Chapter 2.2

“Father, is there no news about finding Claire today?”

“…I see.”

The Count looked at the typewriter on his desk.

On the morning Claire disappeared, he just thought she had pulled another one of her cute tricks. He thought she had done this to get attention because her sister had returned, so she would be back soon.

Of course, for a while before Celine returned, Claire had been like a different person. And he wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

Claire was no longer acting hysterically, and she wasn’t ruining the family’s reputation by tormenting the slaves.

The second daughter, who only indulged in luxury, was now gone. So, when he was away for a long time, he left the mansion’s domestic affairs to her, as the butler had advised.

The results were surprising.

Everything was perfectly organized, as if he had hired an excellent aide.

But to leave the house just because her sister had returned… He thought she still hadn’t gotten rid of that bad habit and entered his study to work.

But in the study, there was a strange object he had never seen before, and a piece of paper was tucked into it.

The Count slowly approached the object and pulled out the paper.

<Count… no, Father. This is Claire. It was the first time in my life I had a person called “Father.” Thank you for taking care of me all this time. Please be healthy.

Oh! And this is a typewriter. This letter was also written with this typewriter.

It’s my first and last gift to you, Father. Your name is also engraved on it, so be sure to check it. I re… re… I respect you.^^>

There were things the Count understood and didn’t understand, as well as strange symbols.

Moreover, it was a very plain letter for a child who was leaving home. Just then, he felt a pain as if someone had hit him on the back of his head.

The physiological tears he didn’t even realize he had were dropping onto the letter, erasing the letters. Only then did he understand.

The child had really left…

 

***

 

“Evan, welcome.”

Of course, it wasn’t a relationship yet, but more of a flirtation.

I had met great men in both my past and present lives, so the condition for the man I chose this time was unconditionally ‘ordinary.’ But meeting an ordinary man was by no means easy.

Kind in an ordinary way, ordinary-looking, from an ordinary family, with an ordinary personality… Wasn’t that actually the most difficult condition?

Evan was a warm-looking young man with ordinary brown hair and dark navy eyes. Like a Northerner, he knew how to handle a sword and was moderately skilled at dealing with women.

“Yes, this…”

What he handed to me shyly was a bouquet of flowers that was hard to find in the North.

“Thank you. These are my favorite flowers.”

When I first came to the North, everything was so overwhelming, but thanks to the relatively low cost of living, I was able to find a small single-story house in the center of the North.

It wasn’t easy at first, but I slowly blended in quietly with the wary Northerners.

After I finished tidying up the house, I went to the bank to check how much money I had left, just as I was about to start looking for a job, and I was truly surprised.

The **’typewriter’** was a huge hit.

I rubbed my eyes several times after seeing the amount on my bank account.

Naturally, the bank passbooks in this world were different from the ones used in my country, so I couldn’t fully grasp it until I got help from the bank teller.

The typewriter hadn’t been supplied to the North yet, but it seemed it was already being distributed in the South. So I gave up on finding a job and bought a two-story mansion located on the outskirts of the North.

I hired three maids and two servants.

I had planned to settle in the city center for safety, but with a good mansion and servants, safety was no longer a problem.

The house was modest but neatly arranged, money came in every month, and I had good neighbors…

Yes, my life was perfect.

Then I made a friend in the village and was invited to her tea party, where I met her brother.

Evan Genes, he didn’t hide at all that he had fallen for me at first sight.

He was the son of a Northern baron’s family, and Evan, who was just of marriageable age, was actively courting me.

To be honest, my face was quite pretty, befitting the villainess sub-female lead in the novel.

Thanks to that, people easily accepted me without much suspicion, as I had suddenly received a large inheritance and moved here on my own, encroaching on their territory.

And perhaps because my efforts had not been in vain, I didn’t feel any movement from Adrian to find and kill me.

“Helena… you look like a goddess today.”

“Oh my! Thank you.”

I even clapped my hands slightly and greeted him with a happy face. Since no one here saw me through prejudiced eyes, I had become quite cheerful.

“Have you heard? Kurt’s second son is getting married this time.”

“Oh, is that so? That’s wonderful news.”

He sat on the drawing room sofa and made a slightly bitter expression at my reaction.

“Um… Helena.”

“Yes?”

“Kurt’s second son is the same age as me.”

“Ah…”

There was no way I didn’t understand what he was saying. But for some reason, I couldn’t give him a positive answer right away.

