“Ab-abandoned? Though he has a strict and rigid temperament, he’s not that despicable. My father must have removed my name from the family registry with the feeling of tearing out his own heart.”

“You know even less about the Marquis than I do.”

A stream of laughter escaped from Aaron’s mouth.

Tearing out his heart?

Not likely.

She speaks like that because she doesn’t know how selfish that man is.

The humiliation he had suffered from Marquis Teneri was still deeply engraved in his heart.

He felt the urge to expose the Marquis’s true nature to Lucilia, who was defending him as not despicable, but he didn’t want to waste energy on something futile.

He also didn’t appreciate appearing as if he was deliberately driving a wedge between father and daughter.

Aaron vaguely mixed the Marquis’s strengths and weaknesses and glossed over it.

“In the end, he disowned his own blood, but I won’t deny that there was still some parental affection remaining. After all, he did try to save your life.”

Her eyes, full of confusion, wavered helplessly.

Aaron thought it fortunate that her focus was shaken.

The once arrogant Marquis had sold Lucilia to him. That strangely inspired a sense of victory.

He had felt inferior to Lucilia, who had grown up enjoying privileges, since childhood. His deficiency had protruded like thorns, sharply pricking his narrow-minded interior.

Aaron pretended to maintain a solemn expression.

“When the alliance broke, the obligation to protect each other also disappeared. That’s why the Pope tried to execute you as a seductress.”

“So he intended to cut off my wings, as I was my father’s wings. And my father, in crisis, formed a new alliance with His Majesty the King.”

“Even surrendering his military command.”

Lucilia suddenly had a question.

If the two forces that controlled religious and military power had united more firmly, they would have easily manipulated the Kingdom of Caldman as they had been doing.

She couldn’t understand what had gone so wrong that her father turned to the King’s side, even at his own expense.

To save his daughter?

That contradicted Aaron’s claim.

He had clearly said that her father had abandoned her to preserve his own life.

It was embarrassing that she knew so little about her father, but there was no one else to ask but Aaron.

“You said earlier that His Majesty had to find a compromise because the old religion’s influence was so great at the time.”

“Yes.”

“The authority of the old religion remains unchanged even now, so why did my father suddenly let go of His Holiness’s hand? I don’t understand why the alliance collapsed. Did His Majesty’s power suddenly strengthen?”

“That’s confidential.”

With that short word, her question was deflected far away.

Aaron, who had firmly dismissed it, interlocked his fingers.

“Are your questions finished?”

She wouldn’t ask more after he had made it clear not to.

Indeed, she couldn’t easily reveal her curiosity.

It was quite amusing to steal glances at her orange eyes, which were floundering because her curiosity wasn’t satisfied.

Aaron covered his view by pretending to scratch his eyebrow before her gaze could return to him.

After tightly sealing and then releasing her lips, she murmured with a tone of resignation.

“Yes. This is enough.”

“Your face doesn’t look satisfied.”

“Even if I ask for more, you won’t tell me anyway.”

And knowing the reason won’t change the outcome.

Her inner thoughts seemed readable from her face, which had lost its vitality.

Aaron gazed at her white cheeks as if caressing them, evoking sympathy. Soon, a thirst rose to part her lips, which were closed like a seashell.

“Let me ask one thing.”

“…”

“Do you want to live?”

‘What else can I do but live?’

‘If not, should I just die now?’

The trials that had befallen her were so miserable that she wanted to hide somewhere.

Whether sinking into the ground or soaring into the sky.

But there was nowhere to hide, so she ended up standing still.

To be honest, aside from religious beliefs, she lacked the courage to die. Of course, she had been taught that those who take their own precious lives would not find peace even after death.

Rather than that, shouldn’t she live somehow and look toward hope?

Unless someone killed her, she would never extinguish her own life.

It was his freedom to criticize her for clinging to life pathetically, but deciding on life or death was her freedom.

Defiance settled in her eyes, which had been submerged in despair.

