Chapter 2: A Terrible Nightmare

“What did you say?”

Anger settled in Marian’s green eyes. Marian tightly gripped the luggage bag she had nearly dropped from her hand.

“You said you would submit the divorce papers to the Imperial Ministry of Internal Affairs.”

“……”

“Why? Why didn’t you submit them?”

Unable to contain her sense of betrayal, Marian was about to raise her voice, but when people passed by glancing at her and Cedric, she barely managed to lower it.

Cedric said nothing. He stared silently at Marian with a cold expression from which all traces of a smile had disappeared.

“Please. Say something. Anything.”

Marian could not believe that she was still bound to the name Hartmann.

With Cedric keeping his mouth shut, Marian grew anxious. Her voice, which had been trembling with anger, changed into a plea. Marian wished Cedric would at least give her some ridiculous excuse.

Just then, the cloud that had been covering the sun moved away, and blazing sunlight poured down. Marian frowned at the brightness.

Suddenly, Cedric, who had been standing stiffly like a plaster statue, moved his right arm.

Marian gasped in surprise as though she had witnessed the moment life entered a still object.

“The sun is hot.”

Cedric made a shade with his hand over Marian’s head.

At his unexpected action, Marian could not even flee and was completely trapped beneath his shade.

Cedric himself stood entirely beneath the sunlight without a single patch of shade. It was excessively unreal. His radiant face, and those blue eyes that seemed as though they wanted to hold her within them for a long time.

“Shall we go inside and talk?”

At the chillingly gentle voice, Marian came to her senses and moved away from Cedric.

Marian hugged her bag as though it were a shield and regarded him warily. She was like a hedgehog with all its spines raised before a stranger.

“No. Let’s talk here.”

“Hmm.”

Cedric looked somewhere and continued.

“How about the café you liked?”

Marian’s mouth fell open.

There was no way Cedric could remember the café she liked. No, he probably did not even know that she liked cafés. No matter how many times Marian had asked, Cedric had never once gone to a café with her.

But Cedric was looking precisely in the direction where Marian’s regular café was located. The café was on one side of an alley not far from Chelsea Station.

Just why was this man acting like this?

Marian firmly closed her mouth. She adjusted her grip on her luggage and put on her hat.

Even without borrowing Cedric’s hand, she could sufficiently block the sunlight herself.

Marian turned her back on Cedric and spoke stiffly. She no longer wanted to face the man who had abandoned even their last bit of trust.

“If you won’t tell me now, I’ll be going.”

“To the Hartmann estate?”

Marian spun around and glared at Cedric.

“To Timelon.”

Timelon was a rural village that boasted clean air and outstanding scenery. The Winrose family’s estate was there.

It had originally been used as a villa, but Marian’s father, Carlton Winrose, had moved his residence to Timelon out of concern for the health of his daughter, whose heart was weak.

But Marian was no longer frail. Even without taking medicine, Marian’s heart beat with a loud, regular sound.

“I’ll hire a lawyer specializing in divorce and write to you. Talk to the lawyer.”

“Then I’ll take you to Timelon.”

“Thank you, but I decline. From now on as well.”

When Marian emphasized the last words, Cedric’s eyebrow rose crookedly.

Marian let out a deep sigh. She felt relieved when Cedric returned to the expression she knew. To Marian, the heartless Cedric was more familiar than the affectionate Cedric. The affectionate Cedric made her uncomfortable because he seemed like someone wearing a mask and acting.

“Ah, there happens to be an empty carriage.”

At just the right moment, Marian spotted a carriage from which a passenger was getting out.

Just as Cedric had done, Marian lightly bowed her head in farewell. She could not bring herself to say, even as empty words, that it had been nice to see him.

Marian passed by Cedric. Cedric did not stop her.

That was fortunate. If Cedric had insisted even one more time, she truly would have gotten angry at him in front of everyone.

Instead, Cedric followed Marian with his eyes. Marian could fully feel the gaze clinging persistently to her.

Marian composed her expression and slowly turned toward Cedric. Just as she had felt, Cedric’s gaze was fixed on her.

“Cedric.”

Marian quietly called his name.

It had been a long time since she had spoken the name Cedric aloud. Strangely, unlike before, merely calling his name no longer made her chest ache.

“I’m saying this just in case.”

“……”

“I will never return to your side again.”

Marian raised the corners of her lips and smiled softly.

Cedric’s expression did not change. Marian stared at him for a moment before climbing into the carriage. Soon after, the carriage departed.

Marian did not look back at Cedric, who was left standing alone. The carriage gradually moved farther away from the fountain where the two had stood.

Without any lingering attachment, Marian left Cedric behind.

Just as she had on the day she left the Hartmann estate.

Chirp, chirp—

The birdsong announcing the morning faintly reached her ears.

Marian tossed and turned. The fatigue accumulated from her long journey pulled Marian deeper into the soft blankets.

