Chapter 28

With eyes wetter than usual, Lachesis pulled up the corners of her mouth. She seemed utterly unaware that her forced smile only made the viewer’s heart ache more.

“Ahem. I got lost in thought for a moment. I’ll tell you the other one. It’s that I came into the Deate family. That’s the beginning of this whole thing.”

Before she even finished, Kadenic replied at once.

“That’s excessive conjecture. If what you’re saying were truly the case, your family couldn’t possibly cherish you like they do.”

Kadenic knew her entire family. Alfred, who had just followed her back with affectionate eyes. Katrin, strict yet caring for her sister and respecting her wishes. And even Robert, whom Kadenic had seen personally in the monster war.

Lachesis wouldn’t know, but Robert always carried Lachesis’s portrait during the war. He often bragged about his younger sister to fellow knights, yet he never showed them the portrait, saying it would wear out.

“No. I can’t show it. Go home. If you see the portrait, everyone will surely fall head over heels for our Chessie, and I can’t make my sister tired because of some small fry.”

Even in his memories of the monster war—which now felt like a past life—Kadenic could still clearly recall Robert’s booming voice.

“That’s exactly it.”

Lachesis let out a light, soft sigh. A glimmer of affection for her family flickered across her face.

“I think my family is just too kind. I would feel better if it were simply that my own efforts had paid off.”

Kadenic immediately understood what Lachesis meant by ‘my own efforts.’

Across the looping flow of time, Kadenic had investigated Lachesis quite a bit, and one result was her talent for investment. Most people believed the Deate family’s undefeated investment success was Katrin’s achievement, but the truth was different. And Kadenic knew that truth.

‘I thought it was inborn talent.’

To settle her own ‘sin,’ it seemed she had been making efforts in her own way. In reality, her investments did help the Deate family to some extent. The Deate Earldom, already formidable in funds, thereafter became, in name and fact, a great magnate within the Asher Empire.

“There’s no evidence, is there? Then why are you so certain?”

“When I was young, I heard the head maid talking. After the family traveled abroad and returned to the residence, people said Mother changed. Sister Katrin probably thinks I only heard something like that once, but I actually heard it often.”

Because a bored child tends to roam a mansion like it’s her playground. Lachesis shrugged. Despite the casual gesture, a bitter smile rose on her face.

“If I hadn’t entered the Deate residence, Mother would’ve stayed with the family, and then wouldn’t everyone have been happy? Sometimes…… I think that.”

Kadenic cut her off, firm yet gentle.

“That’s a baseless idea. It isn’t right to doubt your family’s affection based only on one head maid’s words, Chessie.”

Seeing him even make his blue eyes shine sternly, Lachesis gave a short laugh. Kadenic keenly caught that a little life had returned to her eyes.

“I knew you’d say that. But I keep clinging to that small possibility. I know it’s a bad habit, too.”

“Then I understand now. The other wrong you mentioned is probably nothing much, either.”

“It’s not……. I swear it’s an even more tremendous sin. Look—I can’t even bring myself to say it. If you learn even that, you might regret proposing to me.”

“I swear instead that won’t happen. Even if you committed some utterly monstrous wrong.”

Lachesis didn’t answer, but she didn’t look like she believed him much.

Kadenic felt like a hollow laugh might escape him. She had no idea. What her existence meant to him—how absolute it was.

For a moment, an impulse rose to reveal everything. But it felt uncomfortable to speak aloud of something she couldn’t understand. He himself couldn’t fully make sense of it, and he didn’t even know how to put into words the feelings he held for her.

Lachesis was the one-and-only existence that brought him ‘tomorrow’—the only being that could end the repetition of regression—yet at the same time, she made it impossible for him to give up hope, forcing him to repeat an endless cycle of despair.

That was how it had been until now, and it would probably remain so. In this hellish regression, there was no escape in sight.

The feelings he had toward her were complex. He resented her, yet wanted to cling to her feet forever. She was lovable enough that he couldn’t look away, yet he hated her to a vicious degree.

He couldn’t understand how he could hold such feelings at the same time.

‘Ah.’

