On a day filled with fresh spring fragrance, many people came to visit Ariel to celebrate her recovery.

“I’m so glad you’ve regained consciousness.”

Many of those who rushed over as soon as they heard the news burst into tears upon seeing Ariel’s face.

“We were afraid you might never wake up.”

In truth, Ariel had no idea she had been asleep for such a long time. Her last memory was taking the dagger meant for Lucas.

Because of this, she felt bewildered when people greeted her with joy or tearful expressions.

“Count Leonard worked the hardest for you.”

Amid all this, praise for Lucas was abundant. It naturally filled her heart with satisfaction.

However, she also felt somewhat uncomfortable. The fact that she was n*ked when she opened her eyes, and that Lucas had his manhood exposed.

She had heard that she had been unconscious for about 8 months, but why would he…

She wanted to ask about this, but Ariel couldn’t bring herself to do so. It was because of an indescribable sense of discomfort.

Lucas had reportedly taken care of her every night, not knowing when she would wake up. He had also created a new identity for her. Moreover, they were engaged, leaving Ariel with nothing more to wish for.

How much effort he had put in for her. Only happiness awaited them now. So Ariel decided to bury these feelings deep in her heart.

Sometimes there were aspects of him she didn’t know about that she needed to pretend not to notice. Just like now.

Besides, there were more pressing matters that required her attention.

When she belatedly learned that the entire family of Marquis Jiles had been executed for treason, she felt chills throughout her body.

She couldn’t understand why the disappearance of Rona, who had tormented her so much, left her with such an uneasy feeling.

She still shuddered whenever she thought that if their switch had never been revealed, she might have been the one no longer in this world.

So despite all the wrongs done to her, she couldn’t help but feel pity for Rona. After all, she had met a miserable death shortly after finding her parents.

“Um, could I perhaps visit the graves of Marquis and Marchioness Jiles and Rona?”

“Do you really want to go there when it has nothing to do with you anymore?”

Lucas gave her a puzzled look. It would seem strange for her to visit those who had betrayed her so cruelly.

Moreover, they were his mortal enemies, so it was natural for him to feel displeasure at the mere mention of their names.

But somehow, she wanted to go. Though their end wasn’t pleasant, the Marquis and his wife had lived with Ariel for over 20 years.

If they hadn’t betrayed her first, the extreme situation where Marquis Jiles tried to take her life by branding her a traitor would never have happened.

Of course, she resented Marquis Jiles for never intending to spare Lucas, but she couldn’t completely hate the Marchioness.

“Yes. I never saw their final moments. So I want to go. This will probably be the first and last time. I’ll go alone. It would be uncomfortable for you to come along.”

“Let’s go together.”

“Are you sure that’s okay?”

“I’m fine with it.”

Ariel boarded the carriage with Lucas. Their destination was the cemetery where generations of the Jiles family were buried.

Although they had committed treason, the royal family had shown them one last kindness by allowing them to be buried with their ancestors, in recognition of their many contributions to the kingdom.

Of course, with no one left to inherit the title, this would also be the final Jiles family grave.

Shortly after arriving at the cemetery, the two stopped in front of the tombstone bearing the names of the Marquis and his wife.

Ariel gave a slight bow, while Lucas stood behind her, silently watching.

“May you live peacefully in the next world, without greed…”

A teardrop fell to the ground. Ariel took out her handkerchief and wiped away her tears.

Lucas watched her without approaching to offer words of comfort or wipe her tears. No, he couldn’t bring himself to get close.

‘I’m sorry.’

He could only apologize to her from a distance.

Ariel, Rona…

It was Lucas who had changed the fates of these two women.

When he began dreaming of revenge, he suffered greatly. Revenge was justified, but there was one thing that troubled his mind.

Ariel…

Ironically, she was both the daughter of his enemy and the woman who had given new meaning to his life.

To destroy the House of Jiles, he needed to present evidence of the Marquis’s treason. However, treason carried collective punishment, meaning the entire family and relatives would inevitably face execution.

Yet abandoning his revenge to save Ariel would mean he couldn’t face Baron Morton, who had sought him out on his deathbed.

Moreover, even if he chose Ariel, Marquis Jiles would eventually take his life on some absurd pretext. So he had to move first, before the Marquis struck.

If he chose Ariel, Lucas would die; if he chose himself, she would die.

Revenge or love.

Lucas had to stand at this crossroads.

Initially, he intended to choose revenge. That’s why he deliberately didn’t reply to Ariel’s letter. He also avoided meeting her for five years afterward.

But those five years only made him realize how deep his feelings for her were. How much he longed to see her harmless, bright smile… He seemed addicted to that smile.

