Chapter 5:
“Ethan…”
The woman, who claimed to have been a maid, called the lord’s name without hesitation. Adele slowly turned to look at the two of them. She realized for the first time in her life that when something so unreal happens, your mind doesn’t go blank—it goes cold.
“H-huhuhu…”
The man began to sob, clutching his chest.
“Do you have any idea how I’ve lived during the time you disappeared?”
Adele helplessly stared at Ethan’s trembling hands—and his entire shaking body.
A man who once seemed as solid as a marble fortress was now crying, shaking like a scarecrow made of straw.
“Every moment without you was hell. Not once was it anything less than hell. How could you throw me away so easily? How?!”
So, every moment they had spent together was hell for him. That realization crushed Adele’s chest and made it hard to breathe.
She remembered how the head maid had once spoken of Ethan. Just a few years ago, he hadn’t been such a cold man. What changed him… was this woman, and herself.
In this moment, Adele was the perpetrator. In exchange for saving his life, she had demanded marriage from him—and in doing so, had torn him away from the ones he truly loved.
Adele took a step back. Whether she stayed or left was entirely up to her. And she chose to leave.
“You’re just going to walk away like this?”
Suzanne’s voice cracked as she called out to Adele, soaked in tears.
“You should at least ask what we plan to do now.”
Ask? What’s there to ask? The answer is obvious.
The child is eight years old, which means their love goes back nine years. He was 18 at the time, and she didn’t know whether it was before or after Adele had saved him—but one thing was certain:
Adele had no right to blame him back then.
At that thought, Adele let out a dry laugh. As if she had any right to blame him now.
It reminded her of a cliché story she once read in a third-rate novel.
A nobleman, the sole heir to a prestigious family, falls in love with a lowly maid. They are each other’s first love. But he has a political marriage arranged.
Upon discovering the affair, the father opposes it. The maid, now pregnant, disappears.
Maybe the father even threatened her to keep her away—lest the political marriage fall through.
The man, having lost his love, swears to God he will never love again.
And Adele laughed again.
What happened to the woman in the political marriage?
She didn’t quite remember, but probably, that woman loved the man. And expressed it in all the wrong ways, begging for affection—just like Adele had.
Then, years later, the man inherits the title of duke… and like a cruel twist of fate, the first love reappears—with a child who looks exactly like him.
The social scene of the Hesenia Empire’s capital was in its most glorious golden age. Enoch Sevan was staring at the centerpiece of this social frenzy—Duke Zachary Ivan Sonnier.
The man, dressed in a perfectly fitted suit that clung tightly to his broad shoulders, looked bored as he personally selected a tie from those the maid held up for him.
Now tilting his head while deciding on a tie color, the man was once the ill-fated crown prince—sent to an enemy nation as a hostage at the age of thirteen. He was also one of only two dukes in the Hesenia Empire. Even today, he stood before the mirror, dazzling the world with his celestial beauty.
“You’re going to the palace today,” said Enoch.
“I know.”
“You mustn’t be late. Please hurry.”
“Enoch, you’ve been nagging a lot more lately. Or is that just my imagination?”
Enoch stared silently at his master’s reflection. Duke Sonnier’s appearance was so breathtaking, even a man like him could be momentarily captivated.
With legs longer than most men’s and an imposing height, his figure was so majestic that even other men turned to look.
Enoch could never forget the day he first met him, a year ago.
Though dressed impeccably, his face was covered in wounds. If his face was that bad, there was no need to guess how scarred his body must be.
Yet his posture was unmatched—even among royalty. And his beauty remained untouched by the scars. His sheer presence radiated such power that one could believe the royal family existed wherever he stood.
He was a man who embodied royalty.
His crimson eyes, unique to the Sonnier royal line, were enough to evoke awe in anyone.
The day he returned after nearly ten years held hostage in enemy territory, people whispered that winds of change would soon sweep the empire.
But when Enoch met the emperor in the audience chamber, the reality was far from the rumors.
The emperor treated the meeting like an annoyance, speaking with veiled contempt. And Zachary simply stared back, with no real tension exchanged between them.
The emperor merely issued one order—to become Duke Sonnier’s aide—and then left.
When only the two of them remained, the duke walked straight toward Enoch, looked him over for about three seconds, and uttered just two words:
“I like you.”
From that day forward, Enoch Sevan, now the duke’s aide, held one book as his most precious possession—a record of Duke Sonnier’s impressions of everyone he met.
It was divided into just two categories: “I like them” and “I don’t like them.”
Others might find it laughable, but to Enoch, it was invaluable. Because the duke’s black-and-white view of people was always right.
Everyone Zachary didn’t like had either already caused trouble—or would soon.
Once dressed and ready, Zachary strode out with his long legs and climbed into his carriage without another word. He set his cane between his knees, the red jewel in its handle gleaming in the sunlight.
“What’s on my schedule today?”
“You’re scheduled to visit the Crown Prince, and then the D-Club Casino.”
Truthfully, Zachary had little in the way of actual obligations. For the past ten years, he had lived beyond the Seronne Lake in the far north—beyond the empire’s borders, in the barbarian lands. Enoch had always believed Zachary had spent that time sharpening his blade for revenge against the empire.
He was once the Crown Prince of Hesenia, after all. Enoch had no doubt he would rally the nobles and rise against the imperial family.
But instead of brandishing his sword, Zachary now wielded a jewel-encrusted cane… and ruled the social scene.
“I’m not going,” Zachary said.
“What…? Why?”
“It’s boring.”
Enoch was thrown into chaos. Zachary’s binary judgment didn’t apply only to people.
“But last time you said, ‘It’s fun.’”
“…Is that really a face worth making over something like this?”
Zachary had always said the casino was “fun” after every visit. This was the first time he’d changed his mind.
To Enoch, the “It’s fun” and “It’s not fun” books were just as important as the “I like them” and “I don’t like them” books. And now he was changing his opinion so easily?
Still, curiosity gnawed at Enoch. He was the kind of person who couldn’t ignore a question, even during physical training at the academy—he’d sit out just to read a book.
“What’s the reason?”
Zachary squinted one eye, like he was looking at an idiot, which irked Enoch. But no feeling could overpower his curiosity.
“Is it because of who is or isn’t attending?”
Zachary waved him off, as if to say, “Get some distance.”
“Enoch, you give me too much credit.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s boring. That’s it. Do I need more of a reason?”
“I’m asking why something that used to be fun suddenly isn’t.”
Zachary chuckled through his nose.
“There is no reason.”
“No, there is. You should tell me by now.”
Enoch truly believed that. He was convinced this man, radiating presence before him, must be hiding something deeper. Enoch was so curious about everything Zachary that he could never leave his side.
The duke had spent ten years in a barren land that couldn’t even be called a kingdom. He had left Hesenia for that place at just thirteen years old.
Enoch had heard he lived worse than a slave in that kingdom of Cruth.
Yet within a year, he had transformed into the perfect image of a Hesenian royal. Not a single trace of barbarism remained in his demeanor.
And when he returned to Hesenia, he didn’t come alone—he brought the chief and retainers of Cruth’s most powerful tribe as prisoners.
If not for that, Enoch wouldn’t have cared to question who this man truly was.
