Richard was desperate but couldn’t bring himself to rebel. The recent incident had greatly damaged the reputation of his aunt, who had long taken the place of his deceased parents. Richard decided not to act against her wishes for a while. Specifically, he had promised to follow his aunt’s will at least until this season. A proposal he would never have given a definitive answer to under normal circumstances.

Before the full season began, the Marchioness’s persistence and planning ability shone. And finally, the list of young ladies the Marchioness had marked as his potential matches came into his hands. Though he hadn’t compared, some debutantes would have newly filled the positions of young ladies from some families who had found matches last year.

Our Marchioness really has no conscience. Of course, if he had said those words aloud, a long speech would have returned saying that the one without conscience was him, so he didn’t lay out all the words he wanted to say.

Richard regarded the paper he had received from the Marchioness as something like a summary of a biographical dictionary and roughly folded it away. To avoid easily falling behind in the forced march that would continue without even a sister to escort, or more precisely, to serve as a good excuse, all the bothersome and tiresome matters had to be postponed until after tonight.

***

Why don’t you try buying all of this too. If you want to show off your money so much.

The small hobby of ‘Vivian Bennett’, the author of the recently popular novel, was imagining the man who would be somewhere discovering what she had written and breathing fire. No matter what form he took or how he expressed his anger, the man she drew in her imagination was quite satisfying. Especially in that he was very angry.

Whatever it might have been like at first, now that even third-rate gossip magazines were adding various comments, this news would have reached the person concerned. Originally, one learns about rumors about oneself last, but by now it would be safe to believe that final stage had been reached.

Though it was a bit regrettable that she couldn’t see with her own eyes what that handsome face looked like when filled with anger, it was certainly satisfying revenge. Moreover, the weekly serialization that had started purely for the purpose of getting back at him had brought quite profitable income, which was also an undeniable pleasure.

Olivia, who had been secretly continuing her pleasant imagination, stretched long while skimming through the draft of the final episode to be published in the next issue. Though she had finished earlier than planned, it still felt very refreshing.

The publishing company, which belatedly learned that such a bold deed had been carried out against a prestigious noble family, was anxious, but they couldn’t just stop a serialization that was already receiving quite good response and had made remarkable contributions to increasing sales numbers. Therefore, they took no particular measures other than imagining various ways to deal with Count Dalton, who might burst through the office door at any time.

They simply confirmed the work’s length as a short story and hoped that if the moment came when they had to make excuses later, they could get by saying all this was merely the author’s creative work.

Even if that man came to the publishing company and made them collect the magazines, Olivia, who had achieved her intended purpose, wouldn’t have much to regret either. If he used his position and wealth, nothing would be difficult, but all of this had started as a gamble based on the calculation that he wouldn’t do such things.

If he moved so conspicuously, it would be like acknowledging the rumors surrounding him, and Richard Dalton didn’t seem like the type to do such meaningless and stupid things. Moreover, if he was the type to personally come and dissuade her out of worry for the dangers an unknown woman might face, if he was even the type to take measures to prevent other attempts out of such worry—it seemed she could set aside doubts about his character too.

From his appearance during their last meeting, she could tell he was a considerable property owner, but she only learned his name later. When she learned he wasn’t just some simple businessman, she was a bit surprised in various ways, but well, if there were people like herself in the world, there was no reason there couldn’t be such men.

The fact that he was a noble didn’t make her anger about his actions subside, which was how she had come this far, but she did know that he had acted that way because he was worried about her. What Olivia couldn’t accept, however, was his narrow-minded thinking.

Regardless of high or low status, countless men paid money to buy women’s bodies, yet he dismissed as ridiculous a woman’s modest wish to share experiences she had dreamed of while looking for a man whose heart matched hers. Olivia couldn’t stand that attitude.

If he had acted that way despite the various danger factors he had worried about and she herself was not unaware of, he should have known that it was something earnest to her in its own way. If he had, she wouldn’t have used such petty methods either.

Olivia tried to shake off the mood that was about to sink again and stood up from her seat. Today she decided to finish reading the books she had been saving and have a delicious dinner. Olivia Jennings was not the type of person to abandon her daily life just because one thing she had set her mind to wasn’t going as intended.

***

Olivia, who had been contacted by the publishing company, received the fan letter that had arrived addressed to ‘Vivian Bennett’ exactly one week after the magazine containing the final episode was released.

While book sales had been steadily increasing, for Olivia, who had never received a letter from a reader, it was a very unfamiliar experience. Though she had briefly considered whether it was due to the genre’s characteristics, since the author herself was hiding behind a pen name, it wasn’t something she couldn’t understand.

However, the reason Mr. Abbott, the editor in charge, had paid attention to the letter that arrived addressed to ‘Vivian Bennett’ wasn’t just because fan letters addressed to her were uncommon. And Olivia too could recognize its specialness as soon as she received the letter.

‘Richard Dickson’

The moment she saw the imposing ‘Dalton House’ above the sender’s name written in clear cursive, Mr. Abbott too had instinctively known, just like herself, that this letter came from their model.

