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Chapter 137
Translator: Yonnee
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Mariel continued speaking, her voice trembling.
“You were right to say that. Someone who had committed lese majeste is better. Just how many daggers had that woman stabbed into your chest? Even after leaving your parents’ embrace after being showered with their love during your childhood, the journey of life is still so long and arduously painful. But how… How could your mother leave you only with wounds…”
Radis tried desperately not to cry.
Her despair was filled with excruciating despair.
And she knew better than anyone else that pitying herself, shedding tears or wallowing in sadness was all useless.
However, as her sorrow had piled up so high and was now teetering to the brink of collapse, there was no way of stopping it.
Radis was not the type of person who cried.
Only, she looked so distressed as she waited for Mariel to let her go.
Her brows were not even furrowed.
However, regardless of her will, tears welled up so abundantly in her eyes and fell down like raindrops, leaving a gray stain on Mariel’s dress.
* * *
Early next morning, Mariel left like a wind that just came and went.
Yves Russell, who came out to see Mariel off, asked her.
“Why are you leaving in such a hurry?”
“Old people don’t have much time, you know. That’s why I need to move quickly. Since it’s been a while since I’ve come to the South, I’m thinking of going to Burwood to meet Benjamin.”
Mariel looked around the marquis household’s residence with emotional eyes.
After rain fell all night, the wet landscape looked ever clearer.
Mariel stared at the scenery as if it was blindingly bright, then added.
“And… I don’t have the courage to stay here just yet…”
At this, Yves couldn’t say anything back.
Mariel moved and walked towards Radis, who was standing awkwardly a little ways away.
As she drew closer to her, Radis bowed her head, looking obviously embarrassed.
Mariel slowly reached out to take Radis’s hand.
“Elder Madam…”
“Radis.”
Mariel said, patting Radis’s hand.
“Sometimes, the people closest to you can hurt you the most. It’s heartbreaking, but such wounds would be difficult to heal. It’s not going to be a question of when you’ll get better, but whether you’ll become stronger while continuing to live with those wounds.”
Mariel glanced around the marquis household’s mansion, then turned her eyes to look at Radis once more.
“Radis, I was a cruel coward. I turned a blind eye to everything and ran away. The price I had to pay was very high, very expensive…”
Then, Mariel held Radis’s hand tighter.
“You must become wiser and braver than I am. You can do that, right, Radis?”
Looking at the old woman’s wrinkled hands wrapped around her own, Radis opened her lips to speak.
“Elder Madam Mariel, you were the one who bravely saved me last night.”
Hearing this, Mariel smiled.
It was a smile that contained both joy and sadness.
Radis kissed Mariel gently on the cheek as a farewell.
Mariel gave Radis a big hug, too.
And, she whispered in the young lady’s ear.
“Also, I especially give you my blessing.”
Confused, Radis drew back and looked at Mariel with quizzical eyes.
“Huh?”
“Ohoho, just a little something from me to you.”
Radis had no idea what exactly she’d been given permission for.
But since Mariel was smiling so happily, so did Radis.
.
.
.
Robert Roderick was a stoic man who did not show much emotion or care.
So, when he learned that his right-hand man, David, wasn’t truly a man, he wasn’t surprised at all.
‘There must be a good reason behind it.’
And that was the end of it.
In his mind, at least.
Strangely, however, his heart went in a different direction.
Her unprompted smiles whenever their eyes met, her steps that approached him without any hesitation at all—these all started to register differently to him.
‘This is just pathetic.’
He pretended not to know that his heart was like that.
Then, one day, he found her sitting nonchalantly with her back turned to him.
She was just sitting.
However, his eyes heated up the moment he saw her.
It was only after so many instances had gone by that he finally realized his feelings.
But even after he had already learned how he felt, he agonized for a long time.
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