“I’m not sure whether the food will suit your tastes, my lady.”

Standing beside the table laid out on the bedroom balcony, the head butler bowed respectfully.

Having served the ducal household his entire life, he treated Eveline with the utmost courtesy, as an honored guest.

“I’m not picky about food at all, so please don’t worry about that.”

Eveline shook her head as though the idea were absurd.

After years of living in a place where choosing what to eat was an unimaginable luxury, she had long since lost the habit of being selective.

The table in front of her was laid with a far more lavish breakfast than she had anticipated.

Cream soup.

Soft cornbread.

Apple pie.

There was also a rich beef stew, the meat of which had been mashed until tender.

And buttered roasted potato salad.

Once the butler had withdrawn with another respectful bow, Michael began to eat with effortless elegance.

The meal was impeccable.

Unlike the heavily spiced dishes she was accustomed to in the sweltering climate of Kaimon, each ingredient here was permitted to showcase its natural flavor.

Yet, no matter how delicious it was…

The pounding headache she had woken up with the previous morning still hadn’t eased.

“You should eat a little more.”

“…Pardon?”

“I’m talking about you.”

Michael’s gaze fell upon the fork in Eveline’s hand.

Since breakfast began, she had done little more than absentmindedly poke at her food, which made him look distinctly dissatisfied.

With no other option, Eveline started to take larger bites.

She quietly repeated the motion of lifting food to her mouth.

Michael watched her for a moment.

Only then did he resume his own meal.

When Eveline woke up that morning, Michael was already fully dressed.

She must have been so exhausted that she hadn’t even noticed him moving around the room.

The instant she regained consciousness, she sat up in bed reflexively.

Her eyes met Michael’s; he was sitting on the sofa reviewing documents.

For a brief moment…

She thought she was dreaming.

It felt like an impossibly vivid dream, one in which the man before her seemed almost too real to exist.

Only after several uncertain blinks did she finally realize where she was.

Even so…

After everything that had happened the day before, everything still felt unfamiliar.

“Is there anything you need?”

Michael had already finished his breakfast by the time he lifted his teacup and spoke.

Only then did Eveline quietly study the man sitting before her.

The man who had been her fiancé seven years ago now exuded the unmistakable air of a seasoned nobleman.

What had she thought the day they first met?

The day she met the man chosen by their families?

Michael himself had simply become her ideal type:

His hair was as dark as the deepest night.

Eyes that looked as though they had been carved from pure sapphire.

Perfectly symmetrical features.

He was also strikingly tall, a quality rarely seen even among nobles.

Michael wasn’t just handsome.

He was dazzling.

After that day, Eveline spent countless hours polishing blue sapphires. Those precious stones radiated an unfathomable depth of color.

Yet no matter how carefully she refined them, the moment she placed them beside Michael’s brilliant blue eyes, they lost their light.

Learning the art of gemstone cutting had confined her life almost entirely to the territory of the Beauforts.

Then, in a single moment…

Everything changed.

But that dreamlike happiness quickly became the cruel opposite of reality.

She later learned that their engagement had been arranged entirely for political gain.

The contract stipulated that a fixed portion of the Beaufort mines’ profits would be transferred to House Parsen for the next hundred years, and it became one of the capital’s most talked-about scandals.

“More importantly, there’s something I’d like to ask you, Your Grace.”

Eveline began fitting together the scattered pieces of the puzzle.

The day before, everything had happened too suddenly for her to think clearly.

Now…

She needed to understand exactly where she stood.

“Is there a connection between me regaining Beaufort… and the lawsuit you’ve filed?”

Her voice was calm and unwavering.

What she truly meant was simple.

‘Are you insisting on marrying me because I’ve regained the Beaufort mines?’

“So that’s how you see it. You believe I’m forcing this marriage because I want Beaufort.”

Michael let out a quiet laugh.

Having immediately understood the implication behind her question, he took another sip of the tea that was still warm before meeting her eyes directly.

“You still don’t know me very well, Eveline. To me, marriage is a sacred vow.”

“…Pardon?”

‘A sacred vow?’

The unexpected answer made Eveline knit her brows ever so slightly.

She knew better than anyone how many contractual clauses and staggering sums of money lay behind marriages between noble families.

As though he had seen straight through her thoughts, Michael continued.

“I made a vow on the day of our engagement. To God… and to myself.”

‘Was the Michael I knew really this kind of man?’

A sense of confusion quietly settled over Eveline.

He had always been a noble man.

Practical.

Decisive.

He valued efficiency above all else.

At least…

That was the man she had known when they became engaged.

Surely that much hadn’t changed, even after he had inherited everything from the late duke three years earlier?

When had Michael become a man who believed in God?

And taken vows like that?

She couldn’t understand it.

Seeing no sign that he intended to explain himself, Eveline finally asked him about the vow.

“What exactly was this vow you made?”

“I, Michael Parsen, will take Eveline as my wife, and we will spend the rest of our lives together.”

