“No, more importantly, my goodness……”

“……”

“Madam, why have you become so thin? Are you really alright?”

For the past few days, I had stayed in my room and instructed that no one should be let in unless it was something special, as I was tired.

Because of that, Sherry seemed unfamiliar with my appearance, which she hadn’t seen in quite a while.

“I don’t know what happened, but I told you to move around a bit and eat properly.”

“……”

“You’ll really harm your body at this rate, Madam.”

Sherry’s nagging, just like family, felt warm rather than annoying. Perhaps that’s why.

Thinking it might be okay to tell her about this situation, I silently handed her the document.

“What is this?”

And Sherry took the document from me, then showed a surprised look and covered her mouth.

“My goodness, what is this…?”

I explained calmly.

“We’ve decided to divorce.”

“……No, so suddenly? Did something happen?”

Sherry poured out questions with a worried face, and I shook my head.

“I don’t know either. How it came to this……”

And the perceptive Sherry didn’t pry any further. Instead, she approached me, embraced my back, and just held me silently.

“Miss, it’s okay. Everything will be okay.”

Her quiet comfort had a strange magic to it. With each reassurance that things would be okay, my troubled mind seemed to settle a bit.

❀❀❀

Was this proving the coexistence of happiness and unhappiness? Misfortune always struck all at once.

While I was in self-imposed seclusion in the large mansion, Father suddenly called for me. It was a letter saying he had something important to tell me and to come quickly.

The urgency was felt from the letter itself, so forgetting my days of lethargy, I hurriedly headed to Count Ophelia’s residence.

From the moment I entered the mansion, I sensed that something unusual was happening.

The house, which usually had a subtle floral scent, now vibrated with a terrible medicinal smell. Especially as I got closer to Father’s room, the medicinal smell grew stronger, and when I finally opened the bedroom door and entered, I felt my legs weaken.

“Father… why are you lying down…?”

Father, who was always so robust and full of energy, was lying powerlessly in bed.

Around him stood the family doctor and maids dressed as nurses.

He was undoubtedly ill somewhere.

I dragged my legs, which had no strength at all, and moved as if in a trance toward Father’s bed. Father, who opened his eyes at my presence, showed a faint smile.

“You’ve come.”

There was no strength in his voice. Moreover, his bloodless lips and pale face gave me the intuition that his body was severely damaged.

“Father, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”

Father shook his head and answered with a still smiling face,

“What could have happened? As I age, my body just doesn’t function properly.”

“Father.”

I grasped his cold hand.

“Don’t be sick……”

“Thank you, Levi.”

Levi was a nickname Father used to call me in my childhood. He hadn’t called me that since I grew up, so hearing it after a long time stirred a strange emotion.

Somehow enveloped in an odd premonition, I impulsively opened my mouth,

“Father, you know you have to live for a long time, right?”

“Yes. I need to see my grandchildren, and see them get married……”

While answering my words, Father suddenly closed his eyes.

“……!”

When I looked up with wide eyes in surprise. The doctor standing nearby approached me and explained,

“He’s just fallen asleep due to the strong medicine, so there’s no need to worry too much right now.”

But the relief was short-lived, and I tilted my head.

“Right now, you say?”

It was a statement with the nuance that while it’s fine now, it soon won’t be.

“You mean it’s not just a simple cold?”

The doctor hesitated for a moment before bowing his head deeply.

“I apologize.”

“What does that mean?”

“Actually, Count Ophelia has had a congenital illness since childhood. The previous Count also passed away early because of it.”

“What are you saying? I’ve never heard of this before.”

Is this what it feels like when the sky falls? I couldn’t understand the doctor’s words. No, I didn’t want to understand.

The doctor bowed his head again.

“I apologize for not telling you in advance. The Count ordered us to keep it from you……”

Father is hiding his illness from me? While it seemed like something he would do, I couldn’t believe it.

But the doctor wouldn’t lie, especially not in front of so many witnesses. I took a deep breath and barely managed to say,

“……Is it a very serious illness? Can you explain specifically what kind of illness it is?”

“Well……”

The doctor hesitated and then, as if having made up his mind, opened his mouth.

❀❀❀

According to the doctor, Father’s chronic illness was hereditary, and as the disease worsened, he would experience periodic pain in his heart more frequently.

And the shorter the cycle became, the more severe the pain, indicating the terminal stage, during which the heart could suddenly stop one day.

When I heard that Father was also in the terminal stage, I doubted my ears.

I couldn’t believe it. Why so suddenly when Father had been so robust?

