~Chapter 17~
The stories I heard from the Marquis were nothing but a series of “events.”
‘Livia Arfin’ had thoroughly destroyed all five years I built, as if denying them completely.
My five years lay shattered on the cold floor, left behind as wounds that could never heal.
To the people I had protected and loved.
All I had wished for was one small thing:
To see his face… just once more. Anything beyond that, I believed, was an unthinkable greed.
But the rumors I heard were far from happiness, and the one I loved, whom I thought I could easily see, hid himself away completely.
All I wanted… was just that one thing.
“You can call me a bad woman. You can point at me for coveting what’s not mine, I don’t care.”
“Mmm.”
“I’m going to take back the five years that Livia Arfin threw away.”
I had crossed into this world with such desperate resolve.
I knew this path would never be easy, but that didn’t mean I should hold back my desires.
I believed seeing his face just once would be enough.
If they were living happily, I thought watching from afar would suffice.
But… if they really were happy… even if it tore my heart apart, I would never have stepped forward.
It was like finding a delicious candy, carefully tasting it, savoring its sweetness… only for the owner to throw it away as if it were worthless.
To me, that candy was precious and sweet.
But to others, it meant nothing.
Would picking up that discarded candy make me a bad person? Selfish?
Unlike the one who threw it away, I desperately needed it.
That’s why… I will reach out my hand again.
I want to taste that sweet candy once more — and this time, make it mine completely.
“I know it’s shameless to ask. You’ve already helped me so much… but this time, I’m certain.”
“……”
“I will never make you regret it.”
This path might not be easy. It might even be dangerous.
In this country, the power Livia Arfin held wasn’t just that of a Saintess.
“Of course. I still have a large debt left unpaid to the current Livia Arfin.”
He had called it gratitude before.
Hearing the Marquis’s honest reply, I couldn’t help but smile bitterly.
He was a man who repaid both favors and grudges clearly.
A man who kept himself from being called anyone’s “friend,” despite wandering the continent.
“Then… let’s begin investigating everything that happened while you were away.”
“You’re truly reliable, Marquis.”
“You can call me Father, you know.”
“…I’ll get used to it slowly.”
Despite the heavy resolve we had just shared, laughter slipped out of me.
Just knowing I could start something again was enough to make me feel lucky.
As I followed the Marquis, my heart pounded uncontrollably.
It was the day I took my first step into this world as ‘Erdia.’
The sun set, and moonlight filled the study, making it brighter than day.
Night came as the thick curtains were drawn open. The veil that blocked out the sun lifted, filling the room with a different light.
A man sat like a sculpture before a desk as large as the room’s window wall, raising his head at the soft knocking.
“Come in.”
His low voice echoed quietly through the spacious study.
Though lined with bookshelves, sofas, and tables, his voice carried deeply, as if echoing from within a cave.
“I have a report.”
The man who entered walked straight to the desk without glancing around, as if certain its owner would only be there.
“…Speak.”
With a short command, the man silently placed a sheet of paper on the desk.
“Marquis Valandier has adopted a young woman.”
“A woman?”
“Yes. As you see here, she’s twenty-three, and appears to be from the eastern continent.”
Turning over his paperwork, Khalid finally glanced at the paper.
It contained brief personal details of the individual.
He was used to reviewing identities, but something about this document held his gaze.
“…Erdia, it says.”
“We couldn’t confirm when she entered Razan, but she visited Marquis Valandier’s estate fifteen days ago.”
“So she went to him, not the other way around?”
“Yes.”
It wasn’t uncommon for nobles to adopt adults.
But if it was Marquis Valandier, the wealthiest man in the Empire known for his devotion to his wife and daughter, it was different.
“Normally, how long does it take for an adoption to be formalized and identification issued?”
“About a month.”
“So this was done in half that time.”
That meant the adoption had been rushed.
Marquis Valandier must have paid a substantial sum to expedite it.
“…Did she blackmail him somehow?”
“Shall I investigate?”
“Find out what she did before coming to Razan. If any scandal tarnishes the Marquis’s reputation now, it would be troublesome.”
“Understood.”
The man bowed briefly and left the study without a sound.
His visit was short and silent, as if that was all he came for.
The owner of the study continued staring at the ID document, then leaned back in his chair.
The paper fluttered lightly between his fingers. Khalid’s gaze drifted toward the moon, shining especially bright.
In his suffocatingly slow, painful days, something unusual had occurred.
Marquis Valandier adopting someone was like a thorn sprouting from an otherwise smooth branch.
He was known to be indifferent to everything except his daughter or business.
Five years ago, after learning that Livia Arfin had reverted to her original self, he had severed all ties to her.
Khalid had wanted to draw the Marquis into his faction, but he remained immovable.
It had taken him too long to realize Livia was his enemy, not his lover.
But finally realizing it was at least fortunate.
The Marquis, who had lived as if time itself had stopped five years ago, was now beginning to move again.
Adopting someone — an act he would never normally do.
He wondered if the woman was an illegitimate child, but Marquis Valandier was famously devoted to his late wife.
That left only one possibility — that the woman had something over him.
‘The fact that she went to him herself bothers me.’
If she was one of Livia Arfin’s pawns, he had to stop her.
He couldn’t stand by and watch her claws reach even the rare ‘clean nobles’ of the Empire.
Finishing his thoughts, Khalid set the paper down on his desk with a soft tap.
What bothered him most… was that name written on the ID.