It was only after coming here that I tasted true peace. How hard my past days were…

There were no fiery emotions, fatal men, heart-pounding love, or a feeling of going crazy, but it was warm and comfortable.

Of course, it would be a lie to say I wasn’t curious about any of the news from the South.

News came from time to time, but there was no news yet that the Crown Prince was engaged or that a new Grand Duke had appeared.

When I first came here, I had many dreams about my past life. The new truth I learned from it was that Han Hyuntaek had not betrayed me.

I wondered what good this truth was now, but the mistake he had made while drinking was just a story made up by Secretary Choi.

Now I could think about it as if it were someone else’s story, but the day after I had that dream, my heart ached, and I couldn’t hold anything in my hands.

And in the dream, that man held my hand, which was still breathing… and cried so persistently and painfully.

Z

“Helena?”

“Oh, yes?”

“You always get lost in thought when you’re with me.”

“Did I? I’m sorry. What were you saying?”

“I was asking if you would attend Count Xena’s ball next month as my partner.”

“…Of course. If not you, then who would I attend with?”

When I smiled broadly at Evan, his hurt feelings seemed to have all disappeared. He was truly a good man.

“Um, Helena?”

“Yes, go ahead.”

“I’d like to invite you to our family dinner tonight. My sister said she wanted to invite you too, Helena.”

He looked very anxious for a simple family dinner invitation. He probably wanted to formally introduce me to his family.

“Yes… If it’s Lady Genes’s invitation, I must go.”

I smiled awkwardly, even to myself. It had been three months since I started meeting him in private. It was a long time to just be flirting.

 

***

 

The Baron Genes’ mansion was very neat and beautiful. The family of the well-behaved siblings looked peaceful and beautiful, as if they had just stepped out of a warm family drama.

The father was a bit blunt but seemed benevolent, and the mother seemed to be a kind and warm person. Would it be okay for me to be a part of this family? A woman with a complicated past like me…

I was even worried that my misfortune might ruin the happiness of this perfect family.

“Welcome, Lady Helena Evans.”

“Yes, thank you for inviting me.”

“Our children like you very much, so I really wanted to see you too.”

I prepared a beautiful bouquet of flowers for the Baroness Genes.

“This… is not much, but I’d be grateful if you’d accept it.”

“It’s so beautiful. Please, sit.”

As I was about to sit down, Simone came closer and took my hand.

“Sit here. Next to me.”

I was led by her hand and sat down. She looked even younger because of her slightly chubby and cute face.

It was the warmest dinner possible. Evan had been sitting with a slightly flushed face, constantly glancing at me.

“Your parents…?”

“Father!”

When Baron Genes tried to ask about my parents, the two kind siblings simultaneously stopped their father.

But of course, ordinary parents would want to know. I looked at Simone and Evan and smiled as if to say it was okay.

“It’s alright. Both of my parents passed away when I was young.”

I was worried about hiding the truth from this kind family, so I tried not to lie as much as possible.

“Oh… dear, don’t make the Lady uncomfortable. We can get to know such things slowly.”

The kind and beautiful Baroness scolded her husband.

After the dinner was over and we had a cup of tea, I got up to go home.

“I will escort you, Helena.”

“Oh, thank you.”

I said goodbye to the family and headed to where the carriage was with him.

“Thank you so much for tonight. Your family looks so happy.”

“Yes, I’m very proud of my family. And I’m confident that I can create a family just like that.”

I strangely hoped that his sweet words would just pass by me.

Before I could even sort out my feelings, Evan gently took my hand. Following the standard of dating, I let him hold my hand.

‘Right, if you flirt, you have to take responsibility.’

The self inside me was telling me that. He led me to his family’s carriage, and I got in with him.

Since he was still holding my hand, I could feel that his hand was trembling slightly.

After the carriage had been running for a while and had gotten onto the main road, Evan met my eyes again from the opposite side.

“Helena.”

I felt my saliva go down my throat at his unusual call. It was finally time.

“Do you remember what I said earlier, that I could make my own family just as happy?”

“Of course…”

“One thing was missing from that sentence.”

“…What is it?”

“If you are with me, I am confident.”

It was a marriage proposal.

I took a long, sharp breath. It was a perfect proposal, perhaps.

Yes, two years had already passed.

What did I do wrong after all this time in this world?

It’s not a big ambition to form a family with this kind and gentle man and live a quiet life, since I can’t go back to that reality anyway, can I?

I’m not the real Claire, so what’s the difference between living as Claire and living as Helena?

