Time had lost all meaning, and she could not tell whether three days had passed or a week.

Only when the thought came that she could not hold on much longer did she find herself unable to hold back tears.

Today, too, Riley rested her chin on her knees and thought.

I never even gave him a proper answer to his proposal……

If she had known it would come to this, she would have accepted without a second thought.

She should have told him she liked him too, that she liked him very much.

It was so clear to her now that Andrea’s feelings were not impulse but love.

Why hadn’t she been able to see it then?

The reasons she had hesitated to accept his proposal seemed like nothing at all now, looking back. Why had she kept pushing him away?

He had promised to arrange a proper title for her, promised to handle His Majesty himself. He had prepared every solution, and yet she, out of some petty pride……

“Hic.”

Hot tears welled up before her eyes again.

Andrea’s heart was clearer to her here in this darkness than it had ever been.

Come to think of it, he was never cold to me. Not once.

He teased her every time, was always kind to her…… and wherever he went, he came back with some small gift.

He had even bought her a house when she left the palace. That said everything.

And more than that.

He had always been there beside her so she would not feel lonely or frightened, newly thrown out into the world.

And yet she had only ever used him……

Lost in remorse, Riley let thick tears fall one after another, and a startled Bellon tried anxiously to stop her.

“Good heavens! Miss Riley, you mustn’t cry. Losing moisture from your body is dangerous.”

Bellon’s own voice was weak from exhaustion and terrible thirst.

But Riley was completely submerged in regret and could not pull herself out. She turned her gaze inward and suffered.

“Hic……”

I used my meager talent in such a contemptible way.

Drawing and selling His Highness’s n*de in the first place, and then satirizing the great nobles, she should have maintained some reasonable limit. She should have pricked at people who valued their honor in a more graceful way, but it seemed she had pushed things too far.

She had been carried away by the public’s enthusiasm for her style and had enjoyed tearing others down.

Their corruption deserved to be exposed, of course, but she should never have mocked them as people.

Riley wept silently, tears falling in heavy drops, and Bellon had no idea what to do.

“Please…… stop crying, Miss Riley. This is truly dangerous.”

She lamented even to Bellon, who knew nothing of it.

“I should have just, hic, accepted when he offered me a title, and the marriage too…… I should have closed my eyes and said yes. We could have lived happily together, so why did I keep playing hard to get?”

The words came out of nowhere, and Bellon was at a loss, but Riley kept talking to herself through her tears.

“Why did I keep…… hic…… deceiving myself with the excuse that I only wanted to date?”

She had liked him.

She had known somewhere inside that being together would be joyful and happy, so why had she never once accepted his proposal with open arms?

It had all been petty pride and fear.

The regret hit her all at once.

If she died here like this.

She would be leaving after putting off and avoiding Andrea’s feelings to the very end.

If she had known it would come to this, she would never have said those dishonest things about wanting to date and nothing more.

Would he misunderstand that she had dismissed his proposal as trivial all along?

Would he carry that memory of her heart forever?

Riley buried her face in her knees and sobbed openly, body be damned. Tears soaked into her skirt, and she did not care. She mumbled through her crumpled voice.

“Hic, I liked you. And right now…… I love you.”

She meant it.

She had felt a kind of pride watching Andrea, always so arrogant and self-assured. At the same time, she had noticed that his manner shifted ever so slightly when it came to her alone, and she had taken advantage of that. She had known full well that he would accept whatever she gave him.

She had been startled when he showed his feelings, but the truth was she had already sensed his heart long before that.

“Hic, I knew it all along…… I knew it was genuine, so why did I keep pushing him away. It’s not like I was lost in some tragic drama……!”

Riley wept and raged at herself.

At this rate, she would be found in a terrible state in a few days. She would rather never be found at all.

She just wanted to leave behind good memories.

She wanted to be remembered as someone who had accepted his proposal gladly, joyfully.

What was the last thing she had said to him?

She thought she might have scolded him for sending unnecessary things.

Stop sending these, Your Highness. Things like this won’t influence my decision, you know.

She had known he wanted to give her something good, and she had responded with nothing but sharp, presumptuous words.

Would those be the only answers he remembered forever?

Imagining a tragic ending from inside her heart made the crying come out even more brokenly.

“Miss Riley, please stop now. Something terrible will happen! Drink this water!”

Bellon pressed the last remaining mouthful of water to Riley’s lips without hesitation.

But Riley shook her head and only cried harder.

Her throat felt as though it was packed full of something burning.

“It’s all wrong, hic. I should have lived more honestly.”

Bellon stared at her helplessly as she heaved and sobbed. He was already spent, and he had a sense, to some degree, that this was the end.

He carefully set the last mouthful of water beside Riley, leaned his back against the wall, and closed his eyes. Listening to her cry like that made it feel real, that this was truly how it ended, and the fight went out of him.

Time passed.

Whether because there was nothing left to wring out, Riley’s sobs gradually quieted.

But then.

Thud.

A dull sound came from somewhere, followed by a faint tremor.

Thud again!

“Hic.”

Riley, who had been crying without end, seemed to feel something too. She stopped and lifted her head.

In the darkness, the two of them stared at each other in stunned silence.

There had been occasional tremors since the first collapse, and each time the castle seemed to sink a little further. The faint natural light that had been filtering in had long since disappeared entirely.

The realization that they would truly be buried alive crossed both their faces, but there was not a single ray of light to illuminate it.

The next moment, a larger tremor rolled through. The sound seemed to come from somewhere closer.

And then once more, thud!

Both of them squeezed their eyes shut, bracing for the stones balanced precariously above their heads to finally come crashing down.

But then something strange happened.

A thin thread of light began to seep in from somewhere unknown.

Riley felt the beam cross her face and blinked, dazed.

Before she could even register what was happening, a large stone near the entrance was lifted away, and a flood of greater light poured in.

Riley’s heart began to pound.

Against the backlight, several silhouettes appeared in the newly opened entrance all at once.

“Hic.”

Riley held her breath.

Through the haze of rising dust, the face of the person at the front came into view.

It was Andrea.

That was the moment her barely-stopped tears broke free again.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Moved into the carriage, Riley kept crying in Andrea’s arms.

The strong sunlight made it impossible to open her eyes, and she could not see the face she had longed for. She simply pressed her nose into his familiar, broad chest with her eyes shut tight and wept without end.

“Hic, I’m sorry, I’ve been thinking, and I……”

“Shh…… don’t talk.”

He soothed her in a low, quiet voice.

“You did nothing wrong.”

The words it was all my fault, all my carelessness rose to the top of his throat, but something surged up and choked him, and Andrea swallowed them back.

Riley shook her head and sobbed.

“No, it’s not that…… I mean the proposal.”

“The proposal……?”

Andrea had assumed she was talking about what had happened, and looked down at her with a puzzled expression. Riley gathered the last of her strength and murmured.

“We should be getting married…… I’m sorry for turning you down so many times…… If you propose again, I’ll say yes.”

“……”

She mumbled something else against his chest, something soft and indistinct, and then she fell asleep like someone losing consciousness.

Andrea looked down at her for a moment, then smiled, quietly unsettled.

To think that what she had been dwelling on all that time, trapped in there, was the proposal. That made it all the more heartbreaking. And yet, the fact that those were the first words out of her mouth told him she was not in a critical state, and that was a relief.

He had already called in nearby physicians to examine her, and they had confirmed she was not in a dangerous condition beyond malnutrition and dehydration. Appropriate treatment had been administered.