Chapter 46
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The Male and Female Leads Broke Up - Episode 46
When I spotted the one person whose face I didn't even want to see standing in the path to my Carriage, I instinctively stopped. I had no desire to go anywhere near him.
But whether he heard my footsteps or not, he turned his head in my direction.
"Duchess Heitze."
The moment he saw me, he approached rapidly.
"Duke Maxius."
'So that's why he smiled when he saw me.'
For some time now, I'd suspected there was some sort of arrangement between Cain Maxius and the Crown Prince....
But seeing him here today transformed that suspicion into certainty.
"What brings you to the Crown Prince's Palace, Duchess?"
What is this? His acting is terribly clumsy.
His expression was awkward—distinctly so.
He clearly knew I was here and came anyway, yet he feigned ignorance. It was utterly repugnant.
"I came because I had something to tell His Highness."
I pushed aside my displeasure and gave a perfunctory answer, eager to escape this place as quickly as possible.
"I see. It's been quite a while for us."
"Yes, but I'm rather busy. I should be going."
"Duchess, wait!"
I walked toward my Carriage at the fastest pace I could manage, but Cain Maxius pursued me from behind.
"Let's talk for a moment."
What is it with this man and his constant need to talk?
"I have nothing to say to you, Duke."
I kept my eyes forward and continued walking as I spoke.
"I have something to say to you, Duchess."
His things to say, always things to say.
It was predictable.
I already knew what he wanted to tell me, and I had no desire to hear it.
"I thought we finished our conversation back then."
"I haven't finished."
This was like arguing with a brick wall.
I stopped walking and turned to face him, making no effort to hide my exasperation.
"No matter what you say, Duke, I won't change. Will you keep coming at me like this? Surely you understand how exhausting this kind of behavior is for people."
"...Then shouldn't you give me a chance too?"
"Pardon?"
What is he talking about now?
Why would I ever look at you?
"You cannot claim to have forgotten what the Young Lady said and did to me. As you know, I endured much during those years. So shouldn't the Young Lady give me a chance as well?"
Ha, this is truly absurd.
Was he really saying he had endured all those years when Belita was infatuated with Cain Maxius—over a decade of it?
And now he expected me to bear the same burden?
"You realize you're being completely unreasonable right now, don't you?"
"I do. But I thought this might be the only way to have any chance at all."
Cain Maxius was a thoroughly rational and calculating man.
Therefore, he must surely understand that his words and actions fell far outside the bounds of reason.
"What on earth are you doing this for? Do you truly believe that if you persist like this, I'll return to the Duke?"
My frustration was suffocating.
I kept saying no, no, over and over, yet he refused to listen.
And the fact that he schemed to meet me despite my efforts to avoid him made it all the more maddening.
I hadn't cared to know why Cain was doing this, but now I felt I was losing my mind—I simply had to hear his explanation.
"Finally, you're looking at me properly."
"Ha."
I couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh at his audacity.
He really did interpret everything in his own way.
"I happened to see a letter you left behind."
A letter?
What letter could he possibly mean?
"A letter?"
"Yes, it was tucked between books in the Study."
I couldn't recall writing any letter at all.
I quickly searched through Belita's memories.
A letter...
A letter...
Please, let me remember.
But even as I delved into memories from quite long ago, the recollection of writing a letter wouldn't surface easily.
Then, as I searched through even earlier memories, a hazy recollection from when I was twelve suddenly flickered into focus.
In that memory, a pretty twelve-year-old girl with shimmering golden hair sat on a bench in a Garden.
'Where is this place?'
Just then, a boy who bore a striking resemblance to the current Cain crossed through the Garden.
The boy's eyes were cold and withered. He had always been calm and quiet by nature, but he had never worn such an expression before.
After the Duke and Duchess died in an unexpected accident, the boy changed, and the girl stayed by his side without fail, every single day.
The boy saw the girl but pretended not to know her.
Yet the girl was happy.
Even though the boy ignored her, she was grateful to see him every day.
Then she felt the desire to preserve this feeling exactly as it was.
It was truly a girlish sentiment.
The girl entered the Manor as is.
She climbed to the Second Floor and entered a certain room.
It was a space filled with bookshelves densely packed with books.
There was no one there.
It was only natural.
The only owner of the Manor who could enter this place had just left the Manor.
The girl found paper and dipped a quill pen in ink.
And she began to write her emotions unfiltered, just as they were.
It was the first letter Belita had ever left for Cain Maxius.
[To Duke Cain Maxius, or rather, Your Grace.
Your Grace, it's me, Belita.
Lately, your eyes look so sad that it makes me feel terrible too.
I will protect you, Your Grace, so please don't be so sad.
If you have a bad dream, I'll enter your dream and defeat all the bad people who torment you.
Belita will protect you forever.
My mother and father told me so.
I am your fiancée, and when I grow up, I will become the Duchess.
So I will never leave you, Your Grace, and will always be by your side.
Your Grace, I love you.]
The girl wrote a short letter, pressing her sincere heart firmly onto the paper with her pen.
Then she pulled out a book from the Study, opened it, and hid the letter between its pages.
It was a small game she did, hoping the boy would discover it later.
At that time, the girl believed that if she stayed by his side, the boy would eventually see her.
She believed she would love the boy until death.
'So I really did write that letter.'
It was such an old memory that I hadn't even thought of it.
"Do you remember?"
Cain noticed that I had recalled something and smiled at me with an expression that said he knew it all along.
"Yes, I remember."
"I learned about it a year ago when I read that letter. I discovered how much affection you held for me."
A year ago roughly coincided with the time when Cain Maxius and Adela broke up.
So the reason those two broke up was ultimately because of me—or rather, because of Belita?
All because of that letter?
I was utterly dumbfounded.
The original work had twisted because of a setting that never appeared in it, and this situation was absolutely absurd.
"I was twelve years old."
But nothing changed.
The letter that moved Cain Maxius was written by Belita for him.
"A letter written by a twelve-year-old child who knew nothing of the world."
"That's correct. It was a letter written by a young girl of twelve."
"Then you must understand that the letter holds no significance whatsoever."
"That is not true. It absolutely does hold meaning."
"No. It's a meaningless letter. If the Duke hadn't discovered it, it would be even more worthless."
"Please don't say such things. It is a precious letter that the Young Lady left for me."
'Ah, really.'
Watching him look at me with wounded eyes at my words about its uselessness, I couldn't help but let out a hollow laugh.
"What I wish to convey is what came after. The Young Lady kept her promise exactly as written in that letter. She remained by my side for a very long time."
"But now I am no longer by the Duke's side. And it was the Duke who ended that."
"...Yes. I was foolish. Only then did I come to understand that keeping one's heart unchanged for another is an extraordinary thing. And through that letter, I realized who was most precious to me. So please, grant me one more chance-."
"You've said all you need to say, haven't you? Then I'll take my leave."
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org