Chapter 16

The bustling streetscape of the royal capital.

As though the epidemic had been nothing more than a lie, the people passing by wore joyful expressions.

Amidst it all, Diana was left standing entirely alone.

Why was she in a place like this?

What was she even doing?

She didn’t even know.

Driven by an urge that she simply had to go somewhere, that she had to do something—she pressed blindly onward, urged on by a gnawing sense of impatience.

And right in the midst of it, she noticed.

Right before Diana’s eyes, amid the happily strolling crowd.

Her betrothed, the king’s younger brother Alan, with whom she had supposedly exchanged feelings, was walking arm in arm, looking intimately affectionate with the female knight Monique.

Her heart twisted with a sharp, piercing pain.

Her throat parched, leaving her unable to utter a sound.

Without even noticing Diana’s presence, the two of them walked down the street.

She had to chase after them.

──Chase after them and do what?

Even during that split second of self-interrogation, their figures grew smaller and further away.

Stop.

Don’t go.

Those few simple words, that voice, refused to take shape.

Her lips merely trembled open and shut in a hollow pant.

Her hand, raised by a desperate margin, grasped at empty air.

The corners of her eyes grew steadily hot…

“Milady?”

…And with that, her consciousness snapped awake.

“Ah…”

The very first thing she saw upon waking was her familiar ceiling.

Her well-known private room within the ducal mansion.

And, peering down at Diana with a look of concern, stood her personal maid, Sherry.

“Are you alright, Milady? You seemed to be having a terribly troubled dream…”

“Yes… I suppose I simply had a rather unpleasant nightmare.”

Awakening from that left her feeling wretched.

Why on earth had she dreamed of something like that?

It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Alan.

He wasn’t the sort of person to betray anyone.

Even though she believed that firmly, the reason she still felt such unease was likely because the lingering pain of being killed by her closest kin—her twin sister—still remained vividly etched within her.

“If you are feeling unwell, I shall brew you some herbal tea.”

“Yes, would you mind?”

“Of course.”

Taking a sip of the tea Sherry poured for her, Diana felt as though her spirits finally began to settle.

Sherry was a commoner originating from the same orphanage as Ian.

When Ian was taken in as a knight apprentice, his young foster sister had been brought into the ducal mansion right alongside him.

Gifted with nimble fingers, Sherry had initially worked as a seamstress in the ducal mansion while receiving a proper education as a domestic servant.

Even among the servants of the ducal mansion, Cordelia’s influence ran deep.

After her previous personal maid became pregnant and decided to step down from her post, Diana had consulted Ian, asking him to arrange a personal maid who was not tied to Cordelia’s influence—and the person he brought was her: Sherry.

Ian was an enigmatic man.

Though he appeared easygoing and carefree, in truth, he applied himself to the sword more earnestly than anyone else.

Among the knights, he could be counted as one of the very few individuals not captivated by Cordelia.

To him, Diana, who wielded a sword despite being a woman and challenged him head-on, seemed far more favorable than Cordelia, who could not hold a blade.

In terms of practical training against mages, Diana apparently presented an invaluable presence to him.

While she felt like lodging a complaint about what he thought of his master’s house, Diana didn’t particularly dislike Ian’s familiar attitude, as they understood each other well.

And it was that very Ian who had recommended this Sherry.

Having originally worked as a seamstress, her manual dexterity was second to none.

Above all, it was a blessing that she wasn’t overly close with Cordelia like the other maids.

(Because I am through with ever being betrayed like that again…)

Diana’s chest gave a sharp, stinging pinch.

Was it from remembering the moment she had been stabbed by Cordelia, or perhaps because of the dream she had seen that very morning?

The throbbing ache felt as though it were slowly being melted away by the warm herbal tea.

It was that afternoon when Sherry approached her with a look of visible bewilderment.

“Milady, it appears a visitor has arrived…”

“Oh? I don’t believe I had any appointments scheduled today. Wonder who it could be.”

“That is…”

Uncharacteristically for Diana, she threw the door open unceremoniously.

Sitting comfortably on the parlor sofa and seemingly having waited quite a while for Diana, the visitor—Miles, the heir to the Marquis of Odonoghue’s household—looked up at her with suspicious, unsettled eyes.

