Chapter 77

Patrizia, rambling, confessed everything that had happened earlier to Narcissa.  

Narcissa’s expression did not change at all as she listened.  

That made Patrizia even more terrified.  

Cold sweat trickled down her spine.  

She would have preferred if her mother had slapped her or yelled at her, like other parents.  

“Patrizia, my daughter.”  

Narcissa approached her daughter with elegant steps.  

“…Yes.”  

Patrizia clasped her hands tightly and answered.  

“Did I raise you like this?”  

She lifted her hand and softly stroked both of her daughter’s cheeks.  

“…I’m sorry, Mother.”  

Patrizia’s whole body bristled at her mother’s touch.  

“Do you think you’re a Princess, or do you think you’re some filthy street woman?”  

It was a humiliating remark, but since she was guilty, Patrizia could only bite her lip and say nothing.  

“Why aren’t you answering?”  

“…I am a Princess.”  

Patrizia opened her trembling lips.  

“Then why did you do something so stupid, something only a pr*stitute would do?”  

“……”  

What could she say to ease her mother’s anger?  

She racked her brains.  

“Mother, I did it because it seemed Duke Blumhart had feelings for that commoner.”  

After a brief silence, Patrizia spoke.  

She decided to be honest.  

To talk about the pitiful reason she had no choice but to do it.  

“…A commoner?”  

“The child’s birth mother.”  

A single tear fell from Patrizia’s eye.  

“Mother, I really didn’t want to use such a lowly method, either.”  

She continued to speak, not bothering to wipe her flowing tears.  

“But the way the Duke looked at that commoner—it was the look of a man in love.”  

She sobbed and collapsed to the floor.  

“…How could I possibly endure that!”  

Patrizia cried out softly and buried her face, weeping.  

“…The child’s birth mother, you say.”  

Narcissa muttered, not looking at her daughter.  

She had simply planned to kill the child’s birth mother, but now there was the potion-making, and this latest incident—she was becoming an ever-greater thorn in the side.  

When would Carmen finally kill that woman?  

“Still, Patrizia.”  

She looked down at her daughter with cold eyes.  

“You are a Princess. To do something so rash over such a trivial matter….”  

She was tired of her daughter always trying to solve everything with emotional appeals.  

She couldn’t keep indulging such a foolish daughter forever.  

“And without my permission, at that.”  

Her voice was as cold and fierce as the frozen snowfields of the north.  

‘First, to secure the child, Patrizia must be married off as soon as possible….’  

She had planned to keep the Duke trapped in the north this winter.  

“Insolent.”  

Her foolish daughter had ruined all her plans.  

Not only did she fail to help her mother’s grand ambitions—  

“For now, you should remain in your palace and reflect.”  

She had not yet told her children about the black magic, but if they had any sense, they wouldn’t act like this.  

“…M-Mother.”  

Patrizia called out to Narcissa in a desperate voice.  

“Because of your disgraceful actions, you’ll be broken off tomorrow. You have disappointed me.”  

She had been born with insignificant mana, but at least Narcissa thought she would be useful for the engagement. Unfortunately, even that was too much for her daughter.  

“The same goes for you, Florian. Did you think I wouldn’t realize you were the one who gave her that drug?”  

She shot a glare at her son.  

Florian closed his mouth and lowered his head.  

How could every child she bore be so unsatisfactory?  

Swallowing her anger, Narcissa left her despairing daughter behind.

* * *

“If you rest comfortably for an hour or two, you’ll be fine.”  

The healing mage straightened up after finishing the treatment.  

“It’s only because you’re you, Your Grace—if it were anyone else, oh dear….”  

The mage shook his head.  

“Can you tell how much of the drug the Princess used?”  

“Of course. See here? This is the medicine I extracted.”  

The mage showed him the liquid he’d taken out with healing magic, now in a crystal glass bottle.  

“Let me see.”  

When Johann held out his hand, the mage respectfully handed over the bottle.  

“…At this amount, there’s nothing more to say.”  

He muttered, staring at the bottle.  

After the mage left, Samuel approached Johann.  

“Are you feeling better, Your Grace?”  

“I’m better than before.”  

Johann placed the bottle on the table.  

“That’s a relief. …But, how did you end up with Miss Lia?”  

At that question, Johann’s face twisted.  

“…That’s none of your business.”  

If Samuel had been even a little late, things could have gone very wrong.  

‘…I nearly lost control and kissed Lia.’  

If he’d done that in such a state, he would surely be regretting it terribly by now.  

He ran a rough hand over his face.  

“More importantly, Your Grace, I think this is an opportunity.”  

Samuel, reading the mood, changed the subject.  

