Chapter 55

Well, I was not that dumb. I won’t just plainly go meet that person who wanted to harm me. However, things would remain unsettled if I leave them as they were.

What should I do?

While I was taking my time contemplating, a message came to me, who still couldn’t figure out anything, from the other side. It was an invitation to meet my father for a talk. And this actually was relayed from His Majesty. Well, my mother must’ve made a crying show to him regarding the divorce matter.

I could wish for nothing better. In order to clear my doubts, I agreed. What was the reason for my father to still keep searching for me even after the annulment of my engagement to Al? Why did he attempt to murder me?

If I was a hindrance, he could just send me away to be adopted by another nobility or let me marry into another family. At worst, he could just confine me. Just why would he go to great lengths to kill me?

I needed to hear the truth. Well, I couldn’t care less about their divorce.

Just in case, I requested for the dialogue to only include His Majesty, my father and I. No matter how shitty my father was, he wouldn’t dare to kill me in front of His Majesty. Besides, if my mother was there as well, the discussion would be in chaos and could never reach a resolution.

Mother was anxious for me until the end. She also offered herself to attend the dialogue. However, His Majesty would also be there and the venue was the Royal Palace. Mother who was regarded to be deceased could not possibly be present in the palace anymore.

Mother must’ve faintly sensed something. She just didn’t tell me about it. Perhaps it was something that would hurt me once I knew about it. Even then, I decided to have a proper talk with my father.

I wished to finally leave this hideaway and go meet Al. I worked hard during my training, and Mother praised me a lot. I believed in Al, so I still kept waiting for Al. I knew he would definitely come get me, so I patiently lay in wait.

However, I heard the news that the princess had left her country. She was scheduled to arrive here in March. Immediately after her arrival, her engagement to Al would apparently be announced.

Therefore, I’d like to meet Al and pour all my grievances and complaints to him. I would reproach him, “Are you dumping me now? I had been waiting for you, working hard in my training, why didn’t you come?” I’d cling to him and cry my heart out and whack him.

And then, I’d congratulate him. I’d say, “Congratulations, I wish you happiness.”

I love Al. I love Al now and forever. That won’t change as long as I live. Therefore, I want Al to be happy. Marry a beautiful princess, make children, and be the King. There’s a jubilant future waiting for Al. For that, I should congratulate him. To wish him a future without troubles and worries. Free from any calamity.

And when April came, I suppose I could see the two of them side by side waving their hands from the balcony of the palace, announcing their engagement. Call me sissy, but I wouldn’t be able to bear it. If I happened to see Al in that scene, I would most likely cry and wail, and be a nuisance to the people around me. I would trouble everyone who had been so kind to me.

Hence, before April, I would depart from this country. I would go travelling abroad like what I had promised Mother. Presumably, Mother would want to see her son’s great moment, but since she was considered to be deceased, she couldn’t go out there and witness it herself. So I would be her company. Mother chuckled as she told me that I shouldn’t worry about expenses, so I could just go on a long, long trip.

There was no need for me to rush to return here. If I took a fancy to any of the places we visited, I could even choose to live there. Maybe, I wouldn’t ever return. There should be no problem with that, right?

So, I needed to settle this once and for all.

A week after the message came from His Majesty, I proceeded to the Royal Palace. In the room arranged for us, there was my father, His Majesty and I. The maids were asked to leave. There were two knights guarding both sides of the door inside the room, but the room was spacious, so our conversations couldn’t easily be heard unless we spoke really loud.

I only hoped the distance was close enough for them to reach here in case my father got physical.

“It has been a long time.”

“Yeah.”

I replied to my father anyway. Inwardly, I already saw ourselves as the perpetrator and the victim. Well, there was no proof yet, so I couldn’t say out loud that he’s a criminal. Although I think I could accuse him for all the violence I was subjected to from when I was small.

“Aa, I know you have a lot to say, but may I ask why you want to get a divorce? Carina came crying at me, moaning that she didn’t want a divorce, you know.” Suddenly His Majesty asked my father.

That? That’s the first thing you bring up? I came all the way here, why is it the first thing you ask is about my mother?

I inadvertently sent a cold gaze at His Majesty, but neither His Majesty nor my father spared me any attention. You deliberately called me here, yet what was with that attitude?

“I am very sorry that the tie that was bestowed by Your Majesty has ended up this way.This was due to my lack of virtue. Since it has come to this, I’ll return the title—” “WHA! Wait, wait!” His Majesty interrupted my father from continuing.

Father’s sudden statement came as an utter shock to His Majesty, but I was equally shaken.

A Duke House is as good as it gets. That father of mine, who is such a schemer in grabbing the position of the leading duke, is actually returning the title? And losing the House of Arginia? This doesn’t make sense! I couldn’t help but wonder just what had happened to Father.

“What’s exactly the issue here? For you to suddenly say you’re returning the title, it’s not something you can just say casually, you know.”

“I, I only have this as my last resort…” Father hung his head low like a wilted flower. In front of His Majesty, father was so meek.

Owing to the thorough education he received as the heir to a Duke, father was a royal supremacist. No matter how irrational the things he was subjected to, he would just suck it up with a smile on his face. That was my father, or more accurately, the Duke of Arginia. I guessed that was how that kind of woman—my mother—was foisted on him by His Majesty.

“Just try to tell me, anything will do. I will not charge you for lèse majesté.”

“Yes…..” Father hesitated at first at His Majesty’s words, but he later resolutely raised his head.

At that moment, I only thoughtlessly listened to the conversation between His Majesty and my father. Little did I know that their talk would go on to later develop into something I would never even want to hear.