treasure things she can’t use.”
Odelite’s voice was utterly cold. Cherdian seemed to read something in her voice, hesitating briefly before speaking.
“That’s not it. I simply wanted to give these to you.”
“I know. That way I won’t spread slander about your future duchess later. You’re afraid of that, so you’re trying to shut my mouth with betrothal gifts, aren’t you? Don’t worry. I don’t even know who she is, and even if I did, who would listen to me anyway?”
“That wasn’t my meaning. I meant all these things are yours to receive, so please don’t refuse them.”
“Then all the more reason I have no need to accept them.”
His face twisted strangely at her firm attitude that gave no room for rebuttal. He seemed to have never anticipated this situation, just showing a complicated expression.
But in this terrible situation where memories and humiliation from her previous life had already infiltrated this one, Odelite didn’t want to think anymore.
“I’ll return the betrothal gifts. I’m sorry, but there won’t be any situation where Seidwin receives anything more from Your Grace. If even the debt—yes, that debt—is too precious to you, I’ll work to repay it.”
“Ode— I mean, my lady.”
That’s when it happened. Odelite bit her lip hard.
The image of herself that evening, pulling the necklace back out of the trash and fingering it, flickered before her eyes. Despite bringing her unspeakable shame, she’d envied the necklace’s owner so much that she’d curled up in bed crying all night.
‘I’ll never again think what he gives is kindness.’
Of course, she knew the man before her wasn’t the same as that man.
But in the end, he was Duke Adelgart. She could never forget the humiliation she’d received from him.
Thinking that far, she slowly raised her head.
“Actually, the day Your Grace proposed breaking off the engagement, I was quite happy.”
Odelite knew what repercussions her words would bring. If Cherdian took offense and said he wouldn’t pay off the debt, she’d have no choice but to accept it.
But Odelite didn’t want to play the victim here, stimulating Cherdian’s guilt to receive his pity. Not because of Cherdian, but because of her own pride.
“I didn’t want this marriage either. But Your Grace happened to propose breaking it off, and in that case, canceling the marriage and paying off the family debt was a better opportunity for me.”
“…”
“I didn’t want this marriage in the first place either. So please don’t act like you’re doing me charity, Your Grace.”
Odelite clasped her hands tightly. When she applied force, her intertwined slender, pretty fingers trembled.
Her eyes looking straight at Cherdian held slight fear and anxiety. But she straightened her back as much as possible.
Even if Cherdian got angry, she wanted to at least hold her head high.
‘Surely he won’t hit me.’
Odelite murmured inwardly and flinched.
The anger brought by humiliation and shame, and her distrust of Cherdian, made her imagine extreme scenarios.
But contrary to Odelite’s imagination, Cherdian didn’t get angry.
Without showing surprise, the man who’d looked like he’d expected her to say she wanted the broken engagement watched her, then made a troubled face.
After some time passed, Cherdian set his jaw before slowly speaking again.
“It’s not charity. You have reason to receive compensation.”
“I’ve told you several times I have no reason to receive that compensation.”
“Didn’t my unilateral decision damage your honor?”
“I don’t care. They’re just high society rumors anyway, and Your Grace being so honest is much better than neglecting me after marriage and looking at me with contempt. I should actually be grateful.”
Odelite responded in a slightly bolder voice, thinking Cherdian wouldn’t get angry.
But when her words ended, Cherdian’s face twisted sharply. Odelite flinched, and Cherdian spoke.
“If you married again, you wouldn’t be neglected.”