And maybe with this body, I could have a child soon. The life I wanted so much in that world… blood, a real… family.

I thought Han Hyeontaek would become my real family, but he couldn’t. It was perhaps natural that I was obsessed with a family tied by blood.

I didn’t answer because I was in the midst of a sharp internal conflict, so he slowly untangled his clasped hands and got up from the carriage seat.

And with one hand, he propped himself up next to my seat and tilted his head. I knew what he was about to do to me.

And just as his gently approaching lips were about to touch mine, I unconsciously turned my head away from him.

“Helena?”

The moment I met his flustered eyes, why did his blue eyes come to mind?

Was there still guilt left over for him?

Did he think of me after I disappeared?

The thoughts about Adrian, once they came out, wouldn’t stop.

Evan quietly moved back at my action and sat back down in his carriage seat.

“I guess I was a bit too hasty.”

‘I should… say no…’

The words wouldn’t come out. When I remained silent without saying anything, he blushed and opened his mouth to me again.

“What do I mean to you?”

‘What do you mean?’

I thought for a moment.

“Evan is… a person I want to protect.”

That was it. I wanted to protect this man’s purity, his brightness, and his gentle nature that makes others comfortable. At my words, he smiled gently and spoke to me in a friendly way again.

“But you’ll still go to the Count Xena’s ball with me, won’t you?”

I nodded my head vigorously.

 

***

 

Summer in the North felt just like autumn in Korea. Of course, this kind of weather was not common in this frigid land.

Count Xena was one of the few counts in the North, so his ball was quite extravagant.

Just last year, I wouldn’t have even dreamed of attending a ball like this, but now I had a certain amount of confidence that everyone who appeared in the original story would have forgotten about me. This place was a completely different world from the original.

Celine had returned, and Adrian had seen her. The Crown Prince and I hadn’t gotten engaged, and I had disappeared. Everything must have returned to its place. It was their league without me, the one who should have died and disappeared anyway.

After organizing my thoughts, I felt much more at ease. It seemed quite far-fetched that I would ever return to the original story now.

It was the first ball I had ever experienced since coming to this world.

Claire had also entered the capital’s social scene a few times, but because she was an illegitimate child and had a lot of strange rumors about her, no one had approached her.

On the days Claire came back from a ball in a bad mood, Adrian would inevitably be whipped.

But no one in the North knew Claire. So I decided. I would have a very pleasant time today.

For the ball today, the maids were busy decorating me.

As I sat there, all the hardships I had gone through since coming here felt like a dream.

I was wearing a chiffon navy blue dress with silver fabric as a point.

My black hair was braided to look luscious, decorated with purple flowers that resembled my eye color, and gathered to one side.

It was a dress with a lot of exposure that showed my shoulders, but since only a long winter was left in the North, I decided to be bold and chose this dress.

“My lady, you look so beautiful today.”

“Thank you, Becky.”

“My lady, you have such fair skin and a thin body, you look like a Southerner.”

“Becky, have you ever seen a Southerner?”

The two maids bickered but neatly smoothed out the pleats of my skirt. And soon, news came that Evan had arrived in front of our house.

When I opened the door, a handsome man was standing next to the carriage with flowers, ready to escort me.

‘The true taste of being possessed for the first time is sweet.’

“Please take care of me today.”

When I smiled sweetly, Evan, as if he had lost his mind, fumbled. Seeing him, I once again pulled myself together.

‘Right! I was just too flustered last time. Of course…’

I put strength into the hand I placed on his arm and got into the carriage.

“You look truly beautiful today.”

“You look handsome too, Evan.”

We praised each other’s appearance and talked to each other in the carriage. He didn’t mention the last incident, and since I had also pulled myself together, the atmosphere was very smooth.

Soon, the carriage arrived at the main gate of Count Xena’s mansion.

The ball had finally begun.

Befitting the most historic family in the North, the ball hall of the Count’s mansion was beautifully decorated.

Having hired a secret teacher to learn to dance for this day, I perfectly performed my first dance with Evan. Although it was a bit late, it was like my debut.

Perhaps the two of us looked good together, as gasps of admiration were heard from all over, and I felt a sense of pure joy after a long time.

“Are you having fun?”

“Yes, very much.”

I took the champagne glass Evan offered me, breathing a little heavily.

The people of the North were a little more naive than the people of the capital. They purely enjoyed the ball without the subtle nerve wars between nobles.

