IVHMH 09

Chapter 9

My chest felt heavy, and I wanted to get some fresh air, so I declined Countess Kiret’s offer to escort me and stepped outside alone.

I considered asking the Empress for help regarding the marriage issue with Gustao, but I didn’t know how to even begin bringing it up.

After all, my marriage to him hadn’t even been discussed yet.

Who would believe me if I said I’d marry him, be betrayed, and then die?

Even the Empress, who cherishes me, would think I was insane.

“Should I just ask Theus for help?”

If I explained the situation well, he might understand.

He was in the Kingdom of Khan right now, so I had time to think it over until he returned.

As I walked toward where the carriage was waiting, a sudden gust of wind blew. I quickly turned away and shut my eyes against the wind, but some dust still got into my eyes.

“Ugh, ow!”

The fierce wind blew my hair wildly, making it hard to keep my senses.

My eyes stung from the irritation. I pulled my eyelids down and blinked repeatedly. Only after a stream of tears ran down my cheek did the pain subside.

“Ugh, maybe I’m being punished for teasing Leticia.”

Still, I had no regrets about what I did today. Compared to what I had to do going forward, this was child’s play.

“It’s yours.”

A deep, low voice filled with strength came from behind me. I turned around, thinking the voice was addressing me—and there he was, Terchen, alive and standing right in front of me.

Even though I had returned five years into the past and had already met Roena, it hadn’t fully hit me that he was alive.

But standing face to face with him now, it finally felt real.

“You’re alive.”

Without thinking, I reached out my hand toward him.

Whenever I remembered the last image of him, it was always cloaked in darkness.

But now, seeing him bathed in bright light, it felt as if the shadow lingering in my heart was finally lifted.

“Ha.”

His response to my teary-eyed voice was a scoff filled with disbelief.

The hand I had extended toward him was now holding a pale green ribbon he had returned.

“No one dies from a gust of wind like that. You’re alive, so of course I am too.”

“Ah…”

Caught up in my own thoughts, I had blurted out something foolish.

I cupped the green ribbon he handed me so it wouldn’t fly away again in the wind.

Then a thought came to mind.

Just like me, Terchen was fated to die because of Gustao. If two people who shared the same fate joined hands, maybe we could win against it…

“If you’re considering a political marriage, how about me?”

He raised one eyebrow, as if I were completely insane.

I knew perfectly well how absurd my proposal sounded, but I didn’t plan on taking it back.

If I had to die anyway, I wanted to put up a fight.

“I’m Elisia Mares.”

“Bold, aren’t you.”

“If you don’t have a suitable match, please consider me.”

“Greedy ambition brings misfortune.”

His response was a cold rejection.

A woman proposing marriage the moment they meet—he must have thought I’d lost my mind.

In the end, this fight was mine alone.

Still, in this life, I would survive—and so would he and Roena.

A woman stood in the same direction from which the ribbon had blown.

Her golden hair sparkled under the sunlight, tossed about by the mischievous wind.

Since it had been blown to him by the wind, he hadn’t planned on returning it to its owner.

He had thought to just let it go. But between the tousled strands of golden hair, a pale white neckline peeked out.

The ribbon in his hand fluttered in the wind like her golden hair.

“She must be uncomfortable.”

He figured the woman must be struggling to fix her hair without the ribbon. Normally, it wasn’t something he would’ve thought about.

Yet before reason could intervene, his feet were already moving toward her.

“It’s yours.”

When the woman turned around at his words, she didn’t take the ribbon but instead said something completely unexpected, her eyes wet with emotion.

“You’re alive.”

As if she were seeing someone return from the dead.

She was the woman he had found unconscious in the forest a few days ago.

Looking up at him now, she seemed even more fragile than when she had fainted.

Something about her seemed to scrape at a corner of his heart, so he replied coldly.

“No one dies from a mere gust of wind. You’re alive, so obviously I am too.”

Then she suddenly proposed marriage.

She was the same woman the Emperor had once strongly pushed as the Crown Princess, only to now quietly hide her away.

So delicate she seemed like she could be blown away by the lightest breeze. Maybe that’s why they were excluding her from the list of candidates.

“It would’ve been better if it was just a power game, but she’s aggressive.”

He had never considered either Delina Sheton or Elisia Mares as marriage candidates.

Though he had already made up his mind that Princess Risha would be the Crown Princess, he was intentionally dragging things out.

It was all to make the two houses fight over the position.

The more they divided their strength battling each other, the easier they’d be to handle.

A man watching the two from a distance quickly turned and left.

He went straight to the Sheton Duke’s residence.

There, he gave a detailed report of what he had seen at the palace.

“They were standing together affectionately?”

“Yes, Your Grace. It looked like His Highness was giving her a gift.”

But he had been too far to hear what Terchen and Elisia were saying.