“You mean, a chance to break off the engagement with the Princess?”  

“You were thinking the same thing, I see.”  

“Pathetically, the moment I heard she’d drugged me with a love potion, that was my first thought.”  

How much did he want to break off the engagement, if that was his first thought even in a crisis?  

He let out a hollow laugh at the absurdity of it.  

“Unlike the Interim Empress, the Princess’s impulsiveness and stupidity are finally working in my favor.”  

Her impulsive and reckless nature had always been troublesome, but now it was helping him.  

‘It’s only because nothing happened last night that I can think this calmly.’  

Once he’d recovered a bit, Johann got up from the bed.  

“Samuel, draw up the breakup letter at once.”  

He moistened his throat with the water on the table.  

“I’ll have to meet His Majesty the Emperor at dawn.”  

“Yes.”  

Before they knew it, the dawn was breaking.

* * *

Lia spent the whole night unable to sleep, blaming herself under the covers.  

‘I’m crazy, I’m crazy. I should have left right after putting the towel on him—why did I just stare like that!’  

Ugh, I don’t know. Maybe it was because it reminded me of when we first met.  

When he was infected with monster poison and unconscious for about a month, and then woke up—it just overlapped with that time for some reason.  

Even if it reminded her of that time, how could she try to touch someone in so much pain!  

Lia writhed under the blanket.  

He looked so pitiful and miserable, she just wanted to help him.  

She thought he’d recover soon, that she just wanted to comfort him.  

‘…No, why am I feeling this way about him?’  

Now they were just strangers.  

Their relationship was already over.  

So she shouldn’t feel anything at all….  

Feeling depressed, Lia pulled the blanket over her head.  

…It might have been one thing with an ordinary man like Hart, but to feel that way about Duke Blumhart—  

That was absolutely forbidden.  

She never intended to love him again.  

So she didn’t want to feel pity, either.  

When she first met him—Hart—she started with those feelings, and it turned into love.  

‘…I don’t want to get hurt twice.’  

Even if he broke off the engagement with Her Highness the Princess this time, there would be countless beautiful noble ladies around him.  

And the difference in status….  

‘…Don’t dream foolish dreams.’  

She told herself to focus only on avoiding Rafaella’s fate and her own death, nothing else.  

She closed her eyes and brainwashed herself until Rafaella woke up.  

She told herself not to fall in love again, swept away by memories or fleeting emotions.  

Rafaella woke up, and it was almost time to go for breakfast.  

“Mommy, mommy. Let’s go quickly.”  

Rafaella tugged at Lia’s skirt.  

“Raffy, Mommy isn’t feeling well today.”  

“But Mommy, you don’t have a fever.”  

Rafaella touched Lia’s forehead with her hand, tilting her head.  

“…You can be sick even without a fever.”  

Lia squatted down to persuade the child.  

She simply didn’t have the courage to attend breakfast with Johann this morning.  

‘He must feel awkward too; it’s better if I avoid him.’  

“Boo! Mommy, you said you’d eat with Daddy and me whenever you could, liar!”  

Rafaella pouted.  

“Raffy, I’m not lying.”  

“You are! Auntie Peppy read me a book yesterday—it said people who lie always touch their noses.”  

Lia froze.  

Her fingers really were touching her nose.  

‘So that’s why she didn’t believe me as usual.’  

“…I didn’t touch it.”  

“I saw it.”  

Rafaella put her hands on her hips and frowned.  

Knock, knock, knock.  

When they didn’t come down for a while, Johann finally came to find them.  

“It’s Daddy!”  

Rafaella ran to Johann and hugged him tightly.  

“My Raffy, did you sleep well?”  

“Yes!”  

Johann lifted Rafaella lightly into his arms.  

“Aren’t you overdoing it?”  

Lia asked in surprise at the sight.  

“…I’m fine now.”  

“Still, Daddy isn’t feeling well, so come down quickly.”  

Lia reached out to Rafaella.  

“Really, I’m fine. The healing mage completely detoxified me.”  

“Daddy, were you sick?”  

“A little, but I’m not sick now.”  

He kissed Rafaella on the nose.  

“You must have been really surprised yesterday?”  

“…A little, but it’s okay.”  

“…I’m sorry.”  

He bowed his head slightly and apologized.  

“It wasn’t your fault, Duke.”  

Lia waved her hands vigorously.  

They spoke without looking at each other, so obviously avoiding each other.  

‘…I can’t look him in the face after last night.’  

Rafaella looked back and forth between them and spoke.  

“Mommy, Daddy. Did you two fight?”  

“What? No!”  

“No!”  

They answered at the same time, and their eyes met.  

Lia felt her face flush.  

“Huh? Why are both your faces red?”