Suddenly, a moment when he had held a similar doubt flashed through his mind. It was from the monster war.

The knights and soldiers waged war against the monsters created by God, and yet they still prayed for God’s salvation. Kadenic hadn’t understood their prayers at the time.

But now, he thought he understood a little—how, even in the very moment death came by a monster’s hand, they still clung to God.

And along with that, a new realization washed over him. Truly, no matter what wrongdoing Lachesis claimed to have committed, the colors of his feelings for her would not fade.

Even if it was something that threw him into death. Just as the countless knights and soldiers on the battlefield had done toward their god.

“If a day comes when I learn the one remaining sin you have, don’t jump to the conclusion that I’ll dislike you. Ask me directly what I mean.”

Perhaps it was a remark she hadn’t expected, because Lachesis’s already large eyes widened even more. She stared at Kadenic like that for a moment, then faintly nodded. He could see her shoulders, which had been stiffly rigid, loosen slightly.

“Thank you for saying that. Hearing you say that carries meaning, Your Grace.”

“You must ask. Because I’ll break your misunderstanding.”

Lachesis let out a small laugh. He wanted to hear a clear answer, but liking the soft air of this atmosphere, Kadenic didn’t press further. He decided to be satisfied with simply making her laugh.

Before he knew it, the Deate residence came into view through the carriage window. Staring at the residence, its lights bright even past midnight, Lachesis let out a light sigh.

“It looks like Sister will scold me for going this far, asking if there was any need. She’ll probably call me foolish. And maybe she’d be right.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Then what do you think, Your Grace?”

“The same thing your father does.”

That you are lovable. Kadenic swallowed the rest and only drew a smooth smile.

Lachesis tilted her head slightly.

“My father? What does he think? And how would you know what my father thinks, Your Grace?”

Her curious gaze prickled against his face. At that moment, the carriage came to a gentle stop before the front gate of the Deate Earl’s residence.

Instead of answering, Kadenic rose and stepped down first. Escorting Lachesis, he said,

“I’ll come to pick you up tomorrow, in time for when the temple opens.”

“I knew you’d say that again.”

With a small laugh, Lachesis released his hand and turned away lightly.

***

Up until the day before, Lachesis had been able to keep a fresh smile at her lips. But the next day, the moment she arrived at the temple, she had to speak in a voice full of despair.

“You can’t? What do you mean? It’s only been a day—no, not even half a day—and Father’s name is already on the register?”

With an annoyed expression, the priest deliberately pointed a finger at a single name written in the register.

“Here, doesn’t it say ‘Alfred Deate’? It’s an undeniable fact.”

“That’s impossible! The time Father entered the temple was late at night, and now it’s early morning the very next day. Work isn’t usually processed this fast!”

“Isn’t the Deate Earldom properly a noble house? Chief High Priestess Agnes personally handled it, specially. It’s useless to say such things to me.”

With a solemn face and an anything-but-solemn attitude, the priest waved his hand as if shooing away a fly. But she couldn’t retreat like this.

As she had told Kadenic yesterday, Lachesis carried a sense of debt toward her family. Whether it was truly her existence that brought ruin to the household no longer mattered.

This long-aged guilt had taken root deep into her whole body and became the basis for all her actions.

She couldn’t make her family be torn apart again like this. It was something she wanted to stop no matter what.

“Then please let me see the Chief High Priestess.”

“The Chief High Priestess is not so idle that…….”

“It’s an audience request personally made by Duke Marutia.”

Lachesis quickly pulled Kadenic forward, who had been standing a step back, and placed him in front of her. The priest looked quite startled, as if he had never imagined the two were together.

‘High society must already be full of rumors about the two of us.’

Perhaps because he was a priest who stayed only within the temple, he seemed ignorant of rumors.

“Is Lady Deate’s statement true, Your Grace?”

The priest didn’t bother hiding his suspicious gaze as he looked back and forth between Lachesis and Kadenic. He seemed to suspect Lachesis was threatening Kadenic or something.

After whispering a few more words to Kadenic while peeking for Lachesis’s reaction—though she couldn’t even be seen behind Kadenic’s broad frame—the priest eventually nodded.