Chapter 98
Chapter 98. It Can’t Be Undone Now
Lupeon slightly tightened his lips and soon pulled something out from his possession.
“What is this?”
What he handed over was none other than a dark green jewelry box. Even at a glance, it looked like a very precious item.
When Elena carefully opened the jewelry box, inside was an earring crafted with brilliant sapphires.
“This is…”
Lupeon, who wore a faint smile as if lost in memories, soon looked at her with serious eyes.
“It’s a keepsake from my mother.”
“…!”
Elena’s golden eyes trembled uncontrollably in shock.
As if he had somewhat anticipated her reaction, Lupeon told her about what had happened in the secret room of the marquis’ mansion.
Long ago, when he had fled to the North, the Marquis of Rohenbach had been keeping the belongings of the late emperor and empress that he hadn’t been able to take with him.
‘To think Father had been keeping those keepsakes in the mansion.’
After her mother’s death, Elena deliberately avoided visiting the secret room. It contained many of the late marchioness’s belongings.
Trying to avoid being overwhelmed by sadness, she had turned a blind eye, never thinking there might be belongings of the late emperor and empress there.
But how could she, a citizen of the Valdeon Empire, not know the story behind the sapphire earrings?
Unlike other heirlooms passed down in the imperial family for a long time, these were the very earrings that the late emperor had commissioned for his beloved wife.
‘I never thought I’d see them in person…’
As Elena quietly looked at the sapphire earrings in the jewelry box, Lupeon spoke in a slightly tense voice.
“I’d like you to accept this.”
“…I can’t accept it.”
Elena shook her head and tried to return the jewelry box to him.
No matter that she was Lupeon’s fiancée, she couldn’t carelessly accept such a precious gift.
But he firmly said, as if he had no intention of taking it back,
“I’m sure Mother would be pleased.”
According to Lupeon, long ago, the late empress had said several times that she would pass down the sapphire earrings to her son’s wife.
Seeing him trying to hand it over to her without any hesitation, Elena felt her heart ache and tighten for some reason.
She couldn’t help but understand the meaning behind those earrings.
Having hastened the rebellion to reclaim the throne, Lupeon would soon regain his lost position.
If the promised time for marriage also passed, Elena would no longer be Lady Rohenbach, but the Empress of the Valdeon Empire.
Of course, this would only happen if Lupeon succeeded in his rebellion.
‘Is it really okay like this?’
Elena quietly looked at the dark green jewelry box she was holding awkwardly.
Unlike her, who had just awakened to her feelings, Lupeon might just be showing courtesy as a fiancé.
It was true that she worried whether he was trying to make her his partner out of a sense of heavy responsibility.
Even though it was what she had wanted so much…
Uncertain about everything, she asked with her head down, barely audible,
“Lupeon… are you really okay with marrying me?”
“What do you mean by that?”
The man, hardening his expression, asked back as if trying to understand her intentions.
To this, Elena continued her answer in an unsure voice.
“We didn’t start our relationship out of love for each other.”
The union between families was an incomplete relationship that could break at any time without being strange.
That’s why there had always been an underlying anxiety in her heart.
As one-sided love continued, the feeling of misery would grow as much as the special emotions that welled up.
Then Lupeon, who had been quietly staring at her, asked in a low voice.
“Do you want to cancel the engagement even now?”
“…That’s not it.”
The man, who seemed satisfied with that answer, recited lowly.
“Didn’t I tell you before? It can’t be undone now.”
“…”
Perhaps because Lupeon’s calmly uttered words sounded just like a confession, Elena’s heart began to beat rapidly.
She thought that she might not live out her natural lifespan if she stayed with this man.
As she quietly looked at the jewelry box she had received in a daze, Lupeon showed an elegant smile.
“So I hope you’ll accept it.”
* * *
Working late into the night in his room, Lupeon suddenly recalled what had happened in the afternoon.
When he had given Elena the sapphire earrings, his mother’s keepsake, he felt his heart sink seeing her unhappy expression.
He felt anxious, though he didn’t show it, wondering if he was being rejected before even confessing.
Although he maintained a calm attitude in front of her, at that moment he was more nervous than anyone.
Elena Rohenbach would be the only woman to make him feel this way in the future.
He had to admit it now. The fact that he was hopelessly in love with her.
Wearing a faint smile on his lips thinking of Elena, he soon slightly furrowed his brow.
‘Perhaps I realized it too late.’
Maybe it took so long to notice because she had always been by his side.
How precious she had become to him.
That’s why he tried to be patient and suppress his feelings, but it wasn’t easy at all.
As time passed, it became increasingly difficult to control both his mind and body.
Elena probably didn’t know how much he yearned for her.
Letting out a deep sigh through his lips, Lupeon suddenly set his gaze on the calendar.
‘Why…’
“Simon, do you know? Our birthdays are only a week apart?”
“Come to think of it, you said your birthday was in autumn too, right?”
“Yes. Later, when there’s a birthday banquet, you have to invite me then, okay?”
“Alright. But there’s a condition.”
“A condition? What is it…?”
“Then… will you be my partner?”
Elena Rohenbach, whose birthday was only a week apart from his, and Rosie.
‘It’s no less than a trick of fate.’
He couldn’t shake the thought that the two might really be connected.
Another deep sigh escaped Lupeon’s lips at the question he couldn’t solve alone.
But if they were the same person, what reason would she have to deceive him?
“Is it just an exaggeration after all?”
Still, he gently rubbed his forehead at the image of the two that kept overlapping.
‘If you were Rosie…’
What use would that be now?
Lupeon no longer cared whether his fiancée was Rosie or not.
He had vowed never to let her go, no matter who she was.
Only his thirst to know more about Elena Rohenbach kept growing deeper.
* * *
Everyone gathered in the main conference hall of the Rohenbach mansion wore equally solemn expressions.
The day of the final battle had finally approached.
How much preparation they had made to bring down the reputation of the Crown Prince and Viscount Byzantium.
To overthrow the imperial family, the support of the Progressive Faction nobles had to be shaken first, so they had examined countless documents.
‘Tomorrow, the truth will be revealed to the world.’
Looking at the calendar, Elena took a deep breath to calm her nerves.
Since coming to the capital, she hadn’t forgotten to contact Count Hugoston, an executive of the Feralto Trading Company.
Fortunately, all the other executives of the company had sent letters supporting Grand Duke Devonshire.
They too seemed unwilling to turn a blind eye to the imperial family’s tyranny any longer.
As everything had proceeded smoothly, that puzzle should have been put together without any flaws.
Elena could only hope that things would progress smoothly without any problems.
Those who were closely examining the herb composition table from Count Obelia’s mansion that Elena had organized wore shadows on their faces with short sighs.
“Is this really true?”
Lisette looked at his sister with a deeply furrowed face at their misdeeds, which were hard to believe even after seeing.
“Yes. Considering the timing, they probably started the business less than a year ago.”
“They’re all truly terrible humans.”
The Marquis of Rohenbach wore an even more stern look, perhaps recalling the Progressive Faction nobles.
Lupeon, who nodded slightly, soon flashed a blue glow in his eyes and said,
“Now their downfall will begin.”
