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It has been two days since Lyna returned from the temple and has let go of her desires and accepted things as they are. Living becomes more comfortable when one reaches this state of mind.
Despite her newfound acceptance, life did not unfold as Lyna had planned. Repeatedly, she was reminded of the Third Prince through messages and gifts sent from him.
“Miss, His Majesty the Third Prince…”
“There is a messenger from His Majesty the Third Prince outside..”
“There are roses that His Majesty the Third Prince sent…”
Lyna was unfazed by whatever Smith said or did, she saw it as a dog barking, and did not even react.
She even expressed her frustration by saying
“If he bothers me this much, maybe I should shoot all his legs with arrows to make him stop.”
Though her expression remained emotionless, her words were harsh.
“Shall I prepare the arrows, Milady?”
The maid, with her hands folded in her lap, calmly asked her
The maid didn’t question who Lyna wanted to shoot with an arrow, but even if she had, it wouldn’t have changed Lyna’s attitude.
“It’s fine. Rather than barking back at a barking dog, it’s better to let it pass.”
She knew that her days of being bothered by Smith were numbered as Jane, her successor, was on her way to take her place.
Even though she couldn’t replace her position right away, just showing her existence to Smith would make him focus less on Lyna and be less of a nuisance to her.
The maid simply lowered her head in silence to Lyna’s words.
“By the way, what are those things that have been gradually piling up since earlier?”
Lyna pointed to the various gifts that had been piling up, threatening to be a mountain of paperwork.
“All these gifts are from the great families of the Empire. And the ones that can’t fit in the study are outside, so you can check them at any time, according to the messages.”
The pile of letters on Lyna’s desk was from various people, not just a few.
She picked up a few letters and looked at the seals on them.
They were from the powerful families in the empire, and phrases she had seen in the list of nobles one by one…
“They all smell strongly of insincerity.”
There was no need to even read the letters to know their contents, or to open the gifts to see what they were.
They all wanted the same thing: the seat next to her, which was now empty since Smith left, and they were showing off their colorful feathers like male peacocks.
After all, she had already announced that she would break off the engagement, in a way that anyone could hear, in the third prince’s palace in the imperial palace, not in a private meeting or a secret council.
Will any family in the empire just sit and watch the Bolsheik family marriage break up? No, they will not.
If they can use this opportunity to establish blood ties with the Bolsheik, it is not uncommon for them to offer up their entire family.
The Bolsheik is the oldest and most powerful family in the empire, and even in the entire continent.
The current head of the Bolsheik family is also the leader of the aristocratic faction, which is the antithesis of the imperial family.
Therefore, when Lyna got engaged to Smith due to her unilateral unrequited love, his power and influence quickly increased, enough to aim for the crown prince position at once. So, Smith has no choice but to be frantic to get Lyna back.
Lyna picked up a random letter and examined the seal.
It was from a Duke’s family who owned a mine, at least the name was somewhat familiar.
She tapped the seal with her finger.
“Everyone is clearly going to keep annoying me like this… Should I just get engaged?”
Jane’s arrival into the family is not far off, but it will take some time for her to settle down.
During that period, it might be better to get engaged to a suitable person for a while and dissolve it immediately when Jane becomes a Bolsheik than to continue looking at such annoying things.
“Which family should I send the envoy to?… No, not right now.”
The servants, who were ready to do anything quickly and accurately if Lyna said anything, quietly retreated at her words.
Lyna began to roughly scan the letters and started to speculate which family she could move as she pleased.
Even if the Bolsheik were very powerful, they cannot exist alone.
She can’t make things more complicated by causing unnecessary power struggles among families that are in a precarious balance in their own way.
-Knock Knock Knock.
As the sound of a knock came in, Lyna’s eyes, which were deep in thought, became even more sharp.
“Is it the prince again? Come in.”
“Excuse me, miss.”
“Sebastian? What’s the matter?”
Lyna tilted her head at the visit of the butler who manages the entire Bolsheik family, and the mansion.
“His Excellency the Duke said he would like to have dinner together.”
As soon as Sebastian finished speaking, all the servants in the room instantly froze.