Evan had his back to the party hall throughout the ball and was only looking at me. A warm atmosphere filled the hall.

But soon, a strange flow of air was felt in the ballroom.

The Count’s butler approached Count Xena and whispered something to him, and his movements quickened.

Soon, the Count and his vassals began to move about busily, as if preparing for something.

“What’s going on?”

I quenched my thirst with champagne and asked Evan, but he also didn’t know what was happening.

“I don’t know…”

Evan shrugged his shoulders and turned his gaze back to me. I didn’t pay much attention either. It probably had nothing to do with me anyway.

Then someone came over to Evan and gave him some news.

“It seems a very important person from the capital has arrived.”

“Is that so?”

I answered dryly and picked up my champagne glass again and took a sip. It was quite to my taste.

At that moment, the surroundings suddenly became noisy, and the doors of Count Xena’s ballroom opened without warning.

And the knights of the Quinze-Nouais Empire, wearing uniforms with a familiar pattern, stormed into the ballroom.

It was a pattern not commonly seen in the North, but I remembered it exactly.

It was a pattern of two lions sitting as if competing, holding a sword crossed in an X shape. However, the color of the pattern was slightly different.

The men who stormed in did not draw their swords but surrounded the ballroom as if to cordon it off. Their number was at least a hundred.

The short screams of women were heard, and the men also fumbled and gathered in the middle of the ballroom as if they were being herded.

“Ah!”

“What on earth is this?!”

Just as the murmurs of the terrified people were getting louder, a loud trumpet sound announcing someone’s entry was heard. The music inside the ballroom had already stopped.

And from that moment on, I began to feel uneasy for an unknown reason.

The champagne glass in my hand shook in time with my thumping heart.

“Announcing His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Quinze-Nouais Empire, Aurelian Quinze-Nouais.”

‘Grand Duke Aurelian Quinze-Nouais…?’

The glass cup containing the transparent liquid fell from my powerless hand, and the moment it hit the floor unfolded unrealistically slowly, and the sound of the glass shattering loudly echoed in the suddenly silent hall.

And Adrian… no, Grand Duke Aurelian Quinze-Nouais was staring at me intently, as if he had known where I was from the very beginning.

His blue eyes felt like they would trap me like the sea.

“Helena?”

“…Huh?”

Evan spoke to me as I turned pale, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Adrian, as if my gaze was bound and I had lost my mind.

As if to shake me awake, Evan reached out and lightly grabbed my exposed shoulder. When he touched me, I felt my body tremble like crazy.

“Are you alright, Helena?”

Beyond Evan’s worried eyes, I could see the people huddled in the middle of the ballroom parting in two, as if the sea was splitting.

And between them, the silver-haired Adrian was walking toward me with a slow, heavy step. His gaze was fixed only on me, with a look in his eyes that I still couldn’t understand.

“Take your hand off her.”

His voice… I hadn’t forgotten it.

“It’s been a long time, Claire Ianster. Or should I call you Helena Evans?”

Adrian’s smile for the first time… It was exactly as I had imagined.

And I couldn’t say anything. Unspeakable emotions rushed in, making me feel foolish for having lived as if nothing had happened all this time.

The moment I faced him, I knew. For the past two years, when I had felt comfortable living away from the capital, I had only been existing…

When Evan, who was suppressed by his presence, took his hand off me and moved aside, Adrian stood in front of me.

He was clearly Adrian, but he felt like a completely different person.

“I greet His Royal Highness the Grand Duke Quinze-Nouais.”

Evan paid his respects to him. But Evan no longer existed between him and me.

What had the past two years left him with… that he had changed so much? Now, I couldn’t even call him ‘the guy’ as a joke.

He was taller, his shoulders were broader, his eyes were deeper, his features were a little more defined… and his eyes were sad.

‘Sad? Why?’

But the man standing in front of me didn’t say anything after that. He just kept his eyes on my exposed shoulder, where Evan had put his hand.

When Grand Duke Aurelian Quinze-Nouais raised his left hand, all the knights in the hall lined up and began to leave, and finally, the music befitting the ballroom began to play again.

He held out his hand to me.

I was flustered by his perfect gesture, but I reflexively took his hand. He gripped my trembling hand and put his arm around my waist, pulling me close to his body.

My entire body trembled with fear.

“Breathe.”

“Ha.”

As if his words were a signal, I let out the breath I had been holding, and I could hear his languid laughter in my ear, like a predator with its prey in sight.

Aurelian Quinze-Nouais.

