Rossianne desperately grabbed Emil’s arm.
“W-Wait a minute!”
She had a gut feeling—this was her last chance. If she let him go now, Emil would never look back at her again.
‘Do you know how long I’ve kept these feelings inside me?’
Though she may have been drawn to his title at first, Rossianne’s heart had long since sunk far deeper than that.
At first, it was simply, ‘Emil is the only man worthy of being by my side’, but over time, it became, ‘I want Emil to always stay by my side’.
‘That’s why I showed Yvonne!’
She planted doubt in Yvonne’s heart and made her worry. If Yvonne, who was so naïve, got hurt, she might back away from the marriage. And Emil, with his pride, would surely lose interest in someone like that.
‘But I didn’t expect Yvonne to leave like that.’
And because of that, she never imagined it would only fuel that man’s obsession.
‘She always seemed quiet and timid, but who would’ve thought she’d be the one to leave me this baffled?’
The one who had been deceiving Yvonne all along was Rossianne, yet somehow she ended up feeling like the victim.
Without even realizing it, Rossianne had been deceiving Yvonne all along.
Anyway, now that Yvonne was gone, she had no choice but to hold on to Emil. She clutched the hem of his coat tightly and shouted,
“What will you do if Yvonne leaves you and goes after that man? What if she says that if you kill him, she’ll die too? Even if you drag her back, it won’t change anything then!”
“So what?”
Emil’s icy glare was something Rossianne had never seen before. She thought she knew him well, but she had never encountered this side of him.
“Yvonne is mine. Even if she dies, it has to be by my side.”
“Y-You… You never really cared about Yvonne before, did you?”
Emil had never said he disliked Yvonne, but he’d never said he liked her either. Wasn’t it proof enough when he kept meeting Rossianne without hesitation, even while being engaged to Yvonne?
At her question, Emil let out a scoffing laugh.
“Instead of clinging to me, Rossie, maybe you should worry about your father. Do you even have a way to repay the forty thousand gold he lost?”
Rossianne’s face turned pale at his words. Her father? Forty thousand gold? The amount was so massive it made her head spin.
“W-What? My father lost forty thousand gold? How do you even know that?”
“What, did you think he could embezzle the territory’s funds and not get caught?”
“Embezzlement?”
Rossianne’s entire family knew about her close relationship with Emil. Recently, when Viscount Bergamot—Rossianne’s father—faced a shortage of personal business funds, he began discreetly dipping into the territory’s coffers.
It was a foolish move. He assumed that if Emil and Rossianne’s relationship remained strong, Emil would cover for him as a future son-in-law.
But Rossianne, unaware of any of this, could only stand there in shock. Watching her, Emil clicked his tongue slowly in disapproval.
“There you go again—pretending not to know.”
“I’m not pretending! This is really the first time I’m hearing about it!”
“You seriously didn’t know how devoted Viscount Bergamot has been at work—or how highly you’ve spoken of him to my parents?”
“That’s not what I meant…”
Rossianne bit down hard on her lip. Yes, whenever she visited the Count of Kleene’s estate, she always tried to present her family in the best possible light.
But it wasn’t out of love for her parents or some noble desire to see them succeed.
〈If you want a dowry, then my business has to be doing well first.〉
That was what her father had told her. He’d only promised a dowry if his business thrived.
‘But embezzling the territory’s funds…?’
The territory’s funds were meant to be sent as taxes to the central government. And if someone tampered with the taxes…
‘The entire family could be executed.’
Rossianne’s face went ghostly pale as her arms began to tremble. Emil stared down at her with cold, detached eyes.
“I let it slide for old times’ sake. But now that Yvonne’s gone, I’m in a seriously bad mood.”
With that, he made it clear: everything was falling apart because of what she had done.
Emil turned his back on her sharply and, without hesitation, spoke in an icy, final voice.
“You’d better hurry and repay the forty thousand gold—or pray that I find Yvonne soon.”
Maybe then, he’d feel a little more merciful.
Rossianne collapsed to the floor as if her legs had lost all strength. Emil walked out of Yvonne’s room without so much as a glance in her direction. It was clear—he was going to look for her.
How could someone’s back look so cold and heartless?
‘Just a few days ago, we were making love in the study like everything was fine!’
