Chapter 2
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The Male and Female Leads Broke Up - Episode 2
It was the bottle Mary had been curious about in the carriage earlier.
I had deliberately pushed it into the space beneath my bed just enough so that anyone could tell at a glance that a bottle was there.
It would be ideal if Cain Maxius discovered it first, but it didn't matter if the Manor's servants found it and reported it to him instead.
In any case, the purpose of this action was to ensure that Cain Maxius became aware of the bottle's existence.
'Success!'
Today, I had once again succeeded in accumulating obsessive, undeniably mad behavior, and I left my bedroom heading toward the drawing room.
* * *
The original story had already begun three months ago.
Three months after becoming Belita, while I was constantly engaging in obsessive behavior that Cain Maxius would despise, an invitation to a grand ball arrived announcing the start of the original narrative.
The ball was held at the Imperial Palace for the first time in a long while, and as Belita always did, I remained glued to Cain Maxius's side throughout the entire event.
Since monitoring Cain Maxius at every ball was her most important duty, I had no choice but to do it regardless of how tedious it was.
Belita displayed sensitive and intense reactions whenever Cain Maxius so much as glanced at someone or someone glanced at him.
Especially on days when she was in a particularly foul mood, she would openly throw a fit like a madwoman, preventing anyone from approaching his side.
'Belita really did live a tiresome life.'
After observing Cain Maxius for three months out of necessity, he was exactly as I had anticipated—a man utterly devoid of charm.
Always the same hairstyle, an expression so cold that not a drop of blood would spill if you pricked him, clothing without a single wrinkle, and a daily routine that repeated endlessly—if tedium and monotony were personified, it would be none other than Cain Maxius.
And then he encountered love for the first time.
Despite Belita's vigilant surveillance, Cain Maxius and Adela met for the first time at the ball.
Adela had been frail since childhood and spent her entire youth recuperating at home before reaching adulthood.
Born with weak vitality, even treatment had been difficult for her.
Then, for just one day, her condition miraculously improved in a way completely unlike her usual state—and that day happened to be when the ball was held at the Imperial Palace.
So when her health improved, Adela, who had never attended a ball in her life, attended one for the first time.
I didn't directly witness the moment the two of them met.
Recalling the content of the novel I knew, according to the story, Cain Maxius fell in love at first sight upon seeing Adela caring for a cat wandering about the Imperial Palace.
Adela, who had stepped out of the ballroom to stroll through the Garden, struggling to adapt to the unfamiliar event, and Cain Maxius, who had fled to the Garden to escape Belita's suffocating surveillance, met as if by fate.
Adela herself had never seen a man close to her age before that day, and certainly not one as strikingly handsome as this.
Moreover, according to the novel, she had developed a deep fondness for Cain Maxius, who approached her with such tenderness.
'Tenderness, you say....'
How absurd.
From my experience as Belita, Cain Maxius was not tender-hearted at all.
Of course, if he had hidden his true nature because he found Belita bothersome and disliked her, that would be one thing, but as I mentioned, he was a cold-blooded human being—dry, dull, and utterly expressionless.
In any case, from that day forward, the two of them secretly cultivated their love for each other.
After all, the relationship between the Maxius Family and the Byon Family was far from amicable, and Adela was well aware that Cain Maxius had a fiancée.
But Cain was different.
Ever since he awakened his love for Adela, he treated me as though I had never existed from the beginning.
He showered her with endless affection, caring nothing for how others perceived it.
Meanwhile, Adela continued to reject him because she was troubled by the relationship between me and our families.
However, after three months of Cain's persistent courtship, Adela could no longer push him away and accepted his feelings—
And that was now.
The day Cain first mentioned breaking the engagement to me, and the day I violently refused before resolving to torment Adela in earnest out of spite.
Over the past six months, I had replicated the actions the original Belita took to win Cain's heart.
Of course, I made extra effort beyond the original to maximize the negative emotions Cain harbored toward me.