The half-brother of the current emperor and the youngest son of the previous emperor.

The child who had inherited the previous emperor’s silver hair and the royal family’s blue eyes. And the son he had with the woman the previous emperor loved the most.

The previous emperor had already passed on the throne to the current emperor and had a young son, Aurelian, with his younger wife.

And his young son, who was the same age as his grandson, Sebastian, and who played with him in the garden, was always a source of worry for him.

So he made a choice.

Should he let everyone die in a political struggle, or should he remove the child with his own hands?

When Aurelian was ten years old, the previous emperor confined Aurelian and his mother to a castle in the forest.

And he left a will that as soon as the Grand Duke’s castle was completed at the very end of the northern border of his great empire, Aurelian would be granted the title of Grand Duke and leave the capital.

But when the previous emperor suddenly died of illness, the current emperor’s faction began to raise issues about Aurelian’s existence.

His existence was that threatening.

Although the current emperor didn’t want to, he chose to turn a blind eye in order to safely anoint his son as the Crown Prince.

Thus, Aurelian was bound by his arms and legs to his bed, and he had to watch his mother being humiliated and brutally murdered by the knights.

Aurelian remembered every word the knights said as they killed his mother. Every single one of them was unbelievably cruel.

Adrian broke his arm to loosen the ropes and found a dagger he had hidden under the bed.

He cut the ropes that bound his legs and, in just a few minutes, killed six strong knights.

This happened when Aurelian was twelve years old.

And he walked aimlessly into the forest… and threw away all his memories.

 

***

 

The day after Claire disappeared from the Count’s mansion, Adrian headed to the training ground as if nothing had happened.

The rumor that the Count’s legitimate daughter had returned and Claire had disappeared swept through the mansion in an instant.

The atmosphere in the house was tense, but no one knew the exact reason for Claire’s escape. Why would she run away just because her sister had returned?

Another day passed like that.

Owen, in his nervousness, pushed the training even harder than usual.

And when the sun was directly overhead, the knights saw Adrian entering the training ground as usual.

However, no one could notice that his expression was subtly different from usual.

They glanced at Adrian as he walked into the training ground, but they continued their training as if nothing had happened. Few had even heard Adrian’s voice properly until now.

Some of the knights even joked to Adrian that it was a good thing Claire had disappeared.

But he just walked forward with a slow, heavy step.

The knights, who hadn’t paid him any mind at first, began to be captivated by his gaze, feeling that Adrian’s presence was different from other days.

Adrian’s pace quickened slightly, and then he suddenly ran like the wind, drew a sword from Cedric’s scabbard, and flew toward Owen, the captain of the Count Ianster’s knight order.

The tip of the sword stopped exactly below Owen’s neck.

“If I win this fight, you, Owen Devrian, will be my sword.”

Adrian, a mere slave, had a sword pointed at the captain of the knight order’s neck, but no one dared to stop him.

His low voice was so domineering that it made the training ground feel like the Imperial palace. The knights had the illusion that they were hearing his voice for the first time that day.

Cedric, who first came to his senses, tried to move toward Adrian, but Owen raised his hand to stop him.

Owen, who looked at Adrian for a moment, carefully moved his body away from the sword and drew his own.

Sword and sword clashed in the air, and Adrian, with only four movements, made Owen kneel on the training ground floor.

The murmuring that had been going on around them had already disappeared.

Owen was known as the best swordsman in the Empire. But Owen wasn’t flustered. Perhaps he had a premonition of the outcome of this match from the moment he saw Adrian hold the sword.

Adrian’s sword returned to Cedric’s scabbard.

“I, Owen Devrian, wish to be your sword.”

As the kneeling Owen paid his respects to Adrian, Cedric also bowed to him as if he were possessed. Adrian’s movements were such that any warrior who handled a sword would have no choice but to acknowledge them.

“I am Aurelian Quinze-Nouais, the son of the previous emperor of this Quinze-Nouais Empire, and the one and only Grand Duke. From now on, those who desire greater power, follow me.”

At Adrian’s words, the knights there, without exception, knelt on the training ground floor. The knights of this era grew up yearning for the reign of the previous emperor.

The emperor who conquered the world with his military power. And his son, who had disappeared like the wind.

Aurelian Quinze-Nouais.

In the end, Owen and Cedric, along with ten knights, followed him to the Imperial castle. The one who was most surprised by the sudden resignation of the captain of the knight order was not Count Ianster, but Celine.