Male Lead, Please Dump Me Three Times - Chapter 30

“Miss! I’ve brought the whole cake you ordered!”

“Oh? Thank you, Ellie! It was a good idea to order it in advance.”

“That’s right. Miss Delian will surely love it!”

Ellie said as she placed the large cake box on the table.

A few days ago, I ordered a cake to be delivered to Delian.

It was a whole cheesecake from Lamonde, which Delian loves.

Since I ordered well in advance of the available date, I could pick it up as scheduled.

I am in the midst of laying the groundwork to escape to the south.

Seeing Delian today was one of them.

I was worried that if I left for the south without a word like last time, Delian would surely be concerned.

“Thank you, Ellie. Oh, and I’m about to leave now, could you prepare the carriage?”

Ellie smiled happily at my words.

* * *

“It’s been a while since the banquet…….”

No.

Technically, I didn’t even come face-to-face with Delian that day, right?

I left before the formal party even began.

“I should act like I didn’t see her.”

Lately, Delian felt strangely unfamiliar to me.

Her face and aura from the most innocent and carefree days remained vivid in my mind.

But after returning from the south, I didn’t sense that same energy from the Delian I met again.

“Miss, we’ve arrived!”

At that moment, a familiar scene appeared beyond the window.

It was the Count of Ruina’s mansion that I was visiting again after more than three years.

“Thank you. Could you help me with the things I brought down?”

I stepped lightly off the carriage.

The familiar elderly man greeted me warmly.

“Daisy, it’s been a while since you last visited.”

He was the butler of the Ruina mansion, still wearing a kind smile.

“Is that so? I’ve been quite busy! It seems like your face has improved. Is Delian still staying in the annex?”

Delian had been living alone in the annex since she was very young.

The Countess despised Delian since she was a bastard child.

Perhaps she saw her as tainted and unworthy of sharing the same air or ground?

Delian was still considered a rotten fish in this mansion.

“Yes. By the way, a doctor visited the annex earlier.”

“A doctor? Is Delian unwell?”

It was strange.

When Delian had a severe fever before, they neglected treatment and left her to suffer…

Was Delian’s condition so serious now?

“Well…”

The butler wore a deeply concerned expression.

“For several days now, she hasn’t eaten anything, and she can’t sleep.”

“That bad?”

“Yes. She seems unable to chew food. Even when we fed her porridge, she vomited it all up.”

“Why… What’s the reason?”

“According to the doctor, she’s suffering from a mental illness. Without knowing the cause of the illness… Since she’s reluctant to talk about it, proper treatment isn’t working.”

“I see…”

I nodded in response to the butler’s words.

Delian’s mental illness seemed very serious.

There may be underlying reasons for her depression…

But since Delian had closed herself off, I couldn’t pry into it first.

“Well then… Please take care of our Miss, Miss Daisy. This old man is still unable to help Miss Delian in any way.”

I nodded to the butler.

“Thank you. I’ll try my best.”

The butler knocked on Delian’s door a couple of times before opening it.

Through the crack of the open door, I saw Delian sitting on the edge of her bed with her back against the headboard.

I couldn’t help but be surprised when I saw Delian.

* * *

“Delian…?”

Delian seemed like she could collapse to the floor at any moment.

Her shoulders were slumped weakly.

Her arms, which were loosely stretched out, looked awkward not just because they were thin but also because even her muscles seemed to have disappeared.

Delian was staring out of the window.

Her head was tilted at an angle that seemed hard to straighten. It looked like she couldn’t even hold her head up properly.

“Daisy…?”

Delian laboriously turned her head to look at me.

Normally… she would have embraced me happily as soon as she saw me…

Delian’s pumpkin-colored irises had already lost their sparkle and turned ashen.

Her face was filled with shadows. Her sunken cheeks made her look haggard.

Her already slender wrists now only had bones sticking out awkwardly.

Her eyes, once moist, began to glisten with tears upon spotting me.

“…You’re here. I’ve been wanting to see you even more.”