Before possessing this body, the original Belita visited the Maxius Duchy only two or three times a week, but now I stamped my attendance there daily without missing a single day, ensuring Cain saw my face constantly.
Honestly, even thinking about it now, it was exhausting.
I had traveled back and forth an hour's carriage ride just to see someone I didn't even want to see.
But for the sake of my future, I gritted my teeth and frequented the Maxius Duchy.
On top of that, I even bribed the household servants to report his every move—things I couldn't witness myself during the twenty-four hours I wasn't there.
Of course, this method was discovered before long, but naturally, that too was part of my plan.
And I provided sufficient compensation to the servant who was dismissed after playing spy for a few days.
There were many other things I deliberately orchestrated to be caught doing, but what I invested the most effort into was using a love potion.
In truth, I had agonized over this method before attempting it.
Though it was an incident that appeared in the original story, I spent days in anxiety wondering "Do I really need to go this far?" and "What if this trick doesn't work?"
If this method failed, there was no way around it—I could end up sharing his bed.
Even now, the thought sends chills down my spine; it was the most dangerous gamble I could have taken.
But fortunately, true to his nature as the head of a family that commands water, Cain immediately detected the love potion in the wine I offered him.
And because of that, he—a man who rarely showed emotion—became so furious that I didn't see him for quite some time.
'What else was there?'
I had pursued him with obsessive devotion so relentlessly and naturally that it was difficult to recount everything, and the results were always successful.
Now, the mere sight of my face made him stiffen coldly, and he barely responded even when I spoke to him.
Yet contrary to my expectation that tormenting him to that degree might prompt him to mention breaking the engagement sooner, he gave no indication whatsoever.
Apparently, since I had focused solely on him while excluding Adela, my presence was merely something he could tolerate regardless of his distaste.
But this engagement was finally ending today.
To make it happen, I had placed a vial of blood beneath his bed.
Lost in such thoughts as I waited for Cain, I sat in the reception room sipping tea when he entered.
And as expected, his expression was colder and more menacing than usual, as if he had discovered what I had done.
"Has your guest finally left? I've been dying to see you all day, Duke."
I spoke to him in a voice brimming with rapture, as though I had been desperately waiting for the man I truly loved, overjoyed to finally see him.
But when he didn't answer and merely stared at me, I lowered my gaze and caught a glimpse of the object in Cain's hand.
It was the vial I had placed beneath his bed earlier.
Since everything had unfolded as anticipated, I felt no shock at being discovered so quickly.
"What... is this?"
A rare note of anger colored his voice.
"Ah, well... that... you found out?"
I deliberately drew out my words, but I answered with an expression suggesting that being caught was of no consequence whatsoever.
At my nonchalant demeanor, Cain Maxius grew even more furious, gripping the bottle with such force that it shattered in his hand.
"Your Grace...!"
Faced with a situation far more extreme and violent than I'd anticipated, I blinked rapidly, uncertain how to respond.
After quickly assessing the circumstances, I sprang from my seat and rushed toward him.
Yet the moment I approached, he recoiled as though my very presence disgusted him, stepping back a pace or two with a tremor running through his frame.
"I... I believe I mentioned this to you."
He ground out the words through clenched teeth, his voice dripping with barely restrained fury.
His emotions were laid bare—his rage was palpable enough that I could gauge its intensity.
"Your Grace, your hand needs immediate treatment!"
In truth, I harbored not a shred of genuine concern for the wound on his hand, yet in this moment, I was a woman desperately in love with the man before me.
I reached out to touch his hand, crushed against the glass, with what I hoped appeared to be tender concern—but he withdrew his hand sharply before my fingers could even graze it.
"Lady Adela."
Then he fixed me with a cold, piercing gaze.
"That's not the issue right now—"
"Lady Adela!"
He raised his voice, calling out to me. Only then did I cease my actions and lift my head to respond.
"I believe I told you never to do such a thing again."
"I know. I understand. But..."
I mustered every ounce of my ability to appear wronged, pitiful, and justified, my voice trembling with manufactured emotion.
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