When I was bewildered by the sudden deterioration of his condition, the doctor explained with a dejected voice,

“Actually, the deterioration of his condition has been progressing for some time.”

“Then why wasn’t I told about this?”

“As I mentioned earlier, there were special instructions from the Count.”

“……”

“He said he didn’t want to be a burden while you were doing important work……”

The doctor murmured in a gloomy voice with a dark expression.

I clenched my fist. Honestly, I understood. It was natural for the doctor to follow his employer’s orders, but I was angry that he hadn’t told me, regardless.

No, I’m not sure if “anger” is the right word to describe this. My emotions have sunk so deeply that I don’t even know what I’m feeling anymore.

But there was still something boiling within me, so I took a deep breath to calm my mind.

My reason seemed to have returned somewhat.

There’s no use in assigning blame in this situation.

There was something else more important.

“Then, what about treatment methods?”

The doctor lowered his head.

“……I apologize.”

“……!”

“I’m sorry, miss, but with current medical technology, we can’t even find the cause of the disease……”

“Even so, is there really no way?”

“……I apologize.”

At the doctor’s repeated apologies, I felt as if the ground I was standing on was collapsing.

But outwardly, I didn’t show it and nodded.

“I understand for now. You go and take care of Father.”

“……Yes, miss.”

The doctor who received the instruction soon left the room, and as soon as the door closed, I collapsed in that spot. My legs had given out, and I could no longer stand.

But strangely, tears didn’t come.

Perhaps it’s because this situation, where everything has become a mess, is just too hard to accept as reality.

❀❀❀

Time passed quickly.

Right after my consultation with the doctor, when Father woke up, I vented my frustration about why he hadn’t told me he was sick, and Father silently embraced me.

Knowing the complex feelings behind that quiet embrace, I couldn’t question him any further.

A month passed after that.

I stayed by Father’s side while continuing my work at the trading company, and as I lived according to Father’s life pattern, I realized something.

Father was always alone in the spacious mansion. But solitude had become so familiar to him that he didn’t seem to have any particular feelings about it.

Perhaps I had been missing something more important than business and succession to the position of family head.

And not just one thing, but two.

Looking at it this way, I thought how fickle humans are.

It’s not that we didn’t know what was precious, or that we didn’t have time, but we’re easily deceived by familiarity.

So we only regret when we realize that something precious is leaving and disappearing.

Just like now.

❀❀❀

The day after a month and a week had passed was not much different from any other day.

Having breakfast with Father, doing our own tasks during the day, and then gathering in the greenhouse for tea time in the late afternoon.

At least, that’s how it appeared on the surface.

‘……I wonder what Assel is doing now.’

I wondered where he was and how he was living now, after leaving me saying he could no longer trust me. I missed him.

But it was already spilled water. I had neither the justification nor the courage to hold onto him.

‘If I had opened my heart to him a little more, things wouldn’t have escalated like this.’

A deep sense of regret washes over me.

But it couldn’t be helped.

Even if I blamed my past self, the answer would be the same.

‘Back then, I also thought that was the best I could do.’

This regret was destined to eat away at me.

So I decided to just forget it.

Of course, it wasn’t as easy as saying it, so I lived half-crazed. To push away the emptiness that rose during the nights when no one remained by my side, I constantly devised business plans and clung to them without rest.

Thanks to that, at least on the surface, peaceful days were maintained.

But just as misfortune comes without warning, so does death. Or more precisely, I thought it might.

It was late at night.

After having tea time and dinner with Father, we each went to our rooms. I was finishing up the trading company work I hadn’t completed during the day, assisted by a few employees I had brought from the company.

I had always wanted Black Rose to expand beyond just the fashion industry into other fields. Judging that now, as we were gradually establishing ourselves in fashion, was the right time, I boldly made a decision.

To start a new business.

After much consideration, I finally decided on the spice business.

Spices are ingredients that add flavor to food, just as dyes add color to fabrics. Food with spices actually tastes better than regular food.

But because they’re prohibitively expensive compared to their quantity, among the wealthy, especially nouveau riche, how much spice one puts in food is considered a measure of wealth and a point of pride.

Honestly, it was a culture I didn’t quite understand, but it was definitely profitable.

However, there was a fatal drawback.

These spices don’t grow within the Ricardo Empire. They must be imported, and the only way is to buy them from the Mien people, who are considered heretics after failing to forcibly reclaim the holy land. With outrageous prices and tariffs, it was understandable why spice prices were skyrocketing.

Because of this, a new wind of reform had begun to blow among the empire’s wealthy.

