Episode 27
Emilia noticed Edwin hiding something behind his back and looked at him curiously.
She didn’t understand why he’d suddenly shown up at her house, pounding on the door like that. And on top of that,
he didn’t look very happy.
Did something happen?
It wasn’t like him to knock so roughly, and that unpleasant expression on his face felt off. Sensing something strange,
Emilia glanced around.
There was a long sword lying nearby, like someone had just tossed it there. It looked familiar—Henry’s sword.
Oh no… don’t tell me…
She could already guess what might have happened. But it was the kind of thing she really wanted to pretend she
didn’t know about, so her face stiffened.
Why does stuff like this keep happening to me?
However Edwin had found her, she doubted he’d come with good intentions. Just the thought of having to deal with
him again made her sick.
If she felt like this, how fed up must Edwin be?
He seemed to be avoiding her eyes, as if he were trying to decide what to say. But since he stayed silent, she figured
maybe he was just as tired of this situation as she was.
Looking at him, Emilia forced a small smile onto her face.
She felt bad and didn’t even know what to say, but right now was the time to thank him.
She set the knife she’d been holding down and stepped closer to him. When she did, Edwin instinctively tried to take a
step back.
It was the first time since coming to Cardinal Village that Edwin had stepped away from her of his own accord.
“Thank you. Edwin, really… thank you for protecting me.”
For a moment, Edwin looked startled.
He hadn’t expected to hear those words from her.
Henry was the one who’d caused the problem, but Edwin had half expected to be the one getting yelled at.
Considering how hard he’d banged on her door, he figured she could easily call him rude and he wouldn’t have a
defense.
But instead, Emilia smiled at him and thanked him.
When he didn’t answer right away, the air turned a little awkward. Emilia tried to change the subject.
“What’s that you’re hiding behind your back?”
Snapped out of his daze by her smile, Edwin hesitated for a moment.
The anemone bouquet he’d hidden had dirt clinging to it from when it had fallen.
It had been a gift he’d prepared to thank her—but now it was a mess. Who would like a dirt-covered bouquet?
Still, he wanted to try.
“I came because… I had something I wanted to give you.”
“To me?”
Emilia blinked. What could he possibly want to give her, and why?
Sure, she’d treated his wounds, but she didn’t think that was worth a gift. The thought of getting a thank-you for it
hadn’t even crossed her mind.
So she felt a little thrown off.
Meanwhile, Edwin didn’t want to lose the excuse to get closer to her. But he couldn’t help feeling self-conscious about
the sorry state of his present. He stood there, fidgeting.
To Emilia, seeing him so nervous was strange. In this empire, there were plenty of people who would drop dead on his
word. Countless people wanted to get on his good side.
Especially now that the Hermann family was gone, Edwin had risen to the top of the imperial nobility as leader of the
royal faction.
There was hardly anyone left who could match him—except the Emperor. And since Edwin was on the Emperor’s
side, even the Emperor was technically an ally.
So the fact that he, of all people, looked tense in front of someone else was hard for her to believe.
“I wanted to give this to you.”
“This is… anemones.”
“I know they’re your favorite, so I found some.”
When she saw the dirt on the flowers, Emilia had to hold back a laugh. She could guess why he’d hesitated to give
them to her.
They’d probably been perfect when he’d gotten them—but then maybe he’d seen Henry, dropped the bouquet, and
rushed at him.
He went out of his way to get these for me.
The dirt didn’t matter. She could feel the thought he’d put into it, and that alone made her happy.
It had been a long time since she’d gotten a proper gift from anyone—maybe only a few times in her whole life. And
even then, they hadn’t been for her sake. They’d been to curry favor with the Hermann or Casper families, so her
tastes had never been considered.
But this bouquet was different. Edwin had chosen it for her, knowing exactly what she liked. That made it the best gift
she could have gotten.
“This bouquet reminds me of when we lived in the Casper mansion.”
“I’m sorry about back then. I should have taken better care of you.”
“You don’t need to apologize. I knew what my position was in that family.”
It would have been strange if the Caspers had welcomed her. If not for the Marquis Hermann’s threats, that marriage
never would’ve happened.
Emilia smiled faintly, her gaze fixed on the bouquet in her hands.
The anemones brought back memories of those days. They weren’t happy ones—mostly painful—but she still held the
bouquet carefully, almost tenderly.
Seeing that, Edwin took a step toward her.
“That wasn’t because of you. It was all my fault.”
“Edwin…”
Ever since the first day she came to the ducal mansion, he’d wondered—what if he hadn’t hidden his feelings from
her?
What if he’d told her he loved her every day, come home with gifts for her, spent their evenings together talking over
dinner, sharing the same room and bed like a real couple?
Would things have turned out differently?
Watching him blame himself made her chest ache.
Sure, if he’d shown more affection, her position in the mansion might have been better.
But that was only on the surface. Until the Hermann family fell, the way people looked at her wouldn’t have changed.
She didn’t want to see him beating himself up over it.
“Those days were hard… but I was happy to be married to you.”
Her words left him with a strange feeling.
He figured she was just saying it to comfort him, so he should’ve been glad—but it also felt like she was drawing a line
between them, and that made it hard to be happy about it.
He wanted to ask what exactly she meant, but he couldn’t. After all the pain he’d caused her, what right did he have
to press her?
So instead, he asked something else.
“Why were you happy?”
He wanted to know, if he could find out what it was that had made her happy back then, maybe he could give it to her
again.
No matter what it was a dress sewn stitch-by-stitch by a master, rare jewels only the Caspers could get, or something
more precious than he could even imagine if she told him, he’d get it for her.
“It was because of you. You were the only reason I could be happy there.”
“Emilia?”
He could hardly believe his ears. He knew better than anyone who had hurt her the most. Yet she looked him straight
in the eyes, as if to confirm that he’d heard her right.
Still, it didn’t make sense to him. He couldn’t understand how he could’ve been the reason for her happiness.
“You were the first one to reach out to me.”
At those words, he knew exactly what she was talking about.
Before the imperial banquet, he’d already been aware of her. And that night, he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
When he saw her sinking lower and lower, he’d reached out without thinking.
But he’d never thought much of it. In his mind, even if he hadn’t, someone else would’ve stepped in to help her.
Seeing the confusion on his face, Emilia seemed to know what he was thinking.
“No one wanted me. No one even wanted me to be alive.”
No one wanted her.
No one wished for her existence.
Emilia was a role everyone despised. But she’d wanted to be loved. She wasn’t the same Emilia from the original story she was someone else entirely.
Still, from the moment she’d woken up in this body, she hadn’t been loved, not once. Family, so-called friends—they
were all the same.
To them, she was just a tool to be used. If they told her to jump into a fire, she had no choice but to do it.
“You were like a ray of light to me.”
When Edwin appeared in her life, he really was light. Even knowing he’d one day drive her to her death, she’d fallen in
love with him the moment he’d reached out to her.
“And now?”
Her words left Edwin even more unsettled. He didn’t know how to take them.
But he wanted to know.
“Has that changed?”
He waited, caught between the fear that her feelings might be different now and the fragile hope that they weren’t.
For the first time in their conversation, Emilia didn’t answer right away.
The pause made him tense, but when she finally spoke, she smiled.
“It’s the same. You’re still a light to me.”