If he had died back then, he wouldn’t have had such worries. But surviving thanks to Ariel created this problem.

Why did the person who gave him the will to live have to be Ariel? He felt tremendous resentment toward God.

‘Is there no way for us to live together?’

Why? Why must one of two people who love each other inevitably die!

No matter how he thought about it, the situation made no sense.

After much contemplation, Lucas reached a conclusion: he couldn’t give up either.

There had to be a way for both of them to be happy. So he needed to think. He absolutely had to think and think again.

In this situation, the appearance of the “real” daughter of the Marquis could only be advantageous to him. It was a perfect opportunity for Ariel to be completely cast out from the Marquis’s family.

Sally, the maid who worked for the Marquis’s family.

It was Lucas’s father, Count Leonard, who had taken care of her. He had come to report something related to Marquis Jiles when he noticed the Marchioness and Sally conversing behind a locked door.

Picking the lock wasn’t difficult, so he hurriedly entered and escorted her out of the mansion through a secret passage without anyone noticing.

This was to prevent disruption on the auspicious day when the heir to the Marquis might be born. Thus, he gave Sally a large sum of money to keep her quiet and attempted to cover up the incident.

But perhaps the enormous sum became a poison to her. Lucas later learned through Sebastian that after being swindled by her trusted husband, she abandoned her child at an orphanage and took her own life out of despair.

Sebastian, who had been watching Lucas’s anguish, had tipped him off.

So when he finally discovered Sally’s daughter after extensive searching, he couldn’t help but laugh.

Hmph.

Had Sally cast a curse, just as the Marchioness had said? How could she resemble Marquis Jiles so closely? The fact that she looked more like the Marquis than Ariel did was fortunate for Lucas.

Had she prayed before her death for her daughter to resemble Marquis Jiles?

Whatever the case, it didn’t matter. The moment he saw her, a good idea came to mind.

Lucas decided to exploit the Marchioness’s anxiety.

To create a gap in someone’s heart, one must instill fear.

This was the method Marquis Jiles used to manipulate his vassals. So Lucas decided to use the same method on the Marquis and his wife.

Fortunately, seeds of anxiety had already been planted in the Marchioness’s heart, so deceiving her wasn’t particularly difficult. The rest would be handled by her persuading her husband while gripped by fear.

Moreover, that girl was also perfect to manipulate because she was full of ambition to become a noble.

Simultaneously, Lucas turned some of Marquis Jiles’s vassals to his side. Most of the survivors were those who didn’t know the details of the rebellion.

This also meant that those completely trusted by the Marquis had been killed as traitors.

It wasn’t particularly difficult to bring some vassals to his side by informing them that loyalty to the Marquis only resulted in being used.

Especially Count Valcon, whom Marquis Jiles trusted most at the time, was brought to Lucas’s side.

All of this was a result that Marquis Jiles had brought upon himself. Lucas merely took advantage of it.

After bringing Count Valcon to his side, manipulating matters related to Ariel and Rona wasn’t difficult. Through him, even switching genetic test results became possible.

The real daughter became fake. The fake daughter became real.

This interesting script began by subtly spreading ridiculous rumors throughout the mansion. That Ariel might not be their biological daughter.

The Marchioness, already anxious because of Sally, began to waver, and Lucas seized that gap.

Then he had to bring in Sally’s daughter and allow Ariel to be bullied by her. It was necessary to achieve his goal.

This was the only way to exact his revenge while still living with her.

How could he give up a woman he desired so much?

Lucas’s gaze, momentarily lost in thought, slowly turned to the tombstone bearing the names of the Jiles couple.

He felt no compassion for them. They were merely reaping what they had sown.

But he also found their attitude ridiculous, being swayed by a mere rumor to the point of not recognizing their own child.

To think a child could be switched so easily… He found them pathetic for not thinking rationally due to fear.

His gaze, which had been fixed on Marquis Jiles’s epitaph, now moved to the tombstone bearing Rona’s name.

Rona Jiles.

A pitiful woman who died innocently alongside them.

He felt sympathy, but not remorse. After all, her lifelong wish had been fulfilled.

She had lived as a noble before dying, just as she wanted, so she probably wouldn’t resent him for making her a noble.

Not revealing her as a fake until the end was the maximum consideration Lucas could offer.

Although she was the daughter of a traitor, she would remain the young lady of the Marquis’s family in posterity, so it wasn’t a bad life.

Burying this eternal secret that could never be revealed in his heart, Lucas leisurely left the cemetery with Ariel.

This was that man’s way of loving, to protect the woman he loved.

fin.