When Lyna spent time with her father, the Bolsheik Duke, she always became extremely sensitive and nervous.
Not only after spending time together, but also before.
The servants who expected the approaching storm swallowed dryly.
“Is it? The time and place are as usual, right?”
It was a very calm voice and a dull tone. A calm reaction as if the word “Duke” did not even reach Lyna.
“Yes.”
“Okay.”
When Lyna briefly nodded her head, Sebastian bowed deeply and was about to leave the room.
“Sebastian.”
“Yes, Miss.”
“You always work hard.”
“Ah … yes.”
“You have a lot of gray hair because you have to clean up a lot of mess. It will be over soon, so take care.”
-THUD.
Sebastian, who came out of the library, stood there for a moment, as if he couldn’t stand on his feet.
‘You always work hard.’
It was just one sentence, but it was the first time Sebastian heard such words from the lady he had served since she was a child.
His steps, which were supposed to be confident, were shaking a little as he recalled it.
The time had come for Lyna to face her father, the Duke of Bolsheik.
In the past, the thought of this meeting would have made her and everyone around her nervous and tense, but now, she simply lowered her head.
“I don’t need anything. I’ll just go as I am,” she said.
Then, with a dry face, she opened her mouth nervously as the dinner began.
“I broke off the engagement with the Prince. I assume you heard and that’s why you called for me. And I will also be stepping down as the heir of the Duke of Bolsheik. You can find someone else. Maybe you already have, I don’t know. You know, my shadow, Jane,” she said.
Lyna spoke in a light, insignificant voice, as if saying “today’s salad is a bit salty”, and threw out huge words.
Her father just looked at her with eyes that couldn’t read any emotions.
The silence was usually considered positive, but Lyna stood up from her seat without taking a single bite of dinner.
If it were before, she would have said anything to stay with her father for a bit longer, but now she didn’t want to.
Those things felt meaningless.
“I’ll excuse myself first.”
Lyna got up from her seat without hesitation and headed to her bedroom instead of her study.
She still had some work left to do for the day, but she didn’t feel like working anymore.
“Anyway, I’m going to die, so what difference does it make?”
Lyna said to herself as she lay down on her bed, her back stiffening. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
As she exhaled, a word slipped out of her mouth,
“Father…”
Lyna rolled over to her right side and placed a pillow between her hands.
It was an expected reaction, so there was nothing new to be hurt.
Well, no matter what she said, her father never listen anyway.
“Getting recognized by Father and becoming a proud daughter… the longing only made me suffer more. It’s like a parasite.”
She thought it was love because her father accepted it no matter how outrageous her wish was.
Even though she was not good enough, she believed her father loved her so much.
So she worked harder to become like her father.
She tried more and more and the more and more she became miserable!
It was poison.
It was no different from slowly sinking into a deep swamp while drinking poison.
She couldn’t become her father. She is just Lyna.
However, before the regression, she could not acknowledge that fact.
Because she was afraid that if she acknowledged it, she would be rejected by her father.
Lyna choked on herself in a poison she created herself and ultimately died from the poison made by someone else.
She couldn’t die in one go.
“How many times was it?” With a dry laugh, Lyna rubbed her throat.
That night, Lyna ultimately couldn’t even take a breath and spent the long and cold night alone.
The next day, early in the morning.
Lyna was rubbing her tired eyes and facing Ainar.
There was no prior arrangement, but the prince directly sent a carriage from the imperial family in the morning, and she couldn’t refuse because it would be a nuisance.
If it had been a carriage sent by Smith, she would have laughed and told him to get lost, but … The opponent was Ainar.
A man with incredibly good luck.
If he wanted to meet her, no matter what the reason, she would eventually have to face him, so it was pointless to refuse.
Well, even if Ainar was the opponent, there would be no reason to continue to face each other while sipping tea that he didn’t even bother with.
“If you don’t have anything to say, I’ll take my leave now.”
As Lyna put down the tea cup with a vacant gesture,
“Lady Bolsheik.”
Ainar stood up and slowly approached Lyna.
Then he grabbed the armrests of the chair she was sitting in and pulled her close, trapping her in his arms.
He then whispered,
“I have a proposal, or rather, a deal to make.”