Pioneering a maritime trade route toward the East, where spices grow abundantly.

However, while maritime trade with nearby countries was common, venturing far had never happened throughout the empire’s history. With minimal development in shipbuilding and navigation techniques, Eastern trade was practically a mirage.

But recently, news came that a genius had created something called a compass. It was an object that showed a ship’s position and the direction to its destination at sea. If we could get our hands on it first, we might be able to realize Eastern trade.

Before preparing for negotiations, to present better conditions, I couldn’t rest even in this situation.

I collected information and gathered skilled craftsmen who could build ships. To avoid being scammed, I sought advice from experts.

Besides these, handling miscellaneous tasks like budgeting made several months fly by.

Even while wondering what use this was, I mechanically responded to work because I didn’t want to waste the time I had invested.

That day too, I was immersed in that work as usual when suddenly the door opened, and a tearful maid ran to me.

“Miss! Something terrible has happened!”

Her cry was so loud that everyone working with me, including myself, raised our heads and stared at the maid.

But there was no wavering in the maid’s eyes. Only a surge of desperation was melted in them.

“What happened?”

I carefully asked, pushing away the ominous feeling, and soon the maid’s lips opened.

“Count Ophelia is in critical condition.”

“……!”

It was the moment when the ominous feeling became reality. My heart sank.

There wasn’t even time to ask why someone who had been fine until just now was suddenly in critical condition. My body moved instinctively first.

To me, the maid’s words about him being in critical condition sounded like he might leave without a final goodbye.

I ran like mad. My expensive dress dragged on the floor, and I felt glances from around, but I didn’t care.

With Father in critical condition, nothing was more important to me right now.

After running for a while and reaching the front of Father’s room in the main building, there were a few servants and a maid standing in front of the door.

The tray the maid was holding was filled with countless bloodstained white towels. My heart froze cold at the sight.

I don’t know if it was an auditory hallucination or real, but somehow I felt like I could hear Father’s coughing from beyond the door.

“……Open the door now.”

There was no time to delay further. At my command, the servant guarding the door bowed and opened it, and as soon as I entered the room, I was speechless at the unfolding scene.

Aside from the constant coughing sounds, the sight of Father lying on the sickbed captured my vision.

Despite the considerable distance, I could clearly see his face, which was not just pale but ashen.

At my entrance, the surroundings became suddenly quiet. With everyone watching me, I slowly moved my steps toward Father.

Despite having run all the way here, strangely, I didn’t have the courage to directly witness Father’s condition with my own eyes.

As my footsteps got closer to the sickbed, Father coughed, and congealed blood stained the wavy white beard below his blackened, dead lips.

The waiting maid hurriedly picked up a white towel and approached Father. While blankly watching this scene, I suddenly tapped the maid’s shoulder.

“I’ll do it. Give it here.”

The maid showed a slightly surprised expression but soon bowed her head and handed me the towel.

After receiving the towel from the maid and approaching Father, I stared at his face.

In the few seconds of facing that ashen face with constantly rolling eyes, I felt like my heart was burning up.

My throat felt raw. Swallowing that pain, I slowly moved the towel toward Father’s chin. The blood on his chin and mouth was quite abundant, instantly dyeing the white towel red.

Father had often coughed up blood. But this was the first time the amount of blood was so much.

The words “critical condition” seemed to sink in now. Just as I unconsciously tightened my grip on the blood-soaked towel,

“Levedi……”

A trembling voice flowed from lips that were dried and bloodless. Surprised, I opened my eyes wide, and familiar eyes met mine through eyelids that had been powerlessly fluttering.

Purple eyes, similar to mine, hazily followed me as if groping through empty space.

“Father, are you conscious?”

I quickly grabbed Father’s hand and met his gaze, and Father nodded faintly with a dim smile.

“I’ve been… waiting for you to come……”

As if even uttering a single word was difficult, seeing Father gasping for breath, something hot stirred from deep within my throat.

Only after taking a deep breath could I speak,

“……Father, your hands are so cold.”

“……”

“I’ll warm them for you. Everything will get better soon. Have you taken your medicine?”

Father smiled faintly instead of answering and then whispered,

“Levi, there are things in this world that don’t go as planned……”

“……Father.”

I bit my lip. Because I understood his meaning.

Father seemed to already anticipate that he would soon pass away.

“But… there are definitely things you can control.”

His voice was cracked and dry, close to a metallic sound. I gripped his hand even tighter, and he continued,

“Dismiss… the servants.”

At Father’s command, I turned around and gestured for the gathered servants to leave, and soon there were only the two of us left in the room.