Olivia clasped her hands that had started trembling from the moment she received the letter envelope and forced up the corners of her mouth. Though she could feign composure, Olivia, who didn’t have the courage to open it in front of Mr. Abbott, decided to check the letter and contact Mr. Abbott if there were any problems she needed to inform him about.

Thus, Olivia, who had finally arrived home, opened the letter without even removing her bonnet, and after reading the entire letter that began politely looking for the ‘author’, she couldn’t help but be more angry than that day when Richard had interfered with her plan, that very moment. The following is the full text of that letter.

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To the Author

I am endlessly delighted to greet you in this way. I am one of the readers who enjoyed reading your recent serialized work ‘Last Lover’. Due to being a late person in many ways, despite your reputation and word of mouth, I only learned of this work’s existence relatively recently. Could there be such a regrettable thing again? Though I was a bit later than others, now that I have read up to the latest issue of 『Talbot Weekly』, I could not bear it without taking up my pen, so I send this letter.

Though your works are generally like this, the female protagonist of your recent serialized work seems to have chosen a much more perilous path than the protagonists in your existing works. It’s because she happened to fall in love with a scoundrel who has no interest whatsoever in true love or the joy it brings. Whose fault could it be that a person’s heart goes where it will—but I must frankly say it’s regrettable that following our male protagonist’s emotional line is a bit difficult compared to the female protagonist.

That the naive ‘Abigail Westbrook’ falls for ‘Richard Dickson’, who has fine looks, wealth, and abundant experience with women, is a sufficiently understandable part. Most women would have their hearts stolen by such a man. Even if they weren’t unmarried women.

However, in the opposite case, that is, in the part where our ‘Richard Dickson’ leads a dissolute life without knowing he has lost his heart to ‘Abigail Westbrook’, then loses her and deeply regrets it, one tilts one’s head in puzzlement. So what I’m curious about is this. Was ‘Abigail’ really a woman who had such value or that degree of affection for ‘Richard’?

For ‘Richard’, who has much more abundant life experience and experience with the opposite s*x, to feel attraction, ‘Abigail’ is a relatively bland and ordinary woman. She doesn’t have outstanding looks, nor does she have the honest and bold charm like other protagonists in previous works.

‘Abigail’ merely watches the person she holds in her heart from afar, and even when his interest finally shifts to another woman, she takes no action whatsoever. Even if ‘Richard’ had realized his feelings for ‘Abigail’ early, could he have properly known that ‘Abigail’ held the same feelings for him?

The question naturally arises whether ‘Abigail’, who trembles inwardly at his subtle teasing and intimate contact yet shows no outward reaction, is truly a pure and naive woman. Doesn’t such stone-like indifference feel more like a virtue that would suit someone who has experienced all sorts of hardships?

They say there are indeed men who feel attraction to such attitudes, but well. It’s questionable whether that story applies to a man like ‘Richard Dickson’ too. If he had been such a character, his sentiments about ‘Sarah Stanford’, who appeared as his first love, wouldn’t have passed by so dryly. In any case, a man like ‘Richard Dickson’ cannot be found among myself or those around me.

Though ‘Richard’s’ history with women is colorful, among them no woman who resembled ‘Abigail’ or was even slightly similar appeared in the work. Though she might have existed in your setting, she never appeared in the novel at all. You might argue that precisely for that reason ‘Abigail Westbrook’ is ‘Richard Dickson’s’ true love, but considering the time the two have known each other, that too would be a difficult answer to accept.

Don’t tell me you’re on the side that believes Romeo and Juliet’s love would have blazed up so quickly even without the surrounding opposition? Would they have made such extreme choices even if they had had the leisure to cool their heads and calmly look around at other people? Of course, considering that the chronic problem of countless novels dealing with romantic matters is ‘serious lack of plausibility’, this is not so surprising, and it wouldn’t be a problem unique to ‘Last Lover’ either.

Perhaps you might think I’m taking an excessively critical stance toward the emotional problems of a male protagonist in a mere romance novel that isn’t even mine. I honestly admit that I have such an aspect.

But don’t you think it would be rather difficult for me not to have this degree of interest? Since I share the same name as the protagonist and even look surprisingly similar, I get asked every day by people close to me what ‘Richard Dickson’s’ love story in ‘Last Lover’ was really like. So I trust you’ll understand my persistence.

In any case, I think I can understand you a little now. I’ve come to understand that there were circumstances that made it inevitable for you to continue your exploration of unknown territory in such an extreme way. Experience is a precious asset to an author. The more clearly one feels one’s limitations, the more one craves it.

From that perspective, you must be someone who knows how to view yourself very objectively. I want to think highly of that point. However, I hope you won’t miss that even if your special ‘adventure’ succeeds, you might not necessarily obtain what you want, that perhaps that adventure might instead result in taking away special and precious experiences you could gain in the future. I say this out of sincere concern, so please don’t take it badly.

Wherever and whatever creative activities you continue in the future—I will watch with a supportive heart from afar.

Richard Dickson

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