Using the birdsong as a lullaby, Marian drifted back into her dreams.

“It’s time to wake up. Sleeping in like this. What could have gotten into you?”

Just as she was about to fall asleep, a voice both familiar and unfamiliar woke Marian. It was a lively voice she had not heard in a very long time.

She wanted to see the person’s face, but her eyelids were so heavy that she could not open her eyes.

“The weather is very nice today. Would you like to have breakfast on the terrace?”

Rustle. After the sound of the curtains being drawn, warm sunlight poured inside. Even with her eyes closed, it was so bright that Marian wrinkled the bridge of her nose.

Her body, still exhausted from the journey, felt as heavy as a thousand pounds. The sunlight was warm, making her even sleepier. Marian wriggled deeper beneath the blankets.

But the owner of the voice did not let Marian continue sleeping. She pulled hard on the blanket and urged Marian.

“Hurry and wake up! You said you were going out this morning.”

“Mmm…… Just five more minutes……”

“Young Madaam!”

Marian’s eyes suddenly flew open.

‘Young Madam?’

Marian hurriedly sat up.

“……Evelyn?”

“You’re finally awake.”

Marian doubted her own eyes.

Evelyn Miller.

Evelyn, the maid who had exclusively attended to her at the Hartmann estate, stood there with her cheeks puffed out in a pout. After nagging Marian not to fall asleep again, Evelyn left the room, saying she would bring water for washing.

Marian stared blankly at the closed door after Evelyn left.

Yesterday, Marian had returned to Timelon and fallen asleep in the room she had used since childhood. But when she opened her eyes, the room’s structure and furniture were completely different from the night before.

This was the Hartmann estate.

The very room where Marian had died.

Marian looked out the window with eyes trembling like reeds in a storm. But an unbelievable sight unfolded before her.

Evelyn had said the weather was good, yet the sky within Marian’s vision was yellowish, as though a sandstorm were blowing through it.

Exactly like the days when she had suffered from xanthopsia as a side effect of her heart medication.

“Ugh……!”

At that moment, Marian’s breath stopped at the sensation of her heart twisting. Unable to withstand the surging pain, her back curled inward. It felt as though someone were crushing her heart the way one wrings out wet laundry.

Was it a terrible nightmare? But the pain was far too vivid for a dream.

What if the heart that had overcome the illness and the time she had spent freely traveling across the continent had all been one long dream? What if she had now returned to reality and it was time to accept death?

“Ugh……”

Marian tried to call Evelyn, but no voice came out. A pain-filled groan escaped her lips like a plea to save her.

It had been exactly the same on the day she stood before death.

That day, when she had been consumed by death without even enough strength to make a sound, Marian had swept her fading gaze around her surroundings.

Evelyn, her face covered in tears and snot. Delman shaking his head with a devastated expression. The maids hurriedly going in and out carrying towels and basins.

But Cedric was not there.

A long time had already passed since the servant who had gone to inform Cedric of her condition had returned, yet Cedric did not come. No matter how desperately she clung to the thread of life and endured, he did not show even a strand of hair.

If only you would hold my hand one last time. If only you would stay with me so that my final journey would not be lonely. Then it would be all right even if, in the end, you never loved me.

‘Hello.’

It was Cedric’s voice. The voice she had heard when she first met twelve-year-old Cedric gently lingered around her.

‘I’m Cedric.’

Cedric held out his small hand. Marian stretched out her thin, emaciated arm and grasped that hand. But the hand she had barely managed to catch slipped through her fingers like sand and scattered. Even the grains of sand remaining in her palm crumbled and blew away in an instant.

Cedric. There is one thing I want to ask you.

On the day I died, did you shed tears?

“Gasp!”

Marian awoke, breathing heavily. Her thin silk dress clung to her back, damp with cold sweat.

‘……A dream?’

Marian steadied her breathing and looked around. She was back in the room where she had fallen asleep yesterday. The sky outside the window was filled with blue, and she no longer felt the pain of her heart twisting.

This was reality.

It had to be.

“Young Lady, you’re awa—oh my!”

“……Tina.”

Tina, a maid of the Winrose family, was entering the room when she saw Marian covered in sweat and jumped in surprise.

“Are you all right? Are you feeling unwell?”

“I’m fine. I just had a strange dream.”

“This won’t do. I’ll prepare bathwater right away.”

Tina wiped the beads of sweat from Marian’s forehead with her sleeve, then darted out of the room.

Seeing Tina reminded Marian of Evelyn, whom she had met in her dream. Every time Marian moved to a new travel destination, she had written Evelyn a letter. If she sent a letter after arriving at a new place, Evelyn’s reply would arrive around the time she was about to leave.

She missed Evelyn. Marian thought she should make plans to meet Evelyn soon.

Before that, there was something she had to do.