Chapter 7 (Part 6)

Jeremy Richard was falling endlessly. He didn’t know from where or to where.  

As he blinked his heavy eyelids, memories from the past flashed before his eyes.  

He faintly smiled at the image of his younger self laughing with his father and younger brother during their ordinary childhood. But the warm, bright scene soon turned somber.  

At his father’s funeral, his hardened face held his younger brother’s hand tightly.  

The young boy didn’t yet understand what death meant.  

After their father passed, Jeremy Richard had to grow up.  

He had to become a Duke of Richard as great as, or even greater than, his father to lead the family.  

‘You are now the Duke of Richard.’  

His mother’s crimson lips glistened with greed as her cold hands gripped his shoulders.  

Jeremy Richard lived to fulfill the duties assigned to him.  

Until the day he happened to save a girl.  

‘Are you alright, little one?’  

‘Sob, I’m not a little one.’  

He had encountered her on his way back from knight training—a girl who had been in trouble. She was still trembling with fear but stared straight at his face.  

With silver hair tangled into a bird’s nest and lake-like blue eyes, she was a brave and adorable girl.  

‘Um… Could you tell me your name?’  

As they parted, the girl asked him.  

‘Do you wish to remember the name of your savior?’  

At her innocent request, Jeremy did something he usually wouldn’t.  

For some reason, he wanted to.  

He removed his helmet to show her his face.  

Beneath the damp golden hair, his face—praised as more delicate than any artwork—was revealed under the sunlight.  

‘I am Jeremy Richard.’  

‘…Ah.’

The girl reacted exactly as Jeremy had intended. Her widened eyes remained fixed on his face, and her cheeks flushed deeply.  

‘…Adorable.’  

It was the final encounter with the brave girl.  

Jeremy, at some point, had lost the ability to distinguish women’s faces clearly.  

The physician claimed it was either due to a curse or an unknown illness.  

Since he had no interest in romance or marriage, he didn’t find it particularly inconvenient.  

‘It doesn’t matter anyway.’  

That was simply how he thought about it.  

While eliminating monsters that threatened the empire’s peace in the frontier, he gradually distanced himself from social activities.  

However, as Duke Richard, he could never be completely free from arranged marriages.  

‘Your Grace, look at this portrait. Isn’t she beautiful?’  

Whenever he visited the Richard estate, his mother would show him numerous portraits of young ladies. Yet, all their faces were blurred and indistinguishable to him.  

Unaware of his condition, his mother emphasized how outstanding these ladies were from noble families.  

‘The Marquis of Dauphnes owns several mines, you know.’  

‘The Count of Superior is a distinguished family with lands even in Pasa.’  

Jeremy mostly complied with his mother, who had raised her two sons alone after losing her husband. He believed it was the best he could do for her.  

But as he grew older, he found himself increasingly at odds with her, especially regarding her insistence on marriage.  

Wealth wasn’t an issue.  

The Richard family was the second wealthiest family in the empire after the imperial family.  

Power wasn’t an issue either. The Richard family already wielded significant influence in the empire, making additional strength through an arranged marriage unnecessary.  

Yet, his mother desired more wealth and power.  

‘Mother, isn’t this contrary to what you’ve taught me so far?’  

After his father’s death, his mother consistently emphasized one thing to him:  

‘As Duke, you must be the sword that serves His Majesty the Emperor.’  

Jeremy agreed with her words.  

He wasn’t an ordinary child but the heir of the Richard family.  

To follow in his late father’s footsteps and become the empire’s sword, he knew he could never work hard enough.  

Thus, Jeremy often recited a mantra:  

‘The empire’s peace comes before the family’s prosperity.’  

For this reason, marrying for the family’s benefit went against his beliefs. Moreover, he couldn’t marry a woman whose face he couldn’t even recognize.  

Jeremy also refused to become a commodity in the marriage market that dominated high society.  

He firmly conveyed his decision to Maria Richard:  

‘Mother, I have no intention of marrying.’  

‘Don’t you realize this is all for the Richard family?’  

‘I’m sorry, but I cannot comply with your wishes.’  

This was the first time Jeremy had opposed his mother, and Maria fainted on the spot in shock.  

After that, Jeremy avoided returning to the capital for a long time and stayed in the frontier.  