“But that’s written in every engagement vow…”

The words he had quoted were nothing more than the standard opening found in every engagement contract, with only the bride’s and groom’s names changed.

Before she could finish, Michael quietly cut in.

“I added one more line.”

“Even if God Himself were to separate us… I would never accept it.”

“…”

It sounded less like a vow to God.

It sounded more like defiance against Him.

Anyone who heard those words would have known they were anything but ordinary.

He had made such a vow.

Silently, on the day of their engagement?

Michael?

Why?

Countless questions flooded Eveline’s mind.

Her lips parted, but she said nothing.

In the end…

She asked something else instead.

“So the trial to invalidate our broken engagement will proceed as planned? There’s no chance of that changing?”

It was her final attempt to confirm it.

According to the documents she had read, the hearing was scheduled for the very next day.

Realistically…

There was nothing she could do now.

“Everything will proceed as scheduled. Only after the court reaches its verdict will you finally acknowledge the bond between us.”

In contrast to his resolute voice, a faint smile curled the corners of Michael’s lips, making them look wistful.

A relationship that she had believed to be severed long ago was somehow being tied together again.

Unable to shake off an unfamiliar sense of unease, Eveline watched him in silence.

Just then…

A single leaf drifted down on the cool breeze.

It floated gently above Michael’s head.

It brushed past his ear and glided over his shoulder, down his arm and across his leg before finally falling to the ground.

Eveline found herself captivated by that fleeting moment.

Another soft breeze followed.

This time, Michael’s black hair stirred ever so slightly.

The scene was almost identical to the day they had first met in summer.

***

The following morning, long before the trial began, the courthouse was already swarming with people and reporters.

Even beneath the blazing midsummer sun, the crowd only continued to grow.

Everyone was waiting for the arrival of today’s central figure.

“Wasn’t the trial scheduled for exactly eleven?”

“That’s right. They should be here any minute.”

“I wonder what she looks like now. She’s returning to her homeland for the first time in five years after disappearing.”

Every conversation revolved around Eveline Beaufort, who was about to make an appearance.

Above all, people wanted to see the miraculous return of the woman they had long believed to be dead with their own eyes.

Eveline possessed every quality that fascinated onlookers.

Where had she been living for the past five years?

What had she been doing?

How had she managed to return?

Wild speculation spread through the crowd.

Divorces and legal disputes among noble families were, of course, always favourite topics of gossip.

But the Duke of Parsen’s decision this time left many people puzzled.

Opinions differed wildly, particularly over why a man at the pinnacle of Entian nobility would invite such unnecessary public attention.

At that moment, a carriage bearing the ducal crest of Parsen appeared on the wide road leading to the courthouse.

As the unmistakable emblem was recognized from afar, the commotion intensified.

The gilded spear and shield engraved on the carriage gleamed brilliantly in the midday sun.

As soon as Michael and Eveline stepped down, the crowd surged towards them from all sides.

Fortunately, the guards had anticipated the chaos and quickly intervened to keep a minimal distance between the pair and the crowd.

“Please step back! Someone’s going to get hurt! Move back!”

“Is it true you’ve been living in Kaimon all this time?”

“Were you really working as a gem cutter?”

“Lady Eveline! What outcome are you expecting from today’s trial?”

The day’s central figure was bombarded with questions as people shoved and jostled one another, shouting over the chaos.

However, Michael simply followed his aide through the crowd, ignoring all the questions.

Eveline walked silently behind him.

By now…

She had already come to understand, with painful clarity, just how powerless she was to influence the outcome of the trial.

According to long-standing custom, an engagement could not be dissolved unless both parties consented.

This was precisely what made this case so unprecedented.

The central issue for the court to decide was whether it was legally possible to invalidate a broken engagement that had occurred five years earlier.

The judge assigned to the case had probably spent the previous three weeks examining every detail with the utmost care.

Given the intense public scrutiny of the lawsuit, the ruling had to be beyond reproach.

With no legal precedent to rely on, today’s decision would itself become the first of its kind.

The judge’s voice echoed through the silent courtroom as he finished reading the thirty-page ruling.

“I will now deliver the verdict.”

Upon hearing those cold, metallic words, Eveline quietly lowered her gaze.

She already had a good idea what the outcome would be.

Although she appeared composed on the outside, her clasped hands trembled slightly in her lap.

Seated beside her, Michael appeared completely at ease.

His finely chiseled features remained utterly still as he looked towards the judge, who held the final page of the ruling.

Only those directly involved in the case and a few others were present in the courtroom.

It was so quiet that the loudest sound came from the chorus of summer insects beyond the windows.

Then…

The solemn verdict was delivered.

“The Court finds merit in the claim brought by Duke Michael Parsen and determines that the alleged dissolution of the engagement was carried out without following the legally required procedures. Accordingly, effective immediately, the disputed dissolution of the engagement is hereby declared null and void.”