“I see. You may go. Keep a close eye on Duke Verato whenever he enters the palace.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

Once the informant had left, Sheton wrote two letters.

One was addressed to Duke Mares, Jetio.

The other to Gustao Verato.

He summoned his most trusted aide, Serden.

“You called, my lord?”

“Deliver these letters discreetly.”

“Should I wait for a reply?”

“No, just deliver them.”

“Understood.”

After Serden left, Sheton walked to the window and watched until his aide disappeared from sight.

Sheton, who was putting all his effort into making Delina the Crown Princess, wasn’t going to ignore even the smallest threat to that goal.

The more meticulous the plan, the higher the chance of success—and removing obstacles early was the smart move.

When Elisia returned home, Leticia still hadn’t arrived.

The sun had already begun to set halfway behind the horizon.

“She’s walking awfully slow.”

According to Elisia’s calculations, Leticia should’ve already been home.

She’d even calculated the walking distance, but maybe that hadn’t helped.

Just then, she heard the maids murmuring near the entrance.

“Oh my goodness, Lady Leticia!”

“What in the world happened?”

“Was she attacked by bandits?”

Wondering what all the fuss was about, Elisia stepped outside—and burst out laughing.

Fortunately, the maids were too shocked by Leticia’s appearance to notice Elisia’s laughter.

If she had to describe Leticia in one word, it would be “beggar.”

Her hair was a wild mess, her dress torn and caked with dirt, and in her hand she held a shoe with a broken heel.

The shoes she had sweet-talked her way into getting not long ago were now in as pitiful a state as her appearance.

“Leticia! You said you had an appointment—why do you look like that? Didn’t you meet the person you were supposed to see?”

Elisia asked in a surprised tone as she approached Leticia.

Not because she was worried—just genuinely shocked at how she looked.

“I-I did meet him… but something happened on the way back.”

“Who did you meet? I’m going to give them a piece of my mind for letting you come back like this!”

“No, no! It wasn’t his fault! Don’t worry about it!”

Startled, Leticia quickly tried to stop her.

She looked so worried that Elisia might actually confront the person.

“I’m really fine. I’ll go upstairs now.”

“All right. Take a good bath and rest.”

Leticia climbed the stairs, grinding her teeth.

After walking for hours, she was starving, but no one even asked if she’d eaten.

“If I ask for dinner looking like this, they’ll really think I’m a beggar.”

Clutching her hungry stomach, she climbed the stairs, biting down hard.

Getting back home had been like fighting a war.

She had no money, so she couldn’t take a hired carriage. Her new shoes quickly chafed her heels raw.

“Wearing new shoes was the first mistake.”

The more she thought about it, the more unfair it felt.

She tripped over her dress hem multiple times as she limped along.

Her dress quickly got covered in dirt, and her carefully styled hair turned into a mess.

Her feet were blistered and bleeding, so she had to take off her ruined shoes.

As she sat up holding them, a child walked up to her.

In the child’s hand was a lollipop.

“Kid, that candy’s going to hurt your teeth. Give it here!”

Blinded by hunger, Leticia tried to snatch it with nonsense words.

“Mom! The beggar tried to steal my candy!”

The child screamed and ran to his mother.

People nearby began to murmur and stare at Leticia.

“Tsk tsk, poor young woman.”

“She looks crazy.”

“Begging’s one thing, but stealing from a child?”

“She’s clearly a mad beggar.”

Her face flushed red with shame as people pointed and whispered.

She ran blindly, desperate to get away from the stares.

Even when she bumped into someone or fell, all she thought about was escaping.

By the time she came to her senses, her once-dirty dress had become full-on rags.

– Bang!

Leticia slammed her room door shut behind her.

“I’m this filthy and now I have to wash all by myself without even a maid?”

She ripped the dress off without hesitation. It was already in shreds, so it served well to vent her frustration.

Though she had lived with House Mares for over ten years, Leticia’s position was still that of a guest.

Naturally, she couldn’t command the maids. At most, she could borrow their help during the day.

“The daughter of Duke Mares was supposed to be me.”

Leticia sobbed loudly, her situation too unfair to bear.

She could still hear her mother’s words echoing in her ears.

After her father, Viscount Beck, passed away, she had begged her stepmother, Porta, to take her in.

Back then, Porta had whispered into young Leticia’s ear:

“Duke Mares agreed to take you in. If I had married the Duke, the duchess’s daughter would’ve been you. But your luck only goes so far. If you’re bitter, go take back what should’ve been yours.”

Etching her mother’s final words into her heart, Leticia gritted her teeth and endured—waiting for the day she could reclaim everything that was rightfully hers.

Today’s humiliation was just a small price to pay for that glorious future.

Leticia wiped away her tears with her fist and headed to the bath.