“You certainly took your time.”

“What business do you have here?”

Even as she sat down on the sofa opposite him, a distinct edge of irritation laced Diana’s voice.

Knowing as much, Miles knitted his brow.

“Can I not come to visit unless I have pressing business? Were we not friends?”

“If we were friends, the least you could do is offer a single word of congratulation.”

Diana, the eldest daughter of the Duke of Gazard’s household, had officially announced her engagement to the king’s younger brother, Alan.

The nobles who heard the news had flooded the estate with congratulatory gifts and letters.

Yet, among them, Miles’s name was nowhere to be found.

“How on earth am I supposed to congratulate a friend who is marrying someone old enough to be her own father?”

“Do you have a complaint to make?”

At Diana’s thoroughly provocative words, Miles’s eyebrows twitched upward.

“I told you before to stay away from that man!”

“What does his maternal bloodline matter? Such a foolish notion.”

Just like their previous conversation, the two of them were running on entirely parallel lines.

Neither possessed the slightest intention of making concessions, nor any common ground for compromise.

“Even though half of his blood belongs to the royal family, why must you treat Lord Alan like public enemy number one? It’s utterly absurd.”

At Diana’s dismissive, spitting words, Miles clenched his fists tightly.

“It’s that other half of his blood that’s the problem. That man carries the blood of the Five Great Noble Families.”

The founding pillars of the nation: the Five Great Noble Families. The five ducal houses.

Half of them had already been ruined, leaving behind only two ducal houses and a single viscountcy.

“My own house belongs to those very Five Great Noble Families, you know.”

“That is precisely why I am telling you not to provoke the royal family!!”

Miles raised his voice in frustration at Diana’s retort.

Faced with his desperate expression, even Diana showed a momentary flicker of intimidation.

“His Highness mentioned it before. That it would be better if all of the Five Great Noble Families were wiped out…”

“What do you mean by that? Surely they aren’t planning to dissolve entire houses based solely on bloodlines?”

Challenging him sharply, Miles snapped back to his senses with a start.

For him, it had clearly been a slip of the tongue.

He hurriedly clapped a hand over his mouth, but words once spoken could never be taken back.

“I do not know the details. Only that their very existence might one day pose a threat to the royal family…”

“What a ridiculous notion.”

Diana let out a sigh.

After all, the house of Lady Kayley, the Crown Prince’s betrothed, was none other than the Duke of Eldred’s household—one of the Five Great Noble Families.

While attempting to dissolve the Five Great Noble Families, they were simultaneously trying to absorb that very bloodline.

The actions of the royal family were nothing short of contradictory.

“Regardless of what His Highness may think, I am the one who can protect you.”

Miles’s eyes stared fixedly into Diana’s.

“I am the one who can keep you safe.”

Uttered in a trembling voice, the declaration was far too low and murky to ever be mistaken for a marriage proposal.

“What is the meaning of this? Is this supposed to be a threat?”

“No, I am only thinking of your own well-being—”

Just as Miles began to lift himself from the sofa, Diana raised a single hand to stop him.

“Spare me. I have no desire merely to be kept safe; I wish to find true happiness.”

Indeed.

During her first life, how much heartache and how many tears had her marriage to Miles cost her?

Diana knew full well that avoiding marriage to Miles would also safeguard her own future.

“Are you saying that I… that I cannot make you happy?”

“Yes, exactly that.”

Diana nodded without the slightest hesitation.

(Because being joined with you would never bring me happiness…)

A sharp pang of past pain flared up within her chest.

A festering, stagnant disgust that burned straight down to the pit of her stomach.

‘I should never have married a woman incapable of bearing children.’

The image of Miles declaring those words in her past life overlapped seamlessly with the figure sitting before her now.

(You never loved me at all. You merely needed a woman who would bear your children…)

“There has never been any affection between us.”

“How can you be so certain?”

“Because it’s the obvious truth, isn’t it?”

Their relationship had always stopped dead at the boundary of mere friendship.

Even after becoming husband and wife, it had never stretched beyond the scope of mere business partners.

At least—that was how it should have been.

“…Why do you presume to dictate how I feel?”

At Miles’s voice, ringing lower and darker than ever before, Diana felt a chilling shiver run straight down her spine.