Chapter 82: The Sin Returned
Rosemary, who had been speaking in a dry voice, suddenly tidied her tangled, dirty hair.
With a forced smile on her lips, she looked at Damian. Rosemary’s gaze dropped to his waist.
Perhaps recalling how she had stabbed him with a shard of glass in the courtroom, sadness flickered in her eyes.
“Your Highness, I actually know everything. I know I’m the one you truly love. You weren’t hurt badly… were you?”
“……”
“I wasn’t trying to stab you. Please believe me… I was just so angry—she kept lying and cornering me, so, so…”
Rosemary’s eyelashes quivered violently.
Edelweiss looked at Damian, who listened to Rosemary without any response. His gaze down at Rosemary was exceedingly dry.
“……Rosemary Widen.”
At last he spoke, his slow, low voice as cold as a verdict of indifference against someone no longer worth feeling anything for.
“Your Highness—!”
“The place you belong is not this Kalitz Tower, but the Maneiev Monastery.”
The Maneiev Monastery—where nobles whose bodies or minds are unsound spend the rest of their lives.
“You say I love you? And you know that?” Disgust flickered in his eyes. Sensing his anger, Edelweiss steadied her breath.
“Your Highness, why are you— to me— no, no, Your Highness would never treat me like this. You… you love me…”
Rosemary shook her head, raised both hands, and covered her ears, as if trying to push reality away, wailing in a rusty voice.
She clutched her chest and gasped violently; a sound somewhere between sobbing and screaming leaked from her mouth.
Then she dropped her forehead to the floor and began to weep.
Edelweiss summoned the green butterfly.
“Show her the hallucination of falling from this tower.”
She wanted Rosemary to feel—even for a moment—the same pain. The green butterfly understood and alighted on Rosemary’s shoulder.
Watching Rosemary still sobbing, Edelweiss lightly tugged Damian’s arm.
Damian withdrew his gaze from Rosemary and turned to leave.
“See that the prisoner doesn’t take her own life.”
“We obey, Your Highness.”
The imperial guards opened the door, and he wrapped an arm around Edelweiss’s waist.
The iron door closed, and Edelweiss and Damian departed.
***
Rosemary lifted her head and stared at the guards.
“His Highness will rescue me. He spoke sharply only because of the onlookers—he’s always so kind to me—”
Clicking their tongues, the guards spoke with open disgust.
“So you caused this because you coveted His Highness Damian? Out of jealousy toward your own sister, the Grand Duchess of Lorendel?”
“They say you knew Her Grace was carrying the imperial heir, which is why you aimed straight for her belly.”
Jealousy? How is that jealousy? Rosemary gave a scoffing laugh at their words.
“What do I lack that I’d be jealous of her? How many times must I say it? His Highness loves me!”
“You’ve been disowned by Viscount Benel—you’re no longer even a noble. Her Grace the Grand Duchess is the Blossomweaver Marchioness and the legitimate daughter of Duke Stern.”
“As His Grace the Grand Duke said, you should be sent to the Maneiev Monastery. Ah, but since you’re not a noble anymore, they may not accept you there either.”
At their blatant mockery, Rosemary bit her lip hard.
‘Fools—do they know who I am?’
Even if her real father was Count Sandor, Stern blood still ran in her veins.
‘I’m the late duke’s true granddaughter. Technically, Edelweiss threw away the Stern name herself. I’m as good as the legitimate daughter—she has nothing to do with Stern…’
Besides, Count Sandor, though illegitimate, was actually the late Duke Stern’s eldest son.
‘Why should I be stuck here, inferior to Edelweiss…?’
No matter; Count Sandor would never sit idle. Surely he would bribe the executioner or arrange a switch and come to save her.
‘Once I get out, I’ll kill her for sure this time. Her life was ruined anyway.’
She had been exposed for faking the prince’s child and stripped of her noble status.
On top of that, she was now barren forever. The thought of Edelweiss, who had played the innocent together with Anna and Jane, made her skin crawl.
Wearing a mask while sweetly calling her “sister,” all the while deceiving her.
I have nothing left to lose.
Therefore Edelweiss had to fall into ruin with her—that would be fair.
Besides, Damian’s harshness toward her had to be Edelweiss’s doing. Otherwise, he would never look at her with such eyes.
Thinking of how to toy with his heart again, she arrived at a single answer.
Edelweiss had to disappear. Only then might she once more receive his love.
As Rosemary gnawed her nails, a sound like wind blowing reached her ears.
All the windows were shut, so she looked around in confusion.
At that moment—
A strangling sensation seized her throat, making it hard to breathe.
Edelweiss appeared before her.
“I always found it hilarious how desperate you were to be loved. Flailing around like a swan trying to stay afloat.”
Edelweiss pointed at her and let out a cold laugh.
“…I’m the one flailing?
Who dares say that to whom? Which of us has never been loved by anybody?
I don’t care.”
“No, not a swan… maybe more like a duckling?”
A duckling? And who are you? All you have is the good fortune of being born the Duchess of Stern’s daughter.
“Don’t be too disappointed. Even if you weren’t infertile, a cripple like you becoming the crown princess would’ve been a bit much.”
Crown princess? A cripple?
What is she saying?
Is she claiming that a cripple like me doesn’t suit Damian, who could become crown prince?
“Oh, right. The king of Yennieham seemed to have his eyes on you. He’s over seventy, but with so many princes, at least you won’t have to bear children yourself. Doesn’t that sound nice? How about becoming Queen of Yennieham?”
“Shut up!”
Rosemary lunged at Edelweiss, clawing the air, but her hands grasped nothing.
The shackle around her ankle tightened as if to tear her flesh.
“Aaagh! Shut your mouth!”
Writhing in agony, Rosemary felt the whole space shake violently.
Before she knew it, she was standing at the tower’s railing.
What—why am I up here?
Below yawed a deep black abyss.
A green butterfly spread its wings against the blue sky.
Standing before Rosemary was herself. She blinked, opened her eyes again—yes, it was her.
“Congratulations. Maybe now you’ll finally get the praise you always wanted—‘She took her life for the sake of the family’s honor,’ or something.”
Tap!
The other her, waving, shoved her in the chest. The floor vanished; her body floated, as though gravity had twisted.
Her throat seized—no scream could escape.
The pounding that filled her skull spread in dizzy waves. Terror and dread engulfed her whole body.
“S-save me.”
So scared. I don’t want to die like this.
Why should I die? It’s not me—Edelweiss is the one who should die.
I haven’t done anything wrong—this is unfair…
At the very moment she was about to fall, Rosemary’s eyes flew open. The hand that had been clutching her forehead slipped to the floor.
Pinned facedown by the guards, she lay flat on the ground.
Sweat streamed through her dust-laden hair, and her whole body felt frozen.
“…U-uhh—”
Rosemary gagged on dry breaths, retching repeatedly. The sensation of plummeting still clung to her mind, her chest crushed as if beneath a weight.
What she had just experienced was so vivid she could not tell dream from reality.
She groped across the floor as if scratching it. Her sweat-soaked hands trembled too hard to form a fist.
Then—
Once more, she was at the railing. Her body tilted backward; she saw herself waving good-bye with a smile.
No one answered her scream for help.
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How did she even delude herself in thinking he loves her ?? She saw 1-at the tea party when she tried to stone the canary 2- when he came to propose 3- at his wedding 4- Naval victory— he didn’t even converse with her !!!!!!