I cautiously took a step forward. Then, I placed the cake box on the table.

“When you feel better, have some. It’s a Lamonde cheesecake. Your favorite.”

“Yeah… Thank you. Would you come sit here? Moving is a bit difficult for me right now… Sorry.”

“It’s okay. Just make yourself comfortable there.”

I sat on the chair that was placed beside Delian’s bed.

“I heard from the butler. A doctor came by? How are you feeling?”

“How do I look? Pathetic?”

“What matters is not how you look. It’s how you feel inside that matters.”

“That’s true…”

Delian lowered her head at my words.

I waited silently for Delian to speak first.

If she opened up first, it didn’t matter what she talked about.

“Daisy.”

“Yeah?”

“He said he’s tired of me.”

“……”

“He said I’m no different from any other woman.”

The deep scars left on Delian’s heart were undoubtedly caused by Killian.

“What did I do wrong? How should I have held onto his heart…?”

“It’s not your fault. It’s his fault for saying those things so easily to his lover. That’s what I think.”

“But…”

Tears welled up in Delian’s dewy eyes once again.

“Daisy. That person truly loves me. No matter my background, no matter how I look, none of that matters at all… that’s what he told me.”

“Delian.”

“I know. The look in the eyes when he told me those words was real. It couldn’t all be fake…”

Delian couldn’t bring herself to finish her words.

I had clearly told Delian.

People can deceive with their eyes too.

“……”

“The love whispered to me, the gaze sent to me. It can’t all be fake… There must be another reason. There must be circumstances that require me to be kept at a distance.”

“Delian. Even if there are reasons, it doesn’t give him the right to hurt you.”

“……”

At my words, Delian silently shed tears.

“It may be tough right now, but surely a better man will come. You are good enough.”

“Other people mean nothing to me… Without him, I have no reason to exist.”

As Killian and Delian’s encounters continued, Delian’s feelings for Killian deepened.

“Who said that? You’ll be fine without just one man.”

“……”

“Delian. I… I don’t want to see you suffer like this.”

“But Daisy. Another man who will unconditionally love a lowly-born girl like me won’t exist.”

Delian blindly believed in Killian.

She couldn’t be unaware of how thoroughly Killian treated her as a mere partner.

Yet, despite knowing this, she was turning a blind eye and refusing to acknowledge it.

She tried to avoid and deny it.

“……”

“It’s because of me. Even though his feelings didn’t change, he left because of my behavior.”

Delian defended Killian, rationalizing his every word and action.

At the same time, she sought to find all the problems’ origins in herself.

“Delian. He’s just that kind of person. You’re just making excuses. You’re smart. You know deep down, you just don’t want to believe it, right?”

“Yeah. It feels like my heart has been pierced through. A huge hole has opened up that I can’t bear. No matter what I do, I can’t fill it.”

“Delian.”

“Every morning when I wake up, I’m tormented by the thought that he might leave soon.”

“……”

“I wish I hadn’t woken up. His image of loving me so dearly hasn’t left my mind. What did I do wrong? Surely it’s because of me that he changed. That person…”

Killian relentlessly blamed everything on Delian.

I wanted to shout at her to snap out of it right away, but I couldn’t muster the courage to do so with Delian, who was as fragile as a reed.

And the most difficult thing to endure…

Was the guilt that perhaps her life had twisted this way because of me.

I shrugged off Delian and Killian’s problems as complicated, as a third party.

Then I met Ray as if nothing had happened.

Meanwhile, Delian deteriorated slowly and eventually reached this point.

All I could do was hold Delian’s hands.

Giving Delian practical advice by analyzing the cause and effect would likely backfire at this point.

“Delian. I’m sorry. I can’t help you when you’re struggling like this.”

For Delian to return to her original self, she had to realize it herself.

Delian, who had become as fragile as a branch, began to cry uncontrollably.

‘Knock knock.’

In the room filled only with Delian’s cries, a clear knock was heard from outside the door.

“It’s me.”

The voice coming from outside the door was familiar.