The barren and desolate region was the perfect place to escape his mother’s excessive expectations and soothe his troubled heart.  

Besides, the monsters he needed to eliminate seemed endless.  

His bleak but familiar routine was disrupted when he visited the imperial palace to report to the Emperor.  

As always, ladies with blurred faces twirled around the ballroom in colorful dresses.  

He tried his best to avoid encountering anyone as he passed through a corner of the second-floor hallway overlooking the ballroom. While adjusting his loosened hat, Jeremy stopped momentarily and made eye contact with a girl standing in the corner of the ballroom.  

‘…!’  

It was an instinctive act, like a moth drawn to a flame.  

Amid the chaotic ballroom scene, only one person radiated a dazzling light.  

It was Therese Demori, whom he had saved years ago.  

‘No, she’s no longer a little girl now.’  

Her radiant silver hair flowed like waves, and her rosy cheeks beneath her blue eyes glowed with a delicate charm.  

Therese’s slender waist and graceful shoulders, revealed under her fan, caught his gaze.  

‘…Could it be?’  

For a moment, Jeremy wondered if he had been freed from the curse. But even after blinking hard, he still couldn’t make out the faces of other women.  

He couldn’t understand why Therese’s face appeared so vividly to him.  

‘…Ah.’  

A soft gasp escaped Jeremy’s lips, and a peculiar desire enveloped him.  

‘This is dangerous.’  

Though he knew he should leave the imperial palace immediately, Jeremy couldn’t. He couldn’t tear his gaze away from Therese.  

Hiding behind a pillar, Jeremy obsessively watched her throughout the ball.  

He observed when she smiled, when she frowned—everything.  

It was both a blessing and the beginning of a curse.  

Love was a luxury forbidden to Jeremy’s bleak life. He had abandoned all personal happiness to exist solely as the head of the Richard family.  

For this reason, Jeremy suppressed his emotions, trying to prevent even the smallest spark from igniting in his heart.  

‘Just because I can see her doesn’t mean I should hold her in my heart.’  

He deliberately denied his trembling heart.  

However, even when stationed in the distant frontier, his thoughts of Therese deepened.  

Whenever he visited the capital, he would secretly disguise himself and follow her.  

Therese frequented libraries and enjoyed tea at roadside cafes. Watching her from a distance, Jeremy eventually had to admit the truth:  

It wasn’t just because she was the only one whose face he could see. It was because he genuinely liked Therese herself.  

Therese stood up boldly against oppressive nobles and couldn’t ignore begging children.  

She sparkled and was as courageous as when they first met.  

But as soon as Jeremy acknowledged his feelings, he made a resolution:  

He would never get involved with Therese.  

‘If I don’t want her to suffer because of me.’  

He had to.  

Enemies whose faces he couldn’t even recognize were always lurking, waiting for an opportunity to destroy him and the Richard family.  

But fate wasn’t on his side, and by the Emperor’s decree, he was ordered to marry Therese.  

After their marriage, Jeremy left for the frontier and never returned to the estate, consistently ignoring Therese.  

He believed slaying monsters was the only way to protect her.  

‘The farther I stay, the safer Therese will be.’  

Though he occasionally wavered, thinking about Therese being left alone, he convinced himself it was the best for her.  

‘My love will only bring her pain.’  

He could never forget how his father, the empire’s greatest knight, had been poisoned to death.  

Jeremy deceived the Emperor, those around him, and even Therese.  

Whenever he returned to the Richard estate and met her gaze, he only spoke cold and harsh words.  

‘It would be best if you lived as quietly as a mouse.’  

‘Is it because you come from a lowly family that you behave like a courtesan?’  

He hoped Therese would forget her youthful admiration for him and instead hate him.  

He believed this was the price he had to pay for harboring her in his heart.  

The more Therese hated and distanced herself from him, the safer she would be—or so he thought.  

But his choice led to a tragic end.  

‘I will never forgive you.’  

Therese cursed him and met her death right before his eyes.  

When he lost his father, it felt as if the sky had collapsed. When Therese left, his entire life fell apart.  

‘You can hate me all you want.’  

He wanted to tell Thérèse to come back.

But all that remained were a few letters and the tears streaming down his cheeks.  

‘They say you can never meet again once you die.’  

He repeated the words he had murmured in front of his father’s coffin.