Now he treated her like less than a stranger, and the coldness of it made her chest ache. Tears welled up in Rossianne’s eyes as she suddenly shouted,
“Emil Kleene! How could you do this to me?!”
“That’s what I should be asking you.”
Emil shot back in disbelief.
“You were the one who started this… You asked for this kind of relationship. I overlooked your parents’ embezzlement, and I treated you like someone special in front of everyone. And yet, you drove my wife away?”
His hand tightened around the doorknob, and his eyes blazed with fury.
“I’ve already paid the price. So tell me—how do you still think you’ve been wronged?”
Rossianne had mistaken his coldness for indifference. But he wasn’t cold—he was burning with anger. And he had been, ever since before Rossianne snuck into Yvonne’s room.
Afraid of provoking him any further, Rossianne bit her tongue and stayed silent. Emil left to search for Yvonne, slamming the door behind him. Left alone in the room, Rossianne began to chew nervously at her fingernails.
‘It’s impossible… There’s no way Father can repay that money…’
Forty thousand gold. It wasn’t taken all at once—but little by little, over time.
‘Emil won’t protect me anymore. And once Yvonne returns and tells him the truth about me, he won’t hold back.’
There was a good chance Emil would label Rossianne a liar, just to win back Yvonne’s trust and affection.
‘What am I supposed to do? There has to be a way out of this.’
Then, as if suddenly coming to her senses, Rossianne looked around the room. After all, that was the whole reason she had come in here in the first place:
To find Yvonne’s secret.
Since Yvonne had left in a hurry, she must’ve left some clues behind. Rossianne searched through drawers and cabinets until, deep inside one of them, she found a soft, water-colored piece of clothing.
‘What’s this…?’
It had an ethereal quality, like flowing water. But when she fully unfolded it, she realized it was a child’s outfit.
‘What kind of material is this?’
It was clearly fabric, yet it didn’t feel like any cloth Rossianne had ever touched. It was incredibly light, and the color shimmered unnaturally. She tilted her head, puzzled.
‘Why would she hide a child’s outfit so deep inside the drawer? And I’ve never seen Yvonne wear anything like this before.’
Something about it felt undeniably unusual. Rossianne carefully picked it up.
‘I’ll hold on to it, just in case.’
* * *
After stepping down from the carriage, I glanced over at Dante and Rowan, who stood a short distance away, deep in conversation. I don’t know what they were talking about, but they looked unusually serious.
‘Well, I suppose there are things they can’t say to me.’
I decided not to approach them. Instead, I let out a quiet sigh of relief.
At least, it didn’t seem like either of them was a bad person.
They probably thought I was following them without a single doubt, but that didn’t mean I trusted them completely.
Taking me to the capital without asking anything in return—and even giving me money? That was suspicious behavior, no matter how you looked at it.
But pretending to be someone from the Veil Merchant Guild—or Duke Christopher himself? That’s way too risky. He’s definitely the real one.
Dante Christopher.
The master of the Black Wing Knights—the nation’s defenders.
The lord of the northern realm.
I stole another glance. Even from here, I could see the crease between his brows as he talked to Rowan.
He always looked stern and unreadable. But on the rare occasions he laughed aloud, it didn’t feel like he was trying to intimidate people—it seemed more like that cold demeanor was simply second nature to him.
‘He’s a strange man.’
There wasn’t a trace of casual familiarity in him like I’d seen in others. He didn’t treat me like a noble lady, yet there was always a sense of distance that I couldn’t quite cross.
‘But why is he looking for a woman with silver hair and green eyes?’
He said he hired me just so it wouldn’t look strange for a man and a woman to ride alone in a carriage, but even that didn’t really make sense.
‘If he specifically chose me for my appearance, then maybe he’s looking for a double—someone to impersonate someone else…’
He’d carefully asked if I was a noble, if my face was known in the Eastern Alliance, and whether I had any personal ties—now it made sense.
And once he heard about my broken engagement with Emil, he must’ve guessed I had no reason to return home anytime soon.
I shrugged lightly.
‘Well, whoever I’m meant to be a stand-in for, I don’t really care. As long as I can find a place for myself in the capital.’
Just thinking about the capital—a place I had never seen—made my heart pound with excitement. It felt like I was heading into an adventure.