“Let me ask one thing too. Would you prefer me dead?”

He languidly leaned back against the chair.

Finally, her tightly closed lips had opened, but…

Who knew she would counter so cunningly?

Aaron tilted his head to the side and replied with boredom, as if it wasn’t an important question.

“If I harbored resentment against you, perhaps…”

Feeling her gaze extending straight toward him, Aaron pushed back his chair and stood up.

“In exchange for being granted control over Tudra, all authority over you has been transferred to me. I will duly take responsibility for you as a husband. If you want to live, fulfill your duties as a member of the baronial family, and if you want to die, tell me.”

“And if I tell you?”

“I can at least share the concern of what method would be best.”

He meant he would consider together how she could die without causing harm to Tudra and the baronial family.

‘I can’t make such a busy person think about ways to die.’

‘I’ll just live.’

Lucilia tightly sealed her lips to prevent a hollow laugh from escaping and asked again.

“You mentioned duties, but specifically what are they?”

“When my father passes away, I will become the lord of Tudra. Although you’ve been away from noble society and stayed in the monastery for a long time, you must have seen and heard things, so you should have a general idea.”

He referred to duties beyond being a member of the baronial family—duties as the wife of the lord.

It was a position that came with responsibility and a sense of mission.

She needed to be familiar not only with the household management of the mansion but also with the overall operational system of the territory.

She also needed the ability to keenly identify necessary aspects in various places while accompanying the lord on tours with his permission.

And even the role of acting on behalf of the lord during his absence.

Though still distant, these were duties she would eventually shoulder, as he said. She had only thought about leaving Tudra and hadn’t considered this far.

She was flustered as responsibility suddenly rushed over her like a wave. But if she wanted to live, she needed to do her best in her life here according to Aaron’s will.

Her life, which had nearly disappeared on the execution platform as a sacrifice in political strife, had dramatically changed, so she intended to do her best.

This might also be God’s will.

With God’s blessing, she might be gifted with a better life than before.

It was her part to live each day with gratitude.

Lucilia tightly gripped the letter. She crumpled the evidence of being abandoned and swallowed her resentment.

“I must live. I will live on defiantly.”

Not noticing Aaron’s eye corners slightly folding, Lucilia strongly expressed her will to live.

If she locked herself in the bedroom and wasted time helplessly, he might rather want to kill her.

There was also the easy method of throwing her out and locking the castle gates, regardless of whether she lived or died.

One thing was clear: depending on her attitude, the possibility of an unfortunate incident hastening her own death would increase.

“So I won’t waste time with unnecessary worries.”

“Since you speak so confidently, I’ll believe you once.”

Aaron, who pushed the teacup toward her, gestured as if to say drink slowly, then pushed his chair and stood up.

A refreshing breeze came through the wide-open window.

* * *

After a while, Aaron turned from the window and stared at the empty cup.

Lucilia had forcibly emptied her tea before leaving the study.

While her resolute appearance was admirable, her visibly trembling body was not so pleasing.

During their time together, he had to experience emotional changes moment by moment because of her.

The fall of Lady Teneri, who had reigned from a noble position, gave him a sense of victory that quickly fizzled out.

Aaron recalled the previous night.

He had fallen asleep while comforting her as she sobbed. When he woke up in the position of holding her tightly, he was so surprised he couldn’t speak.

He couldn’t understand how he could sleep so defenselessly while holding her, even though it was his own body.

Because her pure, blinking eyes floated right in front of him, he couldn’t properly review documents even after coming to the study.

His half-lost soul returned only when the letter from the Marquis arrived.

Unfortunately, no good news reached her, who was filled with hope of returning to the capital.

Even he, who had anticipated the result, felt complicated—how much more so for Lucilia? Though she might pretend to be calm on the outside, her heart, which had fully absorbed the shock, would not be.

Being abandoned even by her family, she would be engulfed in heart-wrenching pain whenever she recalled her miserable reality.

“Her nightmares will get worse.”