Chapter 9
Axel was dumbfounded.
“Wait, who are you saying is in a relationship with who?”
“You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you! Trying to make me say that humiliating thing again! You and her! Her and you! You two are all lovey-dovey like a damn couple, damn it!”
Jeppetto howled, his face a mess of tears and snot.
He was truly resentful.
It wasn’t just getting kicked again by Axel on the same spot Laura had already hit. What drove him mad was thinking he could’ve escaped if only he’d moved a little faster.
But above all…
“I did everything you wanted!”
“……”
“I even had Laura removed from our family registry! So why are you coming after me again?!”
Axel had always wanted to remove Laura from the Leways family. He hated that every time she achieved something, the Marquis family’s reputation rose with it. And if she became Empress, it would be even harder to sever ties.
The Marquis knew that too, which is why he’d never let Laura go. For nearly a year, there hadn’t been a single mention of disownment from him.
So Axel tried all kinds of pressure on the family, and when that didn’t work, he summoned Jeppetto to browbeat him instead. Jeppetto was easier to handle than the Marquis himself.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not here to look for Lady Leways.”
Then?
“I’m here about evidence that your younger brother was trafficking illegal drugs—”
“Damn it, I knew it!”
Jeppetto, who had dared to hope for a moment, screamed in betrayal.
“This is just payback ‘cause I bullied her maid, isn’t it?!”
Jeppetto’s logic, at least in his own head, made sense.
It had only been a few days since Laura had shaken him down over the drug incident.
Now Axel was coming at him for the same thing? From Jeppetto’s perspective, this deranged couple was sharing intel just to beat him up twice.
He didn’t even consider that Axel might not remember Laura from the last two years—just like he hadn’t until recently.
All he could do was sob.
“You keep hitting me but saying I’m wrong…”
“……”
Axel stared silently at the weeping, cursing Jeppetto.
He understood why Jeppetto was acting like a panicked rodent. The man had always been a coward.
But still—
‘I was in a relationship with Laura?’
He even supposedly went out of his way to remove her from the family?
‘…Was I high?’
Axel’s sharp mind quickly arrived at a plausible explanation.
If Jeppetto had been trafficking drugs, maybe he had used them himself. Memory disorders were a common symptom of drug abuse.
“There’s no point talking to him anymore. Take him away.”
With the Marquis absent and Jeppetto lacking any real power, now was the perfect time to cut out the Leways family.
“Why! Whyyy!”
Jeppetto screamed as he was dragged away, clawing at the floor with his feet. But no one helped him.
And so, Axel returned to the Imperial Palace.
“A necklace?”
He was faced with a new problem.
“His Majesty ordered it to be made, didn’t he?”
Audrey, a royal jeweler, brought him a jewel box containing the necklace.
A finely crafted platinum chain, threaded like silk, held several pink diamonds. Everything about the design screamed “gift for a woman.”
Audrey’s eager eyes were filled with pride—he had both completed his royal duty and produced a masterpiece.
“I ordered… this?”
Axel was completely at a loss. He had no memory of doing so.
Audrey didn’t pry. He wasn’t the kind of person to read too deeply into a superior’s intentions.
“I’ll leave it here, then.”
He had served the imperial family since Axel’s grandfather’s time, so Axel couldn’t speak carelessly to him.
Even joking, “Are you senile?” or “Were you on something?” would be disrespectful.
“……”
Caught between options, Axel just stared at the necklace.
“That’s something I never thought I’d see in my lifetime.”
Angel entered the room, amazed.
He wore the smile of a father who just learned his child had grown up and fallen in love—part proud, part wistful.
“It’s not like that.”
“How do you know what I’m thinking?”
“I don’t want to know.”
Axel had learned from experience that some things were better left unknown.
He reached to close the jewel box, but noticed a card tucked beneath the necklace.
Happy twentieth birthday.
The handwriting was his.
Apparently, he had even asked Audrey to include the card with the gift.
‘But I really don’t remember this…’
Then Jeppetto’s words echoed in his mind:
You’re in love! The two of you!
If you’re gonna have a lovers’ quarrel, take it outside, damn it…
Jeppetto’s tear-streaked face, sobbing like a child—it made no sense.
‘Me, with Laura?’
Because the Laura Axel remembered was—
A letter? Yes, I took it and gave it to Father. So what?
She had always been defiant, raising her voice when caught.
We’re going to be family! I’m your fiancée!
She’d scream as if everything was his fault.
I ended up like this because of you! Because you always treated me like I was useless! I just wanted to be recognized…
No matter how many times he tried to talk things out, it never worked.
In society, she clung to one scandal after another. And when people criticized her, she’d shout back that she was a prince’s fiancée, dragging down the Imperial Family’s image.
When they first got engaged, Axel had felt sorry for her. He figured she was just another pawn of the Marquis, like himself.
But Laura was the one who stomped all over that pity and kindness.
So him, in love with her?
‘…No way.’
Jeppetto was either insane, or just blurting out nonsense to throw him off.
Axel knew the best cure for strange thoughts was hard work.
“You’re here. Get to it.”
He motioned Angel to sit down.
Why was he just standing there like an idiot?
Sometime later, Axel dozed off.
The breeze through the window brushed his shoulder and cheek.
Though he was sitting in a chair, swaying slightly with each breath, he quickly realized he was dreaming.
Because—
Are you asleep?
A woman’s voice.
Oh, looks like he is.
It was a voice he’d longed to hear.
Always trying to carry the whole world on your own.
A soft hand stroked his forehead, cheek, then slid down his chin.
He didn’t know who she was. Yet paradoxically, he did know.
She was the owner of the necklace. The missing piece of memory.
He had missed her. It didn’t have to be some extraordinary day. He just wanted to spend time together, talking about nothing.
‘Why… why won’t I wake up?’
His throat went dry with longing.
That necklace—it was made for her.
Because she had once said it felt like she had nothing in the world. And she looked so lonely when she said it.
He wanted her to have something that had always belonged to her.
So—
I’m going.
Don’t go.
I won’t get in the way.
I won’t forget you.
‘Please, just once.’
Let me see your face.
Did his prayer work?
Just as the woman reached for the door—
She paused. And his eyes opened.
Straight ahead—
He saw her clearly.
Her face, at last, took shape.
“…Huh?”
He frowned as he woke up.
…Why you?
“Are you sure about this?”
Marsha had been worried since morning.
“It’s your birthday, but the table looks so plain.”
She grumbled that there should be more food. Everyone but her had forgotten the occasion. Maybe she just wanted to make sure someone celebrated it properly.
“Now’s not the time to be setting a feast.”
It wasn’t the moment for a big meal, nor were they in any position for it.
Besides—
“Don’t worry. I’ll get my birthday present soon enough.”
The hidden phrases she had embedded in the classified documents should have been decoded by now.
She’d even included a hand-drawn map to the shrine and sent it to the palace. Axel would be looking for her by now.
She had expected him to come find her.
But—
“Tell me. What did you do to me?”
She hadn’t expected to be grabbed by the collar.
“Young Lady!”
“Why the hell can’t I stop thinking about you?”
Axel growled. She gave an awkward smile.
Even for her, this kind of gift was hard to get used to.
“Calm down.”
She needed to eat too, you know.
